I had one of these! It was so cool. I had to get an expansion cartridge to have 16k of memory, and loaded the software with a cassette tape. It took up to five minutes for the computer to make a chess move! Great memories
Growing up with and learning chess from both a TS1000 and Atari 2600, I was convinced computers could play a perfectly decent game of chess, but making them move faster was a technological impossibility. The naivete of youth! 🤣
This was my very first computer, the one where I learned BASIC and Machine programming (yes, not assembler, learned instruction code tables programming using PEEK & POKE). Loved it, and started a path that's fed me and my family to this day (39 years programming, 32 years of career and 49 years old), where I still work in the software industry.
The keyboard is so bad on this system. It however was a great starter and from what we hear, many people like yourself got their programming start on them.
@@NewsmakersTech It never mattered to me, as I knew nothing else! I still remember staring at the "BASIC" prompt with no clue what it was (bought it second hand in a flea market for like $20, all I knew was that it was a "computer"), after that I went to the bookstore and bought a copy of "BASIC for Children" and off was I from there :) My next one was a Tandy Color Computer 3.
Bought one of these (and still have it) in Nov. 1982. Had a blast messing around with an early version of an electric spreadsheet and an almost laughable version of a flight simulator, for several months after purchase. Quickly bought the 16k memory expansion cartridge to have enough power to run the almost nonexistent software. I remember an interview on TV at the time with Sinclair, who was quite full of himself for providing a personal computer to the masses for such a low price. You have to remember, at that time, the idea of owning a personal computer was almost incompressible to the average person. Loading the software (with a tape/cassette player) was pretty much hit or miss, and took forever - LOL. When the software finished loading, the black and white TV ( monitor) would make a HUGE pop sound and if you were having a good day, display the fully loaded software. I was a financial analyst for a little bank in Charlotte, NC, called NCNB, and realized that the concept of an electronic spreadsheet (Vu-Calc) would revolutionize our ability to analyze data in the fast growing financial industry. That little bank is now known as Bank of America, which would go on to pioneer interstate banking, and it brings a smile to my face whenever I think back to making the statement that someday every employee would have a PC on their desk, while my peers laughed at my excitement over this technology.
My exact experience too! I was a mainframe systems guy when it came out. I'm still in the industry @ 40 years. I just never get tired of a challenge...
I think you missed the point of this computer - this was the first computer I ever owned - and at the time (in 1983) I was still amazed that you could buy a computer and bring it into your home. It was a science fiction dream come true. At the time I couldn't afford any of the more capable machines - but I still wanted to have the power of a computing device in my own hands. Paradoxically the cheapness and poor design of the computer made it even more fun to actually do something with it. I learned to program on that little beast (while carefully keeping it immobile to prevent the RAM extension from wobbling which would reset the computer). Yes I graduated to bigger and better machines, but I still have a soft spot in my heart for that ugly, barely usable, little machine. Although it no longer works, I still have it tucked away in a closet - a reminder of when computers where still fun and exciting...
As with others, this was my first computer. I created a "real" keyboard for it from one I found at an electronics surplus store (remember those?). Wrote a very cool hangman game. My parents were so impressed--they thought I was a genius.
I love the final comment ease of repair "why would you". I find it interesting because I just modded and upgraded one of these units myself. I did a composite video mod, installed a modern voltage regulator, added a ULA heat sink, replaced the 1/8" jacks with gold plated jacks, repurposed the channel select switch as a power switch, replaced the keyboard with a modern replica, replaced the capacitors and did an onboard 16k memory mod. I now have a pimped out 1981 Timex Sinclair that I can use for a week and put in my closet until someone finds it there in 2050 and sells it again on Ebay. ;)
The same here mostly, but I modified the channel select switch to be a 50/60Hz PAL/NTSC switch. I have yet to find the time to try to do much more than a Hello World on it. It was mostly a curiosity for me.
I'm interested in knowing how you did the 16k mod. Will the 16k expansion cartridge take it up to 32k then? Imagine the size of unimpressive software you could code into it then! Do you make videos for youtube? Would you consider doing a video on how to do the mod?
@@Muldrf Would this not be a problem if the switch is touched when it's powered? As the resistor is wired directly to the ULA. Just wondering as I'm interested in doing this mod myself. Thanks in advance.
@@filmnet I would assume the system would probably crash. That switch is not "easy" to accidentally move. If you want you can check my Part 1 post about it. It is an old mod I am sure, I don't know if there is a risk to the system other than likely crashing to switching it while it is powered on. I will not be intentionally "testing" what happens though. Most of the mods are based on GadgetUK's videos on the ZX81 which are linked on my blog posts on the Sinclair 1000 mods.
Hey. I got a TS1000 in June 1983 and it was fabulous. If you had reviewed it then every category would have received 5/5. I wrote " hot/cold" guessing games in Sinclair Basic on it. The blinks when typing were not an issue, heck, it was your screen not that of the TV station. I felt like I was part of the holodeck. I was comfortable with the 1K of RAM and no permanent storage. Two thumbs up.
This is the computer that launched my software development career. Without it, who knows what I would be doing today. I taught myself BASIC and then I taught myself Z80 assembler on this little machine. I've been teaching myself software development skills ever since -- and there are thousands of other developers who got there start this way as well. That's the point of this tiny little computer. It launched the careers for countless people.
My first computer. I bought it in 1982 for $44. Up nights learning Basic. Loved it. Introduced me to programming and the rest is history. We also had a tiny TV, I was usually down on the carpet.
I had one of these when I was in HS. Had the memory expander and the printer for it. I used it to learn basic programming. I recall making a home budget program where you saved the data on a cassette and could load it every month to track your expenses.
I was in college at the time taking pascal and fortran. Used to stand in line to get to a terminal to type out punch cards. Then get in line to feed you cards into the computer and get your printout. I bought the Timex Sinclair 1000 for $99 and would code my program in basic to get the logic worked out, then I would translate it to pascal or fortran. Saved me a bunch of time waiting in lines!
I ended up buying a card edge connector and soldering it on to the motherboard. The connectors I could find at the time had ears so I had to hacksaw them off and file them down. Even then I had to file the case opening a little. Built several different I/O, but the basic and RAM was limited
Bought one of these (and still have it) in Nov. 1982. Had a blast messing around with an early version of an electric spreadsheet and an almost laughable version of a flight simulator, for several months after purchase. Quickly bought the 16k memory expansion cartridge to have enough power to run the almost nonexistent software. I remember an interview on TV at the time with Sinclair, who was quite full of himself for providing a personal computer to the masses for such a low price. You have to remember, at that time, the idea of owning a personal computer was almost incompressible to the average person. Loading the software (with a tape/cassette player) was pretty much hit or miss, and took forever - LOL. When the software finished loading, the black and white TV ( monitor) would make a HUGE pop sound and if you were having a good day, display the fully loaded software. I was a financial analyst for a little bank in Charlotte, NC, called NCNB, and realized that the concept of an electronic spreadsheet (Vu-Calc) would revolutionize our ability to analyze data in the fast growing financial industry. That little bank is now known as Bank of America, which would go on to pioneer interstate banking, and it brings a smile to my face whenever I think back to making the statement that someday every employee would have a PC on their desk, while my peers laughed at my excitement over this technology.
This was my first PC :) Thanks for the nostalgia. I took a basic class at Summer Camp and used it to play games on. It took ages to load programs in via audio cassette and play games that were graphically similar to an Atari 2600 but were quite jittery frame rate wise if I remember. As a gaming rig, it was bad, but as an intro computer for a 5th grader it was awesome.
Bought one when they came out in the early 80s, spent hours writing programs for things like curve fitting, graphing. Bought the 16k ram pack and a modem, used it to connect to the university mainframe for a mandatory univac assembly language course. Still have it sitting in bin with other retired gadgets I can't part with.
These things' most useful purpose back in the day was for Commodore's rebate on a Commodore 64. Commodore had an offer around 1983 where you could trade in any computer to get $100 off of a new 64. Since these Timex computers were going for $50 and counted as a computer, one could buy one, trade it in, and they'd effectively be getting $50 off a Commodore 64. 2K of RAM was useless by 1982. If you got the 16K RAM expansion it had some use, but I'd still have tried to get a computer with a little more beef. March 2, 2020 12:52 am
Even a Commodore VIC-20 is a better computer than a Sinclair ZX81 but I still wish Commodore would have released the VIC-20 with 8k instead of only 5k RAM.
@@NewsmakersTech Commodore wasn't sold in my area. I used the Timex until I could afford a Radio Shack Color Computer, the most versatile computer ever. You could hook it up to almost anything without extra cards, which PCs required. I could hook it up to a MIDI keyboard and play multiple instruments simultaneously. I could hook it up to my shortwave radio and decode Weatherfax images and news photos.
UK user here, so ZX81 experiance. I remember playing 3d monster maze and text adventures on one that belonged to a friend in late 81/Early 82. I have heard it called "the ford model T of computers" due to its simplicity and influence. Huge library in the UK at the time, most of it need at least a 16k ram pack that would occasionally wobble. But in power vs affordability, quickly surpassed.
I had one. I used it with a 5" portable TV. I had the 16K RAM expansion too, as well as 3-4 programs (mostly games,... Frogger comes to mind). What was it good for?!?! Learning about computers, and being a "gateway drug" for the Commodore 64 (my second computer).
First computer I ever owned. Never could get a magnetic tape to upload software without a 1000 tries, before giving up. I think that might be where the 1000 in the name came from…
OMG - that was hilarious! You had to be having a really good day for the programs to upload the first time or three.... I learned to set the dial tones on my cassette player to a certain tone setting for the programs to upload with (some) consistency. Still have my system, an old mini BW TV, and original cassette player and a few tapes. I'll probably mess around with them over the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday to see if I can get them to load - wish me luck!
1985 at Sears they were calling this exact computer right next to the VIC 20; both on sale for $99 bucks. I chose to go the Vic 20, a wise move as I then grew into a C-64 and the really no different C-128. I eventually went to generic PCs starting with 8086 chip and then grew from there. Computers taught me to think in a logical method that I have carried through many professional jobs and an addl 25 years as a lawyer. All because of a Vic -20.
My oldest son was interested in computers, but prices were too high for our family, so we were drawn to the low price. We joined a local club, imported Btitish magazines built add ones and spent a couple of years with this entry system untill we realized the severe limitations and moved to IBM PC clones. Good times, good memories.
A neighbor of mine when I was a kid had one. They were cheap, but I don't remember if they got it for free (they where given away for buying a car or checking out a sales promotion) or if they bought it. More likely got it for free. They got the 16K expansion pack, too. I owed an Atari 400 at the time, so was curious. It was black and white (that needs to be corrected in your video) and no sound. I remember how much faster the computer was without that 16K expansion pack. If you moved the computer, the expansion pack would move out of place and lock up the computer. The tape drive was just a cassette player. Anytime you typed, the screen flashed off and on. Programming was rough and slow. It was so good to get back to my old Atari 400. I did eventually sold her my Atari 400 and got a used Atari 1200XL.
The TS1000 was my very first home computer.it only had 2k of ram and it was easy to fill that up with a program of just 20-30 lines. If you didn't get the 16k expansion module there wasn't a great deal you could do with it. Your only storage option was audio cassette. The thing didn't have an OS, it had a basic command prompt. So you either had to type in a program or load one from audio cassette, most pf the programs you could buy for it were bigger than the onboard 2k ram (yes 2K-- just 2 000 bytes) so straight out of the gate you had to buy the extra memory module just to be able to load and run any of the trhing's software. That being said, I did learn a lot about designing computer programs that seved me well when I upgraded to a Commodore 64 a few years later.
I learned to program on one of these in the early 80's, It was great because with my income at the time it was cheep and worked. Even thought, You had to record your work on the cassette drives.
I had the printer and the RAM expansion, along with the tape drive for program storage. I used the TS1000 computer to learn BASIC and to teach myself assembly programming on the Z80 processor. The instructions had to be imbedded into a REM statement!
At one time, these had about the most extensive software catalog available. I learned programming before these... FORTRAN and Assembly on HP Minicomputers, and used one of these to learn basic and Z80 Assembly. I built an external real keyboard, added memory, and had a printer. It was a very capable machine and what I learned on mine helped me in my career oh so long ago. The TS2068 was another winner. PC-XT was my next computer.
I was given one of these as a Christmas gift as a child but I had absolutely no idea how to use it or what can be done with it. As a child I did have a talent for breaking things though and that was one thing I indeed managed to do with this thing which I now know was a computer. What did people use this for?
Sinclair BASIC was remarkable for some weird stuff you could do in it. I would also note that math routines in the Sinclair 8-bits was better than many, the Atari for example.
This was the first computer we had. We got it from my uncle who had it, just like you said - in his closet. My brother programmed a couple of games on it. I can't remember if it was this or our VIC-20 we got later but he programmed some of the first level of Super Mario in BASIC. Mario moved slow and memory ran out quick as you can imagine. We didn't have a tape drive so we had to leave it on for days at a time so we wouldn't lose the games.
I grew up with the TS1000 and, oh boy, did we use it! My parents learned BASIC programming and even at a young age I picked up on the fundamentals. I used a bunch of education software which, though quite rudimentary even in the early 1980s, got the job done and kept me entertained. My earliest homework assignments were even typed and printed on a simplistically basic but functional word processor. As for the games, Flight Simulator is still a challenge to this day, and I have yet to meet anyone who succeeded at Run the Country (political game) more than a few turns. This computer was my childhood, my introduction to computing. It's absurdly basic, but the amount of functionality you can get out of it is astounding. Software, by the way, deserves a 5/5. Programs were usually written by very dedicated and creative people.
OMG! Flight simulator was hilarious compared to what is out there today! I crashed (or overran the runway) so many times before making a safe landing... once, I ripped the wheels off for going to fast. Imagination was the key because the graphics were practically non-existent. Some how, with all it's shortcomings, I was hooked and have fond memories of that era!
Had one. A friend "won" it at a time-share sales presentation where everyone got either a car, a TV, or a personal computer -- everyone got the computer. He didn't know what to do with it, so gave it to me. I wrote a simple loop that said "Lynn is an ass hole" ten times and fell instantly in love. C-64 was next. Got The Visible Computer for it (a debugger) and learned assembly, with which I almost finished a simple Pong game. I only used it on a small black and white TV I'd bought on credit at the Firestone tire store. I don't think it could do colors.
I bought my TS1000 for under $50 in 1984 in a big box pharmacy chain that’s no longer in business. But I returned and bought the 16K memory module for $20, then software cassettes for about $5 each. Nobody that I knew owned a computer, not even my employer. This was a “Gateway Drug” to computers for me. My next computer was the Atari 800XL, then the Tandy 1000 IBM clone. Wow, it’s been a fun ride!
I've got not just the TS-1000, but also a ZX-81 made for the US (which they did for a while before they re-branded it and added that extra 1K. ;-) Also have a non-working 16k expander. The tricks they made to make it sorta usable with only 1k or 2k, like the tokenized BASIC commands only, are creative and impressive...
There are a few things you can do with these little, low end computers. I like them because I can play with its electronics. I like modding them (add an USB keyboard, add a VGA/HDMI output). You can also learn machine code/assembly if you want to, and BASIC is not a bad start for learning how to program even in this age of Python, C# and the likes. And don't forget that you have the male interface to play with - get a scope, a logic analyzer and you're off to learn a lot about how things were designed back in the day... Overall, I tend to see computer such as this one as a simpler, underpowered Raspberry PI system - a tool to have fun and learn.
Americans ffs they never get it, I suppose your review of Woodstock would be ‘noisy and muddy’. These machines were ground breaking in the UK and set up literally thousands of careers within IT, the UK gaming industry started with people being able to start coding on these low costs devices like the 80 and 81. Software library was extensive, I guess people who bought it (like you) and put it in the closet after 2 weeks are destined to be luddites
Bought one of these (and still have it) in Nov. 1982. Had a blast messing around with an early version of an electric spreadsheet and an almost laughable version of a flight simulator, for several months after purchase. Quickly bought the 16k memory expansion cartridge to have enough power to run the almost nonexistent software. I remember an interview on TV at the time with Sinclair, who was quite full of himself for providing a personal computer to the masses for such a low price. You have to remember, at that time, the idea of owning a personal computer was almost incompressible to the average person. Loading the software (with a tape/cassette player) was pretty much hit or miss, and took forever - LOL. When the software finished loading, the black and white TV ( monitor) would make a HUGE pop sound and if you were having a good day, display the fully loaded software. I was a financial analyst for a little bank in Charlotte, NC, called NCNB, and realized that the concept of an electronic spreadsheet (Vu-Calc) would revolutionize our ability to analyze data in the fast growing financial industry. That little bank is now known as Bank of America, which would go on to pioneer interstate banking, and it brings a smile to my face whenever I think back to making the statement that someday every employee would have a PC on their desk, while my peers laughed at my excitement over this technology.
Those, like me, who couldn't afford the $300 for a Commodore 64 bought the TS1000. $70 from an electronics store in the Bronx, in my case. With a 16K expander pack! I programmed in BASIC on a 13" black & white TV. I regretted tossing mine out. In the 90s, a neighbor tossed theirs out and I had one again! Then I found out it wasn't really a collector's item and I re-tossed it. Software-wise, it had a library of cassette-driven software packages.
I had fun with mine. The problem was the memory expander. It was always glitching out the machine because the connector was so poor. If I took the memory expansion off it worked great, but the built-in memory was so puny it would run out of memory just when I started making fun progress with my programming.
Had one of these in 1984. I was able to convert to a clicker keyboard and hooked it up to a cassette player for the memory. I That part never seemed to work.
A former girlfriend's Dad had one of these. At the time I was using a Radio Shack model, I computer, expansion interface, 4 external disc drives, modem I, etc. But I was also used to programming the Apple II. As stated, her dad had one of these. I felt so sorry for him but he was so proud of it because he had just gotten at the week before. I asked if he had a disk drive for it ? No. What about a cassette tape? No. Any program that he had written once he turned it off had to be re-entered again. He asked me about my computer and I explained all that I could do. I could see the light dimming in his eyes about this piece of junk that he had.
I to this day do not understand why it was not compatable with the extensive, maybe most extensive branded Sinclair software library. An actual ZX81 is a good purchase and can bring a lot of enjoyment. I dont know of any serious collectors that put any time or money in the US model. But it's still an important piece of history, and worth the look.
When this system came out, computers like the Apple II were costing $1,000 which is at least $3000 in today's money. They were cost-prohibitive. This allowed me to write programs, some of which were useful and I was able to sell, for very little cost. I had much more fun with the 2068 computer that was the successor.
The Timex was the only one available in my area, other than the way more expensive TRS-80 machines for business and schools. I used the Timex until I had enough money to buy a Radio Shack Color Computer. I used that, and the CoCo 3, until 1989 and I needed the power to write a book.
this was my first computer , bought from sears when they were clearing out for about $40 Canadian, I wrote some basic programs with it and loaded commercial offerings from cassette, while it is pretty useless today, it was pretty amazing back in the day, used it for about two years but the ULA died on me , they were terrible for overheating , bac then there were no real resources ( at least to my 14 year old self) to source parts or even look for guides how to fix it , wish I still had it, but I do have an OMNI , a Sinclair Spectrum repro, but far more functional. sorry dude but even though it was terribly marketed on this side of the pond, it was as functional as most computers of the time, but reachable by the average person , and with the 16k ram pack, very useful
That crappy little keyboard was a nightmare, you couldn't type out commands, you could only enter them by pressing the key with the command printed on that key. And Basic back then was prety wordy.
I had a 3rd party keyboard which was a huge improvement over the original membrane one. Still, typing speed was limited by the speed of the computer - this was not a machine for touch typists. That said, BASIC commands were generally entered in with a single keypress (just P for "print" or G for "goto", for example), which saved time. The computer even checked the syntax of each line of BASIC *as you entered it*, which was such a wonderful feature I couldn't believe far more advanced computers didn't have it.
@@sa3270 Considering the limitations of the BASIC that was used, there was literally nothing you would have gained from typing commands in full rather than using one button for a full command. 100% of the commands were available this way. On top of that, precious memory was saved this way, which is a necessity for a computer with so very little to work with in the first place. Even with a keyboard with proper keys, you wouldn't have gained anything by needing five keystrokes instead of one to tell the computer to print something.
You could use it to write simple programs in Basic, and you can't do that on a calculator. You could also save your new program on an after-market tape recorder. Pretty cool for the time.
In fairness to the computer, this is probably as much computer as we could afford in the early 1980s, had we known of it. To have any computer would probably have been much more exciting for a kid than no computer then.
@@lynndemarest1902 My first or near first thing in programming was a Basic FOR loop on either an Apple IIe or IIgs. I am not sure. I think it added 1 to a number and printed it on the screen. But it was a computer that belonged to my school, not to me. I think to have one affordable enough to have at home, like this one, must have been pretty exciting.
Compared to the Apple II, that we had at elementary school, the Timex Sinclair was a useless computer. Mine was promptly returned to the store, then mom bought me a Commodore Vic 20.
I had this. Loved it. Downloaded home budget program. On tape cassette. Very coolio for its time,e and for my first ever pc as a kid in the ‘80’s. And 16K RAM add on the back was even cooler. So I think k you were wayyyy too critical. Too hard in Your review. Not nice. It’s is fond memories for me!!!
I had that piece of garbage as a kid when I begged my parents to buy it for me at a garage sale in the early 80s. I should've begged for baseball cards instead.
• Wait, how big is it? 🤔 • I don't think Brits would get _mad_ if you say zee-ex, they'd just roll their eyes and snort "Americans 🙄". • They aren't too bad; it looks like you can get them for $30 on eBay, but unfortunately thanks the GSP, the shipping will at least double that. ¬_¬
Lol.. as a ‘Brit’ I didn’t so much roll my eyes as wonder if the inability to pronounce the letter Z was the reason Timex changed the name. Tbh, as I (very much a nerdy teen of the 80’s) recall, the ZX81 was the follow up to the ZX80 and the predecessor to the Spectrum (which was where I found an interest and entered the game) as the Spectrum came out, the ZX81 rapidly faded away - the only time I actually saw one on a store shelf for sale was several years later when my Coop department store was clearing the junk out its store rooms ready for closure - a year was a long time in electronics in those days, even compared to today, and comparing the ZX8x to the Spectrum, C64 et al. is rather like comparing said C64 to an Amiga and muttering about how much worse it was.
i have a sinclair 1000 with his original printer and then i have a commodore 16. I prefer the commodore i could do more things with the commodore than the sinclair computer specially because i hac¿ve a datasette for the comoodore where i store programs or read games.
This video rather overlooks the principal achievement of Sinclair's computers. By so heavily undercutting the price of every other computer on the market the ZX81 made computers something the British public could actually go out and buy. Britain in the early 1980s had the highest computer literacy and ownership in the world. Sinclair forced the computer industry to develop affordable computers for the public. Software would be rated much higher in the UK too. There were loads of games for it.
I had one of these! It was so cool. I had to get an expansion cartridge to have 16k of memory, and loaded the software with a cassette tape. It took up to five minutes for the computer to make a chess move! Great memories
Growing up with and learning chess from both a TS1000 and Atari 2600, I was convinced computers could play a perfectly decent game of chess, but making them move faster was a technological impossibility. The naivete of youth! 🤣
Atari video chess took longer
This was my very first computer, the one where I learned BASIC and Machine programming (yes, not assembler, learned instruction code tables programming using PEEK & POKE). Loved it, and started a path that's fed me and my family to this day (39 years programming, 32 years of career and 49 years old), where I still work in the software industry.
The keyboard is so bad on this system. It however was a great starter and from what we hear, many people like yourself got their programming start on them.
@@NewsmakersTech It never mattered to me, as I knew nothing else! I still remember staring at the "BASIC" prompt with no clue what it was (bought it second hand in a flea market for like $20, all I knew was that it was a "computer"), after that I went to the bookstore and bought a copy of "BASIC for Children" and off was I from there :) My next one was a Tandy Color Computer 3.
Nerd alert!
Bought one of these (and still have it) in Nov. 1982. Had a blast messing around with an early version of an electric spreadsheet and an almost laughable version of a flight simulator, for several months after purchase. Quickly bought the 16k memory expansion cartridge to have enough power to run the almost nonexistent software. I remember an interview on TV at the time with Sinclair, who was quite full of himself for providing a personal computer to the masses for such a low price. You have to remember, at that time, the idea of owning a personal computer was almost incompressible to the average person. Loading the software (with a tape/cassette player) was pretty much hit or miss, and took forever - LOL. When the software finished loading, the black and white TV ( monitor) would make a HUGE pop sound and if you were having a good day, display the fully loaded software. I was a financial analyst for a little bank in Charlotte, NC, called NCNB, and realized that the concept of an electronic spreadsheet (Vu-Calc) would revolutionize our ability to analyze data in the fast growing financial industry. That little bank is now known as Bank of America, which would go on to pioneer interstate banking, and it brings a smile to my face whenever I think back to making the statement that someday every employee would have a PC on their desk, while my peers laughed at my excitement over this technology.
My exact experience too! I was a mainframe systems guy when it came out. I'm still in the industry @ 40 years. I just never get tired of a challenge...
This was my first computer in 1983 and I used it to learn Basic. I also had the memory expansion and printer.
I had the memory expansion and learned Basic on mine too. Wanted the printer
I think you missed the point of this computer - this was the first computer I ever owned - and at the time (in 1983) I was still amazed that you could buy a computer and bring it into your home. It was a science fiction dream come true. At the time I couldn't afford any of the more capable machines - but I still wanted to have the power of a computing device in my own hands. Paradoxically the cheapness and poor design of the computer made it even more fun to actually do something with it. I learned to program on that little beast (while carefully keeping it immobile to prevent the RAM extension from wobbling which would reset the computer). Yes I graduated to bigger and better machines, but I still have a soft spot in my heart for that ugly, barely usable, little machine. Although it no longer works, I still have it tucked away in a closet - a reminder of when computers where still fun and exciting...
As with others, this was my first computer. I created a "real" keyboard for it from one I found at an electronics surplus store (remember those?). Wrote a very cool hangman game. My parents were so impressed--they thought I was a genius.
I love the final comment ease of repair "why would you". I find it interesting because I just modded and upgraded one of these units myself. I did a composite video mod, installed a modern voltage regulator, added a ULA heat sink, replaced the 1/8" jacks with gold plated jacks, repurposed the channel select switch as a power switch, replaced the keyboard with a modern replica, replaced the capacitors and did an onboard 16k memory mod. I now have a pimped out 1981 Timex Sinclair that I can use for a week and put in my closet until someone finds it there in 2050 and sells it again on Ebay. ;)
Beautiful
The same here mostly, but I modified the channel select switch to be a 50/60Hz PAL/NTSC switch. I have yet to find the time to try to do much more than a Hello World on it. It was mostly a curiosity for me.
I'm interested in knowing how you did the 16k mod. Will the 16k expansion cartridge take it up to 32k then? Imagine the size of unimpressive software you could code into it then! Do you make videos for youtube? Would you consider doing a video on how to do the mod?
@@Muldrf Would this not be a problem if the switch is touched when it's powered? As the resistor is wired directly to the ULA. Just wondering as I'm interested in doing this mod myself. Thanks in advance.
@@filmnet I would assume the system would probably crash. That switch is not "easy" to accidentally move. If you want you can check my Part 1 post about it. It is an old mod I am sure, I don't know if there is a risk to the system other than likely crashing to switching it while it is powered on. I will not be intentionally "testing" what happens though. Most of the mods are based on GadgetUK's videos on the ZX81 which are linked on my blog posts on the Sinclair 1000 mods.
Hey. I got a TS1000 in June 1983 and it was fabulous. If you had reviewed it then every category would have received 5/5.
I wrote " hot/cold" guessing games in Sinclair Basic on it.
The blinks when typing were not an issue, heck, it was your screen not that of the TV station.
I felt like I was part of the holodeck.
I was comfortable with the 1K of RAM and no permanent storage.
Two thumbs up.
I love how our system still has the original price sticker from Kmart
This is the computer that launched my software development career. Without it, who knows what I would be doing today. I taught myself BASIC and then I taught myself Z80 assembler on this little machine. I've been teaching myself software development skills ever since -- and there are thousands of other developers who got there start this way as well. That's the point of this tiny little computer. It launched the careers for countless people.
My first computer. I bought it in 1982 for $44. Up nights learning Basic. Loved it. Introduced me to programming and the rest is history. We also had a tiny TV, I was usually down on the carpet.
I had one of these when I was in HS. Had the memory expander and the printer for it. I used it to learn basic programming. I recall making a home budget program where you saved the data on a cassette and could load it every month to track your expenses.
I was in college at the time taking pascal and fortran. Used to stand in line to get to a terminal to type out punch cards. Then get in line to feed you cards into the computer and get your printout. I bought the Timex Sinclair 1000 for $99 and would code my program in basic to get the logic worked out, then I would translate it to pascal or fortran. Saved me a bunch of time waiting in lines!
Those were a blast. I wrote a few games on mine. The cassette storage was a gas. Sounded like a modem when it was storing or loading. Super fun.
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I ended up buying a card edge connector and soldering it on to the motherboard. The connectors I could find at the time had ears so I had to hacksaw them off and file them down. Even then I had to file the case opening a little. Built several different I/O, but the basic and RAM was limited
Bought one of these (and still have it) in Nov. 1982. Had a blast messing around with an early version of an electric spreadsheet and an almost laughable version of a flight simulator, for several months after purchase. Quickly bought the 16k memory expansion cartridge to have enough power to run the almost nonexistent software. I remember an interview on TV at the time with Sinclair, who was quite full of himself for providing a personal computer to the masses for such a low price. You have to remember, at that time, the idea of owning a personal computer was almost incompressible to the average person. Loading the software (with a tape/cassette player) was pretty much hit or miss, and took forever - LOL. When the software finished loading, the black and white TV ( monitor) would make a HUGE pop sound and if you were having a good day, display the fully loaded software. I was a financial analyst for a little bank in Charlotte, NC, called NCNB, and realized that the concept of an electronic spreadsheet (Vu-Calc) would revolutionize our ability to analyze data in the fast growing financial industry. That little bank is now known as Bank of America, which would go on to pioneer interstate banking, and it brings a smile to my face whenever I think back to making the statement that someday every employee would have a PC on their desk, while my peers laughed at my excitement over this technology.
This was my first PC :) Thanks for the nostalgia. I took a basic class at Summer Camp and used it to play games on. It took ages to load programs in via audio cassette and play games that were graphically similar to an Atari 2600 but were quite jittery frame rate wise if I remember. As a gaming rig, it was bad, but as an intro computer for a 5th grader it was awesome.
Bought one when they came out in the early 80s, spent hours writing programs for things like curve fitting, graphing. Bought the 16k ram pack and a modem, used it to connect to the university mainframe for a mandatory univac assembly language course. Still have it sitting in bin with other retired gadgets I can't part with.
These things' most useful purpose back in the day was for Commodore's rebate on a Commodore 64. Commodore had an offer around 1983 where you could trade in any computer to get $100 off of a new 64. Since these Timex computers were going for $50 and counted as a computer, one could buy one, trade it in, and they'd effectively be getting $50 off a Commodore 64.
2K of RAM was useless by 1982. If you got the 16K RAM expansion it had some use, but I'd still have tried to get a computer with a little more beef.
March 2, 2020 12:52 am
I wish we could get actual numbers on just how many people did exchange these with Commodore but that info seems to be lost to time.
Even a Commodore VIC-20 is a better computer than a Sinclair ZX81 but I still wish Commodore would have released the VIC-20 with 8k instead of only 5k RAM.
@@John-ik2eg Indeed and the TI99/4a was even better than a VIC-20, except for the keyboard and non Atari compatible joystick port.
@@NewsmakersTech Commodore wasn't sold in my area. I used the Timex until I could afford a Radio Shack Color Computer, the most versatile computer ever. You could hook it up to almost anything without extra cards, which PCs required. I could hook it up to a MIDI keyboard and play multiple instruments simultaneously. I could hook it up to my shortwave radio and decode Weatherfax images and news photos.
UK user here, so ZX81 experiance. I remember playing 3d monster maze and text adventures on one that belonged to a friend in late 81/Early 82.
I have heard it called "the ford model T of computers" due to its simplicity and influence.
Huge library in the UK at the time, most of it need at least a 16k ram pack that would occasionally wobble.
But in power vs affordability, quickly surpassed.
I had one. I used it with a 5" portable TV. I had the 16K RAM expansion too, as well as 3-4 programs (mostly games,... Frogger comes to mind). What was it good for?!?! Learning about computers, and being a "gateway drug" for the Commodore 64 (my second computer).
Commodore64 caused my addiction to arcade games. My entire youth is gone, all played away in a dark room... *sniff*
We had these Timex Sinclair 1000 in our school. We studied BASIC on them!
First computer I ever owned. Never could get a magnetic tape to upload software without a 1000 tries, before giving up. I think that might be where the 1000 in the name came from…
OMG - that was hilarious! You had to be having a really good day for the programs to upload the first time or three.... I learned to set the dial tones on my cassette player to a certain tone setting for the programs to upload with (some) consistency. Still have my system, an old mini BW TV, and original cassette player and a few tapes. I'll probably mess around with them over the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday to see if I can get them to load - wish me luck!
1985 at Sears they were calling this exact computer right next to the VIC 20; both on sale for $99 bucks.
I chose to go the Vic 20, a wise move as I then grew into a C-64 and the really no different C-128.
I eventually went to generic PCs starting with 8086 chip and then grew from there. Computers taught me to think in a logical method that I have carried through many professional jobs and an addl 25 years as a lawyer. All because of a Vic -20.
My oldest son was interested in computers, but prices were too high for our family, so we were drawn to the low price. We joined a local club, imported Btitish magazines built add ones and spent a couple of years with this entry system untill we realized the severe limitations and moved to IBM PC clones. Good times, good memories.
A neighbor of mine when I was a kid had one. They were cheap, but I don't remember if they got it for free (they where given away for buying a car or checking out a sales promotion) or if they bought it. More likely got it for free. They got the 16K expansion pack, too.
I owed an Atari 400 at the time, so was curious. It was black and white (that needs to be corrected in your video) and no sound. I remember how much faster the computer was without that 16K expansion pack. If you moved the computer, the expansion pack would move out of place and lock up the computer. The tape drive was just a cassette player. Anytime you typed, the screen flashed off and on. Programming was rough and slow.
It was so good to get back to my old Atari 400. I did eventually sold her my Atari 400 and got a used Atari 1200XL.
It was my intro to computers. I loved the one per key commands for typing in programs. That saved a lot the typing...B^ )
I had one. It was fun trying to run games that you can type in from a book or magazine.
The TS1000 was my very first home computer.it only had 2k of ram and it was easy to fill that up with a program of just 20-30 lines. If you didn't get the 16k expansion module there wasn't a great deal you could do with it. Your only storage option was audio cassette. The thing didn't have an OS, it had a basic command prompt. So you either had to type in a program or load one from audio cassette, most pf the programs you could buy for it were bigger than the onboard 2k ram (yes 2K-- just 2 000 bytes) so straight out of the gate you had to buy the extra memory module just to be able to load and run any of the trhing's software. That being said, I did learn a lot about designing computer programs that seved me well when I upgraded to a Commodore 64 a few years later.
The fact u said zEE and NOT zED just earned u a sub
This computer is awesome. I wrote a DnD game on it in 1982. :D
I learned to program on one of these in the early 80's, It was great because with my income at the time it was cheep and worked.
Even thought, You had to record your work on the cassette drives.
I had the printer and the RAM expansion, along with the tape drive for program storage. I used the TS1000 computer to learn BASIC and to teach myself assembly programming on the Z80 processor. The instructions had to be imbedded into a REM statement!
At one time, these had about the most extensive software catalog available. I learned programming before these... FORTRAN and Assembly on HP Minicomputers, and used one of these to learn basic and Z80 Assembly. I built an external real keyboard, added memory, and had a printer. It was a very capable machine and what I learned on mine helped me in my career oh so long ago. The TS2068 was another winner. PC-XT was my next computer.
I was given one of these as a Christmas gift as a child but I had absolutely no idea how to use it or what can be done with it. As a child I did have a talent for breaking things though and that was one thing I indeed managed to do with this thing which I now know was a computer. What did people use this for?
Sinclair BASIC was remarkable for some weird stuff you could do in it. I would also note that math routines in the Sinclair 8-bits was better than many, the Atari for example.
This was the first computer we had. We got it from my uncle who had it, just like you said - in his closet. My brother programmed a couple of games on it. I can't remember if it was this or our VIC-20 we got later but he programmed some of the first level of Super Mario in BASIC. Mario moved slow and memory ran out quick as you can imagine. We didn't have a tape drive so we had to leave it on for days at a time so we wouldn't lose the games.
I grew up with the TS1000 and, oh boy, did we use it! My parents learned BASIC programming and even at a young age I picked up on the fundamentals. I used a bunch of education software which, though quite rudimentary even in the early 1980s, got the job done and kept me entertained. My earliest homework assignments were even typed and printed on a simplistically basic but functional word processor. As for the games, Flight Simulator is still a challenge to this day, and I have yet to meet anyone who succeeded at Run the Country (political game) more than a few turns. This computer was my childhood, my introduction to computing. It's absurdly basic, but the amount of functionality you can get out of it is astounding. Software, by the way, deserves a 5/5. Programs were usually written by very dedicated and creative people.
OMG! Flight simulator was hilarious compared to what is out there today! I crashed (or overran the runway) so many times before making a safe landing... once, I ripped the wheels off for going to fast. Imagination was the key because the graphics were practically non-existent. Some how, with all it's shortcomings, I was hooked and have fond memories of that era!
Had one. A friend "won" it at a time-share sales presentation where everyone got either a car, a TV, or a personal computer -- everyone got the computer. He didn't know what to do with it, so gave it to me. I wrote a simple loop that said "Lynn is an ass hole" ten times and fell instantly in love. C-64 was next. Got The Visible Computer for it (a debugger) and learned assembly, with which I almost finished a simple Pong game.
I only used it on a small black and white TV I'd bought on credit at the Firestone tire store. I don't think it could do colors.
I bought my TS1000 for under $50 in 1984 in a big box pharmacy chain that’s no longer in business. But I returned and bought the 16K memory module for $20, then software cassettes for about $5 each. Nobody that I knew owned a computer, not even my employer. This was a “Gateway Drug” to computers for me. My next computer was the Atari 800XL, then the Tandy 1000 IBM clone. Wow, it’s been a fun ride!
I've got not just the TS-1000, but also a ZX-81 made for the US (which they did for a while before they re-branded it and added that extra 1K. ;-) Also have a non-working 16k expander. The tricks they made to make it sorta usable with only 1k or 2k, like the tokenized BASIC commands only, are creative and impressive...
There are a few things you can do with these little, low end computers. I like them because I can play with its electronics. I like modding them (add an USB keyboard, add a VGA/HDMI output). You can also learn machine code/assembly if you want to, and BASIC is not a bad start for learning how to program even in this age of Python, C# and the likes. And don't forget that you have the male interface to play with - get a scope, a logic analyzer and you're off to learn a lot about how things were designed back in the day...
Overall, I tend to see computer such as this one as a simpler, underpowered Raspberry PI system - a tool to have fun and learn.
They definitely were the raspberry pi of their day!
my neighboors had one, I tried to play with it, wrote a few small programs and went out and purchased an atari 800.
I really want to pick up one of these. I'll probably never use it though
For the price you might as well!
Me too!
Americans ffs they never get it, I suppose your review of Woodstock would be ‘noisy and muddy’. These machines were ground breaking in the UK and set up literally thousands of careers within IT, the UK gaming industry started with people being able to start coding on these low costs devices like the 80 and 81. Software library was extensive, I guess people who bought it (like you) and put it in the closet after 2 weeks are destined to be luddites
Bought one of these (and still have it) in Nov. 1982. Had a blast messing around with an early version of an electric spreadsheet and an almost laughable version of a flight simulator, for several months after purchase. Quickly bought the 16k memory expansion cartridge to have enough power to run the almost nonexistent software. I remember an interview on TV at the time with Sinclair, who was quite full of himself for providing a personal computer to the masses for such a low price. You have to remember, at that time, the idea of owning a personal computer was almost incompressible to the average person. Loading the software (with a tape/cassette player) was pretty much hit or miss, and took forever - LOL. When the software finished loading, the black and white TV ( monitor) would make a HUGE pop sound and if you were having a good day, display the fully loaded software. I was a financial analyst for a little bank in Charlotte, NC, called NCNB, and realized that the concept of an electronic spreadsheet (Vu-Calc) would revolutionize our ability to analyze data in the fast growing financial industry. That little bank is now known as Bank of America, which would go on to pioneer interstate banking, and it brings a smile to my face whenever I think back to making the statement that someday every employee would have a PC on their desk, while my peers laughed at my excitement over this technology.
Those, like me, who couldn't afford the $300 for a Commodore 64 bought the TS1000. $70 from an electronics store in the Bronx, in my case. With a 16K expander pack! I programmed in BASIC on a 13" black & white TV. I regretted tossing mine out. In the 90s, a neighbor tossed theirs out and I had one again! Then I found out it wasn't really a collector's item and I re-tossed it. Software-wise, it had a library of cassette-driven software packages.
I had fun with mine. The problem was the memory expander. It was always glitching out the machine because the connector was so poor. If I took the memory expansion off it worked great, but the built-in memory was so puny it would run out of memory just when I started making fun progress with my programming.
Mine came with velcro strips to make the expansion pack stable. Talk about a low tech fix.
@@John-zc4pu If it works, it works!
Had one of these in 1984. I was able to convert to a clicker keyboard and hooked it up to a cassette player for the memory. I
That part never seemed to work.
A former girlfriend's Dad had one of these.
At the time I was using a Radio Shack model, I computer, expansion interface, 4 external disc drives, modem I, etc. But I was also used to programming the Apple II.
As stated, her dad had one of these.
I felt so sorry for him but he was so proud of it because he had just gotten at the week before.
I asked if he had a disk drive for it ? No.
What about a cassette tape? No.
Any program that he had written once he turned it off had to be re-entered again.
He asked me about my computer and I explained all that I could do.
I could see the light dimming in his eyes about this piece of junk that he had.
I to this day do not understand why it was not compatable with the extensive, maybe most extensive branded Sinclair software library. An actual ZX81 is a good purchase and can bring a lot of enjoyment. I dont know of any serious collectors that put any time or money in the US model. But it's still an important piece of history, and worth the look.
On paper it's a cool alternative model (the double ram is pretty nice) but with no real compatibility due to the differences in timings it's a shame
I just snagged an immaculate one in box at Goodwill for $6.50! Still had bubble wrap on he unit and power adaptor.
When this system came out, computers like the Apple II were costing $1,000 which is at least $3000 in today's money. They were cost-prohibitive. This allowed me to write programs, some of which were useful and I was able to sell, for very little cost. I had much more fun with the 2068 computer that was the successor.
It's such a shame the 2068 not a big success.
I have both the 1000 and the 2068. By the time the 2068 came out, the low end was really dominated by the C64 though.
Thanks for the very helpful explanation!
This was my first computer cause I was poor and could not afford the Ti994a which was virtually the only other home computer available at the time.
The Timex was the only one available in my area, other than the way more expensive TRS-80 machines for business and schools. I used the Timex until I had enough money to buy a Radio Shack Color Computer. I used that, and the CoCo 3, until 1989 and I needed the power to write a book.
This was my first computer!!!!
this was my first computer , bought from sears when they were clearing out for about $40 Canadian, I wrote some basic programs with it and loaded commercial offerings from cassette, while it is pretty useless today, it was pretty amazing back in the day, used it for about two years but the ULA died on me , they were terrible for overheating , bac then there were no real resources ( at least to my 14 year old self) to source parts or even look for guides how to fix it , wish I still had it, but I do have an OMNI , a Sinclair Spectrum repro, but far more functional. sorry dude but even though it was terribly marketed on this side of the pond, it was as functional as most computers of the time, but reachable by the average person , and with the 16k ram pack, very useful
Personally this is my favorite graphing calculator
That crappy little keyboard was a nightmare, you couldn't type out commands, you could only enter them by pressing the key with the command printed on that key. And Basic back then was prety wordy.
I used mine for a year or so until I finally realozed what a limited little box it was, I wound up selling it at a garage sale.
I haven't ever used any computers from this line but it seems like it must have been a pain to enter programs on them.
it is. you. enter. like. this.
I had a 3rd party keyboard which was a huge improvement over the original membrane one. Still, typing speed was limited by the speed of the computer - this was not a machine for touch typists. That said, BASIC commands were generally entered in with a single keypress (just P for "print" or G for "goto", for example), which saved time. The computer even checked the syntax of each line of BASIC *as you entered it*, which was such a wonderful feature I couldn't believe far more advanced computers didn't have it.
@@EricNorton627 I would rather have the option to enter keywords as text myself, though a good full-stroke keyboard would be an improvement.
@@sa3270 Considering the limitations of the BASIC that was used, there was literally nothing you would have gained from typing commands in full rather than using one button for a full command. 100% of the commands were available this way. On top of that, precious memory was saved this way, which is a necessity for a computer with so very little to work with in the first place. Even with a keyboard with proper keys, you wouldn't have gained anything by needing five keystrokes instead of one to tell the computer to print something.
Great video!! 🙂
This was pretty much a calculator with a full keyboard.
Don't forget the expandability
@@NewsmakersTech It was pretty popular, which helped people with early computer development.
You could use it to write simple programs in Basic, and you can't do that on a calculator. You could also save your new program on an after-market tape recorder. Pretty cool for the time.
@@oldgysgt Hey, I ain't dissing it (too much); I am just saying that it is quite underpowered compared to other computers.
You made a mistake, the Dragon 32 was Welsh, not American.
You have to hand it to Sinclair, he knew how to make cheap, cheap stuff! Unfortunately you usually still got less than you paid for :/
I had one! My first:) then C64
I had one of these and never got it to work.
I love the punchline at the last 30 seconds about how pointless and useless it is. That cracked me up.
It was pretty funny, didn't see it coming
In fairness to the computer, this is probably as much computer as we could afford in the early 1980s, had we known of it. To have any computer would probably have been much more exciting for a kid than no computer then.
A simple FOR loop I wrote it it served to ignite my interest in programming, which has not waned since.
@@lynndemarest1902 My first or near first thing in programming was a Basic FOR loop on either an Apple IIe or IIgs. I am not sure. I think it added 1 to a number and printed it on the screen. But it was a computer that belonged to my school, not to me. I think to have one affordable enough to have at home, like this one, must have been pretty exciting.
Compared to the Apple II, that we had at elementary school, the Timex Sinclair was a useless computer. Mine was promptly returned to the store, then mom bought me a Commodore Vic 20.
Given the choice between a Sinclair and a Commodore, we would go with the Commodore too!
I had this. Loved it. Downloaded home budget program. On tape cassette. Very coolio for its time,e and for my first ever pc as a kid in the ‘80’s. And 16K RAM add on the back was even cooler. So I think k you were wayyyy too critical. Too hard in Your review. Not nice. It’s is fond memories for me!!!
I had that piece of garbage as a kid when I begged my parents to buy it for me at a garage sale in the early 80s. I should've begged for baseball cards instead.
Lol. I got one as a Christmas gift. I know what you mean, it made lousy waffles!
Enjoy my time
• Wait, how big is it? 🤔
• I don't think Brits would get _mad_ if you say zee-ex, they'd just roll their eyes and snort "Americans 🙄".
• They aren't too bad; it looks like you can get them for $30 on eBay, but unfortunately thanks the GSP, the shipping will at least double that. ¬_¬
It's the same measurements as the 81
Lol.. as a ‘Brit’ I didn’t so much roll my eyes as wonder if the inability to pronounce the letter Z was the reason Timex changed the name. Tbh, as I (very much a nerdy teen of the 80’s) recall, the ZX81 was the follow up to the ZX80 and the predecessor to the Spectrum (which was where I found an interest and entered the game) as the Spectrum came out, the ZX81 rapidly faded away - the only time I actually saw one on a store shelf for sale was several years later when my Coop department store was clearing the junk out its store rooms ready for closure - a year was a long time in electronics in those days, even compared to today, and comparing the ZX8x to the Spectrum, C64 et al. is rather like comparing said C64 to an Amiga and muttering about how much worse it was.
i have a sinclair 1000 with his original printer and then i have a commodore 16. I prefer the commodore i could do more things with the commodore than the sinclair computer specially because i hac¿ve a datasette for the comoodore where i store programs or read games.
Uhm.. so start it?
Zx spectrum
20 goto 10
This video rather overlooks the principal achievement of Sinclair's computers. By so heavily undercutting the price of every other computer on the market the ZX81 made computers something the British public could actually go out and buy. Britain in the early 1980s had the highest computer literacy and ownership in the world. Sinclair forced the computer industry to develop affordable computers for the public.
Software would be rated much higher in the UK too. There were loads of games for it.
The Commodore 64 destroyed this!
What makes this stupid PC any better than the TIMEX 1000
THE MAKEE IS NOTHING MORE THAN A COPYCAT
ha ha the cheapest computer in your collection , with 2 k memory expansion module ooOoo !
Worst. keyboard. ever.
KMart? More like “K I’m for boomers Mart”
I would have used mine more if it didn't crash so often. The keyboard was no picnic either 🫤