Hello again Chris, I have put together the following information about the birth of LINSAC and the writing of the ZX80 book, some of it may be of interest to you just for the historical value. Regards Terry

So...... long long ago and far far away... no another story starts like that.

The tale starts with four friends, Bob and Judith, Terry and Kathryn..... Bob Maunder worked for Hartlepool College of Further Education at the time, he headed up the Computer Unit within the Business Department, a small group of people at that point who worked with Z80 based computer systems (North Star Horizon's if my memory serves me correctly, costing around £1000 each) teaching computer languages to 16 to 80 year old students, primarily BASIC.

At the time I worked as a Development Engineer (research) for GEC Telecommunications designing microprocessor based test equipment - cutting edge stuff then - writing real-time operating systems and control systems with 8080, 8085 and Z80 chips! Bob and I and our wives knew each other from the church that we all went to in Middlesbrough, Bob and Judith lived in Linthorpe, a part of Middlesbrough, we lived in Ayresome, another part. As friends we often saw each other, Bob and Judith had two young children at the time and my wife Kathryn was expecting our son (as he turned out to be).

One evening we went around to see them as Bob had just been down to London to a personal computer fair at which the ZX80 was launched, we knew that he had been going to go and that he had wanted to purchase a ZX80 kit, from what I remember it cost £99.99. I had said that I would build the kit, little did I know what it would lead to. So on arrival there was Bob with the kit in hand, still in the box and interestingly enough with the serial number ZX80/000000 (lots of zeros.....) presumably the first ever kit! I set to work on it at a table, soldering iron, pliers, side-cutters etc and was given food and drink by the others as we all talked about various things. After an hour or so we had a complete machine and it was time to power it up. So it was plugged in to a portable TV, power was applied and WOW a display appeared on the screen - well after a little re-tuning of the TV it did. I recall that Bob and I played at programming it for a little while and then we ate and drank together. Somewhere in the evening we jokingly said we should write a book on how to build the kits and program the machine (as so few outside of education or design had seen personal computers never mind programmed one!). Well we left for the evening and met up a couple of days later by which point the idea had turned into a real decision to write a book and sell software.

We decided to set up a company and various names were thought about but we eventually decided in LINCSAC - Linthorpe Software And Circuits as we though that we might end up building add-ons for the machine. The next six weeks were a blur, we both had day and evening time jobs, children, families and the four of us spent long hours into the night writing the content of the ZX80 Companion, typing it, (I remember that Bob had to go out and buy an electric typewriter), getting a friend (Richard Nicholson) to pose for the cover shot and then arranging to get the text photocopied and bound at a local printers. At the end of the six weeks we had a book and Bob had started writing bits of software to sell alongside the book. We took out an advert in, I believe, Personal Computer World (it may not have been) advertising the book and as they say, the rest is history. The book took off, sold all of our copies, we had to re-print. Bob took out more adverts in magazines, we wrote several pieces of software - games, utilities and educational and they too sold.

That probably takes us to the end of that year, in the September our son was born - he didn't sleep much. I changed jobs to work as a lecturer in computing and microelectronics alongside Bob and by the end of the year the ZX81 was launched and it started all over again. Somewhere around the September time Bob arranged for the College to purchase ZX80's and I remember Bob and I teaching evening classes to enthusiastic groups of young and old who wanted to understand the basics of the use of personal computers before they went out and purchased one.

Along the way we met others involved in those early days of personal computing, Ian Logan - a GP with an interest in computers came along with a Monitor listing for the ZX80 - we published that also and I'm fairly sure that we had contact with Tim Hartnell and several people at Sinclair Research. We had the book "stolen" from us in other countries as local companies copied it and sold it without royalties - it's very difficult stopping that happening without lawyers in those other countries. Bob went on after this to write books on a variety of personal computers as they were launched, the" Oric" was one, there were others. Twenty-four years later Bob now works for FDLearning - who write software for education and lives in Sheffield. I still work for Hartlepool College but in a very different role and live in the North East. Interestingly my son, who didn't sleep (and still doesn't) and who spent many hours propped up on my lap at the age of 3 months looking at a computer screen (it was the only way to keep him quiet) had his first computer aged 5, I built it out of spare ZX80 bits and he is now graduating from a degree in IT and writing his own software. So the circle continues. I wonder if they are going to launch another personal computer..........perhaps we could write a book.....

Chris writes: I have thought of writing an interesting book on my experiences as a home-call out computer engineer, I thought something like "Confessions of a Computer Engineer"!!! (to combine real everyday problem fixes and some strange stories of the people I've met)!

Thanks for the note. A few hundred words? Well, actually, I'm a bit fuzzy on the details, but several things were happening more or less at once when the personal computer revolution was just getting started...

My first real encounter with computers that were small, powerful, personal, and actually fun to program was with the Bally Arcade. This was an incredibly powerful Z80 based system that never got the product support it deserved. I was involved with the design of much of the early software for Bally, including Bally Basic. I created the music notation system and wrote the Bally Basic book -- which was an earlier version of the Computer Learning Lab I created for Clive Sinclair.

The Sinclair version of the Learning Lab was done in collaboration with Tom DeFanti. Tom taught programming and was my roommate at the time. We did this project together, over a weekend or two at his cabin in Wisconsin. (I now live in a house more or less next door to Tom, about a half mile away, along the same stream that runs through both our properties.)

The Color Computer Learning Lab came after the Sinclair project. I wrote this book with cassette tapes for Tandy, and it was used to introduce the first Radio Shack Color Computer. I tried to add a Learning Lab project to the first software ever offered with the (then) new IBM personal computer, but they decided to launch the IBM PC with two other programs I created instead. Too bad. (Typing Tutor and Time Manager were to other "firsts" in my programming career)

Other Learning Lab projects that didn't go too well were for a couple of computers that never actually made it into full production. This includes the APF computer and the TI (Texas Instruments) computer -- both were real dogs, as I recall.

A couple of years ago I created the Ainsworth Computer Seminar which is an extended version of the Learning Lab concept, but using the then powerful QuickBASIC. Unfortunately, computers running QBasic are virtually gone now, and I haven't updated the Seminar for Windows systems. I plan to do this, but I'm busy. I also run a software company and write all the software myself, in case you hadn't noticed.

So the Sinclar project should be seen in a larger context. And that is the basic combination of software and text in an integrated package. These earlier attempts, as well as my Seminar are all based on the idea that when literature is combined with technology, a new media can emerge. My early attempts to combine programs on tape with books were all based on trying to develop this new form of communication. This is, I feel, as different as plays, poetry, novels, film, television, and other media. In other words, we are at the threshold of a new art form that allows writers to interact in new and different and very powerful ways. I will always be thankful that Clive Sinclair (and a few other people) saw the wisdom in this idea and gave me the opportunity to experiment in a real-world circumstance.

The next step. Well, I'm working on expanding this concept to expand what I consider to be an important literary form (computers as books, not just books transferred to computer screens). This will be in the form of the Ainsworth Computer Seminar and will continue to be free on my website. But it will be several months before I can devote any real time to the project.

Maybe this didn't tell you much about the Sinclair Learning Lab after all, but that book was an important move in a new direction, and a very worthwhile experiment in the evolving marriage of technology and literature.

And if you ever do come across the Scientific American add for the book and computer combination, I would appreciate a high res scan for my collection.

Regards...

...Dick Ainsworth

Chris writes: Excellent stuff Dick - I hope you sell loads of your typing instruction software!

"The ZX80 lives on .. Great ...

I have fond memories of this revolutionary piece of kit. My boys were 8 and 10 at the time and Space Invaders had taken the world by storm. It was autumn when they gave me an ultimatum, program Space Invaders on the ZX80 by Xmas !!!!

Well, as you probably know, this poses a slight problem as the ZX80 did not have a memory mapped display. Basically the screen was a printer. Also, Basic was definitely out because of speed and memory space. I believe we had a 3k RAM pack at that time. Then I saw an advert for ZX80 BREAKOUT I ordered the listing and on it's arrival methodically typed in the machine code. To my amazement there was a bat & ball wandering across the screen !!!! I set about disassembling the code to see how it was done. The programmer had written a memory mapped routine. But, synchronisation was a huge problem as the screen driver had to be called at exactly the same millisecond, otherwise the screen would break up. This meant that every path through the space invader code had to take the same CPU time. Not too bad when there is only a bat & ball, but an army of invaders ? It took about 3 months as the ZX80 did not have an assembler, so it was machine code all the way. Mid December it was ready. Ok the space invaders were "W"'s, the rocket launches was a "T" and the shells a "." but it really captured the frenzy of the original, with the invaders marching down the screen faster & faster. My boys were delighted and played the game for months. I sold the listing for £5 from a small add in one of the ZX80 mags. During a ZX80 enthusiasts meeting in London, I popped my tape into one of the demo machines and fired up my game. 

Most of the ZX80 had accounts programs or noughts & crosses running on them. Within 5 minutes I had the entire assembly crowded around the lone ZX80 wanting to play. Unfortunately this is where things went pear shape. A smart gentleman of foreign origin dragged me to one side and wanted to market my game. He said we would be famous and make a fortune. Being young and gullible, I signed on the dotted line, idiot I hear you say ? Of course I did all the hard work and he run off with the money ..........

When the ZX81 appeared I managed to cram the code into the miniscule 1K memory. I started selling my listing again, as well as cassettes.....

Then the Spectrum .....................................................

Chris writes: The 'smart gentleman' mentioned above, ran Syntax software, who sold John's games without paying any royalties - anyone know him!?

BACK TO TOP

His book!

Dear Chris,

Thanks for the email, Yes I did receive it but hadn't got round to replying yet.

I became interested in computing in the seventies when I came across a machine at my work place in the city and another in the school of management in Regent St Poly. The one at work was really big, 16k, and occupied one floor of our building. All I saw of the Poly machine was a teletype terminal which made a lot of noise. The machine at work produced huge piles of paper which demanded attention but I never got nearer to the machine than the paper. Access was through an airlock and security passes were needed.

Next thing, I saw an ad for a home computer which was one sixteenth as big as the works machine, sat on your desk, plugged into your TV and all at a cost of £100. Having some experience of building electronic equipment I opted for the DIY kit at a saving of £20 which was a significant amount to a recently qualified teacher on scale one. I was familiar with a number of Sinclair products, some of which performed remarkably well. I knew about Clive Sinclair's obsession with miniaturisation but I was still very surprised when my kit arrived in a box about the size of a ream of paper.

The instructions were good and all the parts were there. It went together easily and worked first time. The screen was a bit of a disappointment being mostly blank and the flash every time a key was pressed was a little disconcerting. The manual was an introduction to BASIC and some of it was quite easy to master. Some aspects of the language were, however, baffling. Why would you ever want to pick the middle bit out of a string of characters for instance and the prospect of POKEing anything into the machine, even something as insignificant as a number between 0 and 255 was alarming. My first programming milestone was a routine to produce answers with decimal places.

Mastery of some of the language was satisfying for a while but I wanted to do real things with my computer and nobody seemed to be able to tell me how. Soon I got to hear of Tim Hartnell (I think that's right) who worked for an Australian newspaper in Earls Court. He was running a fan club for the ZX80 and published a magazine. My first issue was a further disappointment because it seemed that no one else had got further than I had. I contacted Tim and we met up and talked through a number of ideas which might be interesting to the mag's readers and I offered to work out solutions to these problems in the hope that other readers would offer other problems and solutions so that we could all progress to something worth doing with our machines. It was through Tim that I met Mike Johnson, a huge fan of the ZX80 (in every sense of the word). Mike ran a users' group in North London and eventually went on to run an annual exhibition for Sinclair computers. Things were just starting to move and then the bombshell of the ZX81 was dropped. I bought one as soon as I could, a kit again, and it worked first time. The big thing was SLOW mode which allowed the Z80 processor to spend 75% of its time driving the screen and 25% thinking. The result was a steady display which didn't collapse on every key stroke.

The ZX81 allowed me to take off and do some computing which was useful as well as interesting. I have always thought of the ZX80 as an early DEEP THOUGHT which was to allow the development of the "computer which is to come after me, the operating parameters of which I am unworthy to .... etc.".

Tim Hartnell had sent some of my contributions to the magazine off to Macmillan the publisher when they contacted him to see if he had anything which might be publishable in this new field of home computing. Out of the blue came a letter asking me to write a book based on my ideas. The book came out a week after Mike Johnson's first exhibition so all I had on my stall was an ad and a copy of the book's cover to show. Everyone around was selling ten line programs for extortionate prices and I didn't have a thing to offer.

A steady screen allowed me to produce a primitive word processor, which was impossible on a ZX80. This eventually developed into SPECTEXT for the Spectrum which sold well. SPECTEXT came with a filing system and mail merge showing that these little machines were more than toys. The whole thing was let down, I believe, by the Sinclair preoccupation with miniaturisation and rock bottom prices. ZX80s fried and needed ice packs on their humps. ZX81s crashed continuously because of the instability of their 16k memories on their expansion ports. Spectrums just died of Z80 overload giving the random multicoloured display. The printers seemed designed to expire. My most successful add-on was my own real keyboard made from a dead commercial computer and the micro drive which survived several Spectrums. Everything could have been very much more stable and satisfactory if components had not been pushed to the very limits of their capabilities. The Sinclair machines would not have been derided by users of other computers as "just toys" if they didn't suffer from endless crashes and niggles. On the other hand a computer for &100 (or &80 for cheapskates) made home computing for the masses a reality at a time when the &1000 tag for machines was a lot of money. The Newbury Newbrain, the Oric, The BBC and the Electron would probably never have been developed without Uncle Clive's act to follow and home computers would probably be ten times their present price.

Hope that is useful. With regard to hardware, all I have left is the first ZX80, a ZX81 and a Spectrum which I keep for sentimental reasons. I don't know which of them still work!

Best wishes

Randle Hurley

(2nd email - Additional information)

Dear Chris,

I bought the original white ram pack for the ZX80 but this offered a maximum of either 3 or 4k. There was a simple modification which allowed the onboard 1k chip to be used as well. All you had to do was cut one track on the ZX80's circuit board.

I cannot remember a white 16k RAM pack. All mine were black and I got through a lot of them because my machines were worked very hard. I seem to remember that there was a modification which allowed the 16k RAM pack to be used with the ZX80 but this is only a hazy recollection.

I had a sample of each Sinclair computer from the ZX80 to the QL. I had very little support from the Sinclair organisation. My editor asked and asked for pre-release machines so that we, the authors and programmers, could get material out to be ready as the machines were launched. I had to wait while the launch dates were put back and back again and then learn the machine and gauge the possibilities it offered before developing and programming projects. The QL was with me for a few days only as mine arrived more quickly than I was expecting and another author was waiting for a machine with projects ready to work on. My interest at the time was in producing basic office software; word processors, database managers and spreadsheets and these were available for the QL in a suite called "Quill" if I remember correctly. The only machine which I never managed to get hold of was the one which worked in Hex and was called the 'something'14.

My first book was called "The ZX81, Programming for Real Applications". It was printed on very heavy paper and the cover was like an ad for a funeral parlour, being in light blue, dark blue and black. I was never keen on games (except for a mild interest in Manic Miner, Hungry Horace and Space Invaders for the ZX80). I didn't want the machines to do things just for the sake of it. Real applications was all I was interested in mainly.

The second book was more of the same kind of project and was ready for the publishers just as the Spectrum was launched so It had to be rewritten and each project was prepared for both computers. The third was based around Spectext, a word processor with data file manager and a mail merge add-on. Everything was written in BASIC and then machine code routines were added to replace the bits which held everything up. Result, a program suite which could be followed by most readers and simple MC routines which could be called as sub-routines.

I wrote a book for young programmers which was fun. I did the programming and my wife wrote the text. All of these books were published in several languages and apparently sold well in South America as well as in Europe and the USA where the names of the machines were different I seem to recall. Something to do with the Timex link.

All these books sold well and some very well. My most impressive achievement, however, didn't sell at all! This was a shame as it was a joint effort between me and two English teachers from Kent and we worked on the programs, 24 hours a day for weeks to meet a deadline. We took it in turns to crash out on my sofa while the other two kept on working.

The teachers came up with an A level essay generator for Shakespeare students. They presented it to me as a series of six programs which worked extremely well. One typed in the Acts of the play one was interested in, the characters and themes to be explored and the machine produced ideas for investigation, quotes to explore, cross referenced bits to consider and other ideas which might be useful as starting points for the essays. Each program covered one of the six most studied plays in A level. The only problem was that each enquiry took about ten minutes to answer and my task was to reduce this to one second.

I used my Spectext approach of replacing only those Basic routines which acted as bottle necks and we produced fully tested programs for the six plays by the deadline and sold so few that I don't remember getting any royalty at all for all that effort.

My best achievement, I feel, was a chapter about 1k programming for the ZX81 for science teaching. My Doppler effect program had a display which moved in several directions simultaneously and showed the changes of pitch in moving graphics. This, on a rock solid ZX81 with no danger of crashing from RAM pack wobble and which loaded from tape in seconds!

Randle Hurley

Chris writes: Thanks for your great contribution!

If you have a story email me! - 

BACK TO TOP