Micro Men

"Micro Men" BBC4 , last night. It'll probably be repeated ad nasuem and its on the IPlayer. Watch it, if you grew up on 1980s 8 bit computing. The story of Sinclair Research vs, Acorn Computers, a battle I always thought was Sinclair vs. Commodore. But that was my view from the 3rd year comprehensive trenches.

This docu-drama (ugh) does warn that some scenes are inventive for narrative purposes, and I suspect that the potrayal of ol' Uncle Clive was exagerated. But at one point he's harangued by his advisers to concentrate on the Spectrum, not the QL. They mention the size of the game market and the docudrama Clive turns "Oh yes, Clive Sinclair, the man who gave the world Jet Set £@@!ing Willy." as he tries to push computing forward.

He may or may not have said that. He may or may not have felt that or continue to do so. But still, Sir Clive Sinclair, in the million to one chance you are reading this: be proud.

Yes, we grew up playing Jet Set Willy, Knight Lore and thousands, thousands of others. But we also learnt programming. We learnt the tricks and methods that still serve to this day. We learnt squeeze a lot out of a little ( and how many mobile app developers value that experience today ?). My parents were workers, working class down to the bone. We could never have afforded a £500 computer, they could barely afford a ZX81, or the Spectrum upgrade a year later. We had to sell that ZX81 to buy the spectrum . But they managed, and so I learnt. I played games, and I love them. I still do , but through it all I learnt as well.

Today I'm a Software Developer at a large company. There are thousands, maybe millions of us out there who cut our teeth on Sinclair tech. Without that where would we all be today? All our software would come from the states, British software would hardly exist. Sir Clive Sinclair gave the word much more, so much more than Jet Set Willy.

He gave the British Software Industry its workers.

He gave the world the British Geek.

He gave the world the man I am today.

Be proud Sir Clive, be very proud.