Blogs

Alexander Armstrong and Martin Freeman are to star in a new BBC4 factual-based comedy drama about the rise of the home computer market in the 1980s.

The show, which is currently in production with an expected broadcast date later this year, will focus on the rivalry between the maverick Sir Clive Sinclair, played by Armstrong, and his former colleague Chris Curry, portrayed by Freeman.

Read more: guardian.co.uk

Mini Television, 1966: British inventor Clive Sinclair shows off his mini television. Please note the thickness of his glasses.

See: 30 Dumb Inventions

Fifteen Classic PC Design Mistakes is an interesting read because of the numerous computers from the 80's reviewed.

BoingBoing runs a story about Classic Computer Ads and shows some great ads of computers from the 70s and 80s, like the Timex Sinclair 1000 (the US version of the Sinclair ZX81), the VIC-20, Amiga, Apple and Atari computers.

Great stuff!

See also: Old Computer Ads, Classic Computer Ads and another Classic Computer Ads.

At Clive.nl we have a couple of brochures of classic computers and peripherals in our collection.

Below is a sample.

I just read about the release of LED Basketball for the iPhone. This app mimicks a standalone computergame from the 70s and looks great for a retro computer lover, although it's basically only a calculator.

The iPhone just seems to me like an ultimate retro game emulator. I would love to see a retro computer emulator, like a ZX Spectrum emulator. This would open up a huge database of retro computer games for the iPhone. So far, I have only read about a Gameboy Advance emulator for the iPhone.

As for LED Basketball, I haven't tried it yet, but it certainly creates more interest in retro gaming and retro computing.

On October 18th, the Commodore usergroup of the Dutch Hobby Computer Club (HCC) will organise a meeting where collectors, museums and usergroups will demonstrate and provide hands-on experience of different home computers and game consoles from the 80's till today. Free entry.

Address: Het Trefpunt, Kerkweg 21 in Maarssen, The Netherlands.
Time: 10:00 till 17:00.

More info (in Dutch): http://commodore-gg.hobby.nl/oktober18.htm

We at Clive.nl have been busy working for the previous months in creating the new webshop you are watching right now. This webshop has been created by the guys at Dynapres.nl who have implemented this using the Drupal CMS. Of course, with this new site come more tools in further developing our database of retro home computer items. Currently we have tons of new ideas to incorporate in our site, but we will focus on expanding our database within the next couple of weeks. As always we encourage any feedback from you.