Hosted by the University of Plymouth

Launched with 128K RAM, twin 100K microdrives, 32-bit processor (well - sort of), and priced at £399, the QL truly looked like the claimed Quantum Leap beyond Sinclair's earlier ZX Spectrum. The price also included four highly praised applications developed by Psion: Quill (a wordprocessor), Abacus (a spreadsheet), Archive (a database), and Easel (for charts), and on some other platforms the cost of these packages alone would have exceeded the price of the entire QL system. With specifications that theoretically beat any of the competition at its price point, the QL could well have been another hit for Sinclair. In reality, however, Sinclair's attempt to market it as a business machine placed it in competition with a different class of system (with notably better keyboards and faster, more reliable disk-based storage). This, plus notorious delays in the mail-order supply of the early systems (many buyers waited well beyond the advertised 28 days, and when the systems turned up they did so with an additional ROM module sticking out the back of the machine because the OS didn't fit into the original chips), meant that the QL acquired a bad reputation from which it never really recovered. It quietly disappeared from the Sinclair range when the brand was later acquired by Amstrad.
Sinclair, 1984

Donated/on loan from: Prof. Steven Furnell, Plymouth University

Sinclair QL

The Sinclair QL

Item Value
RAM 128K
ROM 48K
Storage 2x100K Microdrives
CPU Motorola 68008 @ 7.5MHz
Graphics 256×256 8 colours, 512×256 4 colours

Sinclair ZX81

Sinclair ZX81

The Sinclair ZX81 was released by Sinclair Research as the follow-up to the successful ZX80. It shared its predecessors characteristics of a Z80 CPU, membrane keyboard, 1K RAM, black and white display and lack of sound. The ROM, however, was doubled to 8K and the machine ran faster. Like the Z... (read more)
Sinclair, 1981

Sinclair ZX Spectrum

Sinclair ZX Spectrum

The ZX Spectrum was an 8-bit (Z80A) personal home computer released in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd. Originally released in 16K and 48K versions, the Spectrum became massively popular in the UK, and ultimately evolved through a variety of later models including the Spectrum+ (which added a bett... (read more)
Sinclair, 1982

ZX Spectrum+ User Guide

ZX Spectrum+ User Guide

ZX Spectrum+ User Guide by Neil Ardley. 80 pages. (read more)
Sinclair, 1984

Sinclair ZX81 1K ZX Chess

Sinclair ZX81 1K ZX Chess

Audio Cassette (read more)
Sinclair,

Games for your ZX81

Games for your ZX81

Games for your ZX81 by Mark Charlton. 126 pages. (read more)
Sinclair, 1983

Mastering Machine Code on your ZX Spectrum

Mastering Machine Code on your ZX Spectrum

Mastering Machine Code on your ZX Spectrum by Toni Baker. 315 pages. (read more)
Sinclair, 1983

ZX81 Basic Programming

ZX81 Basic Programming

ZX81 Basic Programming by Steven Vickers. 212 pages. (read more)
Sinclair, 1980

Sinclair ZX Spectrum+ 128

Sinclair ZX Spectrum+ 128

The last Sinclair-branded computer to truly from the Sinclair stable, the Spectrum 128 debuted in Spain, thanks to co-development with Sinclair's Spanish distributor Investrónica, and did not launch in the UK until into the new year. In addition to the upgraded memory, the system boasted an enh... (read more)
Sinclair, 1985

Sinclair ZX Spectrum +2

Sinclair ZX Spectrum +2

Although it retained the Sinclair name, the Spectrum +2 was a product from the Amstrad stable, following their purchase of Sinclair in 1986. As such, it is no coincidence that the design bears more than a passing resemblance to Amstrad's own CPC 464 system. A later variant, the Spectrum +3, con... (read more)
Sinclair, 1986

Sinclair ZX Spectrum+

Sinclair ZX Spectrum+

An update to the Spectrum that essentially took the 48K model and added a QL-style keyboard, enabling the Spectrum to at least in part escape the criticism that was often leveled at the 'dead flesh' feel of the rubber-keyed version (although in actual fact the feel of the keyboard was still very ... (read more)
Sinclair, 1984

ZX Printer Instructions

ZX Printer Instructions

ZX Printer Instructions by Sinclair Research. 16 pages. (read more)
Sinclair, 1981

Sinclair ZX81 Software Compilation

Sinclair ZX81 Software Compilation

Sinclair ZX81 Software Compilation featuring:

Lunar Landing, Twenty One, Combat, Substrike, Code Breaker and Mayday.

For 16K RAM (read more)
Sinclair,