My First Computer

Sinclair ZX Spectrum
A scan of the promotional flier for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum that I carried round for months prior to my parents buying me a 48K Spectrum for Christmas.
Click through to the larger image to read the marketing text. Here’s some extracts:
“Professional power — personal computer price!”
“Your ZX Spectrum comes with a mains adaptor and all the necessary leads to connect to most cassette records and TVs (colour or black and white)”
“…later this year there will be Microdrives for massive amounts of extra on-line storage, plus an RS232/network interface board”
“Sound — BEEP command with variable pitch and duration”
“High speed LOAD & SAVE — 16K in 100 seconds via cassette, with VERIFY and MERGE for programs and separate data files.”
I learnt to program from those handy Spectrum BASIC manuals mentioned in the advert supplemented with weekly doses of Input Magazine; never did get the hang of assembly or machine code though. Not beyond a few peeks and pokes lifted from the ever trusty Crash magazine, covers of which (along with CV&G) still adorn some of my old school books lurking in the attic.