The Authoritative Website for Timex/Sinclair Computers
In 2003, Alvin Albrecht wrote a Minesweeper for the TS2068 in C, built with z88dk. Porting the Windows game to a Z80 was the easy half. The half he cared about was getting the computer to play it well, and to play it honestly: every move reasoned from the numbers on the board, never from the mines hidden underneath.
By late 1982, Timex Computer Corporation had a gap problem. The TS1000 had launched in July of that year and sold in extraordinary numbers, over a million units by some accounts, but it was showing its limitations fast.
National Education Corporation (Irvine, California) had been selling vocational training by mail since 1946. When home computers became affordable, they saw a natural extension of their business. Timex was looking for the same thing from the other direction. Dan Ross, COO of Timex Computer Corporation, was vocal about the TS computers as educational tools.
There’s something quietly wonderful about discovering that other people have been building the same thing you’ve been building. Not exactly the same — differently the same. Same general idea, completely different priorities, completely different angles. Each one a window into the maker’s own preoccupations.
Whether you’re digging through TAP files from World of Spectrum, trying to understand how a vintage BASIC program works, building your own TAP files for an emulator, or just curious what’s on those old disk images — TS-2068 Disk Browser is a free, open-source desktop app that makes it easy.
In June 1980, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago, a few hundred people encountered something that would barely register on the radar of the American computer industry but would prove irresistible to a certain type of enthusiast.
Ed Simpson, publisher of Home Business News, wrote and published book called Cash From Your Computer in 1987. It featured vignettes about small businesses using, featuring, or organized around small (home) computers. In one section, he wrote about Rick Duncan, publisher of T/S Horizons.
The Timex/Sinclair went from product announcement to in stores in just under a year. And then Timex left the market. A few examples of computers released during this timeline are included for context.
There were six of us in the whole startup: myself, Billy Skyrme (director), Bob Behler (engineering), Carlos Dragovich (production), Margot Murphy (marketing) and Dan Ross (VP). All of these names where characters in a maze game I wrote called Grimm’s Fairy Trails. I was the Software Manager for Timex Computers.
When the Timex/Sinclair 2068 finally reached store shelves in the fall of 1983, it arrived bearing the weight of considerable expectations. After the phenomenal success of the T/S 1000—which had sold 550,000 units in just five months—and the delays and confusion surrounding what had originally been announced as the “T/S 2000,” the computing press and eager users alike were watching to see what Timex would deliver.
Timex/Sinclair 2068: A Computer in Search of an AudienceRead More »
An unlikely savior, David Higgenbottom, a body shop owner turned computer enthusiast, embarked on an audacious journey to resurrect the defunct Timex/Sinclair computer business in 1984.