American Timex Sinclair distributors Rob and Debbie Curry of Curry Computer and John Warburton of Sunset Electronics attended the annual Personal Computer Show in Olympia, Great Britain, the first weekend of September. The well-attended showing featured among other things, the premier of the Amstrad/Sinclair Spectrum 128k+2. Many thanks go to Mr. Warburton who thoughtfully picked up an extra brochure, which is pictured to the right, for Time Designs readers. The new Spectrum which replaces the previous 128k computer released six months ago by Sir Clive, offers both a professional full-travel keyboard and an integrated cassette recorder. It also has on-board twin joystick ports that use the Sinclair Interface 2 protocols (non Atari-type). Gone is the traditional black Sinclair look, for a new grey color.
It was curious that Commodore for the most part was absent at the show, while both Amstrad and Atari had huge displays. The Atari section featured many after-market companies, but all were integrated into the main Atari section with corresponding displays and decor… now that’s company support! Meanwhile, Amstrad launched the new PC1512, an inexpensive IBM PC clone that is already receiving extremely rave reviews from the press. Watch for this one, it is rumored that it is coming to the U.S.
There were many software companies in attendance including an outlandish display by BEYOND, which replicated the bridge of the star ship Enterprise…a gimmick to announce their coming program, “Star Trek”. Their were many other Spectrum related booths, and even some for the seemingly ill-fated Sinclair QL, such as the London-based support group, Quanta.
The Curry’s stated that software and hardware “deals” struck at the PC Show, will greatly benefit U.S. Sinclair consumers in the coming months.