Retro Tech Week RWAP Software program has been providing elements and upgrades for Sinclair Analysis computer systems because the mid-Eighties. Proprietor Wealthy Mellor talked to El Reg about what received him into the enterprise, what’s stored him , in addition to his new product – which is a really totally different beast.

Whereas Commodore and Atari dominated the US market, in Europe, no different vary of house computer systems nonetheless holds a lot affection for thus many individuals as Sinclair Analysis. The unique firm bought untold hundreds of thousands of items of the ZX80, ZX81, the classic ZX Spectrum and the Sinclair QL. Then founder Sir Clive Sinclair pulled off a formidable second act with the Cambridge Computers Z88, one of many earliest shopper laptops.

In case you are fortunate sufficient to seek out one within the attic, or for a discount worth at a car-boot sale, there is a good probability the famously terrible rubber-membrane keyboard can have failed – however over three many years later, RWAP can provide you with a replacement.

Mellor instructed us how he got here to begin the enterprise when he was nonetheless at college. Though hundreds of thousands got here to Sinclair by way of the ZX Spectrum, the primary inexpensive British house laptop with sound and color graphics, Mellor began with the ZX81, for which he nonetheless affords storage, sound and reminiscence expansions. He skipped the extra well-known Spectrum and went straight to the Sinclair QL. Launched two weeks earlier than Apple launched the unique Macintosh, the QL is commonly seen as a flop, but it surely impressed a variety of loyalty. He tells us what he appreciated concerning the 16-bit Sinclair, particularly its remarkably highly effective and succesful BASIC interpreter, SuperBASIC. The QL impressed a number of appropriate clones and successors, a few of that are nonetheless made – and RWAP sells them.

Right now, although, one in all his finest sellers is an entirely new product, the Retro-Printer: a Raspberry Pi-based system with customized {hardware}. It connects to nearly something with a Centronics parallel port, and might emulate a printer and seize its output, or translate it and print it on a contemporary USB system. ®


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