Sinclair ZX-81 Computer Kit

Comments

• wjsteele Posts: 697

  2011-11-27 08:30 edited 2011-11-27 08:30

  I actually bought a few of these kits several years ago (5 or so) and they were only $99 at the time. I still have my original ZX-80 and ZX-81 that I put together as a kid and they still work to this day.
  
  Bill
• erco Posts: 20,261

  2011-11-27 11:24 edited 2011-11-27 11:24

  I almost hacked a Timex Sinclair for my first robot, to enter the first Trinity Firefighting robot contest in 1994. But I saw the BASIC Stamp 1 in Nuts & Volts, and the rest is history.
• blittled Posts: 681

  2011-11-27 18:56 edited 2011-11-27 18:56

  Thanks Jorge. I would be a little cautious though. The ZX81 used membrane keyboards and their connecting ribbons get brittle with age and since they are now 30 years old the ribbons could crack very easily, I had a couple I bought through ebay and one I got when they were actually being sold and most went bad due to broken ribbons.
• TonyD Posts: 210

  2011-11-28 02:39 edited 2011-11-28 02:39

  wjsteele wrote: »

  I actually bought a few of these kits several years ago (5 or so) and they were only $99 at the time.

  Likewise, I picked a ZX81 kit up a few years back. I think I'll keep it as a kit to bemuse the kids with.
• Martin_H Posts: 4,051

  2011-11-28 04:37 edited 2011-11-28 04:37

  It would be interesting to know when the price as a collectable passes the inflation adjusted original sale price.
• Gadgetman Posts: 2,436

  2011-11-28 05:48 edited 2011-11-28 05:48

  I wouldn't worry too much about the membrane keyboard as there are NEW third-party membranes on the market, both for the ZX-81 and the ZX-Spectrum.
  (They show up now and then on 'Bay of e' )
• Yoshti Posts: 108

  2011-11-28 07:35 edited 2011-11-28 07:35

  After I moved to my house, several years later, I still had boxes un-openned. Since I did not even bother to open them up, I threw them away!
  
  Only to find out later that my ZX-80, 16k, Supercalc and my printer was in it...
  
  I still cry today..thinking about it.
  
  The membrane was bad, I took the time to take a keyboard from another console, and solder and re-wire the whole thing...
  It worked great.
  
  But now ..it's just a memory...still crying!
  
  Yosh
  
  PS Was not Supercalc, was MemoCalc