Brand: Sinclair Research Ltd.
Model: ZX81
Country of origin: United States of America
Made in: Scotland (Dundee)
Launch date: 7 October 1981
Price: $149.95 / $99.95 (kit)
Board design: Jim Westwood
Software: Steve Vickers
Case design: Rick Dickinson
Dimensions: 167 × 174 × 40 mm (feet adds 2 mm)
Weight: 352 g
Box dimensions: 400 × 240 × 66 mm
More than 25.000 units were sold through a deal with American Express, like this ZX81.
(Text continues below the gallery)
Similar to the Timex Sinclair 1000, it has a TV channel 2/3 switch on the underside and supporting RF modulator, metallized inside of the case and ‘DELETE’ and ‘ENTER’ in place of ‘RUB OUT’ and ‘NEW LINE’ on the keyboard. However it still does only have 1Kb of ROM, unlike the otherwise very similar Timex Sinclair 1000.
The address of Sinclair in the USA was
One Sinclair Plaza
Nashua
NH 03061
but this address doesn’t actually exist!
According to the Nashua Telegraph of March 12, 1982 it’s 141 Canal Street (which also happens to be the address on the ‘American Express Special Offer Center’ mailer box):
8-bit Retro Journal visited the site in July 2023 and made a video of it.
1 REM 123456
10 POKE 16514,175
20 POKE 16515,71
30 POKE 16516,219
40 POKE 16517,254
50 POKE 16518,79
60 POKE 16519,201
70 LET U=USR 16514
80 PRINT ¨THIS IS A ¨;(¨NTSC¨
AND U=63);(¨PAL¨ AND U=127);¨ MA
CHINE.¨