“Inside a Day You Will Be Talking to It Like an Old Friend”: The Making and Remaking of Sinclair Personal Computing in 1980s Britain

Abstract

The initial domestication of the computer in 1980s Britain was accompanied by its configuration for educational benefit, as part of a wider culture of computer literacy. Among the most popular British home computers were those of Sinclair. Originally intended to introduce people to computing, Sinclairs low-cost and basic capabilities Have led to write them off as undistinguished introductory computers or as mere video game machines. Closer attention to the role of users, peripheral manufacturers, software producers, and computer magazines, however, reveals a complex picture that shows the Sinclair computer was much more flexible in its use and representation.

In this essay, the author demonstrates how the initial conception of a simple introductory computer was subverted by the activities of different groups of users with alternative ideas. Although gaming eventually came to dominate Sinclair computers’ identity, the author argues that the process was more contested when considering other categories of users who had quite different views on the utility of a basic computer. The chapter demonstrates how users remade Sinclair’s computers into new forms as their ideas of computing developed and how these user practices in turn influenced the design and representation of subsequent machines. It thus “closes the loop” between technology production and technology use by showing how the practices of popular computing helped to shape its artifacts.