Micro Men is a BBC production that aired a few years ago but not being in the UK, I missed it, although it is on youtube if you hunt for it. It is a quite a funny look at the formation and history of Sinclair Research and Acorn Computers with Alexander Armstrong (he who always seems to be on Have I got News for you) as Sir Clive Sinclair and Martin Freeman (done lots of things, was Arthur Dent in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy film) as Chris Curry. Although Jim Westwood (the UKs answer to Steve Wozniak) was very underplayed Worth a watch, as it does show that the UK computer scene was very advanced and it is a shame that it stagnated as we could have all been using Acorn Archiemedes or Sinclair QLs instead of PCs and Macs. You can even have a drinking game, see how many mistakes and or anachoronistic errors you can find in the show and have a shot of something hard, if you aren't on the floor by the end of the show then you don't know your history. I drank over half a bottle of scotch doing so... :s
I loved Micro Men so much, reminded me of so many good memories of that period, so much so I went out and bought this.
I also really enjoyed it - Growing up with Sinclair's ZX81 and then later the ZX Spectrum was a part of my childhood I remember very fondly. I can't say I was ever partial to the BBC line (Acorn and BBC Micro) but the Spectrum in particular was a real marvel back then... and it also played a huge role in creating a generation of bedroom coders > who would then go on to form companies like Elite, Ocean, Gremlin Graphics, Software Projects, etc... One fond memory is my brother's experience working for D&H games - I'm not sure if you remember but they produced loads of cheap 'football manager' clones (often repackaging the exact same game but with a different title screen...) It all ended very badly with the 'D' in D&H games being sent down for major fraud... So many memories... When you really look at it, Clive Sinclair was responsible for advancing home computing in the UK to extraordinary levels. Wherever he is, I hope he's doing well for himself.
