Cambridge Computer Advert - March 1988

Here's a nice advert ticking all the mobile-worker cliché boxes, not least the one of the dude on the train who's actually lucky enough to get a group of four seats all to himself, or at least where the knobwit sitting opposite hasn't dumped a massive rucksack onto the table.

It's for the Z88 laptop from Cambridge Computers - a company created by Clive Sinclair out of Sinclair Research Limited, the debt-laden remains of Sinclair Research which Clive Sinclair kept after the sale of Sinclair's name (the computer company of ZX81 and Spectrum fame) and remaining assets to Amstrad in 1986.

It shipped with a built-in application suite called PipeDream, supplied by Colton Software, which was functionally similar to Acornsoft's View Professional on the BBC Micro, and which was also available for Acorn's Archimedes and the IBM PC. Files could even be transferred between the Z88 and these other machines^[1].

The sort-of connection to the BBC Micro continued as the Z88's operating system shared many similarities with the BBC and - despite Clive Sinclair's long-running feud with Acorn over the loss of the BBC Micro contract - the Z88 also ran BBC Basic.

In a 1982 interview for Practical Computing, Sinclair had previously suggested that the BBC "had the unmitigated gall to think that they could set a standard - the BBC language. It is just sheer arrogance on their part"^[2].

In another contradiction with his former self, the Z88 made use of a Supertwist LCD display. Somewhat ironically, when interviewed back in 1985, Sinclair had discussed the "Spectrum Portable" - the concept which became known as the Pandora, which in turn evolved indirectly into the Z88 - and had explicitly ruled out LCD technology in favour of Sinclair's own flat-screen TV^[3]

Originally intended for a launch in April 1987, the Z88 was - in true Sinclair fashion - a few months late, with the first machines trickling out on 27th June 1987^[4].

This meant that once again, Sinclair and Cambridge Computer came under fire in the press for the late delivery, and were even subject to scrutiny from the Advertising Standards Authority. Sinclair said of the furore that:

"[The ASA] asked us to put the '28 days delivery' notice on [the adverts], which we hadn't done before because it wasn't to be delivered in 28 days. Really, the whole thing got out of proportion^[5]".

It's hard to pin down exactly when the Z88 was discontinued. The company was still advertising it into the early 1990s, although by then the advertising was much more low-key and was appearing more towards the back of magazines like Personal Computer World.

There are also several still-active internet communities and sites supporting the device, such as the Z88 Wiki, and Z88 Forever.