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A comment on 5 March 1981: The ZX81 home computer launches with 1kb memory. Parent comment

Re:5 March 1981: The ZX81 home computer launches with 1kb me... by rwmj on Sunday March 05, 2017 @10:19AM (#13796292)
Most likely the 16K "rampack". It was pretty much essential to get anything done with the machine[1]. The rampack infamously suffered from "rampack wobble" where a slight movement of the machine would disconnect lines between the motherboard and the rampack causing a crash. Eventually I got a larger case/keyboard and mounted the rampack internally.

[1] Though there was 1K chess, a mostly complete chess game in 672 bytes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1K_ZX_Chess

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Re:5 March 1981: The ZX81 home computer launches with 1kb me... by pienight on Sunday March 05, 2017 @11:27AM (#13796696)
That was it! And I remember the wobble well. Had it set up on the kitchen table and the slightest knock would screw everything up. Good times.
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Re:5 March 1981: The ZX81 home computer launches with 1kb me... by Chris_Newton on Sunday March 05, 2017 @11:17AM (#13796616)
The rampack infamously suffered from "rampack wobble" where a slight movement of the machine would disconnect lines between the motherboard and the rampack causing a crash.

Oh, that wobble! Definitely on my short list of the most annoying hardware problems in computing history. You’d spend ages typing in the code for a game from your book, and then just as you were ready to go…

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Re:5 March 1981: The ZX81 home computer launches with 1kb me... by FabHK on Sunday March 05, 2017 @04:38PM (#13798861)
Did teach you to save frequently though, on cassette tape, which only took a few minutes! :-)
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Re:5 March 1981: The ZX81 home computer launches with 1kb me... by Chris_Newton on Sunday March 05, 2017 @04:56PM (#13798985)
Cassette tape? We didn’t have such luxuries until we got an Acorn Electron a few years later! So jealous. :-)
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