Asian Sinclair Clones

East Asia, in particular Hong Kong, has been for many years the world centre of illegally produced copies of electronic products. This was just as much the case in the 1980s as it is now, so it was hardly surprising that cheap pirate copies of the Sinclair machines soon appeared in the markets of Hong Kong. They appear to have been quite widely distributed, some turning up as far away as Europe and North America.

Name	Image	Date	Notes
Lambda 8300 (aka PC 2000, PC 8300, Power 8300, BASIC 2000, BASIC 3000)		1982?	ZX81 clone produced by Lambda Electronics Limited of Hong Kong. More of a re-interpretation than an exact copy, as it had a new ROM but could be fitted with a ZX81 ROM to ensure compatibility. The hardware was much the same as a ZX81 but the machine also had 1-channel sound via a Spectrum-style speaker, an Atari-standard joystick port and (monochrome) monitor output. The machine was itself copied by other Chinese and Hong Kong manufacturers and was marketed under a wide variety of names.

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© Chris Owen 1994-2003