--- title: Jokes for the ZX81 | daily.dev description: Rob Manuel, creator of Fesshole and co-founder of B3ta.com, wrote a book of 81 jokes illustrated using the Sinclair ZX81 character set and graphics. The book... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/jokes-for-the-zx81-fealxdfc4 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Jokes for the ZX81 | daily.dev og:description: Rob Manuel, creator of Fesshole and co-founder of B3ta.com, wrote a book of 81 jokes illustrated using the Sinclair ZX81 character set and graphics. The book... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/jokes-for-the-zx81-fealxdfc4 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/FeaLXdfc4.png og:image:alt: Jokes for the ZX81 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Jokes for the ZX81 **[Hacker News](https://daily.dev/sources/hn)** · 1 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Rob Manuel, creator of Fesshole and co-founder of B3ta.com, wrote a book of 81 jokes illustrated using the Sinclair ZX81 character set and graphics. The book also includes his reminiscences on computing, creativity and culture in the 1980s. It's a 240-page sewn hardback, published by Spelk Press, shipping from 3 December 2026. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community take How the wider developer community reacted, aggregated from 1 discussion and 22 comments across hackernews (as of 2026-10-28). **TL;DR:** The discussion is overwhelmingly nostalgic, with people sharing fond memories of learning to program on the ZX81 and expressing warm, amused interest in the joke book itself. **Sentiment:** 85% positive · 15% mixed · 0% skeptical **The case for** - Many shared personal stories of how the ZX81 sparked lifelong careers in programming and games. - Several praised the book's niche charm and said they were tempted to buy it after seeing sample jokes. - The 'semigraphics' art style tied to the ZX81's character set was appreciated as fitting and evocative rather than limiting. **The pushback** - One commenter questioned whether the low color/resolution style would be hard to view by modern standards, though this was quickly pushed back on. **By community** - hackernews (positive): Commenters reminisced extensively about their own ZX81 experiences and showed genuine enthusiasm for the book. **Highlights** > I remember seeing the ZX80 at my parents' friends house and realizing that this was a different kind of beast than the pocket calculator and the electronic dictionary we had at home: you could make this thing do.. well.. anything! When the ZX81 came out I spent all my pocket money savings on it. First on the thing itself, later I would shell out for its 16K RAM extension. Restoring software on the ZX81 using cassette tapes was so slow and cumbersome that it was quicker to restore it from my own memory. I had a little scrolling evasion game that I knew by heart, and I would type it in if I felt the need to play. Changing little aspects of that game (first different characters for the obstructions, then game mechanics) was what set me on the path of programming. My brother somehow salvaged that first ZX81 from our parents' estate and it is now hanging framed on the wall next to me as I type this. > — [kieckerjan on hackernews · 2 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50270412) > The first privately-owned computer I ever used: my uncle Thom's ZX81. I had played with a couple of Commodore PET 4032 machines at school so I just about knew how BASIC worked and how to enter it. On the ZX81, I knew from reading computer magazines that Sinclair BASIC had this weird single-key input method and it was mandatory. So, I managed to type in some very short program from the manual, SAVE it (I already knew how important that was!) and then RUN it. And it worked. As this was more than my uncle had managed so far, in weeks or months or ownership, he was deeply impressed, and conveyed this to my parents, which as I type it very belatedly occurs to me is maybe why they bought me a ZX Spectrum the next year. I don't think he ever used it much more. He was the son of Arthur Doodson, known for his work in tide prediction: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Thomas_Doodson Thom died 23 years ago. His wife was my auntie Valerie, a tiny bit famous in her own right for preserving Arthur's legacy. She remarried about 20 years later, and her husband David is still alive and still has that ZX81. I hope to get it off him some time. > — [lproven on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50271078) > Yes, my dad bought me a ZX81 when I was nine, and got bitten by the thrill of creation. At 18 I dropped out of college, my then lecturer told me I’d never get paid to play games. I bullied my way into the industry, and ended up in the US working for the two of the Mag7, many AAA titles, and a couple of game console platforms. I’m only a few months away from retiring. I still remember Z80 mnemonics and machine code equivalents even today. > — [stephbu on hackernews · 2 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50269472) > One of my friends had a ZX81 when we were kids. If you went round this house he'd have to start it loading from cassette while you went out to play in the garden. When you'd had enough pretending to be the A-Team you'd creep back, praying no one sneezed or farted lest the RAM pack wobbled and you have to start over. I'd claim this was the Gen X equivalent of the Four Yorkshiremen sketch but if you told kids t'day they'd nare believe you. Good times. > — [Lio on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50272575) > > “Ridiculously niche but ridiculously joyful” ~~ Richard Herring Could this be an opening to seeing author Rob Manuel interviewed by Herring in the RHLSTP Book Club? (I must recommend the RHLSTP Book Club. It worked well in noticing important new titles I otherwise missed.) -- Ah, also I see and want to notice: > “Greatest book ever made and you win. Profound.” ~~ Joel Morris (Philomena Cunk co-creator) Joel Morris has a great entry in his curriculum. -- The initiative keeps on giving: > [About "Spelk Press" publisher, near Newcastle upon Tyne:] A spelk is a North East word for a splinter: hard to ignore once it's under your skin. > — [mdp2021 on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50271263) **Source threads** - [hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50242688) · 112 points · 22 comments ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [A Labour Of Love Brings A Kids Book To The Spectrum](https://daily.dev/posts/a-labour-of-love-brings-a-kids-book-to-the-spectrum-zmn9efkaw) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Writing a Demoscene Intro for the ZX Spectrum](https://daily.dev/posts/writing-a-demoscene-intro-for-the-zx-spectrum-soktnr58t) · Lobsters · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [My 1981 adventure game is now a multimedia extravaganza](https://daily.dev/posts/my-1981-adventure-game-is-now-a-multimedia-extravaganza-6kuphm9an) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Sinclair 4K BASIC for the ZX80](https://daily.dev/posts/sinclair-4k-basic-for-the-zx80-icvlkapuu) · Two Stop Bits · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/jokes-for-the-zx81-fealxdfc4) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Jokes for the ZX81","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/jokes-for-the-zx81-fealxdfc4","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/jokes-for-the-zx81-fealxdfc4"},"datePublished":"2026-10-28T06:55:46.829Z","dateModified":"2026-10-28T14:11:26.994Z","description":"Rob Manuel, creator of Fesshole and co-founder of B3ta.com, wrote a book of 81 jokes illustrated using the Sinclair ZX81 character set and graphics. 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