Hey! If you have fond memories playing Manic Miner or Jet Set Willy on your family TV, you’ll love The Rubber Keyed Wonder. It’s a new documentary chronicling the birth, life, death, and rebirth of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum that premieres today. The crowdfunded film is an adoring look at the iconic and legendary artifact of computing history with plenty of high profile contributors. Two thumbs up! It was while watching The Rubber Keyed Wonder that I realized what makes me itchy about the current crop of pop-culture documentaries going around. A documentary should be an authored essay offering a point of view, an argument, or at least educating you about a subject matter. If you’re unfamiliar, Sir Clive Sinclair was a British inventor whose work made a huge impact on the electronics industry. Sinclair’s range of affordable home computers, the most notable being the Spectrum, sparked a creative boom credited with creating the UK’s computer games industry. Sinclair’s personal and professional life was filled with challenges and controversies, but The Rubber Keyed Wonder focuses mainly on the Spectrum itself and its impact, erasing the more interesting story around it. The film delves into the broader ecosystem that cultivated around the Spectrum, but also includes plenty of montages of playthrough footage from Spectrum games that may distract from the overall narrative. While The Rubber Keyed Wonder is informative and offers insights into the world of the ZX Spectrum, it may leave viewers wanting more in-depth engagement with certain aspects of Sinclair’s life and work. And, if you’re interested in exploring more of the Sinclair vs. Curry feud, do check out the tongue-in-cheek BBC comedy Micro Men, but remember that it’s mostly fictional.
