Happy St George's Day: Google Doodle Celebrates Saint George and ZX Spectrum

Google is celebrating St George's day and the 30th anniversary of ZX spectrum, a popular home computer that was released in 1982, with a new doodle.

The doodle features St George on a white unicorn horse, depicted as a knight attacking a dragon and is based on the ZX's 8-bit style graphics which are popular among computer users, reports the Guardian.

St George's day, a national day in England, is celebrated on Monday 23 April to mark the death anniversary of Saint George, a legendary knight. The day is also marked in Aragon, Palestine, Bulgaria, Canada, Catalonia, Croatia, Portugal, Cyprus, Greece, Georgia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Republic of Macedonia, where he has been known as the patron saint.

In 2011, St George's Day was marked on 2 May as it clashed with the Holy week and for the same reason, the day will be marked on a different date in 2014.

ZX Spectrum has nothing to do with St George's Day but Google has given due room to mark the 30th anniversary of the home computer in its doodle.

The ZX spectrum was released by Sinclair Research to show off the machine's colour display compared to the black and white display machines released earlier known as the Sinclair ZX81.

The computer produced in Britain had rubber keys and is said to have played an important role in popularising home computers during the 1980s.

Spectrum came in eight different models, from entry level models with 16 kB RAM and 48 KB RAM released in 1982 to the ZX Spectrum +3 with 128 kB RAM. The ZX Spectrum + 3 also featured a built-in 3-inch floppy disk drive and the model was released in 1988.

According to T3 gadget website, the entry level model, ZX Spectrum, came up with games including Frogger, R-Type, Rebel Star and Chuckie Egg for £125 which was an introduction to home video games in the UK. The Spectrum model has maintained a major fan following though it was officially retired in 1992.

The new doodle has been designed by a team of talented illustrators who have created more than 1,000 doodles over the years.