ZX Spectrum is like really old.

Pundabaya · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 5016

How old does everyone feel?

The greatest gaming computer of the 8 bit age, without it, gaming would be very different.

myp · **Posted:** Mon Apr 23, 2012 10:08

The Commodore 64 is also 30 this year, isn't it?

Zardoz · **Posted:** Mon Apr 23, 2012 10:09

The Commodore 64 was the greatest gaming computer of the 8 bit age.

Plissken · **Posted:** Mon Apr 23, 2012 10:11

Pundabaya · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 5016

Zardoz wrote:

The Commodore 64 was the greatest gaming computer of the 8 bit age.

Sure, if you liked all your games pink,grey and brown. And shit.

Zardoz · **Posted:** Mon Apr 23, 2012 10:18

I like my games hard and colourful.

Like my men.

NervousPete · **Posted:** Mon Apr 23, 2012 10:23

I like my gaming systems black and feeling like dead flesh.

Like my men.

No, wait.

Slightly Green · **Joined:** 26th Aug, 2010 **Posts:** 2069

Looks shiny sleek and small

vs

Looks like a cake.....mmmmmmm cake

devilman · **Posted:** Mon Apr 23, 2012 10:31

Pundabaya wrote:

How old does everyone feel?

The greatest gaming computer of the 8 bit age, without it, gaming would be very different.

I think my career would have taken a different turn too.

I remember one year getting the rubber-keyed speccy for Christmas and then when the + came out, we got one of those as a Christmas present too. As a child, I had no idea that they were pretty much the same computer.

Satsuma · **Joined:** 20th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 14418

Me likey the Google picture today. Lovely lovely spectrum. It was my transition from the Atari before I fell in love with the C64.

I will always be thankful for Horace goes Skiing which is the earliest Speccy game I remember playing. Or Ant Attack.

MaliA · **Posted:** Mon Apr 23, 2012 10:55

St george's Day as rendered by a Spectrum. yes, it is quite good.

devilman · **Posted:** Mon Apr 23, 2012 10:58

There's an article on the history Register which looks pretty interesting... haven't had time to read it all yet.

Mr Burrrrt · **Posted:** Mon Apr 23, 2012 11:33

Never had a Speccy, but I did have a series of ZX81s which all conked out.

metalangel · **Posted:** Mon Apr 23, 2012 11:36

Having a PC of the era (with CGA graphics and terrible bleepy sound) made me dream of having a C64 or an Apple II.

Pundabaya · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 5016

Without the Spectrum, this place probably wouldn't exist. No Spectrum, no YS; no YS, no Amiga Power; without either of those, why would most of us be hanging around Stu's site?

Zardoz · **Posted:** Mon Apr 23, 2012 11:59

I only went because MarkG said it was funny sometimes. I had no clue as to who Stu Campbell was.

metalangel · **Posted:** Mon Apr 23, 2012 12:48

Zardoz wrote:

I only went because MarkG said it was funny sometimes. I had no clue as to who Stu Campbell was.

He's the boss!

myp · **Posted:** Mon Apr 23, 2012 13:22

Flat on top!

Grim... · **Posted:** Mon Apr 23, 2012 13:31

Amstrad CPC was the king of the 8-bits.

If only there was someone that would back me up :'(

Malc · **Posted:** Mon Apr 23, 2012 13:32

Grim... wrote:

Amstrad CPC was the king of the 8-bits.

If only there was someone that would back me up :'(

Malc

Zardoz · **Posted:** Mon Apr 23, 2012 13:37

Grim... wrote:

Amstrad CPC was the king of the 8-bits.

If only there was someone that would back me up :'(

I blame WTB.

zaphod79 · **Joined:** 16th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 14518

Grim... wrote:

Amstrad CPC was the king of the 8-bits.

If only there was someone that would back me up :'(

If you read the comments on The Registers article you'll find

Quote:

"Long live the Spectrum"

From a Mr C Hill (he's made about 4 or 5 commnents on there - all fascinating)

Plissken · **Posted:** Mon Apr 23, 2012 14:53

Pundabaya wrote:

Without the Spectrum, this place probably wouldn't exist.

So that is another thing to blame it for.

Cavey · **Posted:** Mon Apr 23, 2012 15:02

Personally, I always thought that Acorn's BBC Micro was tops - I remember playing a Defender clone on it waaay back in the mid 80s that kicked the butt of everything else I'd see before (or since, MAME excepted obv.). Still, not that I could've afforded one back in the day, or even a C64 come to that.

GovernmentYard · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 5318

Planetoid. It was, indeed, the best - much like most of Acornsoft's arcade game ripoffs.

KovacsC · **Posted:** Mon Apr 23, 2012 15:40

Grim... wrote:

Amstrad CPC was the king of the 8-bits.

If only there was someone that would back me up :'(

I had one, but you do not mean me

zaphod79 · **Joined:** 16th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 14518

Ian Fairies wrote:

Me likey the Google picture today. Lovely lovely spectrum.

Both Spectrum birthday and St George's day

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/20 ... sfeed=true

Quote:

Google's latest 'doodle' celebrates St George's Day and the 30th anniversary of the release of the seminal ZX Spectrum - the small, black, British-produced computer with rubber keys that played a seminal role in igniting the age of the home computer.

Produced by Sinclair Research Ltd, it was the third home computer to be released by the company, following the ZX80 and ZX81 - but was the first to be aimed primarily at the home.

The 'doodle' features St George on a horse, taking on a dragon. It is based on the ZX's 8-bit style graphics familiar to a generation of computer users, particularly in the UK, for whom it was often their first experience of computing.

It came in two models - £125 for a 16KB machine and £175 for a 48KB machine - and went up against the BBC Micro, which had been released a year before but had a starting price of £235.

More technologically advanced rivals emerged, particularly the Commodore 64 and the Amstrad CPC range, but the Spectrum still managed to build a following and become the focus for more than 23,000 software titles which were released for it.

Two more models were released during the early and mid 1980s before Amstrad bought the Spectrum range.

Despite being officially discontinued in 1992, it retains iconic status as well as a loyal following, while there are programs for PCs, Macs and mobile devices which can allow users to play digital versions of Spectrum games.

Websites devoted to the ZX include World of Spectrum, which credits the computer with "single-handedly launching the home computer market in the UK and catching the imagination of the public - right from 5 year olds to middle aged housewives".

The site adds: "Today, it lives on in the hearts and minds of hundreds (if not thousands) of nostalgic Spectrum users around the world; Specchums (as spectrum users like to refer to themselves) have taken it upon themselves to keep the memories and nostalgia of the Speccy (as the Spectrum is affectionately known) years alive."

asfish · **Joined:** 5th Dec, 2010 **Posts:** 3353

My Dad came home with a ZX Spectrum and colour TV one Friday night.

I loved it, we played Sabre Wolf for hours, until on Saturday it stopped working

So my dad took it back and came back with a C64 and 1541 floppy drive, an expensive item at the time.

The idea of the 1541 was to stop us playing games all the time, as there very few on floppy at this time.

metalangel · **Posted:** Mon Apr 23, 2012 17:02

And you could copy games by screaming into tape recorder!

Trooper · **Joined:** 4th Mar, 2010 **Posts:** 22397

I miss the days where I had no idea what was good.

Everything was ace, my Speccy was awesome, my +2 more so, my +3 even more so. I had no idea what was inside, the only people I had to talk to about games and gaming kit were the guys in the playground who were equally clueless. All we had was a monthly magazine to check out and the blurb on the back of boxes, all our opinions came from first hand experience and were the better for it.

These days I know everything there is to know about something before I buy it. I can compare every possible aspect of every game and gaming console, I have the opinion of thousands to call upon before I even get the chance to make up my own mind about something. I know what is coming up in the future, how far along it is in the development process, exactly when it is due out, and exactly how it will look when it does turn up.

And, do you know what, all that knowledge is just shitting on my fun.

devilman · **Posted:** Mon Apr 23, 2012 17:16

Very true. Plus I used to enjoy picking out a Mastertronic game from the newsagents and basing the purchase based on a bit of blurb on the back. I used to get hours of enjoyment even out of mediocre titles like Viper III, Voyage into the Unknown and Tank Trax. Mind you, these were £1.99 purchases. I can't afford to be as carefree with my money when a budget game is £20.

Grim... · **Posted:** Mon Apr 23, 2012 17:22

I know what you mean. Since I started just getting the most popular movies from "BlockBusters" for on-train viewing I watch them without knowing a damned thing about them, and it's a completely different experience.

ltia · **Posted:** Mon Apr 23, 2012 18:15

The speccy was a wonderful example of a great design. Such a simple, cheap design still able to produce stuff in the early nineties shows it pays to design things properly. If Sinclair wasn't such a nutbag ruiner of everything we'd be living in a very different world now. The smart phone revolution would have happened a lot sooner, for a start.

The C64 was a fanatstic games machine and all, and I spent far too much of my youth on that, but the Speccy is far more significant. The CPC was great but doesn't count because it's effectively half a generation later and was a totally different premise.

MaliA · **Posted:** Tue Apr 24, 2012 10:05

Grim... wrote:

I know what you mean. Since I started just getting the most popular movies from "BlockBusters" for on-train viewing I watch them without knowing a damned thing about them, and it's a completely different experience.

I might base most of my decisions in the future on the wisdom of the crowd. It'd make my life somewhat easier.

Grim... · **Posted:** Tue Apr 24, 2012 11:07

This mornings film was "Red State". I am currently a bit

but I fear it's going to get silly.

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

I got to work just after the kid found the armoury and the policeman was shot.

Be Excellent To Each Other

ZX Spectrum is like really old.
30!

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Be Excellent To Each Other

ZX Spectrum is like really old. 30!

Who is online

ZX Spectrum is like really old.
30!