Spectrum Clones

chinnyhill10 · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 15695

A gallery of Spectrum clones, most of which were produced with no permission or licensing. When people mention that the Spectrum sold 7 million units, those figures don't take into account the clones. And the ones below are just the 48k models. There's loads of 128k clones as well!

These weren't knocked together by people in a back room (well some were obviously). A lot of them were produced in huge numbers in proper factories. If it's from a communist country, then you can be certain Sinclair or Amstrad got no royalties!

http://zxspectrum48.i-demo.pl/clones.html

chinnyhill10 · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 15695

In Soviet Russia, we are not primative. We have hard keys on our 48k Spectrums!

GazChap · **Posted:** Thu Apr 11, 2013 12:14

Fascinating to see how they differ in looks depending on where they're from.

The Russian style ones all look like nuclear launch control panels!

chinnyhill10 · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 15695

GazChap wrote:

Fascinating to see how they differ in looks depending on where they're from.

The Russian style ones all look like nuclear launch control panels!

This Romanian one looks like it should have a telephone attached to the left:

KovacsC · **Posted:** Thu Apr 11, 2013 12:29

Brilliant Find...

chinnyhill10 · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 15695

This one is quite good looking:

Bobbyaro · **Joined:** 18th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 11864

Some of those are really smart, some of them awful, but what is the large item behind this one:

chinnyhill10 · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 15695

Bobbyaro wrote:

Some of those are really smart, some of them awful, but what is the large item behind this one:

Quote:

The MicroTim+ was a Romanian unlicenced ZX Spectrum clone, and was the successor of the TIM-S. It was produced at the Timisoara factory in a very rectricted number (a short series of no more than a couple hundred computers).

The MicroTim+ was slightly different from the MicroTim. It was made of two parts: a detachable keyboard (with statements and functions labeled next to the keys) and a main case housing the mother board. The plastic case seems to have been made for another system as there were vertical slots for expansions at the rear, but no expansion connectors inside.

The system was powered by an internal power supply and had an internal speaker.

Trooper · **Joined:** 4th Mar, 2010 **Posts:** 22368

chinnyhill10 wrote:

GazChap wrote:

Fascinating to see how they differ in looks depending on where they're from.

The Russian style ones all look like nuclear launch control panels!

This Romanian one looks like it should have a telephone attached to the left:

I expect they just cut a hole for the keyboard in an old telephone casing blank and used that

Bobbyaro · **Joined:** 18th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 11864

I think you might be right there. I like this one though:

This one is pretty smart as well:

And this one is awesome!

chinnyhill10 · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 15695

Not a Spectrum but a Russian clone from deepest Siberia:

It's a Russian CPC 6128 clone with 64 colours, 512k RAM and MSX2 compatibility. With an extra card it could have Amiga quality audio (4 channel 8 bit sampled sound).

The one pictured above was made in 1995!

RuySan · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 3542

I had a regular Sinclair 48k+, but many people here in Portugal still know the Spectrum as "Timex", because of this one:

chinnyhill10 · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 15695

RuySan wrote:

I had a regular Sinclair 48k+, but many people here in Portugal still know the Spectrum as "Timex", because of this one:

Again, with the Timex I doubt those figures feed into the overall Spectrum sales figures. Thinking about it I reckon the humble Speccy was more successful in terms of "being out there" than people realise.

Bear or Bust · **Posted:** Thu Apr 11, 2013 15:57

Really great find there, kinda makes me want to see if there were any C64 clones as well, as some of those clone speccys are really well done.

chinnyhill10 · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 15695

Bear or Bust wrote:

Really great find there, kinda makes me want to see if there were any C64 clones as well, as some of those clone speccys are really well done.

The more custom chips the harder it is to clone. The Russians loved the Speccy because it could be done entirely off the shelf.

Given the problems of getting suitable replacement SID and VIC chips these days, I'd imagine a cloned C64 would be hard work. I just read an interview with a guy who worked on that CPC clone above and apparently that was hard enough. What they really wanted to clone was an MSX but it was impossible due to the custom chips. So they somehow cloned a CPC and made it run MSX software! No idea how!

throughsilver · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 6197

This looks pretty cool:

Whereas this actually looks Victorian.

Anonymous X · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 2046

Bobbyaro wrote:

Some of those are really smart, some of them awful, but what is the large item behind this one:

That reminds me of one of the unproduced prototype 3DO M2 designs. And the Dreamcast, a little bit.

chinnyhill10 wrote:

Given the problems of getting suitable replacement SID and VIC chips these days, I'd imagine a cloned C64 would be hard work. I just read an interview with a guy who worked on that CPC clone above and apparently that was hard enough. What they really wanted to clone was an MSX but it was impossible due to the custom chips. So they somehow cloned a CPC and made it run MSX software! No idea how!

Did the MSX get much of an official release over here, incidentally? I know it was big in Japan and the Netherlands and a few other places, and that Codemasters did some software for it.

chinnyhill10 · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 15695

Anonymous X wrote:

Did the MSX get much of an official release over here, incidentally? I know it was big in Japan and the Netherlands and a few other places, and that Codemasters did some software for it.

The earlier ones did. The later ones didn't. It was rather a flop.

Alot of games were ported to it aimed at the European market, specifically Holland where it was popular. Also it was easy to port Spectrum games to it.

Bobbyaro · **Joined:** 18th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 11864

The thing at the back looks a little like the 64GS - which I just checked out, they sell for loads, i wonder if anyone will by mine?

chinnyhill10 · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 15695

Bobbyaro wrote:

The thing at the back looks a little like the 64GS - which I just checked out, they sell for loads, i wonder if anyone will by mine?

hat was Commodore reacting to Amstrad launching the GX4000. Apparently sold half of what the GX4000 did! I have no idea why people would want one as its just a keyboard-less C64 with no extra features.

DavPaz · **Joined:** 27th Jun, 2008 **Posts:** 38606

Appros of nothing, I just walked down Kempston Street

Cras · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 49237

I trust you waggled from side-to-side as you did so.

Dimrill · **Posted:** Sat Apr 13, 2013 0:18

Ooh lovely hard porn.

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Spectrum Clones
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