Of course I write too much about the ZX Spectrum. Heck look at the header image. But when a tiny little computer has such an impact on your life, it deserves your attention, even 30 years later. I hope all of you who built the first iPhone Apps have held on to your first device and do the same in 25 years time.
My only disappointment today is that I don’t have a Raspberry Pi yet to sit alongside it as its spiritual successor. I honestly think, with the right support, the Raspberry Pi could be this generation’s ZX Spectrum. Affordable by most people in the midst of a worldwide recession.
Why don’t the BBC, RTE, DR and all the other taxpayer-supported European TV stations come together and do a 2012 version of The Computer Programme, based around a boxed version of the RPi? Heck, make it part of the school curriculum. Yeah, really showing my age there.
I put together this video today showing my old Speccy (vintage late-1982) still working, still making me smile. I had to cheat and use a laptop to do the game loading as I can’t find any of my old tapes and the Aiwa walkman isn’t even 1980s vintage anyway. My old Lloytron mono tape recorder is AWOL too. Otherwise, all totally authentic stuff.
Note, if anyone has any idea why the colour is off on the TV output and how I might fix it, please leave a comment.
Have a read of this great interview with some of the Spectrum’s designers over on the BBC.
Thanks again Sir Clive. And an ever bigger thanks to my parents.
Thanks a million for sharing that Conor, really enjoyed it. I traded my Spectrum 48K for a stereo system (a record player, with tape drive and radio). Can’t believe I got rid of it, I’d love to still have it.
I remember collecting every single issue of “Input” magazine. There was an adventure game in that, you’d get a few pages of code each week, so I was writing that for months. It didn’t work and then to my horror they released another magazine detailing loads of errors in the code they had originally published!!
Sometimes I used to say some “Hail Mary’s” when games were loading from the tape, it used to work sometimes!
Also, the twin deck was king back then, great for copying games. Some companies tried to get around that by having paper code wheels, so that when the game would load it would ask you a question, only the owner who had the code wheel could find out the right answer.
Those were the days alright, Manic Miner, Beach Head and one of my favourite games of all time, a game called “Hampstead”. A text based adventure, which started out in a council flat somewhere in London.
I think you’ ve just pitched a show with yourself as presenter! I’d love to watch that with the kids!
@John Those printed games were a nightmare (and I was responsible for three of them!). You’d spend hours typing them in and then they wouldn’t work due to a single error.
The twin-tape deck was the bittorrent of the 1980s. One of Alan Sugar’s few true innovations.
@Ann – That would be top fun! I should create a mini-studio in the house Bandon for the RPi Show