Your memories of using a ZX81

I received a 1k model from my first cousin when he graduated to the C64.

I programmed a few type in games.

But what got me starting this video is this YouTube one here:.

A zx81 with wordprocessing software and one of those awful Sinclair printers.

Seriously the guy is a masochist

https://youtu.be/NH2O6HpsTw0

CiDeRmAn

I bought Kerb one of those a while ago, just to add to his Sinclair collection, looks really nice though not terribly capable.

Wasn't 3D Monster Maze the best of them?

Is there a homebrew scene for the computer?

Edit: Apparently so!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VjfCUX56tw

Jetpac (originally from Ultimate, who became Rare) has been made for the zx 81 about 2 years ago.

niallb

3D Monster Maze was excellent, but I think I preferred 3D Defender.

I learned a lot about programming on one of these.

Funny, my first memory of a ZX81 also involves a first cousin.

He got one for Christmas and once it was plugged in the first thing he did was start to type the words H.A.P.P.Y...C.H.R.I.S.T.M.A.S .

I can still hear to this day the confused pronunciation of "GohZoob?"

NIMAN

Excitedly going to a mates house, when he got it. It had a memory expansion pack too!

And playing a game that I think was a downhill ski game, where you had to keep your * from bumping into the walls either side of you.

Twas amazing.....at the time.

KeRbDoG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058265844/your-memories-of-using-a-zx81

I have one of those awful printers too :D I really need tinker with the ZX81, I'd say a lot of them got fried as the power and tape in/out are the same so easily power into one of the audio jacks.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119696394#Comment_119696394

Horace Goes Skiing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgcXmyKzPZo

was that on the ZX81?

NIMAN

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119696904#Comment_119696904

Amazingly, it was even more basic than that.

You literally controlled an asterisk, and had to stop it bumping into the 2 walls, which were made up of other random characters.

KeRbDoG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119697365#Comment_119697365

Brilliant!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjG7hLl54yo

NIMAN

Fantastic, that's it.

Well found.

Tom Mann Centuria

That was a type in game from Sinclair User called Ski Slope. Pretty sure my brother typed that in in all it's glory.

Lots of published games back then just had things like asterisk as the character but you could buy UDG expansion packs that turned them in to proper characters. Quicksilva did one afair, not that I ever had one. Zxpand will do if for you these days (and lots lots and lots more) if you can find one (and spend 80 odd on it)

Tom Mann Centuria

Found this today in the manual for a Zx81 I was gifted last year which I thought was pretty cool.

NIMAN

Brings back happy memories of seeing a ZX81 for the first tike, then the likes of the Oric and Spectrum, then the vic20 and c64 etc.

It was an exciting time to be a young teenager. It really was a revolutionary time when it came to gaming, and the start of it all really.

Hellrazer

I started with a zx80 in kit form that I (well my dad) had to put together. Moved on to the zx81 with the memory expansion. My biggest memory of that was putting a piece of cardboard folded up between the body of teh computer and ram pack to make it stay recognised. Then I remember typing lines of basic from magazines for hours just to move a single box around the screen. Or else making a mistake and nothing happening.

My uncle had a zx81 with the printer and we all thought that was amazing.

Really fond memories of monster maze and some other text based adventure - cant remember the name of it now but I spent hours playing it.

Having googled it , it could be classic adventure. Purely text based with zero graphics.

One of my favourite early computers of the era.

rdhma

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119696904#Comment_119696904

Horace goes skiing was for the ZX Spectrum, many an hour spent on it. I sold my ZX81 to buy a Spectrum in 1982, as it was just too limited for gaming.

I did learn about programming on the ZX81 however and 40+ years later I'm still at it.

10 PRINT "Hello World"

20 GOTO 10

Tom Mann Centuria

I play zx81 games quite a bit, something very relaxing about a text adventure or football manager or Roman Empire in B&W and complete silence. Mostly play on my Spectrum Next these days though since they introduced the ability to save a game with a snapshot.

CiDeRmAn

I never owned the ZX81, only the ZX82 aka Spectrum.

Many, many hours spent typing games into that thing, most of them utter rubbish.

I remember typing in a machine code game that was actually quite good, but I must have wasted hours in what we will kindly refer to as "de-bugging", which really means looking through the endless lines of code looking for a mis-type.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119697943#Comment_119697943

I guess "Mr Biggs" is like "Commander Jameson" for you in the Elite game canon

Skerries

never had the ZX80 or ZX81 but would love to get my hands on a ZX80 as it looks so cool

Tom Mann Centuria

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119703668#Comment_119703668

Yeah I'd love one too but too pricey for me, and often in pretty poor nick because the plastic they used has become very brittle. Wonderful look about them though, even if the user experience is awful, the '81 is a Rolls Royce in comparison.

The ZX80 is on the wishlist though along with a QL and holy grail for me, a MGT Sam Coupé.

niallb

I see your "sticking carboard between the ZX81 and the RAM Pack" and raise you a pint of milk to keep it cool!

We had a ZX80 in the physics lab at school! The screen went blank every time you pressed a key to allow it to redraw. Just like a ZX81 in FAST mode.

The ZX Printer was an interesting thing. If you stuck the strips to a piece of A4 it photocopied really well!

A friend made a system with an old piano keyboard and a lot of wiring that was able to print out music played on it.

He won the Young Scientist's exhibition with it in 1985 and I believe still has the device!

The longest thing I ever typed into my ZX81 took me weeks. Easons had a series of posters that had code for a game on the back. I typed in "The Valley of Adventure" and "Sorceror's Lair"

KeRbDoG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119704863#Comment_119704863

Photo of your mate rocking it in 1985 at the YS :D

Steve X2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119704863#Comment_119704863

Looks pretty cool.

Retr0gamer

I remember when I first saw a ZX81 I fell off my dinosaur in shock.

Seriously though it's just way before my time but I did have an issue of retrogamer magazine that had a great write up about the machine and what made it so special. Kind of insane you could get computers in kit form that you had to put together yourself but I suppose it's not far off building a PC.

Tom Mann Centuria

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119704952#Comment_119704952

It does, and while it doesn't detract from his amazing achievement it looks like it was a Spectrum, not a '81

Retr0gamer

That's kind of amazing, 1985 YS!

Such a shame the irish government never pushed computers in schools like the UK did.

Tom Mann Centuria

For anyone interested in new developments in the world of the ancient b&w doorstop this is a great forum:

https://sinclairzxworld.com/viewforum.php?f=4

dr beep, Salvacam and Bob's Stuff have all been prolific over the last decade or so making some pretty fun games. Lots of others too.

Still a pretty cheap computer to buy for such an early bit of home computing history.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119704952#Comment_119704952

A really MEMORABLE Young Scientists Exhibition that young and old could visit and not the contrived, formulaic , staged routine of an "Exhibition" it is today from start to finish. By an events management company like the one who manages nonsense like "The Big Grill " not the same one.

NewbridgeIR

I got a ZX81 in 1982 before graduating to a 48K Spectrum about 15 months later.

I had a few games, Flight Simulation, Chess and the memorable Fantasy Games which had Sorceror's Island and Perilous Swamp

I bought ZX Computing every 2 months - longest game I ever typed in was the epic two part The Golden Chalice in the wet summer of 1985.

Shapey Fiend

I don't have any thank goodness because I owned the far superior Commodore 64.

Tom Mann Centuria

I don't think anyone would suggest the zx81 is as capable as the C64, in much the same way the C64 isn't as capable as the Amiga, which isn't as capable as a PS4 which isn't as capable as an all singing all dancing top of the range gaming PC etc. etc.

It's good that people share what they never had though, because, I dunno, sharing is caring?

Hellrazer

Well if were talking strictly computers and not consoles I started with the zx80 then the zx81 Speccy 48k, c64, Atari 800xl (after a trip to mosney and playing boulderdash in the atari room) , amiga 500,atari st then an Ibm ps1 dx2 (i think) and now pc gaming.

Just really remember swapping games and copying them with a double deck on the cassette based computers.

Amiga (could have been atari st) games were shared in a club in a hotel at the top of Capel Street (dublin) on a Sunday morning - cant for the life of me remember it - show up with a load of blank discs and come home with a load of games!!!

Think there was also a place called computer city off the top of OConnell Street that used to rent out games for a week- maybe that was console only though - Im old and the memory isnt what it ued to be (Im 47 btw!!!)

Console wise it was 2600 - nes, megadrive, snes , n64, gamecube, wii, wii u , switch. Dreamcast and Saturn were in there somewhere but I remember trading in those two for Nintendo consoles. Ps1 , ps2 etc were also somewhere. Thats another thread though.