Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48 K

joekeville · 17-08-2010 12:56PM #1

Just happened to come across one of these and was wondering was it worth any value ?

Auvers · 17-08-2010 12:58PM

what condition is it in? is it boxed?

joekeville · 17-08-2010 01:10PM

im trying to establish that ha but cant figure out how to turn it on

:o any help ?

LoGiE · 17-08-2010 06:17PM

Just plug in all the cables and plug in

KeRbDoG · 17-08-2010 07:15PM

...and that connector that looks like a phono-like-composite connector, is an RF connector

Connect it to an analogue antenna connector of your TV and do a channel scan

CiDeRmAn · 18-08-2010 06:55AM

And you'll need a cassette deck to load games, not to mention the cassettes themselves!
There is usually folk selling tons on ebay for next to nothing.

SPECCYS RULE!
C64s SUCK!

Ah, console wars of the early 80's in Irish school yards, so much has changed, well, ok, not really!

LoGiE · 18-08-2010 12:57PM

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

SPECCYS RULE!
C64s SUCK!

LMAO.

Moderator AND Comedian!

I think it's fair to say the speccy had it's day with some absolute belters but once the C64 got into it's stride that was it. It really became obvious in games like Turrican that the speccy wasn't up to the job anymore

CiDeRmAn · 18-08-2010 01:46PM

Take that back, Commie lover!
Just because Chase HQ was dung on the brick while on the Speccy it was awesome!
Not to mention that Ultimate Play The Game never made a good game for the C64, but produced gold for the Spectrum.
And Quazatron was way better than Paradroid.
So there, kiss my Speccy loving butt!

As an aside to this juvenile rant, the C64 was of course the better machine, plus games were being developed on both side of the Atlantic for it, but boy did they stretch the Speccy, with attempts to emulate multi track music, smooth scrolling shooters, and all the coding was done in Europe too, so not bad for a cheap little computer.
It's also fair to say that if it wasn't for the Sinclair Spectrum 48k driving the cost of a home computer down, the C64 would have always remained a premium priced machine, out of the reach of many of the people who eventually bought it.

CathalDublin · 18-08-2010 05:04PM

is it the rubber board one?
Think I still have my Cheetah Sweetalker

CiDeRmAn · 18-08-2010 09:31PM

Well, if its a 48k, it has to be rubber keyed, unless it's a Spectrum+ that is.
I had the kempston interface, and the competition pro stick to go with it, awesome!

LoGiE · 18-08-2010 10:01PM

Booty!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVmjRyqg8QY

Bombjack (although the c64 sfx were amazing)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alUQf-NrCDM

Ah the memories..

dazberry · 18-08-2010 10:09PM

I was watching a few items on ebay recently (thankfully managed not to buy anything - have a 48k in the attic and never take it down), but the original 128k machines (prior to the Amstrad buyout) seem to make a good price. Any disk interfaces (e.g. MGT plus D etc) seem to sell well too - but they're quite rare.

D.

KeRbDoG · 18-08-2010 10:52PM

On the topic of the Spectrum 48k, anyone see the BBC drama/doco "Micro Men"?
I never knew the history of the Spectrum and how it was connected to the BBC Micro.

Sgt Pepper 64 · 09-09-2010 08:42PM

KeRbDoG wrote: »

On the topic of the Spectrum 48k, anyone see the BBC drama/doco "Micro Men"?
I never knew the history of the Spectrum and how it was connected to the BBC Micro.

Arrrh yes, I've actually kept a copy of Sinclair user that had a cartoon about it. They used to be good mates.
The cover was a mock up of "skooldaze"
Cant bring myself to throw it out.

Loved my speccie - I told myself I was buying it to write a novel, but ended up playing horace goes skiing, jetpac, manic miner etc etc.
Cost 130 from the UK and even modded it with a Transform real keyboard.
Used to go to the computer fairs in the alley pally and everything
Sad bugger eh!

Sgt Pepper 64 · 09-09-2010 08:44PM

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Take that back, Commie lover!
Just because Chase HQ was dung on the brick while on the Speccy it was awesome!
Not to mention that Ultimate Play The Game never made a good game for the C64, but produced gold for the Spectrum.
And Quazatron was way better than Paradroid.
So there, kiss my Speccy loving butt!

As an aside to this juvenile rant, the C64 was of course the better machine, plus games were being developed on both side of the Atlantic for it, but boy did they stretch the Speccy, with attempts to emulate multi track music, smooth scrolling shooters, and all the coding was done in Europe too, so not bad for a cheap little computer.
It's also fair to say that if it wasn't for the Sinclair Spectrum 48k driving the cost of a home computer down, the C64 would have always remained a premium priced machine, out of the reach of many of the people who eventually bought it.

Its like the 80's all over again - which is the best? blah, blah, blah!
Then the 90's was all about Amiga VS Atari ST.
Now its PC vs Playstation vs Xbox

Amalgam · 09-09-2010 09:01PM

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

And Quazatron was way better than Paradroid.

I loved Quazatron, having said that, there was an eye pleasing simplicity to Paradroid.

Quazatron, was written by Steve Turner, who also put together the amazing Avalon & Dragontorc of Avalon. Two games which took up a lot of my time when they first came out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0QCf-yrPUA

..and some footage from Dragontorc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbwz82KCtWw

As deep as anything available for PC today.

Tau Ceti, Elite.. [sniff] Nostalgia overload.

CiDeRmAn · 10-09-2010 05:14PM

Tau Ceti and Academy, brilliant, Starglider 2 on the Speccy also great, Stunt Car Racer, a game that shouldn't have been possible yet they did it.
The Speccy version of Star Wars was very nice too, as was Starion.
It really did vectors, at least mostly monochrome vectors, very well.

yrwhu8jxtni06a · 10-09-2010 08:34PM

Im a speccy fan too,the speccy port of midnight resistance was excellent port.

rubadub · 15-09-2010 09:04PM

I remember having a 16k spectrum then upgraded to 48

I was brilliant at jetpac

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT4gzLAryCs

An absolutely amazing but little known game was penetrator

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

You could create your own levels in it.

Horace goes skiing was good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmqj1BUDbwU

And proper 3D back in the day!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQnIk2Vx5IM

ear to ear, mic to mic

Stoner · 25-09-2010 09:20PM

Jebus Horace goes skiing, I need to get a copy of that one. I had a 48+ and a very strange interface, it was a large unit with five wires coming out of it and it had a small QWERTY keyboard arrangement so basically you could plug the up wire into the Q slot , down into S, left into A right into D etc. I eventually broke the interface it was half the size of the computer itself. It was good but did not work for games that required 8 directions keys, good for space invaders, bad for Yie ar kungfu.

I'm now a proud owner of a boxed 48K, 48K+, 128K+2 and 128 +3.

I've yet to try the +3 it has a disk drive built in but the disks are hard to get these days. I was always aware that the C64 was better but I defended my 48+ because I had to. It cost £100 second hand with 19 games many of which were encrypted but missing the codes.

Rampage, Barbarian and Target Renegade were my favorite games. One of the strongest memories I have of that time was how expensive the games were, I could never afford them, the best you could hope for was a good budget game and pray the the Amiga Screen Shots on the back of the case would be decent when you loaded it up. There was always some jammy swine in school who got all the games, I guess that could be why my attic is full of consoles that I have never played lol.

Meeoow · 25-09-2010 09:34PM

bomb jack and chuckie egg were the finest games ever.
was there one about mummies as well, I can vaugely recall it

Dr Bob · 27-09-2010 07:46AM

I picked up a 128k +2 at the weekend , havent had a chance to test it out yet though*.
As a C64 youth I never really played one (didnt know anyone that had a spectrum) so I'll be curious to see how it holds up to the commodore and Atari 8 bits.
I'm going to see if the mp3 player tape adaptor trick works well.
anyone recommend a few decent exclusives for it?

___________
* I actually already have a 48k , but with no interface it was a bit to hard to actually play anything on it.

sham69 · 28-09-2010 10:18AM

From someone who started with spectrum's and moved to commodore I have to say the speccie was great.
I had a zx80, 16k, 48k and finally +2
Ok the graphics were mono, the sound was mere beeps but the gameplay on some of the games were great.
The C64 was a far superior machine in every way.
I remember the first time I saw the last ninja , the graphics were stunning.
It still looks pretty good today.
Add the sid chip, Rob Hubbard and the collection of games available and you had a winner.
It didnt even matter if the games with Rob doing the music were any good, people bought them strictly for the music.

Both great machines in their own right and as already discussed , sinclair made the home computer affordable.
I used to get all my games in the megastore on the quays, 12.50 old money...
Ah the memories.
Thank christ for emulators.

Dr Bob · 28-09-2010 04:34PM

luas_dublin wrote: »

I picked up a 128k +2 at the weekend , havent had a chance to test it out yet though*.
As a C64 youth I never really played one (didnt know anyone that had a spectrum) so I'll be curious to see how it holds up to the commodore and Atari 8 bits.
I'm going to see if the mp3 player tape adaptor trick works well.
anyone recommend a few decent exclusives for it?

___________
* I actually already have a 48k , but with no interface it was a bit to hard to actually play anything on it.

well

to that , seems to be knackered.
RF connector practically falling off (after using 3 leads I can get a vaugely fuzzy picture if I keep the cable in at an angle).It'll only load games in 48k mode (might be to do with the games I have all being for the 48k though! but I would have thought loader mode would work) and the first one or two I tried didnt seem to like the joystick..doh!
if I can get a few 128 k games loaded I'll see about getting an rgb cable

Skerries · 28-09-2010 09:22PM

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/21/vintage_computer_fair/

Skerries · 28-09-2010 10:05PM

http://www.zxspectrum.net/

great site with online games being made right up to 2010

Hellrazer · 08-10-2010 08:18AM

sham69 wrote: »

From someone who started with spectrum's and moved to commodore I have to say the speccie was great.
I had a zx80, 16k, 48k and finally +2

Same here.I started with the zx80,then the zx81,16k,48k and then a +2 aswell.

This thread brings back some memories.

I remember playing target renegade through to the end in 2 player--Best speccy game ever!!!!

Retr0gamer · 08-10-2010 09:05AM

Hellrazer wrote: »

I remember playing target renegade through to the end in 2 player--Best speccy game ever!!!!

I've got to totally disagree there. Best spectrum 2 player game is Laser Squad. Played it there recently with my friend who was going on about it and it's still amazing.

Best 8 player game is Chaos. It's still so much fun to play.

Hellrazer · 08-10-2010 12:28PM

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I've got to totally disagree there. Best spectrum 2 player game is Laser Squad. Played it there recently with my friend who was going on about it and it's still amazing.

Best 8 player game is Chaos. It's still so much fun to play.

Never played Laser Squad.Must get the emulator going and give it a shot.

I suppose I was basing my opinion on the one game that I played to death (TR) literally even breaking the tape in the process.

I remember the tape got caught in the rollers of the tape deck and using my mothers tweezers to carefully take it out,sellotape it back together,put it in a new casing off a blank tape and praying that it still worked.

It did!!!!!!!!!

Ah the memories.

DublinWriter · 08-10-2010 12:35PM

I loved my speccie.

I even hooked it up to the VAX Mainframe in TCD via modem in the 1980's and used it as a basic terminal emulator so I could do my Xmas assignments from home.

I recently jail-broke the wife's IPod so I could run an emulator on it.

These days, I can't believe I wasted my youth on such basic games. I'm sure my little bro will be saying the same about Fifa 11 in 20 years time.

Stoner · 10-10-2010 09:04PM

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I've got to totally disagree there. Best spectrum 2 player game is Laser Squad. Played it there recently with my friend who was going on about it and it's still amazing.

.

well IMHO nothing topped target renegade, renegade was good too. I've never enjoyed the emulators though, so its been a while since i gave a spectrum game a decent go. I remember target renegade was part of "the in crowd" I picked it up for the C64 a couple of years ago a seriously great bunch of games.

Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48 K

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