Reasons why you should have owned: The ZX Spectrum

cherryghost · 13-05-2011 01:30PM #1

Another week another toy, this time the classic ZX Spectrum:

The ZX Spectrum (the "Z" is pronounced "Zed" from its original British English branding) is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd. Referred to during development as the ZX81 Colour and ZX82, the machine was launched as the ZX Spectrum by Sinclair to highlight the machine's colour display, compared with the black-and-white of its predecessor, the Sinclair ZX81. The Spectrum was ultimately released as eight different models, ranging from the entry level model with 16 KB RAM released in 1982 to the ZX Spectrum +3 with 128 KB RAM and built in floppy disk drive in 1987; together they sold in excess of 5 million units worldwide.
The Spectrum was among the first mainstream audience home computers in the UK, similar in significance to the Commodore 64 in the USA. The introduction of the ZX Spectrum led to a boom in companies producing software and hardware for the machine, the effects of which are still seen; some credit it as the machine which launched the UK IT industry.Licensing deals and clones followed, and earned Clive Sinclair a knighthood for "services to British industry".

I've only ever had one brush with the machine myself, it was the first time I played the Dizzy games. I was hooked on the Dizzy games after that.

The other reason why you should have owned it: The ZX Spectrum spawned many mainstream studios that are active to this day. A good way to check out the early homemade games from future gaming developer stars!

ScaldyMc · 13-05-2011 01:35PM

Had the ZX Spectrum, 128K if I remember correctly (or was it the earlier one, now I'm not too sure). Anyway, it was great. The amount of time I spent typing in code from a magazine to play some very basic games.

blaze1 · 13-05-2011 01:35PM

Treasure Island dizzy, now there was a bstard of a game.

There was a few gems, remember playing a very early of a championship manager type game, cant remeber the name but it had options after every game for the team, Extra training, rest day or send to pub!

ATV simulator was my first game was savage

Teyla Emmagan · 13-05-2011 01:37PM

Was the best thing ever when it came out. I will remember the noise of that tape recorder till the day I die. Still have no idea what that was for mind.. I think we still have it up in the attic.

The only thing I really remember playing on it was called 'tennis' or 'wall' or something. You were bouncing a ball against a wall to knock bricks out of it basically. Was GENIUS.

richymcdermott · 13-05-2011 01:37PM

Never heard of it :P

Duggy747 · 13-05-2011 02:03PM

One of the very few consoles I've never had the pleasure of playing on. I've played the emulated games alright (Dizzy, of course :pac:) but never physically used one.

A guy I knew had one, technically. It was a mangled mess and stunk of cat piss.

humanji · 13-05-2011 02:06PM

I loved my Spectrum. Having loaded up games on emulators recently, a lot of the games still hold up really well. It harkens back to a time where money didn't dictate what games were made and the limitations of the computers meant great games had to be incredibly inventive.

I mentioned in the Alien thread that the Spectrum Alien game was fantastic and one of my favourites. I might even take a whirl at making a flash version of it. There was also the Batman: The Caped Crusader, which I was terrible at but also loved because it seemed you got two games for the price of one; a Penguin storyline and a Joker storyline.

I must dig out another emulator.

Retr0gamer · 13-05-2011 02:10PM

Was a C64 man myself and nobody I knew had the spectrum. However I've recently started experimenting with it and discovering that for such a terrible machine technically it has some amazing games. I also just installed a spectrum emulator on my Wii last night so looking for some recommendations.

Anyway the games I've played:

Jetpac: Wonderful shooter despite being simple. Gets very manic and the visuals actually suit this game.

Chaos:One of the bestmultiplayer games I've ever played. I've played it in 3 and 5 player and it's great fun. Made my the guy that went on to make X-com. Also recommended are Laser Squad and the Rebelstar games which are equally brilliant and great multiplayer games.

Boulderdash: Can't believe I hadn't played this game until now but it's a fantastic mix of arcade action and puzzle.

Going to give Starquake and the Ultimate games a go.

grizzly · 13-05-2011 02:19PM

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

Amalgam · 13-05-2011 02:33PM

Retr0gamer, fire up a game like Tau Ceti, or Avalon, or Dragontorc (Avalon sequel), the amount of 'depth' and immersive gameplay developers could squeeze into 48KB was astounding.

I loved Swords and Sorcery by PSS, I could only finish it recently, due to the need to modify some code, to fix critical bugs. Emulation closure..

Jet Set Willy, Quazatron, Chuckie Egg, any of the Imagine games. Atic Atac, Sabre Wulf, Elite. Spy V Spy..

£99 from McKennas.

---

Only URL you need. http://www.worldofspectrum.org/

I used to buy my games mainly from the 'Big Byte' in Dun Laoghaire.

Skerries · 13-05-2011 02:36PM

this was my first gaming computer and had it for years until my mum gave it to her friends kid and got me a BBC Micro instead but there was feck all games for it so i sold it and bought the 128k version

I actually got my original one back a few years later and have it boxed in my wardrobe now

As retro said the best games on it were the Julian Gollop games and especially Chaos, Laser Squad and Rebelstar II which got heavily played with mates

I think i still have a boxed copy of that Batman: The Caped Crusader somewhere as well

Here is the ultimate repository for emulators and games
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/
They have a great list of remade games on modern machines here and you should try Chaos Reborn if you liked Chaos
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/remakes.cgi

the top 50 games ever made for it according to Your Sinclair magazine are playable here, think i have that issue as well
http://play.80snostalgia.com/index.php?name=Reviews&req=showcontent&id=176

there was always an argument about which was the best machine Spectrum or Commodore in the school yard when i was a kid, the same as later on with mega Drive or Snes later and PS3 and 360 now.

I'm using the Marvin Emulator for my Android phone so Chaos goodness is at my fingertips

Sephiroth_dude · 13-05-2011 02:42PM

what were they like to program on?are they easily gotten these day?

Retr0gamer · 13-05-2011 02:51PM

It's based on a Z80A processor so is very easy to program for since it's so simple.

Should be easy enough to pick one up for next to nothing.

yeppydeppy · 13-05-2011 02:53PM

Two words: Manic Miner.

Sephiroth_dude · 13-05-2011 02:56PM

Could you program using the language qbasic?

petes · 13-05-2011 02:59PM

yeppydeppy wrote: »

Two words: Manic Miner.

Two more words...Skool Daze!!

Retr0gamer · 13-05-2011 03:00PM

Sephiroth_dude wrote: »

Could you program using the language qbasic?

Eh, that's getting more technical than I know. I'm pretty sure it supports basic but most programmers used assembly language since they really needed the speed.

RoryMac · 13-05-2011 03:05PM

Operation Wolf, Robocop & Renegade were classics IMO, wasted hours of my life on those

Amalgam · 13-05-2011 03:13PM

The Spectrum also brought along youff game reporting in publications like 'Crash', that had a very very modern, off in all directions flow of language. Way way ahead of its time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crash_(magazine)

landsleaving · 13-05-2011 03:15PM

I've only played a few games for the Specturm, through emulators. I had an Amstrad way back when, and most of my gaming friends had C64s so I never got to play one

Of the games I've played, Dizzy and Manic Miner are both fantastic and Knight Lore brought back some fond memories of the imo superior (probably due to nostalgia mind) CPC version.

These threads were a great idea btw Cherry

cherryghost · 13-05-2011 03:19PM

Amalgam wrote: »

Retr0gamer, fire up a game like Tau Ceti, or Avalon, or Dragontorc (Avalon sequel), the amount of 'depth' and immersive gameplay developers could squeeze into 48KB was astounding.

I loved Swords and Sorcery by PSS, I could only finish it recently, due to the need to modify some code, to fix critical bugs. Emulation closure..

Jet Set Willy, Quazatron, Chuckie Egg, any of the Imagine games. Atic Atac, Sabre Wulf, Elite. Spy V Spy..

£99 from McKennas.

---

Only URL you need. http://www.worldofspectrum.org/

I used to buy my games mainly from the 'Big Byte' in Dun Laoghaire.

Sweet, gonna have a go at some of them now!

neilthefunkeone · 13-05-2011 03:25PM

ScaldyMc wrote: »

Had the ZX Spectrum, 128K if I remember correctly (or was it the earlier one, now I'm not too sure). Anyway, it was great. The amount of time I spent typing in code from a magazine to play some very basic games.

HA i remember that.. Got a massive pull out section of a magazine with code.. Took me hours and didnt work in the end.. Anyone have the massive floppy drive with it.. it was HUGE!!!

Robocap was my favorite game..

Mr E · 13-05-2011 03:42PM

A neighbour of mine had a Spectrum back in the day and it had some great games. That is, until I got my C64 and found out that it had most of the same games that looked (and sounded) better!

Great little machine though. I got introduced to stuff like Jetset Willy and Starquake on it.

Amalgam · 13-05-2011 03:44PM

Oh.. and stuff you'd find cool without really knowing why, games like Wheelie..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6emgbygS48

..or 3D Death Chase.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hF0Cd-aKIWM

Bugaboo The Flea.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36Mrtxr8PlE

Some early magazines would have flexible seven inch records (bright red for this particular game) on the cover, you were meant to transfer from the record player, to a tape deck.. which is how I ended up playing the Thomson Twins Adventure.. (based on the Pop\Rock band)

Following link says it was the only game, but I do remember transferring data from other vinyl. Not just that one time.

Being so thin and flimsy, if the the vinyl record got just one hard nudge or scratch, it was useless, corrupt data..

http://www.giantbomb.com/the-thompson-twins-adventure/61-32054/

7sr2z3fely84g5 · 13-05-2011 06:33PM

if you can look pass the monochrome colours,speccy ports,particular 128 models where fantastic for added bonus of music,speech and full games that had a single load which was very appealing for its time,here's some of the great games for 128-

Un squadron,bigger bosses and more detail than c64 port-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k0SyHH3VHU

Combat school-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdJnF-GAHUE

Midnight resistance-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoifT0puM2M

Teenage turtles-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uwqhgA81pI

Batman the movie,excellent car level-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQ96YQOLMVQ

And yes,street fighter 2 did actually exist for it,atrocious loading times though

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2nEFAI-F10

Moist Bread · 13-05-2011 07:10PM

I remember playing it in a friends house almost everyday after school. Yogi Bear and Bart vs The Space Mutants, good times. I remember all the trouble getting it to load games and we had to angle the power adapter on a shoe before it would work. Kids these days have it so good *grumble*

calex71 · 13-05-2011 07:22PM

Ah good times , Dizzy and a few other classics mentioned.

How about this gem

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEcgLlf_9iA

7sr2z3fely84g5 · 15-05-2011 07:50PM

Another good port,probably not known due to c64/mig ports-

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

Canis Lupus · 15-05-2011 09:14PM

neilthefunkeone wrote: »

HA i remember that.. Got a massive pull out section of a magazine with code.. Took me hours and didnt work in the end.. Anyone have the massive floppy drive with it.. it was HUGE!!!

Robocap was my favorite game..

Those things broke my heart. A two page spread with a background showing exotic aliens invading your home planet and huge cannons which you'd control to shoot down the aliens.

Hours of typing poke this and peek that and loads of stupid numbers and....and.....

I'm presented with invading number 8s whilst my cannon is the letter H and I shoot 1s and the image of awesomeness that has carried me through the painstaking typing of the last hour is painfully burst....

Anyway... C64 FTW I spit on your Spectrum.

Dyr · 15-05-2011 09:14PM

Insurgent wrote: »

Two more words...Skool Daze!!

three more words: bak 2 skool!

Is1ldur · 17-05-2011 05:07PM

I remember playing Horace Goes Skiing on my cousins ZX. Thought it was great until I got my Atari 800XL!! The monochrome graphics really were terrible on the speccy. The rubber keyboard as well, my God, how was it ever so popular?

Reasons why you should have owned: The ZX Spectrum

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