Sinclair ZX Spectrum Prototype • Hacker News Board

Re: Sinclair ZX Spectrum Prototype

#41

Post by stevekemp » Tue, Mar 05, 2019, 6:08 PM UTC

balabaster wrote: post #33

pjmlp wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A neighbour of mine, the father forbade him to buy games and gave him a pile of programming books instead. You know, those packed with game listings back then.

My Mum was a single Mum and we couldn't afford games. My first programming books were for programming games. That started my programming career which from the age of 8 is still going 35 years later. It's amazing how far we've come since then.

Thinking back we had about 20-50 games for our Spectrum. I know I bought a few of the budget games for £2.99 from WH Smiths, or similar places, but most of the games we owned were copied on blank audio cassettes.

I'd estimate at least 80% of the games I "owned", and my friends played, were copied. Though I'm hazy on how they arrived. I know my dad would bring some home from the post-office where he worked, and I'd swap taped copies of some games with friends at school.

Re: Sinclair ZX Spectrum Prototype

#42

Post by aidenn0 » Tue, Mar 05, 2019, 6:54 PM UTC

moomin wrote: post #16

I realise the ZX Spectrum might not be the most important computer in the history of computing, but it is 100% the most important computer to me. That thing changed my life.

Every single programmer I've known from the UK that was from working-class roots started on a Spectrum, so I'd argue that, at least for one country, it's among the most important in history.

Re: Sinclair ZX Spectrum Prototype

#43

Post by timthorn » Tue, Mar 05, 2019, 7:03 PM UTC

C1sc0cat wrote: post #22

codeulike wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The end credits/epilogue of MicroMen is a lovely bit of visual poetry https://youtu.be/XXBxV6-zamM?t=4900

And so sad :-( Really ought to have a HN meet up in the pub where the famous fight between Sinclair and Curry Happened.

A few years ago, the Centre for Computing History (as per the article) hosted the pair. No fisticuffs... :)

Re: Sinclair ZX Spectrum Prototype

#44

Post by UncleSlacky » Tue, Mar 05, 2019, 7:06 PM UTC

darrenf wrote: post #30

andymurd wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Spectrum (and ZX81) had a big effect on a whole generation of Brits. I know my folks could not have afforded a C64 or BBC Micro but they did manage fifty quid in Currys to start my lifetime of coding.

Likewise. At the time my folks could just about stretch to a ZX81 plus 16k RAM Pack[0], but not a wobble stopper[1] - so we fashioned one out of corrugated cardboard and gaffer tape. A few years later I scored an upgrade to the ZX Spectrum+ which was an absolute revelation - what with stuff like colour and sound . I learnt BASIC through typing out listings from ZX Computing Monthly, Sinclair User, Your Sinclair, and…

Computer & Video Games (C&VG) and Your Computer used to have multi-platform listings, even including machines such as the Sharp MZ-80 series.

Re: Sinclair ZX Spectrum Prototype

#45

Post by yassam » Tue, Mar 05, 2019, 8:16 PM UTC

andymurd wrote: post #20

moomin wrote: post #16

I realise the ZX Spectrum might not be the most important computer in the history of computing, but it is 100% the most important computer to me. That thing changed my life.

The Spectrum (and ZX81) had a big effect on a whole generation of Brits. I know my folks could not have afforded a C64 or BBC Micro but they did manage fifty quid in Currys to start my lifetime of coding.

ZX81 was my first machine. Got me hooked on coding at 11, and I'm still coding full time for a living 36 years later.

I learnt the most important aspects of programming on the ZX81 with nothing more than 1k RAM, a small B&W CRT TV and a tape recorder.

Re: Sinclair ZX Spectrum Prototype

#46

Post by benj111 » Tue, Mar 05, 2019, 8:16 PM UTC

balabaster wrote: post #38

Zardoz84 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything PAL. I live on Spain, and got both on Spain. Think that analogue signals have a lot of tolerance. The Spectrum PAL signal was very far from followiing 100% the PAL standard.

Back then, a lot of the TVs had frequency and vertical and horizontal hold dials. There was a fair amount of leeway in tuning the device to display the picture consistently. I would assume nothing needed to be exact because you could fine tune on the fly. I remember when you tuned our 3 TV stations in the UK by dialing the frequency dial to the correct radio frequency. It's been a long time that I don't recall the ra…

"perhaps I recall ITV being 68 MHz" that would vary from transmitter to transmitter, or else they would clash.

Re: Sinclair ZX Spectrum Prototype

#47

Post by Marazan » Tue, Mar 05, 2019, 8:27 PM UTC

moomin wrote: post #16

I realise the ZX Spectrum might not be the most important computer in the history of computing, but it is 100% the most important computer to me. That thing changed my life.

I think it is a very important computer in the history of computing. It was a seminal machine for British Software Development.

It's cheapness and ubiquity turbo-charged the UK computer scene.

It's clones crossing the iron curtain also had a profound effect on Eastern European computing.

Re: Sinclair ZX Spectrum Prototype

#48

Post by reaperducer » Tue, Mar 05, 2019, 8:34 PM UTC

mysterydip wrote: post #5

For those like me looking for a bit of retro nostalgia but with some modern conveniences, I discovered a laptop version of the spectrum being made now with new parts: https://retroradionics.co.uk/omni-128-hq-laptop.html review here: http://markfixesstuff.co.uk/review/zx-spectrum-omni-laptop-r...

That's very cool. I wish there was a Commodore 64 version. Running an emulator on a laptop isn't quite right because of keyboard differences. Plus there's the whole joystick port thing.

Re: Sinclair ZX Spectrum Prototype

#49

Post by MagerValp » Tue, Mar 05, 2019, 9:22 PM UTC

jtanworth wrote: post #12

techbubble wrote: post #3

All the Spectrum computers were awesome computers that somehow crammed a lot into a very compact package. The Sinclair ZX Spectrum+ was my first computer and I recently snagged one on eBay. With the right transformer and HDMI converter, I had it hooked to the living room TV in no time. It took less than 30 mins for my 11-year-old daughter to figure out how to draw basic rectangles and circles in various colors on the…

Do you have a link to the HDMI converter you were using? I still have a 128k +2 which would love to try and test out again sometime.

I don’t know what the parent uses, but for RGB you want an OSSC, and for Composite or S-Video you want a RetroTINK 2x.

Re: Sinclair ZX Spectrum Prototype

#50

Post by kashyapc » Tue, Mar 05, 2019, 10:07 PM UTC

Speaking of ZX Spectrum ... you might want to check out the QEMU Advent Calendar disk image[1] for it from 2016. The blurb:

"ZX Spectrum was one of most successful 8-bit machines of all time -- with still an active community! Relive the experience with a selection of homebrew games, using the Free Unix Spectrum Emulator."

[1] https://www.qemu-advent-calendar.org/2016/#day-23