Hi
Has it really been 30 years... I guess so. I can recall my first trip into Currys to get my ZX81 for £42 only to be told they did not accept credit cards. So I popped into the bank next door and withdrew the money. My first few weeks with the ZX81 meant no sleep pretty much as I tried to devise a data base program, I was so excited. But then came the Spectrum 16K and we got ours from John Menzies in Walsall. Smiths sold them also but Menzies had the better deal on games. And so was born Manic Miner and endless days in a lounge playing in rotation with my girlfriend and her brother. The machine got so much hammering it broke and instead of mending the thing Menzies gave us a new computer and this time it was the 48K.
http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com/amiga/amiga_scuzz198.htmSinclair in those days was the only way in for me on a computer. The VIC20 was over a £100. I had drooled over the VIC in the window of Dixons every day in 1981 as I returned from work, but I just couldn’t put the money together. And so the ZX81 was the best deal. It was my girlfriend that bought the Spectrum though it was I that used it the most.
http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com/amiga/amiga_scuzz153.htmDuring the many years of use I acquired numerous games, and some were left here from friends. The best was Oracles Cave for me which I played through the night when I first moved south. The Spectrum like the Amiga was a good friend. I did like writing stuff for it though the tape was a bit flaky as a concept. ... Adjust volume and tone on the tape deck... Wait for the load bars and then the black rectangle and then fingers crossed. And when inside it was just rubber buttons all the way. Yes, happy days and still much better in terms of fun than anything you can play and use today. I even travelled to Glasgow all the way from Walsall just to go to a Spectrum show... and man was that packed. You have never seen so many odd contraptions being driven by the humble Spectrum and ZX81.
So raise a glass for the Spectrum, and reflect again on times when computing meant.... computing.
100 PRINT “Happy Birthday Spectrum”
102 GOTO 100
RUN
Happy Birthday Spectrum
Happy Birthday Spectrum
Happy Birthday Spectrum
Happy Birthday Spectrum
Happy Birthday Spectrum
Happy Birthday Spectrum
Happy Birthday Spectrum
Happy Birthday Spectrum
Happy Birthday Spectrum
[ quote ]
The ZX Spectrum is 30 years old. The successor to Sir Clive Sinclair's ZX81 - at the time the world's best selling consumer computer - it introduced colour "high resolution" graphics and sound.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17776666scuzz
