The Speccy is 25 today

Stevo · Post by **Stevo** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 11:32 am 0

20thCenturyBoy wrote:The C64 was a big beige turd. How can you not love something with a rainbow in the corner!

The rainbow was there to show the total amount of colours it used

Alarm · Post by **Alarm** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 11:36 am 0

Dio wrote:The design of it is just phenomenal. It still looks like a proper bit of kit now in many ways.

I agree, Rick Dickinson did a superb job. He later designed the Gizmondo, but we don't talk about that.

To see more, visit http://www.theproductdesigners.com/flas ... ndex2.html and click on Classics.

DaiStation · Post by **DaiStation** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 11:44 am 0

Alarm wrote:To see more, visit http://www.theproductdesigners.com/flas ... ndex2.html and click on Classics.

The best thing about that site is that the loading meter has about 20 decimal places of accuracy. Useful information, well designed.

tufty · Post by **tufty** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 11:48 am 0

Sir_LANs-a-lot wrote:
Dio wrote:The design of it is just phenomenal. It still looks like a proper bit of kit now in many ways.
Stick a clamshell screen on it and SD-Card slots for storage and laptop battery and you'd be good to go!

PSOne screen, li-ion battery pack, and a bit of BenHeck style CNC work, and it would be entirely do-able. The biggest bugger would probably be video interfacing. And doing away with the poxy "dead sea creatures" keyboard, of course.

One of these would be better, of course.

grue · Post by **grue** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 11:56 am 0

The Caffeine Kid · Post by **The Caffeine Kid** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 11:56 am 0

Sir_LANs-a-lot wrote:
Dio wrote:The design of it is just phenomenal. It still looks like a proper bit of kit now in many ways.
Stick a clamshell screen on it and SD-Card slots for storage and laptop battery and you'd be good to go!

You read my mind - that would be totally awesome.

There IS an SD card mod you can do - but just an attached screen of the same size that folded over the keyboard with a battery pack in it and that would be dreamy.

I guess craig's speccyds is even more portable - but cant caress those rubber keys.

moosedude · Post by **moosedude** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 12:02 pm 0

kalmar wrote:C64 was a lot better though.

Get back in your box, you

They'll be no c64 heavens in this thread!

My 128k zx spectrum was hard to kill, not only did I have to rest a heavy book on the power connector to get constant power, but it survived countless hot chocolate spills (my modern laptop keyboard didn't even manage that) and bits of marmite toast falling into its inside.

It only died when I decided to open it up for "a quick look" at how it worked. A quick look roughly translated into forcing out the CPU with a flat blade screwdriver because I wondered what it was. I'm not sure whether brute force bending the pins killed it, or captain static.

juice · Post by **juice** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 12:05 pm 0

The Caffeine Kid wrote: Stick a clamshell screen on it and SD-Card slots for storage and laptop battery and you'd be good to go!

There IS an SD card mod you can do - but just an attached screen of the same size that folded over the keyboard with a battery pack in it and that would be dreamy.

I guess craig's speccyds is even more portable - but cant caress those rubber keys.

[/quote]

I have seen one running with a CF adapter and a PSX LCD screen (behind Matthew's head - you may have to squint a bit):

Sticking them all together with a bit of duct tape is left as an exercise for the reader

Mayhem · Post by **Mayhem** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 12:11 pm 0

Stevo wrote:The rainbow was there to show the total amount of colours it used

Which was double what the Speccy had

Let the flame wars commence

Nah, I liked some games on the Speccy despite my C64 heritage. Mainly the ones that didn't get converted. Though come August, we'll be celebrating 25 years of the C64 as well...

(August 1982 is when it was first sold to the public)

Kelloggs · Post by **Kelloggs** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 12:27 pm 0

Speaking of notable computing dates - I had cause to write the date down yesterday, and I realised that it was twenty years since the Atari ST's TOS1.2 ROM was burned - hence, all the timestamps on all my files were 22/04/87...

FatherDougal · Post by **FatherDougal** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 12:29 pm 0

Although I didn't actually own one (C64 for me) I do remember some really great times round at a mate's house, playing Skool Daze and Atic Attack. Tempted to now look for one on eBay - any idea how well they last?

cj2003 · Post by **cj2003** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 12:33 pm 0

So much time spent on it, so much energy used on it and so much learned from it.

Congrats, Speccy my old friend.

craigt · Post by **craigt** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 12:36 pm 0

The Caffeine Kid wrote:I guess craig's speccyds is even more portable - but cant caress those rubber keys.

Someone needs to design a rubber-coated stylus

TFO · Post by **TFO** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 12:57 pm 0

HGFB wrote:It's not a C64 but damn you've got to love that little beast.

I think Rare should do Attic Atac for XBLA next.

[smug bastard] I beat Attic Atac on my first go - I got lucky and I had someone with me who was telling me what to do, but even so. [/smug]

Junosix · Post by **Junosix** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 1:05 pm 0

Kelloggs wrote:Speaking of notable computing dates - I had cause to write the date down yesterday, and I realised that it was twenty years since the Atari ST's TOS1.2 ROM was burned - hence, all the timestamps on all my files were 22/04/87...