The Speccy is 25 today

bcass · Post by **bcass** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 8:47 pm 0

Was nice to see it got prime position on the BBCs main page for most of the day. Somehow I just can't see that happening for the C64 come August.

chub · Post by **chub** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 9:01 pm 0

moosedude wrote:
chub wrote:Aah, the Speccy. It got me started in the whole games playing thing, and had an awful lot of use. The 48k rubber keys one was the best, although I also had a +2 in later years, but it just wasn't the same. There was a certain satisfaction about getting the cassette player tone control just right to be able to load anything, especially with games, erm, backed up onto C90s.

Great times.
That reminds me, there was a time when I knew what noise loading a certain game was suppose to make. Usually, it was a Burrrr Beep. Burrrrrrrrrrr Bleleleleleelelelesquellllllyyyyyyyyyyy..........

I miss listening to things load.

Knock yourself out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRviXqHL2pM

Kenz · Post by **Kenz** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 9:18 pm 0

Happy Birthday lil' Speccy! You beepy attribute clashing r:tape loading error beauty you!

To celebrate the anniversary I've put together a 1 hour show dedicated to Speccy music - LOAD "" it from http://www.binaryzone.org/podcast/ and fill your ears with beepy loveliness!

Alarm · Post by **Alarm** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 9:21 pm 0

bcass wrote:Was nice to see it got prime position on the BBCs main page for most of the day. Somehow I just can't see that happening for the C64 come August.

It is still on the main page for the UK News section. It is quite a good article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6572711.stm

Rick Dickinson said a few things about Sir Clive (and his team) that some folk may not know: at the time Sinclair was producing pocket calculators, electronic watches, miniature TVs and until they were made, they did not exist in the market... all of the technologies in Sinclair products are now implemented all over the world - from the button on your toothbrush to the buttons on a mobile phone.

piku · Post by **piku** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 9:46 pm 0

Quite fitting then that my ZX Spectrum Book arrived today in the post

I had a Spectrum +3, then somehow acquired a Spectrum 128+ from a friend. I worked out that if I connected the two together using their TAPE ports I could "SAVE" something on one and hit "LOAD" on the other and transfer something between the two. Think very slow one-way networking that had no purpose at all

piku · Post by **piku** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 9:58 pm 0

Kenz wrote: To celebrate the anniversary I've put together a 1 hour show dedicated to Speccy music - LOAD "" it from http://www.binaryzone.org/podcast/ and fill your ears with beepy loveliness!

I tried but your RSS feed only lists up to Episode 4...

Post by **Snakey** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 11:09 pm 0

gilesgoat wrote:

Spectrum is LOVE

Yes indeed.

The feelings I had when I first got hold of one cannot be described, and have never been equalled.

/me raises a glass to the Speccy - happy birthday old mate

GrapeApe · Post by **GrapeApe** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 11:56 pm 0

I was a victim of the great Speccy Drought of '83. Had to wait till the best part of Easter before WH Smiths finally got one in for me. Worth the wait, although my friends dad did void my warranty by putting a tablelamp switch into the cord on the power adaptor (surely one of the first mods on record?).

Some Treasured Spectrum memories

Jet Pac-first game I loaded,from a "backup" tape.

Manic Miner-still gets played every now and then.

Atic Atac-fell in love with the cover artwork (Chris Stampers own handywork I think) and the gorgeous little sprites.

Robin Of The Wood-speech!

Animator One-first paint package I used, sent off a c15 tape of loading screen mockups and sprites to Gremlin Graphics when I was a pus faced 16 year old, still got the rejection slip

Sacred Armour of Antiriad-I was a whore for well animated player characters...and anything "comicy".

GyroScope-my favourite of all the Marble Madness clones, Bobby Bearing was cool too.

Agent X-Tim Follin's tunes blew me away the first time I heard them, even the C64 owning mates were impressed.
Far too many memories, got through two rubber keyed Spectrum 48's and finished with a Speccy plus, just before the Master System and Atari ST arrived.

JQW · Post by **JQW** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 12:00 am 0

No-one's mentioned the ZX Spectrum Orchestra yet? Am I the only one who listens to Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone?

They're an outfit who play music sourced entirely from various ZX Spectrum models, plus add-on hardware such as the Currah Microspeech.

Here's a link to their site, which contains a video for one of their songs:

http://www.warmcircuit.com/web/artist.php?artist_id=2

bcass · Post by **bcass** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 12:15 am 0

$⁭⁭^ by the ZX Spectrum Orchestra is an excellent peice of electronica, and an intelligent example of the Currah Âµ Speech vs the Spectrum BASIC commands. A fine accompanying video to boot.

kalmar · Post by **kalmar** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 12:26 am 0

That's awesome

IanJ · Post by **IanJ** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 1:11 am 0

GrapeApe wrote:Atic Atac-fell in love with the cover artwork (Chris Stampers own handywork I think) and the gorgeous little sprites.

*cough*

C64 for me...but *Happy Birthday* Speccy

bcass wrote:Was nice to see it got prime position on the BBCs main page for most of the day. Somehow I just can't see that happening for the C64 come August.

No, me neither...

Something to do with the speccy being British, possibly. Did the speccy outsell the C64 in the UK?

sponge · Post by **sponge** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 1:34 am 0

Awwww. Speccy. Nothing surpassed it for computer love. The Amiga came close and so did the Mac, but nothing could beat the feeling of the warm rubber keys rubbed on me nuts.

mutopian · Post by **mutopian** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 10:12 am 0

bit late, but happy birthday nonetheless

got many fond memories of the spectrum and still have all my tapes for it somewhere. It was also the first computer I learned to take apart for the sole reason of replacing the keyboard membrane or taking a knife to shorten the connector strips where it had cracked. Also had to doctor the power connector when it cracked and it ended up with the two wires being held on with lots of sellotape.

merman · Post by **merman** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 11:59 am 0

Love the Speccy book. And the machine had its strengths, with some great games.

And as for August? Maybe I can get my Commodore 64 Book finished by then... (see sig)