Happy Birthday 'Speccie'

[Claude Dreyfus]

Astonishingly it is 30 years since the ZX Spectrum was released. Like so many others this was my first encounter with a computer...getting for Christmas in about 1983 (I think).

Many happy hours playing Checkered Flag and Horace Goes Skiing. I still have mine...and still boxed, having been usurped first by Lima 0 gauge and 3 years later by N gauge! I also have the cassette player and games packed with it in the loft...time to wander down memory lane methinks! 

[Lawrence]

I think my missus got the highest ever recorded score on Chuckie Egg 

[OwL]

The Amstrad CPC 464 cant be that far behind this anniversary as well? These machines were of the same era!

Anybody remember such greats as Roland on the Ropes and Harrier Attack?

Happy Birthday Spectrum!

[scotsoft]

The old Spectrums usually go for big money on eBay 

I had the 48K Oric which I still have - 

[PaulCheffus]

Hi

I started with the ZX81 which I don't have anymore but I do still have my ZX Spectrum and Opus Discovery disk drive. The Spectrum was the computer I cut my teeth on assembly programming and I modified the operating system for the Opus to provide a similar file structure to the IBM PC.

Cheers

Paul

[SymonC]

I still have my first ZX Spectrum and also a Zx Spectrum 128 together with a ZX81, they all still work as well!

[EtchedPixels]

The Amstrad CPC 464 cant be that far behind this anniversary as well? These machines were of the same era!

464 was a bit later. When I was working at Adventure International we had stuff shipping on the spectrum some time before the CPC464 was released, in fact some time before we got our pre-production CPC464.

[OwL]

The Amstrad CPC 464 cant be that far behind this anniversary as well? These machines were of the same era!

464 was a bit later. When I was working at Adventure International we had stuff shipping on the spectrum some time before the CPC464 was released, in fact some time before we got our pre-production CPC464.

Can you remember what year Alan? I can vaguely put it down to 1984-85 ish.

[Mustermark]

Yep a Spectrum was my first computer.  When I was 25 (my daughter was born and had not time for it anymore) I gave it to my aunt who must have been about 60 because she wanted to find out what computers were all about.  I think she taught herself Z80 machine code from the book I gave her.  Sadly after she died I didn't get the computer back.  So a few years ago i bought an old Speccie off eBay.  As much to remember my aunt by as to own one again.

I had Cyclone (a helicopter rescue game), Alien8 and Fairlight (a castle adventure in 3D). Awesome fun.  But THE best ever computer game was (is) Lemmings.  I have that one on tape for the Spectrum.  No idea if it still works or not.

[Dock Shunter]

Still have the original Speccy my Dad bought back in 1982/3......with boxes of games......still worked the last time i tried it a few years back.
Spent many happy hours playing Football Manager and Matchday.......ruined a few keyboard membranes playing Daley Thompsons Decathelon,Way Of The Exploding Fist.....
Anyone remember Ant Attack......one of the early games but one of the best imho.....well ahead of it's time......

[Dock Shunter]

The Amstrad CPC 464 cant be that far behind this anniversary as well? These machines were of the same era!

Happy Birthday Spectrum!

The machines around at the time as i remember where.......
ZX81
ZX Spectrum
The Oric 16/48k
The Dragon 32
The Acorn Electron
BBC Micro
Vic 20
Some obscure Texas Instruments machine
And probably one or two others i don't remember.......

[Mustermark]

I did a Computer Studies O-level in 1981 on a Research Machines 380Z.  For my exam course work I wrote a space invaders game in Basic!

They also had BBC micros too but we weren't allowed to use them.

[Lawrence]

I built my ZX81 from a bag of bits and a circuit board during my lunch break, much easier than the electrics on Hercules engines 

[EtchedPixels]

The machines around at the time as i remember where.......
ZX81
ZX Spectrum
The Oric 16/48k
The Dragon 32
The Acorn Electron
BBC Micro
Vic 20
Some obscure Texas Instruments machine
And probably one or two others i don't remember.......

Commodore 64 for one... and the Atari 400/800/XL

There were a ton of flops around then - Camputers Lynx, Oric Atmos, Memotech, etc

The TI was TI99/4A

The 464 had some interesting spinoffs like the GX4000 - which was such a commercial success I've never seen one !

[Malc]

My first home computer was a UK101. A circuit board, a bag of chips and keys, a TV modulator and about 2 days with a soldering iron. It had a 16 x 40 display and a 300 baud tape interface.  Must have been about 1979/80 ish