*scratch* *scratch*
It's like an addiction, man!! Just gotta have my fix, start itching if I don't get a hit of WoS at least once a day. Can't quite explain it, there's nothing to explain.... It's a drug, I'm addicted!!
*scratch* *scratch* :-D
Well, I too never finished with the Speccy, even when I "upgraded" to an Atari ST I kept my Speccy next to the ST and connected up, and I'd say that overall I used my Speccy far more than the ST. Then in 1996 I bought a PC, and packed away my ST but kept my Speccy connected up, and I also messed about with the shareware version of Z80, but it didn't feel the same, so I never registered or transfered to emulation (despite Paul Howard wrongly calling me an emulation user in his pre-release of Jetset Willy 96, or whatever it was called).
Then in '97/'98 my mate Mike Mee (the best computer contact anyone could ever have, even if he is a metal-head *shudder*) sent me the emulator X128 - this was the then current version which didn't even have the correct Spectrum screen aspect (it was square rather than 4:3), but it still felt much better than Z80 (play Jetset Willy on both Z80 and X128 from that time and see what I mean), so I started messing about with emulation, but it wasn't until I moved house, in 1999, when I finally moved over fully to emulation, as my new bedroom didn't have enough room for the +2/+D etc set up.
And I've been visiting WOS since 1997, when I discovered it via college 'net access (before I went on-line at home). It was my favourite website then, and that's never changed. And since this forum came along, WOS has become my spirital 'net home...
I disagree when people say that they come here for nostalgia; I always thought that nostalgia meant "wishing for the old days/times/things" and nothing more, in which case when they came here they'd either realise that they loved it here, in which case they'd come back because they liked the present reality of this site and the Speccy (not for nostalgia for the past), or that the reality wasn't as rosy as they remembered the past, in which case they'd not bother again. Either way, nostalgia wouldn't keep them coming here.
And I don't play computer games too much nowadays, as my time is limited, but I do still play my favourite computer games, including Spectrum ones, on the XBox or laptop. Familiar games mean not having to spend ages learning the instructions, plus you know which games you really enjoy, and a good game should be timeless, like a good song or a good comedy.
Mainly I come to WOS for the company though - the forums are free of the tossers who frequent many other boards, thankfully, and you don't get abuse for posting your own thoughts, even if no-one else agrees with you.
2a. The Speccy is very well documented now, with all quirks laid bare.
2b. Any program you write for the Spectrum will work on all Spectrums, with a few minor precautions, unlike on the PC.
2c. PCs are rubbish.
and it's a speccy. :)
Four words of beauty!
And Speccy games don't stall for a half-second whilst the Speccy OS does something in the background, unlike Windows. Doesn't sound like much, but it's really irritating.
Yes, it's fun, but for deeper reasons than that, such as the company and the magazines, and the way some Speccy games (in common with older computers, before every game became a FIFA title, or a WW2 first person shooter, or a MMORPG) really had different ideas and gameplay from most other games. The computer gaming industry is now as stale as the film industry, and follows Hollywood's unwritten mantra of "forget quality, just do another braind-dead sequel with great special effects" (only for games they substitue the word "graphics" for "special effects").
Mainstream computing, in general, is no longer fun.[/quote]
Now that's true.
Thick layers of XML, forty five layers of abstraction (did you know it takes Windows 7 million machine instructions just to start a process?)
I didn't, but in 1996/97, when I was new to the PC, I read that when you loaded up Microsoft Word, Windows called up over five thousand files before you could begin typing....
, and screenfuls of code just to get things set up so you can plot an arbitrary pixel on the screen, restrictive licensing agreements and even the most trivial software being 'super seekrit',. (This is why I won't run Microsoft software at home, because Windows isn't fun because of this, and it's utterly closed. The Speccy, by contrast, had the Complete Spectrum ROM disassembly very early on).
And Spectrum BASIC, which was always present, very comprehsive, very well error-checked, and never crashed (except for recursive use of DEF FN, if I remember my Understanding Your Spectrum correctly). It is a pity that Sinclair BASIC was so slow, as otherwise it was great, especially for the time.
Still, using Paul Dunn's BASin, you can run Sinclair BASIC at full host PC speed, with the benefits of it's extremely comprehensive development environment (and no, he's not paying me for this advert, although some drinks wouldn't go amiss :smile: ).
The Spectrum by contrast is simple. You go straight to the raw iron. In fact it's elegant in its simplicity. Some people got frustrated with its shortcomings, because the hardware is so simple, but I see beauty in this simplicity - which gave quite a capable computer we could actually afford.
Yes, and the colours were well chosen too. I'm sorry, but no matter how I try, I cannot get used to the C64's muddy colours. The Spectrum colours were clear and attractive, although I don't see why Bright and non-Bright black were both the same colour. Why couldn't Bright Black have been grey? And although I like the Flash function, some people would have prefered the extra bit to have been used for another colour setting instead.
And I loved the single key entry function - when you got used to it you could type fast. And I loved the look of the 48K Spectrum, and the rubber keys. All of this, the single key entry, the 48K's looks, the rubber keys were lost when the 128K came out (and the +, except for the single key entry). The Speccy lost a lot of it's identity then, I thought.
I do wish that 48K sound had come through the TV though, instead of an in-built speaker with no volume control. Why didn't Sinclair put the sound through the TV?
Oh, and the 48K Speccy should have had a reset switch and a power switch (in fact, no Speccy had a power switch - I had to buy one).
Still, the Spectrum will never have Vista on it, which is reason enough for us to remain faithful to our rubber-keyed chum ;)
And as Scottie said, the scene.
And what people are doing with the humble Speccy, too. Many of the demos are awesome.
True, with a moving platform like the PC, the hardware doesn't last long enough for programmers to test and learn every quirk and unintended "feature".
Mainly I come to WOS for the company though - the forums are free of the tossers who frequent many other boards, thankfully, and you don't get abuse for posting your own thoughts, even if no-one else agrees with you.
It still has so much to teach me and has every relevance to my modern living, just as much as it did in 1982. I've never left the Speccy, and I don't suppose I ever will. What a fantastic machine. What amazing things you can do.
And then there's WoS, with such wonderful loonies. Heaven is Speccy-shaped, my friend.
The Spectrum colours were clear and attractive, although I don't see why Bright and non-Bright black were both the same colour. Why couldn't Bright Black have been grey?
This is in fact a very good feature. Having one colour that remains the same even when BRIGHT is applied allows you to use it as an immutable background colour. You can then apply BRIGHT to foreground objects of arbritrary non-uniform shape without causing "BRIGHT CLASH" squares to appear around the object.
This would not be possible without the behaviour of the BRIGHT black colour.
The one-liner game I recently worked on called "Simon" demonstrates this, and depends on it. (This is exactly why the background has to be black in that game).
Whether this behaviour of BRIGHT black is by design or not, I do not know, but it is a feature that on the face of it seems like a deficiency, but is actually an asset!
Oh, and to answer the original question "Why are we here?" It's just a simple hobby for me and therefore enjoyable, but you tend to learn a lot more when you can discuss it with others who share the same hobby!
This is in fact a very good feature. Having one colour that remains the same even when BRIGHT is applied allows you to use it as an immutable background colour. You can then apply BRIGHT to foreground objects of arbritrary non-uniform shape without causing "BRIGHT CLASH" squares to appear around the object.
This would not be possible without the behaviour of the BRIGHT black colour.
The dependence on this behavior is indeed very true for many games.
At the time I had an original Speccy 128 toast-rack edition and an Amiga monitor (and an A500, ho hum), I hooked up the monitor to the Spectrum with the RGB connector.
The RGB output does not make bright black the same as the non-bright version, thus giving the complete 16 colours.
Most games looked quite awkward, for the exact reason Digital Prawn provides: BRIGHT being used for the pen colour.
Still, much better than my tiny old black&white television. :-P
I don't know if the same can be obtained by the other 128k models and their RGB ports, providing they even have one.
I never really left the Speccy scene. I upgraded to an ST for about 4 years before graduating to a PC in 1993. One of the first things I bought for it was a Speccy Emulator (Gerton Lunter's wonderful Z80) and a few hundred games on floppy disks. What was the name of that guy who used to do all the PD stuff - was it Brian Gaff or something?
I eventually bought a CD full of Speccy games (Speccy Sensations - remember that - I've still got it) and it annoyed me that it was so difficult to find the exact game I wanted. So I started chucking a few details into an Access database (it was incredibly basic, one table, one form, I hadn't got a bloody clue!) that allowed me to search for a game and get a filename. I got online in 1998 and purchased the April WOS archive CD from Craig ??? (was his website cdworld.co.uk or something?) which led me here and I've been using/posting ever since. That initial Access database (through many updates since) now forms the backbone of my site (see sig).
I still come to WOS mainly because I feel like I know most of the regular posters - the forums are easily the best I've been to on the net and are now the only forums I regularly post to.
is there a bomb in your keyboard, and if you don't type 50wps it will exploded? :)
Nah, I just have no social life, so I have plenty of time to type my thoughts here.:cry:
In fact, I also type everyone elses' posts on this forum (except for yours, obviously), as (who'd have guessed?) you and I are the only real people on this forum - every one else is just a made up account that I post under,. Beanz, Karingal, Dunny, Monty Mole, Vampyre, Andrew Rollings, everyone, just figments of my imagination.
And who knows, maybe you are too? [Twightlight Zone music fades out]
No, not a deep philosophical question about the nature of life, the universe and human existence.
The thread ?what does your partner think of your Spectrum hobby? has prompted me to ask something that I?m curious about but I was too shy to ask. :smile:
Why are we all here?
After all the Spectrum is over 20 years old, so why do you devote the time to such an old technology? It has no relevance to modern living, its time is past.
When did you have your Spectrum reawakening? What prompted it?
Thanks for your email this morning, I'm having some trouble replying to your emails. Nothing important, but please check your PMs, I have forwarded the messages there instead,
Comments
:-P
Oi! You're the biggest sideshow in here, you cheeky git! :p
What?! Moi?? Why, I never!
:p
*scratch* *scratch*
It's like an addiction, man!! Just gotta have my fix, start itching if I don't get a hit of WoS at least once a day. Can't quite explain it, there's nothing to explain.... It's a drug, I'm addicted!!
*scratch* *scratch*
:-D
Personally, I am reprehensibly unpresentable but freak I am not! (well, maybe)
Erm... I'm definately a bit of both of those!! :-D
Then in '97/'98 my mate Mike Mee (the best computer contact anyone could ever have, even if he is a metal-head *shudder*) sent me the emulator X128 - this was the then current version which didn't even have the correct Spectrum screen aspect (it was square rather than 4:3), but it still felt much better than Z80 (play Jetset Willy on both Z80 and X128 from that time and see what I mean), so I started messing about with emulation, but it wasn't until I moved house, in 1999, when I finally moved over fully to emulation, as my new bedroom didn't have enough room for the +2/+D etc set up.
And I've been visiting WOS since 1997, when I discovered it via college 'net access (before I went on-line at home). It was my favourite website then, and that's never changed. And since this forum came along, WOS has become my spirital 'net home...
I disagree when people say that they come here for nostalgia; I always thought that nostalgia meant "wishing for the old days/times/things" and nothing more, in which case when they came here they'd either realise that they loved it here, in which case they'd come back because they liked the present reality of this site and the Speccy (not for nostalgia for the past), or that the reality wasn't as rosy as they remembered the past, in which case they'd not bother again. Either way, nostalgia wouldn't keep them coming here.
And I don't play computer games too much nowadays, as my time is limited, but I do still play my favourite computer games, including Spectrum ones, on the XBox or laptop. Familiar games mean not having to spend ages learning the instructions, plus you know which games you really enjoy, and a good game should be timeless, like a good song or a good comedy.
Mainly I come to WOS for the company though - the forums are free of the tossers who frequent many other boards, thankfully, and you don't get abuse for posting your own thoughts, even if no-one else agrees with you.
I'm glad you did, it's the people on this forum that make this my favourite forum ever, out of the lots I've visited in the past ten years or so.
Surely you could also add:
2a. The Speccy is very well documented now, with all quirks laid bare.
2b. Any program you write for the Spectrum will work on all Spectrums, with a few minor precautions, unlike on the PC.
2c. PCs are rubbish.
Four words of beauty!
And Speccy games don't stall for a half-second whilst the Speccy OS does something in the background, unlike Windows. Doesn't sound like much, but it's really irritating.
Yes, it's fun, but for deeper reasons than that, such as the company and the magazines, and the way some Speccy games (in common with older computers, before every game became a FIFA title, or a WW2 first person shooter, or a MMORPG) really had different ideas and gameplay from most other games. The computer gaming industry is now as stale as the film industry, and follows Hollywood's unwritten mantra of "forget quality, just do another braind-dead sequel with great special effects" (only for games they substitue the word "graphics" for "special effects").
Mainstream computing, in general, is no longer fun.[/quote]
Now that's true.
I didn't, but in 1996/97, when I was new to the PC, I read that when you loaded up Microsoft Word, Windows called up over five thousand files before you could begin typing....
And Spectrum BASIC, which was always present, very comprehsive, very well error-checked, and never crashed (except for recursive use of DEF FN, if I remember my Understanding Your Spectrum correctly). It is a pity that Sinclair BASIC was so slow, as otherwise it was great, especially for the time.
Still, using Paul Dunn's BASin, you can run Sinclair BASIC at full host PC speed, with the benefits of it's extremely comprehensive development environment (and no, he's not paying me for this advert, although some drinks wouldn't go amiss :smile: ).
Yes, and the colours were well chosen too. I'm sorry, but no matter how I try, I cannot get used to the C64's muddy colours. The Spectrum colours were clear and attractive, although I don't see why Bright and non-Bright black were both the same colour. Why couldn't Bright Black have been grey? And although I like the Flash function, some people would have prefered the extra bit to have been used for another colour setting instead.
And I loved the single key entry function - when you got used to it you could type fast. And I loved the look of the 48K Spectrum, and the rubber keys. All of this, the single key entry, the 48K's looks, the rubber keys were lost when the 128K came out (and the +, except for the single key entry). The Speccy lost a lot of it's identity then, I thought.
I do wish that 48K sound had come through the TV though, instead of an in-built speaker with no volume control. Why didn't Sinclair put the sound through the TV?
Oh, and the 48K Speccy should have had a reset switch and a power switch (in fact, no Speccy had a power switch - I had to buy one).
Still, the Spectrum will never have Vista on it, which is reason enough for us to remain faithful to our rubber-keyed chum ;)
True, with a moving platform like the PC, the hardware doesn't last long enough for programmers to test and learn every quirk and unintended "feature".
Is "sideshow" a Simpsons reference? Other than Sideshow Bob and Mel, I've never heard the term in relation to someone.
is there a bomb in your keyboard, and if you don't type 50wps it will exploded? :)
You suck. And so does your comment.
Andrew
/joke
The Simpson's? Ah, no, not at all. Go have a look-see over here. I've always understood this to be primarily a theater/circus-term.
Here we go, it even has a picture of miles!
And then there's WoS, with such wonderful loonies. Heaven is Speccy-shaped, my friend.
This is in fact a very good feature. Having one colour that remains the same even when BRIGHT is applied allows you to use it as an immutable background colour. You can then apply BRIGHT to foreground objects of arbritrary non-uniform shape without causing "BRIGHT CLASH" squares to appear around the object.
This would not be possible without the behaviour of the BRIGHT black colour.
The one-liner game I recently worked on called "Simon" demonstrates this, and depends on it. (This is exactly why the background has to be black in that game).
Whether this behaviour of BRIGHT black is by design or not, I do not know, but it is a feature that on the face of it seems like a deficiency, but is actually an asset!
Oh, and to answer the original question "Why are we here?" It's just a simple hobby for me and therefore enjoyable, but you tend to learn a lot more when you can discuss it with others who share the same hobby!
The dependence on this behavior is indeed very true for many games.
At the time I had an original Speccy 128 toast-rack edition and an Amiga monitor (and an A500, ho hum), I hooked up the monitor to the Spectrum with the RGB connector.
The RGB output does not make bright black the same as the non-bright version, thus giving the complete 16 colours.
Most games looked quite awkward, for the exact reason Digital Prawn provides: BRIGHT being used for the pen colour.
Still, much better than my tiny old black&white television. :-P
I don't know if the same can be obtained by the other 128k models and their RGB ports, providing they even have one.
I eventually bought a CD full of Speccy games (Speccy Sensations - remember that - I've still got it) and it annoyed me that it was so difficult to find the exact game I wanted. So I started chucking a few details into an Access database (it was incredibly basic, one table, one form, I hadn't got a bloody clue!) that allowed me to search for a game and get a filename. I got online in 1998 and purchased the April WOS archive CD from Craig ??? (was his website cdworld.co.uk or something?) which led me here and I've been using/posting ever since. That initial Access database (through many updates since) now forms the backbone of my site (see sig).
I still come to WOS mainly because I feel like I know most of the regular posters - the forums are easily the best I've been to on the net and are now the only forums I regularly post to.
Nah, I just have no social life, so I have plenty of time to type my thoughts here.:cry:
In fact, I also type everyone elses' posts on this forum (except for yours, obviously), as (who'd have guessed?) you and I are the only real people on this forum - every one else is just a made up account that I post under,. Beanz, Karingal, Dunny, Monty Mole, Vampyre, Andrew Rollings, everyone, just figments of my imagination.
And who knows, maybe you are too? [Twightlight Zone music fades out]
It's fun. :smile:
Hi Gav,
Thanks for your email this morning, I'm having some trouble replying to your emails. Nothing important, but please check your PMs, I have forwarded the messages there instead,
Regards, DP