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Modern uses for the Spectrum 48K

TrebzTrebz
edited October 2008 in Sinclair Miscellaneous
Dear all

Im new to the forum.

I owned a Spectrum 48K back in the early eighties and have very fond memories of waiting hours for games to load then failing, oh how i miss the good old days.

This morning i had a thought whilst driving into the office:

How could a Spectrum 48K be utilised in a modern household?

Surely there's a use for them in the house. To at least keep the old days alive.

Your thoughts and comments are more than welcome as i'd love to have one in the house running the doorbell system or something similar.

Regards

Trebz
Post edited by Trebz on

Comments

  • Shaun.BebbingtonShaun.Bebbington
    edited October 2008
    Well, I think there is the possibility of networking now.

    There's also www.cronosoft.co.uk and http://cezgs.computeremuzone.com/?l=en; new games are good fun.

    Regards,

    Shaun.
  • TrebzTrebz
    edited October 2008
    Hello

    I was'nt thinking about games to be honest.

    For example i have recently converted an old MS Xbox into a Media Center.

    So, what else, other than games, can we use the 'Speccy 48' for?

    :-)
  • ZnorXmanZnorXman
    edited October 2008
    Playing AY tunes?






















    Oh, by the way ... welcome to WoS! :-)
  • Shaun.BebbingtonShaun.Bebbington
    edited October 2008
    Trebz wrote: »
    Hello

    I was'nt thinking about games to be honest.

    For example i have recently converted an old MS Xbox into a Media Center.

    So, what else, other than games, can we use the 'Speccy 48' for?

    :-)
    Doing your Mathematics homework with the calculator funtion on the 128... or using the PRINT function with 48K BASIC.

    Regards,

    Shaun.
  • WinstonWinston
    edited October 2008
    Now it can be networked, with a very simple additional circuit it can be used for home automation, controllable over the internet. It's good for this task - uses very little power (at full pelt, probably less than a PC on standby), and it's easy to control hardware directly with it.
  • Scottie_ukScottie_uk
    edited October 2008
    Trebz wrote: »
    Dear all

    How could a Spectrum 48K be utilised in a modern household?

    Fill an empty case with concrete and use it as a door stop.

    Use it to prop up that wobly table.

    Get several of them take out their rubber keys stich them together and you have a retro themed non-slip bath mat.
    Calling all ASCII Art Architects Visit the WOS Wall of Text and contribute: https://www.yourworldoftext.com/wos
  • beanzbeanz
    edited October 2008
    A coffee table....


    1. Get several retro computers including the speccy.
    2. Either buy or make a glass topped display coffee table
    (something like this http://www.peterconsalvi.com/products/pics/anewcoffeechry1x.jpg)
    3. Or better yet sent them solid in hard plastic.
    4. Invite your saddo friends around for coffee and listen to the ooohhhs and ahhhs.
  • JuanF. RamirezJuanF. Ramirez
    edited October 2008
    Turn your beloved Speccy into a modern laptop: :smile:

    spectrum-zx-laptop.jpg
  • TrebzTrebz
    edited October 2008
    Winston wrote: »
    Now it can be networked, with a very simple additional circuit it can be used for home automation, controllable over the internet. It's good for this task - uses very little power (at full pelt, probably less than a PC on standby), and it's easy to control hardware directly with it.

    Ok, this sounds interesting.

    Can you give me some examples of what you mean by 'automation'.

    Also, what types of 'Hardware' could i potantially control?

    Im wanting a winter project to keep me from going insane on these long cold nights locked in the house. I really fancy grabbing an old speccy from somewhere and 'Tinkering' about with it a bit.

    Thanks
  • ingoingo
    edited October 2008
    Some of my Spectrum hardware is used by my son to simply get into contact with programming. Actually he made a diorama with a set of traffic lights. These lights are controlled by a ZX Spectrum 128k via the parallel port of the MB02+IDE interface. This way he learn to contact hardware to a computer and to program simple control procedures. The program can immediately be checked without compiling and without respect to a lot of system requirements or limitations (as in windows). The Spectrum offers with Basic a real Beginners language and some of the old documentations and beginners books are well made for children to begin with programming without frustation.

    So this is one big reason to keep these old hardware running in a modern household. One other reason is to bring it (at minimum) one time in the year to a spectrum user meeting. There I always meet very good friends - because Spectrum users mostly are nice poeple to speak with and to have a nice get together.

    Ingo.
  • DanforthDanforth
    edited October 2008
    ingo wrote: »
    Some of my Spectrum hardware is used by my son to simply get into contact with programming. Actually he made a diorama with a set of traffic lights. These lights are controlled by a ZX Spectrum 128k via the parallel port of the MB02+IDE interface...

    Any chance of some pics of that in operation? It sounds very cool :)
  • JuanF. RamirezJuanF. Ramirez
    edited October 2008
    This book can be useful (complete book scanned):

    Make and program your own robots

    MakeAndProgramYourOwnRobots.jpg
  • JuanF. RamirezJuanF. Ramirez
    edited October 2008
    Also try making an infoseek search introducing search expression 'robot' for 'books'...
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