Be honest now...
When you got your (first) Spectrum, was it the computer you wanted?
And don't worry, this poll is anonymous, so your secret is safe, even if you're a foul traitor who should be hunted down and pelted with rotten eggs (or rotten egg games, like Dizzy's rubbish (I hate Dizzy!)).
Personally, I did want the Spectrum, as I'd been playing on some mate's machines, and was in awe of games like Ant Attack and Manic Miner. I can't remember if by then I'd played on a C64 or a BBC Micro, but if I had then they didn't sway my choice. I was given the Spectrum for Christmas (I went with my mum and gran to Boots in St. Helens to buy it) and never regretted it.
And don't worry, this poll is anonymous, so your secret is safe, even if you're a foul traitor who should be hunted down and pelted with rotten eggs (or rotten egg games, like Dizzy's rubbish (I hate Dizzy!)).
Personally, I did want the Spectrum, as I'd been playing on some mate's machines, and was in awe of games like Ant Attack and Manic Miner. I can't remember if by then I'd played on a C64 or a BBC Micro, but if I had then they didn't sway my choice. I was given the Spectrum for Christmas (I went with my mum and gran to Boots in St. Helens to buy it) and never regretted it.
Post edited by ewgf on
Comments
I don't care if people know! Yes it was the one I wanted!
.....and I'd do it again :D
Oh my golly-gosh, he's bought one!!!!
Yep, he did the right thing. :)
???
About 8 months later I realised that I could emulate the Speccy on the Amiga and I've never looked back!!
Later I've had some regrets - the ZX was OK to start with, but I could not afford other, better, computer for long time, and ZX became too limited in graphics and sound terms.
Same here. I'm missing some options like these:
* I didn't know the available computers at the time, but I'm glad it was the Spectrum. (<- my vote)
- I didn't know the available computers at the time, would have been ok with any other too.
- No, I didn't know the available computers at the time and I was kinda ok with the Spectrum, but looking back I'd have prefered another one.
I'm glad it was the Spectrum, because being the most sold computer in Spain there was plenty of software available, it was easy to exchange games with schoolmates, and taught me to program better than a C64 would have probably done. But an Amstrad CPC would have probably been ok too.
With my three best mates down my road all having a Speccy the choice was easy, get the same machine and have a ton of blank tapes ready !
But like i say if all my mates had a C64 i would have followed and got one of those.
My other good mate had a C64 so it was interesting seeing that, one of my good mates had an Oric (ha ha ha ha) until his parents realised their mistake and got him a Speccy. Another good mate had a BBC which i wasnt keen on at all but still interesting to see. And the neighbour had a Dragon (tries not to laugh) which again was good to see and then realise how great the Speccy was. Didnt know one person with an Amstrad.
However, a few years later I wanted an Atari ST and got a Hi-fi.
Close escape!
I didn't have any awareness about the differences between models. Although I got my Spectrum only in 1986, I was one of first amongst my mate to have a computer. Everything technical was delayed in Poland, we had for example bar codes and credit cards only in the 90ties.
We didnt' have any computer magazines and my parents imagined a computer to be something like from early James Bond films, gigantic machine occupying whole building and used to start World War Three. And my mom was seriously worried that using computers causes cancer :)
But I was wiser as we had arcade machines. I believed that a Spectrum would be something like arcade coinup, similar in graphics and sound quality :), just you don't need to throw coins into it.
I was dissapointed when it wasn't and what's more my colour Tv display everything in black and white - it used Secam system instead of Pal.
But later I discovered the Spectrum power and I didn't want anything else, ... well till 16bits machines become popular and affordable :)
my 48k packed up and the last game I do remember playing on it was green beret :)
I also had an atari 800xl .. but the tape loading times were VERY painful.. no drive = big hassle.
maybe it was 85-86 I got a c64... was "ok" ... but when you get a disk drive for it a whole world opens up.. and thats how I got into demos etc :) and got to know loads of people around the globe partly because I was in a demo group.
although a speccy was my first machine.. due to other things like the demo scene etc I have more a fondness for c64 in ways :)
even my amiga.. I swapped for a 128.. crazy huh? the amiga to me was a pretty soleless machine.. and VERY few games on it were amazing to me.. except a few like rainbow islands / battle squadren / silkworm.
I am GLAD I had a speccy first though.. tbh c64 was ?300-400 when it came out? so a lot for my folks as a kid.. also bbc micro was well ?400.. and well a bit schooly / middle class :)
all the machines i have owned have killer apps / games though :) .. so I don't get into the whole "vs" argument.. or try not to.
I will say that I liked the Spectrum as it made programming accessible to me. Where as the Commodore was not as easy to program.
With a C64 I wouldn't have had so many games.
Then I got the Speccy, and my mate got more games for his C64 and I realised I'd gotten the better deal in a lot of cases...(although there was the odd twinge of jealousy...Ghouls 'n' Ghosts on the C64 had the best music ever!)....and I also quite liked the fact the Speccy was classed as the underdog, and it felt more like I was "in the know" and that C64-users were just show-off toffs! :lol:
I got a C64 eventually (1998 ) anyway, so it didn't really matter...:D
in a way the lack of a decent basic forced people to learn ASM , so it was good in a sense :) . I did do basic on speccy though.
I have a multiface , but functionality wise maybe not as good as action replay ?!?! you could basically take apart ANYTHING using the action replay on c64 :)
if you can get your hands on either a retro replay or an action replay cart cheap(ish).. it's a must..
loading times will be a PITA otherwise.. + the fact the AR cart IS the nuts..e.g. u can mess with the graphics etc. failing that put "boot trilogic" menu on all your disks as c64 disk loading is slow without a fast loader.
Unfortunately this gadget was only very limited available for just normal people like me (among many other things). So I did bother all my relatives almost to death til I got in 1985 via a brothers chap an offer to by a 2nd-hand Spectrum 16K, obviously a "very grey" import.
I did know f*** all about this machine, I just wanted a computer - NOW!!!
Costed a fortune - 6000 EGM, a good years salary at the time - and what the heck i got for it: a box sized a big chocolate bar (the HC900 had a separate keyboard and a main unit bigger than the package of the hole Spectrum).
The money came from a heritage of my future ex-wifes grandmam and as I said - I just wanted a computer.
After firing it up the next surprise(s): BASIC commands via single key, what a weired keybord layout, only 32 characters per line...
To make a long story short (too late, I suppose):
As of today, I just thank God, my ex-wifes Grandma and that greedy bastard who sold it to me, that I could make my first contact with computing with that machine. For me it's much more than just an ingenious piece of engineering and my first computer - so many memorable things.
Thats probably why my "Sinclair Machine Park" today consists of a quite large amount of mainly 128Ks and a few QLs, representing a value of a years "Politbuero"- salary back in the days.
I did not wanted it initially but I am glad I got it finally.
(And a few months ago I bought aa A3010, upgraded it to 4 meg RAM and with a "CF-IDE-Harddisk")
Seems I am addicted to British computers...
Most of my mates had Spectrums, there were a couple of kids at school who had C64's and one kid who admitted to owning an Amstrad.
When I finally found out about the Commodore 64 and later the Commodore Amiga I decided not to pay any attention to it. Most of my friends replaced their Speccy with an Amiga. Traitors...
But for the longest time I never saw a Commodore, Amstrad or MSX. I was surrounded by people with Spectrums.
My first Spectrum was the plus 2 grey. And yes, it's a real Spectrum. And I still remember the emotion I felt when I entered the house and it was there, waiting for me.
* Before that I had a second-hand Intellivision and second-hand Atari VCS (briefly, until my Dad found out how much the games cartridges cost!)
Same here - to be honest I was actually a bit disappointed with the ZX81. Probably because I was quite young at the time, I didn't really understand its gaming limitations, such as the lack of colour & sound. As soon as I saw a Spectrum I was hooked.
(Could you imagine going back in time & giving a ZX81 owner a demo of something like Fallout 3 or Oblivion?!).
oooh no need for that!!!
Most people I went to school with had a speccy or the electron, can't remeber anyone wanting a 64. I think someone had an oric, but had a spectrum not long after. I can remember going to a friends house and playing ghetto blaster on hi 64 and I wasn't too impressed, he did show me some porn on disk tho'.
Out of all the machines I've had it always comes back to the speccy, I have an emulator running on everything I can. Out of all the computers and console I own none get played on as much as a speccy (unless it's emulation).
Must be a regional thing, it was Speccy or C64 round my way.
I only knew 5 other people with different computers, a friend of a friend owned a Dragon, one of my neighbours and my best mates sister owned a Vic 20, an old mate of mine was the only person I knew who had a CPC (and he was a posh kid :lol:), and an old school pal had a C16.
Later on most people had a miggy, but one of my cousins mates had an ST, and man did he love it :D
It was brought the parents that wanted their boy/girl to have the complete package; Computer, monitor and built in tape deck, but at a price they could afford.
I'm guessing had it been a stand alone computer that did not ship with a monitor or a built in tape deck it would have failed.
My dad also got me a couple of Spectrum books in advance to keep my impatience at bay and I would wonderingly browse through all those strange type-ins imagining them to look anything like the fantastic artwork on the book covers! And the day we went to the store to pick up the computer, hooking it up to the T.V back home and typing in LOAD ""... that day I knew this was the computer I always wanted.
Looking back I can only admire my dad's amazing foresight and wisdom in investing in a home computer when owning a computer was a relatively unknown phenomenon (and considered a luxury) in India.
Bytes:Chuntey - Spectrum tech blog.
Yeah, Renegade and Top Gun :D