I'd been playing with my brother's Spectrum+ computer regularly for months, so it was only natural I'd want a Spectrum of my own when he took his to work. My mum got me a 48K Spectrum and I was really happy with it. When I looked at INPUT magazine I was glad I had that instead of a 64 or a Dragon - though I might have been happy with an Electron (or a BBC) since I went in for programming more than playing games. Now the only machine I'm missing from those four is the Dragon!
I asked from my mother to buy an atari2600, and I describe it to her: "it's black and there are knobs on it". And she came home with a colour tv and a zx spectrum. (I didn't know there are computers called zx spectrum). I was 8 or 9 years old.
I asked from my mother to buy an atari2600, and I describe it to her: "it's black and there are knobs on it". And she came home with a colour tv and a zx spectrum. (I didn't know there are computers called zx spectrum). I was 8 or 9 years old.
Your mom did you a favour getting you the ZX and not the 2600. Go give her a kiss and a hug!
Totally glad I got the Speccy. My pal had a 16K version early on..so it was the first computer I really got to know. Sure, I marvelled at C64 graphics and sound, but it just felt alien when plastering about with one in shops...and I liked the name Dragon 32(but just the name)..the BBC had no games..the Atari looked exotic, but what the hell was an Atari? Nope Speccy mania ensued and rightly so.
Now the only machine I'm missing from those four is the Dragon!
I have 2 here.. 1 working and 1 I need to fix.. BUT there is someone who always outbids me with 2 seconds to go.. so if your on ebay, don't get disheartned by it, so far I've been snipe bid 30+ times and 1 of the sellers confirmed it was always the same person. I wouldn't mind but unless they are programming ASM on it, the dis-assembler cart is no use to em.
yes I wanted a spectrum... BUT when I got a c64 it was great..
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.
My story is almost indetical as yours. :)
I really wanted Spectrum 48k and i had it until the end of 86 or early 87, then i got c64..
The only difference is that i had the Amstrad 464 (for several month) but i was not satisfied with green monitor and swapped him for c64 again, untili i get Amiga 500 in 1991.
There's a lot of dragons in Wales. They turn up at carboots all the time. Were they not made in Swansea?
2 factories.. i think they either up or down sized..
1 was port talbot (was that where talbot cars were made ? ) .. I only know it because of the ferry to ireland is near by :)
and yer swansea was another place I think.. I'm looking for an SD card type add-on for it.. same with oric atmos and ti-99/4 .. although the ti-99 has one :)
the thing that made me laugh with the dragon.. OVER complex PSU + the logo is paper... WTF ..
1 of the dragons I got from France.. sadly it's an ex-dragon.
I already had a zx81 and vic20 when I got the speccy, then I got a c64 shortly thereafter....so it wasn't really a one or the other choice...I got the speccy because I wanted one....as well as others.
Absolutely.... it was Sinclair all the way for me. Can't remember why, think it was probably my friends C16 that put me off. That was an awful limited little thing.
I have 2 here.. 1 working and 1 I need to fix.. BUT there is someone who always outbids me with 2 seconds to go.. so if your on ebay, don't get disheartned by it, so far I've been snipe bid 30+ times and 1 of the sellers confirmed it was always the same person. I wouldn't mind but unless they are programming ASM on it, the dis-assembler cart is no use to em.
I did look at them on eBay a while back but didn't go as far as bidding for one. Space at home is limited at the moment so I turned to pocket computers instead. The Electron, C64, A1200 and Acorn 3010 were all impulse buys :-)
Absolutely.... it was Sinclair all the way for me. Can't remember why, think it was probably my friends C16 that put me off. That was an awful limited little thing.
I have a soft spot for the C16 as I owned a Plus/4 (the 64K version). Feels like a C64 but with a proper BASIC and a machine code monitor built in. I'd probably make space for a C16 or Plus/4 now.
I always wanted a Speccy from the first day I saw one - it looked like A Computer Should Look Like - small, black and compact. Not an unwieldy breadbox like the VIC-20 or C-64, and a fraction of the size of the Beeb.
I'd also messed around a bit with the VIC-20 and C64, and the BASIC was just dreadful, worse than the ZX81 that I had already used. Death by a million POKEs.
In the end I came to appreciate the Beeb greatly, thanks to its very good BASIC interpreter and built in assembler, but the Speccy still had its beauty of getting so much out of so little.
I already had a zx81 and vic20 when I got the speccy, then I got a c64 shortly thereafter....so it wasn't really a one or the other choice...I got the speccy because I wanted one....as well as others.
How old are you beanz ?! Back in the 80's i was about 12 when i got my Speccy, back then it was a fair bit of money and the folks i'm sure thought it might be a 1 year fad.
Theres no way after buying a speccy i could have got another machine a year or two later! Surprised how many you had back then ! Did you get paid a lot on your paper-round ?!
I have a soft spot for the C16 as I owned a Plus/4 (the 64K version). Feels like a C64 but with a proper BASIC and a machine code monitor built in. I'd probably make space for a C16 or Plus/4 now.
Same here f'me, though I had a C64 before going on to buying a C16. C16 is kinda cute. C64 is, ummm... not. :)
I had a ZX81 and did a fair bit of programming on it plus typing in loads of games / programs from magazines. I couldn't afford to buy commercial games on my paper round money.
When the Spectrum was announced I decided I had to get one for (honestly) the better keyboard and the other obvious advances like the RAM pack not falling off every 5 minutes.
The problem was that it cost 25 weeks paper round money (assuming I saved every penny) for the 16K version so I came to an arrangement to get half of it for Christmas off my parents and I paid for the other half.
So the (pre) order was placed and duly arrived, quite a long time later due to Sinclair's delays and it was DOA. So it got sent back and a new arrived a couple of weeks later. They replaced my 16K with a 48K which was well out of my financial league because they didn't have any 16K's at the time.
I never considered any other machine because the only thing that could compare at the time was the Vic 20 and it was far too expensive and only had 4k of RAM. Non of the other machines like the C64, BBC et al had been released and they were all far too expensive.
My friends across the street had a 48k rubber key speccy. I saw them playing Death Chase and later Knightlore and was instantly hooked. I really, really wanted one and begged my parents for one. My parents ended up buying me a C16. :( I had some fun with it but the games were very basic when compared to the Speccy. I think it must have only been about 6 months later that I sold the c16 to my cousin and my friends across the street helped me find a second hand 48k. I think I got the Speccy in 84. When the Sinclair 128k came out I got that straight away. I ended up selling my Speccy stuff to get a Master System. What year did the Master System come out in the UK. Moved from the Master System to the Amiga from there I went on to PC's. Although during the 90's I did get to own a C64, PC Engine, Playstation, N64 and Atari Lynx. PC Engine was/is awesome by the way (Bomberman!!!!).
forget that , it's all about the pacland ;) there were a few shootem up 's on turbo gfx / pce that I liked also
Me and my mates played Bomberman (the original or one of it's sequels) pretty much every weekend on 5 player for about 5 years....We were VERY good at it! When we had traded in our machines we missed it very much and had withdrawals. I have tried versions on other systems and they always mange to screw it up somehow by trying to do a modern take on the graphics or by throwing in stupid extras.
2 factories.. i think they either up or down sized..
1 was port talbot (was that where talbot cars were made ? ) .. I only know it because of the ferry to ireland is near by :)
and yer swansea was another place I think.. I'm looking for an SD card type add-on for it.. same with oric atmos and ti-99/4 .. although the ti-99 has one :)
the thing that made me laugh with the dragon.. OVER complex PSU + the logo is paper... WTF ..
1 of the dragons I got from France.. sadly it's an ex-dragon.
I almost got a boxed one, but then I thought sheesh I got Sinclair's, Commodores, Acorns, and now I want to start on another manufacturer, where am I going to put it.
I asked if we could get a computer because I saw one on a kids TV program when I was off School sick. Don't know what the machine was - I think it was a VIC-20 - but I didn't know that at the time.
Nothing was really said apart from "maybe" - I think my Dad was interested and soon the Speccy arrived.
To be honest I was slightly disappointed because it wasn't the one I saw on the TV program - not that you would have noticed any disappointment.
A couple of minutes later however and the horizons tape convinced me the machine was great and did more than I thought(how sad is that!!)
And then not long after, Horace Goes Skiing had me hooked. And then the C90s started coming home from my mums workplace packed with goodies like Valhalla, Bugaboo, Deathchase etc....life has been one big game fest ever since.
So anonymity aside - I've voted for "Yes and no; I wanted a different computer, but in time became glad that I'd got the Spectrum" - but the "...in time..." was only about about 1 minute!
"I should use simulator loosely 'cos I don't think it's quite like this on the beach with helicopters and fires and the jumping beach buggy" - paulisthebest3uk 2020.
Yes it was the only one i was interested in , my cousin got a 16k spectrum around january 83 with a few games (originally he ordered it for christmas ) , we spent weeks typing in listings from sinclair user / tim hartnell books and he made a c90 full of them for me when i finally saved up enough to get mine which along with parents help took about 6 months or so.
None of the 3 possible choices works perfectly for me (gonna settle for "yes and no" though). It's a bit of a yarn:
When we got our first computer in 1984 I was only 10 and happy enough with our Atari 2600. My mum had picked up a cheap 16k Spectrum from one of those classified ads people put up in supermarkets. Included was one tape full of pirated games (good ones like Jetpac, Cookie, Tranz Am too), we loaded those games with a walkman and I was hooked.
It wasn't even my own computer at that time as we had gotten it for the whole family, but as it was permanently set up on my desk it sort of 'became' mine. A few months later I allowed myself to get foolishly ripped off by a friend of my brother who offered me an Atari 600 for it - which of course looked more 'proper' and powerful with its 'real' keyboard. But I didn't even have a tape recorder for it and only managed to get a (sucky) cartridge game.
Can't remember what happened to the Atari but in early 1985 my uncle had picked up a CPC 464, and both my brother and me were very impressed with it. Half a year later my brother got his own CPC 464, I enjoyed playing games on it a lot and wanted one myself. Though in the end I got a 48k Spectrum, must have been early 1986; I assume I got this one because it was pretty cheap in comparison to other computers, though if I hadn't known the Spectrum from the 16k model I may have ended up with something else, a CPC or the uber-uber?-omnipresent-in-krautland breadbin.
...I may have ended up with something else, a CPC or the uber-uber?-omnipresent-in-krautland breadbin.
Schneider CPC was a huge competitor to the ***don't mention the war or the name of this computer*** though I think. CPC sold very well in Germany and almost to the end of the GDR there was even a clone made of it (named KC Kompakt I afaik).
Most important thing is from my POW: "No, I wanted a different computer, and still wish I'd gotten a different machine" got zero, null, none, nada quotes...
I definitely wanted a Spectrum. I had been living in black-and-white land for about a year with my wobbly-rampacked ZX81 and had had loads of fun with it but when I saw a Spectrum for the first time it felt like a natural progression.
That first time is seared into my memory. I'd gone round a friend's house & his old man had recently bought one. They were playing Mind the Meteors on the Sinclair Games 3 tape - I'll never forget how blown away I was by those big bright coloured stars against the darkness of space coming out of the family TV in the corner of a darkened living room. It's difficult to decribe the effect it had on my young mind. I started nagging my parents straight away for a Speccy.
My first game (well, after Thro the Wall) was Spectral Invaders, which I played solidly for days. Followed by the Horace games, The Hobbit, Valhalla - wonder of wonders these games were! And then along came a certain miner..
I was quite lucky in that I had access to 2 computers. My dad brought home a BBC Micro from work and I love that computer too to this day. Gobble a Ghost, Orbiter & Penetrator didn't get a look in after I'd played Snapper, Planetiods & Rocket Raid! But if I had to choose between the two it would have to be the Speccy.
my Grandad gave me spectrum when i was 4 and never looked back. Next computer after that was a +2 and didn't want anything else until the megadrive in 1995.
i was intruiged by the commodore 64 back then and wondered why people thought they were so great... but playing on the emulators for it i'm glad i was brought up with the ZX.
I still play on the Spectrum now more than i do the Xbox 360 or Wii... either on Emulator or real thing...
Comments
:lol:
Scary man that, Donald Sutherland !!
Your mom did you a favour getting you the ZX and not the 2600. Go give her a kiss and a hug!
http://mister_beep.republika.pl/
I have 2 here.. 1 working and 1 I need to fix.. BUT there is someone who always outbids me with 2 seconds to go.. so if your on ebay, don't get disheartned by it, so far I've been snipe bid 30+ times and 1 of the sellers confirmed it was always the same person. I wouldn't mind but unless they are programming ASM on it, the dis-assembler cart is no use to em.
"Here be dragons!" kinda thing, huh?
:p
My story is almost indetical as yours. :)
I really wanted Spectrum 48k and i had it until the end of 86 or early 87, then i got c64..
The only difference is that i had the Amstrad 464 (for several month) but i was not satisfied with green monitor and swapped him for c64 again, untili i get Amiga 500 in 1991.
http://zx-pk.ru/
2 factories.. i think they either up or down sized..
1 was port talbot (was that where talbot cars were made ? ) .. I only know it because of the ferry to ireland is near by :)
and yer swansea was another place I think.. I'm looking for an SD card type add-on for it.. same with oric atmos and ti-99/4 .. although the ti-99 has one :)
the thing that made me laugh with the dragon.. OVER complex PSU + the logo is paper... WTF ..
1 of the dragons I got from France.. sadly it's an ex-dragon.
I did look at them on eBay a while back but didn't go as far as bidding for one. Space at home is limited at the moment so I turned to pocket computers instead. The Electron, C64, A1200 and Acorn 3010 were all impulse buys :-)
I have a soft spot for the C16 as I owned a Plus/4 (the 64K version). Feels like a C64 but with a proper BASIC and a machine code monitor built in. I'd probably make space for a C16 or Plus/4 now.
I'd also messed around a bit with the VIC-20 and C64, and the BASIC was just dreadful, worse than the ZX81 that I had already used. Death by a million POKEs.
In the end I came to appreciate the Beeb greatly, thanks to its very good BASIC interpreter and built in assembler, but the Speccy still had its beauty of getting so much out of so little.
How old are you beanz ?! Back in the 80's i was about 12 when i got my Speccy, back then it was a fair bit of money and the folks i'm sure thought it might be a 1 year fad.
Theres no way after buying a speccy i could have got another machine a year or two later! Surprised how many you had back then ! Did you get paid a lot on your paper-round ?!
Same here f'me, though I had a C64 before going on to buying a C16. C16 is kinda cute. C64 is, ummm... not. :)
When the Spectrum was announced I decided I had to get one for (honestly) the better keyboard and the other obvious advances like the RAM pack not falling off every 5 minutes.
The problem was that it cost 25 weeks paper round money (assuming I saved every penny) for the 16K version so I came to an arrangement to get half of it for Christmas off my parents and I paid for the other half.
So the (pre) order was placed and duly arrived, quite a long time later due to Sinclair's delays and it was DOA. So it got sent back and a new arrived a couple of weeks later. They replaced my 16K with a 48K which was well out of my financial league because they didn't have any 16K's at the time.
I never considered any other machine because the only thing that could compare at the time was the Vic 20 and it was far too expensive and only had 4k of RAM. Non of the other machines like the C64, BBC et al had been released and they were all far too expensive.
forget that , it's all about the pacland ;) there were a few shootem up 's on turbo gfx / pce that I liked also
Me and my mates played Bomberman (the original or one of it's sequels) pretty much every weekend on 5 player for about 5 years....We were VERY good at it! When we had traded in our machines we missed it very much and had withdrawals. I have tried versions on other systems and they always mange to screw it up somehow by trying to do a modern take on the graphics or by throwing in stupid extras.
I almost got a boxed one, but then I thought sheesh I got Sinclair's, Commodores, Acorns, and now I want to start on another manufacturer, where am I going to put it.
Nothing was really said apart from "maybe" - I think my Dad was interested and soon the Speccy arrived.
To be honest I was slightly disappointed because it wasn't the one I saw on the TV program - not that you would have noticed any disappointment.
A couple of minutes later however and the horizons tape convinced me the machine was great and did more than I thought(how sad is that!!)
And then not long after, Horace Goes Skiing had me hooked. And then the C90s started coming home from my mums workplace packed with goodies like Valhalla, Bugaboo, Deathchase etc....life has been one big game fest ever since.
So anonymity aside - I've voted for "Yes and no; I wanted a different computer, but in time became glad that I'd got the Spectrum" - but the "...in time..." was only about about 1 minute!
When we got our first computer in 1984 I was only 10 and happy enough with our Atari 2600. My mum had picked up a cheap 16k Spectrum from one of those classified ads people put up in supermarkets. Included was one tape full of pirated games (good ones like Jetpac, Cookie, Tranz Am too), we loaded those games with a walkman and I was hooked.
It wasn't even my own computer at that time as we had gotten it for the whole family, but as it was permanently set up on my desk it sort of 'became' mine. A few months later I allowed myself to get foolishly ripped off by a friend of my brother who offered me an Atari 600 for it - which of course looked more 'proper' and powerful with its 'real' keyboard. But I didn't even have a tape recorder for it and only managed to get a (sucky) cartridge game.
Can't remember what happened to the Atari but in early 1985 my uncle had picked up a CPC 464, and both my brother and me were very impressed with it. Half a year later my brother got his own CPC 464, I enjoyed playing games on it a lot and wanted one myself. Though in the end I got a 48k Spectrum, must have been early 1986; I assume I got this one because it was pretty cheap in comparison to other computers, though if I hadn't known the Spectrum from the 16k model I may have ended up with something else, a CPC or the uber-uber?-omnipresent-in-krautland breadbin.
Schneider CPC was a huge competitor to the ***don't mention the war or the name of this computer*** though I think. CPC sold very well in Germany and almost to the end of the GDR there was even a clone made of it (named KC Kompakt I afaik).
Most important thing is from my POW: "No, I wanted a different computer, and still wish I'd gotten a different machine" got zero, null, none, nada quotes...
That first time is seared into my memory. I'd gone round a friend's house & his old man had recently bought one. They were playing Mind the Meteors on the Sinclair Games 3 tape - I'll never forget how blown away I was by those big bright coloured stars against the darkness of space coming out of the family TV in the corner of a darkened living room. It's difficult to decribe the effect it had on my young mind. I started nagging my parents straight away for a Speccy.
My first game (well, after Thro the Wall) was Spectral Invaders, which I played solidly for days. Followed by the Horace games, The Hobbit, Valhalla - wonder of wonders these games were! And then along came a certain miner..
I was quite lucky in that I had access to 2 computers. My dad brought home a BBC Micro from work and I love that computer too to this day. Gobble a Ghost, Orbiter & Penetrator didn't get a look in after I'd played Snapper, Planetiods & Rocket Raid! But if I had to choose between the two it would have to be the Speccy.
WWW
my Grandad gave me spectrum when i was 4 and never looked back. Next computer after that was a +2 and didn't want anything else until the megadrive in 1995.
i was intruiged by the commodore 64 back then and wondered why people thought they were so great... but playing on the emulators for it i'm glad i was brought up with the ZX.
I still play on the Spectrum now more than i do the Xbox 360 or Wii... either on Emulator or real thing...