Some of my mates had a 48K, a couple had a C16 and one had an Amstrad but the Spectrum seemed to be the best to me. It took years of pestering before i finally got one.
The games to me are easily accessible, user friendly and fun. I have great memories from back in the day of playing many of my games. I still have my +2 and it still works.
Spectrum is a thing of beauty... irresistible... unique... timeless... perfect in its imperfection...
...and hardware specs have nothing to do with it.. Spectrum is more than that... :)
It was my first computer, its ease of programming saved me at college, the size and styling attracted me, especially the size, who'd want to lug around some of the others? You could take it anywhere and guarantee someone would have a TV and tape machine you could borrow, I had a lot of work to do on it and took it around with me. It was, forgive me, cute! Friendly, helpful, whats not to like?
I've always loved how much could be gotten out of such a 'simple' machine. Music programs using a 1-bit beeper, enormous mazes to explore, fast full-screen action, people or small businesses (back then) doing their bookkeeping on it, etc etc. The ecosystem around it, the countless clones & peripherals, the vast software library.
These days, it's a combination of being pulled back to the magic days when homecomputers where a new thing, and appreciation for how modern hardware still somehow is unable to do what these machines do (2 second boot times, instant coding, understanding how the whole machine works, etc).
I'd be playing my Spectrum on very hot days like this, when kids my age would be out playing football.
"Why aren't you outside?" my mum would moan. The thing is, in front of my computer, I'd be wandering round the strangest lands in Monty Mole games, exploring The Mystery Of Arkham Manor, keeping the streets clean of thugs in Target Renegade, belting round tracks in Buggy Boy... why would I need to go outside?
I've played a lot of games in many plattforms after the Spectrum years, but I've never got the same fun.
A game like Splinter Cell is superb, I completed it, but you cannot compare it with Saboteur. A match with any EA Fifa game is great, but not as much as playing Match Day II. And so on.
But maybe is the nostalgia factor which distort my recalls :)
It was magic, as was any electronics in the early 80s. My sister had a necklace with a single blinking LED in it. That was incredible. And my brothers pen with an LCD clock in the end... Swoon.
But it was also easily accesible. I was given a Ladybird How To Program book. The first program in it was something like :
10 for n = 1 to 20
20 print at 0,b;" O"
30 pause 20
40 next n
Which made the O move acrove the screen. Oh, the power that gave me, straight from the command line! With a modern PC, I can't think of how you would easily replicate this as simply and as powerfully.
It was magic, as was any electronics in the early 80s. My sister had a necklace with a single blinking LED in it. That was incredible. And my brothers pen with an LCD clock in the end... Swoon.
But it was also easily accesible. I was given a Ladybird How To Program book. The first program in it was something like :
10 for n = 1 to 20
20 print at 0,b;" O"
30 pause 20
40 next n
Which made the O move acrove the screen. Oh, the power that gave me, straight from the command line! With a modern PC, I can't think of how you would easily replicate this as simply and as powerfully.
That doesn't work! I just typed it in on Fuse. I was pretty sure it wouldn't because nowhere is b specified. Maybe its a typo and you meant n? Yeah, that was the error! Oh and put in 15 CLS it looks much better.
That was fun. Simple yes but still fun to be able to spot the bug and test the change and then think of how to make it work better. Thats what I liked about Basic on the Spectrum. You could sit down with a friend typing in a listing from a mag or a book and when the inevitable bugs showed up you could find them which often was a function of the Basic (?) but if the bug wasn't in the syntax you had to figure out what went wrong and when it finally worked you could very often swap ideas on improvements.
In fact its this same friendly collegiate atmosphere that makes WoS my favourite place to go.
Fifa/ Pes run rings around Match Day, Emlyn Hughes etc. You'd have to be a masochist to prefer the Spectrum football games.
It's about feelings, recalls, ... The joyment I had when I first played MD or MD II was much better than when I played FIFA. Being 13, 14 years old vs being in my 20s or 30s.
I had an Amstrad CPC back then but, in my opinion, Spectrum games usually play better than any other 8 bit version (even if they tend to sound terrible ;-D). And of course, the community. Even these days, your can't find a site that comes close to WOS for any other platform.
I was so amazed with that little machine that from a certain point on I was just eager to find out how someone would pull off the next big arcade conversion on it!
Sure, there was a lot of disappointment but there was also some really great games and the feeling of good time spent with it.
That doesn't work! I just typed it in on Fuse. I was pretty sure it wouldn't because nowhere is b specified. Maybe its a typo and you meant n? Yeah, that was the error! Oh and put in 15 CLS it looks much better.
OK, so it should have been an n on line 2. But did you include the space before the O? Thats neater than CLS. Its figuring things out like this, when my age was still in single digits, that are such special memories.
Its still fun! Okay so I'm using emulation but it might as well be a Spectrum since its the Basic that matters, the instant gratification (assuming you got it right) but if you screw up there's still that helpful ? to remind you what you forgot about. It feels friendly, so much so that some days I'll just create a silly little program for the sheer joy of seeing the result appear and be able to show my wife what I've made happen.
Respect to all the game players who are the majority but for me its the 'do it yourself' aspect thats rewarding.
Oh man, Mick you are just bringing back fab memories for me. This is how I started, hacking away at a ZX81, just trying little programs and ideas in BASIC. By the time I got my Vic, I was writing little mini games and stuff just for the fun of it. Keep it up, its so much fun.
My favourite thing about the Speccy is the look of the games.
If you go backwards from the last proper 2D consoles, there's a fairly obvious degradation.
A NES looks like a rubbish SNES. Well the C64 to me looks like you've gone back further down that kind of route.
Whereas the Speccy doesn't really have anything that came after that did it better, so its look is kind of frozen in time. It somehow makes it seem less dated and it gives it a lot of character.
A NES looks like a rubbish SNES. Well the C64 to me looks like you've gone back further down that kind of route. Whereas the Speccy doesn't really have anything that came after that did it better
I like Spectrum the most but I've got nothing against Commodore computers (I own Vic20, SX64 and Amiga 600). For me Commodore vs Speccy graphics thing has always been weird in the sense that while the hi-res Speccy graphics look nice, the exact same graphics on Commodore 64 look really, really bad for some reason.
Just to give one example, Sacred Armour of Antiriad looks rather nice on Spectrum, but the exact same bitmaps used on the C64 look really really bad. The muddier colors can't be the only explanation.
Maybe it's the huge mismatch of style between colorful lo-res sprites and high-res 1-bit graphics, but this same thing also applies to C64 games that have only hi-res graphics. Games overlaying lo-res sprites and hi-res bitmaps look very very good, tho. Maybe it's just me.
Now that I warmed up I'll say that even Sam Coupe mode 2 games like Sphera look bad, too. And Amstrad games that are direct ports from Spectrum. And early Atari ST and Amiga games that look like they're just ports from 8 bits with extra color.
But Spectrum games - if they try even a little - look good (examples: Head over Heels, Green Beret, Glass, Saboteur) or downright amazing (examples: Dan Dare games, Extreme, Rex).
The Spectrum is irrevocably linked to my childhood and is part of my identity. Its heyday was a time when my peers were writing the games that I played and working for the magazines I read as game reviewers.
I did not personally have a Spectrum back then in the 80s, but my cousin had one, and so naturally I got to play and program with it many times, so I guess I am somewhat nostalgic about it but not nearly as much as I can be about my own old machines.
I re-discovered the ZX something like 4-5 years ago, nowadays I mostly only play the games now and then, and I like them because:
- they are quick to learn and fun to play when you don't have much time at hand
- in several cases the color limitations are brilliantly circumvented by excellent drawings
- there is a certain unique "vibe" in the color scheme but also in the sound effects
- the minimalistic appearance makes them very relaxing to play
About the last point, you should know that I generally hate games where a graphical overabundance distracts from gameplay. I don't mean that I necessarily want all games to be like arcade Asteroids, just that there is a level of visuals (amount of colors, details, effects, motion) beyond which I typically can't stand it and would rather do something else. All 8-bits machines are nearly immune to this problem, while most mid-90s consoles suffer from it.
I did not personally have a Spectrum back then in the 80s (...)
Me neither, I had a CPC. I discovered the Spectrum with Gerton Lunter's emulator. The Spectrum is 8-bit gaming without any bells and whistles, that's what I like.
Comments
I think you're in the wrong forum!
The games to me are easily accessible, user friendly and fun. I have great memories from back in the day of playing many of my games. I still have my +2 and it still works.
...and hardware specs have nothing to do with it.. Spectrum is more than that... :)
http://zx-pk.ru/
https://mb.boardhost.com/BikerMike/index.html?1593001131
These days, it's a combination of being pulled back to the magic days when homecomputers where a new thing, and appreciation for how modern hardware still somehow is unable to do what these machines do (2 second boot times, instant coding, understanding how the whole machine works, etc).
The games. The games!!
And -last but not least- the community around it.
That is all!
"Why aren't you outside?" my mum would moan. The thing is, in front of my computer, I'd be wandering round the strangest lands in Monty Mole games, exploring The Mystery Of Arkham Manor, keeping the streets clean of thugs in Target Renegade, belting round tracks in Buggy Boy... why would I need to go outside?
Not happy with the childish and pathetic way these forums have been manipulated by those with access to the database.
I've played a lot of games in many plattforms after the Spectrum years, but I've never got the same fun.
A game like Splinter Cell is superb, I completed it, but you cannot compare it with Saboteur. A match with any EA Fifa game is great, but not as much as playing Match Day II. And so on.
But maybe is the nostalgia factor which distort my recalls :)
But it was also easily accesible. I was given a Ladybird How To Program book. The first program in it was something like :
10 for n = 1 to 20
20 print at 0,b;" O"
30 pause 20
40 next n
Which made the O move acrove the screen. Oh, the power that gave me, straight from the command line! With a modern PC, I can't think of how you would easily replicate this as simply and as powerfully.
That doesn't work! I just typed it in on Fuse. I was pretty sure it wouldn't because nowhere is b specified. Maybe its a typo and you meant n? Yeah, that was the error! Oh and put in 15 CLS it looks much better.
That was fun. Simple yes but still fun to be able to spot the bug and test the change and then think of how to make it work better. Thats what I liked about Basic on the Spectrum. You could sit down with a friend typing in a listing from a mag or a book and when the inevitable bugs showed up you could find them which often was a function of the Basic (?) but if the bug wasn't in the syntax you had to figure out what went wrong and when it finally worked you could very often swap ideas on improvements.
In fact its this same friendly collegiate atmosphere that makes WoS my favourite place to go.
https://mb.boardhost.com/BikerMike/index.html?1593001131
It's about feelings, recalls, ... The joyment I had when I first played MD or MD II was much better than when I played FIFA. Being 13, 14 years old vs being in my 20s or 30s.
Regards.
Sure, there was a lot of disappointment but there was also some really great games and the feeling of good time spent with it.
Didn't we all ;)
Jet Set Fu****g Willy !
OK, so it should have been an n on line 2. But did you include the space before the O? Thats neater than CLS. Its figuring things out like this, when my age was still in single digits, that are such special memories.
Respect to all the game players who are the majority but for me its the 'do it yourself' aspect thats rewarding.
https://mb.boardhost.com/BikerMike/index.html?1593001131
@luny@mstdn.games
https://www.luny.co.uk
If you go backwards from the last proper 2D consoles, there's a fairly obvious degradation.
A NES looks like a rubbish SNES. Well the C64 to me looks like you've gone back further down that kind of route.
Whereas the Speccy doesn't really have anything that came after that did it better, so its look is kind of frozen in time. It somehow makes it seem less dated and it gives it a lot of character.
I like Spectrum the most but I've got nothing against Commodore computers (I own Vic20, SX64 and Amiga 600). For me Commodore vs Speccy graphics thing has always been weird in the sense that while the hi-res Speccy graphics look nice, the exact same graphics on Commodore 64 look really, really bad for some reason.
Just to give one example, Sacred Armour of Antiriad looks rather nice on Spectrum, but the exact same bitmaps used on the C64 look really really bad. The muddier colors can't be the only explanation.
Maybe it's the huge mismatch of style between colorful lo-res sprites and high-res 1-bit graphics, but this same thing also applies to C64 games that have only hi-res graphics. Games overlaying lo-res sprites and hi-res bitmaps look very very good, tho. Maybe it's just me.
Now that I warmed up I'll say that even Sam Coupe mode 2 games like Sphera look bad, too. And Amstrad games that are direct ports from Spectrum. And early Atari ST and Amiga games that look like they're just ports from 8 bits with extra color.
But Spectrum games - if they try even a little - look good (examples: Head over Heels, Green Beret, Glass, Saboteur) or downright amazing (examples: Dan Dare games, Extreme, Rex).
Paddy
Nearly everything about this wonderful machine has colored how I express my creativity.
I re-discovered the ZX something like 4-5 years ago, nowadays I mostly only play the games now and then, and I like them because:
- they are quick to learn and fun to play when you don't have much time at hand
- in several cases the color limitations are brilliantly circumvented by excellent drawings
- there is a certain unique "vibe" in the color scheme but also in the sound effects
- the minimalistic appearance makes them very relaxing to play
About the last point, you should know that I generally hate games where a graphical overabundance distracts from gameplay. I don't mean that I necessarily want all games to be like arcade Asteroids, just that there is a level of visuals (amount of colors, details, effects, motion) beyond which I typically can't stand it and would rather do something else. All 8-bits machines are nearly immune to this problem, while most mid-90s consoles suffer from it.
Me neither, I had a CPC. I discovered the Spectrum with Gerton Lunter's emulator. The Spectrum is 8-bit gaming without any bells and whistles, that's what I like.