[Jumbo_Holden]

After years & years of retro gaming with my nes, snes, mega drive and n64 I've recently bought a ZX Spectrum togther with a box of games at a car boot sale.


WHERE HAS THIS THING BEEN ALL MY LIFE! ....AWESOME!

[Ancient IDTV]

I bought one in January '84. It was a great games machine. I still enjoy some of the games via emulation. HAve you visited World of Spectrum? It's an excellent site, and the people on the forums are helpful.

http://www.worldofspectrum.org/

[Jumbo_Holden]

Just joined.

[andyscott83]

That was my first ever computer.

I remember it well, sitting for 5 minutes wwaiting on it loading up was all part of it, with the multi coloured lines up the screen and the mad buzzing noise it made.

Those joysticks were so much better than modern day control pads.

[tellytart1]

And rewinding the tape and trying again when a glitch caused the loader to fail.

[Pootmatoot]

Originally Posted by andyscott83

That was my first ever computer.

I remember it well, sitting for 5 minutes wwaiting on it loading up was all part of it, with the multi coloured lines up the screen and the mad buzzing noise it made.

Those joysticks were so much better than modern day control pads.

Oh, the hours I spent playing/pausing the cassette player and fiddling with the volume and praying that my Acorn Electron would load the damn game.

[Jumbo_Holden]

Originally Posted by andyscott83

I remember it well, sitting for 5 minutes wwaiting on it loading up was all part of it, with the multi coloured lines up the screen and the mad buzzing noise it made..

I'm enjoying that part of it more than the games themselves in truth.

[Kolin Klingon]

Oh no! Stay away from Manic Minor and Jet Set Willy! They will take over your life and drive you mad!

[Ancient IDTV]

Don't agree about the joysticks. I find some of the games much easier to control with a 360 gamepad. A lot more sturdy, too, if you want to revisit the likes of Daley Thompson's Decathlon!

Favourite games:-

Chuckie Egg
Cookie
Lunar Jetman
Sabre Wulf
Knight Lore
Laser Squad
Deathchase
Arcadia
Manic Miner

[Kolin Klingon]

Question: How do you hook one of those up to a modern Flat Panel TV?
Will it tune into the aerial connector?

[Jumbo_Holden]

Originally Posted by Kolin Klingon

Question: How do you hook one of those up to a modern Flat Panel TV?
Will it tune into the aerial connector?

I got it to work with the RF (analogue tuning it was the only signal it found) but picture quality was really bad (for some reason) but I've had a shop in town mod it for composite for me so works perfect now.

[Aarghawasp!]

Pyramid was good but all the faffing with cassettes and volume put me off computers until I got online in '96.

[Akane Tendo]

There are spectrum emulators out there with games. Much easier.

[2shy2007]

Originally Posted by Kolin Klingon

Oh no! Stay away from Manic Minor and Jet Set Willy! They will take over your life and drive you mad!

I never did manage to finish either, wonder if I could 30 years on? they were rather frustrating

[geniusgirl]

Jet set Willy ftw

[Akane Tendo]

I liked Rapscallion.

[rory r]

Magic memories. The Great Escape was a brilliant game.

[tellytart1]

Originally Posted by Kolin Klingon

Question: How do you hook one of those up to a modern Flat Panel TV?
Will it tune into the aerial connector?

Yep, the Speccy had a standard PAL output on the back, so plug it into the aerial on your plasma etc, and tune it in as if it was an analogue TV channel. It was usually on channel 36 or thereabouts.

[stoatie]

Originally Posted by Ancient IDTV

Don't agree about the joysticks. I find some of the games much easier to control with a 360 gamepad. A lot more sturdy, too, if you want to revisit the likes of Daley Thompson's Decathlon!

Favourite games:-

Chuckie Egg
Cookie
Lunar Jetman
Sabre Wulf
Knight Lore
Laser Squad
Deathchase
Arcadia
Manic Miner

DUDE. Lunar Jetman. How I loved that bastard.

The original Alien game is pretty awesome, too- kind of unique strategy/RPG which isn't really like anything anyone's done since.

Although back to Lunar Jetman- pretty much anything released by Ultimate Play The Game is guaranteed awesome.

And Elite, of course. Always Elite.

Plus Skool Daze...

...ah, the Spectrum. Beautiful little machine.

[2shy2007]

Knightmare was the worst, was there any way to actually get out of that room early on?

[Gilbertoo]

Did anyone ever finish Grand National?

[Ancient IDTV]

I only owned mine for sixteen months. Sold it so I could concentrate on my 'O' Levels. Once they were finished I bought an Amstrad CPC 464, which had an in-built tape deck. Good times.

[Keiō Line]

commodore 64. real keyboard, real computer, real games.

Let the 'fan boy wars' begin.

[Kolin Klingon]

Originally Posted by 2shy2007

I never did manage to finish either, wonder if I could 30 years on? they were rather frustrating

Nor did I! I still have nightmares about Skylabs.

I had a friend who was a whiz at games and whilst he got much further than me, even he didn't finish it.

[Jumbo_Holden]

i've got an spectrum + by the way, which has the better keyboard.