Playing jetpack on a friend's specks made me save a year to buy my 16k spec. £99.99 if memory serves me. What a game. Watching this video makes me want to find my old specky out the loft. I wonder if it still works. I wrote a few basic games on it. Ahhhh the memory's. :)
i had a genuine 48k spectrum back in the day and i enjoyed many years on the ol speccy before entering the world of the commodore amiga500...i will always have a soft spot for the ol speccy.
Great video! I owned a ZX Spectrum back in the early 80s. It was a 16K model which I upgraded to 48K with some chips bought from a company with an advert in the back pages of Your Computer magazine. I spent many happy hours programming, typing in listings, and of course playing games on it. Atic Atac and Jetpac were two of my favourites too! I don't have my original Speccy any more, but I bought another one from eBay a while ago, and I bought the DivMMC as well. It takes pride of place in my collection and is my favourite 80s home computer, just beating the Acorn Electron, another machine I spent hours on.
Just came across this. I have the Divmmc Future too, it's amazing with all those new and classic games on, I miss the loading screens a bit, but it just nice to instantly play them and I prefer it that way. A brilliant episode of my favourite 8-bit here. And that HD interface it very tempting too for my channel lol. Liked and subbed mate 👍
Very informative video. Thank you. I am waiting for the release of "The Spectrum" from retro games. I'll compare after that because i have also a vintage ZX Spectrum.
Nice video and nice clean setups;! Only recently I became a Spectrum user . Coming from the Atari 8bit camp, I was interested in Speccy's unique graphical and sound aesthetics compared to the rest of the bunch. Two three years later I managed to get and repair 5 different ZX Spectrum models (and built a ZX pico), upgrade a 48k to the max(sd loader, sound card, 128k),I designed and built a case to ptotect all those cards hanging at the back.... from my cat of course. Even if I don't enjoy spectrum games like I do on the systems I grew up with, I daily fire up one of my ZXs and browse the vast software library that's now available. I also like to imagine the reactions kids had back in the day especially with a good game! We are so lucky today to have access at so many systems of our past.
Yes, for about a minute, then it gets old, quick. At the time it was a pain, but it was a pain borne in order to play the games. It was, however, a far better step on than typing in and debugging pages from a magazine ...
I had the zx81 16k expansion pack and a vox box speech synth. Games came in text you had to type them in and save then load. Scramble took ages to write but played great.
Got a 16K for Christmas 1982, upped to 48K for my birthday in August. Best thing ever 🤩 Today I'm using a "Recreated ZX Spectrum" bluetooth keyboard which links perfectly to my android tablet running a very versatile emulator. Indistinguishable from using my original, the emulator can be set to a variety of different Spectrum models, clones, and even the ZX81 if that's your thing 👍
I too got a 16k Spectrum for Christmas in 1982 and later saved my pocket money for a "rampack" to take it to 48K. If I remember correctly (without Googling it), the 16K had grey keys and the 48K had blue keys? Before this, I also used to borrow my big brother's ZX81 which was 1K until he upgraded that with a "16K Kayde Ram Pack". I remember classics such as "1K Breakout". Can you imagine a game written in 1024 bytes or less!
Word to the wise. I destroyed our spectrum by hot plugging the joystick adapter into the expansion port while it was powered on. I was probably about 12 at the time.
Great video. I thought I recognised the voice! We met at the indie section at Blackpool. I'm the retrogaming odyssey guy. You're a man of many talents. I'm a c64 guy but I have a few speccys hanging around, and will buy both of those. Thanks for the great content.
I'll allways have fond memories of the 48k+ I used to have. I must have been around 14 when I got it. At the time I also had an Amstrad CPC 464 and later on I got a Commodore 64. So back then I didn't have to worry about whether a game was better on Amstrad, C64 or ZX, I had all 3!
I'm guessing it was often best on the C64 - or is that not fair? I still very much like the other two, although never got to play with a CPC that often back in the day.
@@pixel_fandango It depended a lot on the skills of the programmers and the time for creating a game for any specific platform. The ZX Spectrum had more CPU power and thus did best in 3D games or complex simulationns. Starglider, Carrier Command and Freescape-based games like Driller and Castle Master work best on the Spectrum. The C64 was created with 2D games in mind and often steals the show with hardware support for scrolling, sprites and sound. But the C64's BASIC sucks badly. Excellent programming skills overcame the limitations of any 8-bit system. That's why I am an 8-bit retro gamer. The achievements of those coding geniusses back then are simply awesome.
Back in the day i borrowed my brothers Kempston interface & it looked fairly badic, so i copied it and made my own. We all learned to play Chaos on our spectrum & today i still have the pc version called Chaos groove & have a quick 8 player round in the evening.
i'm loving the new Spectrum Touch. And hopefully next month the recreation of the 48k with memory card And Save points. Available from smiths and argos. 40 years since I had the original.
Wouldn't the DivMMC Enjoy Pro ONE be a better fit? I bought it because it has 2 joystick ports, you can set them up as combinations of Kempston / Sinclair / Cursor / Fuller for the 48K, and Kempston / Cursor / Fuller for the 128K since it already has 2 Sinclair ports.
I'm looking forward to getting a Retro Games 'The Spectrum' to play with too. I'm a customer just like everyone else and don't get given stuff ahead of release. That means I give a very honest opinion, but I also have to wait in line. November release I believe.
If you are also into new games then do yourself a favour and play all Zosya games you can find: Angels, Valley of Rains, Metal Man Remixed, The Dark, Drift, Northern Lights are my favourites. Manic Pietro, Space Monsters meet the Hardy and all the other games based on multicolour engines like Bifrost and Nirvana are jaw-droppingly good, too. Have fun!!
I'm not a fan of adding fantasy graphics and sound capabilities to old computers. The SAM Coupe was a historical "super Spectrum", a genuine contemporary, whereas devices like the "ULA Plus" and the "Spectrum Next" are fantasy devices, something dreamed up by random people 35 years later. The real successors to the Spectrum had known specifications, and none of them were actually the same as these modern interpretations. If you want a modern Spectrum, you might as well add a modern GPU, a Core i7 and 64Gb of RAM to it. 😂
One friend bought a C64 and another inherited (got it from he's older cousin) a ZX48... and when I was about 12 (ish) I really liked playing games so we played a lot of Spectrum games... and they where lots of fun! but that cousin had a lot of them so we (me and my friend) never got really deep into them on the Spectrum (maybe a game or two was 2-3 day game) but again when you had +200 to try, we mostly tried them for an hour or two then if not that fun, we tried the next one on the tape and so on... But on the C64 (another friend) it was sort of different, it was actual music, and actual sound effects and graphics (hardware sprites made a huge difference)... so I had to get myself a C64... so the C64 is my goto computer, but again I do remember a lot of games for the ZX48 (in our case)... super fun!
There's no doubt the C64 was better, but theres a definite charm to the little spectrum and the games. The simpler graphics and sound make it special I think.
@@pixel_fandango Yes it was special! At the time I did not really know why (I was about 11 years old?) but later (when Internet was a thing 1994-96) I did aprecciate the Spectrum (again ZX48k :-) more and more... and the funny thing is that my ZX48k friend bought a 128D... which I found funny as i almost never ever used the Z80 inside it... which by then I found even more interest in... but... then we all (in my neighborhood) got a A500 and that was just crazy... except for my ZX48k friend we all programmed that 68K on the Amiga. Games I remember on the ZX was Sabre Wulf, Skooldaze, Spy hunter- Skooldaze and Spy hunter I did play on the C64, but I think they where better on the ZX...
i don't think you mentioned this.. but the inbuilt joystick ports on the +2 are a completely different format than the atari 8bit single button. it's utterly modable.. but another reason to use the divmmc
You're right. The +2 has 'Sinclair compatible' joystick ports rather than the 'Kempston'/Atari joysticks - even though the connectors look exactly the same.
That's quite a bit of cash to get it to produce HDMI, read an SD card and hook up a joystick. If only someone would make an exact copy with all these features and sell it on Amazon, Argos, hmv ... 🤔 Keep your eyes peeled, November 22nd!
All very true, and I'd like to get one at some point, but at the end of the day, it's just a generic ARM board running an emulator, packaged in a nice case. Any computer can emulate these old machines, but it's never quite like owning the genuine hardware. I still want a genuine, rubber keyed Spectrum first. 😄
@@another3997 As someone who had a Spectrum during it's heyday I just don't get why people want to have them in this day and age. Emulation of the likes of the Speccy, C64 etc are perfect and so much cheaper, paid £20.99 for my copy of Spectaculator and it's just like the real thing. I still have all my old hardware from my childhood but it's all boxed up in the attic and never gets touched.
You are absolutely correct it is a +2A. I've mentioned that detail in the video time line caption and, fun fact, it still just has 'ZX Spectrum +2' on the box and case, but '+2A' on the start menu.
Do yourself a favour and play Gluf, El Stompo, Dreamwalker - Alter ego 2 and Old Tower. Will blow your socks off as they are all multicolour no-clash games using the Nirvana/Bifrost engines. Best games ever.
I wasn't 100% sure on the release order, but that makes sense - I think Lunar Jetman over-complicated a great game - but that's my personal opinion. Maybe I should play it more.
@@pixel_fandango I agree. I spent many a happy hour being repeatedly slaughtered in JetPac on my Beeb. Lunar Jetman made me glad I was given a copy of it by a mate, because I rapidly became glad that I hadn't paid for it!
I do wonder what making graphic modes/versions for dinosaur/ when box boosting ZX graphics is at lest 100x faster, and could a much better job, of display with free hand, of its own? don't get me wrong I'm all get old hardware to stuff no one ever imagined its could do, make exploits of doing in a new way, way better function, out of the same hardware, SD hard disk drive, is the perfect example add new function, to the same old hardware that never relly there, there where micro drives etc. but no one ever connecter big Winchester, hard drive to a stock ZX 48k spectrum at the the
Playing jetpack on a friend's specks made me save a year to buy my 16k spec. £99.99 if memory serves me. What a game. Watching this video makes me want to find my old specky out the loft. I wonder if it still works. I wrote a few basic games on it. Ahhhh the memory's. :)
I still have my Spectrum 128 with the cassette loader in the loft, used to love playing Elite, Battlefield Germany and Theatre Europe to name a few
There has never been a better time to be into retro. It is crazy how much stuff is being done. Good video! 👍
i had a genuine 48k spectrum back in the day and i enjoyed many years on the ol speccy before entering the world of the commodore amiga500...i will always have a soft spot for the ol speccy.
Jetpac the game that broke the rules - i still play that on my arcade machine that runs ZXSPIN.
Great video! I owned a ZX Spectrum back in the early 80s. It was a 16K model which I upgraded to 48K with some chips bought from a company with an advert in the back pages of Your Computer magazine. I spent many happy hours programming, typing in listings, and of course playing games on it. Atic Atac and Jetpac were two of my favourites too! I don't have my original Speccy any more, but I bought another one from eBay a while ago, and I bought the DivMMC as well. It takes pride of place in my collection and is my favourite 80s home computer, just beating the Acorn Electron, another machine I spent hours on.
Thanks for the kind comments. Much appreciated. I remember 'Your Computer' magazine very well. In fact I have a couple of copies kept safely.
I never owned a Spectrum, we had a C64. But I found your video very helpful and fun to watch. Nice to learn things about the Spectrum as well!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Just came across this. I have the Divmmc Future too, it's amazing with all those new and classic games on, I miss the loading screens a bit, but it just nice to instantly play them and I prefer it that way. A brilliant episode of my favourite 8-bit here. And that HD interface it very tempting too for my channel lol. Liked and subbed mate 👍
I have a ZX-HD for my Spectrum + and it fits nicely on there. It was really easy for a never-assembled-electronic-thingies-before person like me.
Yeah it's a nice piece of kit.
OMG!
Noslagia...I had one ZX 48K and all of that 3 games too🥰
The sound of loading games....back in 80s immidiately.
Love content u got like and sub!
Nicely done mate. Enjoyed that. I was given a +2 a few years ago. Still have it
Thanks. Glad you enjoyed it.
I had a ZX81 and then a C16.
I'm thinking of getting The Spectrum when it comes out.
Very informative video. Thank you. I am waiting for the release of "The Spectrum" from retro games. I'll compare after that because i have also a vintage ZX Spectrum.
Nice video and nice clean setups;! Only recently I became a Spectrum user . Coming from the Atari 8bit camp, I was interested in Speccy's unique graphical and sound aesthetics compared to the rest of the bunch. Two three years later I managed to get and repair 5 different ZX Spectrum models (and built a ZX pico), upgrade a 48k to the max(sd loader, sound card, 128k),I designed and built a case to ptotect all those cards hanging at the back.... from my cat of course.
Even if I don't enjoy spectrum games like I do on the systems I grew up with, I daily fire up one of my ZXs and browse the vast software library that's now available. I also like to imagine the reactions kids had back in the day especially with a good game! We are so lucky today to have access at so many systems of our past.
That's interesting. I may well be doing something Atari 8 bit related soon.
OMG this is awesome - my Speccy is up in the attic somewhere, I've not seen it in years, I might have to look at all this
Be aware it is probably dead or ready to give up the ghost. Time is not kind to 1980s electronics. They are, however, not that hard to fix.
O M G I miss that way of loading,,, So Nostalgic x x x
Yes, for about a minute, then it gets old, quick. At the time it was a pain, but it was a pain borne in order to play the games. It was, however, a far better step on than typing in and debugging pages from a magazine ...
I had the zx81 16k expansion pack and a vox box speech synth. Games came in text you had to type them in and save then load. Scramble took ages to write but played great.
Got a 16K for Christmas 1982, upped to 48K for my birthday in August. Best thing ever 🤩
Today I'm using a "Recreated ZX Spectrum" bluetooth keyboard which links perfectly to my android tablet running a very versatile emulator. Indistinguishable from using my original, the emulator can be set to a variety of different Spectrum models, clones, and even the ZX81 if that's your thing 👍
I too got a 16k Spectrum for Christmas in 1982 and later saved my pocket money for a "rampack" to take it to 48K. If I remember correctly (without Googling it), the 16K had grey keys and the 48K had blue keys? Before this, I also used to borrow my big brother's ZX81 which was 1K until he upgraded that with a "16K Kayde Ram Pack". I remember classics such as "1K Breakout". Can you imagine a game written in 1024 bytes or less!
Word to the wise. I destroyed our spectrum by hot plugging the joystick adapter into the expansion port while it was powered on. I was probably about 12 at the time.
Yeah, it's a good idea to power down when changing anything hardware related.
Great video. I thought I recognised the voice!
We met at the indie section at Blackpool. I'm the retrogaming odyssey guy.
You're a man of many talents. I'm a c64 guy but I have a few speccys hanging around, and will buy both of those.
Thanks for the great content.
Great to hear from you. Thanks for the kind comments.
Ah this takes me back, thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it!
My computer: ZX Spectrum 48K * ZX Spectrum 128K +3 * Sam Coupé
I'll allways have fond memories of the 48k+ I used to have. I must have been around 14 when I got it. At the time I also had an Amstrad CPC 464 and later on I got a Commodore 64. So back then I didn't have to worry about whether a game was better on Amstrad, C64 or ZX, I had all 3!
I'm guessing it was often best on the C64 - or is that not fair? I still very much like the other two, although never got to play with a CPC that often back in the day.
@@pixel_fandango It depended a lot on the skills of the programmers and the time for creating a game for any specific platform.
The ZX Spectrum had more CPU power and thus did best in 3D games or complex simulationns.
Starglider, Carrier Command and Freescape-based games like Driller and Castle Master work best on the Spectrum.
The C64 was created with 2D games in mind and often steals the show with hardware support for scrolling, sprites and sound.
But the C64's BASIC sucks badly.
Excellent programming skills overcame the limitations of any 8-bit system.
That's why I am an 8-bit retro gamer.
The achievements of those coding geniusses back then are simply awesome.
@@pixel_fandango Head over Heels and Chase HQ were better on the CPC than on the C64.
I needed this 40 years ago, not now :D
I try to watch this video but when I press Play button I get message on the screen ''Tape loading error.'''.
Sounds like your +2a has got the sound distortion issue. There's a few videos on here on how to fix this. I had it with my +3
Yeah, it is clipping. I might get round to fixing it one day.
Back in the day i borrowed my brothers Kempston interface & it looked fairly badic, so i copied it and made my own.
We all learned to play Chaos on our spectrum & today i still have the pc version called Chaos groove & have a quick 8 player round in the evening.
i'm loving the new Spectrum Touch. And hopefully next month the recreation of the 48k with memory card And Save points. Available from smiths and argos. 40 years since I had the original.
spectrum owner as a kid. i just wish it could do 4 colours in a character square instead of 2. would have made such a difference to games
I know what you mean, but I think that gives it a unique look.
That's awesome, I love The Speccy It was my first computer , That dizzy game looks awesome, I really have to play ItI really have to play It
ZX81 was my first, so I have a soft spot for Sinclair stuff, but I missed out on the spectrum back in the day.
Wouldn't the DivMMC Enjoy Pro ONE be a better fit? I bought it because it has 2 joystick ports, you can set them up as combinations of Kempston / Sinclair / Cursor / Fuller for the 48K, and Kempston / Cursor / Fuller for the 128K since it already has 2 Sinclair ports.
Looking forward to The Spectrum but thank you for this video.
I'm looking forward to getting a Retro Games 'The Spectrum' to play with too. I'm a customer just like everyone else and don't get given stuff ahead of release. That means I give a very honest opinion, but I also have to wait in line. November release I believe.
If you are also into new games then do yourself a favour and play all Zosya games you can find:
Angels, Valley of Rains, Metal Man Remixed, The Dark, Drift, Northern Lights are my favourites.
Manic Pietro, Space Monsters meet the Hardy and all the other games based on multicolour engines like Bifrost and Nirvana are jaw-droppingly good, too.
Have fun!!
I'll check them out. Cheers!
@@pixel_fandango Multicolour, Bifrost and Nirvana games on the ZX Spectrum are covered in videos here on TH-cam.
I'm not a fan of adding fantasy graphics and sound capabilities to old computers. The SAM Coupe was a historical "super Spectrum", a genuine contemporary, whereas devices like the "ULA Plus" and the "Spectrum Next" are fantasy devices, something dreamed up by random people 35 years later. The real successors to the Spectrum had known specifications, and none of them were actually the same as these modern interpretations. If you want a modern Spectrum, you might as well add a modern GPU, a Core i7 and 64Gb of RAM to it. 😂
One friend bought a C64 and another inherited (got it from he's older cousin) a ZX48... and when I was about 12 (ish) I really liked playing games so we played a lot of Spectrum games... and they where lots of fun! but that cousin had a lot of them so we (me and my friend) never got really deep into them on the Spectrum (maybe a game or two was 2-3 day game) but again when you had +200 to try, we mostly tried them for an hour or two then if not that fun, we tried the next one on the tape and so on...
But on the C64 (another friend) it was sort of different, it was actual music, and actual sound effects and graphics (hardware sprites made a huge difference)... so I had to get myself a C64... so the C64 is my goto computer, but again I do remember a lot of games for the ZX48 (in our case)... super fun!
There's no doubt the C64 was better, but theres a definite charm to the little spectrum and the games. The simpler graphics and sound make it special I think.
@@pixel_fandango Yes it was special! At the time I did not really know why (I was about 11 years old?) but later (when Internet was a thing 1994-96) I did aprecciate the Spectrum (again ZX48k :-) more and more... and the funny thing is that my ZX48k friend bought a 128D... which I found funny as i almost never ever used the Z80 inside it... which by then I found even more interest in... but... then we all (in my neighborhood) got a A500 and that was just crazy... except for my ZX48k friend we all programmed that 68K on the Amiga.
Games I remember on the ZX was Sabre Wulf, Skooldaze, Spy hunter-
Skooldaze and Spy hunter I did play on the C64, but I think they where better on the ZX...
i don't think you mentioned this.. but the inbuilt joystick ports on the +2 are a completely different format than the atari 8bit single button. it's utterly modable.. but another reason to use the divmmc
You're right. The +2 has 'Sinclair compatible' joystick ports rather than the 'Kempston'/Atari joysticks - even though the connectors look exactly the same.
Can you imagine if you put a M3 cpu in one of those Spectrums?
3 absolute classic games , try Daley Thompsons decatherlon , and good luck oh and show folks chucky egg please.
Yeah, Chuckie Egg is great. I've got it in a few of my other videos. Cheers
you think that box hmdi is bad , the og Cheetah speech box was 😂😂
If you wrap the score around on Jetpac, it crashes.
Great video, however, I do not understand why not to include links to products in video...
Good point. I'll add something to the description when I get a minute. Cheers.
For just about double the price you can rather just get a Next, then you have so much more.
If only it had 128K instead of 48KB.
That's quite a bit of cash to get it to produce HDMI, read an SD card and hook up a joystick. If only someone would make an exact copy with all these features and sell it on Amazon, Argos, hmv ... 🤔
Keep your eyes peeled, November 22nd!
Yep, 'The Spectrum' is coming very soon.
All very true, and I'd like to get one at some point, but at the end of the day, it's just a generic ARM board running an emulator, packaged in a nice case. Any computer can emulate these old machines, but it's never quite like owning the genuine hardware. I still want a genuine, rubber keyed Spectrum first. 😄
@@another3997 As someone who had a Spectrum during it's heyday I just don't get why people want to have them in this day and age. Emulation of the likes of the Speccy, C64 etc are perfect and so much cheaper, paid £20.99 for my copy of Spectaculator and it's just like the real thing. I still have all my old hardware from my childhood but it's all boxed up in the attic and never gets touched.
5:05 no it's not, it's a +2A
You are absolutely correct it is a +2A. I've mentioned that detail in the video time line caption and, fun fact, it still just has 'ZX Spectrum +2' on the box and case, but '+2A' on the start menu.
Do yourself a favour and play Gluf, El Stompo, Dreamwalker - Alter ego 2 and Old Tower. Will blow your socks off as they are all multicolour no-clash games using the Nirvana/Bifrost engines. Best games ever.
I'll add them to my list. Cheers!
I'm not sure if you know this, but Lunar Jetman was the sequel to Jetpac.
...And was followed by Solar Jetman on the NES!
I wasn't 100% sure on the release order, but that makes sense - I think Lunar Jetman over-complicated a great game - but that's my personal opinion. Maybe I should play it more.
@@pixel_fandango I agree. I spent many a happy hour being repeatedly slaughtered in JetPac on my Beeb.
Lunar Jetman made me glad I was given a copy of it by a mate, because I rapidly became glad that I hadn't paid for it!
@@VampireJack10 I never bothered with consoles so wouldn't know. _Am Coder._
i didn't know the +2 had +3 basic built in
I think it was the +2A that did (black case), not the original +2 (grey case) which just had 128k BASIC
As pointed out by others the unit I have is a +2A.
@@pixel_fandango it wasn't a criticism, i've never owned a +2 or +2a. only a +3. so was surprised to see +3 basic on it
@@bazza5699 No offence taken. Sorry, I can see that my reply might sound a bit short. But not meant that way. Cheers!
Sounds like +3 distorted sound, needs fixing ;)
It has been noticed. 😖
That's not a +2 it's a +2 a/b it's black yes with printer port it's a reduced +3 pcb
I do wonder what making graphic modes/versions for dinosaur/ when box boosting ZX graphics is at lest 100x faster, and could a much better job, of display with free hand, of its own? don't get me wrong I'm all get old hardware to stuff no one ever imagined its could do, make exploits of doing in a new way, way better function, out of the same hardware, SD hard disk drive, is the perfect example add new function, to the same old hardware that never relly there, there where micro drives etc. but no one ever connecter big Winchester, hard drive to a stock ZX 48k spectrum at the the
This is what happens when u connect pie to c64
You get cherry filling
@samuelbanya yeah but it's not interlaced 80 column or super cpu! Did u check the link?
@@ZXSpectrum128K it's a joke pal
@@samuelbanya not so sure pie does calculation then dumps into c64 video ram all c64 does is read video ram data all the time
Things have moved on...