Great series of speccy vids. I progressed from a ZX81, to a Spectrum 16K, which I upgraded to 48K with the chip kit. I had even had 2 QLs at one point. Many a "fun" time was had typing in HEX to a REM statement, from magazines to get machine code games working 😁 Gameswise anything by Ultimate was great. Chukkie Egg, 3D Monster Maze, and the "Horace" series 👍
My god the memories this series has brought back. I had a +2a back in the day so that I could "do homework and program stuff".....yeah that didn't last long! It came with Oceans Greatest Hits I believe it was called, Freddy Hardest was on there I spent DAYS trying to get inside that alien base! Robocop, that first face pattern level had me for weeks, so much so I convinced my Dad the game was faulty and he was going to take it back, turned out it was one of the moustache bits was different by about 2 pixels.....Chase HQ, simply awesome, Dynamite Dan, Jet Set Willy, Dizzy games, oh hell I'm off to eBay 😂
If I'd been good and got my £2 pocket money, I was straight into town to get myself a £1.99 game from the market. I had 1p left for 2 half penny sweets!! bargain. One thing that sticks out for me about the Speccy, I can still remember the music from a game called Chronos which, at the time, blew me away as I couldn't believe what I was hearing out of that tiny little beeper.
@ 2:42 after re-watching my bluray of Prometheus only last night, I do wish they had made the silly alien ship crash that simply. No rolling along wackyness, just a nice simple but solid crash like in Freddy Hardest! Great stuff, and I appreciate in this modern age how big The Trap Door sprites were! And I have finally gotten to see Peter Packrat! =) Thanks for this great look-at!
This was a good little retrospect on a gaming computer brand that was completely unheard of over here in the states. Over on this continent the landscape was already dominated by the likes of Atari, Apple, and Commodore so I guess there was just no room for sinclair's machine to expand over here. A Lot of us yanks only really found out what the Spectrum was and what impact it left in the UK by the likes of guru Larry bringing it up in his videos, I was scratching my head thinking, what is this so called ZX Spectrum thing and why haven't I heard of it before? Another was when I was looking up the history of Rare (one of my favorite oldschool game developers) and found out they were once a company called Ultimate and started out developing games for a gaming computer only released in the UK, for alot of us here we only knew about Jetjac from that section in Donkey Kong 64 where you have to play it in Kranky's Lab.
Modern day so-called aesthetic types may diss the Spectrum for its slightly underpowered capabilities, but, as you alluded to in the vid, critics miss a key point in the machine's appeal. The games, most particularly in the early years, were created by people who were barking mad, and the games reflected that peculiarity. It's a massive part of why the system still has appeal, because there was nothing like it before or since. Between 1983 and 1991 the spectrum ruled me and my elder bro's life, he on the 48k and me on the 128k when I got older......man those were great carefree days!
The truly enormous and crazy software library was a huge selling point yes, but so was the price. Cheap enough for normal people to afford, and the games/apps were nice and cheap too. That's a winning combo right there!
Spy vs. Spy. Man!! And Gauntlet!! That damn coin hog from the mid-Eighties. You had to queue up to play the damn machine at the arcade hall!! Didn't know there was a Spectrum version. That machine really could work miracles.
Science of cambridge doesn't load anymore 😭 also quick question, does the 128k models of the spectrum play all the games available for the spectrum? Like would the 128 or +2
I really want to import a speccy from the UK. Not an easy task to get that working here in the US but its a very intriguing console. I would say my intrest stems mostly from Rare Replay where I got to experience some of those from the first time. I think most US gamers find the spectrum a bit too primitive, but I love seeing developers make excellent use of limited hardware.
I grew up with it and have fond memories but still thing it's very primative to the point I draw the line here. Not often I go back to it though a few titles wet my tempt me.
Question. I am actually rather curious about trying out this machine now. Are there any decent old school RPG's for the system that are actually worth playing?
Close to the video end you do mention a site with random games. I was unable to find it. Could you please list it? :) and these are awesome videos. They hit the nostalgia spot. Thank you for making them
There is a NEW ZX Spectrum called the "ZX Spectrum Recreated" just released September 2015, that is a bluetooth spectrum that conects to your tablet/phone/tv ect. Long live the specky.
Great series :) I loved Gauntlet too, but the dragons used to scare me LOL I'll be looking out for your next videos sounds like some interesting stuff coming up ;)
I have a +3 as well, but that sort of thing has never happened to me... except one time when my dodgy fridge sent out a huge spike on the mains grid, which caused the boot sector on one of my disks to become corrupt.To my amazement, it resulted in the disk becoming totally inaccessible; i couldn't even reformat it! It wasn't until i typed in, and modified, a 'recovery' program designed to unerase deleted files, which i subsequently disassembnled and converted into a rudimentary disk editor, that i found what had gone wrong. It turned out that the very first byte of the bootsector had been overwritten with a zero, and when i restored that single byte to its original value the disk became fully functional again.
I really want to buy a copy of the 'Don't Buy This. Five of the worst games ever' compilation. Can you do a review on it? I'm sure the games would be in one of Stuart Ashen's books!
I'm surprised that Peter Pack Rat even got to the spectrum... or anywhere for that matter, It's a conversion of a very obscure/rare atari arcade game. Looking further into it, there were also conversions for the C64 and Amstrad CPC, strange, considering how obscure the original game was it's self.
Great series of speccy vids. I progressed from a ZX81, to a Spectrum 16K, which I upgraded to 48K with the chip kit. I had even had 2 QLs at one point.
Many a "fun" time was had typing in HEX to a REM statement, from magazines to get machine code games working 😁
Gameswise anything by Ultimate was great. Chukkie Egg, 3D Monster Maze, and the "Horace" series 👍
My god the memories this series has brought back. I had a +2a back in the day so that I could "do homework and program stuff".....yeah that didn't last long! It came with Oceans Greatest Hits I believe it was called, Freddy Hardest was on there I spent DAYS trying to get inside that alien base! Robocop, that first face pattern level had me for weeks, so much so I convinced my Dad the game was faulty and he was going to take it back, turned out it was one of the moustache bits was different by about 2 pixels.....Chase HQ, simply awesome, Dynamite Dan, Jet Set Willy, Dizzy games, oh hell I'm off to eBay 😂
If I'd been good and got my £2 pocket money, I was straight into town to get myself a £1.99 game from the market. I had 1p left for 2 half penny sweets!! bargain.
One thing that sticks out for me about the Speccy, I can still remember the music from a game called Chronos which, at the time, blew me away as I couldn't believe what I was hearing out of that tiny little beeper.
That is how I built up my software collection, Rick.
@ 2:42 after re-watching my bluray of Prometheus only last night, I do wish they had made the silly alien ship crash that simply. No rolling along wackyness, just a nice simple but solid crash like in Freddy Hardest!
Great stuff, and I appreciate in this modern age how big The Trap Door sprites were!
And I have finally gotten to see Peter Packrat! =)
Thanks for this great look-at!
+WatchReadPlayRetro Haha, yes! Freddy Hardest had it right from the start! Peter Packrat.... it's awesome, no?
Can't wait for the Spectrum Next. Finally a brand new Speccy!
This was a good little retrospect on a gaming computer brand that was completely unheard of over here in the states. Over on this continent the landscape was already dominated by the likes of Atari, Apple, and Commodore so I guess there was just no room for sinclair's machine to expand over here.
A Lot of us yanks only really found out what the Spectrum was and what impact it left in the UK by the likes of guru Larry bringing it up in his videos, I was scratching my head thinking, what is this so called ZX Spectrum thing and why haven't I heard of it before?
Another was when I was looking up the history of Rare (one of my favorite oldschool game developers) and found out they were once a company called Ultimate and started out developing games for a gaming computer only released in the UK, for alot of us here we only knew about Jetjac from that section in Donkey Kong 64 where you have to play it in Kranky's Lab.
Modern day so-called aesthetic types may diss the Spectrum for its slightly underpowered capabilities, but, as you alluded to in the vid, critics miss a key point in the machine's appeal. The games, most particularly in the early years, were created by people who were barking mad, and the games reflected that peculiarity. It's a massive part of why the system still has appeal, because there was nothing like it before or since. Between 1983 and 1991 the spectrum ruled me and my elder bro's life, he on the 48k and me on the 128k when I got older......man those were great carefree days!
+swordghoti Spot on. Crazy games which let you run amok
I agree completely - I always felt there was some "madness within" with some of those games.. Thanks for confirming my suspicions. :)
The truly enormous and crazy software library was a huge selling point yes, but so was the price. Cheap enough for normal people to afford, and the games/apps were nice and cheap too. That's a winning combo right there!
Spy vs. Spy. Man!! And Gauntlet!! That damn coin hog from the mid-Eighties. You had to queue up to play the damn machine at the arcade hall!! Didn't know there was a Spectrum version. That machine really could work miracles.
+Tonio Miklo It sure could. So hard though, so very, very hard
omg skool daze and renegade were my alltime fave games back then.
Some original game favorites on the Spectrum, great to see, rather than the usual.
I assume most have played Nohzdyve on the ZX Spectrum. It's a good classic
Enjoyed the video, great to see some excellent-looking Spectrum games that I've never heard of before.
Science of cambridge doesn't load anymore 😭 also quick question, does the 128k models of the spectrum play all the games available for the spectrum? Like would the 128 or +2
I really want to import a speccy from the UK. Not an easy task to get that working here in the US but its a very intriguing console. I would say my intrest stems mostly from Rare Replay where I got to experience some of those from the first time. I think most US gamers find the spectrum a bit too primitive, but I love seeing developers make excellent use of limited hardware.
I grew up with it and have fond memories but still thing it's very primative to the point I draw the line here. Not often I go back to it though a few titles wet my tempt me.
Question. I am actually rather curious about trying out this machine now. Are there any decent old school RPG's for the system that are actually worth playing?
Close to the video end you do mention a site with random games. I was unable to find it. Could you please list it? :) and these are awesome videos. They hit the nostalgia spot. Thank you for making them
wish you make a video like this for the Amstrad, Acorn and Atari computers!!!!
thanks for the videos really enjoyed learning about the speccy (I was brought up with commodore plus 4 and 64)
+keithpeckett No problemo! I'm sorry to hear you weren't brought up with a Speccy as well, but hey, the 64 makes up for it ;)
There is a NEW ZX Spectrum called the "ZX Spectrum Recreated" just released September 2015, that is a bluetooth spectrum that conects to your tablet/phone/tv ect. Long live the specky.
Could be any chance you make a video about the SAM Coupé?
GUNFIGHTER! What a game I loved playing that - on my mates grey +2
Dun Darach was a favourite of mine, then Barry Mcguigans boxing.
Gunfighter! By the shaw brothers. One of which is a very good family friend of mine :)
+madcapoperator Cool! Yeah, great, great game. Love it
Dat Keygen music is nostalgic.
Love the good ole' Speccy!
Great series :)
I loved Gauntlet too, but the dragons used to scare me LOL
I'll be looking out for your next videos sounds like some interesting stuff coming up ;)
I flipped my head when I heard "spectrum classics ... Such as SCHOOL DAYS" - Had to intantly flip my head to see it was SCHOOL DAZE
skool daze
i highly recommend CJ The Elephant and CJ in the USA(?) - Great platformers :)
I had the plus 3 and didn't know that powering off without ejecting the disk would wipe it
I have a +3 as well, but that sort of thing has never happened to me... except one time when my dodgy fridge sent out a huge spike on the mains grid, which caused the boot sector on one of my disks to become corrupt.To my amazement, it resulted in the disk becoming totally inaccessible; i couldn't even reformat it! It wasn't until i typed in, and modified, a 'recovery' program designed to unerase deleted files, which i subsequently disassembnled and converted into a rudimentary disk editor, that i found what had gone wrong. It turned out that the very first byte of the bootsector had been overwritten with a zero, and when i restored that single byte to its original value the disk became fully functional again.
Great vids on a great system.
I really want to buy a copy of the 'Don't Buy This. Five of the worst games ever' compilation. Can you do a review on it? I'm sure the games would be in one of Stuart Ashen's books!
Perfect video great editing five stars
Music? Good God!
Dizzy is best series of games
I guess the website doesn't work anymore then! :P
great vid :)
I'm surprised that Peter Pack Rat even got to the spectrum... or anywhere for that matter, It's a conversion of a very obscure/rare atari arcade game. Looking further into it, there were also conversions for the C64 and Amstrad CPC, strange, considering how obscure the original game was it's self.
+Kandi Gloss But then the 80s were packed to the brim with obscurity! That's why it was soooo great! :D
so sorry you guys got stuck with that and the c64 over there as the main platforms instead of the nes...
Yeah what ever mate. You never had "Trap Door" on TV or the NES which we had too anyway Neer neer!
Good luck writing your own programs on a NES!
BertyFromDK: The NES actually got Basic too - though of course only in Japan.
I think the first game I ever played was Chuckie Egg on the ZX Spectrum 128K. Great videos by the way!
no Chuckie Egg? muhahahahaaaa
Your well sound