Did any of the older members have a ZX Spectrum 48k?

This just came up in another thread and I got a little emotional when I remembered how much I loved that little computer.

Looking at it now it is amazing that we thought they were so good.

For those who do not know here's the specs and brief history.

The Spectrum is based on a Zilog Z80 A CPU running at 3.5 MHz (or NEC D780C-1 clone). The original model Spectrum has 16 KB (16×1024 bytes) of ROM and either 16 KB or 48 KB of RAM. Hardware design was by Richard Altwasser of Sinclair Research, and the machine's outward appearance was designed by Sinclair's industrial designer Rick Dickinson.[6]

Video output is through an RF modulator and was designed for use with contemporary portable television sets, for a simple colour graphic display. Text can be displayed using 32 columns × 24 rows of characters from the ZX Spectrum character set or from a set provided within an application, from a palette of 15 shades: seven colours at two levels of brightness each, plus black.[11] The image resolution is 256×192 with the same colour limitations.[12] To conserve memory, colour is stored separate from the pixel bitmap in a low resolution, 32×24 grid overlay, corresponding to the character cells. In practice this means that all pixels of an 8x8 character block share one foreground colour and one background colour. Altwasser received a patent for this design.[13]

The Spectrum was among the first mainstream-audience home computers in the UK, similar in significance to the Commodore 64 in the USA. The introduction of the ZX Spectrum led to a boom in companies producing software and hardware for the machine,[6] the effects of which are still seen;[1] some credit it as the machine which launched the UK IT industry.[7] Licensing deals and clones followed, and earned Clive Sinclair a knighthood for "services to British industry".

Here is a link to a playable online conversion of one my favorite games ever.

Dizzy

a reply to: nonspecific

My Dad had one.
I remember space invaders, defender and asteroids. They were the best but there was one I don't remember the name of where you had to bounce a ball into a brick wall and knock out the bricks. High tech in its day.
We used to listen to the weird sounds coming from the tape player wired up to the PC while a game loaded.
It never always loaded first time, either.
All controlled by rubber keys.
Yeah. They were pretty cool.

Yes I was a proud owner.

Defender was my favourite game, but it took ages to load and would notoriously crash half way through.

I used to buy the magazines that would provide code to build your own programmes and games. I remember one particular code that would read thus: inkey$.

The inkeydollarsign, what a wonderful memory.

Still have mine, in its box.
I had a C64 but I cant remember what happened to it

Happy memories, thanks

No, didn't have that computer. I had one of the original "portable" (luggable) computers, the Kaypro II. It had some very rudimentary games on floppy discs that I played and played. A crude space invaders. Centipedes. It used Boolean logic and I loved it. *sniff*

a reply to: Cobaltic1978

If I recall correctly there was a certain amount of snobbery from Spectrum owners.
Looking down on those little oiks who only had the 81.

Another game which was hilarious was Miner Willie.
It sounds rude but it was a tunnelling game. I think we had Pac Man too.

originally posted by: argentus
No, didn't have that computer. I had one of the original "portable" (luggable) computers, the Kaypro II. It had some very rudimentary games on floppy discs that I played and played. A crude space invaders. Centipedes. It used Boolean logic and I loved it. *sniff*

Never seen one of those before but it uses the same z80 chip as my old speccy.

Although your only ran at 2.5mhz whereas my speccy was a whopping 3.5mhz

Sounds mental in this day and age doesn't it?

48kb ram....

a reply to: Tulpa

ZX 81, was the yokel cousin compared to the ZX Spectrum. I can still remember the day I opened the box and that smell hit you, it stays with you, forever!!

Colour graphics at your fingertips, absolutely amazing. Crude graphics for sure, but at the time, WOW!!

Yeah,I also had one.My first computer.I bought it off my school friend next door when he got a spectrum 128 k with the built in tape deck for Xmas.I must have been about 8 or 9 years old.

a reply to: Cobaltic1978

Colour!!!!!!
My God!!!
Yes. All the previous games I'd ever seen were black and white. The little hand held Space Invaders was the first colour one I owned. Three colours. Something in my memory tells me it was actually called Space Raiders for copyright reasons.

I'm now going back to school. We had a computer suite with sixteen computers. I got to use one in my final year.

a reply to: Tulpa

BBC computers?

I remember my school having them, of course no one knew how to teach instructions on their use.

They were wasted.

I never got a chance to play a ZX-Spectrum, my first computer was a commodore 64 (the little portable version) that I remember playing when I was like 6... I think that computer is the reason that throughout the rest of my life, while my friends all had nintendos and super-nintendos I was a master of MS-DOS games. The nostalgia most guys my age feel towards mario I have for Commander Comic, while they were talking about how great Final Fantasy was I was learning the Secret of Monkey Island.

I Love old computers.

a reply to: nonspecific

It does indeed sound mental. My phone has thousands of times the computer power.

Color us old.

a reply to: nonspecific

I do not know what country you are in this is the UK site of Ebay

www.ebay.co.uk...

Still a lot of them about

Atari 800 here. Wanted to play Star Raiders but never got the game cartridge. Got Atari Paint, the graphics tablet and the light pen from Silica Shop. Funny how all those things are reinvented as PDA's, tablets and smartphones now.

originally posted by: stonerwilliam
a reply to: nonspecific

I do not know what country you are in this is the UK site of Ebay

www.ebay.co.uk...

Still a lot of them about

Uk mate, the early models used to get hot and the rubber keys melted!

We gave ours away when we got all posh and bought a ZX+2 128k with the built in tape player.

a reply to: Cobaltic1978

I don't remember the make.
The room had a combination lock on the door and we had to be signed in as a class!
We barely touched them even when we did get in there.
Everyone was subdued and sort of awed just by the presence of real computers.
Those were the days.

a reply to: nonspecific

I need to stay away from ebay , i was just looking at a Amstrad green screen and thinking mmmm

I must have the healthiest postman around with the cash i spend on that site

I had a 48k rubber keyboard one with a ton of games I loved jet pack and treasure island dizzy and many more lol the cassette loading noise was fun 😐Not haha I also had a 128 k with a built in tape deck,I've had every console since as that was the starting point to my gaming life 😊
Funny enough I had a disk with my newest console X box one called replay which got 30 games on it and 4 are 48k games attic attack is one lol
Diffence is now these days I've got to wait about a hour to first time play a game on Xbox one because of the installation
Sorry for the wack of words I got all excited 😂a reply to: nonspecific

i had a grey +2 for my first, awesome machines.