The Spectrum Show EP140
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- Опубліковано 28 кві 2024
- Welcome to episode 140.
It's the end of series special.
In this episode I look at various pieces of hardware both new and old including the ZX Touch and The Gamesboard.
I play Quazer and Yeadow.
I look at some old demos an test a few multi-cart ROM games.
Back soon with a new series.
More information about the ZX Touch: zx-touch.com
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When a Monday suddenly looks a lot brighter 👍
Great show Paul, thank you for your efforts.
The ZX Handheld looks very nice and your review answered some of my initial miss givings on the build quality and touch screen feedback. The price is a major issue and for just an extra £120 on top of the price of £220 people could buy a LCD Steam Deck which is great for emulating systems up to the PS2 and Dreamcast and obviously its intended use. I can understand to some extent why this ZX Handheld is £220 but time's are hard and throwing £220 at something that a £50 Anbernic can do is a waste of money.
1989 to 1990 using New Zealand Story tunes.
Wow...the ZXT is astonishing.
Excellent video as always Paul, thank you and I look forward to the new series when it comes.
That ZX Touch does look tempting. I had wondered if at some point during the Vega+ debacle you would do some special feature or whole episode on the whole mess but I think highlighting positive products like this one is the better way to go, sending the positivity out there for people.
I had never heard of the gameboard back in the day and it might have been nice but sadly my rubber keyed Spectrum died after a month and this was early 1985 and, although I didn;t know it then, Sinclair had discontinued the rubber keyed model and by the time I got my Spectrum back it was the Spectrum+. But the Gameboard certainly looks useful.
The Spectrum+ thing does bring up something. When I sent my old Spectrum back when it died it was literally just the computer and the power unit, I still had the manuals and the Horizons tape. When I got my Spectrum+ it was new in box and came with its own manual and version of the introductory tape. I wonder if you would consider doing a feature on the original Horizons tape and the Spectrum+ replacement, especially the games as I have fond memories of Thro' the Wall but the Spectrum+ tape with its own breakout and chase progams were excellent for BASIC games.
Thanks Paul!
Always love your episodes.
Beruska is brilliant. I got it on a YS cover tape.
I really loved that rubber keyboard. It was great for typings. Mag in one hand and key tickling with the other hand. Great season ender.
Thanks Paul, Enjoy your break. Look forward to seeing future episodes.
Superb! OMG I got my wallet out when you showed the ZX Touch ..then I saw the price and ...ouch!! nope, can't stretch that far. but it looks very cool indeed.
How much is it?
@@kennethgibson4510 £220
@@kennethgibson4510 looks like 219 pounds... feels quite excessive for what appears to be a slightly customized chinese emulation handheld!
works perfectly @1.25 speed :-)
Great series, thanks Paul and Geoff.
When you look at other handhelds that can emulate many many other devices and the ZXT is just a Spectrum emulater I assume, and because of that I feel it is overpriced and sadly I will not be purchasing one.
Pretty much my thoughts. For a Spectrum-specific handheld it seems so over-engineered (with analogue stick and HD touch display) that you may as well just throw in some more emulators to fully use that potential, and there are a lot of handhelds that can do just that for a similar price tag.
I agree. It looks like it's just a generic Android gaming tablet with a custom emulator (or maybe even just a custom frontend for an existing emulator).
That would explain the odd choice of controls. A Spectrum handheld should ideally have a D-pad rather than separate buttons, and the analog stick doesn't really make sense.
I guess devices like this are intended for people who are only interested in the Spectrum, and aren't tech savvy enough to set up a handheld by themselves.
That would be fine, but it looks like getting it set up with all the right files isn't really any easier.
Seems like an answer to a question nobody was asking.
@@thepenultimateninja5797just had a look. £200+!? I would love to support the team but that is steep!
Thank you
I loved Beruska as a kid, it's engrained in my brain for all time!
I bought a ZX Touch a couple of months ago. It’s a huge upgrade from Emulators on Nintendo or PS Vita. It’s just so satisfyingly easy to use. I did baulk at cost originally but glad I bought one. Can’t recommend it enough, I’m now playing Spectrum games far more often.
I really like the DS. I got the XL cheap and it's great cos the stylus for keyboard works fine imo. Thanks to the Spectrum Show for showing me this method. Just add a rainbow sticker and JSW decal and complete:) if I didn't have that I would look at this.
Love the thought of a portable speccy that actually works and isn't a rip off
That ZXT looks cool! I wonder if its a generic linux based tablet or custom hardware...
The ZX TOUCH seems brilliant although a bit pricey i'll be buying one before Xmas this year,
And yes, thanks for including the Beruška demo. Beruško, zazpívej! (Berushka, let's sing!) was very popular back then.
The point regarding the reset key, having played many hours on Atari VCS, it makes sense to me that a game restarts immediately at zero points, when practicing to increase the score, a handy option, if a life is lost carelessly, early, restart and try, try, try again!
That keyboard overlay looks like a clever piece of kit, as long as it doesn't damage what's underneath?
The Marvic Keyboard could no doubt be recreated - maybe even bettered - by someone with a 3D Printer and the time/inclination 😁
Just got my zx next ks2 and now thinking on a new speccy machine 😎👍
Great show as always Paul, that keyboard looked like a cheep knock off from Ali Express :)
I like the ZX Touch and i would like to buy one, but i am hoping that the ZX Spectrum Next team will create their own Handheld device.
Enjoy your break!
I emulate ZX Spectrum on Nintendo 2DS via R4 card.
Having the full keyboard on the lower screen is excellent.
ZXT looks nifty, just too pricey for me unfortunately, and ZXDS is so good, I don't think it can be beaten.
The same here and I can't see the value of the ZX Touch for £219 maybe if it had the ZX Next built in it might be worth it .
The ZX Touch looks really nice, but it's probably going to be a hard sell to many of us who already own several handheld emulation devices like the Steam Deck etc. But sure I can understand that some want something dedicated that is fully pre configures and just works. I have quite a lot of original hardware, but to be honest when I crave some 8 bit gaming I usually just run emulators on my laptop or Steam Deck.
Zx touch looks ok but doesnt seem to really offer anything I cant do on my steamdeck..thanks for a another great series Paul...
Brill and were wondering what about music creation and games back in the day there were some software packages available on ZX computers though some required an upgrade to run them but I am sure they would work now. Is there any basis for writing instructions or programming on this device it was a good thing just to have a bit of programming a game or making ZX play much which could be programmed by fingers and hand and ZX had a basis Office program to which would be a fun thing to have ago at again.
Games and fun and fantastic retro pleasure of revisiting daily. Classic software not just games would be interesting too.
Speaking of the ZXT, it really isn't perfect. It has certain issues playing AY hardware envelopes correctly or it doesn't play them at all in some cases. Also running demos what require the usr0 mode or Pentagon settings isn't an easy task. The virtual keyboard doesn't respond well on key combinations placed close to each other, like Caps Shift + A, etc. The side menus appearance could be optional, they're irritating in some cases. Using AY + 48K mode is not possible. The timing of the 48/128 models isn't just perfect, some multicolours aren't perfect. The digital music played on AY is muted for some reason. I have tried classic demos like NMI2, NMI3, The Lyra 2, etc. as well as new demos. Some of them work, some not or they have issues.
The cons are definitely the 50Hz pixel perfect screen, so scrolling is smooth almost like on a CRT monitor, interlaced 25Hz graphics and the multichrome mode look perfect. Despite the issues I mentioned it is probably worth the money, if the authors of the firmware improve the issues.
Did you get in touch with Elmar? Main task was get all games running, but it is true that some special effect demos are not running properly. However, they will sort that out in the next update.
@@Thomas-zu3vo Sounds great, Thomas! Thanks for the info. No haven't contacted him. Should I? Looking forward to the fw update, tho🙂
I am liking the ZX Touch, although with a Gamesboard on my 48k maybe I won't need one. No, seriously, very tempting.
Hey Paul, I have one of the old ‘Arcade Professional’ big box joysticks in my cupboard. Did you ever have one?
1990 I was turning 20 year old
Nice device, but since I got a Steam Deck OLED, Spectrum and other emulations are amazing on it.
Same, no need for anything else.
I like the look of the ZX Touch but I'll probably wait to see if they'll add support for TZX files. It's hard to tell but I don't think it has an IPS display - does anyone know? Also, if they were to release the software for something like the Steam Deck, that would be a nice option.
Website states: "Display: 7" LCD IPS display 1024 x 600 px with 50 Hz and touchscreen"
I never understood Sinclairs logic for not putting a "propper" keyboard on the the speccy, or offering it as an option. It could have been marketed for business them. I loved my Speccy but it looked like a toy.
It pleases me that somewhere in the world is a spectrum game called jonathan trick or treat
Hello Paul can we buy the ZX Touch.
Yes, look in the episode description for link.
ZX Touch looks superb but way too expensive. if it was under £100 they'd sell 50x more.