ZX Spectrum Laptop
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- Опубліковано 16 лис 2022
- We play with the ZX Spectrum Omni 128HQ laptop from RetroRadionics!
#retrocomputing #retrogaming #zxspectrum
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RetroRadionics zx spectrum laptop
retroradionics.com/OMNI-128HQ...
ZX Spectrum always in our hearts.
Always!
Oh god, young me would have loved a laptop like this. From 1982-1992 the Spectrum was my only computer. It raised me, taught me programming and launched a long gaming industry career for mysef. And Jet-Set Willy was the first mind blowing game I got for it. It really was a revelation in 1984 with it's multi-screen setup. It's an impossibly hard and buggy game though, but back in those days we never expected to beat games anyway. Also..isn't the rubber-keyed version just the most gorgeous microcomputer design ever?
Oh man, if you can get your hands on one of these you should. You'd absolutely love it.
Good day Taylor and Amy. Showcase cool factor 100%. As a ZX80 fan this to me is a desirable product. I appreciated watching the battery fitting and knowing about it being sent as two separate main pieces. Your enjoyment is contagious! Best wishes for the channel. Warm regards from the Cape of Good Hope peninsula SA
Greetings! We are pretty fond of the speccy ourselves. So glad you are enjoying that thing where we happen to film ourselves while being goofy and playing with computers. I'm also glad the regards are warm cause it is too cold in Memphis right now.
Brilliant! I grew up with ZX Spectrums and recently bought myself a new version. I have to load games similar the old fashioned way by playing the tape file over Bluetooth, which is slow but also quite relaxing at the same time. Lovely to see you both so excited over this lovely little machine.
Really cool
The last bit was the best! Laughed so hard. Great show!
Thank you! Love to make ppl smile. 🥰
Love it! Thanks for uploading guys.
It's a pleasure!
That is freakin' cool af. :) I watched some of ya'lls other videos. Good stuff. Subscribed!
Hooray!!
That's a brilliant Specky laptop you've got there and Amy's face at 12:26 when Taylor says "We have to take it apart" excellent ;)
The thing that got cut was us saying, we are not going to take it apart. Then we immediately take it apart.
😲I never even imagined such a thing as a Spectrum laptop. What an awesome thing. Aint technology great!
Another super fun video. Even the dog liked it.
Good dog!
I love your enthusiasm 😀
Thanks! We are having so much fun doing this. :)
Hi just found your channel, brilliant 👍 you both seem to have real passion for the retro scene keep up the good work 🕹️
Awesome! We have so much fun.
I love this video and your excitement at getting a brand new zx spectrum, i want one!
You need it!!!!
Loved the running around with the speccy in hands. Only old school folks know the pain of being wired to the same place with a tube tv for HOURS. Great video btw.
Thanks!
i didn't mind... the keyboard was the worst part of it. 😝
Turning off the machine and seeing terrestrial television seep back through the noise... sigh.
The hand over the face is perfection. I don't know why I've never tried that.😂 Great episode, y'all! Also, I'm loving the shirt, Taylor. Time to order merch!
Also, I need a shirt that says, "This is more Anglican than I remember."
@@SusieTheExhaustedCatLady Maybe we should add that to merch, lol. Really we should be keeping a list of these Taylor gems.
@@fractalMD 😂
I had zero idea that they offered a mini screen for the ZX Spectrum! Agreed, it's so cute! Please do take it to a Starbucks and record a "The Taylor and Amy Show at the coffee shop" video LOL!
Sean, it's just too cute. It does deserve an outing.
This could start a great trend of retro laptops at coffee shops.
@@i80386sx I've brought my Commodore SX-64 to coffee shops before.
@@geekwithsocialskills that is next level awesomeness,
How cool is that!! I didn't even know that was a thing. Good stuff!
Right? We love it!
This is the coolest thing I've seen today! 🤯🤯🤯
We are mesmerized!
Old School Fun great vid Taylor & Amy. I miss the MSX2 and the original Metal Gear.
Thanks!
@@fractalMD You are welcome Amy I look forward to your next video
This just popped up on my vids today, love the good old speccy 😊 hello from the Uk 🇬🇧
Hello!
Hello!
The spectrum for all of its limits lives on - it has a magic of its own and - well done Taylor and Amy - I didn't know about this gear.
:)
We can't wait to play with it even more!
@@fractalMD I actually found a replica keyboard (bluetooth) a few years ago. I rigged up a PI zero and some storage and have a retro spectrum from that. You one upped me with a screen tho :P Its a shame on your unit that HDMI out isn't working (yet) cos that would really be a thing. I need to re-watch your video to see how they are getting video signal to the small screen..
@@AdmV0rl0n Yeah, HDMI would be the real trick.
@@fractalMD As per VGA to HDMI, if the signal tooling is standard, then there is probably a kit, dongle or something that could be used..
My Omni laptop arrived today. I love it. But not as much as watching you run around the garden holding it like you’d found The Holy Grail. One of my fave bits of UA-cam in ages. Bloody hilarious.
Too truly experience its portability to the max, you have to do the same!
@@fractalMD I will run up and down my garden with it, doing my best version of Swan Lake, as per your able demonstration.
@@pic101 YES!
Oh, that looks awesome!
I really like how it goes together. I hope that other classic computers get the same treatment! I would love a c64 or atari 8 bit in the same form factor.
Just a backpack FULL of them.
or apple2 or amiga 500?
due to inheritance, I found my old zx spectrum and tapes with manuals (all originals). I have been scouring you tube to see what I can learn (have not turned it on until I have had a look under the chassis). Your channel came up and it is neat!
Love that!!!!
@@fractalMD aww shucks. You guys are gonna have a ball with this channel!
Yay New Zealand. We're small. That's it, small. We do Try and make a nice place for you and me, maybe...
But we like birds and marine animals and you can help us, help those who want to , but language is the key. Meow, woof,chirp, bloop,. These guys are my friends. Yours too.
As one who began their computing journey with Sinclair machines, I am so jealous. One of these back in the 1980's would've been beyond my wildest dreams. Also, I'm so pleased to hear you correctly calling it by its proper name and not that (make an Englishman cringe) dreadful zee ex spectrum. 😁
I mean, we wouldn't want it to not recognize its own name, so 'zed' it is. We actually have caught a teeny bit of flack for this, but feel it's important to properly honor its origins!
@@fractalMDAnd also honour the 'correct' pronunciation! (only joking) As I kid us poor Brits would have love to have had Scart over rubbish RF connections! You also need to get yourself cassette tape ready with your ZX Spectrum, as my parcel is on its way!
@@philsmith3261 oh wow!
What a cool option the mini-screen is! I agree, I want six of them so I can carry them around or pull one from anywhere I am and start using it.
One in every color, please.
Nicely done. Screen version looks sexy. Speccy, aaaah that was my childhood and my first computer. Great games like Commando, Myth, Sir Fred, Saboteur, Robocop and many many more. Gold age of gaming...
We do love our Speccy. 😊
I'm from Ukraine, after a month without light, my pc burned out, I turned on the Spectrum and loaded exelon, it seemed like a work of art, something beyond
❤️
I like people, who just can find a Speccy in a wardrobe. 😋
I'm also from Ukraine, but I had to import mine from the UK several years before the war.
Exolon is better for Amstrad CPC though.
P.S. Слава Україні!
thanks for this video. informative ,funny.
That is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. Pure genius. Why aren’t there more 8-bit laptops? That’s the ultimate mod.
There really should be. It's so satisfying.
Agree!
That looks amazing, I can even make use of the scart as I'm from UK 😁👍
👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻
I'm glad you figured out those complicated DIP switches. LOL!
There was a wee bit of googling.
Really cool. I bought a 48k speccy off eBay I occasionally drag out. I will probably buy an Omni in the future. The regular one not the laptop. Keep up the great work ladies.
Thanks!
That is the most beautiful thing I've seen in an age. As a Speccy owner since '82 I can say in all honesty everyone is bad at Jet Set Willy.
Thanks for sharing this 😎👍
Glad it's not just us. 🤪
@@fractalMD not even remotely 😉
As a person having had the 48k ZX Spectrum as my 1st computer I'm rrrrrrrrrrrrrealy impressed that people like you are interested in the ZX Spectrum in the 2020th...
REALLY like the video.
Have a lot of fun with the thing. - The ZX Spectrum is the computer which was setting up the Software (Gaming-) industry in the early 80th here in Europe.
P.S.: (EDIT) By the way...
The SCART cable is one of the things I'd really like to have. ;->
P².S.: By the way a 2nd time
Waiting for parts of an order of retroradionics for aprox. half a year or more is quiet normal. :(
Such a wait!!!
Wow! You are brilliant!
Just like all our viewers
Thank you girls ! The best free advert until now ;) ... Remind me to "bribe" you next time with some gifts !!!
No, thank you! Watching Taylor running around the yard being able to lion king a ZX Spectrum laptop....priceless.
❤❤❤❤
Omg I had no idea this even existed. I've just placed an order for the laptop version. I loved my original Speccy so much x
So cool! You'll love it!
@@fractalMDMy Omni arrived from China today all safe and sound. Just waiting on the mini screen to follow soon.
Will need to start looking for games to download!
Interestingly, it has audio in/out for loading cassettes. Doubtful my old cassettes still work, however, back in the 90s I backed up all my spectrum casssttes onto mini discs. I tested it at the time with the original spectrum and I was able to load the games back in from the mini disc player. So theoretically, it might work with the new Omni as well!
What a lovely re-creation this little unit is.
@@stevenatl6516 isn't it just the greatest!?!?
Where can I buy one of those cool Taylor and Amy show cups? I also think going to Starbucks with that cool computer would be funny but you gotta make sure the sound is up .. Another great show ladies!!!
AJ! I went into the merch store and turned on basically every option. I think you can get a cup and prolly a tie dyed Chihuahua diaper if you are in need of one. 🤣
@9:49 That doesn't sound like hall of the mountain king... that sounds like Fiddler on the Roof's "Rich man" (or whatever it's called) song (well, a bastardization thereof).
Another great episode! Love the portability demonstration ;)
You are right! We realized we totally spaced on that.
Yeah interesting. That is not the same tune that plays on my original JSW game.
@@stevenatl6516 Yeah, it is if I was a rich man. Was looking for this comment. The early versions of the game had If I was a Rich Man and the owners of the music wanted £36k for the use of it, so it got replaced with In the Hall of the Mountain King.
Y'all should do a tour of y'all's retro room. That would be rad.
I'm not gonna lie. It's pretty epic.
A friend of mine used to live out in a village about 5 miles from my place as the crow flies. Somerset country lanes might have added to the distance. As something to do on a Sunday, I would lob my Speccy with an Interface1 and Microdrive, some carts loaded with ripped games using a Multiface 128 and that Multiface in to a backpack and cycle out to where he lived on a badly maintained BMX.... I miss those days... If I had one of these things back then, I probably wouldn't have got so much exercise or the worry about the Microdrive failing...
Man, that is just such a cool memory.
In recent years, there seems to be a retro explosion of games for the Spectrum. In fact, I think that more games are made now (and of much higher quality) than in the 80's...
I highly recommend the new games: "Gluf", "Valley of Rains" and "Old Tower".
Everything old is new again! Thanks for the suggestions. It has to be that these days the folks doing it, truly love it. Then higher quality is gonna be there. [She purely speculates]
There were more colourful and cute games recently, but they require an extension common in Russia and Ukraine, but ignored in England for no apparent reason - the ATM-Turbo (released in 1991).
Holy smokes, that is super cool!
Hi Chris!
@@fractalMD Hi!
Cool video. Thank you.
Thx!!
Wonderful! SCART is a French standard (acronym!) but they don't call it that...
Think of the fun you can have with BASIC now you can see all the keyword shortcuts!
Jet Set Willy plays "If I Was A Rich Man, Yabba Dabba Doo" over and over and over from Fiddler on the Roof :)
That is one awesome laptop!
We were waiting for someone to catch that we totally flubbed that on the song. You can even say we really SCARTed it up.
@@fractalMD It's a real SCART show! I really like SCART, it's a good connector. The French call it Péritel which sounds much classier!
Clive Sinclair would be SO proud!
Totally agree!
I have got an oringinal Spectrum 48k from the 80s. I didn't know Americans knew about the ZX Spectrum. It was called Timex in America.
We know it all, baby!
That thing is so sexy! Remember the 1980's sitting at a friends house with their NEW ZX Spectrum hooked up to the TV and trying to figure out witch keys to control the game 😅
The correct game keys, a *timeless* issue!
Had an original rubber key Speccy back in the day....never thought I's see the likes of this!
Behold!!!!
I had no idea that was available. Amazing! 😂
Isn't it??
I still have my old Spectrum, my first computer many years ago. Might need to get this new version...
Yesssssss
Fun fact, the name 'retroradionics' was no doubt inspired by the name of Sir Clive Sinclair's forerunner company to Sinclair Research (manufacturer of the Spectrum), which was called 'Sinclair Radionics.'
It's such a tongue twister for my lazy mouth. Very cool.
Looks cool, hope to see some Spectrum128K reviews soon. I seriously want one for Christmas now! Will you guys ever do a live stream playing some of these retro games?
Oh man, we are starting to collect some requests for a live stream. I guess at some point we may have to figure out how to do that. Then develop the ability to be continuously interesting enough anyone might want to watch!
@@fractalMD You have a natural and passionate flair for this stuff. You are genuinely funny and interesting to watch. Nothing fake her. Your passion and zest for this stuff shines through in your videos. Great kudos to you both! Keep up the good work!
Great fun as always. Soon I bet you will have to have a 2048 subscriber cupcake show!
It feels like it might be possible!
@@fractalMD Keep going. You will get there soon!😀
@@venw6811 😃😃😃😃😃
Liked and Subscribed.
Awesome. Thanks!
Well this one made my night.
Love it!
It is so cool both sisters share passion for this things.
Not sisters, but friends since forever. So pretty close!
After learning they'd buzzed a Vintage Computer Fair (although the Chicago edition), I imagined this duo meeting up with Stewart Cheifet (host/producer of "The Computer Chronicles")
Cheifet, if you are reading this, hit us up. 😎
and now I need this :D
You do!!!
14:32 hahahah love it!
Portability: CONFIRMED
The laptop mod is outstanding!
I was hoping you'd demo Jet Set Willy on it, and it was the first game you loaded! (btw, there's a version of jet set willy for the TI from Rasmus. Excellent port!)
Omg, for the TI? But ours is low key possessed.
@@fractalMD the 4A has ports of Jet Set Willy, Pyjamarama, Sabre Wulf & Jet Pack (I think I've missed one or two) all in the same day-glo colour palette as the ZX Spectrum original. Underdogs love each other. which makes Speccy's and TI perfect kissin' cousins.
As for machine possession, I think Taylor can exorcize any gadget from its demons. She adds the extra "V" to tech savvy.
@@PeBoVision She is savvvvvvvy.
@@fractalMD said with no bias of course. 😁
@@fractalMD Amy, I'm not caught up with all your videos (I'm working on it, but I try to have an offline life as well). You mentioned that you are still having trouble with the TI keyboard. I'm sure I have a spare. not sure if it works, but it's yours if you want it, and Taylor can probably fix it anyway. It is one of the original black ones from TI, which tend to be rock solid.
Lemme know.
OOh, new faces , nice vid :)
Why, thank you!
Fun stuff...techno rockin'
Фантастика! Теперь Спектрум на аккумуляторах и с дисплеем. 😁
We love it!
I bloody want one!
girls, you are honorary Brits! Love you! X The Speccy is my childhood fave!
@@pin00ch hooray!!!
nice Spectrum Laptop Sir Clive would be Proud.
We hope so!
I need to hunt out my ZX Spectrum. It's somewhere in the depths of my spare room. I hope it still works!
Do it!
Very cute. I had a C64 in the 80s and have only experienced the Spectrum via emulation. Actually, the first emulator I used was on the Amiga and as I recall, it would only load "snapshot" files. There was even a program specifically for converting one snapshot format to another. I liked some of the games, but I wish the 48K model had had a proper sound chip, as the audio was always the weakest part of most of the games.
BTW, that's a gamepad, not a joystick. ;)
It's a remote if you ask AJ.
The 48K model did have a proper sound chip but you had to plug in into the expansion connecter on the back. 😉
@@SpeccyMan or you could build it and clamp it directly to the Z80, if you liked spending hours geting stuff to do like you wanted it to. But then you still had to have the software programmed to use it ;)
Love Taylor's hair
She is majestic!
"I want ten on these to carry around with me"
Same
At least!
It'd be awesome to see a future version using Zilog's 50Mhz ez80 with max memory... one for the suggestion box.
So noted!
You guys are so funny too 🙏🤣🤣
Thanks!!
From above it looks legit like an original from 1982.
Totally!
It is great to see Sinclair Spectrum as "laptop" :-) I did not know, that it is something such possible, and i fully coincide with your enthusiasm. :-) I could not to imagine before 35 years, when i worked with Spectrum, something simmilar. I have question - how long can this "laptop" run on fully charged batteries? And which capacity of accumulators do you used? Thank you for your work.
We haven't tested battery life very hard just yet. I can confirm will last long enough for sure to do several laps around a front yard.
Here I am enjoying a couple of tasty tamale's and you guy bust out 8 bits of awesome. Perfect lunch!
Bon appetit!
Best. portable. ZX. Spectrum. video. ever.
I mean, how could you NOT run around in your front yard with it?
Very bizarre to see Egghead Plus on it; that wasn't a complete game, just a few test screens I put together to see what Egghead might look like in a ULAplus palette.
That's fun, ha!
Nice very compact that does have a super super bright screen
It's the bees knees!
@@fractalMD LOL
@@fractalMD Hope you two can make it on this Sundays stream
This I super cool love it. Also the screen and that you can put batteries in it to. Also did the USA not have scart connectors?
Love the video. 🙂
Not so much with the SCART round these parts.
SCART was used in Europe before S-Video and VGA came on the scene. SCART is still used today if a machine had an RGB connection that was otherwise not supported. There are converters that SCART ccan boost from RGB-to-SCART, then convert SCART-to-VGA (or HDMI). On some computers (like the CoCo 3) there was an RGB connector, but most US monitors couldn't take advantage of it. There were a couple. In Europe, there was a cable that mapped the RGB to the appropriate connections for SCART and many TVs had the SCART connection. In the US, TVs mostly were relegated to composite at best (most just did RF, which is why you see so many composite mods for old machines). Many machines designed for NTSC started moving toward composite shortly after TVs supported it. However, although S-Video became (mostly) a standard, most retail video equipment still didn't implement S-Video ports. By the mid 1980s there was a migration toward using monitors with better control using S-Video or some proprietary equivalent, and later CGA and VGA. Once we made the transition to VGA we really didn't turn back some HDMI monitors still have VGA ports to this day.
Very cool. So HDMI support not yet available ? I wonder how long the batteries last before they need recharging ?
Looks like no HDMI yet. We'll have to test the battery length at the Starbucks field trip. 😃
Finally, I can play Jet Pac on the go!
FINALLY!
That’s not The Hall of the Mountain King, that’s If I Was A Rich Man from Fiddler on the Roof 😂
It's everything!
👍👍
👌🏻👌🏻
Im so gonna get this thing, and maybe another one for my mom. Is there a chance that major electronic store chains will start selling these the same way they sell TheC64 and A500 mini?
No idea but I wish they would. It is just so delightful.
Seems like it would be worth a trip to a coffee shop dressed in your best 80's clothes and sit at a table using that.
And just be all like, "what?"
Would the resulting construct be what the late Nineties ironically called "hipster-ism"?
@@floydjohnson7888 we might need waxed mustaches.
2:45 Amy "Why did you have to go home from work?" made me LOL pretty loudly...and I'm at work myself. I don't know a lot about SCART either, other than hardcore retrogamers sometimes use it because...well, I'm not sure why. But, it's a rabbit hole to go down if one were so inclined.
Maybe soon, we will all be SCARTing ourselves?
I've been Scarting sinse the Amiga days. It was a thing here in Europe, we have the French to thank for it but bless their hearts, they did a great job. A clean and clear video signal with just one cable (with 21 little cables inside it). Like CBVS but with no wavey lines. I'll scart until the day I die even if I'm sent home...
@@8bitsinthebasement Bless your heart as well!
@@fractalMD bless the scarts
Do you know of a ZX Spectrum emulator operating on original ROM which accepts a standard PC keyboard just to check how the Spectrum's Chebyshev math works without spending hours just to issue `print(sin(Pi))` ? Thank you.
I think goto became illegal sometime in the 1990's, you have ben warned.😜
**hides**
Отлично!
😊
Yeah is a blow back futuristic piece. NICE!
Retro future!
Nice
Worth the wait
Omg my childhood just fell out of me 😳
You really should get that checked out!
Cute! Which joypad do you use and where can I get it?
I think that is the NES keypad kit from Autumn Hippo.
It's like my mom always said - never trust a SCART!
Mama knows best!
Back in the '80s, were either of you avid readers of Compute! magazine or its spinoff Gazette?
I know I didn't have my hands on such things and I don't think Taylor did, either. But looking through did like that that days is always fun.
I'm picturing what the neighbors were thinking when Taylor was running around the front yard: "Oh, look, she's finally gone crazy. But it's OK, because her friend Amy is videoing her for evidence so she can get the help she needs." 🤣
At this point I'm not sure they even blink an eye....
@@fractalMD 🤣
"Oh, you have a MAC?" 😆
Lol
There is a 'newish' game called Buzzsaw out. Its a Pac Attack Tetris style game with the pac man. You gals might like it. I played it and it's got good controls. Bomb Jack is great on the Speccy. Spiky Harold is a cute platform game, but super difficult.
Thanks for the suggestions!
imagine being 10 years old and seeing an original 16k version for the first time..
**head explodes**
You can expand the screen real estate to fit the screen.
Yeah, just a matter of messing with the settings.