You can get a replay of the chat on UA-cam with the ChatReplay Extension on your browser: Chrome Extension (Compatible with Edge) ► chatreplay.stream/chrome Firefox Add-on ► chatreplay.stream/firefox Use this link if you don't want the extension, are on mobile, or want theater mode ► chatreplay.stream/watch?v=R7qI4ZuwAN0
The vintage British computer scene always interested me. A big part of it was actually because of a government initiative; They realized that these "home computer" things would be taking off in the future, so they had computer companies manufacture low-cost computers for educational purposes. It's not unlike what we have with the modern day Pi computers and such; cheap little things to help teach kids about programming or serve some basic utility. But yeah, that's why the ZX Spectrum was such a big thing back then.
17:06 - Whoever called this game an early shitpost was absolutely right. The 8-Bit computers had *so many* games called "[Blank] Simulator" that Your Sinclair decided to make their own, and review it as highly as they could.
The ZX Spectrum is a phenomenal microcomputer. It was less than half the cost of the Commodore 64, was more fun and easier to program, has glorious colours, has a huge library of titles (game titles, as well as other types of software such as utilities, business etc.) The number of peripherals is in the thousands, it's quiet to type on, and can be silenced when key pressing through the single channel beeper. It has A LOT of character. And commendations for pronouncing the name of the computer correctly. :)
Karl Pilkington got a ZX81 for christmas, not a spectrum, and as he didn't have a RAM-pack he couldn't use the machine. This resulted in Karl becoming physically ill, ruining christmas for the Pilkington household.
Hi Vinny, it’s British Vinny. Watching this, it really does remind one of the hilarious line of British coding, that we are incredibly defeatist and automatically think we suck at everything, but in the same breath will say Americans are too earnest and naive. Maybe we just never got over the loss of the Empire…
As a Brit you know I grew up with this (and the CPC) and loved them. The games were raw, full of bad ideas, but managed to overcome so many technical limitations to present something that was genuinely fun; you never really knew what to expect, nobody had any real respect for the limitations of the systems, if they wanted to do something they did it. Take a game like 'Fat Worm Blows a Sparky' (yes that's the real title) It shouldn't have been possible, but it was. Was it fun? That's debatable. Was it mindblowing for the time, absolutely.
Oh, wow, Vinny played my Speccy collection! Nice to contribute something after all these years. I hope this didn't lose him too many Twitch viewers... Time Stamps: 2:10 Auf Wiedersehen Monty 11:20 Kwik Snax 16:57 Advanced Lawnmower Simulator 21:12 Monty Python’s Flying Circus 24:44 Magicland Dizzy 28:10 The Very Big Cave Adventure 30:38 World Cup Football 33:44 R-Type 39:00 Slightly Magic 46:45 Chaos 49:17 Chubby Gristle 52:49 Krakout 55:08 How to be a Complete Bastard 1:01:00 Match Day II 1:03:44 Dizzy 1- Extended Edition 1:03:53 Robocop 1:05:55 Zythum
@@himselfe I may have accidentally deleted the first reply but, yeah, some of these are good, some are crap- I was trying to pick games that would be varied and entertaining for a stream, rather than a top games list. I'm sure there are plenty of people who'd have chosen differently.
Rype: the right key working intermittently is the true speccy 48k experience when you’ve worn out some of the keys. So many games used QAOP as controls that we ended up using QANM for a while, then WS, and so forth. I love that they managed to dupe Vinny into playing Advanced Lawnmower Simulator. I remember that cover tape back in the day. Now all we have to do is force Vinny to sit through the actual tape loading times…
From what I heard, most people in the UK went from the Spectrum to the Commodore 64, Amiga and then maybe Sega consoles, and after that the PlayStation.
Almost bang on. My family had a Dragon 32, then an Amiga 500 and a Mega Drive before finally getting a PS1 in 1999. NES didn't quite make the splash here that it did in the US.
@@cookieface80 thaaats the one, I remembered they did something wonky like that. Yeah their debut in the UK was to sell mail order from Boots THE PHARMACY. Like yeah I'll buy some toothpaste, Calpol and a Nintendo LUL
Swap out the C64/Speccy for a CPC and that's mostly my route to gaming. I remember picking up CPC games from DIY stores which seems completely bizarre to me.
Sweet childhood memories... When you could never figure out whatever the hell was going on in a game you copied from a mate, but you were still happy to see things move around.
I wanted to check Vinny's memory about the timeline at 7:35 and... Yeah. Spot on. Super Mario Bros. - *Sept 1985* Super Mario Bros. 2 (The Lost Levels) - *June 1986* _Auf Wiedersehen Monty_ - *April 1987* Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic (The game which would be released as SM 2 USA) - *July 1987* That makes the ZX Spectrum look pretty rough in comparison. I honestly assumed the Spectrum was older, having only seen videos and mentions of it here and there on the internet.
I mean, the base model was released in 1982, though it was re-released with increasing quantities of on-board ram throughout the 80s, up to the 1995 128k model that Monty here ran on. It's also important to understand that the home micros that dominated the UK games industry at the time were (mostly budget) general purpose computers, rather than dedicated consoles. Think of it as being like the 1980s equivalent of playing flash games on your dad's work laptop... which is itself already a pretty dated thing for me to say and will make no sense to people who didn't grow up in the 2000s.
@@RAFMnBgaming I can certainly agree on the cultural impact of the the ZD Spectrum dominating the market at the time-- but only that. Let's compare: The base model ZX Spectrum was released in 1982 with a 3.5 Mhz CPU and 16 KB of ram, for £125 (about 465 USD today) The base model NES was released a little over a year later in 1983, with a 1.79 Mhz CPU and 4 KB of ram, for ¥14,800 (about 317 USD today) Objectively speaking, the spectrum was actually the more capable machine between the two of them. It just used that power poorly. It's true that the spectrum was a general purpose computer, but there really wasn't anything it could do that the NES couldn't. The NES had a hardware keyboard and business software, they were just released separately as a add-ons rather than baked into the base unit. But aside from the technical limitations (or lack thereof) the spectrum also feels dated in it's game mechanics. The jumping and climbing mechanics are a far cry from Doki Doki Panic which would be released for the NES only a few months later. That wasn't down to hardware limitations but the culture at the time.
@@KantiDono I wouldn't say so much it was poor use of power, rather an early demonstration of how useful dedicated graphics hardware (like the NES's PPU or even the C64's VIC-II) could be. Meanwhile with a computer like the Spectrum its processor may have ran twice the speed of the NES's, and the z80 was a fair bit more sophisticated than the 6502 equivalent, but it was pulling double duty doing both general processing and video rendering. Even back then, gaming was all about them GPUs. But also, yeah, the game design culture was indeed pretty different. Part of why the NES library is how it is is because of the shovelware that caused the '83 crash in the US and nintendo's resulting approval process for anything released on their hardware. Things could definitely still be a lot more fire-and-forget over here.
1:01:20 I think it was (still is?) common to use non-OG music in sports transmissions in certain countries. Another example is T-Square's TRUTH, which is used on F1 transmissions made by Fuji TV in Japan.
I didn't know you lot didn't get the Specky over there. The 128k was my first computer and this took me way back. Thanks for that. I wish Vinny had sampled the loading noise. I view it nostalgically as 'music' nowadays. PS, I'm highly offended by the two examples of 'Englishmen' here, either side of the centrepiece.
In fact, Nintendo was pretty unpopular in the UK until the Wii. The handhelds did really well (eveyone had a GB for Pokemon!), but everyone I knew as a kid (late 90s) that a had a console had either a megadrive or a playstation, then later it was all about the PS2 (mostly due to it also being a cheap DVD player TBF).
Yeah, micro computers here in the UK just offered more in terms of their flexibility. Many of the specialist gaming magazines contained sections that were just lines of code you would input into your ZX or Commodore that would give you a free* game. *Free means spending around 1-2 hours painstakingly inputting the code before you could actually play the game.
@@danny_dinthead8858 the purpose of such "painstaking" work, was to *teach* a programmer, how they could make their own software in the future. You also had room to modify code (whether it be in BASIC or machine language), so that you could experiment and better understand the computer's capabilities through using your own imagination - a doubled benefit. As for the NES (or Famicom which I infinitely prefer), that too could be programmed using the Famicom keyboard and a special cartridge (well, for small titles anyway), and you'd use a cassette deck and leads just in the same way as you could with the micros. The NES was ok, but programming for it was much less straightforward.
I'm surprised none of the games by Ultimate Play The Game (who would eventually become Rare) are on here. Since those are the games that basically started a legacy. Anyways, besides those, I think titles like Jet Set Willy or Manic Miner should have been here. It would be cool if Vinny checks out the Amiga, it's a very interesting platform with a rather unique library of games. Think he might enjoy those more.
I am grateful for the educational lessons bestowed upon me on this day. I shall now bask in the glory of the knowledge that there is a ZX Spectrum game called "How To Be A Complete Bastard" with fully functional Smellometer, Drunkometer, Fartometer, Bastard Points and even a rating system...
The ZX Spectrum is definitely my favorite microcomputer of all time, and I live in the States, dammit! The reason for my love of the computer is because of the demoscene. The Spectrum demoscene in Russia is still going strong with many colorful demos being pumped out on a yearly basis. If you're really interested in watching some of the demos for the computer, try watching Kpacku Deluxe, Mescaline Synthesia, Stellar Contour, Power Up, Emergency and Tiratok. Those demos showcase the flickering multicolor capabilities of the ZX Spectrum, this computer really is something special. (Also try watching Dogma, just for the music.)
Demarche with "Across The Border", gasman with that very colourful demo (which I can't remember the name of) - competitions such as Chaos Constructions which I'd really like to go to have it all... SoundPaint (the UA-cam channel) has a fantastic demo of the 16 and 48k's beeper capabilities - they can generate breathtaking symphonies very easily if you have technology to help you extract it more conveniently (or with indescribable torture if you're abysmally masochistic! :)) Interlacing/dithering having produced just incredible works of art (and I would imagine, incredible animation one day) - even the border is being "diminished" (i.e tricks are being used to fill it with numbers of pixels in certain ways). Single border pixels would be a real achievement one day... With the three screen interlacing effect you could create ANYTHING in the BORDER area. If you know any more about hardware manipulation efforts that are being made in this area, please do let me know :)
All I wanted was some Agent X for that sweet Tim Follin music (well, if you can deal with the high pitched static-y nature of it and the subsequent ear ringing)
Holy shit I was watching this at work. That football game had me in tears. I had to shut it off to not attract attention to myself. Holy shit what gem.
Hearing Vinny confused about The Saints Go Marching being played at a football game is adorable. He has no idea about our fucked up little isles and it's weird culture :)
Funny thing, these _were_ released in the USA, imported and re-branded by Timex, the wristwatch company. My dad had one, he got it in a DIY kit for $99 (in 1980's money; it was a hundred dollars extra to order it pre-assembled).
37:45 Well computer not 'console', it could be used as a game console in the sense all computers can, people made games on it and for it because people made programs and coded for it and on it in general
The ZX Spectrum has a very active homebrew scene with over 200 new games being released every year. Here are some of the better new releases ua-cam.com/video/1povo-l-MIc/v-deo.html
It might not be fair to say this having only seen the ZX Spectrum games in this vid, but ZXS games look f*cking painful to play. No wonder the Sega Master System did so well in Europe, that thing was a godsend for any kid that didn't want to deal with the headache these games are capable of inducing.
I suppose by one argument, one could say that Sega Master System/Famicom control pad-led titles were hypothetically hypersensitive by initial comparison of the two formats... There are titles such as Cobra which were extremely responsive in a similar way to SMS-type consoles, or Zynaps (which is fairly similar to R-Type, but faster). Unfortunately, the age of some of the machines, the way in which some titles were programmed to accept keyboard/controller inputs, the rubber key model response, and the lack of familiarity with the system's nuanced way of generally giving feedback, were the reasons for having a "less satisfactory" experience... As time has gone on, the need for certain efforts to be made (even very subtle ones) has lessened and lessened - possibly due to intense competition from rival game/console manufacturers. It wouldn't have been anywhere near as much of an issue at the time.
I remember playing that chaos battle of wizards game on nintendo ds homebrew. Was actually kinda fun. It gets chaotic (heh) when you max out the wizards.
If Vinny ever does a part 2, I recommend SQIJ! Not because it's good or anything; quite the opposite really. It's infamous for having a bug that immediately renders it fully unplayable, as startup automatically turns caps lock on and the game only reads lowercase inputs (Reminder: It was actually commercially sold, despite this bug existing). Only when the pertaining line of code is corrected can the game proper be played. The game itself when playable is allegedly still a mess, as it was developed by a teenager who wasn't even expecting the publisher to put it on the shelves.
I think Vinny should check out some Amiga stuff in the future. It had an interesting lineup of games and the sample trackers (like protracker) led to a lot of awesome music made by people who only had a home computer.
Normally when Vinny says something like "This is the worst sounding video game I've ever played in my life", it's hyperbole, because he's played so much shit over the past decade+. But at 33:15 , I believed him.
Timex released the Spectrum in the "States" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX_Spectrum#Official_clones but it wasn't that common to find one for sale apparently.
Something went wrong with the in-game music for Kwik Snax, it was supposed to be faster than that. Something about the coding for this is a bit messed-up. Anyway, I think you'd have a better experience if you had an old-skool joystick for them. Well, I dunno about Monty's game, but... Whoever said that Dizzy 4 sucks farts should get rabies.
I can't find the raw file for the music, but if you search "Monty Python's Crack Intro - Titus [#zx spectrum]" on youtube you can find the same cracktro running for ~5 minutes with no voice over.
That Monty Python game where you played as Terry Gilliam's art made me chuckle, since I'm currently reading his autobiography (I'm enjoying it and finding it interesting, as a fan of him/his movies)
Might be showing my age here but I cut my teeth in programming on the ZX Spectrum. To be more specific it was the 128k plus 3 model as the name implies you had a bit more RAM to play with. Fantastic machine back in the day.
I’m actually surprised by the sound of the ZX Spectrum in these games. I heard the sound bites for the ZX version of Donkey Kong Jr. and that was kinda terrible. Edit: SOME of these games….. I spoke too soon.
Vinny really needs to watch The Young Ones. And also Bottom. (Real show. Not sex.) To be honest I would fucking love a Vinny reacts stream of old British comedy. That one video of Americans watching Shooting Stars is still one of the greatest things I've ever seen.
If you're from the UK and are somewhat into retro gaming then you've probably heard how much people go on about this thing. I don't quite get the appeal of it, but I imagine most dudes who like this thing are probably a bit older than the average gamer.
I think it was the advent of indie gaming, hundreds of bedroom coders. Some of them barely hitting puberty. I think the scene is more fondly remembered more so that the system itself.
I really like a lot of the chiptunes this thing can produce, even if I wouldn't want to play a lot of the games on display. Some look like they could be fun.
![[Vinesauce] Vinny - PlayStation Alien Games](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/vNSeGXbFHx0/mqdefault.jpg)
![[Vinesauce] Vinny - PlayStation Alien Games](/img/tr.png)
![[Vinesauce] Vinny - Classic Game Commercials #12](/img/n.gif)
You can get a replay of the chat on UA-cam with the ChatReplay Extension on your browser:
Chrome Extension (Compatible with Edge) ► chatreplay.stream/chrome
Firefox Add-on ► chatreplay.stream/firefox
Use this link if you don't want the extension, are on mobile, or want theater mode ► chatreplay.stream/watch?v=R7qI4ZuwAN0
Vinny: "why use this music"
Chat: "because it's royalty free"
Vinny: "oh ok"
(Song playing is God Save the Queen)
*chef's kiss*
Lol Royalty
And the song on the next screen is "que viva España". I had to do a double take.
Now the joke is even better. Britain is literally becoming royalty-free. :)
@@beef5010 The Queen's declining health was English news for the few weeks before her life warranty expired. I would know I am very Englishman
@@scrittle Very Englishman should be the UK version of Captain America XD
The vintage British computer scene always interested me. A big part of it was actually because of a government initiative; They realized that these "home computer" things would be taking off in the future, so they had computer companies manufacture low-cost computers for educational purposes. It's not unlike what we have with the modern day Pi computers and such; cheap little things to help teach kids about programming or serve some basic utility. But yeah, that's why the ZX Spectrum was such a big thing back then.
Indie gaming got it's start with the ZX spectrum.
17:06 - Whoever called this game an early shitpost was absolutely right. The 8-Bit computers had *so many* games called "[Blank] Simulator" that Your Sinclair decided to make their own, and review it as highly as they could.
I was not expecting Vinny of all people to be busting out some Speccy games. Shout-outs to Dizzy, the absolute legend.
guru larry is coming, i can sense him
Dark Guru Larry be like "Goodbye, Me"
"Hello, you"
The ZX Spectrum is a phenomenal microcomputer.
It was less than half the cost of the Commodore 64, was more fun and easier to program, has glorious colours, has a huge library of titles (game titles, as well as other types of software such as utilities, business etc.)
The number of peripherals is in the thousands, it's quiet to type on, and can be silenced when key pressing through the single channel beeper.
It has A LOT of character.
And commendations for pronouncing the name of the computer correctly. :)
Karl Pilkington got a ZX81 for christmas, not a spectrum, and as he didn't have a RAM-pack he couldn't use the machine. This resulted in Karl becoming physically ill, ruining christmas for the Pilkington household.
Hi Vinny, it’s British Vinny. Watching this, it really does remind one of the hilarious line of British coding, that we are incredibly defeatist and automatically think we suck at everything, but in the same breath will say Americans are too earnest and naive. Maybe we just never got over the loss of the Empire…
As a Brit you know I grew up with this (and the CPC) and loved them.
The games were raw, full of bad ideas, but managed to overcome so many technical limitations to present something that was genuinely fun; you never really knew what to expect, nobody had any real respect for the limitations of the systems, if they wanted to do something they did it. Take a game like 'Fat Worm Blows a Sparky' (yes that's the real title) It shouldn't have been possible, but it was. Was it fun? That's debatable. Was it mindblowing for the time, absolutely.
Oh, wow, Vinny played my Speccy collection! Nice to contribute something after all these years. I hope this didn't lose him too many Twitch viewers...
Time Stamps:
2:10 Auf Wiedersehen Monty
11:20 Kwik Snax
16:57 Advanced Lawnmower Simulator
21:12 Monty Python’s Flying Circus
24:44 Magicland Dizzy
28:10 The Very Big Cave Adventure
30:38 World Cup Football
33:44 R-Type
39:00 Slightly Magic
46:45 Chaos
49:17 Chubby Gristle
52:49 Krakout
55:08 How to be a Complete Bastard
1:01:00 Match Day II
1:03:44 Dizzy 1- Extended Edition
1:03:53 Robocop
1:05:55 Zythum
We old farts of the community thank you for your efforts.
@@annapocalypsezero4719 Thanks! I only wish I'd found a way to get the tape loading squeal in there...
@@TheVideogamemaster9 🤨🤨🤨
💀
Be honest, you were trolling with this selection right?
@@himselfe I may have accidentally deleted the first reply but, yeah, some of these are good, some are crap- I was trying to pick games that would be varied and entertaining for a stream, rather than a top games list. I'm sure there are plenty of people who'd have chosen differently.
Rype: the right key working intermittently is the true speccy 48k experience when you’ve worn out some of the keys. So many games used QAOP as controls that we ended up using QANM for a while, then WS, and so forth.
I love that they managed to dupe Vinny into playing Advanced Lawnmower Simulator. I remember that cover tape back in the day. Now all we have to do is force Vinny to sit through the actual tape loading times…
“I’m gonna pronounce it Zee Ex Spectrum”
Everyone: “You bloody well can’t, so there”
yes
We kinda have to pronounce it as Zed Ex, because it would be like pronouncing Sega by Seega, it's just wrong.
fun fact: saying zee ecks spectrum is illegal in the uk, you get foined for a million pounds
From what I heard, most people in the UK went from the Spectrum to the Commodore 64, Amiga and then maybe Sega consoles, and after that the PlayStation.
Very accurate! I followed that exact path, except I went for the NES instead of the Sega.
Almost bang on. My family had a Dragon 32, then an Amiga 500 and a Mega Drive before finally getting a PS1 in 1999. NES didn't quite make the splash here that it did in the US.
@@Pyrocitor You could only get the NES in Boots at the time I think. Not many little kids that go in Boots.
@@cookieface80 thaaats the one, I remembered they did something wonky like that. Yeah their debut in the UK was to sell mail order from Boots THE PHARMACY.
Like yeah I'll buy some toothpaste, Calpol and a Nintendo LUL
Swap out the C64/Speccy for a CPC and that's mostly my route to gaming. I remember picking up CPC games from DIY stores which seems completely bizarre to me.
Even after Clive Sinclair's passing, his legacy will still live on as a household name.
I find it interesting that every 8x8 square on the screen can only contain 2 colors, you can tell it really brings out the creativity in the artists
starting off strong with 2016 energy vinny
good shit, looking forward to this
That scream at 32:00 is amazing.
As soon as I saw the thumbnail with Jeremy Clarkson and the Queen I cracked up with laughter
"Suck farts"
AI dungeon doesn't allow that kind of degeneracy anymore.
Sweet childhood memories... When you could never figure out whatever the hell was going on in a game you copied from a mate, but you were still happy to see things move around.
“Our Robocop Remake” is a brilliant piece of cinematography. The dong shooting scene was done by Fatal Farm, makers of Lasagna Cat. It really shows.
I wanted to check Vinny's memory about the timeline at 7:35 and... Yeah. Spot on.
Super Mario Bros. - *Sept 1985*
Super Mario Bros. 2 (The Lost Levels) - *June 1986*
_Auf Wiedersehen Monty_ - *April 1987*
Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic (The game which would be released as SM 2 USA) - *July 1987*
That makes the ZX Spectrum look pretty rough in comparison. I honestly assumed the Spectrum was older, having only seen videos and mentions of it here and there on the internet.
I mean, the base model was released in 1982, though it was re-released with increasing quantities of on-board ram throughout the 80s, up to the 1995 128k model that Monty here ran on. It's also important to understand that the home micros that dominated the UK games industry at the time were (mostly budget) general purpose computers, rather than dedicated consoles. Think of it as being like the 1980s equivalent of playing flash games on your dad's work laptop... which is itself already a pretty dated thing for me to say and will make no sense to people who didn't grow up in the 2000s.
@@RAFMnBgaming I can certainly agree on the cultural impact of the the ZD Spectrum dominating the market at the time-- but only that. Let's compare:
The base model ZX Spectrum was released in 1982 with a 3.5 Mhz CPU and 16 KB of ram, for £125 (about 465 USD today)
The base model NES was released a little over a year later in 1983, with a 1.79 Mhz CPU and 4 KB of ram, for ¥14,800 (about 317 USD today)
Objectively speaking, the spectrum was actually the more capable machine between the two of them. It just used that power poorly. It's true that the spectrum was a general purpose computer, but there really wasn't anything it could do that the NES couldn't. The NES had a hardware keyboard and business software, they were just released separately as a add-ons rather than baked into the base unit.
But aside from the technical limitations (or lack thereof) the spectrum also feels dated in it's game mechanics. The jumping and climbing mechanics are a far cry from Doki Doki Panic which would be released for the NES only a few months later. That wasn't down to hardware limitations but the culture at the time.
@@KantiDono I wouldn't say so much it was poor use of power, rather an early demonstration of how useful dedicated graphics hardware (like the NES's PPU or even the C64's VIC-II) could be. Meanwhile with a computer like the Spectrum its processor may have ran twice the speed of the NES's, and the z80 was a fair bit more sophisticated than the 6502 equivalent, but it was pulling double duty doing both general processing and video rendering.
Even back then, gaming was all about them GPUs.
But also, yeah, the game design culture was indeed pretty different. Part of why the NES library is how it is is because of the shovelware that caused the '83 crash in the US and nintendo's resulting approval process for anything released on their hardware. Things could definitely still be a lot more fire-and-forget over here.
1:01:20 I think it was (still is?) common to use non-OG music in sports transmissions in certain countries. Another example is T-Square's TRUTH, which is used on F1 transmissions made by Fuji TV in Japan.
tsquare ✅
Vinny's dad be like YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO THIS MY SHIT
Still keeping the heat with these thumbnails, Johnny. Brilliant
Vinny has officially channeled his inner Ashens I see.
I absolutely expected to hear some overly exaggerated British accent in the very beginning of the video. Vinny never disappoints.
I didn't know you lot didn't get the Specky over there. The 128k was my first computer and this took me way back. Thanks for that. I wish Vinny had sampled the loading noise. I view it nostalgically as 'music' nowadays.
PS, I'm highly offended by the two examples of 'Englishmen' here, either side of the centrepiece.
We did get the Spectrum, it was just called the "Timex Sinclair" due to a deal with watch company Timex, and it didn't really leave a mark.
Fun fact: The NES utterly failed in the uk.
I wouldn't say that... I know plenty of people who had one.
In fact, Nintendo was pretty unpopular in the UK until the Wii. The handhelds did really well (eveyone had a GB for Pokemon!), but everyone I knew as a kid (late 90s) that a had a console had either a megadrive or a playstation, then later it was all about the PS2 (mostly due to it also being a cheap DVD player TBF).
Yeah, micro computers here in the UK just offered more in terms of their flexibility. Many of the specialist gaming magazines contained sections that were just lines of code you would input into your ZX or Commodore that would give you a free* game.
*Free means spending around 1-2 hours painstakingly inputting the code before you could actually play the game.
@@danny_dinthead8858 the purpose of such "painstaking" work, was to *teach* a programmer, how they could make their own software in the future.
You also had room to modify code (whether it be in BASIC or machine language), so that you could experiment and better understand the computer's capabilities through using your own imagination - a doubled benefit.
As for the NES (or Famicom which I infinitely prefer), that too could be programmed using the Famicom keyboard and a special cartridge (well, for small titles anyway), and you'd use a cassette deck and leads just in the same way as you could with the micros.
The NES was ok, but programming for it was much less straightforward.
WOAH, OLDSCHOOL GAMES AFTER A LONG NIGHT OF GAMING? You guys are the man, man. Thanks for the comfy viewing inbound :)
Please continue with this, Vinceton Wyncesse
I'm surprised none of the games by Ultimate Play The Game (who would eventually become Rare) are on here. Since those are the games that basically started a legacy.
Anyways, besides those, I think titles like Jet Set Willy or Manic Miner should have been here.
It would be cool if Vinny checks out the Amiga, it's a very interesting platform with a rather unique library of games. Think he might enjoy those more.
With how many Spectrum games there are out there I wouldn't be surprised if this gets a Part 2 at some point.
Attic attack still plays like a goddamn dream, brilliant game!
The fact that Vinny called it ZEE ECKS Spectrum filled me with anger and I'm not even Bri'ish
I am grateful for the educational lessons bestowed upon me on this day.
I shall now bask in the glory of the knowledge that there is a ZX Spectrum game called "How To Be A Complete Bastard" with fully functional Smellometer, Drunkometer, Fartometer, Bastard Points and even a rating system...
Based on the 1986 book of the same name. There was also a game based around Max Headroom which made about as much sense as you think.
The ZX Spectrum is definitely my favorite microcomputer of all time, and I live in the States, dammit! The reason for my love of the computer is because of the demoscene. The Spectrum demoscene in Russia is still going strong with many colorful demos being pumped out on a yearly basis. If you're really interested in watching some of the demos for the computer, try watching Kpacku Deluxe, Mescaline Synthesia, Stellar Contour, Power Up, Emergency and Tiratok. Those demos showcase the flickering multicolor capabilities of the ZX Spectrum, this computer really is something special. (Also try watching Dogma, just for the music.)
Demarche with "Across The Border", gasman with that very colourful demo (which I can't remember the name of) - competitions such as Chaos Constructions which I'd really like to go to have it all...
SoundPaint (the UA-cam channel) has a fantastic demo of the 16 and 48k's beeper capabilities - they can generate breathtaking symphonies very easily if you have technology to help you extract it more conveniently (or with indescribable torture if you're abysmally masochistic! :))
Interlacing/dithering having produced just incredible works of art (and I would imagine, incredible animation one day) - even the border is being "diminished" (i.e tricks are being used to fill it with numbers of pixels in certain ways).
Single border pixels would be a real achievement one day...
With the three screen interlacing effect you could create ANYTHING in the BORDER area.
If you know any more about hardware manipulation efforts that are being made in this area, please do let me know :)
Next time, let's send Vinny that Kempston joystick before he tries this again. 🕹
All I wanted was some Agent X for that sweet Tim Follin music (well, if you can deal with the high pitched static-y nature of it and the subsequent ear ringing)
the queen on the thumbnail, things hit different now
Oi oi, zed ex spectrum is minging innit
he predicted it
Holy shit I was watching this at work. That football game had me in tears. I had to shut it off to not attract attention to myself. Holy shit what gem.
OH BOY! I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS OF THE COLOR YELLOW! :D
there could be more yellow, honestly
@@wistfulanthophila9317 Agreed. The level of yellow on display is mellow.
why do these games have such dank chiptune though?
He did an hour long video on the ZX Spectrum and he didn't even play Chaos.
Hearing Vinny confused about The Saints Go Marching being played at a football game is adorable. He has no idea about our fucked up little isles and it's weird culture :)
I hope he played Monty on the Run
Vinny: "Zee Ecks"
The entirety of Britannia:
* foils *
As a 40 year old Brit, I get supreme nostalgia from this stuff. It makes me misty eyed to watch! 🥹
Ah yes, kwik snax a prequel to bug snax.
The bastard guy looks like the Grinch in a suit.
He’s gotta play 3D monster maze
31:44 The saints go marchin' straight into my ears to destroy them, jesus christ.
Funny thing, these _were_ released in the USA, imported and re-branded by Timex, the wristwatch company. My dad had one, he got it in a DIY kit for $99 (in 1980's money; it was a hundred dollars extra to order it pre-assembled).
Good ol' ZX Rectum
32:00 Vin got ear goated.
31:57 The game becomes sentient and targets Binty
RIP Queen in the thumbnail.
Thanks for updating thumbnail.
Why Jermy Cockson in thumbnail?
32:00
I'm just gonna leave this here without context. Just click it.
37:45 Well computer not 'console', it could be used as a game console in the sense all computers can, people made games on it and for it because people made programs and coded for it and on it in general
1:03:04 this part made me frantically check today's date
The ZX Spectrum has a very active homebrew scene with over 200 new games being released every year. Here are some of the better new releases
ua-cam.com/video/1povo-l-MIc/v-deo.html
It might not be fair to say this having only seen the ZX Spectrum games in this vid, but ZXS games look f*cking painful to play. No wonder the Sega Master System did so well in Europe, that thing was a godsend for any kid that didn't want to deal with the headache these games are capable of inducing.
I suppose by one argument, one could say that Sega Master System/Famicom control pad-led titles were hypothetically hypersensitive by initial comparison of the two formats...
There are titles such as Cobra which were extremely responsive in a similar way to SMS-type consoles, or Zynaps (which is fairly similar to R-Type, but faster).
Unfortunately, the age of some of the machines, the way in which some titles were programmed to accept keyboard/controller inputs, the rubber key model response, and the lack of familiarity with the system's nuanced way of generally giving feedback, were the reasons for having a "less satisfactory" experience...
As time has gone on, the need for certain efforts to be made (even very subtle ones) has lessened and lessened - possibly due to intense competition from rival game/console manufacturers.
It wouldn't have been anywhere near as much of an issue at the time.
22:20 sounds like the PS4 homebrew thingy Amiga-esque demo song.
What's it called... HENkaku?
oi me speccy!
I remember playing that chaos battle of wizards game on nintendo ds homebrew. Was actually kinda fun. It gets chaotic (heh) when you max out the wizards.
As someone who working in the lawn mowing business the Lawn Mower Simulator is accurate, down to the broken lawn mowers.
Petition to add world cup as an extra track on the next redvox album
If Vinny ever does a part 2, I recommend SQIJ! Not because it's good or anything; quite the opposite really. It's infamous for having a bug that immediately renders it fully unplayable, as startup automatically turns caps lock on and the game only reads lowercase inputs (Reminder: It was actually commercially sold, despite this bug existing). Only when the pertaining line of code is corrected can the game proper be played. The game itself when playable is allegedly still a mess, as it was developed by a teenager who wasn't even expecting the publisher to put it on the shelves.
Duncan McDonald is a fucking legend! Iirc he wrote for the "Zero" magazine!
I think Vinny should check out some Amiga stuff in the future. It had an interesting lineup of games and the sample trackers (like protracker) led to a lot of awesome music made by people who only had a home computer.
Normally when Vinny says something like "This is the worst sounding video game I've ever played in my life", it's hyperbole, because he's played so much shit over the past decade+. But at 33:15 , I believed him.
Timex released the Spectrum in the "States" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX_Spectrum#Official_clones but it wasn't that common to find one for sale apparently.
Something went wrong with the in-game music for Kwik Snax, it was supposed to be faster than that.
Something about the coding for this is a bit messed-up.
Anyway, I think you'd have a better experience if you had an old-skool joystick for them. Well, I dunno about Monty's game, but...
Whoever said that Dizzy 4 sucks farts should get rabies.
Wtf is Clarkson doing in the thumbnail lol
He used to write for a home computer magazine.
31:57 _Good Lord someone put this poor machine out of its misery_
21:37 what is this song and why is it p.lion's "happy children" moreover where can i find the chiptune version?
I can't find the raw file for the music, but if you search "Monty Python's Crack Intro - Titus [#zx spectrum]" on youtube you can find the same cracktro running for ~5 minutes with no voice over.
ua-cam.com/video/MnWZyVEkOck/v-deo.html
That Monty Python game where you played as Terry Gilliam's art made me chuckle, since I'm currently reading his autobiography (I'm enjoying it and finding it interesting, as a fan of him/his movies)
There is a Postman Pat game on the ZX Spectrum
Vance, you connected the keyboard into the wrong microcomputer processor bus.
OMG SHESEZ ON THE KEYBOARD
I played a LOT of How To Be A Complete Bastard; best thing Adrian Edmonson ever did. It's a great game once you figure out the controls
0:17 It technically did with Timex.
Yeah, I've got a Timex Sinclair 1000, which is a clone of the ZX-81, but not the Spectrum though.
Of all the things in the thumbnail, I did not expect to see Clarkson on a Vinesauce video. Nicely done Johnny.
Might be showing my age here but I cut my teeth in programming on the ZX Spectrum. To be more specific it was the 128k plus 3 model as the name implies you had a bit more RAM to play with. Fantastic machine back in the day.
how did that lawn mower sound like someone tapping on the inside of my skull
U WOT M8
I’m actually surprised by the sound of the ZX Spectrum in these games. I heard the sound bites for the ZX version of Donkey Kong Jr. and that was kinda terrible.
Edit: SOME of these games….. I spoke too soon.
For the ZX Speccy, Vin was definitely an inept reviewer.
Vinny really needs to watch The Young Ones. And also Bottom. (Real show. Not sex.)
To be honest I would fucking love a Vinny reacts stream of old British comedy. That one video of Americans watching Shooting Stars is still one of the greatest things I've ever seen.
Also, Kempston. Kempston Kempston Kempston. xD
If you're from the UK and are somewhat into retro gaming then you've probably heard how much people go on about this thing. I don't quite get the appeal of it, but I imagine most dudes who like this thing are probably a bit older than the average gamer.
I think it was the advent of indie gaming, hundreds of bedroom coders. Some of them barely hitting puberty. I think the scene is more fondly remembered more so that the system itself.
I clicked on this purely for the thumbnail
I really like a lot of the chiptunes this thing can produce, even if I wouldn't want to play a lot of the games on display. Some look like they could be fun.
bloody hell, what's all this then?
Of course vinny's no up speedrun of kwick snax died on a level with banana's as if those didnt always have a place in his streams.
There was an American version, the Timex Spectrum, but it failed in competition with the Commodore 64