Great video! I owned a ZX Spectrum back in the early 80s. It was a 16K model which I upgraded to 48K with some chips bought from a company with an advert in the back pages of Your Computer magazine. I spent many happy hours programming, typing in listings, and of course playing games on it. Atic Atac and Jetpac were two of my favourites too! I don't have my original Speccy any more, but I bought another one from eBay a while ago, and I bought the DivMMC as well. It takes pride of place in my collection and is my favourite 80s home computer, just beating the Acorn Electron, another machine I spent hours on.
Nice video and nice clean setups;! Only recently I became a Spectrum user . Coming from the Atari 8bit camp, I was interested in Speccy's unique graphical and sound aesthetics compared to the rest of the bunch. Two three years later I managed to get and repair 5 different ZX Spectrum models (and built a ZX pico), upgrade a 48k to the max(sd loader, sound card, 128k),I designed and built a case to ptotect all those cards hanging at the back.... from my cat of course. Even if I don't enjoy spectrum games like I do on the systems I grew up with, I daily fire up one of my ZXs and browse the vast software library that's now available. I also like to imagine the reactions kids had back in the day especially with a good game! We are so lucky today to have access at so many systems of our past.
Very informative video. Thank you. I am waiting for the release of "The Spectrum" from retro games. I'll compare after that because i have also a vintage ZX Spectrum.
Back in the day i borrowed my brothers Kempston interface & it looked fairly badic, so i copied it and made my own. We all learned to play Chaos on our spectrum & today i still have the pc version called Chaos groove & have a quick 8 player round in the evening.
I'll allways have fond memories of the 48k+ I used to have. I must have been around 14 when I got it. At the time I also had an Amstrad CPC 464 and later on I got a Commodore 64. So back then I didn't have to worry about whether a game was better on Amstrad, C64 or ZX, I had all 3!
I'm guessing it was often best on the C64 - or is that not fair? I still very much like the other two, although never got to play with a CPC that often back in the day.
@@pixel_fandango It depended a lot on the skills of the programmers and the time for creating a game for any specific platform. The ZX Spectrum had more CPU power and thus did best in 3D games or complex simulationns. Starglider, Carrier Command and Freescape-based games like Driller and Castle Master work best on the Spectrum. The C64 was created with 2D games in mind and often steals the show with hardware support for scrolling, sprites and sound. But the C64's BASIC sucks badly. Excellent programming skills overcame the limitations of any 8-bit system. That's why I am an 8-bit retro gamer. The achievements of those coding geniusses back then are simply awesome.
I'm looking forward to getting a Retro Games 'The Spectrum' to play with too. I'm a customer just like everyone else and don't get given stuff ahead of release. That means I give a very honest opinion, but I also have to wait in line. November release I believe.
Great video. I thought I recognised the voice! We met at the indie section at Blackpool. I'm the retrogaming odyssey guy. You're a man of many talents. I'm a c64 guy but I have a few speccys hanging around, and will buy both of those. Thanks for the great content.
One friend bought a C64 and another inherited (got it from he's older cousin) a ZX48... and when I was about 12 (ish) I really liked playing games so we played a lot of Spectrum games... and they where lots of fun! but that cousin had a lot of them so we (me and my friend) never got really deep into them on the Spectrum (maybe a game or two was 2-3 day game) but again when you had +200 to try, we mostly tried them for an hour or two then if not that fun, we tried the next one on the tape and so on... But on the C64 (another friend) it was sort of different, it was actual music, and actual sound effects and graphics (hardware sprites made a huge difference)... so I had to get myself a C64... so the C64 is my goto computer, but again I do remember a lot of games for the ZX48 (in our case)... super fun!
There's no doubt the C64 was better, but theres a definite charm to the little spectrum and the games. The simpler graphics and sound make it special I think.
@@pixel_fandango Yes it was special! At the time I did not really know why (I was about 11 years old?) but later (when Internet was a thing 1994-96) I did aprecciate the Spectrum (again ZX48k :-) more and more... and the funny thing is that my ZX48k friend bought a 128D... which I found funny as i almost never ever used the Z80 inside it... which by then I found even more interest in... but... then we all (in my neighborhood) got a A500 and that was just crazy... except for my ZX48k friend we all programmed that 68K on the Amiga. Games I remember on the ZX was Sabre Wulf, Skooldaze, Spy hunter- Skooldaze and Spy hunter I did play on the C64, but I think they where better on the ZX...
That's quite a bit of cash to get it to produce HDMI, read an SD card and hook up a joystick. If only someone would make an exact copy with all these features and sell it on Amazon, Argos, hmv ... 🤔 Keep your eyes peeled, November 22nd!
i don't think you mentioned this.. but the inbuilt joystick ports on the +2 are a completely different format than the atari 8bit single button. it's utterly modable.. but another reason to use the divmmc
You're right. The +2 has 'Sinclair compatible' joystick ports rather than the 'Kempston'/Atari joysticks - even though the connectors look exactly the same.
If you are also into new games then do yourself a favour and play all Zosya games you can find: Angels, Valley of Rains, Metal Man Remixed, The Dark, Drift, Northern Lights are my favourites. Manic Pietro, Space Monsters meet the Hardy and all the other games based on multicolour engines like Bifrost and Nirvana are jaw-droppingly good, too. Have fun!!
I wasn't 100% sure on the release order, but that makes sense - I think Lunar Jetman over-complicated a great game - but that's my personal opinion. Maybe I should play it more.
@@pixel_fandango I agree. I spent many a happy hour being repeatedly slaughtered in JetPac on my Beeb. Lunar Jetman made me glad I was given a copy of it by a mate, because I rapidly became glad that I hadn't paid for it!
Jetpac the game that broke the rules - i still play that on my arcade machine that runs ZXSPIN.
There has never been a better time to be into retro. It is crazy how much stuff is being done. Good video! 👍
I never owned a Spectrum, we had a C64. But I found your video very helpful and fun to watch. Nice to learn things about the Spectrum as well!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Great video! I owned a ZX Spectrum back in the early 80s. It was a 16K model which I upgraded to 48K with some chips bought from a company with an advert in the back pages of Your Computer magazine. I spent many happy hours programming, typing in listings, and of course playing games on it. Atic Atac and Jetpac were two of my favourites too! I don't have my original Speccy any more, but I bought another one from eBay a while ago, and I bought the DivMMC as well. It takes pride of place in my collection and is my favourite 80s home computer, just beating the Acorn Electron, another machine I spent hours on.
Thanks for the kind comments. Much appreciated. I remember 'Your Computer' magazine very well. In fact I have a couple of copies kept safely.
Nice video and nice clean setups;! Only recently I became a Spectrum user . Coming from the Atari 8bit camp, I was interested in Speccy's unique graphical and sound aesthetics compared to the rest of the bunch. Two three years later I managed to get and repair 5 different ZX Spectrum models (and built a ZX pico), upgrade a 48k to the max(sd loader, sound card, 128k),I designed and built a case to ptotect all those cards hanging at the back.... from my cat of course.
Even if I don't enjoy spectrum games like I do on the systems I grew up with, I daily fire up one of my ZXs and browse the vast software library that's now available. I also like to imagine the reactions kids had back in the day especially with a good game! We are so lucky today to have access at so many systems of our past.
That's interesting. I may well be doing something Atari 8 bit related soon.
I had a ZX81 and then a C16.
I'm thinking of getting The Spectrum when it comes out.
Very informative video. Thank you. I am waiting for the release of "The Spectrum" from retro games. I'll compare after that because i have also a vintage ZX Spectrum.
Back in the day i borrowed my brothers Kempston interface & it looked fairly badic, so i copied it and made my own.
We all learned to play Chaos on our spectrum & today i still have the pc version called Chaos groove & have a quick 8 player round in the evening.
I'll allways have fond memories of the 48k+ I used to have. I must have been around 14 when I got it. At the time I also had an Amstrad CPC 464 and later on I got a Commodore 64. So back then I didn't have to worry about whether a game was better on Amstrad, C64 or ZX, I had all 3!
I'm guessing it was often best on the C64 - or is that not fair? I still very much like the other two, although never got to play with a CPC that often back in the day.
@@pixel_fandango It depended a lot on the skills of the programmers and the time for creating a game for any specific platform.
The ZX Spectrum had more CPU power and thus did best in 3D games or complex simulationns.
Starglider, Carrier Command and Freescape-based games like Driller and Castle Master work best on the Spectrum.
The C64 was created with 2D games in mind and often steals the show with hardware support for scrolling, sprites and sound.
But the C64's BASIC sucks badly.
Excellent programming skills overcame the limitations of any 8-bit system.
That's why I am an 8-bit retro gamer.
The achievements of those coding geniusses back then are simply awesome.
Nicely done mate. Enjoyed that. I was given a +2 a few years ago. Still have it
Thanks. Glad you enjoyed it.
spectrum owner as a kid. i just wish it could do 4 colours in a character square instead of 2. would have made such a difference to games
I know what you mean, but I think that gives it a unique look. That and the character grid based colouring scheme.
I have a ZX-HD for my Spectrum + and it fits nicely on there. It was really easy for a never-assembled-electronic-thingies-before person like me.
Yeah it's a nice piece of kit.
Looking forward to The Spectrum but thank you for this video.
I'm looking forward to getting a Retro Games 'The Spectrum' to play with too. I'm a customer just like everyone else and don't get given stuff ahead of release. That means I give a very honest opinion, but I also have to wait in line. November release I believe.
Great video. I thought I recognised the voice!
We met at the indie section at Blackpool. I'm the retrogaming odyssey guy.
You're a man of many talents. I'm a c64 guy but I have a few speccys hanging around, and will buy both of those.
Thanks for the great content.
Great to hear from you. Thanks for the kind comments.
That's awesome, I love The Speccy It was my first computer , That dizzy game looks awesome, I really have to play ItI really have to play It
ZX81 was my first, so I have a soft spot for Sinclair stuff, but I missed out on the spectrum back in the day.
Sounds like your +2a has got the sound distortion issue. There's a few videos on here on how to fix this. I had it with my +3
Yeah, it is clipping. I might get round to fixing it one day.
One friend bought a C64 and another inherited (got it from he's older cousin) a ZX48... and when I was about 12 (ish) I really liked playing games so we played a lot of Spectrum games... and they where lots of fun! but that cousin had a lot of them so we (me and my friend) never got really deep into them on the Spectrum (maybe a game or two was 2-3 day game) but again when you had +200 to try, we mostly tried them for an hour or two then if not that fun, we tried the next one on the tape and so on...
But on the C64 (another friend) it was sort of different, it was actual music, and actual sound effects and graphics (hardware sprites made a huge difference)... so I had to get myself a C64... so the C64 is my goto computer, but again I do remember a lot of games for the ZX48 (in our case)... super fun!
There's no doubt the C64 was better, but theres a definite charm to the little spectrum and the games. The simpler graphics and sound make it special I think.
@@pixel_fandango Yes it was special! At the time I did not really know why (I was about 11 years old?) but later (when Internet was a thing 1994-96) I did aprecciate the Spectrum (again ZX48k :-) more and more... and the funny thing is that my ZX48k friend bought a 128D... which I found funny as i almost never ever used the Z80 inside it... which by then I found even more interest in... but... then we all (in my neighborhood) got a A500 and that was just crazy... except for my ZX48k friend we all programmed that 68K on the Amiga.
Games I remember on the ZX was Sabre Wulf, Skooldaze, Spy hunter-
Skooldaze and Spy hunter I did play on the C64, but I think they where better on the ZX...
That's quite a bit of cash to get it to produce HDMI, read an SD card and hook up a joystick. If only someone would make an exact copy with all these features and sell it on Amazon, Argos, hmv ... 🤔
Keep your eyes peeled, November 22nd!
Yep, 'The Spectrum' is coming very soon.
i don't think you mentioned this.. but the inbuilt joystick ports on the +2 are a completely different format than the atari 8bit single button. it's utterly modable.. but another reason to use the divmmc
You're right. The +2 has 'Sinclair compatible' joystick ports rather than the 'Kempston'/Atari joysticks - even though the connectors look exactly the same.
If you are also into new games then do yourself a favour and play all Zosya games you can find:
Angels, Valley of Rains, Metal Man Remixed, The Dark, Drift, Northern Lights are my favourites.
Manic Pietro, Space Monsters meet the Hardy and all the other games based on multicolour engines like Bifrost and Nirvana are jaw-droppingly good, too.
Have fun!!
I'll check them out. Cheers!
@@pixel_fandango Multicolour, Bifrost and Nirvana games on the ZX Spectrum are covered in videos here on UA-cam.
This is what happens when u connect pie to c64
That's not a +2 it's a +2 a/b it's black yes with printer port it's a reduced +3 pcb
i didn't know the +2 had +3 basic built in
I think it was the +2A that did (black case), not the original +2 (grey case) which just had 128k BASIC
As pointed out by others the unit I have is a +2A.
@@pixel_fandango it wasn't a criticism, i've never owned a +2 or +2a. only a +3. so was surprised to see +3 basic on it
@@bazza5699 No offence taken. Sorry, I can see that my reply might sound a bit short. But not meant that way. Cheers!
I'm not sure if you know this, but Lunar Jetman was the sequel to Jetpac.
...And was followed by Solar Jetman on the NES!
I wasn't 100% sure on the release order, but that makes sense - I think Lunar Jetman over-complicated a great game - but that's my personal opinion. Maybe I should play it more.
@@pixel_fandango I agree. I spent many a happy hour being repeatedly slaughtered in JetPac on my Beeb.
Lunar Jetman made me glad I was given a copy of it by a mate, because I rapidly became glad that I hadn't paid for it!
@@VampireJack10 I never bothered with consoles so wouldn't know. _Am Coder._
Sounds like +3 distorted sound, needs fixing ;)
It has been noticed. 😖