I wish I still had my original Speccy, I have my QL and highly upgraded Amiga A2000 but have no idea what happened to my last Spectrum. My dad (a Snr Systems Engineer) made me learn BASIC and tested me before I was "rewarded" with a 16K ZX Spectrum in 1982 and Planetoids was the first game I got for it, I only played it for a bit of nostalgia using Fuse this Tuesday. He made me learn BASIC to encourage me not to use it just for games and I've been a professional Software Engineer since 1987 working on the code for avionic systems such as the Head-Up Displays (HUDs) for C-17, F-16, F-5, Eurofighter Typhoon and the fly-by-wire (FCC) for Boeing 777, all thanks to my dad and my humble Spectrum. "From little acorns..." as they say, but I never had an Atom, Electron or BBC Micro 😉
Great story! I'm very fortunate to still have my Speccy. It got put away when I finally got my Atari ST. But me being as I am not being able to part with anything, it went back in it's original box, just waiting to be loved again 😊
I got my 128+2 speccy with a joystick, Soldier of Fortune and Fire&Forget, just a few months before christmas. At the time, it was being sold here just a few quid short of a minimum wage, and my dad was the only one working due to my mom doing chemotherapy. During that time I hardly saw my dad for almost a year because he was doing overtime in construction even on weekends. I can not even imagine the effort he made to make it possible, having to support a house of 4 and paying for experimental treatments. I don't remember if he got anything for me and my brother on that christmas, but we already had what we wanted, really. I still have it, and just waiting for a full refurbish, which I will do as soon as my workbench is free for a couple of days.
Nice. I am way too old to have received a computer for Christmas, but I can imagine the excitement. At the age of 74 I have just bought my first retro computer, a BBC Model B. Had it shipped from the UK to the US. I got to play with it for a little while, but now it’s packed away pending a 2000 mile move from Georgia to Nevada.
@Colin_Ames hi Colin. Thanks for the comment. Well done on getting yourself a BBC Micro. It's still one of my all time favourites. Good luck with the move, and have a great Christmas and new year
What a lovely Christmas video - thank you for sharing it.. need to get my speccy up to scratch - that said, we never had one when I was growing up.. I'm making up for it now 😃
i liked your video and ypur christmas story about the spectrum and you mom! thats awrsome.!my favorite was1982 mom worked very hard and got me a colecovision!! my favorite christmas ever!! i live with mom to help her out with things. i love mom! and i bet your moms happy she has a good son!merry christmas simon!
I remember sending off £125 for my Spectrum (16K) in 1982 then later upgrading it myself to 48k. It was known as an Issue 1.5 (rare) meaning it had the Issue 2 Pcb with the original 5C102E ULA and the dead cockroach IC stuck to the top of the Z80.
I suspect you're right there. I'm not completely sure. However, you can get modern recreated rim images from tape files such as Jet Set Willy which must be over 16K. Perhaps someone else knows? Good comment though, thanks. Have a great Christmas and new year
@@RetroComputingReboot yeh you are limited to 16k images as if you tried to to access a higher memory address with the cart it would cause problems / corruption . but there are more ROMS available that have been adjusted to run as 16k and there are other options of using bank switching and altered snapshot files to load a 16k bank into ram then switch bank and load another 16k but needs a little hardware + coding. i did try it on a breadboard manually switching the ROM page which to my surprise worked .. some boards use a resistor /capacitor delay to switch the bank page after a short time ..
I wish I still had my original Speccy, I have my QL and highly upgraded Amiga A2000 but have no idea what happened to my last Spectrum. My dad (a Snr Systems Engineer) made me learn BASIC and tested me before I was "rewarded" with a 16K ZX Spectrum in 1982 and Planetoids was the first game I got for it, I only played it for a bit of nostalgia using Fuse this Tuesday.
He made me learn BASIC to encourage me not to use it just for games and I've been a professional Software Engineer since 1987 working on the code for avionic systems such as the Head-Up Displays (HUDs) for C-17, F-16, F-5, Eurofighter Typhoon and the fly-by-wire (FCC) for Boeing 777, all thanks to my dad and my humble Spectrum. "From little acorns..." as they say, but I never had an Atom, Electron or BBC Micro 😉
Great story!
I'm very fortunate to still have my Speccy. It got put away when I finally got my Atari ST. But me being as I am not being able to part with anything, it went back in it's original box, just waiting to be loved again 😊
I got my 128+2 speccy with a joystick, Soldier of Fortune and Fire&Forget, just a few months before christmas. At the time, it was being sold here just a few quid short of a minimum wage, and my dad was the only one working due to my mom doing chemotherapy.
During that time I hardly saw my dad for almost a year because he was doing overtime in construction even on weekends. I can not even imagine the effort he made to make it possible, having to support a house of 4 and paying for experimental treatments. I don't remember if he got anything for me and my brother on that christmas, but we already had what we wanted, really.
I still have it, and just waiting for a full refurbish, which I will do as soon as my workbench is free for a couple of days.
What an awesome story. Thanks for sharing that 😊
Have a wonderful Christmas and new year
Cool build. I do need a ZX Interface 2 now 😉 Merry Christmas !!!
Thanks for taking the time to comment. I'm really glad you liked it 😊.
Merry Christmas ⛄
Nice. I am way too old to have received a computer for Christmas, but I can imagine the excitement. At the age of 74 I have just bought my first retro computer, a BBC Model B. Had it shipped from the UK to the US. I got to play with it for a little while, but now it’s packed away pending a 2000 mile move from Georgia to Nevada.
@Colin_Ames hi Colin. Thanks for the comment. Well done on getting yourself a BBC Micro. It's still one of my all time favourites.
Good luck with the move, and have a great Christmas and new year
@@Colin_Ames Hope the move goes well!
What a lovely Christmas video - thank you for sharing it.. need to get my speccy up to scratch - that said, we never had one when I was growing up.. I'm making up for it now 😃
i liked your video and ypur christmas story about the spectrum and you mom! thats awrsome.!my favorite was1982 mom worked very hard and got me a colecovision!! my favorite christmas ever!! i live with mom to help her out with things. i love mom! and i bet your moms happy she has a good son!merry christmas simon!
Hi Mike, I really liked your story. A very merry Christmas to you 🎄
I remember sending off £125 for my Spectrum (16K) in 1982 then later upgrading it myself to 48k. It was known as an Issue 1.5 (rare) meaning it had the Issue 2 Pcb with the original 5C102E ULA and the dead cockroach IC stuck to the top of the Z80.
I wonder how many of the 16K models stayed as 16K. Not many I suspect 🤔
Thanks for the comment and have a great Christmas and new year
@@RetroComputingReboot I've got a 16K Spectrum, and a 32K Cheetah ram pack for it!
@trance_trousers I forgot you could upgrade the 16K with a RAM pack
I guess that device only works with 16k games? I've never seen a 48k game on rom.
I suspect you're right there. I'm not completely sure. However, you can get modern recreated rim images from tape files such as Jet Set Willy which must be over 16K. Perhaps someone else knows?
Good comment though, thanks. Have a great Christmas and new year
@@RetroComputingReboot yeh you are limited to 16k images as if you tried to to access a higher memory address with the cart it would cause problems / corruption . but there are more ROMS available that have been adjusted to run as 16k and there are other options of using bank switching and altered snapshot files to load a 16k bank into ram then switch bank and load another 16k but needs a little hardware + coding. i did try it on a breadboard manually switching the ROM page which to my surprise worked .. some boards use a resistor /capacitor delay to switch the bank page after a short time ..