The irony that the Arm processor which was designed by Steve Furber & Roger Wilson (now Sophie) for Acorn Computers now powers THE Spectrum isn't lost on me ;-) Great video and thanks for sharing!
@pixel_fandango Yes, a BBC Mini would be very cool but much like The Spectrum, it would be a very UK centric product. It's funny how our cousins across the pond have very little incline at how important both the ZX Spectrum and BBC B were with regards to the early development of the Home Microcomputer market. If Clive Sinclair and Chris Curry had worked together, who knows what the future would have held :-)
I brought this on Friday and loved it. I like that I can play my other spectrum games on a usb stick and some include the loading screens with that lovely sound. I like the fact you can change the tape speed from the normal ie what we all love or hate or speed it up but still get the loading screen. Brilliant
I think you did a really good job on this video. Real short documentary tv quality! I didn't own a Spectrum back then either. I was older, less interested in games but more into programming. I had a BBC Micro and a Commodore 64. The Acorn machines were unquestionably the best for a non games orientated programmer. However, I think I have been living under a rock because I only just found out about Retro Games and their products. I bought a THEC64 two months ago and I love it. I do still have my 1983 original but this new version is great. The best thing about the full size replica machines with their functioning keyboards is that all the original keys are there, correctly placed. It makes a real difference for my type of use and is much better in my opinion, than running VICE on a PC. I hope Retro Games do a BBC replica. After all Acorn gave us Elite and ARM everything!
Bought my original Spectrum in 1985 by then it had evolved into the Spectrum Plus , and i still own in and it works. I was 20 years old back then and maybe i should have been getting out more but that little machine gave me endless hours of joy. With my Kempston interface we completed many digital adventures together, completing Rod Bowkets wonderful " Dynamite Dan" was a highlight (: I have " The Spectrum on order from Amazon and its a present from my wife for Christmas and i am looking forward to further adventures(:
5:20 El Stompo and Snake Escape don't use the extended colour palette, they use a game engine (Nirvana) which changes the way the Spectrum handles colours (rather than two colours per 8x8 block, it uses two colours per 8x2 rectangle).
I do mention Nirvana and how it's used by El Stompo. It does also use an extended colour palette - as mentioned below, you can see a difference when the option is checked.
Never had one but used to look at the Timex Sinclair in computer magazines at $99 CAD and dreamed of having one. Preordered the Retro Spectrum and its on the way to Canada. I appreciate your video and looking forward to see if any of my TV/Monitors that output 50 Hz as these games were originally made for PAL.
Me in 1984 : "Dad, please can we get a ZX Spectrum?" My dad : "No! We're getting a proper computer, not a bloody toy!". Cue me spending 2 years trying to find the 6 other kids in the entire UK with an Amstrad CPC! Ha ha! We actualy had Dragon32 prior to that in 1982, again "proper computer with a proper keyboard" and again almost zero games! So sorry Dad, 40 years later I'm finally going to buy myself a Speccy and this one will also keep my wife happy as I won't hear, "You're not plugging that old thing in and burning the house down!". Retro gaming is a hard life...
I didn't get my ZX Spectrum 48k until 1983. I did a paper round and with help from my Mum saved up a £130 to purchase one 2nd hand (It came with quite a few games so this explains the price). I loved it. My biggest regret was never purchasing The Quill to write text adventures, as I was lost in an imaginary world most of the time and I'm sure I could have written at least one half decent text adventure
@@Inaflap that's true. A lot of my friends purchased later on 85-86ish. I remember having Orc Attack which came out in 1983. I like an idiot chucked out all my tapes, but have been using emulators since around 2000
im getting me one of these christmas - well my brother is gonna get me one :D - ive downloaded all the games i had on the spectrom and all of the files comes to 13.2 mb yes they are very small files lol
No downsides? Hmmm... Is there any WiFi or Bluetooth support? How about you cannot add you own games to the carousel? It doesn't have a SD card slot to extend the internal storage? (the USB key is meh...) Where is the DB9 joystick port? Why the keyboard membrane is not compatible with the classic one so you can't replace it if needed? Or replace it with a micro-switches one like 48K-KLDX or MechBoardZX? The emulator doesn't support any virtual Spectrum add-ons like the Interface 1 and micro-drives. You cannot use other ROMs, like Spanish, French or Looking Glass. It doesn't support the +3 (with the .DSK disk images), the Pentagon (with the .TRD disk images) or the Spectrum NEXT. I bet that the Spectrum NEXT will never be supported! You can achieve all this much cheaper on your computer with the Retro Virtual Machine emulator and a DB9-to-USB adapter. There are lots of much more viable alternatives to this spectrum. I think that retro games are simply surfing on the nostalgia wave knowing the Speccy community being the biggest and the most loyal.
By 'downsides' I suppose I meant more fundamental things compared to using an original ZX or one of the other modern retro attempts. Things like cost, easy of setup, build quality, reliability and stock availability. Although on that last point there seem to be some retailers struggling with initial demand (just like Sinclair in the 80s? 🤪).
The irony that the Arm processor which was designed by Steve Furber & Roger Wilson (now Sophie) for Acorn Computers now powers THE Spectrum isn't lost on me ;-) Great video and thanks for sharing!
Yes that is an odd thought. I'd like to see a mini BBC micro too, even if it didn't have a working keyboard (you could always attach one). Cheers!
@pixel_fandango Yes, a BBC Mini would be very cool but much like The Spectrum, it would be a very UK centric product. It's funny how our cousins across the pond have very little incline at how important both the ZX Spectrum and BBC B were with regards to the early development of the Home Microcomputer market. If Clive Sinclair and Chris Curry had worked together, who knows what the future would have held :-)
I brought this on Friday and loved it. I like that I can play my other spectrum games on a usb stick and some include the loading screens with that lovely sound. I like the fact you can change the tape speed from the normal ie what we all love or hate or speed it up but still get the loading screen. Brilliant
I think you did a really good job on this video. Real short documentary tv quality!
I didn't own a Spectrum back then either. I was older, less interested in games but more into programming. I had a BBC Micro and a Commodore 64. The Acorn machines were unquestionably the best for a non games orientated programmer. However, I think I have been living under a rock because I only just found out about Retro Games and their products. I bought a THEC64 two months ago and I love it. I do still have my 1983 original but this new version is great.
The best thing about the full size replica machines with their functioning keyboards is that all the original keys are there, correctly placed. It makes a real difference for my type of use and is much better in my opinion, than running VICE on a PC.
I hope Retro Games do a BBC replica. After all Acorn gave us Elite and ARM everything!
Thank you. As an Acorn fan I completely agree with you.
Bought my original Spectrum in 1985 by then it had evolved into the Spectrum Plus , and i still own in and it works. I was 20 years old back then and maybe i should have been getting out more but that little machine gave me endless hours of joy.
With my Kempston interface we completed many digital adventures together, completing Rod Bowkets wonderful " Dynamite Dan" was a highlight (: I have " The Spectrum on order from Amazon and its a present from my wife for Christmas and i am looking forward to further adventures(:
Hope you enjoy it. I'm sure you will.
5:20 El Stompo and Snake Escape don't use the extended colour palette, they use a game engine (Nirvana) which changes the way the Spectrum handles colours (rather than two colours per 8x8 block, it uses two colours per 8x2 rectangle).
I do mention Nirvana and how it's used by El Stompo. It does also use an extended colour palette - as mentioned below, you can see a difference when the option is checked.
5:04 does show a different colour palette, like the shades of yellow, blue and magenta in the title screen. So it's both ULAplus and Nirvana.
Never had one but used to look at the Timex Sinclair in computer magazines at $99 CAD and dreamed of having one. Preordered the Retro Spectrum and its on the way to Canada. I appreciate your video and looking forward to see if any of my TV/Monitors that output 50 Hz as these games were originally made for PAL.
Fantasic how your subscriber count has grown Andrew. Hitting some solid numbers these days. Well done!
Thanks buddy. 👍
Me in 1984 : "Dad, please can we get a ZX Spectrum?"
My dad : "No! We're getting a proper computer, not a bloody toy!".
Cue me spending 2 years trying to find the 6 other kids in the entire UK with an Amstrad CPC! Ha ha! We actualy had Dragon32 prior to that in 1982, again "proper computer with a proper keyboard" and again almost zero games! So sorry Dad, 40 years later I'm finally going to buy myself a Speccy and this one will also keep my wife happy as I won't hear, "You're not plugging that old thing in and burning the house down!". Retro gaming is a hard life...
I didn't get my ZX Spectrum 48k until 1983. I did a paper round and with help from my Mum saved up a £130 to purchase one 2nd hand (It came with quite a few games so this explains the price). I loved it. My biggest regret was never purchasing The Quill to write text adventures, as I was lost in an imaginary world most of the time and I'm sure I could have written at least one half decent text adventure
Maybe you could do that now?
@@pixel_fandango I'm still trying to source an original copy of The Quill, but they're quite expensive, even the manuals lol
1983 was early. It wasn't launched until half way through 1982. There was very little software about for it, until the spring of 1983.
@@Inaflap that's true. A lot of my friends purchased later on 85-86ish. I remember having Orc Attack which came out in 1983. I like an idiot chucked out all my tapes, but have been using emulators since around 2000
Ha. Exactly that. My friend had one. I had a Commodore 16.
Purists could wait for the toastrack 128K ZX Spectrum reimagined.
im getting me one of these christmas - well my brother is gonna get me one :D - ive downloaded all the games i had on the spectrom and all of the files comes to 13.2 mb yes they are very small files lol
I hope you enjoy it. 👍
"back in the day it was cheap" I mean not really at least in Portugal me and my brother had to save a lot so we could finally get one XD
It's all relative. In the UK compared to a C64 or BBC micro it was cheap. About £175 v £399 back in the day.
No downsides? Hmmm... Is there any WiFi or Bluetooth support? How about you cannot add you own games to the carousel? It doesn't have a SD card slot to extend the internal storage? (the USB key is meh...) Where is the DB9 joystick port? Why the keyboard membrane is not compatible with the classic one so you can't replace it if needed? Or replace it with a micro-switches one like 48K-KLDX or MechBoardZX? The emulator doesn't support any virtual Spectrum add-ons like the Interface 1 and micro-drives. You cannot use other ROMs, like Spanish, French or Looking Glass. It doesn't support the +3 (with the .DSK disk images), the Pentagon (with the .TRD disk images) or the Spectrum NEXT. I bet that the Spectrum NEXT will never be supported! You can achieve all this much cheaper on your computer with the Retro Virtual Machine emulator and a DB9-to-USB adapter. There are lots of much more viable alternatives to this spectrum. I think that retro games are simply surfing on the nostalgia wave knowing the Speccy community being the biggest and the most loyal.
By 'downsides' I suppose I meant more fundamental things compared to using an original ZX or one of the other modern retro attempts. Things like cost, easy of setup, build quality, reliability and stock availability. Although on that last point there seem to be some retailers struggling with initial demand (just like Sinclair in the 80s? 🤪).