[website] Happy Birthday ZX81 - 30 years old !!

[mattx]

Sinclair ZX81: 30 years old tomorrow ? reghardware

[MK-2]

30 years? oh such fond memories......of daley thompsons supertest taking 45 mins to load......then the tape going wrong at the last minute and having to start again.

 

kids nowadays have it easy with games loading in seconds. try waiting 30mins for call of duty to load then complain about lag

[aerospacemango]

I'm guessing that for a fair few of us, who look at this story, this was GENESIS!

 

I know that I wanted one!

 

However, I began with the Commodore Vic20 (8K expansion cartridge too!).....Oh how those winter evenings flew by, when you're waiting for a game to load!

 

Or, the hours spent with a C&VG mag, a ruler, and 500 lines of BASIC, just to play a game! Then realising that it doesn't play, so having to check said 500 lines of BASIC for the bug!!!

 

Happy days, indeed!

[tech_guy]

I still have mine somewhere. Along with a Spectrum. Blimey it takes me back.

 

And anyone remember Horace Goes Skiing?

Edited March 4, 2011 by tech_guy

[Dos_Box]

My first computer Oh, and I think you'll find that Daley Thomspon was a Spectrum game, not ZX81. 3D Monster Maze FTW!!!

Anyway, happy birthday ZX81. You opened up a whole new world for me, for which I shall be ever grateful.

[mattx]

Isn't it incredible that the likes of Sir Clive, Gates and jobs [ are responsible for a chunk of employment in this [ and other ] countries ]]

[mattx]

I still have mine somewhere. Along with a Spectrum. Blimey it takes me back.

 

And anyone remember Horace Goes Skiing?

 

Oh yes:

 

http://www.tvcream.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/hungry_horace.jpg

[Dos_Box]

That's ZX Spectrum!! What you really want is this:

 

 

Words cannot describe how tense you got playing that

[mattx]

This was my favorite for the ZX81:

 

[gerardsweeney]

Happy Birthday, ZX81!!

 

I'm slightly biased towards the Speccy as opposed to the ZX81, since my site (The Tipshop) is for the Speccy

 

[apologies if anyone choked to death on that plug]

[mattx]

I'll see your screenshot and raise you one on-line game: ZX Spectrum Games - ZXSpectrum.net

 

Click Horace goes skiing and - BANG ! - it's 1982....

 

It's always 1982 in my head.....

[Dos_Box]

I'll beat that. Firstly with Forty Niner:

 

 

And Manic Miner for the ZX81. Shame this one wasn't around 'back in the day'!

 

[jcollings]

I still have mine somewhere. Along with a Spectrum. Blimey it takes me back.

 

And anyone remember Horace Goes Skiing?

 

Ah yes - fond memories of Horace!

[laserblazer]

I read somewhere that if the steam engine had been adopted instead of the internal combustion engine, our vehicles would be much more efficient and clean. I wonder if the same could be said of the microprocessor? The ZX81 got me into computing and changed my career path completely. I'd have been Chancellor of the Exchequer 10 years ago and we wouldn't be in this financial mess.

[somabc]

On the BBC as well

 

BBC News - ZX81: Small black box of computing desire

 

The name combined the two most futuristic letters in the alphabet with a number that rooted it in the present day

 

Ha ha the two most futuristic letters in the Alphabet? How do you judge that!

[mats]

Ah, happy days. My Dad was a head at the time and brought one home from school so he could get his head round it. We plugged it into the black & white tv and I never looked back. The 'rents eventually bought an '81, followed by a spectrum.

 

Also got to play with BBC Bs and turtles (thanks dad!).

[somabc]

I had a ZX Spectrum 48k as my first computer, I think my grandparents had a ZX81!