Happy 30th birthday to the Sinclair ZX Spectrum

[Dos_Box]

BBC News - ZX Spectrum's chief designers reunited 30 years on

 

Happy birthday you little rubber keyed wonder.

 

 

[rich_tech]

I still wish I had my Sinclair 128k +2A around, my first "proper" computer with a built in tape, after my Acorn Electron

[mrbios]

Still got my Spectrum+ in good working order (at least i think it's working fine, think i remember a problem with one of the keys not working) ... got it sat on a shelf in my office along with my nintendo collection

[Gatt]

Loving the Google Doodle for today as well...

 

[andyturpie]

Started off with the unexpanded zx81 then with the 16k Rampack. The 48k Spectrum was the next logical progression.

[Gatt]

We got the 48k not long after it came out, and I loved it straight away (and I was only about 4 when it originally came out!)

It is more than likely the "event" that triggered my love of computers!

[Dos_Box]

Loving the Google Doodle for today as well...

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]13723[/ATTACH]

 

Sweet!

[PICNIC]

Started off with the unexpanded zx81 then with the 16k Rampack. The 48k Spectrum was the next logical progression.

 

That was also my path into the IT world

[jinnantonnixx]

That was also my path into the IT world

 

You're not alone. I was going to get the kit version of the ZX81, but the Spectrum was announced and so I was one happy chappy Christmas day 1982. My tape recorder was broken, so rather than playing 'bat & ball' from the Psion tape over the Christmas period, I went through the manual teaching myself the rudiments of programming. Marvelous stuff.

 

Of course, the tape recorder was soon fixed, my first game was 3D Monster Maze by New Generation Software, from WHSmiths. The excitement of it all. Manic Miner was released the next summer, so no tan for me that year.

Edited April 23, 2012 by jinnantonnixx

[PICNIC]

I went through the manual teaching myself the rudiments of programming. Marvelous stuff.

 

I used to love typing in the programs that came free in magazines and then changing small parts to see what happened, that taught me so much more than the degree I did 15 years later

[JJonas]

ZX Spectrum Games - ZXSpectrum.net

[plexer]

The google doodle would have been even better had it been a playable version

 

Ben

[Earthling]

ZX Spectrum Games - ZXSpectrum.net

 

Omigod.

 

Ikari Warriors.

 

I can still hear the theme music.

 

[jinnantonnixx]

Oh the joys

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]13725[/ATTACH]

 

Input Magazine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

I didn't see that, but I did happen upon a complete two-binder set of Home Computer Course in a charity shop which I simply had to buy. I still dip into it now again when a nostalgic mood takes me.

Edited April 23, 2012 by jinnantonnixx

[jinnantonnixx]

Well I'll be damned. The first program I typed in was Space Roller (a Pacman clone), published in the December 1982 issue of C&VG, and through the powers of the internet an electronic copy is available.

 

Here it is. It will probably mean nothing to you, but the pages of this magazine have become part of my DNA as I pored over every article and program listing in the palpable anticipation leading up to Christmas day and the ceremony of the "Great Unwrapping Of My New Spectrum."

CVG Magazine Issue 014

Edited April 23, 2012 by jinnantonnixx

[Bromcom_John]

Back when I got my Spectrum me and my mum unwrapped it (after me hugging my dad for about an hour!!) and then wrestled for about 45 minutes being unable to "save" my hastily written

 

10 Print "Hello world"

20 Goto 10

 

Of course neither one of us had enough technical know-ho to realise (until the aforementioned 45 minutes had passed) that computers weren't clever enough to record on the tape deck if you didn't actually press record WITH the Play key

 

I was only 8 or so!

oh to be young and naive again...