Spectrum Computing

Haven't yet fixed my old Atom interface, but I was at least able to use SAMDisk to transfer a few extra bits and bobs to Steve's 4Gb CF card ahead of this week's meet... But not a single thing worked. RECORD correctly listed all the disks I'd transferred over. RECORD [number] didn't encounter any 'I...

Quite a difficult choice between two, for me... Atomic Robo-Kid looked fantastic, and played pretty well as far as the demo went, so I was surprised and disappointed that it wasn't completed and published. Could have been another R-Type level conversion. Dominion seemed like it could have been an aw...

Was interest to see something HoH related at RetCon too :) I really need to get a closer look at that, assuming Colin Porch is there again this year. His sequel looks interesting, but I have to admit that I'm glad the Next version actually has solid walls and floors, rather than following the examp...

The Plot Thickens! I had to miss the Club meet on 28/3 due to illness, but I'd loaned my SCART cable to Steve at the previous meet, so he could wire up his own cable to match. He reported that, having done so, he got no picture on any TV he tried, using his own cable, or mine. At this point, my ins...

The computer is called 'the SAM Coupé'. If it wasn't the label on the shell would have been just 'Coupé', or 'MGT Coupé'... Coincidentally, this was posted in the SAM Users Facebook group this morning: https://i.postimg.cc/WFh068mR/01-computer.jpg from https://www.nickhollanddesign.com/projects/ind...

I understood that the computer is not called "SAM Coupé" and "SAM" has nothing to do with the computer? Was that true or did I read the adverts wrong back then? I remember the same ads... adding to the confusion by treating the SAM robot as something entirely separate from the c...

Thank you, Spud ! Aside from reinstating Eugene, improving Willy's animation and fixing the Game Over screen, I think my imperatives were replacing the system font - the use of unaltered system fonts in games is an absolute bête noire of mine - and the brick textures, most of which were no better th...

Awesome presentation! Not the usual text adventure style, and I particularly appreciate the subtle changes to the font!

I may have shot down my own arguments here. Just asked my girlfriend - who is not a gamer unless you count The Sims or those rollercoaster games - to name a videogame character. Without the slightest pause: "Lara Croft".

I'm a little nonplussed by folks who don't think Miner Willy should be on a BAFTA list of iconic videogame characters... It's the British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards, after all. Granted, most videogames are coming out of development sweatshops in the US or Japan these days, but that d...

Will you be tarting up the level graphics at all also? The Cold Room is an abolute eye-sore - those melting platforms particularly. Yes - the whole game has had a facelift. Compare and contrast... https://i.postimg.cc/PLgXm7tc/The-Cold-Room-Original.png https://i.postimg.cc/S2cyVGRK/The-Cold-Room-R...

Was discussing this yesterday with other members of my local computer club. That list is insanely wrong. Lara Croft is certainly deserving of a place on a list of iconic videogame characters, but how is she above Pac-Man, Mario, and Sonic? How are Donkey Kong and Miner Willy not on the list at all? ...

I can't believe they just forgot. The game has 20 levels to prove Eugene wrong about what the spectrum was capable of, and that level is a symbolic flushing him down the toilet. It is CENTRAL to the games law. Well, to be fair to the original developers, Manic Miner was already 10 years old by the ...

Shall I do a cheeky Eugene reveal? Just between us? I think I shall... I mean, to be fair, he's on the promo image I put together for RetCon last year, so it's not exactly letting the cat out of the bag. So, the original Eugene sprite was a circle with stick arms and legs, square glasses, and a perm...

This year's RetCon is fast approaching! Once again, we're gathering together a wide range of retro gaming systems (along with a few new ones) and a selection of guests covering systems and software both old and new. As usual, there will be a decent Sinclair presence, and ESPectrum, an ESP32 SoC powe...

Some cool news from last night's meet: there's another new SAM at the Greenford Computer Club. There was a posting recently in the SAM Users' Facebook group from Pamela Martin, regarding her late son's machine. After chatting with our Club principle, Steve Bennet, she decided to donate it to the Clu...

I once saw Kieren in real life, we were in the same room at Play Expo Blackpool and he was smiling at me as if I was an old friend. He's very very much mistaken and that was at a time I just viewed him as a tedious Walter Mitty, at that point not knowing of his darker behaviour. We once invited Kie...

rothers wrote: ↑Tue Jan 30, 2024 9:11 pm Please note, I know nothing about drawing graphics, will have to find an 8bit artist

Looks like a very promising project - happy to help if I can.

Although I don't know what, if any, process there is for a printing plant to come into contact with the actual cassette/disk media. I suppose it's not out of the ordinary for them to be somewhat involved a bit further in the fulfilment part of this supply chain? 'Twas late 80s. Based on my own expe...

Over the few years since I worked on their magazine, I've been helping out the Crafts Council, updating their website ahead of their annual Collect exhibitions. This year, one of the exhibitors in the Collect Open subset is Browning Lewis (aka Dorset-based artists Karen Browning and Jon Lewis), with...

But if you're not worried about all that @Quazar makes a nice modern alternative (although I'm sure you knew that anyway!): Yeah, if the contact cleaner doesn't work and the SAMBus continues to cause problems I may well pick up one of those... Be a bit of a shame, though, as Quazar made me up a 3.5...

I gave it a good blast with some contact cleaner and that seems to have restored it. That's a very good call - hadn't thought of that... which is strange, considering how often someone at the GCC recommends spraying something with contact cleaner. I'll have to invest in some, I think. The SAMBus it...

I recently saw a post in the PixelArt subreddit which featured a piece of 1-bit artwork which had a 'chromatic aberration' filter applied. Due to the appearance of the colour-shift, I put on a pair of red/blue 3D glasses (which I keep handy, because I enjoy making 3D anaglyphs out of photographs), a...

...been thinking about getting one of @Quazar's RC2014 bus interface cards and using an RC2014 SIO/2 serial module to give SAM two proper serial ports. (I still like the idea of getting some use out of the onboard ports though!) Thanks for that - I'll pass the suggestion on to our resident networki...

Really need to play more of these... Keen to play some of these text adventures, as I'm curious to see how I get on with them these days. When I was younger, I didn't have much luck with them, didn't really understand what I was doing. Of course, I had to vote for Ghostly Capers... the other members...