Happy Birthday!

[MatGubbins]

Damn! Happy Birthday to my cute little ZX Spectrum!

[TMD2003]

Indeed! And to mark the occasion, I've put a brew on. I wonder if I'll be able to keep it until the 40th anniversary...

I see your Old Clive's Chuntey, and I raise you...



I have around four gallons of the latest batch of Mad Professor Jim's Four Star Cider ready for bottling right around... now. And this lot is the all-new Redex-boosted version, which contains extra rhubarb from a darkened shed in Yorkshire.

I was a bit busy yesterday (writing Spectrum programs!) to crack open one of the last bottles of the previous batch, but I'll do so over the weekend.

[R-Tape]

I have around four gallons of the latest batch of Mad Professor Jim's Four Star Cider ready for bottling right around... now. And this lot is the all-new Redex-boosted version, which contains extra rhubarb from a darkened shed in Yorkshire.

I was a bit busy yesterday (writing Spectrum programs!) to crack open one of the last bottles of the previous batch, but I'll do so over the weekend.

I'm impressed! You should do a ZX themed label. That's a damned strong cider.

[Turtle_Quality]

An article on the Spectrum in "Interesting Engineering" *. I don't think you'll learn anything new from it but I like seeing the Sir Clive interview linked there

https://interestingengineering.com/a-hi ... nniversary

* Funny how that title somehow implies the magazine will be anything but interesting

[TMD2003]

I'm impressed! You should do a ZX themed label. That's a damned strong cider.

It's what you get if you take Lidl's pressed apple juice and ferment it out completely. It's slightly diluted with some strong tea, to provide some extra tannins, that are absent from eating apples. This takes it down to around 6% (it'd be 6.5% otherwise but at the expense of flavour) - but I'd rater have it this way. And, as you point out, a few of these and you're well on your way.

I have a hydrometer but I don't use it for cider - I worked out the ABV via the amount of sugars per 100 ml printed in the nutrition information. A bit of chemistry here, a bit of number crunching there, allow for the tea, ABV 6.1%. Note that I forgot to account for the tea first time round, which is what's shown in the picture, though the apple juice was a little more sugary so it would have been 6.4-6.5%, rather than the 6.8% it says.

Right, better check I have enough bottles... and if not, I know what to do!

[Weiv]

Happy Birthday, ZX Spectrum!

[R-Tape]

Happy Birthday, ZX Spectrum!

Dance like you're 41!



(image stolen from @druellan's post)

The Speccy is still going strong (unlike most of my keyboard membranes).

[TMD2003]

41 isn't really anything to shout about - ask my brother who barely noticed earlier this month - but Happy Birthday to the Spectrum anyway.

Next year is a big one, for those who know...

Spoiler

The QL is 40! Why, what did you think I meant?

[dazman100]

Very big Happy birthday to the Speccy, I still have my PS Vita with only a retroarch setup just to relive the good old days.

[Ast A. Moore]

The Speccy is a big boy now! I, for one, am glad I’ve been with it for all these years.

(It’s unfortunate that Uncle Clive is no longer with us.)

Happy Birthday to the best eight-bit micro!

[Juan F. Ramirez]

I must reckon I forgot this day... the Spectrum is becoming another wife!

[Nitrowing]

i thought it had just turned 40... where did the last year go???

[R-Tape]

41 is an easier one to forget. Next year is a biggy for the Hitchhiker's Guide reference, and seven years' time will be massive because it's the answer to life, the universe and everything.

[Chris23235]

Happy Birthday Speccy, 41 years is a long time and honestly, you look better then ever to me.

[TMD2003]

Also, very appropriately, I've spent an entire day in the company of the Son Of Spectrum.

Well, CSpect, really, but getting back to the swing of things with LAYERs and PALETTEs and TILEs and... all I'm going to do is waste it on more junk to throw at @Jbizzel and his N-Go. That's still more than a lot of people who shelled out for the Issue 1 Next are doing with theirs, though...