Who still uses original hardware

[PeterJ]

Must resist.. must resist...

I had to put all mine in boxes for the duration of home working!

[akeley]

I only got into real hardware about a year ago. Got a +2A & DIV first, because of RGB capability. Then a bit later decided to buy a 48K, seeing as I have never used this iconic machine before. Fell in love with it, +2A got shelved, but I couldn't bear the composite (I'm a CRT fanatic) and so bought the Spektra RGB interface. Then I got into mild-level tape collecting, and seeing as Spektra does not work with my DIV I bought a tape deck too. So now that 48K is the main fixture on my retro desk - even though I have some other micros too, they only appear as guests on rotation. I try to load a tape a day to keep the ol' boy (girl?) happy. I know it's silly but I do like to think that these old Machines have some sort of a Ghost in them and appreciate being used still

I have a MiSTer as well, and use it for majority of my normal ZX gaming, since it handles roms, gamepads and outputs perfect RGB, with 0 latency. Sometimes I also use emulation to check some things on the QT: my favourite recently is the Retro Virtual Machine, at fist it seemed gimmicky but I must say they did a stellar job of replicating the retro feel, what with the CRT filters, no fuss, and the tape deck sounds & sights.

[5MinuteRetro]

Don't ever get rid of it @5MinuteRetro! I wish I had kept my childhood Spectrum.

Well... I'm not actually sure this one is my original.

I meant more than I have an emotional attachment to the Spectrum 128, rather than this specific physical item, because how much the Spectrum 128 meant to me at the time. I'm 50 now, and my memory is terrible. A part of me believes this is my original unit (and I have a sizeable collection of other stuff, like game tapes and joysticks and so on, that are *definitely* my originals, replete with my teenage scribbles) but a part of me thinks I might've ditched my original Spectrum 128 in the late 80s and then picked this one up at a car-boot sale in the late 1990s (I bought a lot of soon-to-be-retro stuff around about then). I guess I'll never know!

[Hedge1970]

Wow this is great, I mean I check eBay a lot and there is a ton of stuff sold almost daily so I guess someone has to be using it.

I have most of what I want and a few modern bits to help. Just had the urge to do this

[TMD2003]

I noticed during the recent high score comp shenanigans a lot of participants using flaunting their shiny new Next.
Would definitely be interested to know if anyone who has one is still using their old hardware.

Come next August, I will be able to answer that question. I might just have had all the hardware out for a quick photo session, but for the most part it's all living in three huge boxes until I've moved house. That'll be around January/February, I would estimate.

So, provided that doesn't all fall through, and provided I'm still alive (there's never any guarantee of that, though right now the chances of me being run over by a bus are zero, which is a good thing, I suppose...), I'll still use my old equipment when the Next arrives.

[Crafty88]

Alternate between 48K with composite mod and a Grey +2.
may get original 48k repaired as that died before I got my 128K+

Threw out my old Tandy plotter a few years ago that I made printer cable up for 128K+ as thought could no longer get the pens for it. Found out the other week pens are still available. Doh!

Next year got a Next arriving

[payty]

I prefer using the real hardware for vintage games (except for arcade machines where I use MAME -> I would not afford spending the money and space to buy the real machine ).


Most of the time I use a ZX Spectrum 128k Toastrack, but my collection includes a ZX80, several ZX81, ZX Spectrum and Spectrum+, 128k Toastracks, microdrives and interfaces.


A ZX81 is waiting for the modern ULA replacement for more often usage.

I also have some ZX Spectrum clones but do not use them anymore.

[PeterJ]

and so bought the Spektra RGB interface.

Where did you buy your Spektra RGB interface from [mention]akeley[/mention]

[zx64]

I still have and use my original 48k one. With composite out mod and nothing else.

[Juan F. Ramirez]

and so bought the Spektra RGB interface.

Where did you buy your Spektra RGB interface from @akeley

I haven't heard of it before and it seems another interesting option.

[cha05e90]

Here a ZX Spectrum+ 128K and a ZX Spectrum Next Acc. are fully operational and on stand-by. Maybe I'm a little bit strange, but using a ZX Spectrum emulator is not really convenient:

1. Clean up the desk
2. Roll over to the cupboard, where my Windows 10 laptop collects dust
3. Carry it over to the desk, connect it to the mains
4. Boot into Windows 10 (dumdidum)
5. Start Fuse/Spectaculator/...

It's way faster to just switch on the ZXs.

But - of course - I use emulation for my Z80-C-experiments using Microsofts VSCode and z88dk.

[akeley]

[mention]PeterJ[/mention] , [mention]Juan F. Ramirez[/mention] Sorry, it's actually called "Spectra". It's a bit pricey (~70GBP) but far as I know the only way to get RGB out of the humble Rubber One. It also has some other functions but they are way over my head.

http://www.fruitcake.plus.com/Sinclair/ ... erface.htm

[ianace]

I still use a lot, a rubber key, +3 and and grey+2 at home. As well as a vega 1 and the recreated ZX Spectrum . At work in my classroom at have a black +2 Spectrum (for after school clubs)and a ZX81 hooked up to a Timed 2040 printer to print name labels on! Much to the amazement of my pupils!

[Morkin]

Nice..!

I'm guessing you didn't go for a ZX Printer in case it set the fire alarms off..

[Hedge1970]

@PeterJ , @Juan F. Ramirez Sorry, it's actually called "Spectra". It's a bit pricey (~70GBP) but far as I know the only way to get RGB out of the humble Rubber One. It also has some other functions but they are way over my head.

http://www.fruitcake.plus.com/Sinclair/ ... erface.htm

I use this as well the colours are rock solid plus it does a whole lot more than just output Scart. Its a Reset Switch, Kempston Joystick, Serial Port, ROM drive and Expansion port all in a nice 3D printed case. There are full and solid instructions and it just works

[Hedge1970]

..Timex 2040 printer...

A couple of years ago I wrote a game in Basic and used my Timex extensively to print out and debug the code. I felt like the kid I was never able to be as we did not have a printer. It was great fun though.

[1024MAK]

Yes, I do (far more often than an emulator).

Hint:


A ZX Spectrum+ gets the most use (with a 6A issue board). Although it competes with a Next, an Acorn Electron, an Acorn Master 128, an Acorn Master Compact and an Atari STE for my time. Leaving aside my non-Sinclair computers, I also have a ZX80, more than one ZX81, multiple ZX Spectrum rubber keys (both 16K and 48K), multiple ZX Spectrum+ machines, a +2 grey, a +2A, a +2B, some +3 machines (including a +3B), a Next, some QLs and some Z88 ‘laptops’. I also have some ‘clones’ and compatibles of ZX81s and a Harlequin.

I also have a ZX Spectrum 128 toastrack but that is still awaiting for me to repair it (when I find it again, it’s in storage).

At the moment only the ZX Spectrum+, Acorn Master 128, and Acorn Master Compact are “permanently” set-up.

Mark

[PeterJ]

Apologies if I've told this story before, but when I was a computer technician in the early 90s in an FE College, we ripped out our BBC Econet network. There must have been over 300 BBCs that all went into the skip! We did the same with a huge number of Commodore Pets.

[777]

i used to have a +2a with a 32 gb hdd (an 8 bit +3e interface which i built myself). and numerous spectrums. also a sam coupe. also an atari 130xl, a c16 (64k) and a c64. ive just bought a texas ti99

[uglifruit]

Apologies if I've told this story before, but when I was a computer technician in the early 90s in an FE College, we ripped out our BBC Econet network. There must have been over 300 BBCs that all went into the skip! We did the same with a huge number of Commodore Pets.

That makes me so sad.

[777]

Apologies if I've told this story before, but when I was a computer technician in the early 90s in an FE College, we ripped out our BBC Econet network. There must have been over 300 BBCs that all went into the skip! We did the same with a huge number of Commodore Pets.

That makes me so sad.

i bet someone pillaged a few. i also threw away a sam coupe 20 years ago, which is probably punishable by death in this forum

[1024MAK]

I also threw away a sam coupe 20 years ago, which is probably punishable by death in this forum

A quick death would be far too lenient...

Mark

[ianace]

Nice..!

I'm guessing you didn't go for a ZX Printer in case it set the fire alarms off..

Very true, they did smell great, bit like old model railways

[flatduckrecords]

I think I lost my +2 in a house move long ago, or perhaps lent it to a friend and forgot, but I spent the last 20 or so years sure it would turn up eventually so I held off buying a replacement. Thankfully I'd kept my modest collection of games and accessories in the intevening years, and I was I finally able to enjoy them again when I gave in around February this year and picked up a +2B on eBay. I used it almost every day until realising what I really wanted was a Toastrack!

Since then, it's been wonderful catching up on 20 years of hardware innovations like Spectranet and DivMMC, as well as old hardware like the venerable Alphacom printer, and even re-created hardware such as the ProjectSPECCY Multiface clone, and the Harlequin.

Maybe it's just nostalgia (it's definitely just nostalgia) but I get a lot of enjoyment from coaxing those old cassettes and players into working. I've learned so much about azimuths and pinch-rollers and the importance of IPA these last few months! Sure, I can instantly load practically any Spectrum game ever realeased from an SD card (or TNFS server!) and I do so when I acutally want to play a game; but discovering a long-lost BASIC type-in (that I had known nothing about) saved by the previous owner of a tape I've now had in my posession for 30 years really felt like re-connecting with my childhood. Pure magic!

I'm also really enjoying going through covertapes (although they seem to be particulary finicky in comparison to commercial tapes). I never had access to the magazines as a kid, but reading Jon North's gossip column in Practical Pokes certainly gives a "flavour" of those times! And yeah, the TZXs are available online, but if it wasn't for the real cassette tapes, I'd never have found Rodney's letters to Tiff about school exams and Nottingham bus station that were recorded onto side B of this particular copy of Play For Your Life!

Fortunately I've got enough space to have my +2B hooked up to a 14" CRT TV set, while the Toastrack has pride of place under the Big Telly (via ZX-HD). I'd been using a WH Smith CPD-8300 to load games, but it's not working reliably now so I recently aquired a Sony TCM-818 which is faring very well. I also have a 48K that I like to think of as my travel Spectrum that I bundle with ZX-HD and DivMMC, you know, for on-the-go microcomputing .

[777]

I also threw away a sam coupe 20 years ago, which is probably punishable by death in this forum

A quick death would be far too lenient...

Mark

actually more like 15 years ago