35th Anniversary

Y'know, other stuff, Sinclair related.
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spider
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35th Anniversary

Post by spider »

What anniversary you might ask ;)

Mine!

Its 35 years to the day I got my first Spectrum, 10/10/84 . The date is permanently imprinted into my head it seems. A trip to the Co-Op and a much lighter bank account (call it what you will - the reason I had some money was because a relative had passed away a few months earlier and left "something for everyone", otherwise there was no way this 10 year old (at that time!) could of got anywhere near a computer, new or used!)

Anyway I was now the proud owner of rubbery keyed 48K model and the '6pack' games they bundled with it (Make-A-Chip/Chequered-Flag/Survival/Scrabble/Horace-Skiiing/Chess)

Through a bit of hell/high-water over the years I still have probably around 70% of my original games from 'way back then' too.

Sorry no pics today for a couple of reasons, both of which are beyond my control. I had planned on a few piccies too. Maybe over the weekend.

I can't remember that much detail however the first Speccy did not work properly, it would not load anything despite iirc trying a couple of different types of tape lead. I do recall we took our cheapy tape player to the shop and it did work (with another machine) in there, back then when you could do things like this! , so eventually I got a working machine. :) Sadly I no longer own that particular machine, although it did generally do sterling service.

Only other immediate memory from that day really was the bus ride back clutching the Speccy box :D , and I recall seeing the boxed IF1's and Microdrives, wishing (at that time) I could of afforded one of those too. Perhaps it was for the best I could not! :lol:

The rest well as they say "the rest is history" :D
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R-Tape
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Re: 35th Anniversary

Post by R-Tape »

spider wrote: Thu Oct 10, 2019 4:39 pm Anyway I was now the proud owner of rubbery keyed 48K model and the '6pack' games they bundled with it (Make-A-Chip/Chequered-Flag/Survival/Scrabble/Horace-Skiiing/Chess)
Happy anniversary! You've got about 5 years on me.

The real memory test is, when you finally got a working machine, which of these games did you load up first?
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Ast A. Moore
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Re: 35th Anniversary

Post by Ast A. Moore »

For he’s a jolly good fellow . . . :D
Every man should plant a tree, build a house, and write a ZX Spectrum game.

Author of A Yankee in Iraq, a 50 fps shoot-’em-up—the first game to utilize the floating bus on the +2A/+3,
and zasm Z80 Assembler syntax highlighter.
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spider
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Re: 35th Anniversary

Post by spider »

R-Tape wrote: Thu Oct 10, 2019 6:44 pm Happy anniversary! You've got about 5 years on me.

The real memory test is, when you finally got a working machine, which of these games did you load up first?
First thing I saw once I'd got a working machine (aside from a trying a few Border/Paper commands and being amazed, wow! colours! :D that I can pick/choose/change etc) was the Blue "Volume Set Correctly - Please Wait" a few times ;) Followed by the Horizons 'Rainbow' :)

I could not honestly remember which was the first game I played from the 6-pack though.

5 years ? Well you must be due your "30th" soon if its not passed already then 8-)
Ast A. Moore wrote: Thu Oct 10, 2019 6:48 pm For he’s a jolly good fellow . . . :D
:D Thank you!
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Re: 35th Anniversary

Post by jetsetdanny »

Happy Anniversary, Andy! :D Thanks for sharing these memories :)
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stupidget
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Re: 35th Anniversary

Post by stupidget »

R-Tape wrote: Thu Oct 10, 2019 6:44 pm The real memory test is, when you finally got a working machine, which of these games did you load up first?
Mine was 3D Luna Crabs. When we got our speccy as a replacement for our 3rd dead Dragon32 we only bought the basic speccy from Boots, there were no bundled games with it, just the beloved Speccy in it's protective polystyrene cocoon, so I had to quickly decide on a game to buy with my pennies.
After scanning the shelf filled with hundreds of games I picked 3D Luna Crabs! I know, I know, out of all the games I could have picked I picked this one, but it was the fact that it had the word 3D on it!!!! For my 11 year old brain this surely meant it was going to be an amazing game. As bad as the game was I just played it again and again and one of the main reasons was that I just wanted to use my Spectrum. I remember typing stuff in from the manual and seeing the high-res graphics and just loved it.
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Re: 35th Anniversary

Post by 1024MAK »

In appropriately 74 days, it will be the 36th anniversary of me and my sister getting our hands on a brand new 48K rubber key :D

Did anyone else work as teams with their friends and family trying to get further when playing hard games like Lunar Jetman?
Mind, we did spend hours laughing at each other as we spectacularly failed to coordinate with whoever we were playing with :lol:

And I have no idea which game I first played. Our Speccy came from Rumbelows, and you could select which games you wanted from a range that they had. I now have difficulty remembering which ones I selected. I know I had Horace Goes Skiing, Space Raiders, Tranz Am and 3D Tanx, but can’t remember what else :oops:
Oh, I also had Psion Chess, but not having a clue how to play chess, that did not get much use.

I do remember breaking into many of the Horizon programs to see how they worked, and to see if there were any tricks I could use in my own programs...

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Re: 35th Anniversary

Post by R-Tape »

1024MAK wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 8:40 am Did anyone else work as teams with their friends and family trying to get further when playing hard games like Lunar Jetman?
Mind, we did spend hours laughing at each other as we spectacularly failed to coordinate with whoever we were playing with :lol:
Good god no. It was a red in tooth and claw willy waving contest!
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Re: 35th Anniversary

Post by Ralf »

Happy anniversary!

I don't remember the exact day when I got my Spectrum. It was 1986 but that's all. Anybody remembers the exact day?
Did anyone else work as teams with their friends and family trying to get further when playing hard games like Lunar Jetman?
Mind, we did spend hours laughing at each other as we spectacularly failed to coordinate with whoever we were playing with
Me and my friend where playing single player games in cooperation. I controlled the player and he furiously banged on fire button :)
BTW, he's now living in another city but still is my friend. We had some beer just a month ago.
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Re: 35th Anniversary

Post by catmeows »

Congratulations :)
My story is little different:
It was early 89 in then communist Czechoslovakia when our math teacher came in class room with a news: school got some computers. It turned out they are czech Ondra computers. Aaaaand... they were terrible: Small ROM kept just monitor and Basic has to be loaded from tape. It had 2Mhz U880 (east germany clone od Z80) and video circuity was incredibly primitive using lot of CPU of power therefore making Basic a slow thing. Anyway it was love on first sight. Soon I was visiting local young technicians club with only one goal: spend as much time as possible with a computer. By then, club had 10 or so PMD-85 computer. They had BASIC in ROM so it was improvement but they had no color. Luckily enough, within months they were replaced by Didaktik Gama computer. Gama is clone od ZX 48. Finally I had access to "good" computer. I mean - it has colours, reasonable BASIC and ton of games. Of course, all of them were pirated. You know, behind Iron Courtain, sometime in 1989, a boy was starring silently on amazing technology of... Knight Lore.
Few more months passed (eastern block collapsed meanwhile) and ať some moment in 1990 my parents finaly gave up and bought me - Didaktik M (another ZX48K) . My first own computer!
I mean ZX has many many faults but it offered so much value for little money. And it was even possible to clone it behind Iron Courtain. Sinclair should got not only knighthood bud also Order of hero of socialistic labour ( https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hrdina_so ... pr%C3%A1ce ).
Proud owner of Didaktik M
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Re: 35th Anniversary

Post by stupidget »

catmeows wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 12:37 pm Congratulations :)
My story is little different:
It was early 89 in then communist Czechoslovakia when our math teacher came in class room with a news: school got some computers. It turned out they are czech Ondra computers. Aaaaand... they were terrible: Small ROM kept just monitor and Basic has to be loaded from tape. It had 2Mhz U880 (east germany clone od Z80) and video circuity was incredibly primitive using lot of CPU of power therefore making Basic a slow thing. Anyway it was love on first sight. Soon I was visiting local young technicians club with only one goal: spend as much time as possible with a computer. By then, club had 10 or so PMD-85 computer. They had BASIC in ROM so it was improvement but they had no color. Luckily enough, within months they were replaced by Didaktik Gama computer. Gama is clone od ZX 48. Finally I had access to "good" computer. I mean - it has colours, reasonable BASIC and ton of games. Of course, all of them were pirated. You know, behind Iron Courtain, sometime in 1989, a boy was starring silently on amazing technology of... Knight Lore.
Few more months passed (eastern block collapsed meanwhile) and ať some moment in 1990 my parents finaly gave up and bought me - Didaktik M (another ZX48K) . My first own computer!
I mean ZX has many many faults but it offered so much value for little money. And it was even possible to clone it behind Iron Courtain. Sinclair should got not only knighthood bud also Order of hero of socialistic labour ( https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hrdina_so ... pr%C3%A1ce ).
This puts our stories of trips to the local shop to buy a genuine Spectrum to shame :-)
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Re: 35th Anniversary

Post by Morkin »

Knight Lore still looked good in 1989... :D

For me it was a move from using a ZX81.

Putting on the Horizons tape, I was amazed by the cyan/red loading border, followed by a real loading screen... :lol:
My Speccy site: thirdharmoniser.com
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Re: 35th Anniversary

Post by DouglasReynholm »

1024MAK wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 8:40 am In appropriately 74 days, it will be the 36th anniversary of me and my sister getting our hands on a brand new 48K rubber key :D
I too took delivery of my 48k on xmas day 1983. I'm not sure where it came from exactly, but my Dad says he was lucky to get one from 'one of his customers in the east end'. Dad sold flooring.. :|

First game was Ocean's Kong, my first disappointment in a long line of shitty coin op clones to come! 😄
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Juan F. Ramirez
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Re: 35th Anniversary

Post by Juan F. Ramirez »

Morkin wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 12:57 pm Knight Lore still looked good in 1989... :D
And in 2019 too! :D
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Re: 35th Anniversary

Post by R-Tape »

catmeows wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 12:37 pm Congratulations :)
My story is little different: It was early 89 in then communist Czechoslovakia when our math teacher came in class room with a news: school got some computers.
Great post. Apart from the PMD-85, I really like the look of the "iron curtain" computers. In fact I think the Gama is almost as sexy as the rubber keyed 48K. In researching this topic I found this book that I might have to get (elsewhere and cheaper!).
Sinclair should got not only knighthood bud also Order of hero of socialistic labour ( https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hrdina_so ... pr%C3%A1ce ).
Tovarisch Clive! :lol:
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Re: 35th Anniversary

Post by Juan F. Ramirez »

In my case, 35th anniversary will be next may.

It was a saturday evening when I got my brand new Spectrum Plus and Match Day & Raid Over Moscow. They were days reading the manual, learning how to work with the keyboard with the introduction manual & tape, playing Maze Chase, that came with this tape (very cool BASIC game, you could change the characters with the UDG utility also included in the tape), trying to score a goal in Match Day and also trying to take out the plane out of the space station (first attempts were an absolute massacre of pilots! :mrgreen: ).

Great days.
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