Spectrum Computing

Hi folks!

Many of you know me from facebook under my real name, and from WoS as Colonel32.

Into 8-bit home computers from the ZX-81 onwards, sold some BBC Micro educational software. Had a Spectrum+ in 86 and a +3 in 88 but never had any published games.

Lived in Oxford since college apart from a stint in the US in the 90s. Now happily settled in Virginia.

I reconnected with the Speccy about a year ago almost by chance - one of my schoolmates was hanging out on Andrew Owen/Chev's facebook page, and I was blown away by what he was doing with SE BASIC and the Chloe.

Working on a bunch of NIRVANA+ games that often seem like they will never ever be finished - day programming job burns too many braincells. They will eventually, but don't hold your breath!

I have a Vega, ZX-Uno 2MB, a Next board on the way, and one of Djordje's Omni laptops on the way.

Cheers, Robs

Seven.FFF wrote: ↑Sat Nov 25, 2017 11:19 pm Hi folks!

Many of you know me from facebook under my real name, and from WoS as Colonel32.

Cheers, mate!

Hello!

Seven.FFF wrote: ↑Sat Nov 25, 2017 11:19 pm Working on a bunch of NIRVANA+ games that often seem like they will never ever be finished

You're nearly there in the demos I've seen, keep going!

I might as well introduce myself.

I'm Andy Dansby from the USA, I'm one of the few American fans of the Speccy. I started out in 1983 with my Timex/Sinclair 2068 which was incompatible with most Spectrum software, only about 2-3% of games would work. With that Timex doomed themselves in the American market, no games. I rectified that by purchasing a ROM switching device which worked with a magnet on top of the computer and inserting a Spectrum ROM on top, slide the magnet and you had a Spectrum.

Fast forward a few years and I moved on to other computers, but started wandering back to Spectrum throughout various points in my life. I started posting and reading posts in the comp.sys.sinclair newgroups back in 1995. I got a quick mention in the comp.sys.sinclair Folklore FAQ for being one of the many Andy's in the newsgroup.

I had scanned, OCR'ed and uploaded various schematics I had purchased years earlier to Planet Sinclair and World of Spectrum back in 2002. I still remember using the ftp.ijs.si server (no longer in existence) to grab snapshots of games that I supposedly owned.

Fast forward a few years and I created the Xelda game just out of a personal challange and to try my hand again at trying to program and produce my first game as an adult. My only game as a kid was a dreadful basic game, I also made a Morse Code program which I programmed for the science fair and sold a few copies at a Ham Fest (amateur radio festival) on C-10 tapes. See I did eventually use my Speccy for homework.

Andy Dansby

Hi!

I'm Cesar Hernandez Bano, author of ZEsarUX emulator. I've been using Sinclair machines since I was 5 years old: ZX-81, Speccy, QL, Inves Spectrum+ and Spectrum +2A.
I'm glad to see new Speccy forums like this, the Speccy scene is more alive than ever!

Cheers
Cesar

Welcome aboard, [mention]andydansby[/mention] and [mention]chernandezba[/mention]!

Hello,
I'm Carnivius, I'm actually an Amstrad CPC guy but have various degrees of interests in most of the main retro systems and like seeing how old games were ported to these systems gaining their own unique style and feel cos of the differing limitations. And I also love seeing new games for all the main retro formats too whether CPC, Spec, C64, NES and so on. I'm also somewhat of a game developer but only in Game Maker: Studio at moment when I make game projects with the graphic specs of the CPC while occasionally trying to learn actual CPC game development when my brain can spare enough cells to manage it. And seeing as the CPC and Spectrum are very much related (even if it did result in too many lazy 'Speccy Ports' to the CPC) I thought I would come say hello and check out the stuff going on (that quality Spectrum porting of one of my NES faves Mighty Final Fight is looking very impressive).

Hope you're all having a good day and enjoying the christmassy season.

Hello! This will make you feel at home then (it does animate eventually!)

Thank you.

Hi,

After lurking on WOS for a good year now and this, but starting to make use of Robin's excellent Nirvana tutorials (thank you!), it seemed rude not to register. There is a nice feel about these forums, very constructive and a nice technical side to things.

Myself, my first computer was a ZX81 when I was 6 and I've hacked through a few of the common 80s home PCs (Speccy 16k, Dragon 32, Speccy 48k, Speccy 48k+, Elecron, BBC B, Atari STFM) before the PC era arrived. Currently employed at a cambridge consultancy doing software, electronics, and project management stuff so my day job exposes me to a lot of different types of software at different levels. With the usual poor weather over the Christmas break I thought I'd have a go at writing a game for the speccy, specifically porting a compiled basic one back from the Atari ST into Z80, when the Nirvana tutorial appeared

It may be a while but will share when I have something more than a tech demo, time and weather dependent (my spare time is mainly consumed by hang gliding). Anyway, that's me, I'll predominately remain on the sidelines but at least now feel a little less guilty about leaching off everybody!

Welcome to the forums, [mention]rnhunt[/mention]!

Ast A. Moore wrote: ↑Fri Jan 05, 2018 6:41 pm Welcome to the forums, @rnhunt!

Well said! Glad you got past the tricky question to separate the true Spectrum fans....

Rorthron wrote: ↑Fri Jan 05, 2018 7:06 pm

Ast A. Moore wrote: ↑Fri Jan 05, 2018 6:41 pm Welcome to the forums, @rnhunt!

Well said! Glad you got past the tricky question to separate the true Spectrum fans....

Yeah, that wasn’t scientific enough for me. Now I just squint the right way and tilt my head ever so slightly. Works a treat.

Welcome [mention]rnhunt[/mention]! Thanks for the kind words

And thank you all for the welcome, keep up the good work

Hi!

Thank you for a great site and forum! It is amazing how the old Speccy still has such an active community.

I got my first 16K Spectrum in the early eighties, having seen adverts for it in some of the English computer magazines available in Sweden at the time. Actually, I was dreaming about getting a ZX81, but when I learned of the Spectrum I knew I had to get my hands on it (imagine playing games in colour!). The purchase was a bit complicated and it felt like an eternity waiting for delivery, but I wasn't disappointed. Well, maybe a bit, since the first game I loaded was Schizoids (also purchased from overseas), a black-and-white and thoroughly unplayable game. Anyway, I loved my Spectrum and spent many hours with games, type-ins, and my own humble programming efforts.

Eventually I ended up working professionally with IT, but not with programming. A few years ago I decided to have a go at learning to program with modern tools and needed a challenge to motivate me. Thinking about programming made me nostalgic and I came up with the idea to build a simple Z80 emulator and eventually a Spectrum emulator. This is still my hobby project, and I have learned so much about this fantastic little machine and about the brilliant things that have been programmed for it during the years.

Coming full circle, I am now looking forward to receiving a Spectrum Next sometime in the not too distant future...

Hej [mention]Magnus[/mention],
Velkommen til forummet! (I hope I didn’t butcher that. Is it på or til?)

Nice emulator. One thing you should do, though, is change is the font on the keyboard image. The Spectrum typography uses Helvetica, not Arial. If you refuse, I’m afraid we’ll have to banish you from the Spectrum community and you’ll be damned for eternity. Truly sorry, but these are the rules.

Hej [mention]Ast A. Moore[/mention]!
Thank you. I wouldn't say that you butchered that. Rather, it looks like some sort of hybrid "Scandinavian" - everything is probably correct in at least one of the Scandinavian languages, if not always in Swedish. I appreciate the effort though .

Creating the keyboard image in Powerpoint was a pain, but now I must toss it of course .

By the way, I checked out your game A Yankee in Iraq. Very impressive, but damn those SAMs! I never manage to survive more than a few seconds.

Magnus wrote: ↑Sat Jan 06, 2018 12:33 pm it looks like some sort of hybrid "Scandinavian"

Bloody hell. My apologies, [mention]Magnus[/mention]. Take two:

Välkomna till forumet!

(At least I got the gender right the first time. Those damn en/ett words . . .)

Magnus wrote: ↑Sat Jan 06, 2018 12:33 pmBy the way, I checked out your game A Yankee in Iraq. Very impressive, but damn those SAMs! I never manage to survive more than a few seconds.

Tack! It gets easier after about seven thousand tries. I can get to the boss level almost every time now.

Almost there [mention]Ast A. Moore[/mention]. Just one thing: In Swedish "välkomna" is used to address several people, whereas "välkommen" is used to address one person. Complicated, I know . However, the meaning was clear from the start, and I thank you again for your kind welcome (disregarding the threat of banishment for crime against the Font Laws).

Magnus wrote: ↑Sat Jan 06, 2018 3:51 pm In Swedish "välkomna" is used to address several people, whereas "välkommen" is used to address one person.

Lugn, bara lugn, som Karlsson skulle ha sagt. I’ll get it right some day.

Magnus wrote: ↑Sat Jan 06, 2018 3:51 pm In Swedish "välkomna" is used to address several people, whereas "välkommen" is used to address one person

Argh! Schoolboy error Ast! Leave this to me.

Welc∅me Magnus! H∅pe y∅u enjoy the f∅rum.



As I ask all emulator authors, I hope you'll be the first to include a fully functional built in assembler (though the one in ZXSPIN 0.666 is excellent).

R-Tape wrote: ↑Sat Jan 06, 2018 8:11 pm

Köttbullar! Where’s the drooling emoticon when you need one . . .

Thanks [mention]R-Tape[/mention]! I'm sure I'll enjoy the forum (been lurking here for some time already )

Yes, ZX Spin is a great emulator (I just recently discovered it). I might look into integrating an assembler some time, it would be quite interesting I think.

Hello, I'm Lee Spoons and I like Spectrums.