ZX Spectrum network in schools or education

[Vampyre]

At primary school we only had the one BBC.

Secondary school was a network of BBC's.

College/YTS had a network of PC's - 286 and 386's. Eventually they upgraded them to 486's. One room did have a Commodore PET - the only one I've ever seen in the wild.

Pretty sure I never saw anything Sinclair at any of them.

[equinox]

No offence mate, I only meant to say that certain people were traditionally nudged more into certain areas. (And I called nothing "useless", despite the quotation marks.)
I bet the time will come when your son will make the best Sunday lunch ever

Wish I'd got a bit more mechanics out of my father too (who could repair any damn thing). I have told people that I have no career skills in a power cut. Once I thought that was funny. Now I say it with the rueful face.

[worcestersource]

No offence mate, I only meant to say that certain people were traditionally nudged more into certain areas. (And I called nothing "useless", despite the quotation marks.)
I bet the time will come when your son will make the best Sunday lunch ever

Wish I'd got a bit more mechanics out of my father too (who could repair any damn thing). I have told people that I have no career skills in a power cut. Once I thought that was funny. Now I say it with the rueful face.

None taken! Back in the day, a lot of people couldn’t see the point of teaching us kids these skills but I think they’ve been a great help. I mean, who really needs to turn wood? It is immensely satisfying though!

(Sorry if my post came across that way btw)

My son makes a good mushroom en croute and can whip up a salad. Now he’s firmly a teenager, it’s infrequent but he did feed me the other day when I was ill.

[Crafty88]

The school I went to had a selection of Pets which we used for computer studies. Plus we wrote programs which were sent to the local collage to be entered on punch cards and ran on the computer there.
Was fun when people who had their own computer at home tried entering a program they got from a magazine on a Pet and then wondered why did not work.
I think for start of the first year I had a ZX81 at home then got my first Spectrum.
Think the class had a varied mix of computers at home. Various Sinclairs, Various Commodores, Dragon 32, Oric Atmos, Acorn Electron and probably some others.
When I did my YTS at the local ITEC there was Research Machines 480Z running CP/M on a network with double sided 8 inch floppies. Then 7 BBC B's networked. I got a written warning for changing the ROM in one of the BBC's. If they did not want people to change the ROM's why have them fitted in a ZIF socket.

[zxbruno]

The computer room in my high school had some Timex computers with the FDD3000 3" disk drives and monochrome monitors, but most computers in the room were IBM PCs with some basic image editor, word processor and something about turtles and LOGO. I obviously spent more time with the Timex computers because there was a lot of software to run from the 3" disks, but everyone else was mesmerized with the PCs. There wasn't any kind of network.

If networking had been part of the Spectrum's hardware since it was launched, without the need for an interface, things would've been different. Imagine playing Target Renegade or Laser Squad using two Spectrums.

[PeterJ]

Especially as the Sinclair network is considerably cheaper and easier to implement in a classroom than the Acorn Econet.

You are not wrong there Mark! When I was first a computer technician, we had one full time person looking after the BBC Network.

[Stefan]

Also, I think at least one third party interface for the Speccy had network ports, was it one of the disk drive interfaces (it’s late, so my memory is, I think, suffering from bit rot/memory fade )?
Ahh, of course, it’s the DISCiPLE Interface. Not completely clear if this can communicate with a Interface 1 though.

I thought it was supposed to be interface 1 compatible,in which case you may want to also add a SAM Coupé into that mix, see https://www.mfitzp.com/samcoupe-network/

[1024MAK]

@Stefan - the manual says in one place (near the very end) that the DISCiPLE is Interface 1 compatible, But does not mention the Interface 1 by name in the section of the manual where it describes the network and its operation…

I’ll have to try my DISCiPLE connected up to one or more Interface 1s. Another item on the rapidly expanding to do list…

The SAM Coupé is one machine that I’ve not got
Some years ago (gosh, must be more than five years now), I did “watch” some auctions on eBay, but the bids rocketed way beyond the price that I was prepared to pay. And now, I’m not sure I have room for any more 1980s and 1990s micros

Mark

[spider]

Ah yes I do agree it may of been wise for Sinclair to have included the network sockets in the toasty rack, a shame really.

Regarding Speccies in schools...

I'm half sure at the lower secondary (it was split into year 1+2 at one building and 3+4+5 at another) there was in a cupboard a ZX81.

Going back further:

Primary I do recall some fundraiser for a BBC despite them being provided (?) by government. We only had one on a trolley with a tape player, later with a single sided iirc floppy drive. The fundraiser could of been for that drive. I recall fondly Cargo and Flags which the former I must write a Speccy conversion for, its been on my todo list for about 20 years

Secondary, "lower" they had two trolley's similar to Primary, single Beeb on each with a single floppy.

Secondary "upper" had about 12 networked BBC's , one Epson LX printer and one B with network and floppy, much fun because there were several SYST Priv accounts. They also had a 10MB winchester too along with two PCW's and 3 or 4 Archimedes A305 perhaps, very early (1987 or 1988) ,

There was also an offsite tech building, the was a B Master 128 here but it was in their little staff room. One thing mentioned earlier in the topic by @ , I do recall when they closed this extra offsite builind a skip with about a dozen CBM Pets in it Although they must of been in a storeroom somewhere it was a bit of a shame.

[Stefan]

@Stefan - the manual says in one place (near the very end) that the DISCiPLE is Interface 1 compatible, But does not mention the Interface 1 by name in the section of the manual where it describes the network and its operation…

The introduction on page 4 mentions it:

Two network connectors provide a network which is compatible with Sinclair Interface 1; with the Disciple attached, up to 63 computers can interact in a system using a single disk drive or printer.

As does every advertisement:

Networking:
- Interface 1 Compatible

But those are just words until you hook them up.

I’ll have to try my DISCiPLE connected up to one or more Interface 1s. Another item on the rapidly expanding to do list…

The SAM Coupé is one machine that I’ve not got
Some years ago (gosh, must be more than five years now), I did “watch” some auctions on eBay, but the bids rocketed way beyond the price that I was prepared to pay. And now, I’m not sure I have room for any more 1980s and 1990s micros

Everybody has room for a SAM

[1024MAK]

The introduction on page 4 mentions it

Apologies, I did not read the whole of the introduction

Mark

[PeterJ]

Everybody has room for a SAM

Sadly, not the disposable cash though

[Journeyman]

My primary school had a single BBC Micro, although the first computer I ever used there was a Commodore PET circa 1983, which belonged to one of the teachers - she brought it in occasionally. I started secondary school in 1985, and at the time we had a classroom with 16 BBC Micros in it, later expanded to two classrooms. I took Computer Studies GCSE in 1990, and wrote a database program for my project. I started out trying to write it on a Beeb but couldn't get my head around how to do certain things with it, so I switched to using my Speccy instead, as I was much more familiar with Sinclair BASIC, and could work on it at home without having to fight for access to a school computer.

I needed to get a program listing to submit my project, so had to find someone with a Speccy and a decent printer. Turned out a friend of mine could help - his dad was a teacher at a school in a different borough, and they used Spectrums in the classroom, hence had a bunch of them networked with Microdrives and a dot matrix printer. I gave my friend a tape with my program on it, and a few days later he returned it with a printed listing on that sprocket-hole computer paper that was so familiar back in the day.

[1024MAK]

a printed listing on that sprocket-hole computer paper that was so familiar back in the day.

Known as fan fold. The company that I work for still uses it.

I did two projects for my Computer Studies, one was a BBC B program and one was a Sinclair ZX Spectrum program. I can’t remember how I got a listing for the Spectrum program. I may have used my Alphacom 32 Printer.

Mark

[Journeyman]

Known as fan fold. The company that I work for still uses it.

I did two projects for my Computer Studies, one was a BBC B program and one was a Sinclair ZX Spectrum program. I can’t remember how I got a listing for the Spectrum program. I may have used my Alphacom 32 Printer.

Mark

The Alphacom 32 is actually quite decent, especially for listings - I picked one up off eBay. Only minor downside with it is it won't work in 128K mode on newer Spectrums, but it's still pretty capable. It even works with a ZX81! Being able to print anything from a computer that primitive feels like a minor miracle.

[8BitAG]

I loved our Alphacom 32, although thirty+ years later, the downside is that all my old printouts have now faded so they're unreadable. No such problem with the "proper" dotmatrix printer we upgraded to... all my listings are still fully readable... on that lovely paper with the tear-off sheet feeder sprockety holey bits.

[Journeyman]

I loved our Alphacom 32, although thirty+ years later, the downside is that all my old printouts have now faded so they're unreadable. No such problem with the "proper" dotmatrix printer we upgraded to... all my listings are still fully readable... on that lovely paper with the tear-off sheet feeder sprockety holey bits.

Yeah, that is a major problem with thermal paper. The EP-44 typewriter/printer I have as well is primarily thermal, and although the print quality on thermal paper is excellent, it becomes unreadable in just a couple of years, so it's hopeless for archival purposes. There's a film ribbon you can use on non-thermal paper, but they're now rarer than hen's teeth and change hands for silly money on eBay.