ZX Spectrum featured on Saturday Superstore (BBC 1984)

[Mousey]

This popped up on YouTube for me, only uploaded yesterday. Great memories of the show and the lovely Sarah Greene presenting. Features 3 very well known Speccy classics and 1 early release by a legendary coder:

[HEXdidnt]

Fascinating to watch... Though a bit weird how the scores given at the end don't seem to line up with the feedback given by the kids while they played. I got the impression they didn't much like Manic Miner, if only because of the music/sfx, but it scored pretty well in the areas they were specifically asked about. Ant Attack's low score in graphics is a symptom of the kids not understanding/caring that what had been accomplished was pretty groundbreaking, even if it didn't necessarily look it. Never played Bear Bovver, so can't really comment on that, but no surprise that Atic Atac was the winner of the set.

Weirdly, I don't remember Sarah Greene having such bouffant hair, but I guess that was the 80s... As were the shoulder pads.

Also, kinda typical that they use a presenter who didn't know much about computers/games for a feature on computer games... In those days, it was either that, or the sort of presenters they got for Micro Live, who may have been a bit more knowledgeable, but weren't as good at presenting... Took them years to figure out how to make a whole show about computers that people would actually want to watch.

On the upside, at least it didn't have the Tomorrow's World curse of the tech not working as soon as the cameras rolled.

[EdToo]

Duncan, what do you think of Manic Miner? "The colours are too bright." I sense Duncan is a Commodore fan.

[Lee Bee]

Awesome find! Pete Prodge is gonna love this one!

[Morkin]

What sort of screwy combination of keys are being used at 3:49?

This popped up for me too, in my Twitter feed.

The combination of a presenter who doesn't know much about games (though Ms Greene is still quality), and kids with varying enthusiasm for the games reminded me of the Magic Micro Mission vids, which are a YouTube hidden gem for anyone who hasn't seen them yet:

Thread discussion:

YouTube Channel

[MatGubbins]

Popped into my youtube list too.

It's all there, Sarah Greene, Spectrums, 3 kids, clumsy key combinations and neck strain looking at those high up screens.
Yes, they'll be in their mid 50's by now.

[8BitSC]

"Clumsy key combinations" was my main take-away from watching.

That poor kid's contorted fingers made me feel uncomfortable. Fingers were never designed to bend in such ways.

Do you think 80s programmers saw this and gave us Q,A,O,P and M out of shock and pity after seeing this on TV?

[8BitSC]

Q: "What do you think of Manic Miner?"

A: "Um, if you wouldn't mind TUNING the TV properly, so I could actually SEE the game instead a screen full of smeary, blurred colours, I might be able to give you a meaningful response."

Back in the day, I didn't know there was an OPTION to do a simple composite mod on the rubber-keyed wonder. I certainly don't remember seeing anything published in any of the speccy magazines I bought.

Even back in the 80s, I knew my way around a soldering iron. This would've been an easy mod to perform. The first thing I did with my ZX81 was to add a simple push-to-make reset button in an attempt to avoid plugging the PSU into the wrong socket during "planned" reboots.

Did anyone composite mod their speccy back then?

I remember having a SCART cable for my Grey +2 back in the day, though I have absolutely no idea where I purchased it. Nowadays, with the Internet, we're spoiled for choice.

My parents gave me their "old" Amstrad portable colour TV after they bought a new one. This gave a brilliant picture through SCART. Had I known I could take out a handful of screws and add a composite mod to my speccy, I'd have grabbed my soldering iron so quickly, I'd have blurred as much as Manic Miner did on those TVs.

[8BitSC]

Yes, they'll be in their mid 50's by now.

I've a good 10 years on them, having bought my ZX81 at the age of 19. I'd say they're more likely in their mid to late 40s.

[Ast A. Moore]

Back in the day, I didn't know there was an OPTION to do a simple composite mod on the rubber-keyed wonder. I certainly don't remember seeing anything published in any of the speccy magazines I bought.

Probably, because there were virtually no TVs that accepted composite video.