Spectrum Computing User Survey Results

[PeterJ]

Thanks again to all those who filled in the survey. I stopped the survey at the nice round figure of 100 entries.

The first six questions are detailed below, and I will add to this post later in the week with the remainder of the results.

What gender are you?

I suppose its not surprising that 98 of the respondents were male, with just 1 female. 1 person chose not to disclose the information.



How old are you?

67 of you were in the 26 - 50 group, and 31 in the 51 to 64 group. Just two of the respondents were 16-25


When did you first get interested in the Spectrum?

The majority of respondents have a long term love of the Spectrum. 94 of you have been interested for 11+ years



How often do you visit the website?

48 of you visit multiple times a day, and 47 multiple times a week. That gives us a warm fuzzy feeling inside!



How many original Sinclair computers (or clones) do you own. This does not include modern devices.

Interestingly just 20 of you don't own a Spectrum,. 21 of you own one Spectrum, 39 of you (the largest proportion) between 2 and 5, and 20 of you over 5!



Do you mainly use real hardware or emulators for Spectrum use?

Despite just 20 of you not owning a Spectrum, 50 of you just use emulation when using the Spectrum. I assume the difference is users maybe having their Spectrums as display items. 47 of you use a mix of emulation and real hardware. A very brave 3 users just use real hardware.



If you own a Spectrum, what peripherals do you own (Multiple answers allowed

23 of you own a Spectrum, but don't have any peripherals. The most popular devices were divMMC devices (28), Interface 1 (21), Multiface (19), and Interface 2 (17). I have only listed devices which more that one of you own.



Do you own any modern Spectrum clones, FPGA devices or other emulators?

Over half of you (55) don't own a modern Spectrum clone or FPGA device. 21 of you own a Next, 17 use a Raspberry Pi, and 10 of you own a ZX-Uno.



What purpose do you mainly use or emulate the Spectrum for?

As expected the main use of the Spectrum is for gaming (81). However a large number of you also do development (63). I have only included items with a count of over one. There was one user whose main use of the Spectrum was for public demonstration. Please tell us more!



How would you describe your ZX Spectrum coding skills?

Just 10% of you don't do any coding. 25% of you class yourself as beginners, 40% as having intermediate skills, and 25% as experts.



What programming languages do you use?

The most popular languages are Assembler (63), Sinclair BASIC (62), C (19), Other BASIC (10), and AGD (10). It's interesting to know that 3 of you develop in Forth, and 2 in Pascal. Answers with just one vote are not included. I would love to hear from the users who are programming in Pascal.



Are you interested in the Spectrum Next

The majority of you (54%) have no interest in the Next. If it didn't result in flame wars (is that the right phrase?), then that would be a good discussion as to the reasons behind this.



How many hours a week (on average) do you spend on retro computing?

Half of you spend between 0-5 hours a week on Retro Computing. Amazingly 10% of you spend over 21 hours a week.



Do you ever purchase modern Spectrum software (either physical or digital releases)

It's pretty much 50/50 here. It's great that we are supporting the indie developers who make great content.



Do you own or emulate other home computers?

23 of you are exclusively Spectrum users, but the most popular machines are the Amiga (41), C64 (37), CPC (29), ZX80/81 (29), Atari ST (24), BBC (17), MSX (17), Atari 8-Bit (16), QL (14), Dragon (11), Electron (10). Systems like RetroPie make multi-machine emulation so much easier (although RetroPie does not include BBC or Memotech emulation). Answers with one vote have not been included.



Finally, can you tell us if you use social media (Facebook / Twitter etc)

Us Spectrum users buck the trend where this is concerned. Just 59% of you use social media.



What other hobbies do you have?

You guys have a great range of hobbies. Lot's of sports, technology based hobbies, cars, movies, and drinking! Will the other user who likes gardening please contact me as I would like to set-up a Spectrum Users Gardening Club!

This is an edited selection of the replies.

Music
LEGO
Running
Reading, watching films or TV shows
Electronic Design
Auto Sport
Electric guitar
Cycling, mountain biking, going to gigs, festivals, driving my midlife crisis car.
none
biking, basketball, reading, cinema
3D Printing
Modern video games, cooking, walking, camping, comic books and comic book movies, electronics and soldering
Books, films, hiking
Retro computing and modern coding (PHP,JS,Java MySQl, Sinclair Basic )
surfing (like on waves), movies, history, reading fiction, writing poetry
Demoscene
Development in general
Guitar (playing), rugby (watching), alcohol (drinking), music, web development / dev for modern platforms.
Cycling
cycling, photography, programming
horror movies
photography
Cooking
Football ; playing, training the kids
Arcade emulation
walking, reading
reading, fishing, travelling
Electronics, Teletext, Meccano
Guitar/Music, astronomy, skateboarding, football
car maintenance
Gardening
Boardgames. Childrearing.
reading (old books, mostly 19th-c. Victorian novels); going out walking around quiet nature
Composing music, painting, filmmaking, writing stories.
cars / other electronics project eg. arduino
Badminton, Bridge, Pinball, Retro Consoles, MAME, hardware/software projects
Electronics, Watching F1 motor racing on the telly. General DIY.
Music, films, play guitar, restore photos & old game artwork and my dogs
Martial Arts, Modern Videogaming, Cookery, Cycling, Running, Drinking
A classic car
Guns, motorbikes, 3D printing
Listening to early jazz, digital image manipulation [a.k.a. memes ], playing pool, writing games for modern systems
Birdwatching, scanning old books
Amateur Radio, Cycling
Old cars and cat (ferals) care
Reading
Cambridge z88 lol
Metal Detecting
comics, arduino contraptions
Photography, cooking, some hiking in the summer, a bit of fitness etc.
Coding, reading
Hiking, travelling, reading
Music production, Drinking.
Linguistics
Music, Modelling, RC Aircraft
movie watching
Drawing
martial arts
Gamer
photography, electronics, bonsai, woodworking
Pc gaming, programming
Videogames, music, cinema, sports

[Sol_HSA]

If I had not gotten a next, I'd probably go into the "has hardware, but only uses emulation" camp. Running 48/128k software is just way more convenient under emulation. Before the next I only booted real hardware to test whatever I was working on occasionally on real hardware (and never found any issues compared to emulation).

[cmal]

This is very interesting Peter. Thanks for presenting the results so graphically and clearly. I missed out on entering onto the survey but based on the results it's good to know that I'm not an outlier. Very different in real life. I don't know anyone personally who fiddles around with old computers or emulation.

[PeterJ]

The original post has been updated with the results for the rest of the questions.

I was getting a bit tired towards the end, so please let me know if you spot any glaring errors.

I've really enjoyed this, and will certainly do it again next year. Start thinking of those golden questions!

[Pobulous]

You'd think there'd be more bridge players given the demographic....

[Morkin]

Bit of a sausage fest around these parts then...



In all seriousness, interesting survey... For all the jokes, I guess we're secretly still more into our Commodore-ing than our '81/80-ing.

The only questions that I didn't see an appropriate response is the Next one, I kind of have a vague passing interest in the Next but don't own one.

Anyone want to own up to being the tiger trainer?

[Bubu]

A really very very interesting survey... I don't know how I didn't realize this, where was this survey publshed? I'd have enjoyed so much.
Thank you, @PeterJ

[Sol_HSA]

I feel the results are a bit biased (given the large % of developers), but then again, those are the ones who most likely would answer the survey too..

[PeterJ]

but then again, those are the ones who most likely would answer the survey too..

Not sure I would agree that there is a link between being a developer and likeness to fill out a survey. Particularly with our very unique audience of people interested in a 40+ year old house computer.

Given the size of our membership. I'm hoping 100 results should give a fairly balance view

We will never know though. You could well be right.

Thanks for the feedback