Welcome @Gorky 99,
We will update the Mushroom club country.
Could you tell us a bit about the 8bit market in SA? Was the Spectrum the most popular, or were there other machines?
Cheers
Peter
Introduce yourself!
Re: Introduce yourself!
Hi,
I was lucky to find this advert in an old newspaper at my mother's house last year. It's from 1985, and from The Star newspaper, which was the one of the biggest English-language dailies back in the day; it's still going. The advert gives a good sense of what was available, and the relative pricing.
I knew other people with Spectrums, and had a friend with a C64, and a cousin with a Spectravideo 318.The closest I saw to MSX were the Spectravideo 318 and 328 range. It seems that the computer game that Elon Musk wrote and sold (as a kid in Pretoria, in 1984) was on a Spectravideo: https://archive.org/details/blastar-elo ... ectravideo
I never saw a CPC as far as I recall, although there must have been a few since the ZX Mushroom Club newsletter had some related adverts. I never saw any of the BBC/ Acorn computers. I never met anyone with an Atari 600 / 800. Consoles like the 2600 were popular enough: the first video game I ever played was on a 2600, probably in 1982 or 1983 at a friend's house. I knew one kid with a Dragon 32, but I think it was more because his family had some Welsh connection than anything else (he barely used it), and another with some sort of Texas Instruments home computer (but he was not interested in computers at all).
From what I saw, the C64 and the Spectrum were the most popular, and they were easily available sold in furniture and appliance stores like those of the chain Dion stores, and I am pretty sure also the Hyperama (now House & Home) and Russells stores, as well as in chain stores with more of an electronic focus, like Stan's and Stax, and in smaller independent computer shops. (These would all also sell some software, but a fairly limited range).
In general, 8-bit ownership was just not that common amongst kids, and it was a bit nerdy and niche. Not many schools had computer classes either: it's a bit tricky to generalise due to the very fractured education system, which did not have a single national curriculum or administration (there were something like 17 different education departments for complicated reasons).
When Computer Science came to schools in my part of this world, it was an extra subject you could do in addition to the compulsory subjects you needed to pass, and was for the senior years in high school. I did it, and we used PCs with Pascal. "Primary school" here means the first 7 grades (back in the day, this was Grades 1 and 2, followed by Standards 1-5) and "high school" meant the next 5 grades (back in the day, these were Standards 6-10, with 10 being Matric.
I hope this helps. I will write some more when I have time, so feel free to ask more questions.
I was lucky to find this advert in an old newspaper at my mother's house last year. It's from 1985, and from The Star newspaper, which was the one of the biggest English-language dailies back in the day; it's still going. The advert gives a good sense of what was available, and the relative pricing.
I knew other people with Spectrums, and had a friend with a C64, and a cousin with a Spectravideo 318.The closest I saw to MSX were the Spectravideo 318 and 328 range. It seems that the computer game that Elon Musk wrote and sold (as a kid in Pretoria, in 1984) was on a Spectravideo: https://archive.org/details/blastar-elo ... ectravideo
I never saw a CPC as far as I recall, although there must have been a few since the ZX Mushroom Club newsletter had some related adverts. I never saw any of the BBC/ Acorn computers. I never met anyone with an Atari 600 / 800. Consoles like the 2600 were popular enough: the first video game I ever played was on a 2600, probably in 1982 or 1983 at a friend's house. I knew one kid with a Dragon 32, but I think it was more because his family had some Welsh connection than anything else (he barely used it), and another with some sort of Texas Instruments home computer (but he was not interested in computers at all).
From what I saw, the C64 and the Spectrum were the most popular, and they were easily available sold in furniture and appliance stores like those of the chain Dion stores, and I am pretty sure also the Hyperama (now House & Home) and Russells stores, as well as in chain stores with more of an electronic focus, like Stan's and Stax, and in smaller independent computer shops. (These would all also sell some software, but a fairly limited range).
In general, 8-bit ownership was just not that common amongst kids, and it was a bit nerdy and niche. Not many schools had computer classes either: it's a bit tricky to generalise due to the very fractured education system, which did not have a single national curriculum or administration (there were something like 17 different education departments for complicated reasons).
When Computer Science came to schools in my part of this world, it was an extra subject you could do in addition to the compulsory subjects you needed to pass, and was for the senior years in high school. I did it, and we used PCs with Pascal. "Primary school" here means the first 7 grades (back in the day, this was Grades 1 and 2, followed by Standards 1-5) and "high school" meant the next 5 grades (back in the day, these were Standards 6-10, with 10 being Matric.
I hope this helps. I will write some more when I have time, so feel free to ask more questions.
Re: Introduce yourself!
Excellent read. Thanks @Gorky 99!
Re: Introduce yourself!
It's a pleasure @PeterJ .
I don't know which part of the forum is best for posting this sort of material, so I will probably add more in this thread for now.
I don't know which part of the forum is best for posting this sort of material, so I will probably add more in this thread for now.
Re: Introduce yourself!
Three other things are worth mentioning regarding 8-bits and South Africa:
1) There was something of a general gap between the kids who were into 8-bits for games and some programming, and the more serious and older hobbyists and people who worked in tech. The older group had more money, obviously, and often some electronics background, and this led to some local hardware developments (and some small-scale manufacturing) and some Spectrum presence on Beltel. The latter was the Videotex system run by the then-South African Department of Posts and Telecommunications (later Telkom, a state-owned corporation that was semi-privatised).
2) South Africa had (in key respects) the same baisc economic policies seen in places like Argentina and Brazil in those days: this was before the shifts started everywhere towards "free markets." In all of these countries, was an emphasis on restricting imports of certain consumer goods in order to protect and promote local manufacturing. This was boosted by state aid to local manufacturers. But unlike Argentina and Brazil, there were few of any restrictions on importing computers, or software, into SA. There was also very little in the way of local computer manufacturing. South African electronics production tended to focus on TVs and audio. Other high-tech work was undertaken in the defence industry. In short, there was no real scope for the large-scale manufacturing of clones of the sort seen in Latin America, and I am not aware of any local Spectrum clones.
3) Unlike in parts of the East bloc, the SA the state does not seem to have itself get involved in manufacturing computer clones through state owned factories, and/ or in large-scale roll-outs of computers to schools in the 1980s. The SA state was certainly willing to import foreign tech, and substantially modify and then locally manufacture it -- this was done, by the South African Department of Posts and Telecommunications, for example, and in the defence industry -- but does not seem to have happened with computing.
1) There was something of a general gap between the kids who were into 8-bits for games and some programming, and the more serious and older hobbyists and people who worked in tech. The older group had more money, obviously, and often some electronics background, and this led to some local hardware developments (and some small-scale manufacturing) and some Spectrum presence on Beltel. The latter was the Videotex system run by the then-South African Department of Posts and Telecommunications (later Telkom, a state-owned corporation that was semi-privatised).
2) South Africa had (in key respects) the same baisc economic policies seen in places like Argentina and Brazil in those days: this was before the shifts started everywhere towards "free markets." In all of these countries, was an emphasis on restricting imports of certain consumer goods in order to protect and promote local manufacturing. This was boosted by state aid to local manufacturers. But unlike Argentina and Brazil, there were few of any restrictions on importing computers, or software, into SA. There was also very little in the way of local computer manufacturing. South African electronics production tended to focus on TVs and audio. Other high-tech work was undertaken in the defence industry. In short, there was no real scope for the large-scale manufacturing of clones of the sort seen in Latin America, and I am not aware of any local Spectrum clones.
3) Unlike in parts of the East bloc, the SA the state does not seem to have itself get involved in manufacturing computer clones through state owned factories, and/ or in large-scale roll-outs of computers to schools in the 1980s. The SA state was certainly willing to import foreign tech, and substantially modify and then locally manufacture it -- this was done, by the South African Department of Posts and Telecommunications, for example, and in the defence industry -- but does not seem to have happened with computing.
Hello
HI there,
I grew up with the ZX+2 and unfortunately sold it with about 100 games in a bin bag for£20 back int he 90's!!
the good wife is an ICT teacher and she wants to do a display on the history of computers so I have just bought a ZXZ that needs a bit of work ) blocky graphics) wish me luck
Stewart
I grew up with the ZX+2 and unfortunately sold it with about 100 games in a bin bag for£20 back int he 90's!!
the good wife is an ICT teacher and she wants to do a display on the history of computers so I have just bought a ZXZ that needs a bit of work ) blocky graphics) wish me luck
Stewart
Re: Introduce yourself!
Welcome @swalker,
I moved your post to our introductions thread. Good luck with your repair.
Be good to see sime photos when your wife sets up the display.
I don't know what age the students that your wife teaches are, but there is a primary school teacher that gets his children to create Spectrum games each year!
https://dougie9mcg.itch.io/
I moved your post to our introductions thread. Good luck with your repair.
Be good to see sime photos when your wife sets up the display.
I don't know what age the students that your wife teaches are, but there is a primary school teacher that gets his children to create Spectrum games each year!
https://dougie9mcg.itch.io/
Re: Introduce yourself!
Thanks, she teaches 11 to 18 year olds in a girls school so she celebrates Ada Lovelace day, which is coming up for the 11 to 14s. I suggested to her to use my big trak for basic programming but she didn't see it. lol.
I love seeing the photo blogs, but I normally get stuck in and forget!!!
I will see what I can do.
I love seeing the photo blogs, but I normally get stuck in and forget!!!
I will see what I can do.
Re: Introduce yourself!
Hi there. I'm a bit late to this introduction as I registered a few months ago but didn't know about this thread and didn't post much, but I'm getting drawn more into these forums as time goes on.
I can't remember a time where I didn't have memories of the Sinclair world, and I mean that literally. I was 4 years old when my mom and I visited my uncle and he introduced us to the ZX81, I can still remember some submarine game which used the pre-defined blocky graphics of the ZX81 and we were fascinated and hooked.
We first owned a ZX81 for a year or two, which my mom inadvertently destroyed by gluing rubber calculator keys onto the ZX81's plastic keyboard with Bostik (bless her heart). The glue ate through right into the membrane itself, which ended our fun rather abruptly. It took some arm-twisting of my dad to get us a rubber-key 48K ZX Spectrum to replace it. We upgraded a few years later to a 48k+ and we kept that machine right until 1994 when we gave away everything including a huge magazine collection, various interfaces, printers, joysticks, keyboard shells, software and games to my aunt for her kids.
Still kinda sad we did that, because almost none of that is around anymore. I owe my career as a software developer to the Spectrum not because of coding (I kinda sucked at that at the time) but with sparking my interest in computing at a young age and the way that it made computing so accessible.
Today I have renewed interest probably because of "The Spectrum Show" by Paul Jenkinson on Youtube, and found these forums earlier this year.
I don't have much to contribute to preservation as I only kept a few booklets, tapes and notes. I'm slowly going through archives on this site and elsewhere on the internet to see if they have been digitised. The only thing I have which I don't see preserved is a bunch of collectable "Poke Cards" from Sinclair User magazine. There are no scans of them I can find on the internet and the links in the magazine archives on this site are broken as well. I'd be happy to find a way to scan them, although I only have all the odd numbered cards (1-39) it's probably better than nothing, example below.
I can't remember a time where I didn't have memories of the Sinclair world, and I mean that literally. I was 4 years old when my mom and I visited my uncle and he introduced us to the ZX81, I can still remember some submarine game which used the pre-defined blocky graphics of the ZX81 and we were fascinated and hooked.
We first owned a ZX81 for a year or two, which my mom inadvertently destroyed by gluing rubber calculator keys onto the ZX81's plastic keyboard with Bostik (bless her heart). The glue ate through right into the membrane itself, which ended our fun rather abruptly. It took some arm-twisting of my dad to get us a rubber-key 48K ZX Spectrum to replace it. We upgraded a few years later to a 48k+ and we kept that machine right until 1994 when we gave away everything including a huge magazine collection, various interfaces, printers, joysticks, keyboard shells, software and games to my aunt for her kids.
Still kinda sad we did that, because almost none of that is around anymore. I owe my career as a software developer to the Spectrum not because of coding (I kinda sucked at that at the time) but with sparking my interest in computing at a young age and the way that it made computing so accessible.
Today I have renewed interest probably because of "The Spectrum Show" by Paul Jenkinson on Youtube, and found these forums earlier this year.
I don't have much to contribute to preservation as I only kept a few booklets, tapes and notes. I'm slowly going through archives on this site and elsewhere on the internet to see if they have been digitised. The only thing I have which I don't see preserved is a bunch of collectable "Poke Cards" from Sinclair User magazine. There are no scans of them I can find on the internet and the links in the magazine archives on this site are broken as well. I'd be happy to find a way to scan them, although I only have all the odd numbered cards (1-39) it's probably better than nothing, example below.
-
Einar Saukas
- Bugaboo
- Posts: 3145
- Joined: Wed Nov 15, 2017 2:48 pm
Re: Introduce yourself!
Welcome!
There are 18 cards in this link:
https://archive.org/details/Sinclair_User_PokeCards/
I don't know if they correspond to either of these issues, or if they are mixed.
AFAIK there were 20 cards with Sinclair User #63 (1987/Jun) and another 20 cards with Sinclair User #68 (1987/Nov). Does anyone know which cards came with each one?WallyX wrote: ↑Thu Sep 21, 2023 6:57 pm The only thing I have which I don't see preserved is a bunch of collectable "Poke Cards" from Sinclair User magazine. There are no scans of them I can find on the internet and the links in the magazine archives on this site are broken as well. I'd be happy to find a way to scan them, although I only have all the odd numbered cards (1-39) it's probably better than nothing, example below.
There are 18 cards in this link:
https://archive.org/details/Sinclair_User_PokeCards/
I don't know if they correspond to either of these issues, or if they are mixed.
Re: Introduce yourself!
Thanks for that archive.org link, somehow my google searches did not turn up that result.Einar Saukas wrote: ↑Thu Sep 21, 2023 7:49 pm
AFAIK there were 20 cards with Sinclair User #63 (1987/Jun) and another 20 cards with Sinclair User #68 (1987/Nov). Does anyone know which cards came with each one?
There are 18 cards in this link:
https://archive.org/details/Sinclair_User_PokeCards/
I don't know if they correspond to either of these issues, or if they are mixed.
It has odd numbered cards 1-19 which are the same as the first set I have and I believe came from issue #63 but I can't be sure.
Then it continues with even numbers 22-38 which I don't have, but I have the odd numbered cards 21-39 which I don't see there. I don't know which issues either of the second set of numbers came from or if you had to order them specifically from Sinclair User as the last paragraph in issue #68 page 27 describes.
Anyway, the "Pages/PDF/View" links in the supplemental section for issue #63 https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/issue/6 ... KE_Cards_1 are broken, perhaps they just need to be re-linked. I can supply odd-number cards 21-39 if they are not available anywhere, so far I've not seen them digitised.
-
Einar Saukas
- Bugaboo
- Posts: 3145
- Joined: Wed Nov 15, 2017 2:48 pm
Re: Introduce yourself!
Whenever you see a magazine link in red, it means we already know the link is broken, but we don't have a working link to replace it.WallyX wrote: ↑Thu Sep 21, 2023 8:53 pm Anyway, the "Pages/PDF/View" links in the supplemental section for issue #63 https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/issue/6 ... KE_Cards_1 are broken, perhaps they just need to be re-linked.
In this case, if you know where we can find these missing magazine numbers, please let us know!
Please do!
-
dust hill resident
- Dizzy
- Posts: 52
- Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2023 6:05 pm
- Location: London
- Contact:
Re: Introduce yourself!
Hello!
I'm a long time fan of Acorn computers since I was a child, my family's first computer was the BBC Micro. We never had Sinclair computers, but I heard lots about them.
I funded the ZX Spectrum Next kickstarter around mid 2017, I received it around early 2020, but life was so busy I didn't get a chance to set it up and try it out till now.
The past few days I've been reading up about the ZX Spectrum, and the Sinclair home computer family, and been writing little basic programs in Fuse emulator, and I'm really enjoying it and having lots of fun.
I've grown to really love the Sinclair computers, and Sinclair BASIC too, they've got a lot of personality and they're very cool.
I'm thinking I'll post a thread with screenshots of my little basic programs soon.
See you around,
dhr
I'm a long time fan of Acorn computers since I was a child, my family's first computer was the BBC Micro. We never had Sinclair computers, but I heard lots about them.
I funded the ZX Spectrum Next kickstarter around mid 2017, I received it around early 2020, but life was so busy I didn't get a chance to set it up and try it out till now.
The past few days I've been reading up about the ZX Spectrum, and the Sinclair home computer family, and been writing little basic programs in Fuse emulator, and I'm really enjoying it and having lots of fun.
I've grown to really love the Sinclair computers, and Sinclair BASIC too, they've got a lot of personality and they're very cool.
I'm thinking I'll post a thread with screenshots of my little basic programs soon.
See you around,
dhr
-
The_Guy222
- Drutt
- Posts: 6
- Joined: Tue Oct 03, 2023 3:57 pm
Re: Introduce yourself!
Hi,
I'm a retro enthusiast from Canada. I grew up with IBM/PC, but Commodore 8-bit computers could be found elsewhere.
I never saw a ZX Spectrum in my life, as far as I know. However, I became aware of the retro scene a few years ago, starting with all the Commodore goodness.
Later, I became amazed by the ZX scene. You really have something big! It's interesting to see people pushing that very basic machine.
I became also interested in modern retro computers, of which the Spectrum Next seems to be the most successful. They did a really good job with that one.
So I'm here to appreciate various projects, you have a really flourishing scene here. I really like how easy it is to emulate simple systems like the ZX Spectrum, which means that they can easily be on future computers.
Best,
The_Guy
I'm a retro enthusiast from Canada. I grew up with IBM/PC, but Commodore 8-bit computers could be found elsewhere.
I never saw a ZX Spectrum in my life, as far as I know. However, I became aware of the retro scene a few years ago, starting with all the Commodore goodness.
Later, I became amazed by the ZX scene. You really have something big! It's interesting to see people pushing that very basic machine.
I became also interested in modern retro computers, of which the Spectrum Next seems to be the most successful. They did a really good job with that one.
So I'm here to appreciate various projects, you have a really flourishing scene here. I really like how easy it is to emulate simple systems like the ZX Spectrum, which means that they can easily be on future computers.
Best,
The_Guy
-
Gears of Games
- Drutt
- Posts: 43
- Joined: Sun Nov 12, 2023 9:13 am
- Location: Lalaland
- Contact:
Re: Introduce yourself!
Hey,
I suppose I should introduce myself, even though I have already started posting
. I am from Sweden and run the Gears of Games YouTube channel. Where I focus on ZX Spectrum, Atari ST and retro-gaming/gaming in general. The Spectrum was my first home computer and it's close to my heart. Had a great time playing games on it and even attempting (and utterly failing) making my own games! I later learned that I should just stay away from anything coding related and just stick to working with graphics! Always loved graphical design and also have a love for storytelling and films. That is probably why I am so fascinated with games as well, as a kid I loved the idea of playing an interactive film. 
As I make videos for my channel I often dig up information about old developers and games. I also have a fair amount of old games and gaming magazines, that I scan to use in my videos. So I thought I would join you guys and contribute scans and information, where I can. I am also on Mobygames.com. And of course I also intend to have a jolly time in the forums in general!
I suppose I should introduce myself, even though I have already started posting
. I am from Sweden and run the Gears of Games YouTube channel. Where I focus on ZX Spectrum, Atari ST and retro-gaming/gaming in general. The Spectrum was my first home computer and it's close to my heart. Had a great time playing games on it and even attempting (and utterly failing) making my own games! I later learned that I should just stay away from anything coding related and just stick to working with graphics! Always loved graphical design and also have a love for storytelling and films. That is probably why I am so fascinated with games as well, as a kid I loved the idea of playing an interactive film. As I make videos for my channel I often dig up information about old developers and games. I also have a fair amount of old games and gaming magazines, that I scan to use in my videos. So I thought I would join you guys and contribute scans and information, where I can. I am also on Mobygames.com. And of course I also intend to have a jolly time in the forums in general!
-
Lee Bee
- Dynamite Dan
- Posts: 1297
- Joined: Sat Nov 16, 2019 11:01 pm
- Location: Devon, England
- Contact:
Re: Introduce yourself!
A very warm welcome, Gears Of Games!Gears of Games wrote: ↑Tue Nov 21, 2023 12:32 pm Hey,
I suppose I should introduce myself, even though I have already started posting
As I make videos for my channel I often dig up information about old developers and games. I also have a fair amount of old games and gaming magazines, that I scan to use in my videos. So I thought I would join you guys and contribute scans and information, where I can. I am also on Mobygames.com. And of course I also intend to have a jolly time in the forums in general!
-
Gears of Games
- Drutt
- Posts: 43
- Joined: Sun Nov 12, 2023 9:13 am
- Location: Lalaland
- Contact:
Re: Introduce yourself!
Thought I'd re-introduce myself and start posting here again. Hello, I'm still Lee Spoons* and I still like Spectrums.
*I don't really call myself that anywhere else now, but don't think I can change my name here
Re: Introduce yourself!
@Lee Spoons,
Send me a PM and we can change your username.
Peter
Send me a PM and we can change your username.
Peter
Re: Introduce yourself!
Great to see you Lee! Sending you a PM.Lee Spoons wrote: ↑Sat Dec 30, 2023 6:27 pm Thought I'd re-introduce myself and start posting here again.
-
vidaextraretro
- Drutt
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Wed Jan 10, 2024 9:04 am
Re: Introduce yourself!
Hola amigos!
Me presento, soy Vida Extra Retro y quiero ser ZXdev hahahaha.
Acabo de terminar mi primer videojuego, algo así como una prueba de todo lo que he ido aprendiendo, desde cero, en los últimos meses.
Se llama Sorcerer Kid Adventure y el próximo viernes 12-01-2024 lo tendréis disponible en https://vidaextraretro.itch.io/sorcerer-kid
Un placer estar por aquí y deseando seguir aprendiendo mucho junto a vosotros.
Un saludo!
Me presento, soy Vida Extra Retro y quiero ser ZXdev hahahaha.
Acabo de terminar mi primer videojuego, algo así como una prueba de todo lo que he ido aprendiendo, desde cero, en los últimos meses.
Se llama Sorcerer Kid Adventure y el próximo viernes 12-01-2024 lo tendréis disponible en https://vidaextraretro.itch.io/sorcerer-kid
Un placer estar por aquí y deseando seguir aprendiendo mucho junto a vosotros.
Un saludo!
Re: Introduce yourself!
Hola @vidaextraretro!
Sorry but can you post mostly in English here. Google translate is very good if you don't speak it. Looking forward to your game. When you release, please announce it in the Brand New Software section
For everyone else, here's the translation:
Sorry but can you post mostly in English here. Google translate is very good if you don't speak it. Looking forward to your game. When you release, please announce it in the Brand New Software section
For everyone else, here's the translation:
I introduce myself, I am Vida Extra Retro and I want to be ZXdev hahahaha. I just finished my first video game, something like a test of everything I have been learning, from scratch, in recent months. It's called Sorcerer Kid Adventure and next Friday 01-12-2024 you will have it available at https://vidaextraretro.itch.io/sorcerer-kid A pleasure to be here and looking forward to continuing learning a lot with you.
-
TakuikaNinja
- Drutt
- Posts: 30
- Joined: Mon Dec 25, 2023 11:02 am
- Location: New Zealand
- Contact:
Re: Introduce yourself!
Oh, I haven't introduced myself here yet.
I go by TakuikaNinja (Taku for short). I'm a half New Zealand (kiwi), half Japanese guy studying cybersecurity at university. I've been doing retro stuff as a hobby for a while now, but it has mostly been chiptune music for the NES. The Speccy did pique my interest though, so I bought myself a 48K and ZX-AY over the last year or so and have been enjoying both old and new software. I'll share my Speccy tunes later.
I go by TakuikaNinja (Taku for short). I'm a half New Zealand (kiwi), half Japanese guy studying cybersecurity at university. I've been doing retro stuff as a hobby for a while now, but it has mostly been chiptune music for the NES. The Speccy did pique my interest though, so I bought myself a 48K and ZX-AY over the last year or so and have been enjoying both old and new software. I'll share my Speccy tunes later.
Re: Introduce yourself!
Hi all,
I've been into Speccies ever since my dad brought a big cardboard box home with a rubberkey 48k, cassette player, leads, and a mountain of tapes all thrown in that he'd bought off a neighbour of ours for £30. I was probably around 8 or 9 at the time, and it was the early 90s when all my friends were getting megadrives or SNESs and we couldn't afford any of that.
You can tell from my avatar what my favourite game of all time was...
I've been an on/off WoS lurker for many years, but haven't visited for a long while. It all appears a bit dead on the forums there and that's when I came across this forum, also with a few faces from WoS and a lot of daily activity which I'm glad to see.
I've made a couple of returns to the speccy scene since my childhood. In my thirties I bought a rubberkey which I got working and composite modded it and replaced the RAM with an SMD PCB. I made a sprayed-black wooden case to pair it with a small LCD screen held together (like a permanently open laptop) and it had a small divmmc thing that had esxdos. I'll post some photos of it on the forum at some point. The divmmc card has died though.
I also have a +2, and did have a +3 which I had always wanted, but later sold as it just didn't interest me after playing around with it for a while.
Real life got in the way for a while again, and now a few years later I find myself posting this. The trigger for all of this was seeing the ZX Omni laptop from retroradionics, which I took the plunge on last week. It shipped two days later, but is coming from China, so it'll probably be a while before I get it.
I'm particularly interested in hardware control expansion, with relay outputs and high/low inputs controllable from BASIC (e.g. via POKEs or In/Out commands). Also any Arduino-based communication/interfacing. I'm exploring some simple home automation possibilities that can be done by ZX. I don't think I've seen that done anywhere. I'll post my specific questions in the relevant section(s) soon.
Cheers,
Colin
I've been into Speccies ever since my dad brought a big cardboard box home with a rubberkey 48k, cassette player, leads, and a mountain of tapes all thrown in that he'd bought off a neighbour of ours for £30. I was probably around 8 or 9 at the time, and it was the early 90s when all my friends were getting megadrives or SNESs and we couldn't afford any of that.
You can tell from my avatar what my favourite game of all time was...
I've been an on/off WoS lurker for many years, but haven't visited for a long while. It all appears a bit dead on the forums there and that's when I came across this forum, also with a few faces from WoS and a lot of daily activity which I'm glad to see.
I've made a couple of returns to the speccy scene since my childhood. In my thirties I bought a rubberkey which I got working and composite modded it and replaced the RAM with an SMD PCB. I made a sprayed-black wooden case to pair it with a small LCD screen held together (like a permanently open laptop) and it had a small divmmc thing that had esxdos. I'll post some photos of it on the forum at some point. The divmmc card has died though.
I also have a +2, and did have a +3 which I had always wanted, but later sold as it just didn't interest me after playing around with it for a while.
Real life got in the way for a while again, and now a few years later I find myself posting this. The trigger for all of this was seeing the ZX Omni laptop from retroradionics, which I took the plunge on last week. It shipped two days later, but is coming from China, so it'll probably be a while before I get it.
I'm particularly interested in hardware control expansion, with relay outputs and high/low inputs controllable from BASIC (e.g. via POKEs or In/Out commands). Also any Arduino-based communication/interfacing. I'm exploring some simple home automation possibilities that can be done by ZX. I don't think I've seen that done anywhere. I'll post my specific questions in the relevant section(s) soon.
Cheers,
Colin
Re: Introduce yourself!
Welcome @Namtip. I think we can guess what you're second favourite game is!
Please do. I love these custom setups.