ZX Spectrum

Neo-Geo, Arcade, Portable, & Every Other Platform
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andymol21
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Joined: Sat Mar 15, 2008 6:55 pm
Location: Birmingham, UK

ZX Spectrum

Post by andymol21 »

How retro can this forum go?

I'm about to come into ownership of a Sinclair ZX Spectrum and have no idea what to expect. Does anyone have any information regarding the Spectrum (bar the first page of so of Google results) that would be useful for me. Example, how do you even load software onto it! Doesn't seem to have any disk drive!
--=We Do What We Must Because We Can=--

FS/FT Thread: viewtopic.php?f=22&t=24755&p=309811#p309811
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Majors
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Post by Majors »

Only time I hear about the Sinclair is when I read Retro Gamer. It was more pop in Europe, does anyone know of a Racket-like forum based in England?
Majors -=- Wedoca '22
Tricky
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Joined: Fri May 30, 2008 7:05 pm
Location: Brighton, England

Spectrums (spectra?) rule

Post by Tricky »

Hey andymol21,

Check out the best Spectrum site on the net (no I don't work for them) :

www.worldofspectrum.org/

Most speccy games came on cassette tape, and it depends which model you are about to get as to how you would load the data into the machine. If you have the "rubber key" 48k Spectrum, the Spectrum + or the Spectrum 128k you will need a separate cassette tape player which is connected to the unit with a dual-ended mini jack cable. If you are the "proud" owner of a +2 there was a tape player built into the unit. Loading times can be a pain but it's all worth it in the end, trust me :wink:

Of course the bonus of this method of software distribution for those of us who were too young to know better was that you could easily copy a ton of games onto a C-90 cassette - kind of like an 80's version of P2P file sharing, without the pr0n.

Good luck with the unit - let us know how it all works out and what games you're digging. I heartily recommend "Head Over Heels" "Atic Atac" "Manic Miner" and "Jet Set Willy" as games to be starting out with.
Ivo
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Post by Ivo »

I would seriously consider just emulating the Spectrum - loading cassette tapes is annoying as heck (I never owned one, but I used to play them at friend's houses and it was really bad to wait so much for loading the game and often you needed to reset and try again).

Ivo.
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