Anyone remember the ZX Spectrum?

Joined Mar 2005
563 Posts | 0+
Dallas
Or maybe it's just me. I get the feeling most people remember back to the SNES days, and only a few remember the NES. But even further back? I got my first ZX Spectrum around 1982 or so, and quickly got a love/hate relationship with the darn thing. Loading games usually woke up the entire house, and the games were awful compared to modern games. But looking back now, I actually miss a lot of those games. Ant Attack, Attick Attack, Mr. Wimpy... Those where the good, old days. :'(
 
It was complete crap. But, back then there wasn't much else.... well except for a *little* computer called the C-64. :)
 
No, no, no. The C64 came several years after the ZX Spectrum. I had one around '82 or so, and the C64 didn't show up until the mid 80's. And what it was like? First of all, everything were stored on cassette tapes like the C64 or on some sort of combination between a normal floppy disc and a nintendo cartridge. I think, it has been a while.

Anyway, the machine itself were about half the size of a laptop, but without the screen. More or less all the keys had at least two functions, and several had three. This was brilliant, since the keys had normal programming commands directly on them. (just press some sort of Caps-Lock to use the commands). This made scripting easy since you didn't have to type in all commands on your own.

As for games, they were pretty much like normal games you get on cell phones these days, only better. Strangely. I miss those days. :'(
 
You strangely forgot to mention the 2 color limit. ;D

The system could only have two colors in an 8x8 area. I've seen a few games that worked around it nicely. But, a lot of game characters would change colors moving around the screen. Adds new meaning to 'in the zone'. :)

The spectrum does have a lot of good games. It has an abundance of isometric games. This wasn't very common at the time.

I would have to say the best 8 bit computer was probably the CPC though. It had an amazing color palette. The sprites were also very good, if memory serves me.
 
And of course loading games from a tape usually meant the entire neightbourhood knew what you were doing. It was loud, to say the least. And just for the record, those who know it claim "Ant Attack!" to be the very first 3d game ever.
 
In the latest(?) issue of Retro Gamer Magazine they have this advertisement for a Speculator-64 Kit. It's supposed to up(down)grade your C-64 to a Spectrum. Obviously it's a joke, but a good one. :D

Spec.jpg
 
Nightwolf said:
And of course loading games from a tape usually meant the entire neightbourhood knew what you were doing. It was loud, to say the least. And just for the record, those who know it claim "Ant Attack!" to be the very first 3d game ever.
have any images of any attack? I am curious to see that game IF its the 1st 3D game :)

BV :hat