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Winner Announcement: Ben Heck's Portable ZX Spectrum!

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element14's The Ben Heck Show

Join the Ben Heck team every week for amazing hacks! Watch them build and mod community-inspired projects using electronics!

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Congratulations to and !

 

You have been selected as winners of Ben's ZX Spectrum Portable!

 

 

 

 

We're giving away two Portable ZX Spectrum builds from the Ben Heck Show.  Tell us what the ZX Spectrum means to you in the comments below for a chance to win.

 

The ZX Spectrum, an 8-bit personal computer from Sinclair Research Ltd., is a beloved retro computer from the 80s. While it didn't gain a lot of traction outside of the UK, especially in places where it was undercut by the Commodore 64, it did more to define British gaming culture than any dedicated gaming console. Much like the color used in Apple's old logo, the word Spectrum highlights the machine's color display.

 

Since launch, over 24,000 software titles have been released for the ZX. Not including clones, it sold in excess of 5 million units worldwide.

 

 

 

{gallery} ZX Spectrum Slideshow

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In 1983, the video game bubble formed during the golden age of gaming burst as the market became flooded with too many consoles and poorly designed games. Atari, the most popular video game console before the crash, reported $537 million in losses for 1983. Atari had the dubious distinction of releasing the poster child for this era when it rushed to market the highly anticipated E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial game. It's widely regarded as one of the worst games ever and is frequently cited as a contributing factor to the video game crash of 1983. The game was so bad, all remaining unsold versions of it got buried in the New Mexico desert.

 

Around the time dedicated gaming consoles became widely regarded as a passing fad, home computer gaming continued to thrive. Low cost machines like the Commodore 64 and the ZX Spectrum proved to be popular alternatives to dedicated gaming consoles.  While it didn't have the same impact outside the UK, its influence on gaming in the UK is undeniable. In its day, a British game publisher would develop for the ZX Spectrum and begrudgingly port to other machines later.

 

 

The low cost of the machine, a catalog including thousands of games, and cheap distribution of games thanks to cassette tapes factored into its continuous popularity in the UK. The ZX Spectrum was widely adopted as a gaming platform despite its lack of built-in joystick ports, primitive sound generation, and color support that was not optimized for text display.

 

Ben Heck's ZX Spectrum Part 1
Ben Heck's Portable ZX Spectrum Part 2
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Enjoy games on the ZX Spectrum? 

 

Tell us what the ZX Spectrum means to you.

 

If you were influenced by the ZX Spectrum let us know what makes the ZX Spectrum special.  Tell us about what games you enjoyed or what made the system stand out. Feel free to share images, an achievement such as a high score, or anything you can think of related to the ZX Spectrum.

 

If you haven't had a chance to experience the ZX Spectrum then feel free talk about a rival system such as the Commodore 64 instead.

 

 

Directions:

Step 1:  Log in or register on element14, it's easy and free.

Step 2: Post in the comments section below and share your experience with the ZX Spectrum. Videos, pictures and text are all welcomed forms of submission.

Step 3:  Sit back, relax, and enjoy the show!  We will accept entries until 3:00pm CDT Aug 1st, 2016 and announce our winner August 5th 2016. If you need something to do between now and then make sure to check out what is happening This week on element14 Community, or watch more Ben at element14.com/TBHS.

Attachments:
imageGiveaway_TC.pdf

  • The ZX will be my first ancient 8-bit computer to hack with.

  • For me the spectrum was something i discovered only a couple of years ago... I watched a really inspiring mini film called 'Micro Men' and instantly fell in love with the story of how the spectrum came to be. While my friends were all out buying the latest consoles i trolled car boots for months (in fact it was over a year) before i finally found one! 

     

    I've bought other versions since (+2,3 and QL) and now i'm trying to restore/ customise a few mistreated ones. One of the main attractions i had to it, beyond its simplistic approach in terms of hardware, was its embracing of the gaming revolution in which it played a very pivotal role. I love so many of the games on it purely for their simplicity and i have many on my phone... 

     

    The little portable version that Ben Heck has built look great and it would be a massive step up to be able to play these games on the move in a form that's nearer to how they should be played.  Thanks.

  • I was a little kid when father brought home our very first computer. It was ZX Spectrum. Still my most vivid memory is of the game Jet Pac.

  • The ZX spectrum introduced me to programming for the first time in 1987, my father managed to find a used one in a car boot sale. We didn't have much money back then so a computer was a really big deal. I used the ZX spectrum to write fiction stories, which then became simple text adventure games with the aid of my father. We worked together to recreate classic games, pong, space invaders, etc. Since that point, I've had a love for computers. Naturally I build my own. But uniquely it also allowed me to do something else, learn to write. This combination of learning to write, producing games and of course playing them led me later on to write courses for students across the world. The simple act of father and son working together with the ZX spectrum has lead me to produce highly interactive courses taught in schools, colleges and universities. Without this early experience, my career, hobbies and passions may have gone down far less interesting paths.

  • J'ai 55 ans et il y a fort longtemps de cela, je devais avoir 18 ans, mon père m'a offert un ZX81 ... pendant des années j'ai appris et pratiqué le basic avec. Donné à un ami, je l'ai perdu de vue plus tard à mon grand regret

    Je suis un amoureux des machines de " l'ancien temps" ... celui d'avant les 286, 386, 486 et autres pentium et du temps ou la télé était encore en noir et blanc
    Ma maison est un petits musée de machine qui pour la plus part tournent encore.

    Alors un ZX secptrum dans ma collection ... Un rêve, mais même à 55 ans il est bon de rêver encore

    Bon continuation à tous, et....  j'adore Ben Heck.

  • Hello everyone,

     

    It was my very first computer ,the Spectrum 48 k . Later I had the plus version , it had a more comfortable typing.

    In these days I used it to play but later I wanted to know how to 'talk' with it to build new things.

    Now, thanks to my first Spectrum I'm a computer engineer. It helped to show my profesional future .

    Thank you Spectrum , thank you Sir Clive!

  • in reply to Workshopshed

    OMG going to have to look through these.... Thanks

  • I've been enjoying the various Sinclair ZX Spectrum related video posts.

     

    Started my career as a programmer on the Spectrum. Still in games today, still active in the area of Spectrum development (though not my day job!).

     

    My blog contains a bunch of Spectrum related stuff, including coding, nostalgia and remakes I've worked on (including links to Ben's earlier Spectrum mods) : Spectrum – Steve Wetherill

     

    Would love to get my hands on this device!

     

    Steve Wetherill

    http://stevewetherill.com

  • I have never used a ZX Spectrum. I have been intrigued by the system since first hearing about them years ago while I was into the C64. The very first computer I used to learn how to program in basic was the TRS-80. Tape drive and all, it was what hooked me on using computers for education and for fun. From there it was the C64, to the Tandy 1000 to the Commodore Amiga, then into PC usage for the last several decades. I would love the opportunity to acquire one of the portable ZX Spectrums. Thank you!

  • Yo tenía 9 años y me encontraba en una feria callejera de venta de cosas usadas (en Rosario, Argentina). Aunque solían ser lugares poco indicados para encontrar algo de mi interés (más en aquellos años), en uno de los stands había algo que capturó mi atención: un "ZX81". El ZX SPECTRUM 16K ya empezaba a asomar por las revistas especializadas, y cuando vi su pequeño antecesor y lo probé, se produjo un inmediato flechazo y fascinación por lo que veía. Por supuesto, todo comenzó con la conocida letanía "¡Papá, yo quiero uno!" que no concluyó hasta tiempo después (quizá un año) con la llegada del ZX Spectrum 48K de "gomas" a mi cuarto.