Winner Announcement: Ben Heck's Portable ZX Spectrum!

Wow you put it on 1600 BPI tape reel.Impressive to say the least. But do you think the tape magnetic oxide is still good after all these years? I would use a ZX spectrum to play basic games I have seen in the past with their block pixels.This brings back the memories like Memorex tape. LOL.

Clem

Some sweet games on that list. Skool Daze and Target: Renegade in particular! Cast your vote, man: What's the Best ZX Spectrum Game... Ever!

That vector game was indeed called Kung Fu. Although not the best game ever, it's a very interesting one:

• This was one of the first fighting games ever made on any platform (arcades included), and the Spectrum's very first.
• The music was procedurally generated.
• It was made by two Yugoslavian programmers (Damir Muraja and Dusko Dimitrijevic). I interviewed them once, for Retro Gamer magazine (jump to page 54)

My Speccy was the best thing I owned as a kid.  I can't tell you how many hours I spent pottering on the thing to the dismay of my mother.  While I loved playing games, I always had a fascination with programming.  I learned to program basic as a 10-11 year old in a small town in South Africa in the early 80s.  I got familiar with the z80 machine language to some degree but not quite as much as I'd liked back then.  A couple of my friends had the all powerful Multiface 1 - we all wanted one of those - instant access to the registers and ability to mod to your hearts content.

The Speccy was in fact the start of my career though I didn't realise it at the time.  Today I work for a multinational doing software development and project management under foreign aid grants to developing world countries.  What the Speccy gave me above everything was confidence in my ability and a passion for programming and IT.  Many of my staff give me blank stares when I tell them I learned to program on a home computer that connected to my TV and loaded software from magnetic tape.

Any bad memories?  Probably just one... spending HOURS and HOURS hand typing a text adventure called 'Time Slider' from one of the popular mags in the day - not sure if it was your Spectrum or your Sinclair - one of the UK based mags that found it's way to our African shores... Every day after school I'd do a few more lines of code and save my work - over the day before's... until one day the power tripped... HALF WAY THROUGH MY SAVE!!!

I now had half of one piece without a header and half of another with a header and no way to possibly Ctrl-Z / MS Office recover... of course a UPS would have been too much to ask in those days.  To this day I use that example of why multiple off-site backups are essential.

My fav games?

*Manic Miner - The first 48k game I ever played

*Skooldaze - I haven't met a school kid who didn't fantasize about getting away with what Eric did on a normal school day.  Writing stuff on the blackboards was fun.

*The Hobbit - One of the best graphic / text adventures ever.  Super frustrating at the same time!

*Tir na Nog (as well as Dun Darach / Marsport / Heavy on the Magik) - I never could figure them out, but the graphics and animation were superb enough to create atmosphere.  Loved these!

*3D ant attack - this game was absolutely unique.  A masterpiece - the '3D' scrolling and multi-perspective effect was matched only by superb playability.  One of those games that genuinely invoked fear when the ants found you or were chasing you back to 'den'.

*Sabre Wulf - The best looking Ultimate game.  I was astounded to discover that my favourite Nintendo software house (Rare - they did Donkey Kong Country) - was one and the same as 'Ultimate Play the Game'.  They were leagues ahead with graphics.

Anything that Ultimate did was pretty much in my fav's list

*Knight Lore - my first '3D' Ultimate game

* Bruce Lee - mostly 'cos the text was stored in an easy to access way in the code - making it easier to change.  It may also have been pre-speedlock which meant it was easy to edit the loader and stop it before it launched the game (those famous Randomize USR / Print USR statements!) - allowing you to access the code.  I wrote a nice little peek loop that hunted for ASCII and returned the registers for you to poke and update.  We had loads of fun putting our own nonsense into the text of this game.

*Manic Miner - The first 48k game I ever played

*Movie - this game had hints of AI that intrigued me... I could never figure out the storyline but I spent enough time trying just because of the in-game 'atmosphere'

*Target Renegade - I went through a 'fighting game' stage when this was out.  This was my fav followed by 'The way of the exploding fist' and that bizarre vector kung fu game (called Kung Fu if I'm not mistaken)

*Ghostbusters - any game I could finish ended up at the top of my fav list - no matter how dull the game play.

I recently bought two faulty Speccy's and resurrected one (a type 2) - it has a new membrane and works well, though it's going to be mounted on my wall in the office as a reminder of where it all started for me.

I'm a touch disappointed with Sinclair's recent reboot of the Speccy as an 8 button 'gaming' console.  It was way more than that and I personally think they should have consulted with Ben Heck to release a full-KB version.  Now that would already be on my shelf next to my other consoles if they'd gone that route.  Thanks for the blast from the past!  Never grow old

I have a theory about why these old machines are so well loved - it boils down to the sheer number of hours invested in getting things to load, and the satisfaction of getting it to work.  Sometimes it was those games with the tapes in the worst condition that were your fav - simply because you invested more time in them in the long run.  These days, in the microwave age, we don't invest nearly as much in one thing or another - we flip-flop from one fad to the next.  It all boils down to distractions and the quest for instant gratification.

I still ask myself how I can forget the name of the person I just met, yet:

16384,6912

65535

6031769

writetyper

etc.

Il let the guys who don't get it Google

Amen, ba-rutha! Aaaaaaaa-men 

Back in my day there were two types of geeks. Those who owned ZX Spectrums and those who owned Commodore 64's. And we detested each other. This was an epic struggle for Supremacy of the 8 Bits. Sort of a David and Goliath affair. With the humble Speccy clearly the David. And it was for this reason I loved my ZX Spectrum 48K. My very first computer which I still have in my collection. It was definitely the underdog and that's what made it so great. In my eyes it was simply the best computer for its time. With fondness I remember the compact design, rubber keys, innovative typing, loading screen and screech and of course Jetpac. What a game.

Some time back I posted a response video proving that the ZX Spectrum was far superior to the Commodore 64. This was a salute to Sir Clives little baby. Check it out. Viva the ZX Spectrum.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3CgrZz6CKE 

I never had a Spectrum, however I did have a Timex Sinclair.

The ZX Spectrum, the 48k model, was my very first computer and our family's very first computer. Being the youngest of 4, I had to wait patiently for my opportunity to get 5 precious minutes tackling "Head Over Heels", "Wizball" or "Jet Set Willy" before being kicked off by an older sibling. Never the less, the worlds that hid inside this tiny black box with blue rubber keys, replete with cables snaking outward from dodgy jacks into the TV / cassette player enthralled me. I was very young, possibly 6 or 7, when I first began leafing through my brother's Your Spectrum / Your Sinclair subscription and methodically tapped into the pages of BASIC to see what I could make. Something simple such as changing a colour from the default "cyan" to "magenta" awoke a trait in me, one which is still with me today; I had the power to *build* and *create* things. I now manage the IT infrastructure for an organisation with over 20,000 servers but I've no doubt that my troubleshooting skills, my thought processes and my systematic approach to problem solving all have a huge basis in my early exposure to the Speccy.

As the years went by and 48ks in our house became +2s and +3s, I would spend many an evening as the figurative "Player 2" to my older brother has we hacked our way through a myriad of games on blank cassettes. With no instruction manual and a scarce enthusiast community in Ireland, it was simple trial and error that got us through games. Now I have two boys of my own and this chance to see *them* interact & bond with a modernised, updated version of the machine that was so instrumental in my upbringing is the chance of a lifetime.

The icing on the cake for my entry is as follows It was I who originally answered Ben's call searching for a Speccy on Twitter; I let him know I had one I could get my hands on and immediately sped over to my parents' house. I knew exactly where my old 48k Sinclair ZX Spectrum was, stored safely away with my precious childhood memories in the (relatively damp-free, I was relieved to find out!) attic. To have that travel all the way to the US, be worked on and studied by Ben and used in part as inspiration and even possibly in *literal* part towards building a portable version is amazing... To have it return to me so as that I could pass the mantle down to the next generation would be sublime.

Personally, I never owned a ZX Spectrum, but I have always wanted one. I think this is really cool and I'm glad I have a chance to enter to win this amazingly cool Spectrum!

i am new to this website all because of you ben i love watching your show and Would love to win a ZX SPECTRUM. I Think it Would be Awesome sine it was build by you because you inspire me, you encourage me, and most of all you make me laugh. So thanks for all the good times

Being honest here. Until just a few years ago I had only heard of the Spectrum. I still have not actually had my hands on one yet. I am into emulation and CoinOPS is one of my favorites and the compatible games list includes most if not all the entire library. I have played several of the games I recognized and most looked better, smoother than the Atari game they were ported from. Colecovision was and still is my first love. (upgrade project this winter for me) I had a hand me down vic-20 and only had 2 games so I can't comment much on it. My 1st "real" pc I ever bought was an IBM XT 286 w/turbo. "#%@*$!", "I forgot to hit turbo". I loved the simulators back then.

I am a videogamer (player first, collector 2nd) for life and repair 90%+ of my electronics items as well. I love your show, it pops up in random links, now that I am registered and will receive updates I'm looking forward to paying more attention with budgeted time. Thank you.