Spectrum Next Issue 2 Unboxing Video

[1024MAK]

AFAIK, when you typed in code, on the ZX80, wasn't it, the 1k of mem was also used for display, so larger basic programmes actually borked the display.

You should be very careful with your comments, this forum has many people who know the ZX80 and the ZX81 rather well. The size of the display file under BASIC depends on what is being displayed. For the ZX81, it is not a fixed size unless the system has more than 3¾k bytes of RAM.

Don't get me wrong, the ZX80/81 were vital stepping stones, but they were certainly NOT mass market. It was a bit like the Apple 1, it proved there was SOME KIND of market out there for micro's, but it also demonstrated that that form factor and spec, was not actually going to MAKE that market grow.

The ZX80 was never intended to be a mass market item. It was mainly designed for hobbyists.

The ZX81 was however, a mass market computer. More than 1.5 million were sold. It was sold in various 'high street' stores. It was sold in other countries including the USA (at first as the ZX81, later as the TS1000).

That's not bad compared to the 5 million ZX Spectrums that were sold.

Mark

[1024MAK]

Maybe this topic should be moved to the Spectrum section.

It's in the "Sinclair Misc" section. We don't have a Spectrum Next section.

Mark

[Spinnetti]

Just got mine today in Texas!

[Lardo Boffin]

Nice! Is the cat called Clive?

[redgatemodels]

My Dad who knew nothing about computers other than the fact that they were going to be important at some point bought the family a ZX81. Sounds pretty mass market to me!

I owe my career in IT to that zeddy.

Indeed, That Xmas Zeddy was both mine and my sister's xmas prezzy. Here I am DC for a construction company looking ahead to retirement supporting ViewPoint and FieldView.

[Spinnetti]

Nice! Is the cat called Clive?

Thanks. I suppose he should be called clive considering my entire retro collection is all Sinclair except for an Atari 130XE lol.

[Retronaut]

Indeed, I posted here, as there is no dedicated Spectrum Next area. So yeah, it is currently MISC, as nowhere else suits.

I'll demure about the ZX80, ZX81 as being useful machines. That certainly IS very subjective. It depends on your use I guess.

For instance, many less hard core techies, might consider the IMSAI 8080 something of a baffling brick. But seen from another perspective, it was a kind of Mini Computer, literally translated into a Micro, and apparently its quite useful for chatting with NORAD computers for a game of Total Thermodynamic Nuclear War.

For me, I was aware of both the ZX80 and 81, and at the time I was still 9-10 years old, and playing games on an Atari 2600. I had no one in my family to sponsor my computing hobby, and indeed I sold my Atari 2600 and combined with pocket money, to buy my first micro, a Dragon 32.

For me, the need was games, and then over time, coding, graphics, etc.

We all stepped onto the micro computing wagon at some point. And its subjective, depending on where you entered maybe?

[Retronaut]

Not trying to change the subject but... I will be testing my Next today I think, and I would maybe like to start by, well, getting some of the older games on it. As those are what I initially want it for. Certainly it would be idiotic to buy a £300 machine to play old Speccy games, when I could get an original machine for less. But this is my jumping in point....

So, if you could name your top 5 speccy games, for whatever reason. What would they be?

Mine, and bear in mind these are from the viewpoint of me not owning a Speccy back in the day, so on my list of games I would like to re-visit, in more depth are (in no particular order).

• Underwurlde
• Lords Of Midnight
• Knight Lore
• Havoc
• VU-3D Render (I know, its not a game, but...)
• Tir Na Nog
• Skooldaze
• Jet Set Willy
• Bobby Bearing
• Glass

[Moggy]

For me, the need was games, and then over time, coding, graphics, etc.

We all stepped onto the micro computing wagon at some point. And its subjective, depending on where you entered maybe?

So being a child at the time, as you say, your interest was children's games not micro computing whereas the adults amongst us old enough to remember Hollerith cards and EBCDIC were amazed that a small black wedge shaped PC came complete with floating point maths, trans functions and an operating system in just 8k and wasn't the size of a barn. The games of my youth I cast aside when I became an adult, I have no desire to re-visit them and struggle to see why a middle aged adult would want to play Jet Set Willy as they did as a ten year old.

I suppose the sobriquet of "I'm a gamer" is the get out that can be used, unfortunately I don't have that luxury for if I were to start playing the games of my childhood be it marbles or conkers in the middle of the street I would be called a sad old basket, but times change I suppose and it's cheaper than the usual middle age complex of buying a Ferrari and chasing young women.

Anyway the ZX81. Yes the keyboard was crap, so are modern day touch screens, as were other physical aspects of it but the multi million pound add on cottage industry it spawned negated that somewhat.

The thing that anyone who was a child at the time of the 81's inception forget or perhaps never even knew or wanted to know is that when used as a computer rather than a child's toy it was quite a handy performer, only when judged as a games console was it found wanting. Indeed I remember Maths guru Dr Frank O'Hara replicating with a ZX81 the finding of the highest prime number by a Cray1 in a run time of three hours as opposed to the two months it took the Cray, efficient coding V brute force I suppose. 15 minutes of that time was spent printing the list out on Sinclair's spark printer which to my mind was more surprising than the feat it self as Iv'e never known Uncle Clive's printer last that long before throwing a seven!

All this could be done on a modern PC obviously but to say work out a factorial to 4000 digits or indeed any kind of maths or scientific computation on a Windows PC involves an expensive maths package as said PC has nothing as such built in except calculator whereas a ZX81 and a few lines of Forth then all is well in my world.


I'm admit to being somewhat biased as I have had a forty odd year computing affinity with the 81 and have used it for my interest in higher mathematics, ciphers and encryption (thanks to the friendship and encouragement of two Bletchley Park operatives now sadly deceased.)
Industrial and scientific uses also pique my interest from time to time and thanks the use of Forth in this regard it has become even more enjoyable.

It's form factor and language etc could never be sustainable but then neither could the products of Atari, Commodore and all the other 8-bit machine manufacturers hope to have a longevity, with IBM PC's and the various clones winning the day mainly due to the standardisation they offered.


Incidentally I'm not a luddite as I have seven PC's all doing something be it audio, video or things marked other and before retirement built stage amplification and effects units as well as having an interest in technology in general, no its just that I view it a bit like someone who tries to get a ton out of a MIni or run a four minute mile wearing boots, I like to see how far I can push it.

Thanks to at least one or two modern add-ons, things such as memory card load/save, serial and parallel transmission, audio, MIDI, Hi-res and UDG and a few others means it hasn't been found wanting in my case and certainly not useless.

[Lardo Boffin]

Looking for the Like button!

I think nostalgia drives many to play games they enjoyed as a kid. I have a Spectrum teeshirt and more than one adult of a certain age has started a conversation about the games they remember after seeing it.