Leave your spectrum memories as they are, trying to recreate them will only disappoint, things have moved on far too much to get any lasting enjoyment from this unit

Yes most of the games are absolutely dire in comparison to what exists now. I never owned a C64, but looking on YouTube videos shows just how much more advanced it was graphically and sonically. The ZX Spectrum won on price easily compared to BBC Micro and C64. I loved the 80s, there was no Internet to cheat with, you had to work out everything yourself and there were 100's of different computing platforms, Jupiter Ace, Tandy TRS 80, Sord M5, the Japanese MSX computers which tried to form a compatible platform amongst manufacturers. Then the 90's happened and it was just PC, now we're back to multiple platforms but they're all compatible with each other.

Youtube, social media etc has ruined computing for me. Now everyone who can watch a YouTube video can garner the skills, there's no wow factor in anything anymore. You only have to go on Reddit and there's skillful artists, musicians and everyone is so meh about everything now when they see something that was impressive it's not anymore.

The real skill is still in the unknown, creating on the fringe and still not many people do that. The real people in this world that get credit aren't the ones that deserve it, such as actors, celebrities etc. Forget Stephen Fry, the real genuises are scientists. Almost no one knows the names of the people that created what we have now.

Alan Turing - you've heard of him, obviously a well known genius
Ivan Sutherland - nope you won't have heard of him, genius
Alan Kay - What about him, genius, object oriented programming and windowed operating system innovator
Douglas Englebart - What a genius, a total genius. The Mother of All Demos is all you need to see, also inventor of the computer mouse in 1963, prototyped in 1964
Ken Thompson & Denis Ritchie - Inventors of Unix and C programming language
Bent Stumpe - Touchscreen inventor

Just some of the people who invented what we have now not some 40-50 years ago. I thought I'd give them some credit.

It's a basic Bluetooth keyboard that looks like a spectrum, hardly a recreated spectrum!

ohhhhh the good old specy! Remember getting my 48k one in the 80's and buying it from Woolworths for £130. It outdone the ZX81 by a mile with the graphics and sound and will never forget waiting outside the shop the day a new game was released. All very costly thinking about it but was the start of gaming as we know it today.

If anyone had Andoid and a Fire Tv stick you can sideload Spectacol app to the Firestick and add the keyboard as well, no need to stream via Chromecast, saves on lag if your android device isn't octa core. Worth noting Firestick remote works with Spectacol.

That usually happened early on during loading. Worse was when after ten mins of loading, the tape got right to the end and it just stayed on the game pic, no actual game loaded. I still remember to this day Robocop being an absolute sod for that (fierce)

If anyone wants to learn to code properly then the following resources are top quality >

FreeCodeCamp - https://www.freecodecamp.org/
TheOdinProject - https://www.theodinproject.com/
Coursera - https://www.coursera.org/
edX - https://www.edx.org/

There's no reason to pay to learn to code. That's just a small amount of resources I know.

If you absolutely want to learn to code properly then you need to be proficient in these two areas:

1. Algorithms
2. Data Structures

A huge amount of information regarding programming from absolute experts on the subject can be garnered from http://www.quora.com and to a lesser extent on Reddit.

Here's my tips >

1. Do NOT pay
2. Do it now
2a. Do it now, that's right today!
2b. Start right now today!
3. Do it
4. Do NOT wait
5. Do NOT stop when something is difficult, it will be difficult, sometimes very difficult, do not give up!

If you can pass the above then you'll succeed.

Wow, that makes no sense, get back on your jet set Willy, you sad knob !

Not as awesome as you though
Wow! You still sound like an unwitty, Yummy Ponce!

Showing £49.99 here.

Wow you sound like awesome fun

Cheers, time to fill up my library :stuck_out_tongue:

was set to game mode

Is that with keyboard in Game mode or QWERTY mode?

Chaos is a great game. Used to love that. I also used to like:

Starquake
Talisman
Halls of The Things (I actually hex edited this 30+ years ago and there's some interesting info in the code :wink: )
Skool Daze
Back to Skool
Manic Miner
Jet Set Willy
Nodes of Yesod
Wanted: Monty Mole
Strangeloop
Just about all of the Ultimate play the game titles e.g. Knight Lore, Jet Pac, Atic Atac
Movie
Valhalla
Quazatron
Fairlight
Tau Ceti
Pyjamarama
Wheelie!

The list goes on

That is where you are wrong, it can emulate it very well under spectacol

Loved this computer, used to spend a whole day doing a program from the book supplied, just so a square that changes the 8 ish colours bounced round the screen, happy days.

Buying old zx spectrums on ebay.
You don't know if you will get a series 1,2 or 3 motherboard. Will it work, will it just be a duff power supply or just needs a new 5v regulator.
Then you have the fun of doing this composite mod, so they will work on a modern TV. Plus you may get a low serial number

I've got xpectroid installed on my phone and still have regular games of "Chaos", usually when I'm on a long bus ride.

Nonsense. I still play Spectrum games almost every week, on various emulators. I don't know that playing them on this instead would make them any better, but to suggest they're no longer enjoyable games is simply not true. (And yes, I have consoles and a PC too.)

I played this on my joystick via my ComCon interface - I went through a lot of joysticks!

With the battery fitted it can be used as a wireless bluetooth keyboard, with the battery removed and a USB cable connected it can be used as a wired keyboard.

6912.

According to the web site:


So it looks good, but it can't emulate the original ZX Spectrum keyboard layout - hence why I stated earlier you can do this with a standard USB keyboard - this is just a cosmetically enhanced bluetooth keyboard with the ability to "lock" out keys (game mode).

Learn by doing! http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Flash-Game
Some great nostalgia available free here:
https://usborne.com/browse-books/features/computer-and-coding-books/
I have the original books bought through Scholastic back in the day
I guess it's because of the instant access to games now that makes each game seem so meh - having to wait 5 minutes for the game to load certainly made you appreciate it a bit more (there was only about 15 official ROM carts)...

It still had crappy keys though! I had an Interface one and Horace goes Skiing on cartridge - instant load times, however the game was so naff!

I doesn't have any video out - it has to connect to a host machine, if your host machine can output to SCART then I suppose you could say it can. However the point is this is just a cosmetically "enhanced" bluetooth keyboard. The only thing ZX Spectrum about it is it's appearance...

I miss my c64.....

After the zx specrum I moved on to an Amstrad CPC 464 and got myself Bomb Jack! (It took 15 mins load!).

Got one of these cheap a while ago, and had mixed success pairing it in bluetooth mode to my smart telly.

16k, and it was a zx81 game. Although it has been ported across to the Spectrum recently.

I never had the type of spectrum with the crappy rubber keys. I had a ZX Spectrum+.

...And a **** old tape deck that chewed up tapes on occasion.

From people's comments do they know this is just a keyboard and not an actual spectrum. Thought I had better point this out in case people get disappointed when they receive it.

I want an Acorn Electron equivalent

Still got the original in my loft!

No SID chip or hardware sprites - no sale :sunglasses:

16384

I went down the anti establishment route and bought a Dragon 32.
What a load of ****, bought it from the catalogue for £2.50 a week.
Made my final payment last year.

Ouch, you're crushing peoples dreams :disappointed:

Good grief! I remember that advert! PCW?

Arrrgh, tape loading error!

Can I programme on this?... ZX Spectrum was the first computer I learnt to programme on (I bought those monthly Magazines), I programmed my first shooter from those mags!, It took me maybe a year... I remember putting the last line of code in and run it!... WOW!. Error! nothing happened, I went through it all again still didn't work. I gave up and never bothered again :disappointed: .

It's been more than 30 years... I would like to continue where I left off.

Does it have to be plugged into the mains?

I didn't leave my Speccy memories in the past, and I still love delving into the vast library of games and programs that exist... Most of what seems dross now, was still dross back then, and there's hundreds of gems that can still be enjoyed. Depends what you're into I guess?

3D Monster Maze in 4K is the stuff of nightmares.

Hmm tempted

Is 3D Monster Maze still as scary?

heat for the duckman avatar.

I miss the 80s!!! I love these mini retro consoles!!

And the point I am trying to make is that this site is not aimed at Spectrum enthusiasts. People here buy things if they think it is a good deal for their OWN purposes, not yours.

Ah the 48k, cyan memories. I was gifted one when i was about 7 and i remember it blowing my tiny mind. A couple of years ago i found a suitcase full of tapes and after checking on ebay decided they weren't worth selling so gave them to a charity shop. Booty, cookie, robot riot et al.

just one of many regretful trips to said charity shops the console stuff i gave away before ebay came along is frightening.

I recently was given the first ZX81 that I used, I've refurbished it and it works fine on LCD TV with an expansion pack that allows load/save on SD cards. Great memories when using it.

Lol most people don't compare bluetooth keyboards to computers. That's not the point I'm trying to make, there is a growing community of Spectrum enthusiasts that are encourging a new generation of programmers or a defunct bluetooth keyboard that requires an similarly priced computer.

Is this worth getting as in does it bear any resemblance to the old ZX spectrum? :\

Feel like all these new 'retro' mini releases are a fad

IIRC Dayley is White in the game, ha

still have my old ZX81 in the loft somewhere lol

The cheapest ZX Spectrum Next is £252... hardly any comparison to a "£30 recreation"!

Wow, thanks for the heads-up, man!

And allowed people like me to learn to code.

I tried several years ago to learn Java. The code made sense thanks to my ZX Spectrum days but writing and debugging on Notepad made it only available to a select dedicated few. I kept trying though and seriously put my mind to it 3 years ago. I still struggled, maybe because of spaghetti coding learned on a Spectrum but I've got there in the end by uploading last week my first app. It may not be anything special but it serves a purpose and for an old fart of 49 I'm happy and there's more on the way.

For anyone interested, forget Youtube for learning - there's just too much conflicting videos (there's more than 1 way to solve a problem). What done it for me was the free Udacity Course that broke down the link between Xml and Java. The Java bit was easy, putting it all together was a lot harder.

Remember when you only got three lives in a game and you couldn't save?

No point getting upset that the bar has been raised. The collaborations and freedom information derived by the internet has allowed us to move beyond localised groups. If anything opensource has sped up software development and have inspired new generation of coders to refine their art. Alot like the music industry where it used to be a closed off group the internet has given us youtube, bandcamp as such like so people are given a fair chance of fame :wink:

Absolutely ghastly machine .. certainly not a patch on the jupiter ace , which went on to become the AMD threadripper!

Great

The past is the past.

To me, Horace WENT Skiing. Not no more. :smile:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagine_Software
Not Imagine :wink:

I had a fuller keyboard when mine wore out. This is pointless you'd be better off with a 4 gbp pi zero w and get retro pi. I cut my teeth here and made 700 programming for magazines 85 in one night those where the days. Does anyone know where you get the rooms for retropi

That maybe true but I will say that you can always play every game available using fuse or spectacol for android..... Fail maybe for elite but not for the end consumer

Waiting for the release, my friend has bought into the kickstarter. General release is christmas hopefully

No discussion thread would be complete without an honourable mention to the keyboard basher that was ;



Luckily everyone in Dundee knew someone who worked at the Dundee Timex factory so replacements were easy to get :wink:

Back in the day I was a school computer monitor (not the screen lol) and had to wheel the BBC computer from one classroom to another,and the perk for doing this was being allowed to play chuckle egg at dinner break.

Them were the days :smile:

I think you misread my post. I was pointing out that there's definitely skill about but everyone has access to those skills now, even extremely skilled acts don't get wow that was amazing on Reddit, Youtube etc because skill in itself is not a rarity anymore, you can watch 1000's of skilled guitarists, (you won't see as many as good as Tina S for example). Skill is now just ah here's another video of someone doing something that used to be regarded as remarkable but the abundance of content waters it all down.

Actually if you unlock it and use it with spectacol on an android tv box these are great.

Yes, I think a lot of blind ignorance here. Product looks good, price looks good, click heat!

For most people that's as far as it goes.

For the rest of us, we know that this is really a glorified and themed Bluetooth keyboard. The "computer" is actually contained within the App you have to download to phone or tablet.

This keyboard simply controls the app via Bluetooth.

So it is a bit of a waste of money really.

Most of the comments here seem to be against this, yet it is on over 500 degrees, so must be good for something.

How many FPS in Crysis?

Does it play Hyper Sports?

I just released my first app on the Play store (a Glentoran Fixture List Widget) but it's thanks first to the ZX81 (where you couldn't do anything but program) and ZX Spectrum where I first whetted my teeth in computers. Yes everything has moved on but there's still plenty to do. I've several more complicated apps in development.

To say there's no skill anymore is ridiculous. To learn Android, I'm having to learn Java, Xml, Sqlite, Html and a host of other ways to code. Every piece of code is a skill and rigorous testing is needed at every stage. Yes anyone can watch a Youtube video but to take it all in takes a lot more time and effort. It's taken me 3 years to get to the stage I'm now at and I still count myself as a beginner.

Thank you ZX81 and ZX Spectrum because without them I would never have made it. And thank you Youtube because any time I face a brick wall, someone else has usually faced it also and info can be found to help solve it.
Nice list though and many of whom I'd never heard of.

can this connect to a scart tv?

I have no reason to lie confused .
And i find it disrespectful of you to imply it with your childish picture.

Yes most of the games are absolutely dire in comparison to what exists now. I never owned a C64, but looking on YouTube videos shows just how much more advanced it was graphically and sonically. The ZX Spectrum won on price easily compared to BBC Micro and C64. I loved the 80s, there was no Internet to cheat with, you had to work out everything yourself and there were 100's of different computing platforms, Jupiter Ace, Tandy TRS 80, Sord M5, the Japanese MSX computers which tried to form a compatible platform amongst manufacturers. Then the 90's happened and it was just PC, now we're back to multiple platforms but they're all compatible with each other.

Youtube, social media etc has ruined computing for me. Now everyone who can watch a YouTube video can garner the skills, there's no wow factor in anything anymore. You only have to go on Reddit and there's skillful artists, musicians and everyone is so meh about everything now when they see something that was impressive it's not anymore.

The real skill is still in the unknown, creating on the fringe and still not many people do that. The real people in this world that get credit aren't the ones that deserve it, such as actors, celebrities etc. Forget Stephen Fry, the real genuises are scientists. Almost no one knows the names of the people that created what we have now.

Alan Turing - you've heard of him, obviously a well known genius
Ivan Sutherland - nope you won't have heard of him, genius
Alan Kay - What about him, genius, object oriented programming and windowed operating system innovator
Douglas Englebart - What a genius, a total genius. The Mother of All Demos is all you need to see, also inventor of the computer mouse in 1963, prototyped in 1964
Ken Thompson & Denis Ritchie - Inventors of Unix and C programming language
Bent Stumpe - Touchscreen inventor

Just some of the people who invented what we have now not some 40-50 years ago. I thought I'd give them some credit.

I don't get it.

So this is just a rubber keyed USB keyboard..... Oh dear

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2fbIVb4Krc

So tempted to get this....although I still have my original 128k Spectrum with all leads, joystick & every game I had.....Oh Mummy, Disco Dan, Yogi Bear, Ghostbusters, The Snow Queen (never did get that girl out the house away from Grandma haha)...the list is endless & all in perfect working order - well if you could call making your dinner in the time it loads a game perfect

They did fly off the shelves. At the time they were considered super cheap (not that we could afford one).

Oh yeah and FWIW the http://sinclair.recreatedzxspectrum.com/titles.php doesn't even link to the Spectrum emulation of the titles featured!
There is nothing exclusive here - only about 10% of Spectrum developers have released their work into the public domain. I think that's the reason why these kinds of Spectrum "projects" fail - they can't gain the rights to emulate the original software!

I would love this for the nostalgia, but know that it'll only be used a few times and then stored away forever once I realise that some things are best left in the past.

or just tape to tape em like my mate did :wink:

I had my Chuckie egg hi score published in one of the spectrum monthlies back in the day, may have to try to beat it :smile:

Those saying a normal keyboard and emulator would work the same are missing the point.
Yes, this is a bluetooth keyboard and always needs the manufacturers or third party emulator to work.
However, it's a fairly faithful recreation of the look and feel of the original ZX Spectrum - you are buying it for that.

It brings back fond memories and will continue to do so even if left on a shelf in the living room!

It's a basic Bluetooth keyboard that looks like a spectrum, hardly a recreated spectrum!

So theres no video out?

Someone i knew when i was about 10 (ninja) used to go to the local news agents where they sold spectrum games for either £1.99 or £2.99 cant remember now, but anyway, they would buy the game on cassette and take it home and open the cassette, usually held together with 4 small screws, and then open an old music cassette and swap the insides and then return it for a refund (pirate) , stating it wouldn't load.
I have forgotten how many times they did it.
It always made me laugh thinking of the next person to try to load the games only to hear Boy George or Neil Diamond coming through the tv speaker!
Ok it was theft but its no worse than piracy nowadays.
They were the days (popcorn)

Makes a great bluetooth keyboard for retropi - wonder if there's space to hack a pi zeroW inside it ...?

beanooo no wonder so many software companies went bust

Good memories. I remember the only place near me at the time that sold games was a very small lighting shop that had a tiny games section at the back. Specialised in BBC electron and Spectrum games. I spent many hours in there with my poor Dad trying to drag me out.

Beware eBay and zx spectrums, I got hooked and now have over ten

I'm really not sure what niche this is meant to fill in reality, RetroPie wipes the floor with it and has basically any game you want. If you want the original machine you can just go buy one, it's always struck me as an odd misfit.

You can get an emulator for pc and laptop all the roms are available out there or marvin emulator for android

So it's basically a poorly performing bluetooth keyboard and a Spectrum emulator?

Looks cute, but it'll be another underwhelming gadget that collects dust.

256 dots x192 for true high resolution graphics! love it

I'm a backer of the Next (both full system, and bare board). My first Spectrum was the 48k+, and didn't manage to get hold of an old rubber key, boxed version until very recently. Also have one of each in various states too. I like the sound of the Fuse usage, as it would save messing about with the faulty one's I have to stick a Pi and the various interfaces into to make them work.

Ahh yes, I remember my first ever 48k spectrum, my best pal got the 16k so I had bragging rights for a week until his mum bought him the expansion pack, the size of the original device I think I remember.....

Good o'days, I relive them now on my retro pie - memories never get boring....

Can you use "recreated" money to pay for it??

Nice as a gimick but if you care about the spectrum you're better off supporting this community.
http://www.specnext.com/

I'll vote hot as this is the best price...but...Emulation FTW here. Fuse has included compatibility for this keyboard, which is nice. This system is too restrictive via the intended app. There's a certain retro-chic factor in using this as a bluetooth keyboard hooked up to a tablet on your commute (awkward qwerty functionality aside), but Spectrum Next is a far more interesting prospect imho...particularly, if you're interested in programming...or teaching your kids about programning!

I got one in 1983 as many others did for "education".

I guess Jet Set Willy must have taught me something.

A little bit easier to copy a game on a double tape deck. Would take a fraction of the time on high speed dubbing, photo copy the original insert cover and write on the cassette tape label. Then take it into school and sell in for a couple of quid and be best mates with everyone.

Remembering the never ending loads times, screeching loading sounds, crashes ten seconds before it loaded ( then having to adjust your tape heads as you were running a c90 copy) and having to make sure you didn't plug the joystick interface in while switched on, happy days lol !

ohhhhh the good old specy! Remember getting my 48k one in the 80's and buying it from Woolworths for £130. It outdone the ZX81 by a mile with the graphics and sound and will never forget waiting outside the shop the day a new game was released. All very costly thinking about it but was the start of gaming as we know it today.

Leave your spectrum memories as they are, trying to recreate them will only disappoint, things have moved on far too much to get any lasting enjoyment from this unit

The app to unlock it is back on the Play store - it looks like once it is unlocked, you can either use the app or one of the other Spectrum emulators that support the Recreated Spectrum such as Fuse.

I've ordered for a bit of nostalgic Cromecast Spectrum playing and the hopes that it will be used going forward as a Bluetooth keyboard for the smart TV - it looks way cooler than the generic one I'm using at the moment!

Worldofspectrum has a link to the app

Wonderful (in a rose tinted spectacles sort of way) - but why would anyone make or buy such a machine?

There seem to be some problem with the app. Someone mentions the internet archive (the Wayback Machine) presumably as a way of finding a version of the app. Other possibilities are oldversion.com . These may be useful if the games _were_ on the webpage.

And the current statement from Elite systems seems to imply the legal wrangling has been solved.

Thing is, I still can't find a complete list of all the games available, or if it's only the list on the webpage, that's not very much. I like the idea of it's portability as much as anything, but if the games aren't there, not a lot of point.

Check reviews on Amazon first - think there are some issues !

far more realistic price- if they'd priced it like this from the start, or even around £19.99, it would have flown off the shelves