LGR - Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48k Computer Review
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Date: 2022-04-14
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Comments and reviews: 10
Kamakazi_2020
well as an american and a spectrum owner after watching the video, all I can say is -wow- but did you not consider that the power brick it came with may require 220 volts ac but did you stop and think all you needed was the dc voltage of 9 vdc at 1 amp center + outer - supply cost is about $19. 99 on ebay. Also most modern flat screen tv's can handle a Pal signal on the composite ports I would say any tv made in the last 5 years should do it, I Have 3 flat screen tv's and my spectrum works on all of them in composite mode no problems at all.
not trying to be an ass or anything but this video makes it look like the speccy is a pain to setup when it really is not that bad at all and is a great machine and much better then the Timex Sinclair 1000 I grew up with.
this machine needs more love in the US as it represents a fascinating look at the UK's computer revolution in the 80's, Sinclair vs Acorn similar to the Apple vs IBM in the states. You should watch Micromen it is a great story and shows what it took to get the scene started in the UK.
have fun with your speccy I know I have lots of fun with mine.
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well as an american and a spectrum owner after watching the video, all I can say is -wow- but did you not consider that the power brick it came with may require 220 volts ac but did you stop and think all you needed was the dc voltage of 9 vdc at 1 amp center + outer - supply cost is about $19. 99 on ebay. Also most modern flat screen tv's can handle a Pal signal on the composite ports I would say any tv made in the last 5 years should do it, I Have 3 flat screen tv's and my spectrum works on all of them in composite mode no problems at all.
not trying to be an ass or anything but this video makes it look like the speccy is a pain to setup when it really is not that bad at all and is a great machine and much better then the Timex Sinclair 1000 I grew up with.
this machine needs more love in the US as it represents a fascinating look at the UK's computer revolution in the 80's, Sinclair vs Acorn similar to the Apple vs IBM in the states. You should watch Micromen it is a great story and shows what it took to get the scene started in the UK.
have fun with your speccy I know I have lots of fun with mine.
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Darrell
I would advise anyone interested in buying a Spectrum to get the Sinclair-built 128+ model. This was the model I owned and I encountered NO compatibility issues with the 16K/48K back catalogue which I worked through extensively. Similarly, the original grey-coloured -+2- version built by Amstrad just had a tape deck bolted on and was backwards-compatible. The compatibility issues came in with the +3 model when Amstrad tampered with the hardware in order to bolt on their own non-standard 3- floppy drive. As a result of very poor sales, they used +3 boards in later issued -+2- models which are easily identified by their black casing.
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I would advise anyone interested in buying a Spectrum to get the Sinclair-built 128+ model. This was the model I owned and I encountered NO compatibility issues with the 16K/48K back catalogue which I worked through extensively. Similarly, the original grey-coloured -+2- version built by Amstrad just had a tape deck bolted on and was backwards-compatible. The compatibility issues came in with the +3 model when Amstrad tampered with the hardware in order to bolt on their own non-standard 3- floppy drive. As a result of very poor sales, they used +3 boards in later issued -+2- models which are easily identified by their black casing.
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Espen
Those were the days in 1982 with the Spectrum 48K, it was such af change simple and for everyone to obtain at a fair price. it was absolutly wild days for the IT compagnies big fairs and so on, and magasines from England, with programs to type in - either in basic og later in assembler and later on a combination af basic to assembler via a compiler and refined in assembler with call into the ROM rutines. These were great times - something no one had seen before. Later I used my Spectrum to solve my calculations in education as well af wordprograms to the teachers. Great fun and a lot of practice in and with education.
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Those were the days in 1982 with the Spectrum 48K, it was such af change simple and for everyone to obtain at a fair price. it was absolutly wild days for the IT compagnies big fairs and so on, and magasines from England, with programs to type in - either in basic og later in assembler and later on a combination af basic to assembler via a compiler and refined in assembler with call into the ROM rutines. These were great times - something no one had seen before. Later I used my Spectrum to solve my calculations in education as well af wordprograms to the teachers. Great fun and a lot of practice in and with education.
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eightbit
I just got one of these for the first time ever! I am in the USA as well. I received mine with a Harlequin motherboard upgrade which really helps with achieving a better display and running 128KB titles. It is still PAL (although the Harlequin can be set up as NTSC. but who wants that) so there are still -things- that you need to connect to an NTSC TV, but IMHO it is totally worth it. This is fast becoming one of my favorite vintage computers. It is just so different than what I grew up on. and in a really great way. Happy to own one of these!
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I just got one of these for the first time ever! I am in the USA as well. I received mine with a Harlequin motherboard upgrade which really helps with achieving a better display and running 128KB titles. It is still PAL (although the Harlequin can be set up as NTSC. but who wants that) so there are still -things- that you need to connect to an NTSC TV, but IMHO it is totally worth it. This is fast becoming one of my favorite vintage computers. It is just so different than what I grew up on. and in a really great way. Happy to own one of these!
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ultraseven
i had one during the 1983 a 16k version. It was given to me by my older brother who worked as an engineer in KSA. I was able to use it on my TV by replacing the RF modulator inside although it's sitll in B/W (we use the NTSC system here in the Philippines. When the keyboard matrix broke, I have to make my own case and keyboard using an old teletype keyboard and hardwiring the matrix using #22 AWG wires as traces. It was my favorite machine and unfortunately he's gone: -(
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i had one during the 1983 a 16k version. It was given to me by my older brother who worked as an engineer in KSA. I was able to use it on my TV by replacing the RF modulator inside although it's sitll in B/W (we use the NTSC system here in the Philippines. When the keyboard matrix broke, I have to make my own case and keyboard using an old teletype keyboard and hardwiring the matrix using #22 AWG wires as traces. It was my favorite machine and unfortunately he's gone: -(
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kypiper
If you can find the 2068 Timex Sinclair machine, just pop in a spectrum 48k rom into the machine and wala, you get an NTSC spectrum, and, it has composite video and sound out. I had one as a kid for Christmas and your right, typing in games from Your Computer Magazine that had machine code didn't work unless you had a spectrum rom. You could take simple basic programs and add better sound, better graphics and joystick interface to use to in the programs with the timex rom.
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If you can find the 2068 Timex Sinclair machine, just pop in a spectrum 48k rom into the machine and wala, you get an NTSC spectrum, and, it has composite video and sound out. I had one as a kid for Christmas and your right, typing in games from Your Computer Magazine that had machine code didn't work unless you had a spectrum rom. You could take simple basic programs and add better sound, better graphics and joystick interface to use to in the programs with the timex rom.
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It's
Fairlight had the best music I heard on the Spectrum, jet pac and manic minor and jet set willy give me chills of nostalgia. When I was young I used to buy Zzap and crash magazines which had games you could program in, my sister would read the printouts and I would type it in. This would take hours often the computer would crash and we'd lose all our efforts or they would not run properly. Oddly enough it never bothered us too much, it was just great fun.
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Fairlight had the best music I heard on the Spectrum, jet pac and manic minor and jet set willy give me chills of nostalgia. When I was young I used to buy Zzap and crash magazines which had games you could program in, my sister would read the printouts and I would type it in. This would take hours often the computer would crash and we'd lose all our efforts or they would not run properly. Oddly enough it never bothered us too much, it was just great fun.
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---amihart
Some notes: people make power bricks for the Speccy these days that plug directly into US walls, no need for a big converter box, and pretty much any LCD monitor with composite video inputs will understand both PAL and NTSC, it's just cheaper to have 1 converter chip for both than different ones for different regions, so you can avoid any sort of conversion device if you just get an LCD monitor with composite video inputs.
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Some notes: people make power bricks for the Speccy these days that plug directly into US walls, no need for a big converter box, and pretty much any LCD monitor with composite video inputs will understand both PAL and NTSC, it's just cheaper to have 1 converter chip for both than different ones for different regions, so you can avoid any sort of conversion device if you just get an LCD monitor with composite video inputs.
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hernanc
At 2: 50 here in Argentina the Timex Sinclair 2068 was very very popular even though we use PAL here. And it was 99. 9% compatible, I only recall the game Asteroids having a small video issue but the other games did not have any problem. You should consider it a 99. 9% Spectrum compatible, maybe even before the PC Clones. Thanks for the video!
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At 2: 50 here in Argentina the Timex Sinclair 2068 was very very popular even though we use PAL here. And it was 99. 9% compatible, I only recall the game Asteroids having a small video issue but the other games did not have any problem. You should consider it a 99. 9% Spectrum compatible, maybe even before the PC Clones. Thanks for the video!
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Chris
'the PAL to NTSC converter box converts from PAL to colorr'. PAL is already color. And a steadier one than NTSC ever was (In fact PAL was developed after NTSC was developed and crossed out disadvantages of NTSC by the negotation of each second line send and calcutated an error free line that was displayed then.
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'the PAL to NTSC converter box converts from PAL to colorr'. PAL is already color. And a steadier one than NTSC ever was (In fact PAL was developed after NTSC was developed and crossed out disadvantages of NTSC by the negotation of each second line send and calcutated an error free line that was displayed then.
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