Greetings from Denmark
Posted: Thu Jul 04, 2019 12:20 am
Admittedly, I had not given my ZX81 much thought over the past thirty years.
In the back of my mind however, I knew I had one stored away in "one of those boxes" in the attic along with all the other dusty hardware
I could never get myself to ditch -yet never found the time to play with.
I knew my Zeddy didn't work after letting out the "blue smoke monster" some time in the eighties.
But there it was: a pristine copy, still in its original polystyrene box at a local fleamarket.
You could tell by the flatness of the SHIFT button it hadn't seen much use.
Trying to disguise my excitement, I whispered to my wife
"Look! a genuine ZX81. I once stabbed one to death with my soldering iron."
"That's...err... great," she replied. Much to my annoyance, her disinterest was genuine.
"How much?" I asked the vendor, who was busy chatting up a pretty girl with blue eyes.
"Ten kroner? (2 US$)" he tried, expecting to haggle about the price.
"DEAL!" I screamed and slammed a 10 Kroner piece on the desk, hid the goods under my coat and cackled like
a maniac all the way back to the car.
Throughout the drive back, I stroked the ZX81 gently as if it were a baby kitten.
"You know," I said. "If it wasn't for this thing, I'd never have become a programmer."
My wife shrugged. "What if it doesn't work?"
"Then I'll MAKE it work, by God. This is NOSTALGIA."
So, anyway. Greetings from a Danish greymuzzle, and thank you all for letting me join your community.
It's great to be around fellow connoisseurs of that old eight bit purity, again.
In the back of my mind however, I knew I had one stored away in "one of those boxes" in the attic along with all the other dusty hardware
I could never get myself to ditch -yet never found the time to play with.
I knew my Zeddy didn't work after letting out the "blue smoke monster" some time in the eighties.
But there it was: a pristine copy, still in its original polystyrene box at a local fleamarket.
You could tell by the flatness of the SHIFT button it hadn't seen much use.
Trying to disguise my excitement, I whispered to my wife
"Look! a genuine ZX81. I once stabbed one to death with my soldering iron."
"That's...err... great," she replied. Much to my annoyance, her disinterest was genuine.
"How much?" I asked the vendor, who was busy chatting up a pretty girl with blue eyes.
"Ten kroner? (2 US$)" he tried, expecting to haggle about the price.
"DEAL!" I screamed and slammed a 10 Kroner piece on the desk, hid the goods under my coat and cackled like
a maniac all the way back to the car.
Throughout the drive back, I stroked the ZX81 gently as if it were a baby kitten.
"You know," I said. "If it wasn't for this thing, I'd never have become a programmer."
My wife shrugged. "What if it doesn't work?"
"Then I'll MAKE it work, by God. This is NOSTALGIA."
So, anyway. Greetings from a Danish greymuzzle, and thank you all for letting me join your community.
It's great to be around fellow connoisseurs of that old eight bit purity, again.
ZX81's are still easy to find, but they are slowly becoming more rare (and more expensive). Haven't seen one on a flea market in years.
So feel free to ask any questions you may have! And in the meanwhile there's emulators of course. Very useful & convenient even if you have a working ZX81 at your disposal. Not to mention FPGA based and similar options.
