Hello from the Netherlands..
Posted: Tue Jun 08, 2021 11:01 pm
I remember I was about 9 years old when I got my first computer, a Timex Sinclair 1000 with a 16K RAMpack, which turned out to be really dodgy. I taught myself Basic by typing in programs from books and listings from magazines. I enjoyed playing games on it, getting really annoyed when the RAMpack wobbled…..
It was in 1984, I think when I got the chance to play “Horace goes skiing” on a ZX Spectrum 48K. I remember being impressed with the color graphics and the beeper sound, that was the moment I wanted a Spectrum. I knew my birthday was coming real soon, so I asked for a Spectrum, and I got one. It was a 16K rubber key model, I was happy . Not for long, though. 16K turned out to be too little, I wanted the 48K model, so the 16K was sold to a classmate and a brand spanking new 48K Spectrum Plus was bought. I spent many hours playing games, programming, etc. until my father bought an Atari 800XL. This machine was quite impressive, it had several graphics modes, a 256 color palette, hardware scrolling, sprites and 4 channel sound which came through the TV speaker. Suddenly, my Spectrum looked very primitive compared to this. Especially the sound through the TV speaker, I wanted that too for the Spectrum, so we tried to perform this modification, it was almost succesful… Unfortunately, something went wrong and I blew up the ULA . My Spectrum only displayed black and white, I/O was gone and the sound was gone too
At that time the 128K was released and a store called ‘Kwantum’, sold them for really cheap. So, off to ‘Kwantum’ I went, and came home with a brand new 128K toastrack with 3 voiced AY chip and sound through the TV speaker. I liked this machine, but had it for a short time. I sold the 128K and ended up with an Atari 130XE with the XF551 diskdrive.
I went from Atari 8 bit to the ST series and eventually to the PC when I bought my first 386DX40 in 1994. I still like those machines, but I feel the most nostalgia for the ZX81, as this was my first computer. I’ve built some Spectrum clones, and I enjoy refurbishing these little machines. I also taught myself electronics and designed some hardware. For the ZX Spectrum 16/48K I designed an s-video board to replace the modulator, to provide dotcrawl free video output. For the ZX81 I designed a little board to upgrade the RAM internally to 16K.
Sometimes it’s just refreshing to power on a ZX81 and just be greeted with the well known K cursor .
It was in 1984, I think when I got the chance to play “Horace goes skiing” on a ZX Spectrum 48K. I remember being impressed with the color graphics and the beeper sound, that was the moment I wanted a Spectrum. I knew my birthday was coming real soon, so I asked for a Spectrum, and I got one. It was a 16K rubber key model, I was happy . Not for long, though. 16K turned out to be too little, I wanted the 48K model, so the 16K was sold to a classmate and a brand spanking new 48K Spectrum Plus was bought. I spent many hours playing games, programming, etc. until my father bought an Atari 800XL. This machine was quite impressive, it had several graphics modes, a 256 color palette, hardware scrolling, sprites and 4 channel sound which came through the TV speaker. Suddenly, my Spectrum looked very primitive compared to this. Especially the sound through the TV speaker, I wanted that too for the Spectrum, so we tried to perform this modification, it was almost succesful… Unfortunately, something went wrong and I blew up the ULA . My Spectrum only displayed black and white, I/O was gone and the sound was gone too
At that time the 128K was released and a store called ‘Kwantum’, sold them for really cheap. So, off to ‘Kwantum’ I went, and came home with a brand new 128K toastrack with 3 voiced AY chip and sound through the TV speaker. I liked this machine, but had it for a short time. I sold the 128K and ended up with an Atari 130XE with the XF551 diskdrive.
I went from Atari 8 bit to the ST series and eventually to the PC when I bought my first 386DX40 in 1994. I still like those machines, but I feel the most nostalgia for the ZX81, as this was my first computer. I’ve built some Spectrum clones, and I enjoy refurbishing these little machines. I also taught myself electronics and designed some hardware. For the ZX Spectrum 16/48K I designed an s-video board to replace the modulator, to provide dotcrawl free video output. For the ZX81 I designed a little board to upgrade the RAM internally to 16K.
Sometimes it’s just refreshing to power on a ZX81 and just be greeted with the well known K cursor .