I owned a ZX Spectrum. No, I tell a lie - due to the devastating effects of Daley Thompson' Decathlon on my poor helpless keyboard, I owned 3-4 ZX Spectum's in my time. My dad even made me a kicks-ass portable cabinet for it. There was most definitely a little bit of rivalry going on back then with Commodore 64 snobbery versus stubborn ZX Spectrum steadfastness. So exactly who was King of the pre-console's? - Commodore, Spectrum, or neither?.......state your choice and give your reasons why, mentioning any games you loved from that good old "kick-start" era in computer gaming.....

I would vote but there isn't an option to vote 'I don't play computer games'

I did try Crash Bandicoot & Spiro when the kids first got their playstation, but I was so bad at them, I decided my talents layed in another direction :D

I am afraid you have forgotten the most supreme machine of all...

The Commodore Vic 20, complete with 3.5Mb RAM.

A veritable powerhouse of a machine, which could run a game the size of a postage stamp.

AND it cost £139.99.

Only later did I realise what a truly dreadful mistake I had made. :sad:

I did try Crash Bandicoot

I love watching my son play this game! Especially the Hog Wild game - great fun.


.... but would I touch a games pc type thingymajig? Nope, never! Absolutely no interest!

The Commodore Vic 20, complete with 3.5Mb RAM.

A veritable powerhouse of a machine, which could run a game the size of a postage stamp.

AND it cost £139.99.

Only later did I realise what a truly dreadful mistake I had made. :sad:
...I think I also forgot the Apple (but I can't recall whether that was the actual name of the computer....or whether the Apple ever even existed!) but yeah Vic 20....oh lord! - friend had one of those and we never heard him talk much about it......In fact now it makes perfect sense why he was at either one of the Spectrum house or the Commodore 64 house.....

I love watching my son play this game! Especially the Hog Wild game - great fun.




My kids use to die laughing when I tried to play this and the other Crash games.....

I would vote but there isn't an option to vote 'I don't play computer games'

poll at top of page me dear...(but surely you'd know that....hmm, can't explain why it's not there...)

poll at top of page me dear...(but surely you'd know that....hmm, can't explain why it's not there...)

Perhaps because you forgot to include it! :wink2:

Perhaps because you forgot to include it! :wink2:nope.....it is there on my own page, at the top - only one voter so far......me...

nope.....it is there on my own page, at the top - only one voter so far......me...

Well yes the poll is there - I can see it :wacko: but the option isn't :laugh:

Well yes the poll is there - I can see it :wacko: but the option isn't :laugh:
....well in which case, the Spectrum wins outright!....:wink2:

Do you remember how you used to have to load games from a doddery old cassette and it used to take about three days just to load a game of "Snap"?!! :laugh:

I dont know what make ours was, but i taught myself to play poker playing a game called "The Wild Bunch" which was a cowboy game where you played poker to earn money to buy yer guns, red eye and other cowboy accessories :unsure: :laugh:

I used to love a game called Viking Raiders that I played on a friend's Spectrum. I can just remember stick men bashing eacho other and a catapult that consisted of two lines, one of which that moved...

It all seemed so exciting at the time too...!! :laugh:

Do you remember how you used to have to load games from a doddery old cassette and it used to take about three days just to load a game of "Snap"?!! :laugh:....I remeber the cassettes...and I remember that God-awful sound the Spectrum made when loading the damn things up. "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...ut.............eeeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeeee...diddler diddler diddler diddler diddler duh........." - or something very similar....

The great thing about Spectrums was you bunged the cassette in and then you could get all your evenings homework out of the way while it fecking loaded. And then, just as the tape had finished and the game presentation titles came on........it crashed! So instead, you grabbed one of your ZX Spectrum magazines and copied instructions to create your own crummy game....

It all seemed so exciting at the time too...!! :laugh:Viking Raiders...Viking raiders....it rings a bell - anyway, fav games of mine, on the Spectrum, of course, were......Chuckie Egg, Pyjamarama, Manic Miner (the 19th level was a son of a one-of-those.....) Match Day (when I first saw the "graphics" on this game I never thought they would ever be emulated...ever! lol)
Football Manager (players included Trevor Brooking, Phil Neal, omg!, Gary Bailey, OMG!!, Trevor Francis, and many many more....) Fifa 2005 has nothing on that game....and who can ever forget the most destructive game of them all - Daley Thompson's Decathlon....RSI at it's very best....I would go to sleep the same night after playing this game and my fingers would still be twiddling away underneath the covers. Of course, nowadays they twiddle away for quite different reasons.....:ohmy:

First game that I christened the ZX Spec with was Jet Pac - free with the computer.

Oy! You forgot the Atari ST and the BBC Model B!!!!!

(And subsequently, the BBC Master, Archimedes and the Amiga...)

How could you?!

The earliest computer I owned was a Sinclair ZX 81. If I recall correctly, it had 1K of memory. 1K!!!! Most modern PCs have 260,000 times the memory!

Well I started out with a Spectrum ZX, the one with the lovely touch typing rubber keys. I can't really remember the name of many games, although I do remember one called Potty Pidgeon. You were a pidgeon (surprise, surprise) and flew over a landscape with various buildings and stuff. You could bomb people and other targets with eggs! For some bizarre reason my mother used to love that game.

I then progressed onto the Spectrum ZX + ! Yes, the one with the real keyboard! I think it had a whooping 128k memory if I remember correctly. Yes, there was a lot of banter at school about what was best out of the Atari and Commodore. Somehow they convinced me that the Commodore was better... but I never got one. Of course THE game to have was Elite.

After that I then got myself an Atari ST (still in the loft). A grey monster with an intregrated floppy disk drive in the side. For some reason the drive wouldn't always load games properly unless I held the disks in at a certain angle. :huh: The game that I remember best from my Atari was Virus. A space ship flying game with state of the art polygon graphics.

It was about this time that I started getting involved in the beginnings of the internet. I saved up and got myself a modem and my own telephone line into the house (cost me a bloody fortune!) and then I would dial up into BBS's. Bulletin Board Systems were set up by clever people and allowed you to download/upload software, post messages and play games. I got hooked on some sort of space trading game - no graphics, just lots of text and figures! :w00t: The amount of my own phone bill at the age of 14 was scary. :shocking:

Do you remember how you used to have to load games from a doddery old cassette and it used to take about three days just to load a game of "Snap"?!! :laugh:Your showing your age now babe http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/36/36_11_15.gif (http://www.smileycentral.com/?partner=ZSzeb001_ZNxdm22755GB)

When I was 18 I just used the computer at work and played dungeons and dragons words only no pictures

It was an IBM it took up a hole floor of the building

It used punch cards and real to real tape and I had to program it on a Ventec low level to high level language converter to do payroll and pensions
And it was a staggering 64K
The ones you mentioned had not been invented yet



First one I owned was an IBM 286 it fell over all the time and you had to remove one program before installing another but I loved

I saved up and got myself a modem and my own telephone line into the house (cost me a bloody fortune!) and then I would dial up into BBS's.Haydon, you were such a nerd! :devil:

Haydon, you were such a nerd! :devil:
HA! What do you mean were?? :)

Did anyone ever play Frontier Elite the space game?



Took ages to get anywhere and when you did you got shot

Wasted a lot of time on that one

Adventure games for the ZX Speccy - Gremlins, Ghostbusters, War of the Worlds were all highly frustrating.

Choose a command:
walk ahead
go east
head west
go and do something less boring instead...

Choose a sub-command:
pick up dagger
look at map
kill the pirate
pick up ZX Spectrum and throw vigorously against wall....

Oy! You forgot the Atari ST and the BBC Model B!!!!!

(And subsequently, the BBC Master, Archimedes and the Amiga...)

How could you?!


I did include the Atari on the poll - just haven't yet given it a mention. But if there's one game I could play for hours on end it was Pac-man (there was also one of those mains adaptor hand-held thingamabobs complete with titchy joystick - it was called Puck-monster and I couldn't get enough of it!) Something thoroughly satisfying about directing a round yellow blob around a maze, full of cute little varie-coloured spectres, and gobbling all in its path including cherries and bananas.......fantastic game!

You're right, I did forget the BBC Master and Archimedes (but they come under "other" - of course, the Amiga arrived years later.

[QUOTE=Haydon]Well I started out with a Spectrum ZX, the one with the lovely touch typing rubber keys.

I can still feel the texture of those rubber keys on my fingertips.....

I then progressed onto the Spectrum ZX + ! Yes, the one with the real keyboard! I think it had a whooping 128k memory if I remember correctly.

Yep! - also made "the big step up" to one of these - special tape eject mechanism incorporated onto the keyboard that no doubt would have had even Alan Partridge drooling.....

After that I then got myself an Atari ST (still in the loft).

....if you don't want it I'll have it....:unsure:

When I was 18 I just used the computer at work and played dungeons and dragons words only no pictures

It was an IBM it took up a hole floor of the building




I think if Aliens ever landed here and studied human inventions through time on a screen similar to that one in the spaceship on Flight of the Navigator they'd figure out what a truly peculiar bunch we are.

The bigger they were, the less they were capable of - the smaller they got, the more likely it became that 12-year old Johnny Square Eyes would be able to disintegrate the entire world from the comfort of his own bedroom using his reduced-size machine.......

First computer I got was the ZX Spectrum 48k+ (Think that's what it was called). Got it to share with my brother for our Christmas about 20 years ago. Being a girl it was the lure of the "Real Keyboard" that drew me too it and the possibility that I would be the fastest and best typist in the world after a weeks practice :laugh: I do remember Horace goes Skiing for it though and the gawd awful screeching noise it made when loading it up.

I do remember Horace goes Skiing for it though and the gawd awful screeching noise it made when loading it up.I remember the old Horace goes......series, until the very final instalment - "Horace Goes AWOL, Along with the ZX Spectrum"

As for the gawd-awful screeching noise - I'm afraid that came with the territory of owning a Spectrum and I fear it is something we will all have to take to the grave with us....

I still have "screechy flashbacks", but I'm attending group therapy sessions and I feel I am well on the road to recovery.....I wish you well too.

Think that I am well on the way to recovery now Woodstock though now and again I do have the odd flashback (Usually if I hear the noise tht comes from my wee cats mouth if I accidently tread on her tail) :shock:

To all those affected by the horror of the screech may recovery be quick, effective and painfree


Take care

Think that I am well on the way to recovery now Woodstock though now and again I do have the odd flashback (Usually if I hear the noise tht comes from my wee cats mouth if I accidently tread on her tail) :shock:

To all those affected by the horror of the screech may recovery be quick, effective and painfree


Take careI sometimes have blue/yellow stripey flashbacks when I'm watching tv. They just appear from nowhere. Thankfully, I'm prescribed for a new drug which prevents such occurrences - It's called ZX+ and can be obtained from most reputable chemists.

Best wishes.

As for the gawd-awful screeching noise...You can relive the heady experience, by leaving the speaker on your modem turned on...
:bored:

the zx spectrum ruled the first game i played was manic miner and i still love it today. chuckie egg, horace goes skiing and master mariner were my favs :ninja:

Chuckie Egg was the Pac-Man of the Spectrum. So damn addictive too......

Do you remember how you used to have to load games from a doddery old cassette and it used to take about three days just to load a game of "Snap"?!! :laugh:
:) and thats if the volume was set to the correct level. Remember how it used to fail if it was too quiet or too loud? (or was that just my dodgy setup?)

I started off with a ZX81, complete with 16K memory pack, fastened to the back with velcro. :) I also remember ordering a tape with 50 (yes 50, count 'em) games. Only thing was, if you wanted to play game number 30, you had to load all the other 29 to be able to find it with ease. :)
I think I remember it coming with a FREE calcucator watch, with buttons so small, that even as a kid I couldn't use it.

I then went on to an Amstrad CPC464, with built in tape deck. It came with a load of AMSOFT games, including 3D Stuntrider, Tombstowne and Quack-a-Jack. Brilliant. :)

:) and thats if the volume was set to the correct level. Remember how it used to fail if it was too quiet or too loud? (or was that just my dodgy setup?)

:)

God yes! - you're absolutely right - the volume setting did have a drastic effect on whether or not you're game loaded properly...i remember being so obsessed with certain games that i would stop at nothing (nothing, was usually where i did stop....) to get the damn things loaded. Sometimes you had to key in LOAD "" RUN, and the success rate with that was usually only 2% but it was always worth a bash....

Well I'm glad it wasn't just me. :) Remember when - walking past the machine - there was a posibility of it crashing if the 16K memory pack was jostled. Nightmare, after waiting 10mins for a game to load, it crashed on the final block. Noooooooo

I remember "all things annoying" where the Spectrum was concerned - but if you persevered, then you got your rewards....

We had the original Atari games console with the classic Space Invaders, Asteroids etc....my mum was the local Pac-Man champion for like ever.....

We then progressed to the ZX Spectrum 48k - and yes we had Daley Thompsons decathlete but my fave games was School Days until I realised I had no clue as to how to complete the thing once I had hit all the shields and started to retrieve the letters.....

After that we were Sega Mega Drivers because we prefered Sonic to Super Mario.....

Then it was on to the PS2....mine had a very short life before the laser burned.....they suck as they don't last five mins compared to the other consoles I've had...my Spectrum and Sega are still both in full working order (although my neice got the Sega nd promptly gave it to someone else...I was not happy about that but hey!) and the Atari console still worked but the joysticks broke and we couldn't get any replacements that fitted! :(

OOoh trip down memory lane reading these posts. I had a ZX Spectrum and spent hours trying to do the adventure game Ship of Doom. All text, no graphics - needless to say that the ZX gave up the ghost long before I figured out how to get to the end.

My all time favourite game was Supaplex. A game of strategy with over 100 levels. Think it was played on an Amiga. We had a young lodger who was lightning quick with the joystick (no pun intended) and I was good at working out the strategy so we would spend hours and hours trying to get to the next level (nearly caused a divorce - lol).

I found it on the computer but as it was a Dos based game it wouldn't work on my Windows XP. Then I found out how to download Dosbox which lets you run Dos games and I have been playing it again, along with it's newer version called Igor (much more complicated). It's still a good game and makes you think, once your get past the basic levels. Oh happy days. :)

I so want one of those original Atari consoles - then I could be truly sad for ages and ages.....and extremely happy at the same time.....:)

.....and Haydon's got one stuck in his piggin' loft......gahhh...

Woody, they have some great ones in the Gadget shop - I think you get aout 5 or more classic games in an "all-in-one" joystick type thing. Are they the ones you mean?