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Wikipedia

ZX Spectrum

January 10, 2023

The ZX Spectrum (UK: /zɛd ɛks/) is an 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer.[5][6]

ZX Spectrum
An issue 2 1982 ZX Spectrum
DeveloperSinclair Research
TypeHome computer
Generation8-bit
Release date
  • UK: 23 April 1982 (23 April 1982)[1]
  • US: 1983 (1983)
  • ESP: 1985 (1985)
Introductory priceUK: £125 (16KB) / £175 (48KB),[2] ESP: Pta44,250
Discontinued1992[3]
Units sold5 million[4]
MediaCompact Cassette, ZX Microdrive, 3-inch floppy disk on Spectrum +3
Operating systemSinclair BASIC
CPUZ80A (or equivalent) @ 3.5 MHz
Memory16 KB / 48 KB / 128 KB
(IEC: KiB)
DisplayPAL RF modulator out, 256 x 192, 15 colours
GraphicsULA
SoundBeeper
PredecessorZX81
SuccessorQL

Referred to during development as the ZX81 Colour and ZX82, it was launched as the ZX Spectrum to highlight the machine's colour display, which differed from the black and white display of its predecessor, the ZX81.[7] The Spectrum was released as six different models, ranging from the entry level with 16 KB RAM released in 1982 to the ZX Spectrum +3 with 128 KB RAM and built in floppy disk drive in 1987; altogether they sold over 5 million units worldwide (not counting unofficial clones).

The Spectrum was among the first home computers in the United Kingdom aimed at a mainstream audience, and it thus had similar significance to the Commodore 64 in the US and the Thomson MO5 in France. The introduction of the ZX Spectrum led to a boom in companies producing software and hardware for the machine,[8] the effects of which are still seen. Some credit it as the machine which launched the British information technology industry.[9] Licensing deals and clones followed, earning Clive Sinclair a knighthood for services to British industry.[10]

The Commodore 64, Dragon 32, Oric-1, Oric Atmos, BBC Micro and later the Amstrad CPC range were rivals to the Spectrum in the UK market during the early 1980s. The machine was officially discontinued in 1992.[3]

Hardware

 
ZX Spectrum 48K motherboard (Issue 3B: 1983, heat sink removed)

The Spectrum is based on a Zilog Z80, a CPU running at 3.5 MHz (or NEC D780C-1 clone). The original model has 16 KB (16×1024 bytes) of ROM and either 16 KB or 48 KB of RAM. Hardware design was by Richard Altwasser of Sinclair Research, and the outward appearance was designed by Sinclair's industrial designer Rick Dickinson.[8]

Video output is through an RF modulator and was designed for use with contemporary television sets, for a simple colour graphic display. Text can be displayed using 32 columns × 24 rows of characters from the ZX Spectrum character set or from a set provided within an application, from a palette of 15 shades: seven colours at two levels of brightness each, plus black.[11] The image resolution is 256×192 with the same colour limitations.[12] To conserve memory, colour is stored separate from the pixel bitmap in a low resolution, 32×24 grid overlay, corresponding to the character cells. In practice, this means that all pixels of an 8x8 character block share one foreground colour and one background colour. Altwasser received a patent for this design.[13]

An "attribute" consists of a foreground and a background colour, a brightness level (normal or bright) and a flashing "flag" which, when set, causes the two colours to swap at regular intervals.[12] This scheme leads to what was dubbed colour clash or attribute clash, where a desired colour of a specific pixel could not necessarily be selected. This became a distinctive feature of the Spectrum, meaning programs, particularly games, had to be designed around this limitation. Other machines available around the same time, for example the Amstrad CPC or the Commodore 64, did not suffer from this limitation. The Commodore 64 used colour attributes in a similar way, but a special multicolour mode and hardware sprites were used to avoid attribute clash.[14]

Sound output is through a beeper on the machine itself, capable of producing one channel with 10 octaves. Software was later available that could play two channel sound. The machine includes an expansion bus edge connector and 3.5 mm audio in/out ports for the connection of a cassette recorder for loading and saving programs and data. The "ear" port has a higher output than the "mic" and is recommended for headphones, with "mic" for attaching to other audio devices as line in.[15]

The machine was manufactured in Dundee, Scotland, in the now closed Timex factory.[16]

Firmware

The machine's Sinclair BASIC interpreter is stored in ROM (along with fundamental system-routines) and was written by Steve Vickers on contract from Nine Tiles Ltd. The Spectrum's chiclet keyboard (on top of a membrane, similar to calculator keys) is marked with BASIC keywords. For example, pressing "G" when in programming mode would insert the BASIC command GO TO.[17]

The BASIC interpreter was developed from that used on the ZX81 and a ZX81 BASIC program can be typed into a Spectrum largely unmodified, but Spectrum BASIC included many extra features making it easier to use. The ZX Spectrum character set was expanded from that of the ZX81, which did not feature lower-case letters. Spectrum BASIC included extra keywords for the more advanced display and sound, and supported multi-statement lines. The cassette interface was much more advanced, saving and loading around five times faster than the ZX81 (1500 bits per second compared to 307),[18] and unlike the ZX81, the Spectrum could maintain the TV display during tape storage and retrieval operations. As well as being able to save programs, the Spectrum could save the contents of arrays, the contents of the screen memory, and the contents of any defined range of memory addresses.[19]

Sinclair Research models

Pre-production designs

Rick Dickinson came up with a number of designs for the "ZX82" project before the final ZX Spectrum design. A number of the keyboard legends changed during the design phase including ARC becoming CIRCLE, FORE becoming INK and BACK becoming PAPER. The Spectrum reused a number of design elements of the ZX81: The ROM code for things such as floating point calculations and expression parsing were very similar (with a few obsolete ZX81 routines left in the Spectrum ROM). The simple keyboard decoding and cassette interfaces were nearly identical (although the latter was now programmed to load/save at a higher speed). The central ULA integrated circuit was somewhat similar although it implemented the major enhancement over the ZX81: A (fully) hardware based television raster generator (with colour) that indirectly gave the new machine approximately four times as much processing power as the ZX81, simply due to the Z80 now being released from this video generation task. A bug in the ULA as originally designed meant that the keyboard did not always scan correctly, and was rectified by a "dead cockroach" (a small circuit board mounted upside down next to the CPU) for Issue 1 ZX Spectrums.[20]

ZX Spectrum 16K/48K

 
ZX Spectrum 16K/48K (Dimensions (mm): 233×144×30 (W×H×D) @ ≈552 grams).[21]

The original ZX Spectrum is remembered for its rubber chiclet keyboard, diminutive size and distinctive rainbow motif. It was originally released on 23 April 1982[22] with 16 KB of RAM for £125 (equivalent to £469 in 2021) or with 48 KB for £175 (equivalent to £657 in 2021);[23] these prices were reduced to £99 (equivalent to £355 in 2021) and £129 (equivalent to £463 in 2021) respectively in 1983.[24] Owners of the 16 KB model could purchase an internal 32 KB RAM upgrade, which for early "Issue 1" machines consisted of a daughterboard. Later issue machines required the fitting of 8 dynamic RAM chips and a few TTL chips. Users could mail their 16K Spectrums to Sinclair to be upgraded to 48 KB versions. Later revisions contained 64 KB of memory but were configured such that only 48 KB were usable.[25] External 32 KB RAM packs that mounted in the rear expansion slot were available from third parties. Both machines had 16 KB of onboard ROM.

An "Issue 1" ZX Spectrum can be distinguished from later models by the colour of the keys – light grey for Issue 1, blue-grey for later machines.[26] Although the official service manual states that approximately 26,000 of these original boards were manufactured,[27] subsequent serial number analysis shows that only 16,000 were produced, almost all of which fell in the serial number range 001-000001 to 001-016000.[28] An online tool now exists to allow users to ascertain the likely issue number of their ZX Spectrum by inputting the serial number.[29]

The Sinclair models featured audio line in and out, in the form of an "ear" and "mic" socket. An external tape recorder was needed to load the majority of software released, or the ZX Microdrive. Either socket could be connected to headphones or an amplifier as an audio output, although this would not disable the internal speaker.

The original ZX Spectrum model experienced numerous changes to its motherboard design; mainly to improve manufacturing efficiencies, but also to correct bugs from previous boards. Another issue was with the Spectrum's power supply. In March 1983,[30] Sinclair issued an "URGENT" recall warning for all owners of models bought after 1 January 1983. Plugs with a plain (rather than textured) surface were at risk of causing shock, and were asked to be sent back to Sinclair's office in Broad Lane, Cottenham. It's not known how many power supplies were returned, and how many still exist in the wild.[original research?]

Sales of the Spectrum reached 200,000 in its first nine months[31] rising to 300,000 for the whole of the first year.[32] By August 1983 total sales in the UK and Europe had exceeded 500,000[33] with the millionth Spectrum manufactured on December 9th.[34]

ZX Spectrum+

 
ZX Spectrum+ (Dimensions (mm): 319×149×38 (W×H×D))[21]

Planning of the ZX Spectrum+ started in June 1984,[35] and was released on October 15.[36][37] This 48 KB Spectrum (development code-name TB[35]) introduced a new QL-style case with an injection-moulded keyboard and a reset button that was basically a switch that shorted across the CPU reset capacitor. Electronically, it was identical to the previous 48 KB model. It was possible to change the system boards between the original case and the Spectrum+ case. It retailed for £179.95 (equivalent to £615 in 2021).[38] A DIY conversion-kit for older machines was available. Early on, the machine outsold the rubber-key model 2:1;[35] however, some retailers reported a failure rate of up to 30%, compared with a more usual 5–6% for the older model.[37] In early 1985, the original Spectrum was officially discontinued and the ZX Spectrum+ was reduced in price to £129.95 (equivalent to £419 in 2021).[39]

ZX Spectrum 128

 
ZX Spectrum 128

In 1985, Sinclair developed the ZX Spectrum 128 (code-named Derby) in conjunction with their Spanish distributor Investrónica (a subsidiary of El Corte Inglés department store group).[40] Investrónica had helped adapt the ZX Spectrum+ to the Spanish market after the Spanish government introduced a special tax on all computers with 64 KB RAM or less,[41] and a law which obliged all computers sold in Spain to support the Spanish alphabet and show messages in Spanish.[42]

The appearance of the ZX Spectrum 128 was similar to the ZX Spectrum+, with the exception of a large external heatsink for the internal 7805 voltage regulator added to the right hand end of the case, replacing the internal heatsink in previous versions. This external heatsink led to the system's nickname, "The Toast Rack".[43]

New features included 128 KB RAM with RAM disc commands 'save !"name"', three-channel audio via the AY-3-8912 chip, MIDI compatibility, an RS-232 serial port, an RGB monitor port, 32 KB of ROM including an improved BASIC editor, and an external keypad.

The machine was simultaneously presented for the first time and launched in September 1985 at the SIMO '85 trade show in Spain, with a price of 44,250 pesetas. Because of the large number of unsold Spectrum+ models, Sinclair decided not to start selling in the UK until January 1986 at a price of £179.95 (equivalent to £561 in 2021).[44] No external keypad was available for the UK release, although the ROM routines to use it and the port itself remained.

The Z80 processor used in the Spectrum has a 16-bit address bus, which means only 64 KB of memory can be directly addressed. To facilitate the extra 80 KB of RAM the designers used bank switching so the new memory would be available as eight pages of 16 KB at the top of the address space. The same technique was used to page between the new 16 KB editor ROM and the original 16 KB BASIC ROM at the bottom of the address space.[45]

The new sound chip and MIDI out abilities were exposed to the BASIC programming language with the command PLAY and a new command SPECTRUM was added to switch the machine into 48K mode, keeping the current BASIC program intact (although there is no command to switch back to 128K mode). To enable BASIC programmers to access the additional memory, a RAM disk was created where files could be stored in the additional 80 KB of RAM. The new commands took the place of two existing user-defined-character spaces causing compatibility problems with certain BASIC programs.[46]

The ZX Spectrum 128 had no internal speaker, unlike its predecessors. Sound was produced from the television speaker instead.[47]

The Spanish version had the "128K" logo in white; the British one had the same logo in red.

Amstrad models

ZX Spectrum +2

 
ZX Spectrum +2

The ZX Spectrum +2 was Amstrad's first Spectrum, coming shortly after their purchase of the Spectrum range and "Sinclair" brand in 1986. The machine featured an all-new grey case featuring a spring-loaded keyboard, dual joystick ports, and a built-in cassette recorder dubbed the "Datacorder" (like the Amstrad CPC 464), but was in most respects identical to the ZX Spectrum 128. The main menu screen lacked the Spectrum 128's "Tape Test" option, and the ROM was altered to account for a new 1986 Amstrad copyright message. Production costs had been reduced and the retail price dropped to £139–£149.[48]

The new keyboard did not include the BASIC keyword markings that were found on earlier Spectrums, except for the keywords LOAD, CODE and RUN which were useful for loading software. Instead, the +2 boasted a menu system, almost identical to the ZX Spectrum 128, where one could switch between 48K BASIC programming with the keywords, and 128K BASIC programming in which all words (keywords and otherwise) must be typed out in full (although the keywords are still stored internally as one character each). Despite these changes, the layout remained identical to that of the 128.[49]

The ZX Spectrum +2 power supply was a grey version of the ZX Spectrum+ and 128 power supply.[50]

ZX Spectrum +3

 
ZX Spectrum +3

The ZX Spectrum +3, released in 1987, looked similar to the +2A but featured a built-in 3-inch floppy disk drive[51] (like the Amstrad CPC 6128) instead of the tape drive, and was in a black case. It was launched in 1987, initially retailed for £249[52] and then later £199[53] and was the only Spectrum capable of running the CP/M operating system without additional hardware.

The +3 saw the addition of two more 16 KB ROMs. One was home to the second part of the reorganised 128 ROM and the other hosted the +3's disk operating system. This was a modified version of Amstrad's PCWDOS (the disk access code used in LocoScript), called +3DOS. These two new 16 KB ROMs and the original two 16 KB ROMs were now physically implemented together as two 32 KB chips. To be able to run CP/M, which requires RAM at the bottom of the address space, the bank-switching was further improved, allowing the ROM to be paged out for another 16 KB of RAM.[citation needed]

Such core changes brought incompatibilities:

  • Removal of several lines on the expansion bus edge connector (video, power, and IORQGE); caused many external devices problems; some such as the VTX5000 modem could be used via the "FixIt" device.
  • Dividing ROMCS into two lines, to disable both ROMs.
  • Reading a non-existent I/O port no longer returned the last attribute; caused certain games such as Arkanoid to be unplayable.
  • Memory timing changes; certain RAM banks were now contended causing high-speed colour-changing effects to fail.
  • The keypad scanning routines from the ROM were removed.
  • Move 1 byte address in ROM.[citation needed]

Some older 48K and 128K games were incompatible with the machine. The ZX Interface 1 was incompatible due to differences in ROM and expansion connector, making it impossible to connect and use the Microdrive units.[54]

Unlike previous models, the ZX Spectrum +3 power supply uses a DIN connector and has "Sinclair +3" written on the case.[55] The same power supply could also be used with the later +2A/B models.

Production of the +3 ceased in December 1990, believed to be in response to Amstrad relaunching their CPC range.[56] At the time, it was estimated about 15% of ZX Spectrums sold had been +3 models. Production of the +2B (the only other model then still in production) continued, as it was believed not to be in competition with other computers in Amstrad's product range.[57]

ZX Spectrum +2A

 
ZX Spectrum +2A

The ZX Spectrum +2A was a new version of the Spectrum +2[58] using the same circuit board as the Spectrum +3.[58][59] It was sold from late 1988 and unlike the original grey +2 was housed inside a black case.[58][59] The Spectrum +2A/+3 motherboard (AMSTRAD part number Z70830) was designed so that it could be assembled with a +2 style "datacorder" connected instead of the floppy disk controller.[60] Amstrad planned to introduce an additional disk interface for the +2A/+2B called the AMSTRAD SI-1,[61] but it never appeared. If an external disk drive was added, the "+2A" displayed on the system menu text would change to "+3".

The power supply of the ZX Spectrum +2A used the same pinout as the +3 and has "Sinclair +2" written on the case.[62]

ZX Spectrum +2B and +3B

The ZX Spectrum +2B and ZX Spectrum +3B were functionally similar in design to the Spectrum +2A and +3.[63] The main electronic differences were changes to the generation of the audio output signal to resolve problems with clipping.[64]

Unlike the +2A and +3, the Spectrum +2B and +3B do not share a common motherboard.[citation needed] The +2B board (AMSTRAD part number Z70833) has no provision for floppy disk controller circuitry and the +3B motherboard (Amstrad part number Z70835) has no provision for connecting an internal tape drive. Production of all Amstrad Spectrum models ended in 1992.[3]

Clones and re-creations

See also: List of ZX Spectrum clones

Official clones

Sinclair licensed the Spectrum design to Timex Corporation in the United States, that sold several machines under the Timex Sinclair brand. An enhanced version of the original Spectrum, with better sound, graphics and other modifications was marketed in the US by Timex as the Timex Sinclair 2068. Timex's derivatives were largely incompatible with Sinclair systems. Some of the Timex innovations were later adopted by Sinclair Research. A case in point was the abortive Pandora portable Spectrum, whose ULA had the high resolution video mode pioneered in the T/S 2068. Pandora had a flat-screen monitor and Microdrives and was intended to be Sinclair's business portable. After Amstrad bought the computer business of Sinclair Research, Sir Clive retained the rights to the Pandora project, and it evolved into the Cambridge Computer Z88, launched in 1987.[65]

Starting in 1984, Timex of Portugal developed and produced several Timex branded computers, including the Timex Computer 2048, highly compatible with the Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48K, which was very successful in both Portugal and Poland.[66] An NTSC version was also made, initially intended for a United States release, but it was sold only in Chile, Ecuador and Argentina. Timex of Portugal also made a PAL version of the T/S 2068, called the Timex Computer 2068 (or TC 2068 for short) which had different buffers for both the ULA and the CPU, which significantly increased the compatibility with ZX Spectrum software when compared to the North American model (the T/S 2068). The expansion port was also modified and made to be 100% compatible with the ZX Spectrum's, which bypassed the need for a "Twister Board" expansion that the T/S 2068 needed to make it compatible with ZX Spectrum expansion hardware. It also had the AY sound output routed to the monitor/TV speakers instead of the internal twitter. The software developed for the TC 2068 is completely compatible with the T/S 2068, since the ROMs weren't altered. Timex of Portugal also developed a ZX Spectrum "emulator" on cartridge form that mapped the first 16 KB exactly like the earlier TC 2048 computer did. Several other upgrades were made available, including a BASIC64 cartridge that enabled the TC 2068 to use high resolution (512x192) modes. Despite having an AY-3-8912 sound chip, it's not connected in the same ports as in the ZX Spectrum 128K, rendering the TC 2048 incompatible with the AY sound that the Spectrum 128K games produced. Due to all its advantages compared to the usual T/S 2068, a North American company, Zebra Systems, licensed the Timex TC 2068 and sold it in the United States as the Zebra Silver Avenger. They also sold the FDD 3000 as the Zebra FDD 3000 in a silver case (as opposed to the European black cases) to match their colour scheme. Timex of Portugal was working on a successor to the TC 2068 called the TC 3256, using a Z80A CPU and featuring 256 KB of RAM, which would feature a ZX Spectrum BASIC operating mode and a CP/M operating mode, but the company pulled the plug on its development as the 8-bit market was no longer profitable by the end of 1989. Only one complete and fully working prototype of the TC 3256 was made.[citation needed]

 
deciBells dB Spectrum+ and PSU

In India, Deci Bells Electronics Limited[67] introduced a licensed version of the Spectrum+ in 1988.[68][69][70] Dubbed the "dB Spectrum+", it did reasonably well in the Indian market, selling over 50000 units and achieving an 80% market share.[71]

Unofficial clones

Numerous unofficial Spectrum clones were produced, especially in the Eastern and Central European countries (e.g. in USSR (called Russian: Байт, Ленингра, Балтика), Romania, and Czechoslovakia) where several models were produced (such as the Tim-S, HC85, HC91, Cobra, Junior, CIP, CIP 3, Jet, Didaktik Gama), some featuring CP/M and a 5.25"/3.5" floppy disk.

There were also clones produced in South America (e.g. Microdigital TK90X and TK95, made in Brazil and the Czerweny CZ, made in Argentina). In the Soviet Union, ZX Spectrum clones were assembled by thousands of small start-ups and distributed through poster ads and street stalls. Over 50 such clone models existed.[72] Some of them are still being produced, such as the Pentagon and ATM Turbo.

In the UK, Spectrum peripheral vendor Miles Gordon Technology (MGT) released the SAM Coupé as a potential successor with some Spectrum compatibility. By this point, the Commodore Amiga and Atari ST had taken hold of the market, leaving MGT in eventual receivership.[73]

Recreations

In 2013, an FPGA-based redesign of the original ZX Spectrum known as the ZX Uno, was formally announced. All of its hardware, firmware and software are open source,[74] released as Creative Commons license Share-alike. The use of a Spartan FPGA allows the system to not only re-implement the ZX Spectrum, but many other 8 bit computers and games consoles[75] The device can also run modern open FPGA machines such as the Chloe 280SE.[76] The Uno was successfully crowdfunded in 2016 and the first boards went on sale during the same year.[77]

In January 2014, Elite Systems, who produced a successful range of software for the original ZX Spectrum in the 1980s, announced plans for a Spectrum-themed bluetooth keyboard that would attach to mobile devices.[78][79] The company used a crowdfunding campaign to fund the Recreated ZX Spectrum, which would be compatible with games the company had already released on iTunes and Google Play.[80] Elite Systems took down its Spectrum Collection application the following month, due to complaints from authors of the original 1980's game software that they had not been paid for the content.[81] Wired described the finished device, which was styled as an original Spectrum 48k keyboard, as "absolutely gorgeous"[82] but said it was ultimately more of an expensive novelty than an actual Spectrum. In July 2019, Eurogamer reported that many of the orders had yet to be delivered due to a dispute between Elite Systems and their manufacturer, Eurotech.[83]

Later in 2014, the Sinclair ZX Spectrum Vega retro video game console was announced by Retro Computers Ltd and crowdfunded on Indiegogo with the backing of Clive Sinclair.[84] The Vega, released in 2015, took the form of a handheld TV game[84][85] but the lack of a full keyboard[86] led to criticism from reviewers due to the large number of text adventures supplied with the device.[87][88] Most reviewers branded the device cheap and uncomfortable to use[89][82]

The follow-up, the ZX Spectrum Vega+ was designed as a handheld game console. Despite reaching its crowdfunding target in March 2016,[90] the company failed to fulfil the majority of orders. On 30 July 2018, Eurogamer reported that one backer had received a ZX Vega+ console and quoted them as being "quite disappointed" that "the few supplied sample games don't work" and that the "build quality's not the greatest".[91] Reviewing the Vega+, The Register criticised numerous aspects and features of the machine, including its design and build quality and summed up by saying that the "entire feel is plasticky and inconsequential".[92] Retro Computers Ltd was wound up on 1 February 2019.[93]

The ZX Spectrum Next (not to be confused with the older, two-processor ZX Next) is an expanded and updated version of the ZX Spectrum computer implemented with FPGA technology[94] funded by a Kickstarter campaign in April 2017,[95] with the board-only computer delivered to backers later that year.[96] The finished machine, including a case designed[97] by Rick Dickinson who died during the development of the project, was released to backers in February 2020.[98] MagPi called it "a lovely piece of kit", noting that it is "well-designed and well-built: authentic to the original, and with technology that nods to the past while remaining functional and relevant in the modern age".[99] PC Pro magazine called the Next "undeniably impressive" while noting that the printed manual lacked an index, and that some features are "not quite ready".[100] A further Kickstarter for an improved revision of the hardware was funded in August 2020.[101]

Peripherals

 
 
 
 
Official peripherals: the ZX Printer, the ZX Interface 2, the ZX Interface 1 and the ZX Microdrive

Several peripherals were marketed by Sinclair: the ZX Printer was already on the market,[102] as the ZX Spectrum expansion bus was partially backwards-compatible with that of the ZX81.

The ZX Interface 1 add-on module included 8 KB of ROM, an RS-232 serial port, a proprietary LAN interface (called ZX Net), and an interface for the connection of up to eight ZX Microdrives – somewhat unreliable but speedy tape-loop cartridge storage devices released in July 1983.[103][104] These were used in a revised version on the Sinclair QL, whose storage format was electrically compatible but logically incompatible with the Spectrum's. Sinclair also released the ZX Interface 2 which added two joystick ports and a ROM cartridge port.[105]

 
The Kempston interface, a third-party add-on widely used for joysticks

There were a plethora of third-party hardware addons. The better known of these included the Kempston joystick interface, the Morex Peripherals Centronics/RS-232 interface, the Currah Microspeech unit (speech synthesis),[106] Videoface Digitiser,[107] RAM pack, the Cheetah Marketing SpecDrum,[108] a drum machine, and the Multiface,[109] a snapshot and disassembly tool from Romantic Robot. Keyboards were especially popular in view of the original's notorious "dead flesh" feel.[110]

There were disk drive interfaces, such as the Abbeydale Designers/Watford Electronics SPDOS, Abbeydale Designers/Kempston KDOS and Opus Discovery. The SPDOS and KDOS interfaces were the first to come bundled with office productivity software (Tasword Word Processor, Masterfile database and Omnicalc spreadsheet). This bundle, together with OCP's Stock Control, Finance and Payroll systems, introduced small businesses to a streamlined, computerised operation. The most popular floppy disk systems (except in East Europe) were the DISCiPLE and +D systems released by Miles Gordon Technology in 1987 and 1988 respectively. Both systems had the ability to store memory images onto disk snapshots could later be used to restore the Spectrum to its exact previous state.[citation needed] They were both compatible with the Microdrive command syntax, which made porting existing software much simpler.[111]

During the mid-1980s, Telemap Group Ltd launched a fee-based service allowing users to connect their ZX Spectrums via a Prism Micro Products VTX5000 modem to a viewdata service known as Micronet 800, hosted by Prestel, which provided news and information about microcomputers. The service allowed a form of instant messaging and online shopping.[112]

Software

Main articles: ZX Spectrum software and List of ZX Spectrum games
 
 
Screenshots from ZX Spectrum games Rebelstar and Laser Squad

While games comprised the majority of commercial ZX Spectrum software, there were also programming language implementations, databases (e.g. VU-File[113]), word processors (e.g. Tasword II[114]), spreadsheets (e.g. VU-Calc[113]), drawing and painting tools (e.g. OCP Art Studio[115]), and even 3D-modelling (e.g. VU-3D[116][117]) and archaeology software.[118]

The early Spectrum models' great success as a games platform came in spite of its lack of built-in joystick ports, primitive sound generation, and colour support that was optimised for text display:[119][failed verification] the hardware limitations of the platform required a particular level of creativity from video game designers.[120]

From August 1982,[121] the ZX Spectrum came bundled with a software starter pack in the form of a cassette tape entitled Horizons: Software Starter Pack,[122] which included 8 programs: Thro' the Wall (a Breakout clone), Bubblesort, Evolution (an ecosystem of foxes and rabbits), Life (an implementation of Conway's Game of Life), Draw (a basic object-based drawing utility), Monte Carlo (a simulation of the rolling of two dice), Character Generator (for editing user defined graphics), Beating of Waves (plots the sum of two sine waves).[citation needed]

According to the 90th issue of the British gaming magazine GamesMaster, the ten best games released were (in descending order) Head Over Heels, Jet Set Willy, Skool Daze, Renegade, R-Type, Knight Lore, Dizzy, The Hobbit, The Way of the Exploding Fist, and Match Day II.[123]

The last full price, commercial game to be released for the Spectrum was Alternative Software's Dalek Attack, which was released in July 1993.[citation needed]

A homebrew community continues into the present day,[citation needed] with several games being released commercially from new software houses such as Cronosoft.[citation needed]

Distribution

Most Spectrum software was originally distributed on audio cassette tapes. The Spectrum was intended to work with a normal domestic cassette recorder.[124]

Although the ZX Microdrive was initially greeted with good reviews,[125] it never took off as a distribution method due to worries about the quality of the cartridges and piracy.[126] Hence the main use became to complement tape releases, usually utilities and niche products like the Tasword word processing software and Trans Express, (a tape to microdrive copying utility). No games are known to be exclusively released on Microdrive.[citation needed]

Although the Interface 2 proved popular, the high cost of ROM cartridges, and the fact that they were limited to 16K in size, meant that very few titles were released in this format.[127]

Software was distributed through print media; magazines[128] and books.[129] The reader would type the BASIC program listing into the computer by hand, run it, and could save it to tape for later use. Software distributed in this way was in general simpler and slower than its assembly language counterparts. Magazines printed long lists of checksummed hexadecimal digits with machine code games or tools.

Another software distribution method was to broadcast the audio stream from the cassette on another medium and have users record it onto an audio cassette themselves. In radio or television shows in many European countries, the host would describe a program, instruct the audience to connect a cassette tape recorder to the radio or TV and then broadcast the program over the airwaves in audio format.[130] Some magazines distributed 7" 331⁄3 rpm flexidisc records, a variant of regular vinyl records which could be played on a standard record player.[131] These disks were known under various trademarked names including "Floppy ROM", "Flexisoft", and "Discoflex".

Copying and backup

 
Spectrum software was distributed almost exclusively on audio cassettes

Many copiers—utilities to copy programs from audio tape to another tape, microdrive tapes, and later on diskettes—were available for the Spectrum. As a response to this, publishers introduced copy protection measures to their software, including different loading schemes.[132] Other methods for copy prevention were also used including asking for a particular word from the documentation included with the game—often a novella such as the Silicon Dreams trilogy—or another physical device distributed with the software—e.g. Lenslok as used in Elite, or the colour-code chart included with Jet Set Willy. Special hardware, such as Romantic Robot's Multiface, was able to dump a copy of the ZX Spectrum RAM to disk/tape at the press of a button, entirely circumventing the copy protection systems.[citation needed]

Most Spectrum software has been converted to current media and is available for download. One popular program for converting Spectrum files from tape is Taper; it allows connecting a cassette tape player to the line in port of a sound card, or—through a simple home-built device—to the parallel port of a PC.[133] Once in files on a host machine, the software can be executed on an emulator.

See also: List of computer system emulators § Sinclair ZX Spectrum and clones

Community

The ZX Spectrum enjoyed a very strong community early on. Several commercially published print magazines were dedicated to covering the home computer family and its offshoots including Sinclair User (1982), Your Spectrum (1983) – rebranded as Your Sinclair in 1986, and CRASH (1984). In the early years, the magazines were focused on programming for the system, and carried many articles containing type-in programs and machine code tutorials. Later on they became almost completely game-oriented, starting many of the writing-styles, trends and tropes found in later video-game publications and reviews.[citation needed]

Several other contemporary computer magazines covered the ZX Spectrum as part of their regular coverage of the home computer industry at that time. These included Computer Gamer, Computer and Video Games, Computing Today, Popular Computing Weekly, Your Computer and The Games Machine.[134][failed verification]

The Spectrum is affectionately known as the Speccy by elements of its fan following.[135]

More than 80 electronic magazines existed, many in Russian. Most notable of them were AlchNews (UK), Enigma Tape Magazine (UK), 16/48 (UK), ZX-Format (Russia), Adventurer (Russia), Microhobby (Spain) and Spectrofon (Russia). These frequently included games, demos, and utilities alongside the magazine content (much like a covertape on a paper magazine).[citation needed]

Notable developers

A number of notable games developers began their careers on the ZX Spectrum, including David Perry of Shiny Entertainment, and Tim and Chris Stamper (founders of Rare, formerly Ultimate Play the Game, maker of many games for Nintendo and Microsoft game consoles). Other prominent games developers include Julian Gollop (Chaos, Rebelstar, X-COM series), Matthew Smith (Manic Miner, Jet Set Willy), Jon Ritman (Match Day, Head Over Heels), Jonathan "Joffa" Smith (Batman: The Caped Crusader, Mikie, Hyper Sports), The Oliver Twins (the Dizzy series), Clive Townsend (Saboteur), Sandy White (Ant Attack; I, of the Mask), Pete Cooke (Tau Ceti), Mike Singleton (The Lords of Midnight, War in Middle Earth),[citation needed] and Alan Cox.[136] Although the 48K Spectrum's audio hardware was not as capable as chips in other popular 8-bit home computers of the era, computer musicians David Whittaker and Tim Follin produced notable multi-channel music for it.[citation needed]

Jeff Minter ported some of his VIC-20 games to the ZX Spectrum.[137]

Reception

BYTE in January 1983 acknowledged the appeal of the Spectrum's low £125 price to British consumers and called it a "promising machine". It criticised the keyboard; "inexpensive or not, the ... layout is impossible to justify ... poorly designed in several respects". The review was sceptical of the computer's appeal to American consumers if sold for US$220—"hardly competitive with comparable low-cost American units"—and expected that Timex would sell it for $125–150.[138]

Legacy

On 23 April 2012, a Google doodle honoured the 30th anniversary of the Spectrum. As it coincided with St George's Day, the logo was of St George fighting a dragon in the style of a Spectrum loading screen.[139]

In December 2018, one of the alternate endings in Black Mirror: Bandersnatch included the main character playing data tape audio that, when loaded into a ZX Spectrum software emulator, generates a QR code leading to a website with a playable version of the Nohzdyve game featured in the episode.[140]

Some programmers have continued to code for the platform by using emulators on PCs.[141]

Since 2020, there has been a museum, LOAD ZX Spectrum, dedicated to the ZX Spectrum and other Sinclair products (as well as Timex, Investrónica and many others), located in Cantanhede, Portugal.[142]

See also

References

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Additional sources

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  • ZX Spectrum BASIC manual
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January 10, 2023
spectrum, home, computer, that, developed, sinclair, research, released, united, kingdom, april, 1982, became, britain, best, selling, microcomputer, issue, 1982, developersinclair, researchtypehome, computergeneration8, bitrelease, dateuk, april, 1982, april,. The ZX Spectrum UK z ɛ d ɛ k s is an 8 bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982 and became Britain s best selling microcomputer 5 6 ZX SpectrumAn issue 2 1982 ZX SpectrumDeveloperSinclair ResearchTypeHome computerGeneration8 bitRelease dateUK 23 April 1982 23 April 1982 1 US 1983 1983 ESP 1985 1985 Introductory priceUK 125 16KB 175 48KB 2 ESP Pta44 250Discontinued1992 3 Units sold5 million 4 MediaCompact Cassette ZX Microdrive 3 inch floppy disk on Spectrum 3Operating systemSinclair BASICCPUZ80A or equivalent 3 5 MHzMemory16 KB 48 KB 128 KB IEC KiB DisplayPAL RF modulator out 256 x 192 15 coloursGraphicsULASoundBeeperPredecessorZX81SuccessorQLReferred to during development as the ZX81 Colour and ZX82 it was launched as the ZX Spectrum to highlight the machine s colour display which differed from the black and white display of its predecessor the ZX81 7 The Spectrum was released as six different models ranging from the entry level with 16 KB RAM released in 1982 to the ZX Spectrum 3 with 128 KB RAM and built in floppy disk drive in 1987 altogether they sold over 5 million units worldwide not counting unofficial clones The Spectrum was among the first home computers in the United Kingdom aimed at a mainstream audience and it thus had similar significance to the Commodore 64 in the US and the Thomson MO5 in France The introduction of the ZX Spectrum led to a boom in companies producing software and hardware for the machine 8 the effects of which are still seen Some credit it as the machine which launched the British information technology industry 9 Licensing deals and clones followed earning Clive Sinclair a knighthood for services to British industry 10 The Commodore 64 Dragon 32 Oric 1 Oric Atmos BBC Micro and later the Amstrad CPC range were rivals to the Spectrum in the UK market during the early 1980s The machine was officially discontinued in 1992 3 Contents 1 Hardware 2 Firmware 3 Sinclair Research models 3 1 Pre production designs 3 2 ZX Spectrum 16K 48K 3 3 ZX Spectrum 3 4 ZX Spectrum 128 4 Amstrad models 4 1 ZX Spectrum 2 4 2 ZX Spectrum 3 4 3 ZX Spectrum 2A 4 4 ZX Spectrum 2B and 3B 5 Clones and re creations 5 1 Official clones 5 2 Unofficial clones 5 3 Recreations 6 Peripherals 7 Software 7 1 Distribution 7 2 Copying and backup 7 3 Community 7 4 Notable developers 8 Reception 9 Legacy 10 See also 11 References 11 1 Additional sources 12 External linksHardware Edit ZX Spectrum 48K motherboard Issue 3B 1983 heat sink removed The Spectrum is based on a Zilog Z80 a CPU running at 3 5 MHz or NEC D780C 1 clone The original model has 16 KB 16 1024 bytes of ROM and either 16 KB or 48 KB of RAM Hardware design was by Richard Altwasser of Sinclair Research and the outward appearance was designed by Sinclair s industrial designer Rick Dickinson 8 Video output is through an RF modulator and was designed for use with contemporary television sets for a simple colour graphic display Text can be displayed using 32 columns 24 rows of characters from the ZX Spectrum character set or from a set provided within an application from a palette of 15 shades seven colours at two levels of brightness each plus black 11 The image resolution is 256 192 with the same colour limitations 12 To conserve memory colour is stored separate from the pixel bitmap in a low resolution 32 24 grid overlay corresponding to the character cells In practice this means that all pixels of an 8x8 character block share one foreground colour and one background colour Altwasser received a patent for this design 13 An attribute consists of a foreground and a background colour a brightness level normal or bright and a flashing flag which when set causes the two colours to swap at regular intervals 12 This scheme leads to what was dubbed colour clash or attribute clash where a desired colour of a specific pixel could not necessarily be selected This became a distinctive feature of the Spectrum meaning programs particularly games had to be designed around this limitation Other machines available around the same time for example the Amstrad CPC or the Commodore 64 did not suffer from this limitation The Commodore 64 used colour attributes in a similar way but a special multicolour mode and hardware sprites were used to avoid attribute clash 14 Sound output is through a beeper on the machine itself capable of producing one channel with 10 octaves Software was later available that could play two channel sound The machine includes an expansion bus edge connector and 3 5 mm audio in out ports for the connection of a cassette recorder for loading and saving programs and data The ear port has a higher output than the mic and is recommended for headphones with mic for attaching to other audio devices as line in 15 The machine was manufactured in Dundee Scotland in the now closed Timex factory 16 Firmware EditThe machine s Sinclair BASIC interpreter is stored in ROM along with fundamental system routines and was written by Steve Vickers on contract from Nine Tiles Ltd The Spectrum s chiclet keyboard on top of a membrane similar to calculator keys is marked with BASIC keywords For example pressing G when in programming mode would insert the BASIC command a href GO TO html class mw redirect title GO TO GO TO a 17 The BASIC interpreter was developed from that used on the ZX81 and a ZX81 BASIC program can be typed into a Spectrum largely unmodified but Spectrum BASIC included many extra features making it easier to use The ZX Spectrum character set was expanded from that of the ZX81 which did not feature lower case letters Spectrum BASIC included extra keywords for the more advanced display and sound and supported multi statement lines The cassette interface was much more advanced saving and loading around five times faster than the ZX81 1500 bits per second compared to 307 18 and unlike the ZX81 the Spectrum could maintain the TV display during tape storage and retrieval operations As well as being able to save programs the Spectrum could save the contents of arrays the contents of the screen memory and the contents of any defined range of memory addresses 19 Sinclair Research models EditPre production designs Edit Rick Dickinson came up with a number of designs for the ZX82 project before the final ZX Spectrum design A number of the keyboard legends changed during the design phase including ARC becoming CIRCLE FORE becoming INK and BACK becoming PAPER The Spectrum reused a number of design elements of the ZX81 The ROM code for things such as floating point calculations and expression parsing were very similar with a few obsolete ZX81 routines left in the Spectrum ROM The simple keyboard decoding and cassette interfaces were nearly identical although the latter was now programmed to load save at a higher speed The central ULA integrated circuit was somewhat similar although it implemented the major enhancement over the ZX81 A fully hardware based television raster generator with colour that indirectly gave the new machine approximately four times as much processing power as the ZX81 simply due to the Z80 now being released from this video generation task A bug in the ULA as originally designed meant that the keyboard did not always scan correctly and was rectified by a dead cockroach a small circuit board mounted upside down next to the CPU for Issue 1 ZX Spectrums 20 ZX Spectrum 16K 48K Edit ZX Spectrum 16K 48K Dimensions mm 233 144 30 W H D 552 grams 21 The original ZX Spectrum is remembered for its rubber chiclet keyboard diminutive size and distinctive rainbow motif It was originally released on 23 April 1982 22 with 16 KB of RAM for 125 equivalent to 469 in 2021 or with 48 KB for 175 equivalent to 657 in 2021 23 these prices were reduced to 99 equivalent to 355 in 2021 and 129 equivalent to 463 in 2021 respectively in 1983 24 Owners of the 16 KB model could purchase an internal 32 KB RAM upgrade which for early Issue 1 machines consisted of a daughterboard Later issue machines required the fitting of 8 dynamic RAM chips and a few TTL chips Users could mail their 16K Spectrums to Sinclair to be upgraded to 48 KB versions Later revisions contained 64 KB of memory but were configured such that only 48 KB were usable 25 External 32 KB RAM packs that mounted in the rear expansion slot were available from third parties Both machines had 16 KB of onboard ROM An Issue 1 ZX Spectrum can be distinguished from later models by the colour of the keys light grey for Issue 1 blue grey for later machines 26 Although the official service manual states that approximately 26 000 of these original boards were manufactured 27 subsequent serial number analysis shows that only 16 000 were produced almost all of which fell in the serial number range 001 000001 to 001 016000 28 An online tool now exists to allow users to ascertain the likely issue number of their ZX Spectrum by inputting the serial number 29 The Sinclair models featured audio line in and out in the form of an ear and mic socket An external tape recorder was needed to load the majority of software released or the ZX Microdrive Either socket could be connected to headphones or an amplifier as an audio output although this would not disable the internal speaker The original ZX Spectrum model experienced numerous changes to its motherboard design mainly to improve manufacturing efficiencies but also to correct bugs from previous boards Another issue was with the Spectrum s power supply In March 1983 30 Sinclair issued an URGENT recall warning for all owners of models bought after 1 January 1983 Plugs with a plain rather than textured surface were at risk of causing shock and were asked to be sent back to Sinclair s office in Broad Lane Cottenham It s not known how many power supplies were returned and how many still exist in the wild original research Sales of the Spectrum reached 200 000 in its first nine months 31 rising to 300 000 for the whole of the first year 32 By August 1983 total sales in the UK and Europe had exceeded 500 000 33 with the millionth Spectrum manufactured on December 9th 34 ZX Spectrum Edit ZX Spectrum Dimensions mm 319 149 38 W H D 21 Planning of the ZX Spectrum started in June 1984 35 and was released on October 15 36 37 This 48 KB Spectrum development code name TB 35 introduced a new QL style case with an injection moulded keyboard and a reset button that was basically a switch that shorted across the CPU reset capacitor Electronically it was identical to the previous 48 KB model It was possible to change the system boards between the original case and the Spectrum case It retailed for 179 95 equivalent to 615 in 2021 38 A DIY conversion kit for older machines was available Early on the machine outsold the rubber key model 2 1 35 however some retailers reported a failure rate of up to 30 compared with a more usual 5 6 for the older model 37 In early 1985 the original Spectrum was officially discontinued and the ZX Spectrum was reduced in price to 129 95 equivalent to 419 in 2021 39 ZX Spectrum 128 Edit ZX Spectrum 128 In 1985 Sinclair developed the ZX Spectrum 128 code named Derby in conjunction with their Spanish distributor Investronica a subsidiary of El Corte Ingles department store group 40 Investronica had helped adapt the ZX Spectrum to the Spanish market after the Spanish government introduced a special tax on all computers with 64 KB RAM or less 41 and a law which obliged all computers sold in Spain to support the Spanish alphabet and show messages in Spanish 42 The appearance of the ZX Spectrum 128 was similar to the ZX Spectrum with the exception of a large external heatsink for the internal 7805 voltage regulator added to the right hand end of the case replacing the internal heatsink in previous versions This external heatsink led to the system s nickname The Toast Rack 43 New features included 128 KB RAM with RAM disc commands save name three channel audio via the AY 3 8912 chip MIDI compatibility an RS 232 serial port an RGB monitor port 32 KB of ROM including an improved BASIC editor and an external keypad The machine was simultaneously presented for the first time and launched in September 1985 at the SIMO 85 trade show in Spain with a price of 44 250 pesetas Because of the large number of unsold Spectrum models Sinclair decided not to start selling in the UK until January 1986 at a price of 179 95 equivalent to 561 in 2021 44 No external keypad was available for the UK release although the ROM routines to use it and the port itself remained The Z80 processor used in the Spectrum has a 16 bit address bus which means only 64 KB of memory can be directly addressed To facilitate the extra 80 KB of RAM the designers used bank switching so the new memory would be available as eight pages of 16 KB at the top of the address space The same technique was used to page between the new 16 KB editor ROM and the original 16 KB BASIC ROM at the bottom of the address space 45 The new sound chip and MIDI out abilities were exposed to the BASIC programming language with the command PLAY and a new command SPECTRUM was added to switch the machine into 48K mode keeping the current BASIC program intact although there is no command to switch back to 128K mode To enable BASIC programmers to access the additional memory a RAM disk was created where files could be stored in the additional 80 KB of RAM The new commands took the place of two existing user defined character spaces causing compatibility problems with certain BASIC programs 46 The ZX Spectrum 128 had no internal speaker unlike its predecessors Sound was produced from the television speaker instead 47 The Spanish version had the 128K logo in white the British one had the same logo in red Amstrad models EditZX Spectrum 2 Edit ZX Spectrum 2 The ZX Spectrum 2 was Amstrad s first Spectrum coming shortly after their purchase of the Spectrum range and Sinclair brand in 1986 The machine featured an all new grey case featuring a spring loaded keyboard dual joystick ports and a built in cassette recorder dubbed the Datacorder like the Amstrad CPC 464 but was in most respects identical to the ZX Spectrum 128 The main menu screen lacked the Spectrum 128 s Tape Test option and the ROM was altered to account for a new 1986 Amstrad copyright message Production costs had been reduced and the retail price dropped to 139 149 48 The new keyboard did not include the BASIC keyword markings that were found on earlier Spectrums except for the keywords LOAD CODE and RUN which were useful for loading software Instead the 2 boasted a menu system almost identical to the ZX Spectrum 128 where one could switch between 48K BASIC programming with the keywords and 128K BASIC programming in which all words keywords and otherwise must be typed out in full although the keywords are still stored internally as one character each Despite these changes the layout remained identical to that of the 128 49 The ZX Spectrum 2 power supply was a grey version of the ZX Spectrum and 128 power supply 50 ZX Spectrum 3 Edit ZX Spectrum 3 The ZX Spectrum 3 released in 1987 looked similar to the 2A but featured a built in 3 inch floppy disk drive 51 like the Amstrad CPC 6128 instead of the tape drive and was in a black case It was launched in 1987 initially retailed for 249 52 and then later 199 53 and was the only Spectrum capable of running the CP M operating system without additional hardware The 3 saw the addition of two more 16 KB ROMs One was home to the second part of the reorganised 128 ROM and the other hosted the 3 s disk operating system This was a modified version of Amstrad s PCWDOS the disk access code used in LocoScript called 3DOS These two new 16 KB ROMs and the original two 16 KB ROMs were now physically implemented together as two 32 KB chips To be able to run CP M which requires RAM at the bottom of the address space the bank switching was further improved allowing the ROM to be paged out for another 16 KB of RAM citation needed Such core changes brought incompatibilities Removal of several lines on the expansion bus edge connector video power and IORQGE caused many external devices problems some such as the VTX5000 modem could be used via the FixIt device Dividing ROMCS into two lines to disable both ROMs Reading a non existent I O port no longer returned the last attribute caused certain games such as Arkanoid to be unplayable Memory timing changes certain RAM banks were now contended causing high speed colour changing effects to fail The keypad scanning routines from the ROM were removed Move 1 byte address in ROM citation needed Some older 48K and 128K games were incompatible with the machine The ZX Interface 1 was incompatible due to differences in ROM and expansion connector making it impossible to connect and use the Microdrive units 54 Unlike previous models the ZX Spectrum 3 power supply uses a DIN connector and has Sinclair 3 written on the case 55 The same power supply could also be used with the later 2A B models Production of the 3 ceased in December 1990 believed to be in response to Amstrad relaunching their CPC range 56 At the time it was estimated about 15 of ZX Spectrums sold had been 3 models Production of the 2B the only other model then still in production continued as it was believed not to be in competition with other computers in Amstrad s product range 57 ZX Spectrum 2A Edit ZX Spectrum 2A The ZX Spectrum 2A was a new version of the Spectrum 2 58 using the same circuit board as the Spectrum 3 58 59 It was sold from late 1988 and unlike the original grey 2 was housed inside a black case 58 59 The Spectrum 2A 3 motherboard AMSTRAD part number Z70830 was designed so that it could be assembled with a 2 style datacorder connected instead of the floppy disk controller 60 Amstrad planned to introduce an additional disk interface for the 2A 2B called the AMSTRAD SI 1 61 but it never appeared If an external disk drive was added the 2A displayed on the system menu text would change to 3 The power supply of the ZX Spectrum 2A used the same pinout as the 3 and has Sinclair 2 written on the case 62 ZX Spectrum 2B and 3B Edit The ZX Spectrum 2B and ZX Spectrum 3B were functionally similar in design to the Spectrum 2A and 3 63 The main electronic differences were changes to the generation of the audio output signal to resolve problems with clipping 64 Unlike the 2A and 3 the Spectrum 2B and 3B do not share a common motherboard citation needed The 2B board AMSTRAD part number Z70833 has no provision for floppy disk controller circuitry and the 3B motherboard Amstrad part number Z70835 has no provision for connecting an internal tape drive Production of all Amstrad Spectrum models ended in 1992 3 Clones and re creations EditSee also List of ZX Spectrum clones Official clones Edit Sinclair licensed the Spectrum design to Timex Corporation in the United States that sold several machines under the Timex Sinclair brand An enhanced version of the original Spectrum with better sound graphics and other modifications was marketed in the US by Timex as the Timex Sinclair 2068 Timex s derivatives were largely incompatible with Sinclair systems Some of the Timex innovations were later adopted by Sinclair Research A case in point was the abortive Pandora portable Spectrum whose ULA had the high resolution video mode pioneered in the T S 2068 Pandora had a flat screen monitor and Microdrives and was intended to be Sinclair s business portable After Amstrad bought the computer business of Sinclair Research Sir Clive retained the rights to the Pandora project and it evolved into the Cambridge Computer Z88 launched in 1987 65 Starting in 1984 Timex of Portugal developed and produced several Timex branded computers including the Timex Computer 2048 highly compatible with the Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48K which was very successful in both Portugal and Poland 66 An NTSC version was also made initially intended for a United States release but it was sold only in Chile Ecuador and Argentina Timex of Portugal also made a PAL version of the T S 2068 called the Timex Computer 2068 or TC 2068 for short which had different buffers for both the ULA and the CPU which significantly increased the compatibility with ZX Spectrum software when compared to the North American model the T S 2068 The expansion port was also modified and made to be 100 compatible with the ZX Spectrum s which bypassed the need for a Twister Board expansion that the T S 2068 needed to make it compatible with ZX Spectrum expansion hardware It also had the AY sound output routed to the monitor TV speakers instead of the internal twitter The software developed for the TC 2068 is completely compatible with the T S 2068 since the ROMs weren t altered Timex of Portugal also developed a ZX Spectrum emulator on cartridge form that mapped the first 16 KB exactly like the earlier TC 2048 computer did Several other upgrades were made available including a BASIC64 cartridge that enabled the TC 2068 to use high resolution 512x192 modes Despite having an AY 3 8912 sound chip it s not connected in the same ports as in the ZX Spectrum 128K rendering the TC 2048 incompatible with the AY sound that the Spectrum 128K games produced Due to all its advantages compared to the usual T S 2068 a North American company Zebra Systems licensed the Timex TC 2068 and sold it in the United States as the Zebra Silver Avenger They also sold the FDD 3000 as the Zebra FDD 3000 in a silver case as opposed to the European black cases to match their colour scheme Timex of Portugal was working on a successor to the TC 2068 called the TC 3256 using a Z80A CPU and featuring 256 KB of RAM which would feature a ZX Spectrum BASIC operating mode and a CP M operating mode but the company pulled the plug on its development as the 8 bit market was no longer profitable by the end of 1989 Only one complete and fully working prototype of the TC 3256 was made citation needed deciBells dB Spectrum and PSU In India Deci Bells Electronics Limited 67 introduced a licensed version of the Spectrum in 1988 68 69 70 Dubbed the dB Spectrum it did reasonably well in the Indian market selling over 50000 units and achieving an 80 market share 71 Unofficial clones Edit Didaktik Gama Numerous unofficial Spectrum clones were produced especially in the Eastern and Central European countries e g in USSR called Russian Bajt Leningra Baltika Romania and Czechoslovakia where several models were produced such as the Tim S HC85 HC91 Cobra Junior CIP CIP 3 Jet Didaktik Gama some featuring CP M and a 5 25 3 5 floppy disk There were also clones produced in South America e g Microdigital TK90X and TK95 made in Brazil and the Czerweny CZ made in Argentina In the Soviet Union ZX Spectrum clones were assembled by thousands of small start ups and distributed through poster ads and street stalls Over 50 such clone models existed 72 Some of them are still being produced such as the Pentagon and ATM Turbo In the UK Spectrum peripheral vendor Miles Gordon Technology MGT released the SAM Coupe as a potential successor with some Spectrum compatibility By this point the Commodore Amiga and Atari ST had taken hold of the market leaving MGT in eventual receivership 73 Recreations Edit In 2013 an FPGA based redesign of the original ZX Spectrum known as the ZX Uno was formally announced All of its hardware firmware and software are open source 74 released as Creative Commons license Share alike The use of a Spartan FPGA allows the system to not only re implement the ZX Spectrum but many other 8 bit computers and games consoles 75 The device can also run modern open FPGA machines such as the Chloe 280SE 76 The Uno was successfully crowdfunded in 2016 and the first boards went on sale during the same year 77 In January 2014 Elite Systems who produced a successful range of software for the original ZX Spectrum in the 1980s announced plans for a Spectrum themed bluetooth keyboard that would attach to mobile devices 78 79 The company used a crowdfunding campaign to fund the Recreated ZX Spectrum which would be compatible with games the company had already released on iTunes and Google Play 80 Elite Systems took down its Spectrum Collection application the following month due to complaints from authors of the original 1980 s game software that they had not been paid for the content 81 Wired described the finished device which was styled as an original Spectrum 48k keyboard as absolutely gorgeous 82 but said it was ultimately more of an expensive novelty than an actual Spectrum In July 2019 Eurogamer reported that many of the orders had yet to be delivered due to a dispute between Elite Systems and their manufacturer Eurotech 83 Later in 2014 the Sinclair ZX Spectrum Vega retro video game console was announced by Retro Computers Ltd and crowdfunded on Indiegogo with the backing of Clive Sinclair 84 The Vega released in 2015 took the form of a handheld TV game 84 85 but the lack of a full keyboard 86 led to criticism from reviewers due to the large number of text adventures supplied with the device 87 88 Most reviewers branded the device cheap and uncomfortable to use 89 82 The follow up the ZX Spectrum Vega was designed as a handheld game console Despite reaching its crowdfunding target in March 2016 90 the company failed to fulfil the majority of orders On 30 July 2018 Eurogamer reported that one backer had received a ZX Vega console and quoted them as being quite disappointed that the few supplied sample games don t work and that the build quality s not the greatest 91 Reviewing the Vega The Register criticised numerous aspects and features of the machine including its design and build quality and summed up by saying that the entire feel is plasticky and inconsequential 92 Retro Computers Ltd was wound up on 1 February 2019 93 The ZX Spectrum Next not to be confused with the older two processor ZX Next is an expanded and updated version of the ZX Spectrum computer implemented with FPGA technology 94 funded by a Kickstarter campaign in April 2017 95 with the board only computer delivered to backers later that year 96 The finished machine including a case designed 97 by Rick Dickinson who died during the development of the project was released to backers in February 2020 98 MagPi called it a lovely piece of kit noting that it is well designed and well built authentic to the original and with technology that nods to the past while remaining functional and relevant in the modern age 99 PC Pro magazine called the Next undeniably impressive while noting that the printed manual lacked an index and that some features are not quite ready 100 A further Kickstarter for an improved revision of the hardware was funded in August 2020 101 Peripherals Edit Official peripherals the ZX Printer the ZX Interface 2 the ZX Interface 1 and the ZX Microdrive Several peripherals were marketed by Sinclair the ZX Printer was already on the market 102 as the ZX Spectrum expansion bus was partially backwards compatible with that of the ZX81 The ZX Interface 1 add on module included 8 KB of ROM an RS 232 serial port a proprietary LAN interface called ZX Net and an interface for the connection of up to eight ZX Microdrives somewhat unreliable but speedy tape loop cartridge storage devices released in July 1983 103 104 These were used in a revised version on the Sinclair QL whose storage format was electrically compatible but logically incompatible with the Spectrum s Sinclair also released the ZX Interface 2 which added two joystick ports and a ROM cartridge port 105 The Kempston interface a third party add on widely used for joysticks There were a plethora of third party hardware addons The better known of these included the Kempston joystick interface the Morex Peripherals Centronics RS 232 interface the Currah Microspeech unit speech synthesis 106 Videoface Digitiser 107 RAM pack the Cheetah Marketing SpecDrum 108 a drum machine and the Multiface 109 a snapshot and disassembly tool from Romantic Robot Keyboards were especially popular in view of the original s notorious dead flesh feel 110 There were disk drive interfaces such as the Abbeydale Designers Watford Electronics SPDOS Abbeydale Designers Kempston KDOS and Opus Discovery The SPDOS and KDOS interfaces were the first to come bundled with office productivity software Tasword Word Processor Masterfile database and Omnicalc spreadsheet This bundle together with OCP s Stock Control Finance and Payroll systems introduced small businesses to a streamlined computerised operation The most popular floppy disk systems except in East Europe were the DISCiPLE and D systems released by Miles Gordon Technology in 1987 and 1988 respectively Both systems had the ability to store memory images onto disk snapshots could later be used to restore the Spectrum to its exact previous state citation needed They were both compatible with the Microdrive command syntax which made porting existing software much simpler 111 During the mid 1980s Telemap Group Ltd launched a fee based service allowing users to connect their ZX Spectrums via a Prism Micro Products VTX5000 modem to a viewdata service known as Micronet 800 hosted by Prestel which provided news and information about microcomputers The service allowed a form of instant messaging and online shopping 112 Software EditMain articles ZX Spectrum software and List of ZX Spectrum games Screenshots from ZX Spectrum games Rebelstar and Laser Squad While games comprised the majority of commercial ZX Spectrum software there were also programming language implementations databases e g VU File 113 word processors e g Tasword II 114 spreadsheets e g VU Calc 113 drawing and painting tools e g OCP Art Studio 115 and even 3D modelling e g VU 3D 116 117 and archaeology software 118 The early Spectrum models great success as a games platform came in spite of its lack of built in joystick ports primitive sound generation and colour support that was optimised for text display 119 failed verification the hardware limitations of the platform required a particular level of creativity from video game designers 120 From August 1982 121 the ZX Spectrum came bundled with a software starter pack in the form of a cassette tape entitled Horizons Software Starter Pack 122 which included 8 programs Thro the Wall a Breakout clone Bubblesort Evolution an ecosystem of foxes and rabbits Life an implementation of Conway s Game of Life Draw a basic object based drawing utility Monte Carlo a simulation of the rolling of two dice Character Generator for editing user defined graphics Beating of Waves plots the sum of two sine waves citation needed According to the 90th issue of the British gaming magazine GamesMaster the ten best games released were in descending order Head Over Heels Jet Set Willy Skool Daze Renegade R Type Knight Lore Dizzy The Hobbit The Way of the Exploding Fist and Match Day II 123 The last full price commercial game to be released for the Spectrum was Alternative Software s Dalek Attack which was released in July 1993 citation needed A homebrew community continues into the present day citation needed with several games being released commercially from new software houses such as Cronosoft citation needed Distribution Edit Most Spectrum software was originally distributed on audio cassette tapes The Spectrum was intended to work with a normal domestic cassette recorder 124 Although the ZX Microdrive was initially greeted with good reviews 125 it never took off as a distribution method due to worries about the quality of the cartridges and piracy 126 Hence the main use became to complement tape releases usually utilities and niche products like the Tasword word processing software and Trans Express a tape to microdrive copying utility No games are known to be exclusively released on Microdrive citation needed Although the Interface 2 proved popular the high cost of ROM cartridges and the fact that they were limited to 16K in size meant that very few titles were released in this format 127 Software was distributed through print media magazines 128 and books 129 The reader would type the BASIC program listing into the computer by hand run it and could save it to tape for later use Software distributed in this way was in general simpler and slower than its assembly language counterparts Magazines printed long lists of checksummed hexadecimal digits with machine code games or tools Another software distribution method was to broadcast the audio stream from the cassette on another medium and have users record it onto an audio cassette themselves In radio or television shows in many European countries the host would describe a program instruct the audience to connect a cassette tape recorder to the radio or TV and then broadcast the program over the airwaves in audio format 130 Some magazines distributed 7 331 3 rpm flexidisc records a variant of regular vinyl records which could be played on a standard record player 131 These disks were known under various trademarked names including Floppy ROM Flexisoft and Discoflex Copying and backup Edit Spectrum software was distributed almost exclusively on audio cassettes Many copiers utilities to copy programs from audio tape to another tape microdrive tapes and later on diskettes were available for the Spectrum As a response to this publishers introduced copy protection measures to their software including different loading schemes 132 Other methods for copy prevention were also used including asking for a particular word from the documentation included with the game often a novella such as the Silicon Dreams trilogy or another physical device distributed with the software e g Lenslok as used in Elite or the colour code chart included with Jet Set Willy Special hardware such as Romantic Robot s Multiface was able to dump a copy of the ZX Spectrum RAM to disk tape at the press of a button entirely circumventing the copy protection systems citation needed Most Spectrum software has been converted to current media and is available for download One popular program for converting Spectrum files from tape is Taper it allows connecting a cassette tape player to the line in port of a sound card or through a simple home built device to the parallel port of a PC 133 Once in files on a host machine the software can be executed on an emulator See also List of computer system emulators Sinclair ZX Spectrum and clones Community Edit The ZX Spectrum enjoyed a very strong community early on Several commercially published print magazines were dedicated to covering the home computer family and its offshoots including Sinclair User 1982 Your Spectrum 1983 rebranded as Your Sinclair in 1986 and CRASH 1984 In the early years the magazines were focused on programming for the system and carried many articles containing type in programs and machine code tutorials Later on they became almost completely game oriented starting many of the writing styles trends and tropes found in later video game publications and reviews citation needed Several other contemporary computer magazines covered the ZX Spectrum as part of their regular coverage of the home computer industry at that time These included Computer Gamer Computer and Video Games Computing Today Popular Computing Weekly Your Computer and The Games Machine 134 failed verification The Spectrum is affectionately known as the Speccy by elements of its fan following 135 More than 80 electronic magazines existed many in Russian Most notable of them were AlchNews UK Enigma Tape Magazine UK 16 48 UK ZX Format Russia Adventurer Russia Microhobby Spain and Spectrofon Russia These frequently included games demos and utilities alongside the magazine content much like a covertape on a paper magazine citation needed Notable developers Edit A number of notable games developers began their careers on the ZX Spectrum including David Perry of Shiny Entertainment and Tim and Chris Stamper founders of Rare formerly Ultimate Play the Game maker of many games for Nintendo and Microsoft game consoles Other prominent games developers include Julian Gollop Chaos Rebelstar X COM series Matthew Smith Manic Miner Jet Set Willy Jon Ritman Match Day Head Over Heels Jonathan Joffa Smith Batman The Caped Crusader Mikie Hyper Sports The Oliver Twins the Dizzy series Clive Townsend Saboteur Sandy White Ant Attack I of the Mask Pete Cooke Tau Ceti Mike Singleton The Lords of Midnight War in Middle Earth citation needed and Alan Cox 136 Although the 48K Spectrum s audio hardware was not as capable as chips in other popular 8 bit home computers of the era computer musicians David Whittaker and Tim Follin produced notable multi channel music for it citation needed Jeff Minter ported some of his VIC 20 games to the ZX Spectrum 137 Reception EditBYTE in January 1983 acknowledged the appeal of the Spectrum s low 125 price to British consumers and called it a promising machine It criticised the keyboard inexpensive or not the layout is impossible to justify poorly designed in several respects The review was sceptical of the computer s appeal to American consumers if sold for US 220 hardly competitive with comparable low cost American units and expected that Timex would sell it for 125 150 138 Legacy EditOn 23 April 2012 a Google doodle honoured the 30th anniversary of the Spectrum As it coincided with St George s Day the logo was of St George fighting a dragon in the style of a Spectrum loading screen 139 In December 2018 one of the alternate endings in Black Mirror Bandersnatch included the main character playing data tape audio that when loaded into a ZX Spectrum software emulator generates a QR code leading to a website with a playable version of the Nohzdyve game featured in the episode 140 Some programmers have continued to code for the platform by using emulators on PCs 141 Since 2020 there has been a museum LOAD ZX Spectrum dedicated to the ZX Spectrum and other Sinclair products as well as Timex Investronica and many others located in Cantanhede Portugal 142 See also Edit Video games portal 1980s portal United Kingdom portalList of computer system emulators Sinclair ZX Spectrum and clones List of ZX Spectrum games ZX Spectrum graphic modes ZX Spectrum character set Contended memoryReferences Edit Lewis Rhys 23 April 2016 April 23 1982 ZX Spectrum brings affordable and colourful computing into Britain s homes London British Telecom Archived from the original on 30 April 2016 Retrieved 4 April 2021 Leigh 2018 p 69 a b c How the Spectrum began a revolution BBC 23 April 2007 Archived from the original on 26 January 2021 Retrieved 4 April 2021 Mott 2000 p 76 Cellan Jones Rory 23 April 2012 The Spectrum the Pi and the coding backlash BBC News Retrieved 30 June 2021 Mason Graeme 18 February 2022 ZX Spectrum at 40 a look back NME Retrieved 10 November 2022 Speed Richard Sinclair s 8 bit home computer ZX Spectrum turns 40 www theregister com Retrieved 10 November 2022 a b Owen Chris ZX Spectrum 16K 48K Planet Sinclair Archived from the original on 5 August 2011 Retrieved 14 September 2008 Williams Chris 23 April 2007 Sinclair ZX Spectrum 25 today Register Hardware Situation Publishing Archived from the original on 25 December 2008 Retrieved 14 September 2008 Owen Chris ZX Spectrum Planet Sinclair Archived from the original on 11 September 2008 Retrieved 14 September 2008 Vickers Steven 1982 Introduction Sinclair ZX Spectrum BASIC Programming Sinclair Research Ltd Archived from the original on 24 September 2006 Retrieved 23 August 2006 a b Vickers Steven 1982 Colours Sinclair ZX Spectrum BASIC Programming Sinclair Research Ltd Archived from the original on 24 September 2006 Retrieved 23 August 2006 EP patent 0107687 Richard Francis Altwasser Display for a computer issued 6 July 1988 assigned to Sinclair Research Ltd Face off ZX Spectrum vs Commodore 64 Eurogamer 29 April 2012 Archived from the original on 4 September 2012 Retrieved 28 August 2012 Vickers Steven BEEP Sinclair ZX Spectrum BASIC Programming Sinclair Research Ltd Archived from the original on 13 November 2014 Day Peter 9 September 2014 How Dundee became a computer games centre BBC News Archived from the original on 9 October 2016 Retrieved 12 November 2016 Vickers Steven 1982 Basic programming concepts Sinclair ZX Spectrum BASIC Programming Sinclair Research Ltd Archived from the original on 24 September 2006 Retrieved 19 September 2006 Tape Data Storage Archived from the original on 15 April 2012 Retrieved 19 August 2012 Chapter 20 Tape Storage Basic Programming Sinclair Research 1982 The Sinclair Story Part 2 Crash 16 127 May 1985 a b Stratford Christopher 11 May 2014 The Home Computers Hall of Fame The Machines gondolin org uk Archived from the original on 17 March 2015 Retrieved 31 March 2015 Warman Matt 23 April 2012 ZX Spectrum at 30 the computer that started a revolution The Daily Telegraph London Archived from the original on 8 March 2013 Retrieved 31 March 2015 It was the computer that introduced a generation to video gaming helped to earn Sir Clive Sinclair a knighthood and even made programming cool the ZX Spectrum has a lot to answer for The High Street Spectrum ZX Computing 43 February 1983 Archived from the original on 16 March 2017 Retrieved 27 April 2016 News Spectrum prices are slashed Sinclair User 15 13 June 1983 Archived from the original on 22 February 2012 Retrieved 15 August 2006 The move is expected to cause chaos in the home computer market It is believed the reductions were prompted by competition which while it is not yet a serious threat is thought to be growing quickly Goodwin Simon September 1984 Suddenly it s the 64K Spectrum Your Spectrum 7 33 34 Archived from the original on 22 May 2014 Retrieved 31 March 2015 So the first three issues of the Spectrum used a combination of eight 16K chips and eight 32K ones The latest machines depart from that combination but Sinclair Research has been very quiet about the alteration Owen Chris 6 September 2003 Spectrum 48K Versions Planet Sinclair Archived from the original on 21 March 2015 Retrieved 31 March 2015 It is often possible to determine which version of the Spectrum 16 48K one has without opening the case as there are a number of clues THORN EMI DATATECH LTD March 1984 Servicing Manual For ZX Spectrum PDF Sinclair Research Ltd p 4 3 Archived PDF from the original on 1 February 2019 Retrieved 31 January 2019 ZX Spectrum Models Spectrum for Everyone Retrieved 9 September 2021 Spectrum For Everyone Serial DB Spectrum For Everyone Serial DB Retrieved 9 September 2021 Games Sinclair ZX Spectrum Power Supplies What Types Are There PopeyMon Fun 19 November 2020 Sinclair ZX Spectrum Power Supplies Safety Warning Welcome to PopeyMon Games and Fun Retrieved 13 June 2021 Spectrum sales top 200 000 Popular Computing Weekly No 7 Sunshine Publications 17 February 1983 p 1 Retrieved 24 October 2022 Spectrums to double Home Computing Weekly No 10 Argus Specialist Publications 10 May 1983 p 14 Retrieved 24 October 2022 Spectrum tops million mark Popular Computing Weekly No 31 Sunshine Publications 4 August 1983 p 1 Retrieved 24 October 2022 1m Spectrums Popular Computing Weekly No 51 Sunshine Publications 22 December 1983 p 5 Retrieved 24 October 2022 a b c Denham Sue December 1984 The Secret That Was Spectrum Your Spectrum 10 104 Archived from the original on 6 May 2006 Retrieved 21 August 2006 Spectrum surprise Home Computing Weekly No 85 Argus Specialist Publications 23 October 1984 p 1 Retrieved 23 May 2021 a b Owen Chris ZX Spectrum Planet Sinclair Archived from the original on 3 September 2011 Retrieved 21 August 2006 News New Spectrum launch Sinclair User 33 11 December 1984 Archived from the original on 24 September 2006 Retrieved 19 August 2006 News Sinclair declares Spectrum price war Sinclair User No 36 EMAP March 1985 p 7 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from the original on 23 September 2007 Retrieved 26 September 2007 Williams Gregg January 1983 Microcomputer British Style The Fifth Personal Computer World Show BYTE p 40 Retrieved 19 October 2013 St George s Day The 30th Anniversary of the ZX Spectrum Google Archived from the original on 7 May 2012 Retrieved 8 May 2012 Hughes William Bandersnatch s stockpile of Black Mirror easter eggs includes a playable video game take on an old episode News Retrieved 28 December 2018 Kelion Leo 23 April 2012 Sinclair s ZX Spectrum turns 30 BBC News Retrieved 15 July 2019 LOAD ZX Spectrum Additional sources Edit Mott Tony January 2000 Videogaming The Odyssey Edge No 80 Bath Future plc p 76 dead link Leigh Peter 2018 The Nostalgia Nerd s Retro Tech London Ilex Press pp 188 191 ISBN 978 1781575703 External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sinclair ZX Spectrum ZX Spectrum BASIC manual JSSpeccy 3 ZX Spectrum emulator in the browser Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php 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