4 ms·

I think this gets some of the Spectrum experience, and misses other parts. It was never really an open system. The firmware was closed source (you could eventu

I think this gets some of the Spectrum experience, and misses other parts. It was never really an open system. The firmware was closed source (you could eventually buy an unofficial disassembly) but you couldn't update it with your own changes. You could add external hardware, with some effort, but it was never trying to compete with a backplane system like S-100. What it did have - apart from very low initial cost and wide availability - was instant-on (no formatting, no setting up, no downloading and installing), staged progress from beginner to expert (i.e. from BASIC to assembler), a small comprehensible system (the manual explained everything BASIC could do, assembler needed an extra book or two but was still very manageable) a very large market with very low cost of entry and high margins (you could write a game, advertise it for almost no money, and send out the initial copies from home with no duplication costs), and a supportive culture of print magazines, occasional TV news and documentaries, and computer shows. (Face to face clubs were much rarer and less influential.) The physical case design was just plain cool. And it worked with your own TV, which was almost like being on TV. So basically a combination of instant gratification, tiny-system simplicity with tough constraints that rewarded clever solutions and creativity, low-friction financial opportunity, cultural reinforcement and support among peers working at a similar level, distinctive aesthetics with a coolness of a sort, and affordability. I don't think it's a coincidence that it happened not long after punk and synth pop in music. Even if their output was very different, all of of those had very similar cultural features.

stewbrew 5y ago
Oh come on. The size of the ROM was 16kb. Do you have an idea what is the size of the microcode in your Intel CPU? I'm sure you could have replaced the chip containing the ROM and replace it with your own version. Things were a little bit more rough back then.
- razzio 5y ago
  This is exactly what I did. I made the ROM writable by soldering a CMOS ram chip across the ROM (was it 16KB?) and any write to the ROM would end up in the RAM. A switch selected either the ROM or RAM to read from. On startup simply copy the ROM to the RAM and flip the switch. From there on you can read/write the original ROM and modify it to your hearts content.
noobermin 5y ago
How did this compare to the Commodore 64? A few of the details are similar it sounds like, (instant-on, a small comprehensible system although with a bunch of add-ons). I guess the c64 wasn't as cheap.
- TomVDB 5y ago
  Everyone but ZX Spectrum owners understood that the C64 was superior in every way imaginable. The Speccy owners tried to prove otherwise during countless arguments in the schoolyard, but deep down they knew.
  - 123pie123 5y ago
    I had both, speccy first and then a C64 later I used the C64 only for games, and the spectrum for my own programs and the odd top game and yes I was on both sides in the playground, but the C64 had something missing that the spectrum had, hard to put a finger on it, the spectrum did have inferior games (based on the specifications), but It was more accessable or hackable (in todays speak) I'd say the spectrum kids was more into modding it, typing their own code from magazines and learning stuff, but the C64 kids used it more like console. and could not see the reason for having a spectrum (due to the inferior spec etc..)
    - TomVDB 5y ago
      I didn’t do any speccy hacking, but the C64 was IMO amazing in the regard. The way you could reprogram the VIC each horizontal line into different video modes, changing the screen width to make borders disappear, the way you could disable the kernal ROMs to expose more DRAM etc. But all machines of that era were so low level with plenty of tricks to exploit.
      - 123pie123 5y ago
        yes the C64 had some very cool features, I tried to develop some basic games on it using sprites. but it felt like an uphill struggle. I remember making cool music was easy tho maybe it was the school I went to and the information the collection of kids had

stewbrew 5y ago

Oh come on. The size of the ROM was 16kb. Do you have an idea what is the size of the microcode in your Intel CPU? I'm sure you could have replaced the chip containing the ROM and replace it with your own version. Things were a little bit more rough back then.

razzio 5y ago
This is exactly what I did. I made the ROM writable by soldering a CMOS ram chip across the ROM (was it 16KB?) and any write to the ROM would end up in the RAM. A switch selected either the ROM or RAM to read from. On startup simply copy the ROM to the RAM and flip the switch. From there on you can read/write the original ROM and modify it to your hearts content.

noobermin 5y ago

How did this compare to the Commodore 64? A few of the details are similar it sounds like, (instant-on, a small comprehensible system although with a bunch of add-ons). I guess the c64 wasn't as cheap.

TomVDB 5y ago
Everyone but ZX Spectrum owners understood that the C64 was superior in every way imaginable. The Speccy owners tried to prove otherwise during countless arguments in the schoolyard, but deep down they knew.
- 123pie123 5y ago
  I had both, speccy first and then a C64 later I used the C64 only for games, and the spectrum for my own programs and the odd top game and yes I was on both sides in the playground, but the C64 had something missing that the spectrum had, hard to put a finger on it, the spectrum did have inferior games (based on the specifications), but It was more accessable or hackable (in todays speak) I'd say the spectrum kids was more into modding it, typing their own code from magazines and learning stuff, but the C64 kids used it more like console. and could not see the reason for having a spectrum (due to the inferior spec etc..)
  - TomVDB 5y ago
    I didn’t do any speccy hacking, but the C64 was IMO amazing in the regard. The way you could reprogram the VIC each horizontal line into different video modes, changing the screen width to make borders disappear, the way you could disable the kernal ROMs to expose more DRAM etc. But all machines of that era were so low level with plenty of tricks to exploit.
    - 123pie123 5y ago
      yes the C64 had some very cool features, I tried to develop some basic games on it using sprites. but it felt like an uphill struggle. I remember making cool music was easy tho maybe it was the school I went to and the information the collection of kids had