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I never had a Spectrum, but it's easy to understand the magic of such a device. It's tiny, it's relatively cheap, it's simple enough to take apart (disassemble
by watersb 5y ago
I never had a Spectrum, but it's easy to understand the magic of such a device.
It's tiny, it's relatively cheap, it's simple enough to take apart (disassembled ROM, or dis-assembled hardware I suppose).
Sure, it was underpowered, and the keyboard was cheap. But for a kid, those can be features.
My first computer was a relatively luxurious TRS-80 Color Computer. My family could almost afford the 16KB version. It was a technically clean design, and I learned a lot, and here I am.
Give a kid a tiny machine, some documentation, and tell them it is theirs.
- noneeeed 5y agoI think you've hit the nail on the head. I was luck to have had a number of computers that were essentially "mine". First a ZX Spectrum, then the +2A, an ancient Compaq luggable (which had the most wonderful keyboard), and an ancient Toshiba laptop. The fact that these were mine to do what I wanted with, without worrying about breaking them, was really important in giving me the freedom to really explore them.