Talk:ZX Spectrum/Archive 1

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Contents

Future ideas for the article

  • List of the top 10 games of all time on Spectrum.
  • Photo of each model?
  • Find out which model the parallel printer port turned up on.
  • More history about the making of the Spectrum.
  • Some memorable quotes?
  • Current state of emulation - very good!

--DamienG 02:10, 31 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Sounds fun - go for it! Point by point, though...
  • The games will be contentious. It will be edited a lot. Suggest a separate page for that.
  • Photos are fine, but getting copyright-free ones is not
  • Parallel port? Did any Spectrum have a parallel port? Certainly the Sinclair ones didn't; I'm not sure about the Amstrad ones - never owned one - but the original +2 didn't, as it was a recased 128.
  • History: would be good, e.g. the role of Nine Tiles in the ROM.
  • Quotes - from whom? Probably the single one is Alan Sugar's crack about a "pregnant calculator"
  • Emulation - I don't really use this myself much, but it's worth covering, yes. you're right.
--Liam Proven 13:03, 1 Sep 2004 (UTC)
  • Maybe a list of important games thay originated on the Speccy or major softmare companies of the time?
  • Photos not a problem for the 48K, 48K+, +2 and +3 models as I have at least one of each. 128K and +2A I'll investigate.
  • Parallel port - the +3 has one, will check my +2 back home.
--DamienG 14:51, 1 Sep 2004 (UTC)
  • Fair enough! I'm not and never was a gamer, so I'll defer on this.
  • Photos - go for it!
  • Parallel port - it does? Coo. I didn't know that. What with the new internal hard disk modifications and so on, I'm quite tempted to get a +3 now, although I much preferred my 128 & DISCiPLE back in the day...
--Liam Proven 16:20, 1 Sep 2004 (UTC)
  • The emulation discussions would be worthy of their own article - eg, which software houses currently permit emulation, lists of emulators, PC remakes, etc
--PopUpPirate 19:46, Feb 4, 2005 (UTC)
  • As somebody who is an active programmer in the Speccy emulator scene I can tell you there are a fair few and the scene constantly changes. Unlike the Spectrum article itself it would be in a constant state of flux. As for software houses allowing emulation, there are some that do, some that don't and some that only allow specific web sites to distribute their software such as [www.worldofspectrum.org WoS]. DamienG 19:33, August 14, 2005 (UTC)


References

We'll need references ie cite sources if we ever want to submit it to FAC. --PopUpPirate 19:37, August 14, 2005 (UTC)

This article is really shaping up now with the latest work of Pak21 who has added a lot of references. Great Job! I have added a picture of my old +3, and now we only need pictures of the original 128K model, both the Spanish and the English. Anyone up for that? --Frodet 20:17, 19 August 2006 (UTC)
I have a "toastrack" 128K, I can take a picture of it when I get a new lamp... —Pixel8 20:44, 19 August 2006 (UTC)
Thanks, but almost all the credit should really go to those people who scanned and typed the instructions and Martijn van der Heide at WoS for indexing them all. Unfortunately, the indexing appears to stop at around about the Amstrad buy-out, so getting any more will be significantly more work... on another front, I'd like to get some references in for the technical information. The obvious source for this would be the comp.sys.sinclair FAQ, but I'm not particularly happy adding references to that myself as I wrote and/or copyedited most of the "Reference" section. Any views on how to handle this appreciated. Cheers --Pak21 16:35, 20 August 2006 (UTC)
With technical information, you are referring to "4 Technical specifications"? And how do you suggest referencing this? One reference tag for each fact would make the chapter rather unreadable. How about some prose on the form:
Information gathered from x.
at the top/bottom? --Frodet 17:03, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

Sumary of ideas

Just an abstract of the ideas above:

  • Photo of the Spanish 128K.
  • Information about emulation; which software houses currently permit emulation and which don't, lists of emulators, etc. Really scope for a separate article, but a chapther here would be a start.
    • I seem to remember reading that due to the variety of available ZX Spectrum emulators, it was (one of?) the platform with highest binary compatibility. I can't seem to find any reference for this now, though. Anyone know?
  • Retro remakes.
  • The article ZX Spectrum demos needs to be expanded and a summary included in this article.
  • Sections about impact in different countries, eg. Impact in [insert fav country here].

Screen resolution

I'm sure I'm mistaken but i thought the vertical resolution was 176 not 192

It is definately 192 not 176. ADSR6581 13:59, August 3, 2005 (UTC)
You're probably just thinking about the main 22 lines of text (22 × 8 = 176), but there were a couple extra lines at the bottom where error messages appeared. By the way, please sign your posts. --Goblin ›talk 14:01, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

Memory expansion 16/48K

memory expansion from 16kb spectrum to 48kb. Near start of article reference to 'Expansion pack' - perhaps a bit vague? - was this ever available as an external plug in pack? i remember fitting the memory chips Internally into a 16kb machine, but i don't remember an external pack similar to the zx81's being available? Certainly i don't remember an official Sinclair pack for the speccy? Only the original rubber key speccy was expandable - all others had fixed memory (no 48kb to 128kb expansion)? --BA

I don't think Sinclair did one, but Cheetah did a 32K pack to bring 16K's to 48K - I had one on my first Speccy. DamienG 09:05, Nov 23, 2004 (UTC)
This was a typical piece of Sinclair. They marketed the ZX Spectrum as having an expansion pack available later, then they had problems getting it to work (I think the RAM Wobble experienced by ZX81 users was one of these). So for anyone who wanted an upgrade, they said you could send your computer off to them and they would install the RAM internally. I did this, but found that they actually sent me back a new 48k computer (with the second version motherboard and IIRC a slightly faster processor). So I have re-written the section. DavidFarmbrough 9:30 (BST) 5 September 2005

Kempston Joystick

I have fond memories of this stick and can remember the many months required to break it in. Therefore I've written up a page about the Kempston joystick and corrected the link in this ZX article. If anyone has or can take a picture of the joystick, feel free to update my article. The same goes if you see errors, typos etc. Thanks. --Adamlock 19:23, 14 August 2005 (UTC)

I'm wondering which joystick you are actually referring to on your new article. Kempston produced a number of joysticks, none simply called "Kempston Joystick". They also made a joystick interface for the Spectrum that allowed you to connect any Atari style DB9 joystick. Unlike other interfaces the Kempston didn't send keypresses but registered the joystick movement on the Z80 bus (port 31) and was soon copied by other interface manufacturers. I can easily imagine many Spectrum owners assuming whatever joystick they had was a Kempston simply because that was the method their interface used, which may have in fact been a Datel or any number of other manufacturers . DamienG 19:59, August 14, 2005 (UTC)
Oh, I see you've linked to it. That is a "Competition Pro" joystick. DamienG 20:04, August 14, 2005 (UTC)
Thanks for the updates. My faulty memory allowed me to forget the exact model name. --Adamlock 10:41, 15 August 2005 (UTC)
Maybe a bit off-topic, but I just have bought a Competition Pro USB joystick, for use with MAME and MESS! Relive my Speccy youth! (I still have a Currah µ-speech (which I bought before upgrading to 48k as I found this much more fun) and an Speccy AMX mouse (one of the first mice!) laying around somewhere...) --Marc NL 14:26, 1 November 2005 (UTC)

More info on cassette

Just found an old Chess game cassette for the ZX Spectrum. Does anyone have more information on the format data is encoded on the ZX Spectrum tapes? --Abdull 23:46, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

They are specific to the Sinclair Spectrum and can only by successfully loaded by emulators. Check out [[1]] archive to see if it has already been archived - if so it will be available in a digital format already for use with emulators. If not, get in touch with somebody on the forums to see about getting it archived for prosperity. DamienG 00:22, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Tape speed

Justification for my tape speed changes: on tape, a reset bit consists of two edges at 855 tstates each, and a set bit consists of two edges at 1710 tstates each (see eg The Complete Spectrum ROM Disassembly by Logan and O'Hara). Hence at 3.5 MHz, loading speed can vary between 3.5*10^6/(2*1710) = 1024 and 3.5*10^6/(2*855) = 2047 baud depending on the proportion of reset bits, with an even proportion producing 3.5*10^6 / ( 855 + 1710 ) = 1364 ≈ 1350 baud. Cheers --Pak21 15:48, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

  • Parity bits: the Spectrum included a parity byte for each block, but not a parity bit for each byte. Cheers --Pak21 09:11, 11 January 2006 (UTC)
Sorry about my statements - I did them last night, by heart, as I did not manage to find the details (quickly enough). Its just what I remembered - around 0.5 ms and 1 ms (which was almost correct - 0.4886 ms and 0.9771 ms). My math was off, as I averaged the speeds, not durations... That is what happens when you're tired enough to barely keep eyes open and decide to write...
Regarding parity, I remember creating custom loading/saving routines (with border art) with parity, but that was a long time ago... I may be mistaken that it was per byte.
In any case, I'll make necessary fixes according to information you found.
--Aleksandar Šušnjar 15:35, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

Spanish law

Spanish courts decreed all computers with 64 kB RAM or less must support the Spanish alphabet (including ñ) and show messages in Spanish.

"64kB or less"? That's surprising. I would have expected it to be "64kB or more". Can someone confirm the entry and explain why? --Malcohol 10:12, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

It was indeed <64 kB. There was even an Amstrad CPC 472 with 72 kB RAM, but only 64 kB was used, to circumvent the law. And it was originally not an absolute, but a tax on all computers with 64 kB or less which was not localized to Spanish. According to [2] the law was later changed to include all computers. --Frodet 18:24, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

External links

The External links section is getting seriously in need of pruning. I suggest we keep the World of Spectrum, comp.sys.sinclair FAQ, Planet Sinclair, ZXF and the ROM disassembly and chuck the rest. Any views? Cheers --Pak21 13:36, 9 February 2006 (UTC)

Sounds reasonable to me. --StuartBrady 15:50, 9 February 2006 (UTC)
I took the lilberty to prune some of the more obvious. There are some left not on the list above.... --Frodet 20:00, 9 February 2006 (UTC)

Thank you editor(s)

I just wanted to thank whoever was responsible for this bit of text in the article: "Many ZX Spectrum users and enthusiasts have a historic rivalry with groups of Commodore 64 users, which is prevalent even today. Typically this manifests itself in flame wars on Usenet, where each side argues about which computer they believe is best, showing strong loyalties to their favourite machines. Despite the irrelevance of the two machines in the modern market, these arguments often break down into uncivilized acts of verbal abuse." - Beautifully phrased and gave me a great laugh. --bodnotbod 00:45, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

Permissions, etc

I just reverted the change to the permissions section, basically for two reasons:

  1. While a non-trivial number of developers have given their permission, this is largely irrelevant as it is the publishers who still own the copyrights, and very few of those have given permission; see eg [3].
  2. In general, the permissions have not been given to "download sites": they have been given to one site only, World of Spectrum, the only site which actively searches for copyright holders and asks for their permission.

Disclaimer: I am a minor maintainer of World of Spectrum. Cheers --Pak21 18:24, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

I don't think that the permission is irrelevant at all. The copyrights may remain with the publishers but the permissions given are highly significant given the difficulty of obtaining much of this software these days, not least because of the impact on the abandonware scene. While I grant that many permissions are only for WoS, the practice of obtaining explicit permission is increasingly common these days (Back2Roots used to do it for Amiga games). Jamyskis Whisper, Contribs Germany 08:18, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

QL-style enclosure?

Great article! I was wondering if it would be more prudent to say that the speccy + form factor was later adopted in the QL design. I only say this because the Spectrum + came before the QL. Thanks!

No it didn't - the QL was launched in January 1984, the ZX Spectrum+ in October 1984 - see the Sinclair Research Ltd article. - Letdorf 09:37, 13 June 2006 (UTC).

Thanks for the info! I stand corrected:)

Clones

The clones section mentions that "several clones are still in production, such as the Sprinter (which is linked)" - but when you go to the Sprinter article it says production has finished.

Maybe someone who knows what a ZX Spectrum is could update that with some verifiable information about when the Sprinter was last in production?

I would edit but I don't have anything verifiable to include... --Garrie 22:02, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

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