Floppy Days 125 - ZX Spectrum Part 7 With PJ Evans

Floppy Days Vintage Computing Podcast

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays Sponsors:

• 8-Bit Classics

• Arcade Shopper

Welcome to Floppy Days #125 for April, 2023. And I’m your host, Randy Kindig.

We are currently in the year 1982 for home computers. This episode is the continuation of a multi-episode arc that covers the Sinclair ZX Spectrum through all the usual topics. This is the seventh of those, with the first having been the interview with John Grant of Nine Tiles, the second and third being coverage of the history of the Spectrum with Alessandro Grussu, the fourth being the interview with the author of the terrific book “The ZX Spectrum Ula: How to Design a Microcomputer”, Mr. Chris Smith, the fifth covering tech specs for the Speccy with Chris, and the sixth covering the topics peripherals, using the machine, and magazines with PJ Evans, Tour Guide and Sinclair curator at The National Museum of Computing on Bletchley Park in the U.K.

The topics covered in this episode include books, software, ads, modern upgrades, emulation, buying one today, community, and Web sites. Once again, my co-host will be PJ Evans, who did a wonderful job last episode. This will be the final episode covering the ZX Spectrum, after setting the record in terms of number of episodes on Floppy Days about a single machine.

As usual, I will also talk a bit about what I have been up to, including an update on any new acquisitions that have come my way. In addition, I’ll briefly tell you about upcoming shows of which I’m aware.

Before we get started I want to mention the show sponsors for Floppy Days.

https://www.8bitclassics.com, run by my friend Corey Koltz, is a great place to get vintage computer items. This includes video cables, power supplies, PC boards, cartridges, upgrades and more for a wide variety of vintage computer platforms. In the New Acquisitions section I cover each month on this show, often one of the items I talk about has been ordered from 8-Bit Classics. Corey has been a friend of the show for some time and I really appreciate his support of the podcast. Check out the site… he has some great stuff.

https://www.arcadeshopper.com, run by my friend Greg McGill, is another terrific site to get vintage computer items. Greg has a wide variety of hard-to-find items for a large number of platforms. This is another site that I do and have done a lot of shopping at and have mentioned numerous times on Floppy Days. If anything shows out of stock, just ping Greg through the contact form and he can check whether he has or can get more of the item for you.

I also wanted to mention those listeners who appreciate the show enough to donate through patreon.com. This includes Chris Petzel, Tony Cappellini, laurens, Richard Goulstone, Josh Malone, Andy Collins, Simon McCullough, Jason Moore, Quentin Barnes. I really appreciate you guys and it helps offset the cost of running the podcast.

Links Mentioned in the Show:

New Acquisitions and What I’ve Been Up To

• Amiga 500 Parceiro - [e-mail]

• Atari XEP80-II Case - https://thebrewingacademy.com/collections/atari-800-xl-xe-xel-xld/products/xep80-ii-by-mytek

• FD sign and shirt - http://www.vistaprint.com

• book - Over the Spectrum - https://amzn.to/3AmFaSZ

• ZXPand+ Case - http://www.sellmyretro.com

Upcoming Shows

• Indy Classic Computer and Video Game Expo - April 29 & 30 - Crowne Plaza Airport Hotel, Indianapolis, IN - https://indyclassic.org/

• The 64 bits or less Retro Gaming Festival - June 3-4 - Benton County Fairgrounds in Corvallis, Oregon (sponsored by the PortlandRetro Gaming Expo) - https://www.64bitsorless.com/

• Boatfest Vintage Computer Exposition - June 23-25 - Hurricane, WV - http://boatfest.info

• VCF Southwest - June 23-25 - Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center at University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX - http://vcfsw.org

• Pacific Commodore Expo NW v4 - June 24-25 - “Interim” Computer Museum, Seattle, WA - https://www.portcommodore.com/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=pacommex:start j

• KansasFest, the largest and longest running annual Apple II conference - July 18-23, 2023 - Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri - https://www.kansasfest.org/

• Southern Fried Gaming Expo and VCF Southeast - July 28-30 2023 - Atlanta, GA - https://gameatl.com/

• ZZAP! Live 2023 - August 12 - The Holiday Inn, Kenilworth, CV8 1ED - https://fusionretroevents.co.uk/category/zzap-live/

• VCF Midwest - September 9-10 - Waterford Banquets and Conference Center, Elmhurst, IL - http://vcfmw.org/

• Tandy Assembly - Sep. 29-Oct. 1 - Courtyard by Marriott in Springfield, Ohio - http://www.tandyassembly.com/

• AmiWest - October 14-15 - Sacramento, CA - https://retro.directory/browse/events/4/AmiWest.net

• Portland Retro Gaming Expo - October 13-15, 2023 - Oregon Convention Center, Portland, OR - https://retrogamingexpo.com/

• World of Commodore - Dec. 2-3, 2023 - Admiral Inn Mississauga, Mississauga, ON - http://www.worldofcommodore.ca/

Books

• books listed at World of Spectrum - https://worldofspectrum.org/archive/books

• Spectrum Machine Language For The Absolute Beginner by William Tang 2020 - https://amzn.to/3Ix6mn3 (Retro Reproductions)

• Over the Spectrum by Philip Williams 2020 - https://amzn.to/3YFsbGu (Retro Reproductions)

• Spectrum Games Bible 1982-1984 Paperback – June 11, 2008 by P Johns - https://amzn.to/3KfL0vy

• ZX Spectrum Games Code Club: Twenty fun games to code and learn Paperback – November 23, 2015 by Gary Plowman (Author) - https://amzn.to/3EgSFGk

• Spectrumpedia by Alessandro Grussu (2 volumes) - https://www.alessandrogrussu.it/sp.html

• Volume I (English) - https://amzn.to/3Ek9boX

• Volume II (English) - https://amzn.to/3IGVwet

• The Micro Kids: An 80s Adventure with ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and more Paperback – Illustrated, December 8, 2018 by Gary Plowman - https://amzn.to/3Klsan7

• The ZX Spectrum Ula: How to Design a Microcomputer Illustrated Edition by Christopher David Smith - https://amzn.to/3IwGgjU

• Sinclair ZX Spectrum : A Visual Compendium - https://www.bitmapbooks.com/collections/by-system/products/sinclair-zx-spectrum-a-visual-compendium

Software

• archive at World of Spectrum - https://worldofspectrum.org/archive

• TOSEC at archive.org by Lady Eklipse - https://archive.org/details/zx-spectrum-tosec-set-v-2020-02-18-lady-eklipse

• Top 10 games - https://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/30-best-zx-spectrum-games-594151

• 1. Elite – Firebird Games

• 2. R-Type – Electric Dreams Software

• 3. Chuckie Egg - A'n'F Software

• 4. Manic Miner - Bug-Byte Software Ltd

• 5. Knight Lore - Ultimate Play The Game

• 6. Back to Skool - Microsphere

• 7. Football Manager - Addictive Games Ltd

• 8. Lunar Jetman - Ultimate Play The Game

• 9. Horace Goes Skiing – Beam Software

• 10. Boulder Dash – Front Runner

• Productivity and Education Software from Sinclair Catalog (all cassette) - https://archive.org/details/sinclair-research/ZX%20Spectrum%20Software%20Catalog/mode/2up

Ads and Appearances

• Starring the Computer - http://www.starringthecomputer.com/

• Ad - http://www.retro8bitcomputers.co.uk/Sinclair/ZXSpectrum

Modern Upgrades

• ZX-AY external stereo audio interface for all ZX Spectrum models - https://www.bytedelight.com/?product=zx-ay-external-stereo-audio-interface-for-all-zx-spectrum-models

• ZX-HD HDMI Interface - https://www.bytedelight.com/?product=zx-hd-hdmi-interface-with-ulaplus

• DIVMMC - https://www.thefuturewas8bit.com/shop/sinclair/divmmcfuture.html

• SpectraNet - https://www.bytedelight.com/?product=spectranet-internet-interface-with-closed-case

Emulation

• Emulator list at World of Spectrum - https://worldofspectrum.net/emulators/

• Spectaculator (paid) https://www.spectaculator.com/

• Fuse:

• Windows - https://sourceforge.net/projects/fuse-emulator/files/fuse-utils/1.4.3/fuse-utils-1.4.3-win32.zip/download

• macOS - https://fuse-for-macosx.sourceforge.io/

• Linux - http://fuse-emulator.sourceforge.net/

• Speccy - https://fms.komkon.org/Speccy/

• Eighty One - https://www.aptanet.org/eightyone/

• Retro Virtual Machine (RVM) - https://www.retrovirtualmachine.org/

• ZEsarUX - https://github.com/chernandezba/zesarux/

• ZX Spectrum 4 Android - https://www.zxspectrum4.net/android/

• QAOP (browser-based) - http://torinak.com/qaop

• JSSpeccy (browser-based) - https://jsspeccy.zxdemo.org/

Community

• Facebook

• Spectrum Forever - https://www.facebook.com/groups/491247224287188

• Spectrum for Everyone - https://www.facebook.com/groups/400461880300289

• World of Spectrum - https://www.facebook.com/groups/1571053279836005

• ZX Spectrum - https://www.facebook.com/groups/164156683632183

• Twitter

• ZX Spectrum Code Club - https://twitter.com/zxspectrum_club

• Mastodon

• Sinclair ZX Spectrum Bot - https://oldbytes.space/@[e-mail]

• Spectrum User - https://oldbytes.space/@[e-mail]

• Forums

• AtariAge - https://www.atariage.com

• https://worldofspectrum.org/forums/

• https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/forums/index.php

• https://www.sinclairzxworld.com/viewforum.php

• Podcasts

• Our Sinclair: A ZX Spectrum Podcast by Amigos Retro Gaming - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/our-sinclair-a-zx-spectrum-podcast/id1454120857

• Reddit

• https://www.reddit.com/r/zxspectrum/

Web Sites

• Byte Delight shop - https://www.bytedelight.com

• The Future Was 8bit shop - https://www.thefuturewas8bit.com/

• Power supplies for Spectrum machines at Retro Games Supply - https://en.retrogamesupply.com/collections/other

• Dr. Steve Vickers at YouTube - https://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~sjv/

• “The first ZX Spectrum prototype laid bare” article about John Grant - https://www.theregister.com/2019/03/05/the_first_zx_spectrum_prototype_laid_bare/

• The official world archive for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum - https://worldofspectrum.org/

• The Spectrum Show by Paul Jenkinson - https://m.youtube.com/user/BuckingTheTrend2008

• The MagPi - https://magpi.raspberrypi.com/issues/67

• Interview with Steve Vickers & Richard Altwasser - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLnuY3EKnWE

References

• Retro 8-bit Computers - http://www.retro8bitcomputers.co.uk/

• Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX_Spectrum

• Old-Computers.com museum - https://www.old-computers.com/museum/default.asp

• https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/