ZX Spectrum, an unbeaten classic?

[Jay]

Quite. I got a boxed copy ages ago for about a fiver. Can't remember where from though. The only annoying thing about it is that it doesn't have a battery. I hate passwords on portable games.

Jay

[Papercut]

We all know the Spectrum excelled at wireframe graphics (Starstrike was absolutely amazing when it came out) but for the majority of games (read: sprite-based), the C64 pissed all over the Spectrum. Both machines have their classics, and I love them both dearly (and own both now, as I did back then), but I fail to see how anybody can believe that the Spectrum was the better machine. A C64 with a disk drive and a pile of games is absolute heaven. 20 second loaders, solid sprites, hardware scrolling and the superb sounds of the SID chip combined to make the C64 the arcade gamers machine of the choice back in the day. And of course multi-load hell was much less of a problem with a disk drive. As for the competition - the Atari 800 series simply didn't have the range of games to compete.

I've meant to post in this thread, but that says it all really. I'm 100% in agreement with the above

Vector graphics (cpu speed) aside, the spectrum hardware was awful. You can argue that it had good games, which of course it did, but the C64 generally had better arcade games, and a longer life of quality releases.

I also own both machines myself (never got rid of them).

Glad to see the Atari 800 get some deserved recognition, when I got my C64 in 1984 the Atari was clearly the better machine. The next couple of years changed that, with a slew of quality C64 games (most of them originating in the uk).

Shame the Atari 8 bit series was always stupidly overpriced. Apart from audio, the Atari 8 bit was a superior machine to the C64 in every way. Mercenary, and in particular Alternate Reality, were much better on their native Atari 8 bit.

In the early 80s the Atari was the place to be for quality arcade conversions. I still have a 600 XL, back in the day I modded it to fit an extra 32Kb, so that games thought it was a 800XL

[Super Stu]

Gents, why are you sat there comparing a PC with an EGA card to one with a Geforce4? Alright, bit extreme, but we know the spectrum was a bit down on hardware, I think that was pretty obvious. It is even more impressive, then, when you see some of the programming achieved on it.

That sort of heavily optimised programming is a lost art these days, imho. I think that's one of the highlights for me. Good old blighty, making everyone else 'Ave It with inferior kit.

[Papercut]

Gents, why are you sat there comparing a PC with an EGA card to one with a Geforce4? Alright, bit extreme, but we know the spectrum was a bit down on hardware, I think that was pretty obvious. It is even more impressive, then, when you see some of the programming achieved on it.

That sort of heavily optimised programming is a lost art these days, imho. I think that's one of the highlights for me. Good old blighty, making everyone else 'Ave It with inferior kit.

Fair point, what I should have also mentioned is that the C64 and Atari 8 bit's better video hardware made them more suited to fast, smooth arcade games. Having joystick ports helped too.

[Super Stu]

pft, Q A O P Space was the king of kings.

[Papercut]

pft, Q A O P Space was the king of kings.

heh heh heh

I could never get to grips with the rubbery keyboard. There was far too much travel, and too much resistance. The membranes died on 1/2 my spectrums too.

What you need is a Kempston Interface, and a nice Competition Pro. Which, if memory serves, was a clone (or rebranding?) of the original Kempston joystick.

[Mayhem]

I could never get to grips with the rubbery keyboard. There was far too much travel, and too much resistance. The membranes died on 1/2 my spectrums too.

This, apparently, is one of the reasons my parents decided against the Spectrum when considering our first home computer. And then went with the C64 instead when a work colleague of dad's decided to sell his up at the start of 1984...

First game I ever played on the C64? Ghostbusters. Couldn't ask for a much better start then, great colourful graphics, bouncy music and the speech of course

[Super Stu]

What you need is a Kempston Interface

Without a shadow of a doubt the best thing you could ever connect to a kempston interface

imho

[Papercut]

First game I ever played on the C64? Ghostbusters. Couldn't ask for a much better start then, great colourful graphics, bouncy music and the speech of course

I feel compelled to post that the Atari 800 version was better (even down to the speech, on disk at least), irritating as that is.

First c64 games I played were galaxians and space invaders in a shop. they were official cartridges I think, but I may be mistaken, I was very young.

First games I owned were Loco, Pooyan, Beach Head and Bruce Lee.

[Papercut]

What you need is a Kempston Interface

Without a shadow of a doubt the best thing you could ever connect to a kempston interface

imho

I preferred the later micro switched Competition Pro 5000s to the Zip Sticks. I still have a whole bunch of them (and Zip Sticks). The Amiga era Zip Sticks were really cheaply made



The leaf switch button versions of the Competition Pro wore out too soon, but micro switches I could replace

Remember the deluxe transparent blue version they did with two extra buttons and spring tension instead of a huge rubber gromit? They were class

Wow, you can still buy the mini versions here:

http://www.amigastuff.co.uk/parts.asp?s=mj⊂=F2

I'd totally forgotten about them

* edit * many more for sale here:

http://www.classgen.co.uk/itmidx39.htm

and the deluxe Competition Pro Star



Always wanted one of these, but there were hideously expensive:

http://www.cbmhardware.de/misc/joystick/joysticks.php3?Lang=D

[Super Stu]

See, whatever area of gaming you're in, anything at all, you'll always have the opposing fanboys.

I'll take my zipstick with yellow buttons

[Papercut]

hey, come on.

If I didn't have a Zip Stick _then_ I'd be a fan boy

[Mayhem]

Competition Pros were good, but I actually prefered the Powerplay Cruiser sticks. I've had 3 of them for 13 years and they all still work perfectly. They were the ones where you could adjust the torque setting to make it easier when doing waggling games such as Decathlon

Ergonomic, robust and only ?10 each at the time, bargain! 8)

[Papercut]

yuck yuck yuck, the tension bolt gave you two settings: 'too loose' or 'creaky but usable'... and those inset buttons

[Jay]

Always wanted one of these, but there were hideously expensive:

The stick and surrounding graphic on that are identical to a joystick I have called a micro-handler, which is much larger and has two built-in paddles (yes, really), two arcade-sized fire buttons and an autofire dial. It's superb but the stick has far too much travel. I can't find a pic of it on the web, unfortunately.

Jay