Happy 30th Birthday!
April 23rd 1982.
A very significant date in the history of home computing as it was on this day that the Sinclair ZX Spectrum 16k was released to the general public in the UK. This computer was to become one of the most popular home computers of the 1980’s and along with the 48k & 128k variants that were released would go on to sell more than 5 million units worldwide.
My ZX Spectrum was bought as a birthday present by my mum and dad and I was beyond happy, I’m not 100% sure but I think it was for my 12th birthday in 1986. It came with a decent selection of games for me to play (my dad’s favourite game was Spectipede) and over the years I would amass a rather large collection of Spectrum game buying on average one game a week once I’d gotten my part-time job at the local pub (Dog walker and weekend early morning bottling-up) it paid well and was a lot better than doing a paper round!
I eventually purchased a 128k +2 computer and I was really happy to have the new computer as it brought with it enhanced features in many games most notably the vastly improved audio capabilities (the whole reason for this blog). It was a great machine and I have many happy memories loading games from tape and playing some of the best and most original games ever created.
And so the humble ZX Spectrum turns 30 years old today to celebrate this milestone I am going to divulge a selection of my personal favourite games. I was going to do a full Top 30 (I actually had it partly written) but felt that I wasn’t going to do the list, the games or the ZX Spectrum justice so instead I am going to give you a selection of games that I personally enjoyed playing. These aren’t necessarily the best games but they are fun!
So, everyday this week I’ll be looking at a selection of classic games that for me, as a kid in the 80’s, were just great!
Turn the page for the first games…
Pages: 1 2
Retro Game Music 
Never was a big fan of the ZX Spectrum as I was rocking a Commodore 64 owner but as I have grown older I can see the draw of the ZX Spectrum.
A friend of mine had a C64 and I was always impressed by the quality of the music as I owned a 48k Speccy at the time so the sound wasn’t the best. I did comment on numerous occasions though that the graphics were bloody awful and very blocky – unless the game went monochrome then it had high-res graphics that actually looked good!
Still both machines had good and bad points. Good days though back in the 80’s!!
[…] Music celebrates the 30th anniversary of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum with a 7-part blog post tribute- Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, and Part 7. A must read for fans of this great computer, […]