Homage to the SINCLAIR ZX SPECTRUM - the best computer ever!!!
Question Answer Nostalgic Pictures
Why a homage to theSINCLAIR ZX SPECTRUM? While I still am quite beardless and will live another 150 years, the truth is that the years I spent with the ZX SPECTRUM were so magical, that I have a problem in believing that this extreme pleasure will ever be repeated.

That is why the SPECTRUM deserves the biggest and the most unmesurable of the respects! For allowing, not only me, but to thousands of other people, mornings, afternoons and nights genuinely happy! Solid state joy!

For those of you who never tried a SPECTRUM when it ruled, it's easy to judge my words very much superlative, but the truth is really that one!

How will I ever forget the nights playing KnightLore and Underwurlde, the Matchday championships, the joystick tortures in Hypersports (that weight lifting level...), the Formula 1 seasons, the Jet Set Willy tricks, the Avalon mystique and the Hobbit's bugs?

I shall never forget! The aim of this page it's to keep that memory well alive and transmit it to the new generations of computer users!

LONG LIVE the ZX SPECTRUM!
Sir Clive Sinclair
Sir Clive Sinclair, the inventor of the ZX SPECTRUM, in the picture holding a SINCLAIR QL, which features a keyboard similar to those of the ZX SPECTRUM +, an evolution of the original speccy, with a not-so-horrible keyboard and a much smaller aura of magic.
What's a ZX SPECTRUM? The ZX SPECTRUM is a small personal computer, with 16, 48 or 128K of RAM memory, based on the Z80 microprocessor. It uses audio tapes as non-volatile memory and it needs a TV for image output. It displays color in glorious 4 bits, but because of the way it handles the screen, it's damn hard to use all the colors at the same time. Some of the best games were monochromatic!

The most popular speccy was the ZX SPECTRUM 48K. The 16K machine was too limited and the 128K version arrived too late, when the games' market was already being "attacked" by much higher-specification machines.

Because of its "free archicture", the Z80 microprocessor allowed what is now called "the bedroom programming scene", where young people all over the world, locked themselves over night, building the most magical worlds ever created!

Since RAM memory was the only "true" limitation in games' designing (there was no specialized hardware, like the sound processor in the Commodore 64), the limit was the programmer's imagination!
NightShade
Nightshade, the first 3D «filmation» game with colours, in my opinion still represents the maximium in ZX SPECTRUM graphics. Other games, such as R-Type and Lightforce were also superb, but I didn't enjoy them as much as Nightshade...
With graphics and souds so modest, how's that about the speccy games being so great? Well, the truth is that a game is much, much more, than sounds and graphics. The more important factors are playability, lastability and originality.

The ZX SPECTRUM software always was very imaginative! The arcade conversions didn't quite make it to the speccy, because of severe hardware restrictions. However, there are glorious exceptions, that still don't deny the fact that the better games were the "original concept" ones, directly from some bedroom...

In other words, the speccy placed a bet, more on game design than in game "show-off", meaning that things might not look gorgeous, but are simply fantastic when playing!

Each game played differently in each player's mind. Its a kind of magic, ie, the speccy always trusted our brains to fill the gaps. Believe me! - It works! It is magic!
Knightlore
Knightlore, the most revolutionary game ever, for any platform! It was the debut of the «filmation» technique and solid 3D graphics! It was the confirmation of ULTIMATE PLAY THE GAME as the best entertainment software house, ever!
What's the most impressive, unbelievable and bombastic news, ever, related to the ZX SPECTRUM? Yes, there is such an unbelievable (but true) information, only made public after the ZX SPECTRUM died, in comercial terms. May be that this information is only understood to its true extent by experienced speccy players:

- Knightlore, from ULTIMATE PLAY THE GAME, was programmed BEFORE Sabre Wulf, and it was not released, because the 2 brothers that were ULTIMATE, had the oppinion that "the world was not ready for it"! Absolutely bombastic! Is it not? And they might be right... don't you think so?
ULTIMATE PLAY THE GAME
ULTIMATE PLAY THE GAME, THANK YOU for the hundreds of magical hours you allowed me!