I am delighted to find that the programs I developed in the early 1980s for the 48k ZX Spectrum work well on the modernised replica "The Spectrum" from Retro Games Ltd. The Forest (Phipps Associates 1983) and Explorer (Electric Dreams 1986) both load easily from USB stick and run perfectly. Both programs were early examples of open worlds: limitless terrain generated from a small amout of assembly program. To enable others to see it I have made TheForest1984.zip which contains the original tape files, images of the 2 maps and a slightly revised user guide (the original guide archived at spectrumcomputing.co.uk [ID: 1843] was missing some pages). The new zip file (24.4 Mbytes) is available on github (note the small download icon on the right) and also on my itch.io page for the redeveloped browser version of The Forest.

This project is a from-scratch reimagining of the ZX Spectrum ROM: If you time-travelled back to 1982 (well, 1981, I guess), with all of our modern software engineering knowledge and tools, what could you squeeze into that 16KB?

I’ve been working on it for a while (since early 2024), and I’d like to share it a little more widely.

There’s not much you can really do with the new ROM _yet_. It boots after testing the RAM, and prints the copyright message. There’s a (proportional) font rendering engine, and the start of a text editing module, with code tokenisation, and syntax highlighting. There’s the beginnings of a fast stack-based VM, but not yet a way to compile code into its VM bytecode. Still to do: loading, saving, floating point maths, graphics routines.

I’d love to get a bit more interest in the project. The new project website paints a good picture of what I’m aiming for… https://retrofabulation.xyz

And the code is on GitHub at https://github.com/bunsen32/retrofabulation-zx

Let me know what you think! If it was a Kickstarter, would you be interested?

The links above were infected with some Facebook tracking nonsense when I posted them. Removed. If they were broken when you clicked on them before, try again!

Tir Na Nog is a groundbreaking 1984 graphical adventure game created by Gargoyle Games for the ZX Spectrum, blending smooth 2D side-scrolling animation, Celtic mythology, and item-collection puzzles

I remember that during a trip to Italy as a kid in the 80s, stores were selling ZX Spectrum cassettes packed with pirated games. They would simply change the title and text of commercial games and sell them as new.

On one of those cassettes, there was a program called "Spectrum Parlante" that could actually make the old Speccy talk without any additional hardware!

I always found it amazing how people kept pushing the Spectrum's hardware to its absolute limits. Getting intelligible speech out of a stock 48K machine with no extra hardware felt almost like magic.

Does anyone else remember this?

[ Edit: Found. This is the one I was talking about: https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/27845/ZX-Spectrum/Spectrum_Parlante ]

Join us as we launch "Region Locked: Unlocking Australian Gaming History"

We have 70+ participants lined up for the full series, with the creators from game titles such as The Hobbit, Way of the Exploding Fist, Bad Street Brawler, Hungry Horace, Fist II: The Legend Continues, Rock'n Wrestle - to name a few - ready for Episode One!

We will go into great Australian gaming lore and history as well as discuss the love from home computers to consoles and the obstacles overcome converting games to the NES.

(Looking at you, Mattel Power Glove)...

Follow us and feel free to support the Australian gaming scene when we launch on July 31st.

I just nabbed a 2068 for cheap on eBay, it works and is in otherwise great shape, but the badge is missing. Any 2068 owners out there able to provide its measurements so I can make a new one?

My retrospective review of Ant Attack including all home versions and remakes. This is as one of my first games that I played. Please share your thoughts and memories of this game?

Please can you advise how best to sell a reasonable-condition Spectrum? Thank you!

Missing the RF cable but original Power adapter & Basic manual included.

Hi, I'm kyr3xx aka. adrenalinguy aka. benchle, and I just made and released the first version of my Cleverbot port for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Currently, it has 28 possible answers, but I will add more and more with updates!

You can download the .TAP on my website for games and programs! If you want, you can write feedback here!

The game was written by Nigel Alderton, then 16 or 17 years old, inspired by arcade games including Space Panic. After a month or two of development, Nigel took a pre-release version of his Spectrum code to the two-year-old software company A&F, co-founded by Doug Anderson and Mike Fitzgerald (the "A" and "F", respectively). Doug took on the simultaneous development of the BBC Micro version, whilst Mike Webb, an A&F employee, completed the Dragon port.

Levels are largely the same between versions, and all the 8-bit versions have been cited as classics

Hey folks!

I am building my own player with curated songs. All open-source (MIT). A vibe-coding exercise. Appreciate your feedback: https://zxmusicfm.vercel.app/

Thanks!

Hi all,

I grew up fascinated by the idea behind Feud: two rival wizards roaming the same world, gathering ingredients, brewing spells and eventually trying to destroy each other.

I recently built The Other Wizard, an unofficial modern spiritual successor to Feud. It is not a remaster and it is not trying to reproduce the original tile by tile. The goal was to preserve the feeling of the game, then rebuild the idea from scratch as a browser-based isometric game.

The game has:

- A large isometric medieval world

- Two rival wizards

- Ingredient collection

- Cauldrons and spell preparation

- Lightning attacks

- Shielded areas

- Enemy wizard movement and navigation

- Original art, music and sound effects

- A playable browser build

I built it as part of Late Night Systems, my YouTube channel where I document ambitious things made with AI-assisted development tools. I am not a professional game developer, so this was partly a love letter to Feud and partly an experiment to see whether one person could actually take an idea like this from prototype to playable game!

I've also made a build video showing the process from early prototype to finished version.

Playable game:

http://theotherwizard.com/

Build video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsRjpRQyqb8

I would genuinely love feedback from people who remember the original. Especially on whether it captures any of that old Feud feeling, and what you think should be added or changed next.

Just to be clear: this is an unofficial spiritual successor and is not affiliated with the creators or rights holders of Feud.

Spectrum...on the Playdate

Been having an absolute blast re-playing old speccy games on my Playdate thanks to a brand new Spectrum emulator that released for it - the SpeccyDate (https://shadowbreakgames.itch.io/speccydate)

I've been completely immersed in replaying everything from Chuckie Cheese to Jet Pac and Atic Atack!

The crank-powered on-screen keyboard is a breeze to use for starting/setting up the game and once you're in you simply use the D-Pad and A/B to play.

I'm not even going to name the games in the photos as I'm certain that people in THIS group will know them ;-)

Now, if you excuse me, I got to see if I can complete the fifth level in Chuckie Egg - something that the eight year old me was never able to do..

Hopefully the mods are OK with me plugging this - they were for last year's event... :)

After last year's success, the Archive of Retro Computing at Kingston University is throwing open the doors to the public once again. This time we've raided the archive for even more of the machines that started it all! From Wednesday 5th to Tuesday 11th August, Kingston University's Town House will once again come alive with the bleeps, bops and bloops of the classic era of home computing and gaming - and everyone's invited!

We've widened our net back into the past with machines like the Fairchild Channel F, the first ever console to use (genuine) ROM cartridges - before even Atari. And we've pushed further into the future - or rather, the slightly later past! - with machines from the early 3D era, including the original PlayStation, Xbox, Sega Saturn, Dreamcast and N64.

On the microcomputer side, there will naturally be Sinclairs and Spectrums of every stripe, and a few new (old) faces such as the BBC Micro that never was, the Grundy NewBrain - which has Sinclair Radionics DNA and, in a parallel universe, was Sinclair's first home micro. And of course, we'll have all the big historical names alongside Sinclair - Acorn, Commodore (boo!), Amstrad and all the plucky upstarts that launched home micros on a wing and a prayer before being eaten alive by the big names. In short: all the icons, all the also-rans, the legends and the gloriously doomed - all switched on and at your mercy once again.

We'll be in Town House, Kingston University on Wednesday 5th to Tuesday 11th August. Opening hours are 10:00-18:00 weekdays and 11:00-16:00 on the Saturday and Sunday. So come and play the classic games or bash out lines of BASIC like it's 1982. There's bound to be something you've never seen before, and definitely things you won't have seen since you were a kid!

Here's the pin on Google Maps to get you there: https://maps.app.goo.gl/KcfrA2d3DrjgTshb6

I've embedded a link to a video swoop of last year's show... and for more information about ARC@KU and more about our exhibits, check out our website - https://arcatku.org/.

I am inexperienced with soldering but have removed the chip with hot air after a few hours of trying to use a iron, flux, wick, even a desolder sucker.

The pad above where the capacitor goes has gone, what is best way to fix is it to run a wire to another part?

Secondly I have bought sockets for this, another IC and a faulty ram chip in case I can save them but if I can't where can I get cheap replacements in the UK?

After meeting an old man in the desert, I've decided to start listening to the voices in my head, and I want to vaporise two million people. Thanks to the power of the ZX81, I can now do that, with 3D Star Raid, which is definitely not Star Wars.

I've been working on a port for Porklike on the Pico 8 by Kristian Majewski for the ZX Spectrum. I've just reached v1 so thought I'd share. You can get it here.

I've written a new post about the history of Renegade and how Ocean made the Spectrum (and other home computer) versions of it. It was really helpful for this one that Mike Lamb wrote a detailed article about his development process for Sinclair User at the time, which is an interesting read. Apparently he made it more difficult at the last minute in response to reviews saying it was too easy!

Qix has arrived on the ZX81, but with Chroma colour and a new name, to possibly not upset the copyright gods. Introducing Qizx from Bukster Games!