Hmm, a quick precisThere was the ZX82, which succeeded the ZX80 and ZX81, both of which were shit. The ZX82 was renamed "Spectrum" because it had colour, even if that colour was shit and made arcade games look like spazzy technicolour lego. This machine came with 16 or 48kb of addressable RAM, which was a lie because 6k was taken up by the system, leaving you with a maximum of 42k of addressable RAM (which was more than the Commodore "64", which had something like 38k of addressable RAM. These things mattered!)
Then there was the +, which was in a nicer box, and the 128k, which had 42k of addressable RAM. Then Sinclair went bust and sold out to "Sir" Alan "Sugar", who put it in a nicer box and sold the same thing as, oh fuck knows, the +2 I think. Then there was the +3 which had a useless disc drive that no-one used and which ran some shitty Amstrad DOS which was shit and no-one used. The +2A was the +3 but with a tape deck.
I can't remember what the practical difference was except slightly better sound and loads of 48k games didn't load.
Bet you're glad you didn't bother reading this post. (Which is also factually suspect at one point because I can't remember whether the 128k came before the + or if the + actually *was* the 128k.)
(Then there was the +, which was in a nicer box, and the 128k, which had 42k of addressable RAM. Then Sinclair went bust and sold out to "Sir" Alan "Sugar", who put it in a nicer box and sold the same thing as, oh fuck knows, the +2 I think. Then there was the +3 which had a useless disc drive that no-one used and which ran some shitty Amstrad DOS which was shit and no-one used. The +2A was the +3 but with a tape deck.
I can't remember what the practical difference was except slightly better sound and loads of 48k games didn't load.
Bet you're glad you didn't bother reading this post. (Which is also factually suspect at one point because I can't remember whether the 128k came before the + or if the + actually *was* the 128k.)
boris the spider,
Sat 11 Aug 2012, 18:05,
archived)
did read actually.....history always interests mesaw a fascinating documentary about the birth of computers and computer games in general..from the early Pong..mind-boggling... the steps that have been taken in the few short years.Not a gamer myself but the graphics always blow me away.
(
Elvis impersonator,
Sat 11 Aug 2012, 18:20,
archived)
Can you remember what the documentary was?I might hunt it out (or something very similar). I love all kinds of history too anyway, and the nostalgia value of the 80s and early 90s gaming scene for me is quite impressive.
I've just been watching videos of Frontier Elite 2 which for me is still one of the two or three best games ever (the others being maybe Super Mario World and Time Splitters: Future Perfect. Oh, wait, also Geoff Crammond's GP series, taken as a whole, so you may as well have GP4 which looks the nicest. And Thief. Thief was fucking brilliant.) I might waste the evening drinking cheap lager and playing Elite 2.
Edit: Also, now in scientist mode, we owe a massive debt to the world of gaming. Some of the best chips for scientific calculation are GPUs, so long as you know how to program for them (I don't, but I know people who do and what they achieve is utterly mind-bending). GPUs have been developed almost entirely for the gaming market, which apparently dwarfs the professional market (including that of film and TV) in terms of revenue for the chip manufacturers. Doubtless the push of Hollywood and big TV has also been extremely significant, but gaming has certainly played a very big part in getting GPUs to the state they're in now, which is one of amazing potential. I keep meaning to find time to start programming on them because almost every code I write professionally can be massively parallelised and would be pretty much ideal for a GPU.
(I've just been watching videos of Frontier Elite 2 which for me is still one of the two or three best games ever (the others being maybe Super Mario World and Time Splitters: Future Perfect. Oh, wait, also Geoff Crammond's GP series, taken as a whole, so you may as well have GP4 which looks the nicest. And Thief. Thief was fucking brilliant.) I might waste the evening drinking cheap lager and playing Elite 2.
Edit: Also, now in scientist mode, we owe a massive debt to the world of gaming. Some of the best chips for scientific calculation are GPUs, so long as you know how to program for them (I don't, but I know people who do and what they achieve is utterly mind-bending). GPUs have been developed almost entirely for the gaming market, which apparently dwarfs the professional market (including that of film and TV) in terms of revenue for the chip manufacturers. Doubtless the push of Hollywood and big TV has also been extremely significant, but gaming has certainly played a very big part in getting GPUs to the state they're in now, which is one of amazing potential. I keep meaning to find time to start programming on them because almost every code I write professionally can be massively parallelised and would be pretty much ideal for a GPU.
boris the spider,
Sat 11 Aug 2012, 18:50,
archived)
clive sinclair drama/comedynot sure if you can still watch this on iplayer....
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00n5b92
(,
Sat 11 Aug 2012, 19:53,
archived)
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00n5b92
ta, i think i dimly remember hearing about that but never watched iti can't get iplayer where i live but doubtless it's on youtube, or other slightly more nefarious sites
( boris the spider,
Sat 11 Aug 2012, 20:53,
archived)
there's scarcely been any development in ideas since the 1960s,the things that supercomputers were doing back then are only just becoming mainstream. Of course it's many times refined by now in terms of actual implementation but in terms of concepts there's really nothing new.
(
Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag,
Sat 11 Aug 2012, 20:27,
archived)
if you look at what a chip is actually doing nowit's not really strictly true that things that were being done on supercomputers then are mainstream now. your mobile phone is a wonder of technology compared to a 60s mainframe.
i think i know what you mean though, i'm just very pedantic :) ultimately there's a limit to what we can use to do computing with. until something like quantum (or photonic) computing gets anything like usable, we're stuck with semiconductor physics, and increasingly complicated ways of harnessing it. the thing i find most impressive is that basically there is no-one in the world who really understands how, say, a third generation i7 chip actually works overall except in fairly general terms
(i think i know what you mean though, i'm just very pedantic :) ultimately there's a limit to what we can use to do computing with. until something like quantum (or photonic) computing gets anything like usable, we're stuck with semiconductor physics, and increasingly complicated ways of harnessing it. the thing i find most impressive is that basically there is no-one in the world who really understands how, say, a third generation i7 chip actually works overall except in fairly general terms
boris the spider,
Sat 11 Aug 2012, 20:41,
archived)
Sugar killed the whole thing.I had a +2 and loved it, but the 48k/128k incompatibility killed some things - I picked up an old 48k on a car boot sale specifically to play Elite!
(,
Sat 11 Aug 2012, 18:21,
archived)
I dunno, I loved my +2Aand there were things that were much better on it - like Kwik Snax, which on the 48k was fairly mediocre but on the 128k opened with a song by the Yolkfolk with Grandpa Dizzy bodypopping. Aceness. I seem to remember HeroQuest did something weird and stupid in 48k mode too.
( boris the spider,
Sat 11 Aug 2012, 18:49,
archived)
the ZX 82 (or ZX 81 Colour as it was also referred to) was only know as this in developmentnever as a released product.
the + boasted a full size keyboard, as opposed to the layout og the rubber key speccy.
(the + boasted a full size keyboard, as opposed to the layout og the rubber key speccy.
Thor_sonofodin has done things, terrible things on,
Sat 11 Aug 2012, 18:21,
archived)
:) I knowI grew up with the Speccy, some of my earliest memories are of playing Booty and JetPac. We had a DK Tronics keyboard so that the 48k was actually half-pleasant to use; without it it was like trying to use a cheap calculator as a computer. The + was a massive improvement, and the build quality of the Amstrad models (and built-in tape decks saving all the faffing with input levels) a jump up again.
I once built a Snoopy adventure game in Sinclair Basic. I soaked up all 8 user-defined graphics available within three screens - including a lovely two-part graphic of Snoopy's bandaged wrist after he broke it on screen 2 - and then ran out of RAM. Probably should have learned assembly.
Edit: looking at the original post I phrased that really badly, it does make it look like there was a machine called the ZX82 released which was then renamed "Spectrum". Obviously you're right; I meant to say it was renamed "Spectrum" before release.
(I once built a Snoopy adventure game in Sinclair Basic. I soaked up all 8 user-defined graphics available within three screens - including a lovely two-part graphic of Snoopy's bandaged wrist after he broke it on screen 2 - and then ran out of RAM. Probably should have learned assembly.
Edit: looking at the original post I phrased that really badly, it does make it look like there was a machine called the ZX82 released which was then renamed "Spectrum". Obviously you're right; I meant to say it was renamed "Spectrum" before release.
boris the spider,
Sat 11 Aug 2012, 18:48,
archived)