In this section, you can re-live my Speccy past as I reminisce about happy days gone by..........
I really don't know where to begin, so I'll just have to type and see what I come up with.
As I'm typing this, I can't even remember when I got my first ZX Spectrum. It must have been one Christmas, around 1983/4. I was definitely at junior school (1983 - 1987), because I can remember forking out a tenner for the game Ghostbusters on my 10th birthday (It was this game that taught me the words to the song, with its karaoke style game introduction).
So, it was my parents who bought me my first ZX Spectrum (48K) as a Christmas present, about 17 or 18 years ago, and since then, I've been completely hooked. Being an only child (No! I wasn't spoiled!), you do spend a lot of time on your own. This never bothered me, but when I got my Speccy, there were times when I actually WANTED to be on my own. This was usually because I was at last going to get promoted from the 4th division in Football Manager (closely followed by breaking my World 100 metres record on Daley Thompson's Decathlon - not to mention breaking the joystick and keyboard in the process).
My first ZX Spectrum was setup in the living room next to the old record player, with one of my old lads archaic tape recorders and an old black and white portable TV. As well as the games pack that came with it, including Horizons, Chequered Flag, Horace Goes Skiing, Make-A-Chip, Chess etc, my old lad had taped a few off one of his mates. So, my first 'real' games, if you like, were pirated versions of classics like Trashman, Scuba Dive etc.
(And no, I don't feel the least bit guilty for my previous 'plagiarism' form, as my parents and I subsequently spent a kings ransom on ZX Spectrum games over the next 10 years or so. You can't tell me you never recorded a Speccy game in your life eh !? :)
However, despite all the classics such as Jet Set Willy, Manic Miner, Commando etc, it didn't take me long to find my own games preferences. Being utterly football mad, I ended up collecting a large variety of soccer games.
In subsequent years, I would spend hours, if not days, pitting my whits against 'other football managers'. Christ, I even revised for my GCSE's during the most important season of my career on International Manager - The English boss sorting out his strategy to stuff the Krauts in the European Championships Semi-Final in one breath; trying to get his head round his Chemistry homework in the next!! :)
Seriously though, I think the ZX Spectrum actually improved my concentration generally - it certainly helped me stick at it during my GCSE's. If only I'd adopted the same approach for my 'A' Levels :(
I also remember when I was still a brat, wondering how games were actually written. It looked rock hard (and still does), and all attempts to write my own programs with my mate Adrian always failed miserably. So I had to do with typing in the program that was in the 48k manual that displayed the Union Jack on your TV screen, every time the 'programming' bug bit me (even if it was in black and white). Did you ever achieve the pinnacle of typing all that code in right first time ?
Remember the games that used to p*ss you off something rotten: Near completion of The Hobbit, those 'pale bulbous eyes staring at you' always 'dropped something from above that stings' (and kills you); Running over the piece of glass that punctured your tyre just as you were on course to break your long standing lap record on Chequered Flag; Negotiating your way across the pitfalls on the Security Guard screen in Jet Set Willy - and what about all those 'Tape Loading Errors' - which usually occurred RIGHT at the END of a game that takes about 7 minutes to load!. You were so wound up you could murder someone with your bare hands.
No wonder it eventually got shipped to my bedroom. My kemston joystick didn't help matters either. The whole house knew when I was attempting to break my Daley Thompson's Decathlon 100 metres record. I was constantly told off for making too much noise. Happy days eh!
Before my Speccy was moved upstairs, I can remember having to remove the kemston interface from the back of the computer, so that certain game(s) would work correctly. This was another thing that used to really bother me, because I would always forget to plug it back in every time I needed my joystick (The ZX Spectrum had to be switched off before plugging any interface into the back of it).
I would wait for up to 10 minutes for a game to load; realise I needed my joystick to play it; would try using the keyboard for about a minute; confirm I was a total cabbage on keys; switch it off at the mains in disgust; before plugging the kemston interface in and going through the hell of loading the game up again.
It got so bad, one day I thought sod it, I'll take a chance and 'slip it in' - and it worked!! - joystick, game, the lot. However, my over confidence turned to disaster yet again, when one day my TV screen went blank, started flashing, and made a constant beeping noise. That was it, stuffed. My life was over. I was so upset. I got a right rollicking for it. My Spectrum had to be sent away to be fixed.
It must have only been a week or so, but it felt like an age. Quitting smoking (or anything else) can't be half as bad as what I went through without my computer. It was eventually returned in full working order, and served my needs for many years to come. Oh how I love a happy ending :)
My 48k finally gave up the ghost after a good 7 to 9 years service. The majority of that time was spent with my mates my mates Phillip Goodhall (I'll always remember his mate Jason had a portable colour TV - Chequered Flag was unbelievable on it!) and Tony Cavanagh (caning football management games). Practically every Saturday was spent at either Tony's house or mine. We'd meet at the Sports Centre at about 10am, belt a football about for a few hours, then back to one of our houses for the afternoon to play classic football games such as On The bench, Emlyn Hughes International Soccer, Advanced Soccer Simulator, Footballer Of The Year and Track Suit Manager. I also loved Kenny Dalglish's Soccer Manager, although it was slightly too easy to be fair (all those 16-0 wins!).
By the time I got my +3 (early 90's), Spectrums were sadly on the way out. I was bought a Multiface for it because I couldn't work out how you saved a game to disk without one. I never did work out how to use the poke (cheat) facility..........
Once I entered 6th form and then on to University, the ZX Spectrum played a bit part in my life. Now, at 28, it's time I rewarded the ZX Spectrum for all the pleasure it gave me over the years, and this web site is my small way of saying thank you.
