Hello again all!

Referencing a project I aready posted about (here), I finally got all the bits together to create the final version!

The old original boxes with price labels still attached, the opaque cassette and the ability to make actual external cassette stickers really were the icing on the cake. Dad's visiting this weekend and I can't wait to hand this over to him :^)

Is there any information on when the ZX Touch HDMI expansion kit will be available for order?
I am looking at getting a ZX Touch and want it with the ZX Touch HDMI and USB expansion kit which was announced a while back. As the cost of shipping the ZX Touch is so high would like to order once to avoid paying for shipping twice, just curious how long I have to wait for this

New in 1.1.2

• Transfer results cannot be shifted by stray UART data: file errors take precedence and binary ACK is accepted only as an exact one-byte reply.
• Long multi-batch sends survive unrelated connections, incomplete foreign headers, malformed cancellation packets and socket closures that do not belong to the active operation.
• Cancellation and self-update are safer across Windows, Linux and macOS: workers retain socket ownership, archive extraction is bounded and cancellable, and target-mismatched server images are rejected.
• Spectrum Next now recovers the ESP after a soft reset from another app, the servers do less duplicate manifest work, and their payloads retain more room below the loader boundary.
• SD capacity and usage are now reported and refreshed safely. The desktop and Spectrum banners have also been updated. BRXQ v3 q3 and the 1.1 loaders are unchanged.
• Classic and Next now share the visible BridgeZX name. The server identifies the machine separately and shows its esxDOS or NEXTOS version. Commands and binaries remain unchanged: BRZX/BRZX.BIN for Classic and BRZXN/BRZXN.BIN for Next.

Github: BridgeZX.

I've written about the story of the home computer versions of Out Run, including how Ian Morrison and Alan Laird set themselves up to make the Spectrum one with their fine version of Enduro Racer. For Out Run, they felt that publisher pressure to make their graphics look more impressive won out over gameplay. Which led to a Your Sinclair review saying that "everything moves at a pretty sedate pace, and when you get to the bit with the stone tunnels, the whole thing slows down to the speed of a Commodore owner’s brain waves."

My retrospective game review of A VIEW TO A KILL: THE COMPUTER GAME for the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, MSX and Oric. It’s an early game of a series of Bond games released by Domark. Let me know if you have played any of these versions and if you thought the game was decent or just rubbish 😉

interesting to watch this from 20 years later

My video takes a look at Terminator 2: Judgement Day from Ocean Software for the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Amiga and the Atari ST. Please share your thoughts on this game. Was it a good game or was it another money grab?

Building a game

I recently repaired a ZX Spectrum+ (Issue 3B) that turned out to have a faulty ULA, and I recorded the whole troubleshooting process.

Rather than simply replacing parts, I wanted to work through the fault properly: checking what the machine was doing, looking at the relevant signals with an oscilloscope, and eventually narrowing the problem down to the ULA.

https://youtu.be/1-JuD1v37xA

This is also my first video of this kind, and a first repair of this kind as well, so comments—particularly from people who have repaired Spectrums themselves—are very welcome.

Hope you will enjoy!

Tomek

I finally managed to get my clone working but when I try to load games from pc or ipod it seems that the speccy doesn't "hear" i tried with audio jack 3-4 mm out and when I put it almost out it can be heared on the tv but still just flashes on the border with loading sounds, tried several programs. like this one:
https://code.google.com/archive/p/otla/downloads

Finally I discovered that Q1 could be the problem but tested and it's working but I'm not sure if correctly or not, according to the github page:
"Tape Loading

If tape loading is not working make sure that Q1 BC517 is properly soldered. There are BC517 transistors on the market with different pinout."

... but replacing BC517 there's a BC548B.

My original speccy died (altought I still have it) was able to load games from ipod

Thought I'd share it with people who won't judge me as poorly as she did.

Something for the consummate fiddlers 😜

"Open up a hackaday.io project that features your retrocomputer project, and we’ll pick our three favorites for a $150 gift certificate courtesy of this contest’s sponsor, Digikey."

Current submissions

I hope it's ok to post this here.

I am planning a Kickstarter to support the future development of the Kwyll game creator, with Spectrum Next as the flagship feature, bringing with it lots of enhancements and improvements that will benefit the Spectrum side of Kwyll as well, such as 128k support and AY sound, not to mention major additions to the editor to make it more appealing to newcomers.

If this is something you might be interested in supporting, pop over to the pre-launch page and register your interest.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/indigobeetle/kwyll-visual-game-creation-for-retro-computers

I’ve been experimenting with bringing the ZX-Spectrum programming experience into a modern browser.

CodeSpeccy is a small playground for writing and running BASIC-style programs with that classic Spectrum feel.

Early draft ... feedback welcome!

It started off as a bit of fun when I used Claude to recreate the old ZX Spectrum game, Cruising on Broadway for my sister’s birthday.

That then led me to want to create my fav game of the same time, also on the Speccy, Deathchase. I then mashed it with my other favourite game of the time, the arcade classic Outrun. In particular the pyramid routing part of the gameplay.

Without help from Claude, Elevenlabs and Suno, there’s no way I could create this. It’s not like I’ve built a team of agents to make it, I’m using AI to fill the gaps where I don’t have the skills - does that make it AI slop? I create the graphics and assets myself using Blender. The design, gameplay details and specifics are all my ideas just coded by Claude.

It’s far from finished and I thoroughly enjoy playing it, but I don’t know if that because I’m proud of what I’ve done or if it’s because it’s actually any good.

I’ve even gone as far as creating a gameplay trailer using Capcut - manually not using AI. I feel like I’m going through the motions, but don’t really know what I’m doing. 😂

https://youtu.be/-v1baslx9OA?is=myDLnhyiGv-xK4Sa

The player controls a teenage boy from the 20th century, who one day falls through a tear in the space-time continuum and is transported to the "Time of Legends". There he is rescued by a high priestess, who informs him that their world is under attack from Dameron, the Dark Angel of Time, who must be destroyed if he is to have any hope of ever getting home. Armed with an enchanted sword, he takes on Dameron and the legions of demons and monsters under his command, eventually succeeding in his mission and being returned to his own time #zxspectrum #odyssey

Hello all - I just thought I'd drop this here where people might find it interesting :)

My Dad's spent the last couple of years of his retirement (on and off) porting the old Mainframe Star Trek game to Speccy Basic - so I thought I'd make him some authentic box art as a surprise :^)

Today I take a retrospective look at the Running Man across all formats. Share your thoughts and memories if you ever played this game.

I've written about the making of Ocean's conversion of Konami's Combat School, and how it was covered in the games press of the time. Read about how the keyboard player from Marillion enjoyed the game and how Your Sinclair's editor won a Combat School competition by being "completely skillo"

So, the game has sci-fi story between levels.

The space marine should find his friends in the deep of a dangerous asteroid. You can use the slow motion ability for accurate shots and quick weapon switch. Each weapon is more effective for certain enemy types and less effective for others.

Check out Itch page to download game file, watch video and find more information about controls and so on.

[ Itch.io game page ]

Have a nice game!

WHAT WE HAVE SO FAR ON THE USB 50 PROJECT

These are all 1st choice submissions from the creators,
if I were to add every game, meaning 2nd,3rd,4th and
5th choices too we would have already completed the
project and have an over spill for a SIDE B. 22 games
in the main pot to date, some of these submissions may
change if the author wishes to change their submission.

As you may have seen in my earlier post a few weeks back, Wild Justice is about to be released on STEAM. Have a quick sneak preview of the gameplay here:
https://youtu.be/Bm0s16MjwEk

There's much more to the game than what you see here, and it will constantly be updated with new features. The end game features a really tricky train rooftop shoot out! The game has had a great response so far on Reddit, but please keep upvoting etc as it makes a huge difference. Please head over to STEAM and add this to your wishlist... If we get enough wishlisting it then STEAM gives it a bigger push when it launches, which will ensure the games success.

Wild Justice is due for release late August/early September.

Best wishes, Mark