GUIDE TO THE SINCLAIR ZX SPECTRUM | Octav1us

Overview of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, its models and peripherals.
What an awesome computer :D I wish I had time to cram in all the nerdy gubbins about it, but the video would then be about 200 years long.
My lovely assistant was Nostalgia Nerd / nostalgianerdvideos
DISCLAIMER: the owner of the intellectual property featured in the video ("Horace") has objected to the nature of the character’s portrayal but has agreed not to enforce a removal of the content under KZbin’s content infringement rules as long as this objection is made clear.
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Sometimes I am a bit daft and I forget to credit gameplay footage or uploaded gaming-related content (such as adverts). It takes a huge amount of time to make my videos and using these helps immensely, but if you see your footage and I didn’t credit you, PLEASE let me know so I can put it right.
Thank you for taking the time to check out my channel :3

[@markbailey5673]

Ah, nostalgia. Convinced my dad to buy me a zx81 'for school work'. Then convinced him to buy me a 48k spectrum for the same reason. Obviously never did any school work on it - but as I've been a senior analyst programmer for the last 20+ years I'd say those two little machines worked out pretty well.

[@danjohansson6695]

Indeed that is exactly how it payed off for a lot of us. Went through zx16, zx48, zx128, C Amiga 500, built PCs for years for fun, went into the IT-business, been working as a network engineer since. It just wont stop paying off spending the childhood playing with Sir Clives awesome devices :)

[@hjalfi]

"I was in love once. A Sinclair ZX81. People said, no, Holly, she's not for you. She's cheap, she's stupid and she wouldn't load, well, not for me anyway."

[@CJJC]

True fact: I auditioned for that advert at 13:30. I assume I lost out to the other kid with the glasses.

[@bigjenks9665]

Yes Horace, I do want to buy some photos ! Just name your price !

[@pbarratt73]

Maybe its just me but I got to 3:46 and my concentration side tracked.... am now looking for Horace for some... errr... lets say exclusive merchandise

[@RetroPiero]

You sure come a long way since you started you're channel. Congratz, you're above the standard reviewer and your special effects/acting/editing really show it.

[@larryplympton9727]

Thank you for the very informative and absolutely entertaining video Ms. Kitten! I (and I'm sure many others) really appreciate all the time and effort you take in creating these videos.

[@heidirichter]

That was really well done, funny, entertaining and even educational. Great work. Love your sense of humor too.

[@chaospoet]

"I've never had a boyfriend." You don't need one. What you need is a KZbin video that's 10 hours of nothing but a ZX Spectrum loading screen sound. Listen to it over your phone with headphones at work or at home or driving it'd be the equivalent of injecting it in your veins. Let's be honest, could a boyfriend match that? Didn't think so.

[@starsiegeplayer]

is that what they call ASMR?

[@TheVetoSkreeemer]

Great review of of the Zx line. I got lost on some of your technical explanations but you're a great teacher. And it shows you work hard for this video. Ps: Horace is great.

[@Profoundemonium]

My little sister snapped the door off of my Speccy +2 and the hinge was too warped to glue back together. It still works with a little persuasion, but I have never emotionally recovered from the incident.

[@zh84]

And I grabbed my big sister's Sindy doll to stir the "soup" I was making of Lego bricks. She never recovered from the incident physically. I'm not sure if my sister recovered from it emotionally.

[@ErectedGasCan]

And i smacked my brothers Darth Maul Boxing target-toy with a plastic VHS-casette box... It deflated quite splendidly, and was beautifully fixed with adhesive tape. He was a bit pissed of then.. at some point he checked what it costs *now* on Ebay and let's just say that he would erase me from existance if he could.. But the fucker wrecked my Baywatch RC-car on my 4th birthday so serves him right.

[@005AGIMA]

Just letting you know, I found out about your channel while chatting to a random bloke in a retro-game market store (Beyond Retro) in....Perth, Western Australia. Kudos!

[@nameless5413]

happy kitten good kitten, i am very fond of these epissodes as you can clearly see Oktavius mus have had absolute blast of a time making them. best wishes and manny fantastic epissodes that will be fun to make to you lady Oktaviaus

[@georgekostaras]

your work just makes my day better :) and that intro is so special to me now.

[@gophbuddy1]

new subscriber here! i was born in 78 in Scotland and my first computer was a commodore 16, then i got a rubber keys 48k and eventually a mighty spectrum 128k! my childhood was all about 8bit games! i luv following retro stuff on youtube, am a big kim justice and nostalgia nerd fan as well as a few others doing the retro scene, but seeing more spectrum videos is mega! cant wait to see more of your content, keep up the good work!

[@DaveRepairs]

The Spectrum Next will be showcasing at Retro Revivals Events in Walsall's Banks Stadium on May 19-20th, come along. :)

[@TrashfordKent]

Neat video, I like the personality you've given horace, it suits him. Looking to catch up with the speccy when my ZX Next arrives, patiently waiting.....

[@paulb4uk]

Stefan Turner I backed the spectrum next as well looking forward to it.

[@samuelvictor9958]

Great video Sarah, and great to see Pete helping out with hardware (ooh-er misses) and the return of Horace.

[@yaktaur]

Great video, I loved the depth and how much work you obviously put into it

[@spwolftech]

Decided to do a 5 year Anniversary channel marathon so here is my HI to try and make the algorithm be nice. Fun and great no matter how many times i have watched them.

[@Nostalgianerd]

Luuuukkkkeinnggggggggggg

[@duncanward6226]

Most of your speccys look pretty beaten up. That poor +3.

[@veganmonter]

A full video of the struggles with that voice synthesizer would be entertaining.

[@punkpieuk]

Is this a weird world where you can't have women as friends?

[@devil8975]

Octavius and nostalgia nerd in the same video. Nice!

[@watkinator4413]

@@boobio1 he wishes.

[@ErinPlays]

Hi there fellow Slopes feature-ee (I think thats a word? Anyway,) This video was SO well done and I love your love for the ZX Spectrum. It shows. Keep it up!

[@rasberrycast]

Awesome video Octav1us. Your video was so well edited and researched. Well worth waiting for.

[@bujler]

Is that the Dune music around the 3:30 mark?

[@progbloke6655]

Loving your videos - WAY more entertaining than the crap on tv right now. I remember building a ZX81 years ago, the "touch sensitive" keyboard was SHITE !!!

[@MrMortull]

All of the keyboards up to and arguably including the +2 were shite so far as I know. I was only ever exposed to the +whatever range built by Amstrad (the shame of liking them over actual Sinclairs haunts me) and the original speccy before the turn of the millennium and could never understand dad's love of the dead-flesh keyboard until much later. All I knew about it was that those keys were squidgy, often unresponsive and "just didn't feel right". Even later down the line I encountered the 80 and 81 which finally made me understand why the OG Spectrum was so loved; an actually halfway capable little micro with keys that were God-awful but at least not completely heinous and evil.

[@PennPal573]

Horace is amazing and utterly hilarious

[@kmannzl]

Awesome video - keep up the great work. Many Sinclair products are close to my heart. The ZX eight one was my first computer :)

[@pocky-chan766]

I have do an essay on ZX Spectrum's and this has helped me out a lot, it even helped me gain a proper understanding of them. Thank you so much! :3

[@WildHuntRH]

Your videos are criminally underrated. I will say, definitely missing Horace in the newer videos.

[@Popmetalj]

Great video: informative and funny. I was always a C64 guy but my best friend had a Speccy. For some reason, I now have his Spectrum and it's here 3500 miles away from where it started. A restoration challenge awaits. Some of the games for the Speccy were incredibly good.

[@kristianTV1974]

As a fellow one-eyed depressive who only found your videos today - glad to see you back, and happy.

[@skelkankaos]

finally someone else describes that tape loading noise as sexy

[@ThisIsPete]

Hi Octav1us, new subscriber here -- became aware of you via a random post on Twitter a few weeks back and subsequently via my completely unrelated delving into Ashens/Barshens' work. Small world and all that. Just wanted to say that, going by this video (the first of yours I've watched) you're doing a great job and I'm really looking forward to exploring the rest of what you've covered. You seem to have an interest in and a passion for aspects of computing and gaming history that I'm especially into (though I was an Atari boy, Spectrum was always "the enemy"), so it's always nice to come across a new content creator who covers that sort of stuff. And particularly a fellow Brit too! Thanks again for the great vid, looking forward to watching more.

[@R_T_Ralph]

love the video. Well, if after trading with horace for the photos, i went blind. Keep up the amazing vids .

[@blackphoenix77]

I always hear Guru Larry banging on about the ZX Spectrum on his videos, so it's nice to see an in depth look at it. Thanks!

[@trelard]

Good guide. I was a Commodore kid back in the day, but my mates had Speccys, so I know odds n bobs about the system and it's offspring. This helped build a bit around the community I missed.

[@TAGMedia7]

I've only just discovered you, but I'm already a massive fan.

[@joeyparkhill8751]

Greetings from the U.S. Sarah!! With every new video you make, it's better than the one you made before it! You are a true hidden gem on KZbin!

[@NomenLuni1975]

Brilliant video. I really enjoyed watching it. Well done Octavius. :)

[@oneofthenorth]

I had a speech synthesizer for my Amstrad cpc464.... this video brought back all the memories of trying to get it to say words properly! Absolutely brilliant :)

[@thejavatar]

I just discovered your channel rather randomly. Really entertaining. I love vintage gaming due to being mid-old. You are great. :)

[@madmattman5675]

Very funny and informative! Thanks for being awesome! X

[@chadgarrett6947]

I love stuff like this, good show. Brilliant patches, professor.

[@chinosts]

Another brilliant and smile inducing video... Keep going!

[@soggyhydrox]

Been looking for a good overview on this and other U.K. Computers since I don't know much about them and you are in the same circle of a lot of other people I already sub to so subscribed

[@angushodge1]

Bloody Brilliant Video as always x

[@Asobitech]

Excellent stuff, informative and entertaining. So many nostalgia feels.

[@coyoteartist]

You crammed the most important Nerdy bit in. Your lovely assistant. Whose kinda creeping me out now.

[@cakeisamadeupdrug6134]

Holy interlacing, Batman! Edit: also this is more... sexual than I was expecting a video about the ZX Spectrum to be xD

[@megamancards]

Amazing job. You have the most wonderful humor.

[@L8ugh1ngm8n1]

Well finally a 30 year old mystery solved. I owned a +2A as a kid, my mate next door had a 48k and it used to puzzle me why certain games would work on his Spectrum while not working on mine and now you've answered that mystery. Thanks.

[@robbyxp1]

One of your best!

[@jdbarker32]

I never knew about ZX Spectrum games being transmitted over radio. That's insane. Just imagine a person coming across the station, not knowing what the context of the broadcast is. They'd go into a freakout about the situation. Good video! Definitely a good retrospective on the computer.

[@drakon32]

Great video. Awesome intro. Do you happen to have an extended version of it? Subbed.

[@tomkoo]

I just love this opening song, great job!

[@mistie710]

Nice but one error detected. The ZX series all used Z80 family processors, 8-bit processors that could access a maximum of 64KB, not 68KB as you said around the 7 minute mark. Bank switching was a pretty popular way of extending the lifespan of 8-bit systems though, including the Speccy and the various 6502 beasts from Acorn, Commodore and others.

[@aaronstepien2363]

that's what I thought, the ZX was to the UK what the C= was in the US

[@chavhunterofcalne2443]

This was really interesting - this is coming from an ex Amstrad fanboy. I can now understand your love you had for it - it's quaint, cute and undeniably British. This video was also really educational, too. I didn't know what the loading bars meant specifically. Plus I also love your use of music. Capital stuff!

[@spodula]

I always thaught of the Amstrad as what the Speccy was when it was all grown up :-). Always liked both machines, although always found the Amstrad more hard work for some reason. Not like those horrible C64 things :)

[@chavhunterofcalne2443]

spodula Ha ha ha, you've put me on a nostalgia trip now. Back in the day, I used to own an Acorn Electron and I was a little envious of my big cousin who had a C64. :)

[@scapegoat42]

Cracking video as usual, any clues as to which system you're doing next?

[@geezerdiamond]

Well that was bloody brilliant! Fab job!

[@SLHellGirlFan]

Loved this video 😁 learned a lot more than I did before being someone new to the zx spectrum history thank you for making this video to enrich my knowledge of its history and loved the humor as well 😂😂😂

[@chrisbomber101]

saw the words "ZX SPECTRUM" and had to click, im an older gamer (36) so the 48k spectrum was my first gaming platform, very nice video i subbed

[@Classicgamer73]

Had a Spectrum and its still works today. Some Speccy game reviews would be nice. Great video by the way.

[@thehypebear]

awesome video, it brought back many memories

[@JasonKelk]

Just to be a tad pedantic [sheepish grin] the Z80 can only address 64K of memory rather than 68K.... and the Recreated Spectrum is just a Bluetooth/USB keyboard rather than a computer, got one connected to an old netbook which pretends to be a Spectrum.

[@stewsretroreviews]

Great video and Horace is a legend!!

[@helenFX]

That was another wonderful video. I had a zx81 and a 48k+ back in the day.

[@harryalfie8149]

Nostalgia nerd luukkking lol great vid again Sarah

[@georgelea4297]

Awesome video as always

[@hamishthepolarbear614]

I loved my Currah µSpeech. (Which I also mispronounced as "yew speech" at the time). It was massively impractical but truly reflected the spirit of exploration and adventure in computing at the time. BTW 8-bit CPUs can address 64K of memory not 68K but I suspect other pedants have already told you this. This video made me feel a bit like I was your professor watching you do a presentation from research on something I know from memory. Damn, I am old! Another cracking video :-D

[@DeadLinkChain]

Hey Horace do you have any of those "special" items left for sale?

[@alvaroacwellan9051]

Slightly off topic, what's the .mod that starts ~ 14:14?

[@ratspike8017]

Hi Alvaro - unless I am mistaken, I believe that .mod is the music from Castle Master on the A500...

[@amphetamineblue4172]

One good thing about the Spectrum ( and coming from Sinclairs kit computer history ) was that they were easily upgradeable. We started with a 16K Spectrum, upgraded with a kit to 48K, and then upgraded that to the 'proper' later plastic keyboard.

[@thesadken]

Love the video, and the snippets of secret life of machines 😂

[@DouglasTitchmarsh]

I feel old now, I printed things on a ZX printer and still have my Spectrum(s). Great video, loads of facts without it being boring

[@JCBeastie]

The ZX Spectrum +2 James Bond Action Pack was my first computer! This is giving me a case of the nostalgias.

[@LoLzZ85]

One of the most significant enhancement on the 128k Spectrum, in addition to more memory, was the inclusion of the AY sound chip. Lack of decent sound made it stick out like a sore thumb among its competitors.

[@craigprocter1232]

hi, good video - very informative - sorry if this has been mentioned before, but when you export the video set it to an un-interleaved video format.. the interleaving is what is causing those strange horizontal lines / wobbles. cheers!

[@englishnature7850]

How can i contact Horace for those photos?

[@martinbrewer7629]

I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned it yet but a thing you might like to try is load Booty by Firebird in to a Speccy while a Currah speech interface is plugged in...

[@gordonpearce7963]

Good job! No ... excellent job. Great video. Really well done.

[@ciphermatrix]

Yay, new Octavius video :D

[@ciphermatrix]

Horace is one lucky set of weirdly shaped pixels.

[@lightssky9874]

that was that was brilliant. Octav1us Kitten .my fist computer was ZX Spectrum .. back in the 80s .Great video ..more plz thanks

[@UXXV]

Did you render this out in interlaced mode? Weird motion on your hands moving

[@Sr19769p]

Great nostalgia, informative and pretty funny too! With the +2, I always had to adjust the screw in the tape deck to get Elite games to load like Ghosts & Goblins etc; apparently it was a design fault making the volume to loud?!

[@AlistairMaxwell77]

1st time on channel..... your pretty funny! good work!

[@nerfspartanEBF25]

Fun fact: The Spectrum was actually very popular in the USSR as a home computer. Well, not necessarily the British-made ones because foreign stuff was basically banned (because, you know, Iron Curtain) but various Soviet-manufactured clones of the ZX Spectrum were popularly used in Russia up until the fall of the USSR up until the mid-nineties. Yes, that means that people in Russia were still using Spectrums when everyone else was getting on 486's.

[@xXTheoLinuxXx]

I never had a Spectrum back in the day, but played a lot on it. Great little machine, which was awesome for it's price.

[@yodaofborg]

MEOW! Also I had the currah speech addon as a kid, and you are not kidding it was hard to get it to speak. Love nostalgia nerd, but love your videos just a little more!

[@SomeOrangeCat]

I see the Spectrum as one of those "The Little Engine That Could" kinda systems. Sure, the hardware isn't powerful by even early 80s standards, but there's like 300 billion games for the thing! So they obviously did something right!

[@mspenrice]

They made it do nothing more than what people actually wanted from their first tryout computer, and did it really cheap. Plus the simplicity made it extremely easy to program for, even at assembler level, although the ultimate potential performance wasn't actually as much as e.g. the C64.

[@Mechafatnick]

To be fair, the Speccy generally demolished the C64 on anything that involved 3d shapes, (which isn't bad considering that, as you say, it wasn't built with any sort of performance in mind)

[@mspenrice]

That's maybe a sort of ST vs Amiga thing, but taken to a higher level. 3D stuff isn't something classical custom chips are any good at helping with (other than maybe filling in already-calculated polygons) and instead relies very heavily on CPU power. I expect the Z80 loses somewhat to the 6502 on a lot of things, clock for clock, but is much more of its equal for the particular calculations (especially floating point) involved in 3D space work. Most 6502 based machines like the C64 and Atari 8-bits used a rather slow clocked CPU (as you could get away with that for most things thanks to its higher efficiency) plus custom A/V chips to improve performance in that area, whereas the Z80 ones (like the Spectrum) had to clock it faster to generally keep pace - and could do as the chips were usually rated for higher MHz - which meant that they then got surprising boosts in some areas like 3D calculation. (Similar to this, the ST tended to have somewhat better FPS, sometimes 10% or more, in 3D based games vs the otherwise swifter seeming Amiga... because the Agnus, Copper etc could only give very scant gains for that kind of work, whilst its otherwise identical CPU was clocked a good bit lower) Funnily enough that reminds me of playing Stunt Car Racer on the Spectrum, having been used to it on the ST and Amiga, and being rather impressed at how it managed to keep up a framerate quite close to that of the 16-bits. The active display area and draw distance was slightly smaller of course, and it was only pushing 1-bit pixels instead of 4-bit, but it still had to do all the same polygon calculations, on a less advanced and less efficient CPU, with half the bit width and half the MHz. Not at all bad. On the other hand, I don't even know if they bothered making a version of the game for the 6502 machines...

[@Mechafatnick]

Stunt Car racer was one of the games we could just never find anywhere. :( we had Hard Drivin' which is possibly an even better tech demo (the game itself is pretty bloody difficult thanks to steering that doesn't center itself though.) There was a C64 of stunt racer (i loved the way that everything got ported everywhere, regardless of any sense of suitability) but i suspect its rasterised art drawn to look like vectors.

[@mspenrice]

Heh, well, the brief period we had a borrowed Spectrum, we had hardly any decent games for it, other than maybe Deathchase and Daley Thompson's Olympic Challenge. But I found SCR as a .TAP file for the emulator I downloaded some years ago quite easily. I'd be interested to see the C64 version now, as I've never even seen any evidence of its existence before. I've got other things to go do now, but I'll definitely have a google later on.

[@HoraceAndTheSpider]

Confused by the Amiga music throughout, but I don’t care as I loved it as a fan of both! Thanks for the fun vid :)

[@JasonVectrex_187]

I don't know how I ended up on this channel but good video, this is one system I Do not know much about.

[@jane1975]

We had the 48K model, my favourite game was Attic Attack. We had lots of games though, Factory Breakout, Lunar Jetman [and JetPac] Halls of the Things, Ant Attack, Corridors of Genon ( damn Bogle always got us), Sabrewolf, Nodes of Yessod. Yes some fond 1980's memories with the Spectrum, we also had an Amiga too in 1990's ( games: Flashback, Little Big Adventure, James Pond [loved that one] James Pond Robocod, G.O.D.S, Turrican 2 ( played that one all the time)). I remember Knightlore too. Great video.

[@paulanderson79]

Great times Jane. I pre-date you by around 5 years but remember that era very fondly. Sadly I was bloody rubbish at playing the games but I loved the magic of waiting for 'em to load up.

[@SeregaKassatkin]

this is first stuff, where i start study programming :)

[@Zobbster]

Great video this one! I actually learnt a thing or two :D

[@Bitscreed]

6:05 - And theeeeeere's the beautiful baby I owned as a young 'un. 48K of RAM, proper plastic keys and the actually-really-quite-handy reset switch. I played so many Dizzy games on it I wore out the connector on the "O" key. Also kudos for using the Speedball 2 theme at around 8:30. I'd know that tune anywhere.

[@antzpantz]

Which corner is Horace dealing?

[@mspenrice]

Vision Avenue and Persistence Street by the look of it.

[@mspenrice]

He _literally_ pops out from behind a street sign, guys.

[@ratcom]

great video ! enjoyed it

[@mastafoo886]

How does one contact Horace for their wares?

[@bensons999]

20:13 - But... but... there's no *_"J"_* ............. *HOW DO YOU LOAD STUFF!?!???* ;)

[@theodorehsu5023]

I remember back when I was younger, I had an Apple II. The 48 K version I was lucky to expand to 64 K with a big gift from my dad back in the day. You all in the UK had the ZX Spectrum, I had the Apple II. And I LOVED all I could play with it. Then I graduated to PCs, and Macs. Later the PS2, PSP and Nintendo DS. Now I have an iPad. But love all the Long play vids around.