LGR Oddware - Sinclair RAM Turbo Interface

Overview, installation, and demonstration of the Sinclair RAM Turbo interface for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum home micro computer.
Many thanks to UKRetroGames for the interface!
/ ukretrogames
Also thanks to potsy5656 for the Commodore 1802 monitor!
/ potsy5656

[@naevus671]

Blimey, what a blast from the past. The turbo was made by RAM Electronics (Fleet) Limited, Fleet Road, Hampshire. They had a high street shopfront there, and we made various peripherals in a portakabin out the back of the shop. Production then moved down to Church Crookham with a larger premises. Thousands of those damned things must have passed through my hands. Quite pleased to see there are still a few floating around though.

[@greggv8]

But do you know the secrets of the Yellow Button?

[@martinhowser4094]

greggv8 : it’s a non Maskable interrupt.. nmi.. useful for hacking, or making copies of whatever is in ram

[@Simon-ui6db]

@@greggv8 its a reset

[@johnabuick]

@@Simon-ui6db Guess you just guessed what it was.

[@DaveMcGarry]

I had this interface and loved it

[@PlayingEveryLastGame]

As much as emulators allow you to enjoy the games, you just can't replace the experience of working with the original hardware, putting it together and getting the thing to work. Priceless!

[@superawesome3235]

Damn 8 years ago, the thinkpad T420 sitting next to me was brand new when this video came out, amazing how far you've come

[@AndreasVictorsson]

Wow, I was suprised to see how well this Sinclair has lasted throughout the years :D the game play is rather fluid, and it still looks like a fun high quality game!

[@rhaeven]

There was a pretty high amount of dross on the system but Jetpack is one of THE games for it.

[@Zerbey]

Most of the best games were very simple concepts like JetPac, I put hours into this game when I was a kid!

[@MrDaddynomates]

I spent many hours of my childhood loading games from tape. Still got my Spectrum. Love your videos man. From a fellow geek in the UK.

[@richardseddon716]

There were two reasons why the cartridges didn't catch on: the fact that only a small subset of spectrum owners had the zx interface 2 (or equivalent), as you say, but also that the cartridges were only 16k, whereas many tape games used the full 48k.

[@herrfriberger5]

Well, it was 48K minus 7K for screen memory and systemvariables.

[@MMSZoli]

actually that 16K limitation was a huge failure. on the other hand someone broke this limitation and can produce ALL the cartridges on one ROM www.thingiverse.com/thing:1887326

[@zephyr8072]

I’d say it’s more to do with the fact that offering convenience to Spectrum users was like offering healing balm to a masochist.

[@thepenultimateninja5797]

I grew up in England, but I moved to the States eight years ago. My sister came to visit today, and she brought (at my eager request) my ZX81, ZX Spectrum and ZX Spectrum +. She also brought my Ram Turbo interface. Thanks to World of Spectrum, I was able to download and print the instruction manual, and thanks to one of my favorite yourubers, I got to watch this awesome review of it :) Thanks for another entertaining and educational video! The button on the side is a reset button according to WoS, but mine is the earlier model that doesn't have the button.

[@double-you5130]

i had this back in 87 (from 83) and me and a mate wanted to do a newspaper for the flat we lived in.. needed a printer and that particular connector for it lol i still have the sinclair zx spectrum with all of 48KB of memory LOL and a ton of tapes with games on them. the best computer ever.

[@JAMBONBALONEY]

It's impressive how it looks so modern and actual. I mean it looks like a wireless keyboard you would use hooked up to your Television.

[@azshaw123]

Loading a game back then was the fun part, the anticipation just made it worth while, i wish I could live that excitement just once more, they were happy times for me as a kid.

[@erniemiller1953]

I hate tape drives! It was annoying to go over to this one guy's house to play computer games and have to have an actual conversation with him for five minutes. I always put up with him until he said, "Try this game. It's worth the half-hour wait." . . . . . It was a blank tape.

[@guillepankeke2844]

That is why i never played on my spectrum again, despite nostalgia. But on the other hand you had accsesible illegal games way before the internet.

[@diederick76]

At 1364 baud, a 48K game took slightly under five minutes to load. Most games were less. And booting the computer took all of two seconds. You can probably boot a modern PC and game in under that time, but not by much.

[@fattomandeibu]

@@diederick76 Let's not discount the price difference, either. £1.99 vs £14.99 for the cheapest games of each format. I could buy a new game every week.

[@wildbilltexas]

Had the Sinclair ZX came out in the USA the same time it did in the UK and had good distribution and was sold much cheaper than Commodore, Apple, TI, Radio Shack etc it might have been a hit over here. It looks like a very basic and fun computer.

[@Rubycon99]

Maybe... I feel like the US market was already a little too full for it to edge its way in.

[@peterdoa1]

the problem is they licensed Timex to distribute clone systems for them in the US, it was no handled well

[@GameHammerCG]

For the time, it wasn’t basic. It was compact but feature-rich, which helped it blow away the competition.

[@robertturner4913]

I have several TS-2068's that I still use today and a few Spectrums - I've always been a fan of the Sinclair machines.

[@herrfriberger5]

@@GameHammerCG What do you mean? It was extremely basic :) Although with a descent processor that made it possible to program pretty good games (despite practically no assistance *at all* from the unusually simplistic hardware).

[@jerricabenton842]

"it's freakin jetpack; and jetpack is rad" --LGRism

[@PeasGraveny]

That LGR comment had me nodding in agreement so enthusiastically that I hurt my neck. Rad indeed, good sir!

[@AmbersKnight]

I owned the RAM turbo when it came out and I loved it. It was superb for multiple joysticks and the reset button was an excellent feature given that the only other way to reset the Speccy was to pull out the power lead which never was a good thing.

[@illshootyou5199]

6 years old and still an amazing video! i was on the edge of my seat watching you play jetpack!! hahah

[@blankbanz]

ok you make reviews of THIS kind of hardware... Subscribed

[@SeaJay_Oceans]

Cassette Tapes are wonderful, it sure beat the heck out of punch cards.

[@nightbreed4219]

Until the tape chewed...

[@birdiemcchicken1471]

"Cassette Tapes are wonderful, it sure beat the heck out of punch cards." "Getting your hand jammed in a revolving door is wonderful, it sure beat the heck out of getting hit with a train"

[@LanIost]

Kids -- Don't circumcise your Jet Pac. It cannot be undone! Listen to the man.

[@Lawnboyspost1975TheHomeOfDave]

Ahhh Jet Pac the first Speccy game I ever played and still one of the best that I enjoy still to this day! ;) Awesome piece of kit shame as you said it was wasted. Have you ever heard of the Opus disk drive that's what we had and it doubled as a joystick interface, very tricky to get to work but when you finally did it was win biscuits! ;)

[@slay3rm00n]

I was really hoping you would show us the old tape cassette loading haha, I've never seen it done and I enjoy your videos. Oh well, this is nearly 4yrs. old now so it's probably out of the question to request that. Great video nonetheless! Jet Pac is awesome!

[@TheDarthBartus]

Spectrum is such a beautiful system. Probably the prettiest 8-bit home computer in terms of design.

[@10p6]

I love the loop that protects the Speccy from being powered on when you plug in the Ram Turbo, but nothing protects it when plugging in a Rom Cart.

[@roccocroce]

Thanks for all of your hard work Clint. I really enjoy these videos. I’m really glad you kept on keepin on

[@massimookissed1023]

I love the way the rocket has an old marine diesel engine.

[@P5ychoFox]

Mark is a legend, such a generous guy. We need an Everdrive type cart for the interface containing every Speccy game! That'd be cool :)

[@outtheredude]

Wow. This is sooo retro! That monitor is sooo CRT glowey! I remember playing all sorts of stuff on a friend's 48K Spectrum back in the day. Thanks for the retro ride man! :-D

[@spoco2]

I grew up on the Sinclair ZX Spectrum and never new those cartridges existed. Man! That would have been so much better than tapes! I still have the Spectrum from my childhood, and will be shortly firing it up again (loading games by playing the sounds into the mic, not from tape anymore, although I still have all the original tapes too)

[@iaincowell9747]

Why don't you use TAP files?

[@Slider2732]

I'd completely forgotten about the Ram Turbo that I used to own, until seeing this one. So the completely forgetting wasn't completely completed ! Enjoyed the review :)

[@effyleven]

We had the RAM Turbo interface for the Sinclair Speccy. It worked well. (Still got it somewhere, I suppose. We bought some of the cartridge games for it, too. Got them cheap.)

[@99ulysses99]

Had one as a kid and got one again recently, and neither had the yellow button. It came as quite a surprise to see one. Also with my quickshot pro 2, and my whsmith data recorder, I spent many a happy hour gaming on the speccy

[@mattsmedley.onehandedgamin9029]

I'm here tonight as I've just set up my old spectrum and couldn't remember which joystick port on my ram turbo to use, Thank you. Dec 2022.

[@Seawolf.Gaming]

This video is already great and I love your content Clint but just imagine if Ashens had made this with you, instant humor and facts

[@JimPlaysGames]

That's so cool. I had a Spectrum but never heard of this thing. Those carts are so cute and little. Just like the Spectrum itself.

[@TheMetalButcher]

That's the fastest boot I've ever seen. Holy crap.

[@kinmanyuen]

you gotta luv the cartridge design! It looks so small and have the redrubber contact protection... innovation.

[@BassGoesBoom1]

still better than any game rare has put out in the last 10 years

[@KillerBill1953]

Just to get something straight about the original Speccy: the keyboard was a pig to type on but we had no trouble playing games using the keys for several years. Many games needed only a handful of keys, generally Left, Right, and Jump, sometimes with Up and Down and Fire. At the most five or six, with many games and very easy to manage. Joysticks are essential for flight games, such as Elite, but we still managed. The problem with ROM cartridges was the relative price of the interface and the price of the cartridges, plus the lack of games available for it.

[@philbateman1989]

Just looked up JetPac on Ebay, in this format it sells for £150... I own a copy and it's been sat in a box for years in the original packaging :D I'm sure someone else will get more fun out of it than I will! That's going up on eBay! :D

[@martinhowser4094]

That’s insane! Jetpac was always a bit of a simple repetitive, boring game even back in the day.. only reason I ever played or was my older brother convinced me there was a level on mars later on

[@hijena2285]

that was begining of gaming so THANKS whoever made this stuff ))) lgr u are NOT geek u are man with good hobby )))

[@ExStaticBass]

If I'm not mistaken I seem to remember the yellow button being for the purpose of rescaning the expansion bus. That way you could plug different things in that didn't have a pass through and hit the button to rescan the bus to use the new device. It was a long time ago that I used a Sinclair so I'd check into it further before you try it. As you said, the machine can be seriously damaged by plugging or unplugging things while it's on.

[@missopan]

Really look like s neat little game device with a lot substance to it, that Spectrum.. Seems fully loaded with hard core hardwares, phat chips and circuits.. Has a nice sound to it..

[@schneil]

Well done for getting hold of the rom cartridge, I've never seen them in the wild

[@CoolJosh3k]

Jetpack is a great game, but you could get so good you’d never be able to die.

[@PeteJohnsMusic]

You should run that industrial fan in the background on all your more recent gameplay videos Clint.

[@groovingtothebeat]

ROM cartridge slot that took the Sinclair cartridge games such as Jetpac, Cookie and Horace.The twin joystick ports could support Kempston (the rightmost one), Protek(Cursor) (the leftmost one, after programming) or Sinclair (both).Hold down the Joystick's fire button on boot to activate Protek(Cursor) mode.A small reset button on the side was available on units produced from Christmas '85 onward.

[@MetalSonicodraco7342]

This dual-interface was correctly used by Robotron giving the oportunity to play with 2 Joysticks as it means

[@groovingtothebeat]

Do you suppose that the game robotron may have inspired, if not fully then have a hand in the idea behind the creation of the Terminator series?

[@groovingtothebeat]

just a theoretic question

[@MetalSonicodraco7342]

I guess is correct your theory

[@syrdanxero]

Sometimes I watch your videos just to hear your voice, I love it lol.

[@johneygd]

This ram adaptor is just simply the best expansion module not onlydoes it add more ram to the system but also adds 2 joysticks port and a cartride input, but the best part is that you can still use other addons to it via it’s passtrough input suck as a printer, lightpen or an sd card addon etc,,,, and with it’s ‘reset’ switch you can reboot the system without having to pull off the plug, theres even a hole for that ac plug,so it's an awesome must have gedjet for zx spectrum users!!!

[@harleyharlequin6174]

Connector condom! :D Hurray for safe gaming!

[@charliecahill7252]

its Durexs attempt at computers XD

[@jakebodnar2797]

After your floppy becomes a hard drive, protect each other before you RAM

[@joonasfi]

@@jakebodnar2797 hehe, good one :)

[@AdrianJayeOnline]

LOL @ 1:07

[@bizmonkey007]

Your videos are strangely addicting. I'm not sure why, but keep up the good work 👍

[@LGR]

Happy to hear it, thanks!

[@MMSZoli]

well, those cartridges were great invention. Unfortunately they had two major problems: -They were limited to 16K size. Because of that more complex games did not fit, although the loading time was the longest with THOSE. A huge game's loading time VS cartrige's instant start (ELITE? anyone?) would make it a real offer. Also, no business SW may fit into 16K, so it was OK purely just for simple games. The plastics, PCB and electronics are the expensive part, the bigger EPROM would not increase the price of HW significantly). -Very very expensive. not only now, but back to the 80s it cost 3x more than the tape version. I saw recently, that some smart guys made this with bigger ROM, programmable, even applied loader screen+ SW selecting menu. Too bad, that this nice HW did not show the full potentials, especially a good business SW or some big multiloading games would make people buy more adapters.

[@hex2bin]

The 16K from the cartridge paged into the lower 16K of the Speccys memory, which was the Speccy ROM, so basically it replaced the speccy ROM with the games ROM. This limited the usability since you couldn't make any calls to the Speccy's own ROM, so any program that relied on a call to the Speccy ROM wouldn't work on cartridge without major rewrite.

[@smartroadbiker]

@@hex2bin I do wonder if it would have been possible to actually load into the higher ram from the rom, much like a tape does but faster?

[@ownpj]

@@smartroadbiker no need. developers could've easily implemented bank switching. even atari 2600 cartridges did it.

[@michaelparker2449]

Brings back memories of my old Cheetah 125+ joystick

[@TheWomble001]

+Michael Parker Mine took one hell of a battering during Hyper Sports competitions with my brother. Good suction cups lol.

[@michaelparker2449]

TheWomble001 It was Daley Thompson's decathlon putting mine through Hell, but still survived close to a decade of abuse.

[@stephenbull2026]

wow...such memories ! Given your fondness for the UK retro computer scene, i would highly recommend checking out the "Bedroom to Billions" film. It is on Netflix (here in the UK) and I would imagine you would get a lot of pleasure from watching it.

[@CGoody564]

look up kim justice here on youtube. you'll love it

[@stephenbull2026]

Cory, thank you so much for that....LOADS to watch now. Much appreciated. Some really talented and dedicated people out there !

[@PeasGraveny]

Aw,man! I totally forgot how splendid JetPac is. Imagine did some of the all-time best Speccy games. And that laser sound effect is just so goddam satisfying.

[@Bobba_raekus]

So in JETPAC you land on a planet, repair your ship, take off, land on another planet and repair your ship again. Over and over. Didn't know No Man's Sky was already released in 1983.

[@petebloggs1474]

man I really wanted JetPac on a rom pak back in the day. All I got was a flaky Atic Atac which would glitch out after a couple of secs. JetPac was the BEST. So nice to see it again.

[@Nico42ke]

Nice to see some retro LGR, good looking cartridges!

[@linksbro1]

I remember my uncle telling me about a custom ZX Spectrum he built with an actual, real, non-rubber key keyboard. Apparently he found a cheap keyboard that used internals that were super small, and he just put the innards of the ZX Spectrum in that, because they fit.

[@AintBigAintClever]

Linksbro I did the same with a Dragon 32 shell and a Spectrum :)

[@DGneoseeker1]

+Linksbro It's easier just to buy a Spectrum 128K version. It has a normal (hard) keyboard. Although the keys seem to be on springs or something like that. They don't click so much as squish down. Also, it has a built in tape deck! SUCH TECHNOLOGY.

[@Dekasi1112]

+DGneoseeker1 but they have certain compability issuses

[@DGneoseeker1]

Dekki Gaming Really? What kinds of problems arise?

[@Dekasi1112]

with certain software and games due to different hardware being used in 128k

[@EgoShredder]

Oh and after the red/black Kempston Competition Pro I bought a Powerplay Cruiser which was an improved version, with suction feet; a flatter base and a adjustable ring around the stick with three levels of stiffness. For waggling games I set it to the stiffest setting and used the palm of my hand across the top of the stick. For everything else I used the more slack setting. Best joystick ever and I still have it; more tough than an army general!

[@Langenbacher]

I did my first programming on the Sinclair. It feels like seeing an old flame again :D

[@davida1hiwaaynet]

Hey I know it's an old video but still enjoyed it! That red rubber boot around the connector on the ROM cartridge is 'probably' an electrostatic discharge protector. You might want to take your DVOM and measure resistance of the actual red rubber. It may be resistive (conductive) to drain away any static shocks that might otherwise hit the terminals of the ROM cartridge. This would prevent any one terminal from getting individually zapped and damaging the ROM chip.

[@TCGView]

Quickshot Joystick! I remember those. God, I am old.

[@samiraperi467]

That red one is actually a Quickshot Turbo. What crappy switches, mine broke in a month.

[@Zerbey]

As you said, the Interface-2 was a bit of a commercial failure. Most people bought a Kempston interface and just got their games on cassette. Later Spectrums had the joystick ports built in but lacked the cartridge port.

[@OldSchoolNYCGamer]

Timing is everything, I didn't know you did this till after I uploaded my Jetpac video, lol. That add on is very cool and were one step ahead of ol' Clive by having yet another extension in the back. Excellent review. = )

[@DaveMcGarry]

I had this interface back in the day. I think we had one of the Horace cartridges for it. The interface must have come slightly unplugged one day as it killed our first Speccy. Fortunately the store (may have been a Dixon's or WH Smiths) replaced the computer for free! That was a scary couple of days. Even so we never had the interface unplugged on the new machine it was essential for using a joystick. Great times.

[@Powpowpictures1]

Awesome, I was hooked watching you play that first level of JetPack. Those cartridges must be quite rare now. I never saw one here in the UK.

[@MrCassavius]

didnt know about that, but Im happy enough with your channel, mate. keep up the good work!

[@MlokKarel]

About the yellow button: I do recall a "TURBO" cartridge for my atari 800xe had similar button on it as well, and it did something else when held while powering the computer up. Now I can't recall exactly what it was, it was more than 20yrs ago... But it loaded two distinct programs I believe...

[@kiraangle2823]

game looked crisper than expected. nice

[@xAstronomy]

I had thesee!!! there was a Radio Club that had all sorts of "oddware" and i was blessed with testing all this weird old stuff! They had a huge box with games on tape, Flinstones was my fav The Romanians that work now at Microsoft actually trained on Sinclair and Z Spectrum pc

[@GerardKean]

omg those joysticks! the memories. I had a ZX Spectrum+ and my friend had a C64 and we used those joysticks.

[@vwestlife]

@matawin2 Sounds like an external mic on the table.

[@ChairmanMeow1]

Ive seen it 20+ times now and I still cant believe games came on cassette tapes

[@kentishmale1969]

Chairman Meow yep, there was absolutely thousands of games on tape for all different home computers - believe me that gaming didn't start with Nintendo no matter what some might tell you on KZbin at times...

[@Dolphination]

Great to see appreciation for the Speccy over in the US!

[@lanta-darren]

Back in the late 80s, we just wiggled cables around and hoped it would load from the tape. Back then we didn't have beer to kill time with. This video is the first time I'm seen a cartridge for a 48K rubber key Speccy.! Now if you could find a SAM Coupe...

[@46danz]

I used soectrums from the start right up till the 128k floppy drive model,i never knew about the catridges.very interesting.

[@ajmetz82]

Have never seen a Spectrum game load that fast in my life!! =O

[@vwestlife]

Did you know? The common Anglo-Saxon "Z" is "zee". The French brought the "zed" when they took over the throne of England in 1066. So it has always been the commoner in England who used "zee" and the higher mucky-mucks who used "zed".

[@TheBrazilRules]

The spectrum is so cute.

[@TrancemasterOnyx]

After your reviews on DOS/old-school pc games these Oddware reviews are what I totally love, especially if it's hardware :D I'm thinking of starting collecting old pc hardware myself... I do have some parts laying around from years back when I was little (tried my best to not let my parents throw any old stuff way :P) but I want more! ^_^

[@sambrown9494]

On my one the button was red. Acted as reset, but I wasn't aware of other functions. I also remember tearing the red skirt off the cartridges because I thought that's what you were supposed to do. Never got it re-attached.

[@tosgem]

Ah the memories, the Spectrum was way before my time but I had an emulator on my Atari ST, it came on one of the Pompey Pirates cracking groups menu disks with a handful of games, including Jetpack. I played it a lot.

[@maiki60fps]

ZX Spectrum 48k - the most timeless design. No obsolete ports, new interfaces still being developed. One day there will be an add on with USB ports supporting USB gamepads & more than just ONE BUTTON (big issue of all this DB9 8bit stuff) + integrated flash storage file system... mark my words! (keywords: Kmouse Turbo 2011, ZX Matrix, DivIDE)...

[@mongolz1000]

I had all of those Joysticks, they were awesome! :) Those were the times.

[@80085word69]

love these videos, it's incredible how far technology has come. Can't even imagine how incredibly obsolete the computers we use today will be 25 years from now

[@Chitownrubber]

From 12 years in the future, it’s lit.

[@DLiberator78]

The Turbo RAM was an awesome add-on. I remember back in the day thinking how 'sexy' this Joystick/ROM Interface looked. Another awesome hardware review. Thanks for sharing.

[@alejandrobaque4135]

Had one of these in the day, good stuff. Even had some 16k cartridges, wafadrive, microdrives...

[@MultiRetroMan]

That's what I used to have. It was fantastic! A must have accessory as far as I'm concerned if you bad a ZX Spectrum :)

[@_Piers_]

I remember seeing these in magazines, but no one I knew had one and you didn't see the cartridges for sale much either. That price sticker explains that £14.95! Im sure games on tape were only £2-3. 75% off does seem like a bargain though :)

[@TheBladeJunker]

Now that is a cool addon, the lack of joystick has always been a deterrent for me actively seeking out a ZX Spectrum above other systems. How sweet it is, cartridges may be costly but vastly more reliable than tape. I guess you could call it the ZX Condom Cover. ^_^ Great episode. :D

[@ianpenfold8554]

it MIGHT be one of those adcons that allowed you to dump what wax in the spectrums ram on to a blank programmable cartridge, that would be what the button is for

[@steliosarvanitis5606]

The Zx and the A600, i think are the definition of "eye candy" on computers..

[@1300l]

You are on fire, uploading alot of videos. Good job, you are the best subs i have here.

[@rabscots910]

the spectrum is my favourite computer. it was just so fast - compared to the c64 etc... love the sound beeper - which is actually underrated. the speaker is actually quite large - when you look at the motherboard.

[@vladabuba]

It is great that on power up you have your game ready. However, I actually really like playing tape and listening to those screeching loading sounds. Guess that It's also part of the retro excitement. Also there is waiting for intro screen. I have always wondered with what kind of loading screen I will be greeted every time on first game loading. :D

[@TadRaunch]

Wow, I didn't expect that Jetpack game to look so cool.

[@flarepie24]

those cartriges are so cute i dont know what it is about them but i love them

[@hiflow3718]

man those was the days I loved my spectrum 48k and 128k these days I use a i7 @4.6 could never imagine it

[@LeginNoslen]

Those cartridges are cute as heck.

[@DrakeSteele]

Hmm... Jetpac looks like a cross between joust screen layout and defender playstyle... I like it. :)

[@vwestlife]

Is that a PAL monitor or were you using a PAL to NTSC converter?

[@FryNOR]

My first gaming experience was JetPack on a Spectrum, but my Spectrum looked much more primitive than this one. The case was a bit bigger and it had turning knobs on the top and no letters on the keyboard. My blind father (yes he was blind) cut out a larger slot for the joystick extension... Oh the memories!, JetPack and Alleycat!.