The Spectrum Show EP 132

Welcome to the new series and episode 132.
In this episode I review the British Mirco Grafpad..
I review Kat Trap, Passing Shot and The Unicorn .
I chat to Geoff and play Commando at the same time and I look at Data Genie.
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Other Links:
www.thespectrum... The Spectrum Show website
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/ @geoffneil5073 Geoff's KZbin channel

[@paulpatrick885]

There is an unofficial 128k version of Commando that adds the awesome arcade music into the game. Commando was a pretty good early conversion from Elite and the later levels with the jeeps and vehicles were impressive.

[@TomMannCenturia]

Yeah that hack with the music is brilliant

[@KevReillyUK]

I didn't realise that version is unofficial. The music is great.

[@jexthegamer]

I like you both chatting while gaming together. I hope you continue to do that on the show.

[@neilt591]

Good episode as always. I particularly enjoyed watching the Commando simulplay. It was interesting.

[@davidhayward119]

I asked Roger Kean about Kat Trap once, and if he ever knew what happened to it and the winner. He said he never heard from the winner again, but Gary Penn (I think it was him) did run into Eggleton once and mentioned Kat Trap. According to Roger, John said "Oh god, don't mention that bloody game to me again!!"

[@frankowalker4662]

I did'nt even know the Graphpad was a thing. Cool. Brilliant episode, as always.

[@geoffneil5073]

Great show as always Paul. I liked the look of the Graphpad, not a thing for me though as I'm a rubbish artist. I agree that 'The Unicorn' is a great game I've spent hours playing it.

[@LuciferStarr]

27:32 "Bored of the Rings" reference there? "Whee" being the name change for the town of "Bree"? Or random coincidence?

[@gregoryoakman8639]

Thanks for the episode Paul, much appreciated.

[@paulclay4293]

I always look forward to new episodes of TSS. Commando shoot out was great, still so playable even after all these years!

[@kdrum90]

Your hand-drawn bench scenery looks pretty good 👍 Spectrum pixels give it a specific stylistic touch making the whole thing quite attractive.

[@martin.pokorny]

Wow, the Grafpad looks great, even useable (for the 80's and the ZX Spectrum world). A pretty piece of historical hardware (and software).

[@sublimosis]

Great video again. But watching u both play Commando was a wind up. So many schoolboy errors!!! 😂

[@geoffneil5073]

Is we do more dual plays I'm sure there'll be a lot more schoolboy errors :).

[@darrenball4620]

Always wanted a graphics tablet when I had my Spectrum, but the price was just way too high. Finally got one about 25 years later on my PC....and used it twice, never to see it again...

[@KingPepper41]

I was just thinking, who else could you, have a chat with then it dawned on me, the one and only, Jim Bagley - I am sure he would do a interview with you talking about the ZX-81, ZX- Spectrum, and later on, the Spectrum Next and what games are being worked on, even split the chat up into 2 or 3 parts, so 2 - 3 new episodes could have a segment each, would be awesome to hear his point of view, or even if he has some secret games that never made the light of day, and were cancelled. Just an idea for your shows. Keep up the good work. Paul - Thank you.

[@syrus3k]

Back in the day a graphics tablet would have been amazing

[@stevesgaming7475]

Superb as usual! Thank you. I really wanted a Graphpad at the time but I couldn't afford it but after watching this, I'd glad I never got one. haha!

[@souperdragon]

Around 1987 there was a newer version of the Grafpad, called the Grafpad II , published by a company called Micro-draw (I thiink the hardware was still British Micro) It was a slimmer and (I thought) cheaper looking product. I had it on the Amstrad CPC464, the tape came with a couple of extra programs, you got an intro, the drawing program and an icon editor. tbh it was quite slow, not very accurate and a nightmare to use, so it gathered a lot of dust and whilst I still have the tape and the manual.. I do not know where the actual pad went to.. shame..

[@HLubenow]

"Data Genie": 25:37: "But it can only hold 146 records in memory at once" - If you only have to manage 146 records, you probably don't need a database program at all. Just write down the records on a piece of paper and search them with your eyes. 😏 Maybe the program made more sense on a 128K Spectrum.

[@illgottengains1314]

Ritman. Ritman? Ritman Rovers? Match Day was a classic, I remember 4 or 5 of us waiting outside Master Micro on the morning of launch day 😆

[@KingPepper41]

I loved all his games, did he make Bear bovvver, and a Battlezone clone, which I loved. I can't remember the name of it now, I must be getting old.

[@juststatedtheobvious9633]

As a former twelve year old artist, I not only can believe a kid drew that race car, but I can worry about the quality of the product if that was his best effort. Then again, my own art was only ever "great by small town standards", which meant I understood light and shadow better than "how to draw a hand using a spoon." AI has replaced me... All in all, the ad is fine. But I worry how the kid was treated, if he actually enjoyed making all those graphs. The 80's were not the best time to be considered a teacher's pet.

[@theamigashow9506]

The tablet looks pretty good! NIce episode again 🙌

[@Jamesalec63]

I had one of those where it used a light pen it at the time was fantastic, but could almost had to use on old style TVs, and I do remember those tablets for drawing and possibly writing also hard to get hold of wasn't cheap either though I recall there was a smaller version a basic version and thin wire that often came loose or broke, sometimes I recall some difficult to work or won't designed for European Spectrums, later there was an option to connect it to a game console adapter from Spectrum? I also recall the tablet turned up on the Commdores systems and IBMs a more advanced version and used an option to have a voice adapter to it for vocals?

[@TheWobblyCameraGuy]

Always look forward to a new TSS episode 👍

[@radioweebdx7680]

I didn't know you were a ZX Spectrum fan? 🙂

[@TheWobblyCameraGuy]

Hi, good to hear from you. Yes I used to have ZX81 & a Spectrum + back in the day. Really like this channel as its delivered at a measured pace rather than speaking really quickly like so many KZbinrs seem to do for some reason these days and it's has some great content👍

[@stevenice8320]

Thanks for another great episode. I thought your self portrait was excellent Paul 😂

[@rick12373]

Been watching this show since the start. Great stuff! I always skip past the business section though...

[@M1SK1]

1:00 Just in case, the pixel art from Marco Antonio del Campo aka MAC :)

[@Lennymcgra]

Class as always

[@dav1dbone]

Your hand drawn picture looks not bad, you could see the appeal of a line drawn game with these kind of graphics, maybe even an adventure or half strategy half exploring.

[@TanjoGalbi]

Maybe they cheekily mean a light pen as in it's not heavy? 😉😏

[@pablorai769]

"No'" fields come from latin Numero, of course...

[@CartoonMonkeyStudio]

That Grafpad is fantastic! I really wish I had one for the Spectrum / 64! The Koala pad is such a terrible device by comparison. Somone on a dutch forum created a “commopad” device that is similar to this zx spectrum one, but rather uses a modern cheap (resistive) touchscreen as the base. I may yet try and build one from his open source plans. Great vid as usual..! Cheers

[@craigwalker3194]

Great Episode as always Paul.

[@robqg]

Kat Trap chap is pronounced like empty head! One improvement to the graphic tablet would be to have the software built into ROM on the device.

[@retrorobbins]

Another great show there, commando oddly enough is one of those games I used to play with infinite live pokes in and really enjoyed it😂

[@PixelReality1]

Как всегда Крутяк Groovy

[@gedgicat2063]

How about beachhead for a game to play together

[@faenethlorhalien]

Isn't Kat Trap the only game that Ashen's father ever bought for him?

[@Lbf5677]

Get a bloke from the gym to pose so you can do a new title screen for rastan on the tablet

[@jp2en]

omg, I need one! Grafpad.

[@jasontaylor8658]

Yay!

[@zxspectrum16KB]

You can run 2 spectrums side by side? Hunter killer delta wing n tt racer interface1 networked....please

[@darrenporter1850]

Something wasn't right about Kat-trap. Plus it was a terrible idea and nobody bought it.