The Spectrum Show EP120

[@Archimedes75009]

I had a multiface 1, and I was so happy because the 'magic' button on my betadisk interface didn't work with my floppy drives. I made copies ( oops, sorry : 'backups' 🙂) to cassette first, and then the files were copied to the floppy disk, adding a bit of code in the BASIC loader for the tr-dos loading commands. In order to not have a screen corrupted when the games started, the trick was to make the copy when the screen was blank ( for example when you lose, and display is cleared right before the main menu is about to be displayed ). I made my own menus in BASIC to select the game I wanted from my floppies, and the list of games available on the floppy was printed with my ZX Printer. Thank you Sir Clive Sinclair, rest in peace, you and the Sinclair team gave so much to my generation, when we were kids.

[@GadgetUK164]

=D

[@EMarkMoore]

Many, many thanks, Paul and Geoff, for yet another great series, packed, not only with fond memories and nostalgia, but the usual sprinkling of matters that were new to me too. Looking forward to everything you have in store for the future!

[@Ratchet_effect]

I was one of them, that posted some shows back now, that you sound exactly like Johnny Ball - He inspired a generation towards confidence in mathematics, science and technology. Yes you share his voice/vocals & also you Paul! are an inspiration to a lot of those whom wasn't around when the Spectrum was released back in our younger days. Those who come upon your videos in the future, looking and wondering, what it was all about; I'm hand on heart sure, they'll find your videos a Massive help indeed. 👍👍

[@BuckingTheTrend2008]

Thank you for your encouraging words :-)

[@TanjoGalbi]

One of my strongest memories of owning a Spectrum 48K was the type-in games from magazines. One time we had some other kids staying with us while their parents were going through a messy divorce. The girl did not understand my computer nor tried to but one day I was typing in a long listing from a magazine that used huge lines of data to hold the machine code, so not a BASIC game! The data statements took up the maximum length for a line of code. I had spent hours meticulously typing in the lines and I had got around 3 quarters through the whole listing when disaster struck! I was in the middle of one of the data statements moving my finger along the magazine page as I entered the numbers so I did not lose track of them when the girl came up to my room to tell me dinner was ready and I had to come down to eat. I told her I needed to finish entering the line of data before I could come as I would lose my place in the line. She would not have it and just switched off the power to my computer at the wall socket! I WENT BALLISTIC! She thought I was going to kill her or something so she started crying. I told my mother what she did and she was warned never to touch my computer equipment if she did not want to make me angry again. I never did find out how good that type-in game was as I decided not to start again, it was tedious! lol

[@stevenice8320]

Always great to watch to and enjoy.Thanks for your efforts in making it such fun.

[@bryngunn]

One of my comments made it into the chat section. Happy days. 😀

[@BuckingTheTrend2008]

Keep commenting.. you never know we may do another one of those ;-)

[@theamigashow9506]

I loved my multiface one! Great feature, didn’t realise there were quite so many similar devices! Thanks too for the plug 😊

[@mcenglish4654]

Another fantastic and hard crafted episode. Could never afford any multiface type interface at the time, so this was especially interesting. How could anyone skip Geoff’s bits - love them too and especially your chats. When I first discovered this channel as a ZX81 to ZX Spectrum 48K and +2 to A600, A1200 then boring pc’s I rediscovered my working +2 and had a ball. Since then a +3, microdrives, Spectrum+ and toast rack have been acquired and I am loving them with modern loading mechs. Thank you for all you do and keeping the history alive. Best wishes and looking forward to the next series.

[@BuckingTheTrend2008]

Cheers. Looks like you followed my route through computing, although I skipped the Plus2 and went to an A500.

[@mr.y.mysterious.video1]

Multiface 3 was an essential for me when I first got my plus 3 due to the dearth of disc games and my existing cassette game collection

[@BAZFANSHOTHITSClassicTunes]

Thats what i love about Sir Clives Speccy. The most basics are so convoluted.

[@SHGRetro]

Paul, on Manic miner on the first screen. Walk under the first stalagmites then jump up onto the level. Stops you having to dodge it and the clock work robot!

[@BuckingTheTrend2008]

Yep, I know. I was just showing the info lives poke worked :-)

[@SHGRetro]

@@BuckingTheTrend2008 🤣 Thought you had gone all NOOB on us!

[@nellyfish9692]

Great episode as always. I remember Lemmings on the Sam Coupe, was a great port and one of the few big games that made it to the Sam.

[@tailzer42]

Multifaceted 128 for me, had an opus so was the best way to get games onto disk. Great show, looking forward to the live one!

[@mcenglish4654]

Best ZX81 compilation of all time, by miles, cassette 4 by Michael Orwin - Fungaloids, Gunfight, Scramble, Snake and even a really interesting version of Life.

[@cptnkrenon]

Those are all solid games, but Fungaloids was absolutely brilliant.

[@SpikeColgate]

I had a Specmate and i'm pretty sure my mate had the Multiface One that he used for finding pokes and looking at/bypassing protection. You might know him, Jon North..

[@robm8809]

Thanks Paul! Love these shows! :)

[@JimLeonard]

Brilliant summary of these save/cheat devices. I had no idea there were so many of them for a single system!

[@10p6]

Nice. I think you should do a Type in which starts with Jeff reading a line of code, then it being passed on to numerous people in a chain, one at a time, around the world, for Paul to type in, and to see if the program then runs. Could be fun, could break records. :-)

[@hazy33]

Wouldn't this be illegal under European Convention for Human Rights as it would constitute "cruel and unusual punishment"?

[@popeymongames]

That Fido game with the dog clobbering hedgehogs with its tail. :) :) :) :)

[@gregoryoakman8639]

Thanks for the episode Paul.

[@schneil]

30:27 I thought Exolon was released in 1987? Which could make the "computer classics" compilation good value at it's time of release?

[@frankowalker4662]

Brilliant show as always. I was given 'Don't Buy This' for Christmas in 97. LOL. Now you must do a live type-in. :)

[@GadgetUK164]

Always look forward to your show - keep it up =D

[@manu128k]

Nice episode! I was addicted to Lemmings :) I finished all the levels more than once. By the way, there is a function to make the cursor follow an specific lemming with the N key. I miss that feature in the PC version and it makes things a bit easier

[@michaelhill6453]

Fascinating as ever.

[@adw147]

The show just gets better !

[@michaeltsung9741]

Brilliant, as usual....

[@retrogamerecluse]

Fraid i have to disagree with you on 'Aliens.' I still find it one of the most tense and atmospheric computer games ever made - even to this day! (and its based on James Cameron's sequel, not the 1979 original)

[@TheTurnipKing]

There were actually two Aliens games. The other one, Aliens US, was a C64 port and a much more straightforward "minigames based on scenes in the movie" type affair. I've always preferred the Argus Press "Alien" game based on the prequel, myself.

[@lestat1uk]

@@TheTurnipKing I remember the box for the Alien game, it was a monster box. Also Electric dreams was a much better game but aliens the us version was ok it had its moments

[@kennethgibson456]

I agree it was tense, especially when an alien is in the room and you have to try find and kill it with the cursor as you had to be quick! That and escape from fractulus gave me major panic as a youngster!

[@nikamota]

Paul. I was so pi$$ed the other night, that I forgot I had watched this already.... Anyhoo.....rest assured you got the thumbs up! I love your videos on the first computer I ever had all to myself, and really spent so much time on trying to figure out how this wonderful thing worked! Thank you and keep the videos coning. All the best.

[@BuckingTheTrend2008]

I have sometimes written things (games code) whilst very drunk. Discovering it later when sober is often an enlightening thing. Most of the time it's garbage, but on a few occasions it's like someone else has produced some amazing ideas!!

[@mark-andrews]

Did have, the: ""They Sold a Million" compilation, back in the day. Played those games quite a bit. Arcade Classics from Silver bird was a great compilation: Galaxians, Space Invaders, Battle Zone, and Earth Defence, 4 great arcade clone games for £1.99, well worth a play, imo on the ZX Spectrum. A live type-in corner might need a parental advisory, or is it just me that swears my head off after typing for hours and it STILL doesn't ******* work! Great show, thanks.

[@stuartsinclair6269]

Thanks Paul, amazing what one finds out about multi faces, always use to read about them. And thanks for the different ways of loading games which I said about a few months back, Long gone the days Speccy games were everywhere inc my newsagents on a turning shelf, I always wondered on how you can break into high graphical games, otherwise it froze, Thank Paul and others, trying to think of something you haven’t covered yet, will let you know👍🏻

[@robertoneill1979]

Johnny Ball was my favourite. "Think of a number"😎 Despised my Amiga A1200. Gave it to a charity shop 😶

[@miikasuominen3845]

Yay! My ugly mug is on a video 😝 Torille! 😂

[@workbenchstuff]

There are 2 sequels for Lemmings: spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/36959/ZX-Spectrum/Lemmings_2 and spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/36960/ZX-Spectrum/Lemmings_3-Last_Space_Crusade Please take a look at them, they come from mid of 90s, made by Mecosoft Team: spectrumcomputing.co.uk/list?label_id=20315

[@johncross1341]

I had a pal who loved Butch Hard Guy and would always try to get me to play it when I went round. I honestly don't know what he saw in it...

[@BuckingTheTrend2008]

Sounds like torture ;-)

[@celbeleg1]

Damn i always get a bit happy when i see a new episode drop, just as am going to bed! Great content as usual, hope i can catch that live episode.

[@BuckingTheTrend2008]

I will be uploading the live show here. Taking 5 cameras and will then edit it before uploading. Should be good… fingers crossed.

[@cjh0751]

Hi Paul, love your channel. Have you ever thought about doing a Podcast with Niel at RMC's This week in retro. I would love to see you as a guest on Neil's channel. No problem if you just want to keep doing your own thing with The Spectrum Show. I think your YT channel is brilliant either way. Regards and respect.

[@andrewdunbar828]

The screen corrupting is the device writing code into the computer's RAM where it can be fairly sure it won't be overwriting the game's code. Screen RAM is still RAM after all.

[@billybollockhead5628]

My favorite ever type in that I ever typed in, and I honestly played WAAAY more than a lot of the games I paid money for.. "Pixy The Microdot" - it was ace.

[@skykid3]

Had a zx spectrum 48+, then the +3, would've loved a multiface 3 at the time

[@lestat1uk]

I did mention quite a few shows ago that you sound like Johnny Ball 😉

[@kins749]

Appreciate you don't have the time, but if you were to do another show my vote would be for 'The ZX81 Show'

[@allanjohnstone]

Live type in at crash… on a 48k rubber keyboard… swear jar at the ready! Great show as usual

[@geoffneil5073]

We could always do this type-in: 10 PRINT "The Spectrum Show Live" 20 GOTO 10

[@allanjohnstone]

@@geoffneil5073 hmm still good for a few pennies in the Jar 😜

[@BuckingTheTrend2008]

I've just finished a type-in that wasn't even complete in the magazine! The listing had a whole subroutine missing! Had to make it up to get it working... that's for a future episode though.

[@MartinMllerSkarbiniksPedersen]

I have a SoftCrack _ made by Lars Jespersen. It has 16 kb ram for storing an loading screen and a nice debugger. It can also compress the code before saving. I think it is a multiface 3 clone

[@mhoppy6639]

Such nostalgia!! Have a subscribe.

[@BuckingTheTrend2008]

Thanks. Enjoy the entire back catalogue. :-)

[@Alancalan]

@Paul Jenkinson did you study some electronics, how do you know how to fix some items you have on the show, is there somewhere you'd suggest to learn it. I did try and fix something through a youtube video but was a bit more difficult than looked.8

[@BuckingTheTrend2008]

Not at all. I have no idea what I'm doing! If something wobbles or the solder is cracked - I re-solder it. That's about as far as I go. Most of it is pure guess work.. which is why you should never copy anything you see on the internet :-)

[@iangough3062]

May I ask what was that gizmo shown at 3:40 please? I apologise for my ignorance in having to ask.

[@BuckingTheTrend2008]

It’s the SVI-CAS. I reviewed it in episode 110.

[@mamehaze]

As a kid I hated Butch Hard Guy, it didn't make sense. As an adult it's actually one of my favourite Speccy single screen platformers, and one I'd score 9/10 easily. It's also a multiload, the end sequence loads from tape after you've finished the game.

[@TomMannCenturia]

I don't think there's any filler in Computer Classics at all! The Computer Hits series from Beau Jolly definitely has filler on though.

[@andrewsearle9153]

Can someone provide a link or just more information on the loading device used here please? The one on the right at 3:18.

[@BuckingTheTrend2008]

It’s a SVI- CAS. See episode 110

[@andrewsearle9153]

@@BuckingTheTrend2008 Brilliant, thank you Paul.

[@ZEUSDAZ]

Got to disagree with you on one thing, Fido was a great little game on Dont Buy This, I found it funny and enjoyable, far better than other games I've seen on the ZX.

[@tendrosstoodross2976]

I thought Exolon was released 1987?

[@adriansinclair5062]

Great eposide and good to hear the chat section again. You shouldn't have said Johnny Ball! Now every episode I listen to that's all I'll see in my head. Any plans to have more spectrum next stuff/game thoughts etc in future episodes?

[@geoffneil5073]

Hi Adrian, just seen this. Paul tends to leave the Spectrum Next to me and I don't have anything planned at the moment. My general impression is that things are a bit slow going as people seem to be waiting for the second Kick Start but if anything comes up that looks interesting I'll look at putting something together.

[@adriansinclair5062]

@@geoffneil5073 thanks for the update. Yeah things are just waiting for the main fpga Chip with estimated date latter half of next year... But there's a fair number of new games being released and some great ones in production always worth a mention (like the "caudragon next" review you did). Keeps the interest alive plus you never know there maybe a ks3 if there's enough interest...

[@belvorn]

Idea for let’s talk about Text adventures *the fun *the crap * the strange * which one frustrated you the most I used to program them, loved creating the interactive book idea Hopefullt this is a helpful idea Love your show

[@geoffneil5073]

I thought we'd done text adventures but looking back at the list it doesn't look like we did so I've added it to the list.

[@wepif]

I also hear Jonny ball and Chris Addison

[@BuckingTheTrend2008]

Well that makes me feel a whole lot better :-/

[@wepif]

@@BuckingTheTrend2008 Geoff sounds like Chris Addison lol

[@galbaum33]

Does "mmm" stands for More Manic Miner?

[@stuartsinclair6269]

Hi Paul, Joysticks, why does the Speccy have many joystick Kempston,Cursor,Sinclair 1&2, Protek, why is this????

[@BuckingTheTrend2008]

Check out a very old episode.. episode 4, for info.

[@strzxgvnuvwvfld3597]

I would be amazed if anyone here is NOT old enough to remember Johnny Ball!

[@JamsterJules]

I died before Johnny Ball was born - so I don't remember him for a different reason.

[@jgbreezer]

Johnny and Zoe's start on TV presenting both (plus subsequent marriage to Norman Cook, for however long that lasted).

[@danielt.8573]

I may have an idea: how about people sending original type-ins for review and the chance of winning some prize by the end of the show's season? It could bring back more people into programming again for the Speccy and they might even bother to make better, longer and more complex games.

[@BuckingTheTrend2008]

Like that idea. Not sure how many would take part..

[@geoffneil5073]

The new Crash magazine already has something similar where there is a type-in that people can alter to win a prize

[@danielt.8573]

@@geoffneil5073 Didn't actually know about that. I'll check it out.

[@JAS0NPYATT]

Could you and Jeff please talk about the greatest games on speccy that have survived to modern consoles or PC’s 😊

[@geoffneil5073]

I have added it to our list of topics

[@gnattress]

"Before we begin the fourth episode of Quatermass II we'd like to say that in our opinion it is not suitable for children, or those of you who may have a nervous disposition."

[@philoffhistree6700]

you missed out interface 3 by evesham micro

[@gwishart]

2:17

[@Archimedes75009]

I'm &10 ! Wow !

[@billybollockhead5628]

Not first. 13th!

[@hybridplc]

4TH!

[@Dev_olution]

1st....maybe

[@techtinkerin]

I bought don't buy this!!! 😆❤️😎👍

[@monkeyisland819]

off course i don't know anything about your personal circumstances but you could do all of this and better by upgrading to even the cheapest pc!

[@BuckingTheTrend2008]

OK.. here we go... let's assume you are not being 'funny' or having a joke... I have multiple PC's from AMD Ryzen 9 with 128g RAM, to Intel Core 7, back through Pentium 3 & 4, numerous laptops (i5, i7), numerous Macs... so yes, I have access to all of the modern games... but this is The Spectrum Show.. It's about Spectrums and nothing else. How it contributed to the entire future of the computing industry and games development in the UK and the World. How it grabbed the public, how it evolved, how it grew and how it changed the world. The Spectrum was a fantastic computer, affordable to many households and many, many people who started off with one, myself included, owe my career to Clive Sinclair and his vision. This show celebrates that vision. This show is everything Spectrum and nothing else.

[@jaysmith2858]

@@BuckingTheTrend2008 Why has your AMD Ryzen 9 PC got so much RAM? Do you work for NASA?

[@BuckingTheTrend2008]

@jaysmith2858 when you edit 4k video, or even 1080p video, the more memory the better :-)

[@jaysmith2858]

@@BuckingTheTrend2008 With that much RAM the video rendering should have finished before you've even thought about starting it. Just a slight difference when it comes to the power and capabilities of your super rig versus the good old Speccy. 😉