Happy Birthday ZX Spectrum

**SupremeSpod** · 23 April 2012, 06:36

Originally posted by chef View Post

linky

WHS!

**MarillionFan** · 23 April 2012, 06:41

I'll take a PEEK later.

**Gonzo** · 23 April 2012, 07:30

Originally posted by MarillionFan View Post

I'll take a PEEK later.

BASIC stuff. Some of us grew tired of that and went on to Z80A assembler.

I even had a PASCAL compiler. <SHUDDERS>

I had wanted to be a coder before that but for some reason went right off the idea after those experiences.

**suityou01** · 23 April 2012, 07:32

My father told me that the spectrum was born when Sir Clive got his mitts on a batch of damaged Z80 chips originally intended for washing machine programmes. Half the chip was blown, but half usable. The ZX Spectrum was designed around the working half.

Urban myth?

**MarillionFan** · 23 April 2012, 07:35

Originally posted by suityou01 View Post

My father told me that the spectrum was born when Sir Clive got his mitts on a batch of damaged Z80 chips originally intended for washing machine programmes. Half the chip was blown, but half usable. The ZX Spectrum was designed around the working half.

Urban myth?

Best to ask Churchill or Nick Fitz. They were there.

On that note though, you can ask Fitz about how he helped Babbage.

**SupremeSpod** · 23 April 2012, 07:42

Originally posted by suityou01 View Post

My father told me that the spectrum was born when Sir Clive got his mitts on a batch of damaged Z80 chips originally intended for washing machine programmes. Half the chip was blown, but half usable. The ZX Spectrum was designed around the working half.

Urban myth?

Myth, probably taken from the story about his earlier foray into transistor radio.

**alluvial** · 23 April 2012, 08:05

Still got both my ZX81 and my Speccy.
Brings back fond memories of college with me and my flatmate sitting up to the early hours with a bottle of scotch playing Gauntlet.

**oscarose** · 23 April 2012, 08:12

Still have mine somewhere, Z,X,N,M keys and spacebar battered by that Olympics game!

**Iron Condor** · 23 April 2012, 08:16

Originally posted by suityou01 View Post

My father told me that the spectrum was born when Sir Clive got his mitts on a batch of damaged Z80 chips originally intended for washing machine programmes. Half the chip was blown, but half usable. The ZX Spectrum was designed around the working half.

Urban myth?

Sound like an urban myth.

However there are a whole bunch of 'undocumented' instructions in the Z80... and legend has it Zilog couldnt get them to work on every one of the early chips so they just pretended the instructions just didnt exist at all.

Happy Birthday ZX Spectrum