Sinclair Spectrum

Spectrum +2 - Amstrad's re-packaged Spectrum with built in 'Datacorder'

Lauched in its original form in 1982 the Spectrum is somewhat of a legend in the UK and seems to have held onto a place in the national collective conciousness, sadly, for being a bit er rubbish. For some reason the poor beasty seems to have become associated with the old creaking computers, which is unfair. At it's original release it was reasonably well specced (no pun intended), and it offered a fair amount of bang for buck for the asking price. It's more likely testimant to the Spectrum's longevity and the fact that it held on well into the 16bit era, when technically it was completely outcast by other computers, that has led to this impression. The Spectrum was always seen as the poor relative of the Amstrad CPC, which internally it shares a lot of hardware with, again a shame as I prefer it to it's cousin. Spectrum owners also received a good kicking from anyone who owned a Commodore 64 or Atari 800 and later the Amiga and ST. The Spectrum is a great little machine though and I'd thoroughly recommend it to anyone. The software catalogue is great, and the Spectrum was home to some real classics, including Laser Squad, Rebelstar Raiders, Jet Set Willy and the best version of Chase HQ on the home computer by far!

Specs (Based on +2 Variant)

Zilog Z80a Processor running at 3.54mhz
32k ROM
128K RAM (older machines came with 16 and 48k of memory)
ULA Chip for IO Functions
Graphics modes - 256 x 192 - 8 Colours available at once.
AY-3-8912 Sound Chip (This is a later addition to the Spectrum)

Games