Time to Relive The Magic
The ZX Spectrum is an icon of the 1980s! This tiny 8-bit rubber keyed home computer played a major part in the revolution that brought computers into households across the UK.
The ZX Spectrum 48K arrived in stores in 1982 with its distinctive rainbow stripe, rubber keys and a high-pitched electronic screeching as games loaded from a cassette tape.
Yesterday, Friday 22nd November 2024, this icon of the 80s had its official release in the UK & Europe, hitting the stores such as Smyth’s Toy Store and Argos, as well as online stores including Amazon.
The geniuses behind this was Retro Games Ltd, based in the UK, who are also responsible for releasing other iconic retro computers of the late 20th Century, such as the Commodore 64, The Vic20 and Amiga 500.
After its original release in April 1982, over 5million were sold. The man behind this rubber keyed wonder was its creator Sir Clive Sinclair. The ZX Spectrum 48K was the successor to the hugely successful ZX81 introduced people to a world of not only game playing at home, but also introduced us to basic programming.
Back in the day, games would be downloaded via a cassette player which all of us that remember our days as kids in front of the Spectrum, sometimes you would get a couple minutes into the game loading with the screeching digital sound coming from the TV, and the game would crash, and you would have to rewind the tape and start again.
Today’s reboot of the Spectrum 48K from Retro Games Ltd which costs just £89.99 compared to its original price tag in the 1980s of £99 comes with 48 preloaded games including such as Manic Miner, Head Over Heels, Saboteur, The Hobbit, Army Moves, The Great Escape and my favourite Horace Goes Skiing.
As well as the 48 pre-loaded games, you can download games from the internet onto a USB stick and just plug them in and play these too! Having bought several of the Retro Games other products such as the Commodore 64, this has to be their best imagining of retro computers of the late 20th century. Retro Games have truly out done themselves and built the perfect homage to the original!
This is truly the ultimate retro gift to put under the tree for any GenX member of your family!
The Spectrum inspired a generation of programmers and game designers that would go on to design and produce games for future consoles and PCs.
Now its story is being told in The Rubber-Keyed Wonder, a new documentary, which looks at its impact.
Anthony Caulfield, who co-directed The Rubber-Keyed Wonder with his wife Nicola, said the Spectrum’s name “came up continually” during their previous film on the history of the British gaming industry, From Bedrooms to Billions.
He said: “The baby-boomer generation have got rock’n’roll, a new thing that exploded and evolved for them.
“In a way, for many born in the 1970s or early 1980s, the microchip revolution was our rock’n’roll.
“We kept hearing all these different experiences of when people got their first Spectrum and what it did for them.
“So many people went off in different directions, that we thought it needed its own space to tell that story.”
Check out Retro Games Ltd website, click HERE.
I pre-ordered my Spectrum from Smyth’s Toy Store in Swindon, which sold out on the first day. Other stores where you could find the Spectrum are Argos, Men Kind and Game Collection, but my suggestion is to order online from Amazon which seems to be where most people have been able to grab one due to a lot of pre-orders.
Entertainment Swindon 
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