h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

And what about the loading process? Twenty minutes spent listening to screeching and watching an epilepsy enducing screen, then it would flash up an error message and crash. Happy days!

Thanks, I had somehow neglected one of the most famous things about the spectrum - the tape loading. Something lost on this next generation of gamers with their fancy CD-Roms and Hard Disks

I'll incorporate something about it into the guide entry. I'm trying to make it an introduction an explanation of the speccy for people who have never heard of it.

Dunno if I mentioned this to you before, Matt, but there's a screensaver called screen$ that simulates the loading screen of a spectrum. Instant nostalgia!

Ah yes...the Spectrum. I've still got one you know. And it still works. Some great games too, like the brilliant "Horace Goes Skiing." Wonderfully addictive.

Oh the Spectrum. 25 years old this month, hence the slight gap between posts on these pages. I was a C64 owner but my best friend had a Speccy and I loved the games for it - eventually I bought it off him in the late 1980s.
Many years later and the 8 bits are at my brother-in-law's house as I moved to Canada in 1999. However, I still get nostalgic and I think I may well dabble in an emulator and see if I can get Jet Set Willy to join me for a beer tonight!
True that the games had to focus on playability and the sheer volume of games for the Spectrum was impressive. Of course, for every 95% Crash Smash there were some really awful games releases as well but this far down the road... what the hell, the good and bad become one very fond memory!
I remember what an important part of my youth this machine was... amazing. I've got kids myself now but I somehow doubt that 8bit graphics will be able to compete with their Gamecube!
to all Speccy users past and present and future

I'd completely forgotten that I wrote this guide entry. Blimey.