old-computers.com

The ZX Spectrum Book - 1982 to 199x

2007-03-20T01:18:00.000-07:00

The ZX Spectrum Book - 1982 to 199x is a full colour, 256 page book chronicling over 230 games and spanning a decade of ZX Spectrum software... This exhaustively researched book provides a unique insight into the history of the companies and characters behind some of the best (and worst) games of the ZX Spectrum years...
Each full colour page covers a single game, detailing the history, gameplay, graphics, and review scores from the three major magazines (Crash, Your Sinclair, and Sinclair User)... Foreword written by Sir Clive Sinclair, the genius behind the ZX Spectrum! Essential for Spectrum fans! Andrew Rollings, the author, is also preparing a Commodore 64 version.

The Picodore 64 - a Commodore 64 PDA

2007-01-31T06:36:00.000-08:00

Jason Winter loves the Commodore 64, som uch, that it wanted to have one all the time with him. So he built portable Commodore 64, not transportable like the good old SX-64, but a really tiny one with built-in LCD screen! There are even real connectors: power, userport/joystick, serial disk drive, audio/video output, headphone jack, external PS/2 keyboard, SD card slot! The keyboard is from a Jornada foldaway keyboard made by Micro Innovations, and the LCD display from a Sony PSOne. Have the details here.

Pac-Man for Tandy MC-10

2006-12-15T00:23:00.000-08:00

Remember the Tandy MC-10, a cute tiny initiation computer with calculator keys? Well there are still active fans out there! One of them, Greg Dionne, just released an excellent version of Pac-Man for the MC-10. The result looks very impressive for this little system.

New game for ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and MSX

2006-11-10T07:52:00.000-08:00

Phantomas Saga Infinity is a brand new game developped by CEZ Games Studio. It's a sequel to the mythic platform games Phantomas, made by Enric Cervera in 1986, and Phantomas 2 made by Emilio Salgueiro in 1986. This new version looks very good and makes good use of the ZX Spectrum limits with colorfull graphics and smooth animation. The game is also available for Amstrad CPC and MSX and is even free for download!

Sudoku for Sinclair ZX81

2006-11-09T03:25:00.000-08:00

Stafford White has programmed a Sudoku version for the 25 years old ZX81! You can create your own grids and play them.

It always amazes me to see that there are still people motivated enough to produce new software for systems long gone. But that's good news as new software (and new projects) is essential to communities largely based on memories.

Vintage Hungarian magazines

2006-11-09T01:28:00.000-08:00

Sometimes (most of the time in fact) , old computer websites contain real pearls you can only find by digging deep into the different pages, particularly when the site is in foreign language you don't understand at all :-(

This excellent hungarian website is a good example of what should be a perfect website devoted to one computer (here the Enterprise 128): it contains tons of stuff : pictures, scans, screenshots, documentation, hardware projects, emulators, software to download... Perfect.

Above all, I spent some hours browsing "Mikroszámítógép Magazin", and old hungarian magazine scanned by the webmaster. A complete collection is available ranging from 1983 to 1990, all issues scanned in JPG pictures. There are real gems, like retro pictures coming from another dimension...

To reach this section, go to the website, choose "Zene Dokumentacio > Ujsagok" on the left menu, then scroll down and click on "Mikroszamitogep Magazin". Enjoy.

one chip MSX

2006-11-08T06:12:00.000-08:00

One Chip MSX is a brand new MSX machine! This computer is compatible with MSX1 and MSX2 standard, allowing you to play hundreds of games "for free". Based around a FPGA chipset, it offers 32 MB SDRAM, SD/MMC memory card slot, 2 MSX cartridge slots, SVHS/composite/VGA video ouputs, PS/2 keyboard connector, 2 USB connectors and 2 MSX joystick ports! On the paper it looks amazing. The One Chip MSX is already available on pre-order from BASIX website.

Dancing baby on a ZX-81

2006-11-08T05:01:00.000-08:00

Yes! They made it. Or should I say they coded it: the famous dancing baby animation on a 16 KB Sinclair ZX81 or Timex-Sinclair 1000 (you decide). The animation can be seen on the first page of this nice site : www.ts1000.us. The music choice is excellent too (though not played by the real machine). Have a look!