Hey all!

As Google handily reminded me (See above) it’s a double celebration today! St. George’s day AND the 30th birthday of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum 😀

Happy Birthday my beloved friend!

The Spectrum (or ‘Speccy’ as it’s affectionately known) is my favourite machine ever (closely followed by the Super Nintendo!) 🙂

I grew up with it, and it broadened my horizons, along with the arcades of the time, of what video games were, and could be.

There were plenty of arcade ports and big name games of course, just like there are now. But there was an originality to a lot of games and some had a fantastic sense of humour.

Who’d have thunk it? Games that make you laugh!

It also helped you learn and to create stuff that was in your head. It fostered bettering yourself and being creative. Something games consoles never could do until recently without a keyboard.

The first bit of code I ever finished in my life was for my ‘O’ level Computer Science class. I made an educational version of Jetpac in which you collected fuel for your ship so you could take off by answering maths questions!

I’ve come full circle a bit (apart from the maths!). Most of my games have music composed and written on a ZX Spectrum, for example. And I think you Speccy fans will enjoy Air Supply SOS (once I finish it!).

Anyway, this sums it up far better than I ever could!

Happy Birthday old friend 🙂

QS 😀