Time Extension | Forum: PC & Home Computers

ZX Spectrum uses

Sat, 22 Mar 2025 14:56:48 GMT

The recent article on the lack of a game crash outside of the US got me thinking about how I perceive the ZX Spectrum. How were these used on a day-to-day basis? I've always thought of it as a game console because I only think and hear of it in terms of games. I've never used one myself and I can't imagine using a membrane keypad for word processing or other non-gaming applications.

So people who had a ZX Spectrum in the home: how did it get used?

Article in question: https://www.timeextension.com/news/2025/03/poorly-analyzed-us-centric-garbage-why-do-americans-keep-ignoring-european-gaming-history

For reference, I'm an American born in '83, had Atari 2600, 7800, Genesis, and always had an IBM Compatible PC from 1990 onward. It was purchased for business purposes (Dad was treasurer for a local non-profit) but we used it in evenings for games, school work, BBSs, and usenet.

Making a game and wanted to ask people here a question...

Sun, 20 Oct 2024 04:43:32 GMT

Do you, as people of the general public, and as a gamer, really care about "buzzword" design tropes for games? My point being when someone says "this game is a soulslike." I don't really like this one-note sorta offhand denotion of a game. Do you care if an up and coming game is a "Soulslike" or "DMC style" action game? Do those keywords in articles, and sometimes even steam pages themselves, entice you to play the game more?

Amiga, Total Units Sold Worldwide.

Wed, 04 Sep 2024 10:07:18 GMT

Ahoy ( Stuart Brown) has figured out how many Amiga's Commodore sold.
And I figured people here might be interested in it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXCWYKSjHnI

All in all its under 5 million.
Which is less then expected , by me at the very least.
But I am not really au fait with the Amiga as is.

What to do with ALOT of C64 cassette tapes and floppy discs

Wed, 29 May 2024 09:50:08 GMT

Hi all,
So I have boxes and boxes of both tapes and floppy discs for the C64.
A lot of the tapes are compilations.
Most of the discs are, to be honest, ripped games with a menu built in to each disc.
Is there a company that would take these for archiving or able to convert them to ROMs for me or something.
I know they are just going moldy in there which is sad as I have a lot of really random games in there and don't want them to go to waste.
To be honest I have not tested them out for over 30 years so god knows if any of them still work. They have been in my fathers loft for around 20 years (nice and dry) and now are in my bunker under my house (hence the username :P)
Anyone got any ideas?
Cheers,

Modern Retro Games to Download

Tue, 07 Mar 2023 11:16:52 GMT

Back in 2020 I found myself with some unexpected free time... and what started as an experiment in Z80 assembler, quickly got out of control and turned into some new arcade inspired ZX Spectrum games, and a ZX emulation engine for Windows and Linux PCs - complete with CRT display simulation for extra retro goodness. The games are now available to download, as audio files for loading directly onto ZX machines, .tap and .tzx files for emulators and stand-alone applications for Windows and Linux PCs.

The games are free to try, full versions cost a small amount, to keep the site running and cover the cost of making them available, and thanks to the magic of QR codes, in a quite surreal turn of events its even possible to buy the full version(s) direct from a ZX Spectrum using a phone. The games are stupidly addictive and great fun to play. More information at:

Classic Adventure Games Thread

Fri, 29 Jul 2022 21:09:17 GMT

Exactly what it says on the tin: A thread to talk about favorite classic adventure games, from Maniac Mansion to King's Quest and so on.

Any MSX fans in here?

Fri, 29 Jul 2022 15:21:31 GMT

I'm a big fan and have been for about 20 years. Tell me your favourite games!