ACROSS THE SPECTRUM
The team reminisces about a cultural icon
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RETROBATES MULL OVER THE SCENE’S MOST INTRIGUING ISSUES
Few gaming platforms are truly unavoidable, but if you’re a UK resident of a certain age, the ZX Spectrum was just that – the Retro Gamer crew had other 8-bit computers at home, but Sinclair’s platform became a feature of our gaming lives regardless. With The Spectrum on the horizon, we decided to look back at the computer that defined an era.
NICK
So none of us were Spectrum owners back in the day, but was there anywhere that you regularly played the machine?
» [ZX Spectrum] Bomb Jack is an arcade conversion that many Spectrum gamers swear by.
DARRAN
I had two friends with Spectrums, Paul Elkins and Richard Talboys. Richard actually lived across the road from our school so we’d often go to his house at lunchtime or after school to play on it. Fun times.
"There’s nothing wrong with playing an awful lot of Dizzy"
DARRAN JONES
Our next door neighbours also had a Spectrum and the mum and dad were addicted to it. I used to love finishing school and finding my mum out, as I could go next door to play on it.