Growing up in the 80's in a 1930's house with no double glazing OR central heating I've fond memory's of how my faithful Speccy +2's underslung heatsink used to keep my lap warm during late night Rebelstar sessions...sniff I miss ya little fella.

My earliest memory is 3-4 year old me staying up late at night with my dad while he typed in programs from a magazine, only for 90% of them to not work or to suck. Good times.

This was my very first system ever back in 1982 ( the 16K ) and I actually learnt BASIC on it. I remember at some point upgrading the RAM to 1MB ( I think by then I had the 128 machine ) It costs 400 Dutch Guilders or roughly EUR 350 Based on those prices an external 4TB HDD today would cost about EUR 1.600.000,-

Whole Eastern Bloc ran on clones of these machines, that is how I got mine in mid-80s, because my country was in that kind of party. I still love how ZX Spectrum is small and compact in comparison with Commodore 64 or even Amstrad CPC, it has much less power but I remember how I just put my ZX to bag and took it to my friend with some games on tapes, we programmed some basic things and of boy, so much fun. But Atari 600XL clone is my number one and first computer which my family ever own.

There is a Japanese concept called *wabi-sabi* , meaning "flawed beauty" or perhaps "rustic imperfection". The Spectrum has *wabi-sabi* in truckloads. I love it.

its insane how much work you have to put in to play on the spectrum, I have one in my wardrobe, luckily i'm in the UK so i can just plug it straight into my tv and start playing

Those UHF connectors are called Belling-Lee connectors. They are more prevalent around the world. The connector you showed that is used in the states is called an f-connector. They are mainly used for satellite dish connections.

What spectrum programmers crammed into 48k of memory was utterly incredible games like Tau Ceti and Elite where not just little sandboxes but entire worlds in simulation.... Utterly amazing accomplishments of programming. An efficiency we don't see today

First off, as someone from the UK thanks for pronouncing it as Zed Ex rather than Zee ex which I agree just sounds wrong. The Speccy was the first home computer I ever owned and I still have a very nostalgic view of it today. yes in comparison with other systems at the time it came up short but for its limitations the games were surprisingly good. As for whether to buy I would say possibly. it seems that an awful lot of extra expense is required to use a model in the US and its possibly easier to use an emulator like Spectaculator or ZERO (which is the one I use).

Damn dude ! You were really determined to play the Spectrum LOL. Hats off to your dedication !

As a Brit with fond memories of the Speccy it is totally awesome to see one make it over there to the States. And thank you for pronouncing it as a "ZED EX" Spectrum.

The humble Spectrum. The very first real computer i experienced, both at school and at home. At school we learned to program (most of the time); at home we played games. This is what all normal English kids from working class families played and was also the subject of ridicule for posh middle class Commodore 64 owners. Unique system with unique games. If you didn't want to purchase the game on cassette, you could actually buy the program in print and type it up yourself. Can you imagine kids doing that today, lol...

RIP Clive Sinclair, gone to silicon heaven.

Back in the 80s, the Stamper brothers formed a company called ULTIMATE PLAY THE GAME - they were responsible for some of the best Spectrum games ever made, including ATIC ATAC, SABRE WULF, JET PAC, LUNAR JETMAN, COOKIE, ALIEN 8, KNIGHTLORE & UNDERWURLDE. Another developer called Matthew Smith was responsible for two of the other legendary spectrum games - Manic Miner & Jetset Willy

Its the reason we started a podcast, we cant help talking about the rubber keyed box of wonders even after all these years, thanks for the video.

I would say pronouncing it Zee-ecks is like pronouncing ZZ Top "Zed Zed Top" its just wrong.

I don't know about Australia but the ZX Spectrums in New Zealand are tuned to VHF since we never had UHF until our third TV channel came along TV3 in 1989

Holy shit!! Wow..... man you really went to a LOT of trouble to get this thing working!!! I hope it was worth your trouble, This was my first computer when I was about 10 years old!!! Believe me I was absolutely OBSESSED with it at the time! Nice to see that people are still interested in them! The keyboard was the death of mine after a couple of years tho, I was very sad to see it go. Cheers for the video! Well done.

Thanks for paying homage to the speccy with this video :) I just happened to find a Spectrum ZX + in a second hand store for 15 pounds when I was over in the UK. Its such a great little system. I'm sorry to hear that its so hard to setup over in NTSC land. If you ever do more reviews of games on that system may I recommend Dan Dare. The presentation and graphics really test the limits of that little 48k wonder. LRG we salute you.

You inspired me to get one, it just got here from the UK. One of my several Sega 16bit era power supplies (black colored male lead, not a yellow one) along with a cheap coax adaptor was all I needed! You sir, rock!

Great, thorough and honest review, thank you. You’re right about that UK programmers (known as Devs these days), I hear even the company behind Grand Theft Auto V can trace it’s roots back to programming the ZX Spectrum here in the UK.

It's really nice to see the hard work you put into getting the humble speccy up and running. Sir Clive would be proud :)

I love going back and watching your older videos. It really shows how far you've come. Keep up the great work and thank you for all the great content. P.S. you should cover the TI-99 someday

There's another way to pronounce ZX, the Slavic way - Zed-Eecks

Not read all of the comments, so I might be duplicating, but one of the main reasons that the Speccy never took off in the US was due to the square-wave pollution its sound chip caused.. You could tune a nearby radio into it and listen to the sound (albeit not perfectly but recognizably). While the UK had relatively few radio stations, and it didn't seem to hit their frequencies - so this wasn't a problem there - it was in the US, who would sell off bandwidth to everyone with a chequebook. Therefore, the FCC wanted changes made to eliminate this, and by the time they got their Timex Sinclair thingummybob ready to go, it was out of date and Commodore, Atari and Nintendo already had the lions' share of the US market, so it was doomed to failure.

The problem with using emulators is that ZX Spectrum games were designed with CRT televisions in mind, which had amazing natural ability to un-dither graphics, and create a convicing appearance of having more colors than Spectrum actually supported. None of the emulators I tried can faithfully replicate this vital effect, which is more than just mere upscaling. As result, we get pixelated, raw, "naked" looking graphics which don't resemble at all the picture I used to see on my TV and in Spectrum-based arcades. The magic is gone, when everything looks dithered and every pixel stabs you in the eye.

I used to have one of these, a 48K, got it at Christmas '82. It had some great games (when the cassette worked) and was easy enough to program in Basic, and later Assembler. It was the start of my obsession with computers which later became a career! Your videos are very well presented and informative. Just wanted to say well done - and keep up the good work!

Here I am, in 2019, watching screen caps of PAL video (576i... I think?) downscaled to 480p, on a 2160p monitor. :-) Glorious.

Oh man. I've never heard "Under the Coke Sign" used so well. You seem to be really into IDM and the like, the taste is mutual.

ZX Spectrum is a cranky little blighter in North America.

From across the pond, thank you for correctly pronouncing “zed” X Spectrum 👍🏻

Watching this review almost 10 years on... Awesome to see the chonky resolution, Clint! Fits well with a Speccy review.

Boards of Canada in the background

Your early videos rule! You should make one in "old style" for a channel milestone of some kind . . . .

I cannot believe what you went through to use that Spectrum! Amazing. I had an original ZX Spectrum 48k, then and still have a ZX Spectrum +, followed a few years later by a Spectrum +2, though why I bought that I don't know. Great video.

I'm a Dutch IT student and I just bought myself one of these. Absolutely love it, and I already had a tv and cassette player that supported it!

The best game was Advanced Lawnmower Simulator.

Music on background: Boards of Canada "Heard From Telegraph Lines" I just love it :)

WOW!!! just WOW!!! the detail and effort of this review - INSANE! thx man! I mean that.

Hey men! This was my first computer. With this video I went back exactly 35 years. Those were good times. Thanks for video.

It's only after watching these old LGR videos that I understand what the L was for. Classic stuff and still interesting to me

"I don't know why, but I really like this system" - Yea, I know what you mean. Something very lovable about the humble Speccy.

Some notes: people make power bricks for the Speccy these days that plug directly into US walls, no need for a big converter box, and pretty much any LCD monitor with composite video inputs will understand both PAL and NTSC, it's just cheaper to have 1 converter chip for both than different ones for different regions, so you can avoid any sort of conversion device if you just get an LCD monitor with composite video inputs.

Fond memories from this machine (and later the +2) from my childhood. Props for correct use of "Zed-Ecks" as well!

Only marginally easier than building a tardis to go back to the UK circa 1984 😁

I get dark side of the moon vibes from the design

Thanks for posting - brought back childhood memories!

Speccy was my first ever computer in the 80's. still feel myself lucky to met with this engineering miracle. still love it and have it in my closet in a box. also waiting to receive my the Spectrum Vega+... :)

I've never really understood why the US TVs were almost never PAL compatible. In Europe, just about everything made since about 1990 is NTSC compatible. It's SECAM that brings problems, and even then anything made by the French Thomson company was SECAM compatible as well. Thomson = RCA...

Heard Through Telegraph Lines and SimCity 3000.... your musical taste is awsome !! (YEAH!)

I always love your reviews. I really enjoyed this one as the speccy was the first machine I had as a kid and truly abused the hell out of it. Truly nostalgic. :)

Excellent video, my first 'computer' was a 48k ZX Spectrum and a little off-brand tape deck that was half wood (classic retro look). I always remember the Spectrum fondly, despite it's problems and limited capability (especially for when I was playing it, when the SNES was already out) I absolutely loved every minute of playing with it. Those rubber keys were awesome and still are. Thanks for the healthy dose of mega nostalgia!

Some of the game's music sounds like me after eating gas station sushi.

Wow America really have trouble running our stuff apparently. This... Oddly amuses me.

1983, my dad bought this for me with several really cool games. It was my very first video game, and it was the most fun I ever had. Ever since I have been trying to chase that same fun, to no vail. Thanks for a great review.

Great classic review video. Ah, the recording hardware back then, but the sound quality and narration are quite good still.

For a lazy gamer, you sure went to a lot of effort. Good review!

if someone ask for the music at the beginning... it´s called "Heard from Telegraph Lines" by Boards of Canada

It was my first computer and I am still in love with it!

That took me back to my early teens! Thanks bro. Awesome stuff!

Keyboard Controls: QA-OP-M

Dude, you have been one of my favourite content creators for quite a while now, after seeing this, and especially your insistence of proper pronunciation of ZX has elevated you to God Tier. And you refer to it as a Speccy. You sir, are a scholar and a gentleman. I doff mt hat 😁

After VCF Southwest I decided to finally pull the trigger on the ZX, now I'm just waiting for it to get to the US from Ireland. Was surprised to find an old LGR review on it but was a good watch!

The spectrum was my first electronic drum machine...I bought an expansion that plugged in the back that had real drum samples, and with the supplied software you could compose 1 channel drum tracks

I got one from a market in Germany. Didn't know what it was since it was heavily altered. It had a full keyboard with on off keys for the different KEY functions. There was also a thing call a micro drive fitted into the case. It also apparently could work floppy drive but I never saw one. It must have been built by a mad genius like the Doc from Back to the Future

Thank god i live in the UK and not having to modify it

I don't really know why but I loved the fact that this was such a complete ball-ache to get working and you just ploughed ahead with it regardless. And then all the cables and adaptors when you finally do have it working: it's just beautiful. To be honest, what surprises me more than anything else is that you have a working Spectrum because they were so dreadfully unreliable. My first computer was a Spectrum 48K+, which was the plastic-keyed version of the same machine and, although I loved it, it went wrong all the time. It spent more time away being repaired than it did at home. The situation didn't improve with an upgrade to the +2A either. They were both awesome... and they were both complete nightmares. In the end (and this is after about 3 - 4 years of these machines constantly going wrong) my mum - ordinarily shy and mild mannered - completely lost her rag in the middle of Currys and scared the manager into giving us a full refund, which ended up being for the +2A that they'd given us for free to replace the 48K+ because it kept going wrong. With the money I bought a Commodore 64. Only had it for a year before upgrading to an Amiga but it never went wrong in that time, which was a revelation to me (and the Amiga never went wrong in the 12 years I had it). The Speccy's a fun machine but, honestly, you'd better buy yourself another half dozen of them if you want one left working in 5 years time. I'm genuinely shocked there are so many working examples left.

Man you have come a long way LGR

Wow. So glad I'm British watching this... Then again, never got a Sinclair. Doesn't it get annoying the screw things into the back of your TV? I hate screwing my Satellite cable, as the thing holding the screw to the wire always breaks.

Would it be possible to just buy a small-ish monitor-sized UK TV from the 80s online and use it with the direct RF output? Its power would have to be converted too, but that would seem to bypass all the video issues.

you made a great video here explaning everything an all that ! well done !

Awesome video mate!! brings back some memories

Wow what a pain to get a 'Speccy' working in the US lol!,,, Still got mine in box with all accessories & games, good old Speccy!

I didn't know you had different RF cables in the US!

I'm pretty much a nwb when it comes to pre-90s computing, but your channel has helped cultivate an interest I never new I had! Great stuff! About a year or two ago I caught an enjoyable feature length TV "comedy/drama" about Sinclair and his rivals called 'Micromen'. Some kind soul has uploaded it to youtube (for some reason it's not letting me post the link here), so just search the title if you're interested.

Oh my God! You made such a preparations, I honor you just for this one.

I love Boards of Canada too.

Timex released these in the US and don't require all the hassle with mods and extra gear. Also, Commodore joysticks have the same interface as Atari and are generally better to use.

I learned to program on a ZX48 with Kempston Joystick (IN30 and IN31) plugging the TV out straight into my TV set on channel 35. ah, memories!! As I recall, the printer was crap! Programs saved to tape on a bog-standard tape recorder, connected to the MIC jack. Being in the UK, 50Hz PAL and 240V (ac) was standard. Then I got the Plus 3 with disk drive, and eventually the Amiga 1Mb. Now my son is an IT engineer, working on state-of-the-art internet systems.

Great vid, top job. A real nostalgia trip for me as I had a ZX Speccy 48k for Xmas when I was around 10yrs old. I'm UK so plug & go. I originally had mine hooked up to an old Black & white TV in my bedroom & when I upgraded to a colour set it was a whole new world. I remember the hassles getting the volume just right to play a copied game from tape, the weird rubber keys, the awful sound, the garish colours.... But it was an amazing machine at the time & I spent hours inputting 100s of lines of

Why is this show called Lazy Game Reviews? He doesn't seem lazy to me...

RIP Clive Sinclair

Hearing "Boards of Canada" music always gives me goosebumps, I love it :D

I just got one of these for the first time ever! I am in the USA as well. I received mine with a Harlequin motherboard upgrade which really helps with achieving a better display and running 128KB titles. It is still PAL (although the Harlequin can be set up as NTSC...but who wants that?) so there are still "things" that you need to connect to an NTSC TV, but IMHO it is totally worth it. This is fast becoming one of my favorite vintage computers. It is just so different than what I grew up on...and in a really great way. Happy to own one of these!

There are far too many fart sounds in that game segment

I live in the UK do I have to do any of that?

man I really gotta give you props making that thing work. That looked like hell. Thanks for all the effort, though! I came with curiosity, and I leave with satisfaction.

good review, i had a 16k one way back and got a 48k one much later on. learnt alot and played alot back then

That easy cap capture card is absolute garbage and trash, never buy it!

can you update this video please ...

Oh man this brings back memories of my childhood, I had the 128k with the built in tape deck but played a lot on my friends 48k

Oh hell yeah! I have a JVC TV very similar to one you've mentioned in the video. It even has exactly same remote. It accepts both PAL and NTSC signals without any problems. I also find Speccy's graphics very unique and charming as well :3

Sometimes I just let youtube run LGR videos on autoplay while I am playing games. This comment is the result of one of those sessions.

im lucky! i live in italy :P

You Mr. phreakindee, are my hero. These Classics are something I love. Applaud to you buddy.

So great to see an American embrace the speccy. It made me become the dev I am today. I learnt to code on that rubber keyboard and the fun of it stayed with me. It was better when there were no deadlines... Fantastic computer that defined my childhood. Great video. Thx. Luv and Peace.

rip

Glad to finally find an American that can speak proper English. Now can they learn the word "Aluminium"

found one of those at home today and it still works!!! And I still love it

the spectrum was my first computer as a child i had zx 48k,i loved it i have owned dozens of diffarent systems but i always remenber my spectrum,it had a sound all of its own they were quirky and beepy,just brilliant,great review like all of them great