I've got a Spectrum +2a and I'll never get rid of it as it's been my favourite computer since I was a kid, C64 is a close second

Damn! I have been wanting to pick one of these up for a while now and this makes me want one even more! And that Castlevania port....damn!

Nostalgia is the word i would use to describe this video. I used to have a Sinclair spectrum 128 ZX +2 and as a kid, i didnt know much about computers. So i was wondering what the I/O expansion slot does and i shorted the pins with a pair of scissors. Of course the reset button didn't reset the fried electronics... My father didn't know about it and i told him that it just stopped working. I really miss the good old games i used to play. I got a blast of a computer today but those oldies really had something today's computers don't have. A soul! Great video!

I still got my +3 with a 3.5 inch floppy drive unit that works very well indeed, I also done the sound fix now I got superb sound.

Sinclair ZX Spectrum, legendary and the most nostalgic micro computer, in the UK in the 1980's

3" disks were invented (1982) before 3.5" (SS 1982 - PC versions 1984) disks, by the time +3 was released (1987) 3.5" had become more popular and the 3" format was cheaper. This is the reason home computers (and some word processors) had the 3" drives. If only they had been fitted with 3.5" drives - think how much longer they may have been used!

I loved my spectrum +2 but my brother smashed it of a wall in a rage because a game wasn't loading, I was so devastated that day, still not got over it.

I just got my very first ZX Spectrum 48k this month. I have been blown away with it! It has been recapped, composite modded, had an amplifier added to clean up audio in and out signals, and new membrane and keyboard added. The games are WAY MORE ARCADE than I thought they would be. Matter of fact from someone that grew up in the USA and the UK and owned the Commodore 64... I am blown away with the Spectrum far more. With only 48k of ram I cannot play that awesome Castlevania game you showed, but that's why I own a MiSTerFPGA. I can play it there if need be. The core experience I always wanted was the OG 48k model, and if I can ever find one at a good price, the toastrack 128k would be an amazing addition to my retro life.

Cool Review never knew the motherboard could be adapted for compact flash support, first machine I ever owned was a +2A when I was 8 years old, first one had a faulty tape deck and the second went on so long the play button broke off the tape deck. Hopefully the Spectrum Next gives new life to these classic machines. Only thing to note with the +2A/+3 is incompatibility with certain old titles off of tape.

i had one back in the days at my granpas home, when i grow up i moved to a different country and my grandparents gave all my consoles and ZX Spectrum to some random dudes, i was little confused by that decision :D

I'm happy owner of Sinclair ZX Spectrum +3

castlevania on the speccy well i never knew that :) . green beret was never off my speccy+ as a kid so many great memory's great vid mate :)

Being a speccy boy I knew loads of people with them and I had two people with the +3 model... and both bought external tape drives.

Geoff Crammonds Stunt Car Racer on the Speccy. I spent far too many hours playing that.

With modern loading systems u shud go for the 128 over the +2/2a/3 as there was some comparability issues on the Amstrad made systems.

I had a Plus 2 with the built in cassette. I remember playing Run the Gauntlett on it and it taking what seemed like hours because each level of the game had to be loaded from the tape each time and of course, they weren't in order so you had to forward and/or rewind the tape everytime to find the stage you wanted to load then wait for it to actually load.

I recently rebought a +2a as that was the one that I owned as a kid. Strangely I never knew anyone that had a +3. But just last night talking to some friends over a BBQ I discovered the guy used to own a +3, I was super impressed tbh. They're a cool looking machine, I'd be tempted to buy one but I think the +2a and Spectrum Next is probably enough along with my other systems.

Great Video :-) Just a little bit reference the 3inch drive. 3 Inch Drives were in the main used in Amstrad Machines including the +3. This included the 6128 and PCW Range. Tatung Einstein also used 3 Inch Discs. If you have not already done so check and change the drive belt as they do have a tendancy to turn to mush :-) Had a +3 in the late 80's and loved it, also you can attach a modified 3.5 inch drive to the floppy Disc B port :-)

The game took so long to load you could see the sunlight move on the time lapse... Never really bothered me about loading times when I was a kid though, it seemed like part of the fun. Once you wrote down the volume the game had to be loaded at, you could pretty much always get the game work.

lots of people hating on the 3" disks, i own about 200 or so 3" disks and i would say 95% still read and write perfectly it all comes down to how they are used and stored for the most part. great video they are good machines , and while i have 2 in my collection i prefer to use a +2b and load games from disk using that or i use one of my 128+ toastracks , compatibility on the +3 is not as bad as some think its only the really old games that have trouble loading or games like Arkanoid that fail due to the lack of a floating bus . The hardware reliability is a lot higher for the most part than the previous Spectrums if you purchase a +3 its probably going to work fine except for the disk drive belt that will most likely need replacing.

I am happy owner of 128 k one, still work perfectly..all the keys. Only the conector with tv that needs repair.

Nice to see the card solution in use and the homebrew game. I've been very tempted to pick up a Spectrum recently what with the recent Spectrum "remakes". Totally agree with you about the Amigas on UK ebay these days - a lot of items have what I feel are really inflated prices. I bought an A600 recently which turned out to be faulty but I've got it working now.

Excellent overview there =D Nice finishing off with the Castlevania game =D

It's definitely more fun to load off tape, there are some nice new add ons and new Spectrums that have the original hardware so with a few people devoting their time to homebrew software titles we might see some taking advantage of faster and larger storage devices ..even on CD-ROM we could see much larger size games appear on the Speccy with fully animated intros etc and driving/flying shootem ups could benefit

This machine is gorgeous.

Nice video. I had a Sam Coupe with a 3.5 inch drive for a while. I sold it in exchange for a plus 3 and some cash. Retrospectively I should have kept it.

The ZX Spectrum, iconic machine. Back in the day, I had a Speecy 48K rubber key machine. It was prone to crashing and due to 48K memory, limited. Some games didn't come with sound, you had to load every level and keep loading them! So, I upgraded to Speccy 128K. I did have an opportunity to get the +3, but games were difficult to come by and they were more expensive. For example, a release day game on cassette would cost typically £14.99, the disk version, if the shop stocked it, would cost £17.95. Eventually, I went with the awesome ZX Spectrum 128K +2A with built-in cassette deck. I had hours of fun on it. If you are interesting in buying a ZX Spectrum, I recommend you go for the 128K +2A. It had better features over the +2 and the power socket on the +2A was more reliable. To tell the difference between them, the 128K +2 is in a GREY case, were as the +2A is in a BLACK case. All the best :)

I had no idea there was a CF solution for the Speccy! Crap.... guess I need to pick one up

Still got my +3 it's in the cuboard in its box atm as I have ZXDS on my DS thanks to my R4 card. Will get a stand or something and display it with some games at some point.

A good general overview of the ZX Spectrum +3. There are some details in your +3 you do not mention. Details about the non-standard +3e ROMs would be nice. Also, how do you start that menu to load from the internal CF card? I suppose you can save snapshots to that CF card, too.

My dad had a zx spectrum, I don’t know what type, but I know this was ahead of this time

I though it was released by Amstrad as well as +2 model that I have

I bought a +2 back in 1995 after my 48K Speccy died. I nearly bought a +3 until I found out that I couldn't get the 3" floppies for love or money so I bought an old PC instead and I've been building PCs ever since. I've still got my +2 in the loft so I might dig it out and load up some games via my phone or the laptop.

Nice! The first i've seen a Spectrum +3..we always had the +2 and 48k rubber key. It's a pity the floppy disks aren't 3.5" compatible. Nice review!

For those of you in the US that get a +2 or +3 (and maybe others, but these are the Speccys that I have), you can replace the power supply "guts" with a Mean Well RT-50B power supply. It fits perfectly and does a great job of powering your Speccy. I would also recommend the DivMMC, the ZX-AY, and the ZX-HD. For the ZX-AY mod, I removed my modulator and installed the jack in that hole rather than drilling a new hole in my case. The DivMMC ZX-HD combo has an annoying habit of locking up the Speccy, requiring that you remove all of the power (and that includes power from the HDMI port) to reboot it at times. I worked around this by using a HDMI A-B switch to disconnect the HDMI to do a "hard" reboot. We also have a couple of Harlequins, one that has been built (by Steph, who was eight at the time), and mine (still in kit form). Which at the rate that I'm going, will have to wait until Steph builds that one too. :) The +3 is her favorite (and as far as she is concerned, hers), you just can't beat a real keyboard.

no it wasn't it was amstrads excuse at flogging 3" pieces of toast! in order to let you insert them into the heated toastrack that came with sinclairs 128K+ machine!

Nice review! I live in the United States, what kind of voltage step up converter would I need to power any of the models of ZX Spectrum?

Were speccies popular in Australia? I had one in the UK but in Australia where I now live, most people didn't really know about them that I talk to. Mine was faultless apart from the TAPE (Aux) port breaking over and over, but a nice old man over the road from us just kept re-soldering it on the MB for me. Other than that, it was faultless. I'm going to buy a mint in box one and a Commodore Amiga again.

The Spectrum +2A (the black one with built in tape deck) was made using surplus +3 parts and lacks 100% software compatibility. I only had one game that didn't run on it, but it's worth bearing in mind if you want to buy one. Newer games are fine but some of the older ones don't like the +3 architecture. The grey (or gray?) +2 is compatible with everything afaik.

in the future i will prepare a video for the WTF eastern clones models since i have some of them

Keep that reel rolling!

I had a +2B which was basically the +3 but with a Datacorder. There was supposed to be a disk drive released for it but as for as I'm aware it never happened. The 2B fixed the annoying audio glitch that the 3 and 2A had. Good little machine, shame about Amstrad buggering up the peripheral port.

Nice, I used to have a 48k then went to the +2 then went to the +3 here.

Great review! What would I need, in terms of a voltage converter, to run a +3 in the United States?

What is the CF adaptor caalled and where did you get it ?

My first computer was the Sinclair ZX81. But I brought it back to the store the same week and got me a Spectrum 48K. I still have the Sinclair ZX Spectrum 128K, just took it out of the attic where it's been since 1994. And I can't remember how to turn the friggin' thing on... :p I'll figure it out, it's been in the box so long, the styrofoam sticks to the wires... :p

I had the +3. It was fantastic. Games seemed to be better than other spectrums somehow?

So could you actually attach an external tape player to the +3 so it could load games from a cassette??

Sorry but I don't think this was a good review. I owned a couple of +3's in my youth (mainly because of them breaking down and I couldn't repair, or afford to repair, them) and I think you've left out a few key points. The FDD (Floppy Disk Drive) used proprietary 3in disks which I know you've mentioned in this video but while the disks stored 128K themselves, they were double sided unlike the 3 1/4 inch drives of PC's. That make +3 disks essentially 2 x 128K giving 256K total storage. Yes while using a modded board to be able to use a CF card to load games into it, you're video title doesn't say anything about the system you're using is modded. The description says "classic", so in that sense you should only be review the stock +3 hardware, so to load a game you should be comparing tape loading to the inbuilt FDD loading for better load time accuracy. You didn't show the +3's main menu (which came on all 128K + models) to show something quirky but unique. 128K + model Spectrums had 4 options: "Loader" for loading FDD games from the disk without having to enter BASIC and using the LOAD command. *This was "Taper Loader" for previous models "+3 BASIC" for entering BASIC and being able to create your own programs "Calculator" the quirk I'll mention below "48 BASIC" for entering the 48K Spectrum version for compatibility of programs for the older 48K Spectrum So the "Calculator " option would load a screen that looked like the 48K Spectrum and was rather unique for microcomputers of their time. I hadn't seen this on other computers. Normally you'd have to enter a command like PRINT 25 * 4 to get 100 as the answer, but with the calculator you could just enter 25 * 4 to get the same result. I'm not going to dislike the video as I have huge fond memories of the Spectrum but I think you should change the title of the video to explain this is a modded Spectrum and as you've not covered the full range of what a stock Spectrum +3 offers (not including the add-on peripherals, hence the word stock) I think the description should reflect this.

Wow Czechoslovak Didaktik was mentioned :D

I just noticed that the AUX and RS232/MIDI sockets accept British Telecom phone jacks! Well, I guess that's one way to save a bit of money...

Am I right in thinking you're using a bvm/pvm? Did you have sync issues over RGB and if so how did you get it to work?

If I were to buy a ZX Spectrum and have it shipped to the United States, would I need a voltage converter so it can run off American power?

I also used to have a +3. It was a very good computer, but now I can run all the games in a spectrum emulator. No need for a real one anymore

Ah you got the +3 with the sound fault - distortion? Have you done the fix to get it sorted?

did you ever programmed on a spectrum?

have you tried an Amstrad CPC?

Toast rack remains the one to own.

+3 was actually an Amstrad release and not a true Sinclair release

I had a 48K Speccy that I stuck inside a DK'Tronics keyboard. I only had a black and white portable telly but occasionally I was allowed to hook it up to the main colour telly. I never bothered with the QL and Amstrad styled ones after that. I don't know why. I think at the age of 14 I had already reached the belligerence level of 'if you can't fit it in 48K then you're not trying hard enough'.

How long does a game take to load from a floppy?

Awesome

A list of the ports and showing two games. How is this a review? What about reliability, how is the keyboard, what do you think of the design, the material, how does it compare to other Spectrum types, quality-wise, and perhaps, how can one obtain 3" disks?

The trees in that last game are so realistic! It's like you are really there!

I loved playing operation wolf...😁

I used to have a 48k then upgraded to the +2 one christmas with the light gun and operation wolf pack. Oh the load times and crashes just as it was about finished loading :)

i remember going to INDEX and buying a pack of 10 blank disks for £30 cat#570019.... £3 for 360k of storage (180k per side)

the plus 2b is the best of the tape machines

A big improvement over the original zx spectrum.

The AY sound is broken on most +3 because Amstrad used the wrong components.

Is the zx spectrum 3 compatible with all accessoireses and games from the first zx spectrum??

But do you still have it?

How do you get bomb jack running I just can’t get it to play on +3

I had the 48k, that switched off whenever it felt like doing, and the +2, never heard of the +3, I think I moved onto Amigas by then.

I'm pretty sure that 3" drive is the exact same as the one on the Amstrad CPC 6128. Guess that was a proprietary format as a matter of fact.

I've got a bin liner full of these tapes 😂

Werent the +3's made with the help of Amstrad?

Small thing, when the Spectrum released the +2 and 3 it had been bought out by Amstrad, so this was a Spectrum in a CPC body. The +3 shared its drive with the cpc disk system as well.

PLUS 3 units are not cheap at all.

the worst thing about the speccy is as a kid getting told to go to bed as its a school night and trying to load a game but forgetting you havent turned the volume down and waking up the house with the BEEEEEE BPP and waiting for the shouting to start LOL

Well you say Sinclair but it's really Amstrad and Alan Sugars dubious business choices.

On more remark on a detail of your video. There are numerous ZX Spectrum clones which were used in South America and Eastern Europe including Russia. Wikipedia features a page with round about 80 clones. The comparatively simple hardware of the ZX Spectrum made it an ideal machine to build with whatever means were available. There was a vast software library available for these machines and that made ZX Spectrum clones attractive. It is impossible to figure out just how many ZX Spectrum compatible computers were built. The ZX Spectrum Next e.g. is still being produced. I do not think that Sir Clive Sinclair ever received any royalties for all these clones. 😉

Had one of these with gift of the gods and Dan dare

where can I get SD adapter? there are none on ebay (there are only C64 - amigas one)

The +3 seemed to put people off buying it as users were more used to using a tape recorder. Adding a floppy disk drive for a 128K didn't seem like the right way to go.

Нихера не понял, но спасибо! From Russia with love! Собираюсь купить такой себе

It's the world's only computer with a 3" toaster!

I really, really wanted a +3 but when it shipped the price was £250 - Too expensive by far for 1987. I ended up saving an extra £50 (of paper round money) and bought an Atari ST for £300 instead.

forgot to mention the built in toaster!

stupid PAL format, why can't we have one universal format for all countries? would love to get my hands on a +3

That’s no Sinclair but a Amstrad. The last Sinclair is the ZX Spectrum 128K Toastrack.

I liked Spindizzy or Fairlight games

Hi can any one help? Is there a way to edit spectrum game and how?

+3 was made by amstrad

They used to have the Spectrum game emulator on the IPAD until Apple pulled it from the store.....

Does it have a dma?

Not got any discs for it, I guess? :)

I wonder... Can it run UNIX?

It is hard to believe for me as a retro gamer that the game was put in a tape instead of a cartridge with IC and micro chips.

😂😂😂 the spectrum was never really a C64 competitor but they where both around at the same time of course