The Spectrum review – a tactile trip to the 1980s

The Guardian

06-12-2024

The first time I played on a ZX Spectrum was at the Stockport branch of Debenhams, which in 1983 had an impressive home computer section that quickly turned into a sort of free creche for bored 13-year-old boys. You could hang out there for hours, typing rude Basic programs into an array of machines while the harried staff rushed about trying to stop them running. Some of the computers, however, ran games for customers to try – and this was where I encountered Manic Miner, the legendary platformer with its strange flashing visuals and surreal enemies. Speccy games looked utterly unique thanks to the machine's idiosyncratic way of restricting 8x8 sprite maps to two colours, which meant moving objects on screen were usually collections of coloured pixel patchworks, leading to an effect known as attribute clash. Somehow, it was both ugly and beautiful – and it still is.
Unpacking The Spectrum, the latest piece of modern vintage hardware from Retro Games Ltd, is an astonishingly nostalgic experience. It looks exactly how I remember the original machine: a black slab with rubber keys, each one displaying not just a number or letter, but also a Basic programming command. 'Rem', 'Rand', 'Gosub', the mystical words of the home programming era. There is a USB cable to plug it in (though you'll need a USB plug of your own) and an HDMI lead, but no joystick. The machine is compatible with most USB gamepads – you just need to configure the buttons yourself, which takes a little time but is worth it if you can't bear using those rubber buttons to control your games.
Loading it up, you get a modern homescreen showing a carousel of built-in games. There are 48 to choose from, ranging from classics such as The Lords of Midnight, Head Over Heels, Manic Miner and The Hobbit, to modern titles produced by contemporary coders in the Speccy fan scene. These are fascinating projects, including top-down sci-fi blaster Alien Girl: Skirmish Edition and tomb raiding romp Shovel Adventure. If you exhaust the built-in supply, you can also download Spectrum game Roms from a PC on to a USB stick, plug it in and run them here – though if you're looking for classic Speccy titles rather than modern open-source fan-made games, then you're in shady legal territory.
As ever, there are a bunch of screen settings so you can add a CRT effect to give a more authentic 1980s television experience, though honestly nothing is going to diminish the wild discombobulation of playing Horace Goes Skiing on a 55in LED display. What amazed me is how these games still carry so much visual charm. The pupils and masters wandering the halls of Skool Daze are filled with character, from the hulking bully to the decrepit history teacher. Sandy White's Ant Attack retains its stark beauty, the geometric walls and scuttling giant ants providing the same old sense of alienation and terror. Ocean's relatively sophisticated isometric adventures The Great Escape and Where Time Stood Still pack so much detail into their largely monochrome worlds. It is lovely to see them again.
As with most other retro consoles, there are modern gaming additions such as save points (a little finicky to work, but they do the job) and a rewind function that whizzes you back to seconds before you were inevitably run over by a car in Trashman. But I also love the fact that each time you select a game you get a few seconds of the original illustrated loading screen; these pictorial delights were a key part of the initial experience as you'd be staring at them for up to five minutes as you waited for your tape to finally load – it matters that they have been preserved.
Also preserved are the original computing abilities of the ZX Spectrum. If you select the classic mode, the console switches to ye olde worlde boot screen and you can actually program it. It's a feature I have taken full advantage of.
Who is this for? Obviously the target audience is people like me who were there at the beginning and remember playing a lot of these games 40 years ago. Sure, there are free Spectrum emulators available online if you know where to look – and you don't mind risking a malware infection every time you search a Rom site. But part of the nostalgic gaming experience is seeing a reproduction of the machine you remember sitting in front of your TV; and with The Spectrum you also get those legendary rubber buttons, feeling them squidge beneath your fingers as you hammer the leg sweep button in The Way of the Exploding Fist.
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In the digital age we sometimes forget how much of memory is about feel. Many of these games were designed with keyboard controls in mind as joysticks were an optional extra and out of the price range of a lot of families in the early 1980s. The Spectrum revels in the tactile appeal of this seminal computer and its springy buttons. It will remind you of how odd Speccy games were, and how they forged their own path beyond the Japanese arcades and flashy American home computers. The days of hanging out in the computer department of Debenhams all Saturday afternoon are long gone, but the games, and the way we played them, are here again. You can come back any time you like.
The Spectrum is available now, £89.99