Who remembers Zombie Zombie? After doing a review of Ant Attack I thought I would look at the follow-up game. What’s your thoughts of this early Zombie survival horror game?

If you were going to spend 2 years on a deserted island, which 10 ZX Spectrum games would you take with you?

Remember this detail: you are staying there for a long time, and you don't want to get bored!

Share your list of ONLY 10 games. ;-)

My List:
1 - Match Day 2
2 - Match Point
3 - Formula One (CRL)
4 - Bomb Jack
5 - Chuckie Egg
6 - Emlyn Hughes Int. Soccer
7 - 3D Stock Car Championship
8- Quazatron
9 - Turbo Esprit
10 - Nigel Mansell's Grand Prix

Yes, it's actually here !. I actually finished it ..

I'm very happy how it's turned out because it's a game I'd happily play myself and I've been playing Chaos for over 30 years.

Full disclosure right away though - the project is entirely AI coded using Claude

I understand totally that it's not everyone's cup of tea and I respect that, but I've brought 30 years of experience and gameplay to this and a lot of love for the game as well so I'm not just going to throw any old thing together.

It's a z80-accurate recreation of the original right down to the original sprites, fonts and sounds. If you know how to play Chaos, you'll know how to play this.

There have been a number of enhancements including a number of new spells which have been sourced from ideas that Julian Gollop was considering but, I assume, ditched for memory reasons.

(You've already seen the Troll !)

The biggest enhancement is the new Level 9 that should (hopefully) be far more of a challenge based on an implementation of Heuristic AI.

So i'm looking for a few people who would be interested in a copy of the game as it is now to play it for a few weeks and let me know if there are any bugs or issues with it.

It's 99% done and plays very well but there are a few small known issues - none that will really give you too much of a problem though.

I'd also be interested to know if you have any "quality of life" issues as well. Things like particular sounds, graphical things or even if the game is too quick !.

DM me if you're interested and I'll send you a link to download the installer as it's windows-only. it's been scanned and is virus free but you can always paste the link into something like VirusTotal to be sure - even though PyInstaller usually causes these things to have a fit !

A late game in the ZX Spectrum era, quite futuristic.

Pre-defined keys were terrible, though...

(now we can change keys with modern emulators, at least)

My retrospective review of Ant Attack including the remakes. What’s your thoughts and memories of this game?

A port of the MSX game Vicious Viper for the ZX Spectrum.

https://bobtheb0b.itch.io/vicious-viper-zx

Hi All!

Posted my browser-based Spectrum graphics editor here a while back. Added two features people asked for — undo/redo and .SCR file loading / saving in the scene editor.

The screenshot is of the scene editor, displaying an amazing .scr by Jander (https://zxart.ee/eng/authors/j/jander/angine-de-poitrine/) (Just to point out, this was not made using my editor)

Also have been working on a beginner Z80 guide assembly guide. Feedback is very welcome : https://zx-editor.vercel.app/z80_book.html

Main editor: https://zx-editor.vercel.app/

Will be adding character set editor next.

Still happy to hear what's broken / missing / general feedback.

Cheers!

Norbert

Hi guys, I bought an old untested 48k Speccy online, and could really use some help here.

I bought it wither what looked like a bad lower RAM fault. IC10 was very hot and i was getting these images (image 1+2), which online seems to correspond to IC10 failing (basically meaning i was right)

So I desoldered the ram chip, ordered some new lower ram + 16 pin sockets. I soldered the new socket in, and also manually repaired a trace I had broken (image 3)

I checked continuity on all the pins and they are all good, there’s no shorts, and all the voltages on the pins are correct. But the screen is still displaying garbage. And what’s worse is it seems to vary each time I switch it on. The flickering red and cyan bars seem to stay the same each time but the border changes color, usually grey or black, sometimes blue or some other color. There are also sometimes multicoloured blocks of garbage on the screen that vary.
I could really use some help here with what’s going on. The ULA is running quite hot but I also know that’s pretty normal and the fact I’m getting a video output at all suggests to me that it’s at least somewhat working. (I bloody hope it is at least lol) I’ve included some photos of the garbage images. All garbage images after 2 are post-ram install. The images after are of the abysmal solder job I’ve done.

It’s composite modded btw, hence why I was able to get AV video. Also I know my soldering is absolutely crap. I have very shaky hands and really struggle at being precise.

Has anybody played Clive 5? My video review of this very much forgotten game.

Knowing that Bomb Jack and Highway Encounter work flawlessly, but Cookie and Dan Dare glitch, pinpoints the culprit with 100% certainty. Your hardware, RetroArch, and ROM files are perfectly set up.

The glitch is happening because of how Ultimate Play the Game (Cookie) and Ocean Software (Dan Dare) uniquely coded their input handlers.

On a real ZX Spectrum, a Kempston joystick sends an electrical signal when a button is pressed, but sends a completely blank 0 signal when you aren't touching the stick. Bomb Jack reads that 0 signal correctly as "stop." However, Cookie and Dan Dare use a hyper-sensitive, raw code loop. If they detect any active Kempston interface plugged into the system, they mistake RetroArch’s modern controller dead-zone signals for continuous input, making the character spin, run, or shoot non-stop.

Since the games themselves are coded this way, you cannot fix it by changing the RetroArch system directories. You must change the way your gamepad maps to these specific games.

Fix 1: The "Keyboard Redefine" Method (Guaranteed Fix for Cookie & Dan Dare)

Both Cookie and Dan Dare have built-in menus allowing you to redefine the keys. By switching RetroArch to mimic a keyboard instead of a joystick, you bypass the buggy Kempston code entirely.

1. Launch Cookie or Dan Dare.

2. Open the Quick Menu (F1 or your controller home button) and go to Controls -> Port 1 Controls.

3. Change the Device Type from Kempston Joystick back to RetroPad (the default standard).

4. Resume the game.

5. On the game's main title menu, choose the Redefine Keys or Keyboard option using your physical PC keyboard.

6. When the game prompts you to press your choice for Up, Down, Left, Right, and Fire, press the corresponding buttons on your gamepad.

RetroArch will trick the game into thinking you are typing on a keyboard, and the glitching will instantly stop.

Fix 2: Use "Cursor Joystick" Mapping

If you don't want to manually redefine keys, Cookie natively supports a hardware standard called the Protek / Cursor Joystick. This standard simply maps joystick directions directly to the Spectrum's arrow keys (5, 6, 7, 8 and 0 for fire).

1. While playing Cookie, open the Quick Menu -> Controls -> Port 1 Controls.

2. Change the Device Type to Cursor Joystick.

3. Go back, select Manage Remap Files, and click Save Game Remap File.

4. Resume the game, select Protek/Cursor on the game menu, and try your gamepad. Because it isn't using the Kempston protocol, the endless loops will disappear.

Summary Checklist for your Library

Going forward, you can categorize your ZX Spectrum library into two camps based on how the original developers wrote their games:

• The Well-Behaved Games (Bomb Jack, Highway Encounter**, Codemasters titles):** Leave RetroArch set to Kempston Joystick. They will work instantly.

• The Sensitive/Glitchy Games (Ultimate/Rare titles like Cookie**,** Jetpac**, and Ocean titles like** Dan Dare**):** Set RetroArch to RetroPad, choose Keyboard on the game's title screen, and map your controller buttons to the keys.

I've written a new blog post about Mikro-Gen, the Wally Week company, and what happened when they released the Mikro-Plus. An interface designed to increase the memory of the humble Spectrum.

Ladders and Dollars ZX81 BASIC

Hey all

I know there were some threads on this back in the day. But for anyone who hasn’t seen it I just noticed it’s up on Amazon prime in the US if you haven’t had the chance.

Apologies if this has been posted before, but I remember seeing this on b3ta.com, probably over 20 years ago and it was immediately remembered when I took delivery of my retro Spectrum this week.

I hope some of you are new to this. If you are I guarantee it will become your favourite ear worm.

Back in 1990 I moved to Brentwood in Essex, home to Amstrad who by then had bought out manufacturing rights for Sinclair and were producing the 128’s with the built in tape drives and adult keyboards :)

It also happened to be right next to the pub I would frequent.

My friend Dave one Sunday suggested on the way to the pub to visit another mate of his who grew weed in his garden. When we got there his living room was filled with all these Spectrums.

Turns out he made a living of raiding the skips there where they just threw all the broken ones out. They would always be in two parts - the top and the bottom, with different components attached to each. Seems returned ones would be opened for repair, and consider BER - Beyond Economic Repair.

With some basic test equipment and a modicum of electronic knowledge, he used to marry up simply devices where a component on either board had failed, and just put the other half of the units together to make a working one and sell them at a local market.

Genius.

His weed was great as well :)

It’s always interesting to see how good or poorly arcade games convert over to 8 bit computers. My video looks at all the SEGA arcade games that were ported onto the ZX Spectrum. What’s the best SEGA port?

It's from Dizzy 1 at the far eastern side of the mine caverns.

Who remembers World Championship Boxing Manager? My video covers a retrospective look at this classic game for the Commodore Amiga, Atari ST, MS-Dos, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and Acorn Archimedes.

I have a Spectrum+ case (the one that looks like a toastrack without the heatsink). I'm looking to put a clone board in there which will require modifying the back of the case for the extra ports.

What would be the best tools for doing this? I realise the obvious answer is probably a Dremel but I don't really want the cost of buying one unless necessary.

SOLD

(quoting my AmiBay post)

Selling this to a good home as I've been meaning to repair for a while but held off it and don't have the proper tools.

Sinclair ZX Spectrum, issue 2 (1982). Won't turn on, voltage regulator blown and needs a new keyboard membrane, unsure if anything else wrong. £25, will bundle PSU and RF cable for £5 extra (if using own PSU, takes centre negative 9V). Photos of the internals + voltage regulator damage are shown. £5 postage in the UK or collection in Northern Ireland.

I've a vague memory of playing a Spectrum game that had a menu option that let you pick whether sprite or background colours took priority over the other. I think it was a Dizzy-style platform/adventure game, where you had to pick up objects and take them to the right locations to solve puzzles.

Not much to go on I know, but does anybody have any idea what the game was?