Mark Fixes Stuff @markfixesstuff.com · Feb 28 In my youth I would drool over the peripheral adverts in the back of magazines. Did you upgrade your 8-bit micro in the 80s and 90s? RAM expansions? New keyboard? Disk drive? Multiface What add-ons did you have back then, or were you too poor like me? #RetroComputing #ZXSpectrum #Commodore64 #80s
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The data electronics light pen. Think I only got it working once
Acorn Electron, upgraded with a Plus 1 expansion and an Advanced Plus 3/4 disc interface and floppy drive.
A ZX Printer, traded it for a Currah uSpeech. An Interface 1 with one microdrive bought cheap from a guy at college. Picked up a second microdrive somewhere second hand. A cheap joystick interface and a second hand Kempston joystick. All done on the cheap. I drooled over the adverts.
Rather liked the look of the Currah MicroSource - but never got that... I did get the Speech unit and had a lot of fun with it "singing" over instrumentals :) Only other hardware I got for the Spectrum was the PlusD interface, which I bought from a Norbrek Stand - Floormat magazine I think?
I was just a kid, so it was Dad’s money…. Saga Emperor keyboard, ram turbo joystick interface, Alphacom 32 printer…. But still had to save everything to tape… Oh, and I still have most of it…. :)
Every month I looked at the adverts from the likes of Datel, Romantic Robot, etc and wanted some of their wares. Never did buy anything though.
I picked up one of the spectrum power switches last year from a retro shop in Cardiff. Always wanted one - I know not the most exciting thing. Had a thermal printer. I love how creative things were back then. I miss all the gadgets now. That’s y I like watching your videos upgrading old shit 😀
Ram expansion. Went to an electronics store on a class trip to Toronto and got 64kmfor my coco2