ZX Spectrum

The ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit home computer designed by Sinclair Research and released in the United Kingdom in April 1982. It was sold with 16 KB or 48 KB of memory, used a Z80A processor and a television for its display, and loaded software from ordinary cassette tapes.

Its low price, rubber keyboard and colourful rainbow badge made it hugely popular in Britain, and it became the starting point for many British games developers, including Ultimate Play the Game (later Rare) and Codemasters. Colour is set per 8 x 8 block of pixels, which causes the “attribute clash” that became part of the machine’s look.

Sinclair released the Spectrum+ in 1984 and the Spectrum 128 in 1985, which added more memory and an AY sound chip. After Amstrad bought Sinclair’s computer business in 1986 it released the +2, with a built-in tape deck, and the +3, with a 3-inch floppy drive.

More than five million Spectrums were sold, and licensed and unlicensed clones such as the Timex Sinclair 2068 and the Russian Pentagon kept it alive for years. It still has an active homebrew scene, and the ZX Spectrum Next continued the line in 2020.

Fuse is the best general choice today, with accurate emulation of every official model and many clones. ZEsarUX is a good alternative with a large range of machines and debugging tools.