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ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer. Referred to during development as t ...
's software library was very diverse. While the majority of the software produced for the system was
video games Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...
, others included programming language implementations, Sinclair BASIC extensions, databases, word processors, spread sheets, drawing and painting tools, and 3D modelling tools.


Games


''Your Sinclair'' top 10

Between October 1991 and February 1992 ''
Your Sinclair ''Your Sinclair'', or ''YS'' as it was commonly abbreviated, was a commercially published and printed British computer magazine for the Sinclair range of computers, mainly the ZX Spectrum. It was in circulation between 1984 and 1993. History The ...
'' published a list of what they considered to be the top 100 games for the
ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer. Referred to during development as t ...
. Their top 10 were: # ''
Deathchase ''Deathchase'' is a 1983 vehicular combat game written for the ZX Spectrum by Mervyn Estcourt and published by Micromega in the UK. In Spain it was published by Ventamatic. It is commonly known by the incorrect name of "3D Deathchase", perhaps d ...
'' # ''
Rebelstar The ''Rebelstar'' games are a series of turn-based tactics video games designed by Julian Gollop. ''Rebelstar Raiders'' was published in 1984 in video gaming, 1984 by Red Shift (publisher), Red Shift for the ZX Spectrum. It was reworked in machin ...
'' # '' All or Nothing'' # ''
Stop the Express ''Stop the Express'' (also known as ''Bousou Tokkyuu SOS'' (''暴走特急SOS'', "Runaway Express SOS," in Japan) is a video game developed by Hudson Soft and published in 1983. It was written for the Sharp X1 and later ported to the ZX Spectrum, ...
'' # '' Head Over Heels'' # ''
R-Type is a horizontally scrolling shooter arcade video game developed and released by Irem in 1987 and the first game in the ''R-Type'' series. The player controls a star ship, the R-9 "Arrowhead", in its efforts to destroy the Bydo, a powerful a ...
'' # '' The Sentinel'' # ''
Rainbow Islands is a 1987 in video gaming, 1987 arcade game developed and published by Taito Corporation, Taito. The arcade version was licensed to Romstar for North American manufacturing and distribution. The game is subtitled "The Story of Bubble Bobble 2" and ...
'' # ''
Boulder Dash ''Boulder Dash'' is a 2D maze-puzzle video game released in 1984 by First Star Software for Atari 8-bit computers. It was created by Canadian developers Peter Liepa and Chris Gray. The player controls Rockford, who collects treasures while ...
'' # ''
Tornado Low Level ''Tornado Low Level'' (also known as ''T.L.L.'') is a multidirectional flight game developed by Costa Panayi and published in 1984 by the company he co-founded, Vortex Software. The game was released for the ZX Spectrum in 1984, with ports for ...
''


CRASH top 10

Between August and December 1991 ''
CRASH Crash or CRASH may refer to: Common meanings * Collision, an impact between two or more objects * Crash (computing), a condition where a program ceases to respond * Cardiac arrest, a medical condition in which the heart stops beating * Couch su ...
'' published their list of the top 100 ZX Spectrum games, including in the top 10: # ''
Rainbow Islands is a 1987 in video gaming, 1987 arcade game developed and published by Taito Corporation, Taito. The arcade version was licensed to Romstar for North American manufacturing and distribution. The game is subtitled "The Story of Bubble Bobble 2" and ...
'' # ''
Chase H.Q. is a vehicular combat racing game, originally released as an arcade video game by Taito in 1988. It is sometimes seen as a spiritual successor to Taito's earlier '' Full Throttle''. The player assumes the role of a police officer named Tony Gib ...
'' # ''
RoboCop ''RoboCop'' is a 1987 American science fiction action film directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner. The film stars Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Daniel O'Herlihy, Ronny Cox, Kurtwood Smith, and Miguel Ferre ...
'' # ''
RoboCop 2 ''RoboCop 2'' is a 1990 American science fiction action film directed by Irvin Kershner and written by Frank Miller and Walon Green. It stars Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Dan O'Herlihy, Belinda Bauer, Tom Noonan and Gabriel Damon. It is the ...
'' # '' Dizzy'' # '' Target: Renegade'' # '' Magicland Dizzy'' # '' Batman: The Movie'' # ''
Operation Wolf is a light gun shooter arcade game developed by Taito and released in 1987. It was ported to many home systems. The game was critically and commercially successful, becoming one of the highest-grossing arcade games of 1988 and winning the Go ...
'' # ''
Midnight Resistance is a side-scrolling run and gun game produced by Data East and released in arcades in 1989. ''Midnight Resistance'' is set in a dystopian future where the player controls a member of a resistance movement who goes on a mission to rescue his kidn ...
''


Techradar's "Top 30"

Techradar published their list of the best 30
ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer. Referred to during development as t ...
games in
2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...
, underlining which games stood the test of time. #
Elite In political and sociological theory, the elite (french: élite, from la, eligere, to select or to sort out) are a small group of powerful people who hold a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, political power, or skill in a group. D ...
– Firebird Games #
R-Type is a horizontally scrolling shooter arcade video game developed and released by Irem in 1987 and the first game in the ''R-Type'' series. The player controls a star ship, the R-9 "Arrowhead", in its efforts to destroy the Bydo, a powerful a ...
– Electric Dreams Software #
Chuckie Egg ''Chuckie Egg'' is a video game released by A&F Software in 1983 initially for the ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro, and Dragon 32/64. It was ported to the Commodore 64, Acorn Electron, MSX, Tatung Einstein, Amstrad CPC, and Atari 8-bit family. It was ...
: A'n'F Software #
Manic Miner ''Manic Miner'' is a Platform game, platform video game originally written for the ZX Spectrum by Matthew Smith (games programmer), Matthew Smith and released by Bug-Byte in 1983 in video gaming, 1983 (later re-released by Software Projects). It ...
: Bug-Byte Software Ltd #
Knight Lore ''Knight Lore'' is a 1984 action-adventure game developed and published by Ultimate Play the Game, and written by company founders Chris and Tim Stamper. The game is known for its use of isometric graphics, which it further popularized in vid ...
: Ultimate Play the Game #
Back to Skool ''Back to Skool'' is a video game, sequel to the ''Skool Daze'', created by David Reidy (whose wife Helen was a school teacher at the time) with graphics by Keith Warrington for the ZX Spectrum and released by Microsphere in 1985. The gamepla ...
: Microsphere #
Football Manager ''Football Manager'' (also known as ''Worldwide Soccer Manager'' in North America from 2004 to 2008) is a series of football management simulation video games developed by British developer Sports Interactive and published by Sega. The game beg ...
: Addictive Games Ltd #
Lunar Jetman ''Lunar Jetman'' is a horizontally scrolling shooter developed and published by Ultimate Play the Game. It was released for the ZX Spectrum in 1983 and later on the BBC Micro. In this sequel to ''Jetpac'', the second installment of the ''Jetman'' ...
: Ultimate Play the Game #
Horace Goes Skiing The Horace video game series was created in the 1980s by William Tang for Beam Software. The series comprised ''Hungry Horace'', ''Horace Goes Skiing'' and ''Horace and the Spiders''. ''Hungry Horace'' and ''Horace and the Spiders'' were two o ...
– Beam Software #
Boulder Dash ''Boulder Dash'' is a 2D maze-puzzle video game released in 1984 by First Star Software for Atari 8-bit computers. It was created by Canadian developers Peter Liepa and Chris Gray. The player controls Rockford, who collects treasures while ...
– Front Runner #
Sim City ''SimCity'' is an open-ended city-building video game series originally designed by Will Wright. The first game in the series, ''SimCity'', was published by Maxis in 1989 and were followed by several sequels and many other spin-off "''Sim' ...
: Infogrames #
Underwurlde ''Underwurlde'' is a 1984 Action-adventure game, action-adventure platform video game in the ''Sabreman'' series by Ultimate Play the Game for the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64. The player controls the adventurer Sabreman as he jumps between pla ...
: Ultimate Play the Game #
Super Hang-On is a motorcycle racing arcade video game released by Sega as the sequel to ''Hang-On''. It uses a simulated motorcycle arcade cabinet, like the original game. An updated version was released in arcades 1991 as ''Limited Edition Hang-On''. Game ...
: Electric Dreams Software #
Jet Set Willy ''Jet Set Willy'' is a platform video game originally written by Matthew Smith for the ZX Spectrum home computer. It was published in 1984 by Software Projects and ported to most home computers of the time. The game is a sequel to ''Manic ...
: Software Projects Ltd #
Rainbow Islands is a 1987 in video gaming, 1987 arcade game developed and published by Taito Corporation, Taito. The arcade version was licensed to Romstar for North American manufacturing and distribution. The game is subtitled "The Story of Bubble Bobble 2" and ...
: Ocean Software Ltd #
Tornado Low Level ''Tornado Low Level'' (also known as ''T.L.L.'') is a multidirectional flight game developed by Costa Panayi and published in 1984 by the company he co-founded, Vortex Software. The game was released for the ZX Spectrum in 1984, with ports for ...
: Vortex Software #
Ant Attack ''Ant Attack'' is a ZX Spectrum computer game by Sandy White, published by Quicksilva in 1983. It was converted to the Commodore 64 in 1984. While ''Zaxxon'' and ''Q*bert'' previously used isometric projection, ''Ant Attack'' added an extra degre ...
: Quicksilva Ltd #
Chase H.Q. is a vehicular combat racing game, originally released as an arcade video game by Taito in 1988. It is sometimes seen as a spiritual successor to Taito's earlier '' Full Throttle''. The player assumes the role of a police officer named Tony Gib ...
: Ocean Software Ltd #
Deus Ex Machina ''Deus ex machina'' ( , ; plural: ''dei ex machina''; English "god out of the machine") is a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem in a story is suddenly and abruptly resolved by an unexpected and unlikely occurrence. Its function ...
: Automata UK Ltd #
Lode Runner ''Lode Runner'' is a 2D puzzle-platform game, developed by Doug Smith and published by Broderbund in 1983. Its gameplay mechanics are similar to ''Space Panic'' from 1980. The player controls a character who must collect all the gold pieces in a ...
: Software Projects Ltd # Gauntlet: US Gold Ltd #
Fantasy World Dizzy ''Fantasy World Dizzy'' is an arcade adventure video game released in October 1989 by Codemasters and designed by the Oliver Twins. The game is considered the third in the Dizzy series and was developed under the name ''Dizzy III''. The third D ...
: Code Masters Ltd #
The Hobbit ''The Hobbit, or There and Back Again'' is a children's fantasy novel by English author J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published in 1937 to wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the '' ...
: Melbourne House #
Atic Atac ''Atic Atac'' is an arcade-adventure video game developed and published by Ultimate Play the Game, released for the ZX Spectrum and the BBC Micro in 1983. The game takes place within a castle in which the player must seek out the "Golden Key of ...
: Ultimate Play the Game #
Tetris ''Tetris'' (russian: link=no, Тетрис) is a puzzle video game created by Soviet software engineer Alexey Pajitnov in 1984. It has been published by several companies for multiple platforms, most prominently during a dispute over the approp ...
: Mirrorsoft Ltd #
Hyper Sports ''Hyper Sports'', known in Japan as is an Olympic video games, Olympic-themed sports video game released by Konami for Arcade game, arcades in 1984 in video games, 1984. It is the sequel to 1983's ''Track & Field (video game), Track & Field'' and ...
: Imagine Software Ltd #
The Way of the Exploding Fist ''The Way of the Exploding Fist'' is a 1985 fighting game based on Japanese martial arts developed by Beam Software, by a team consisting of Gregg Barnett, Bruce Bayley, Neil Brennan and David Johnston. Originally developed on the Commodore 64 ...
– Melbourne House #
Daley Thompson's Decathlon ''Daley Thompson's Decathlon'' is an Olympic-themed sports video game developed and released by Ocean Software in 1984. It was released in the wake of Daley Thompson's popularity following his gold medals in the decathlon at the 1980 and 1984 O ...
: Ocean #
Skool Daze ''Skool Daze'' is a computer game released by Microsphere in 1984 for the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 home computers. It was written by David Reidy, with graphics designed by Keith Warrington. The game was commercially and critically successfu ...
: Microsphere # The Great Escape: Ocean


Notable developers

A number of current leading games developers and development companies began their careers on the ZX Spectrum. David Perry of
Shiny Entertainment Shiny Entertainment, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Laguna Beach, California. Founded in October 1993 by David Perry (game developer), David Perry, Shiny was the creator of video games such as ''Earthworm Jim (video game), E ...
wrote ''
Three Weeks in Paradise ''Three Weeks in Paradise'' is a video game released in 1986 by Mikro-Gen for the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC platforms. It is the last action-adventure platform in the Wally Week series. Gameplay The Weeks family are trapped on a tropical islan ...
'' and ''
Dan Dare Dan Dare is a British science fiction comic hero, created by illustrator Frank Hampson who also wrote the first stories. Dare appeared in the ''Eagle'' comic story ''Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future'' from 1950 to 1967 (and subsequently in repri ...
''. Tim and his brother
Chris Stamper Brothers Tim and Chris Stamper are British entrepreneurs who founded the video game companies Ultimate Play the Game and Rare. They first worked together on arcade conversion kits, which were licensed to companies, but later became developer ...
, along with Tim's girlfriend (later wife) Carole Ward and John Lathbury, published ''
Jetpac ''Jetpac'' is a shooter video game developed and published by Ultimate Play the Game and released for the ZX Spectrum and VIC-20 in 1983 and the BBC Micro in 1984. It is the first game to be released by Ultimate Play the Game, the company which ...
'', ''
Atic Atac ''Atic Atac'' is an arcade-adventure video game developed and published by Ultimate Play the Game, released for the ZX Spectrum and the BBC Micro in 1983. The game takes place within a castle in which the player must seek out the "Golden Key of ...
'', ''
Sabre Wulf ''Sabre Wulf'' is an action-adventure game released by British video game developer Ultimate Play the Game for the ZX Spectrum home computer in 1984. The player navigates the pith-helmeted Sabreman through a 2D jungle maze while collecting ...
'' and ''
Knightlore ''Knight Lore'' is a 1984 action-adventure game developed and published by Ultimate Play the Game, and written by company founders Chris and Tim Stamper. The game is known for its use of isometric graphics, which it further popularized in vid ...
'': and many others, as
Ultimate Play the Game Ashby Computers and Graphics Limited, trading as Ultimate Play the Game, was a British video game developer and publisher, founded in 1982, by ex-arcade game developers Tim and Chris Stamper. Ultimate released a series of successful games for t ...
, now known as Rare, maker of many famous titles for
Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...
and
Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by the na ...
game consoles. Alan Cox wrote ''Blizzard Pass'', and is an ardent supporter of open source software. Other notable Spectrum game developers include: * Jonathan "Joffa" Smith wrote '' Cobra'', ''Hysteria'', ''Firefly'' and a conversion from the ''
Green Beret The green beret was the official headdress of the British Commandos of the Second World War. It is still worn by members of the Royal Marines after passing the Commando Course, and personnel from other units of the Royal Navy, Army and RAF wh ...
'' arcade among other games which prove that smooth scrolling was never a problem on the ZX Spectrum, as long as the developer had the necessary technical knowledge. * Matthew Smith wrote the seminal Spectrum titles ''
Manic Miner ''Manic Miner'' is a Platform game, platform video game originally written for the ZX Spectrum by Matthew Smith (games programmer), Matthew Smith and released by Bug-Byte in 1983 in video gaming, 1983 (later re-released by Software Projects). It ...
'' and ''
Jet Set Willy ''Jet Set Willy'' is a platform video game originally written by Matthew Smith for the ZX Spectrum home computer. It was published in 1984 by Software Projects and ported to most home computers of the time. The game is a sequel to ''Manic ...
'', proving that it was possible to have continual music during game play on a Spectrum; * Nigel Alderton was the 16 year old author of ''
Chuckie Egg ''Chuckie Egg'' is a video game released by A&F Software in 1983 initially for the ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro, and Dragon 32/64. It was ported to the Commodore 64, Acorn Electron, MSX, Tatung Einstein, Amstrad CPC, and Atari 8-bit family. It was ...
'', published by A'n'F Software on the Spectrum and
BBC Micro The British Broadcasting Corporation Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, is a series of microcomputers and associated peripherals designed and built by Acorn Computers in the 1980s for the BBC Computer Literacy Project. Designed with an emphas ...
; * The first author of an isometric 3D game: ''
Ant Attack ''Ant Attack'' is a ZX Spectrum computer game by Sandy White, published by Quicksilva in 1983. It was converted to the Commodore 64 in 1984. While ''Zaxxon'' and ''Q*bert'' previously used isometric projection, ''Ant Attack'' added an extra degre ...
'', published by
Quicksilva Quicksilva was a British games software publisher active during the early 1980s. Quicksilva was founded by Nick Lambert in 1979. The name Quicksilva was inspired by a particular guitar solo in a track on the album Happy Trails by Quicksilver Mess ...
: was Sandy White; *
Julian Gollop Julian Gollop is a British computer game designer and producer specialising in strategy games, who has founded and led Mythos Games, Codo Technologies and Snapshot Games. He is known best as the "man who gave birth to the '' X-COM'' franchise ...
wrote ''
Rebelstar The ''Rebelstar'' games are a series of turn-based tactics video games designed by Julian Gollop. ''Rebelstar Raiders'' was published in 1984 in video gaming, 1984 by Red Shift (publisher), Red Shift for the ZX Spectrum. It was reworked in machin ...
'' and ''
Laser Squad ''Laser Squad'' is a turn-based tactics video game, originally released for the ZX Spectrum and later for the Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, MSX, Amiga, Sharp MZ-800 and Atari ST and PC computers between 1988 and 1992. It was designed by Julian G ...
''; *
Jon Ritman Jon Ritman is a game designer and programmer notable for his work on 1980s computer games, primarily for the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC home computers. His first experience with a computer was when he was 13, his first computer was a Sinclair ZX ...
was the author of '' Match Day'' and '' Head Over Heels''; *
The Oliver Twins Andrew Nicholas Oliver and Philip Edward Oliver, together known as the Oliver Twins, are British twin brothers and video game designers. They began to professionally develop computer games while they were still at school, contributing their fir ...
wrote the Dizzy series of games; * David and Helen Reidy wrote ''
Skool Daze ''Skool Daze'' is a computer game released by Microsphere in 1984 for the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 home computers. It was written by David Reidy, with graphics designed by Keith Warrington. The game was commercially and critically successfu ...
'' and ''
Back to Skool ''Back to Skool'' is a video game, sequel to the ''Skool Daze'', created by David Reidy (whose wife Helen was a school teacher at the time) with graphics by Keith Warrington for the ZX Spectrum and released by Microsphere in 1985. The gamepla ...
'' for
Microsphere Microparticles are particles between 0.1 and 100 μm in size. Commercially available microparticles are available in a wide variety of materials, including ceramics, glass, polymers, and metals. Microparticles encountered in daily life includ ...
; * Christian Penfold and
Mel Croucher Mel Croucher is a British entrepreneur and video games pioneer. Originally an architect, he moved into computers and in 1977 launched one of the very earliest games companies, Automata UK, as an extension of his publishing business. He is now cre ...
, of
Automata An automaton (; plural: automata or automatons) is a relatively self-operating machine, or control mechanism designed to automatically follow a sequence of operations, or respond to predetermined instructions.Automaton – Definition and More ...
, authors of ''
Pimania ''Pimania'' is a text-and-graphics adventure game written by Mel Croucher and released by Automata UK in 1982 for the BBC Micro, ZX Spectrum, Dragon 32, and Sinclair ZX81. It was the first real life video game treasure hunt to be released. It wa ...
'', '' My Name Is Uncle Groucho, You Win A Fat Cigar'' and ''
Deus Ex Machina ''Deus ex machina'' ( , ; plural: ''dei ex machina''; English "god out of the machine") is a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem in a story is suddenly and abruptly resolved by an unexpected and unlikely occurrence. Its function ...
''; * Paul Owens and Christian Urquhart, developers of ''
Daley Thompson's Decathlon ''Daley Thompson's Decathlon'' is an Olympic-themed sports video game developed and released by Ocean Software in 1984. It was released in the wake of Daley Thompson's popularity following his gold medals in the decathlon at the 1980 and 1984 O ...
'' for
Ocean Software Ocean Software Ltd was a British software development company that became one of the biggest European video game developers and video game publisher, publishers of the 1980s and 1990s. The company was founded by David Ward and Jon Woods and wa ...
; * Philip Mitchell and Veronika Megler of
Beam Software Krome Studios Melbourne, originally Melbourne House, was an Australian video game developer, video game development studio founded in 1980 by Alfred Milgrom and Naomi Milgrom, Naomi Besen and based in Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia. Initially ...
, who wrote ''
The Hobbit ''The Hobbit, or There and Back Again'' is a children's fantasy novel by English author J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published in 1937 to wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the '' ...
'' published by Melbourne House; * Platinum Productions (David J Anderson and Ian Morrison), authors of the conversions of ''
Lode Runner ''Lode Runner'' is a 2D puzzle-platform game, developed by Doug Smith and published by Broderbund in 1983. Its gameplay mechanics are similar to ''Space Panic'' from 1980. The player controls a character who must collect all the gold pieces in a ...
'', '' Beach Head'' and ''
Rambo Rambo is a surname with Norwegian (Vestfold) and Swedish origins. It possibly originated with '' ramn'' + '' bo'', meaning "raven's nest". It has variants in French (''Rambeau'', ''Rambaut'', and ''Rimbaud'') and German (''Rambow''). It is now best ...
''; *
Costa Panayi Costa Panayi is a former computer game programmer active during the 1980s. He founded Vortex Software with Paul Canter, publishing games for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC. He is of Greeks, Greek Cypriot descent, and studied engi ...
, who wrote '' Android'', ''
Android Two ''Android Two'' is a shoot 'em up List of maze video games, maze video game written by Costa Panayi and published by Vortex Software in 1983 in video gaming, 1983 for the ZX Spectrum and in 1985 in video gaming, 1985 for the Amstrad CPC. It is t ...
'', ''
Highway Encounter ''Highway Encounter'' is a video game published for the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, MSX, Commodore 64, Sharp MZ, and Tatung Einstein by Vortex Software in 1985. It was written by Costa Panayi who also coded '' Android'', '' Android Two'', '' TLL' ...
'', ''
Cyclone In meteorology, a cyclone () is a large air mass that rotates around a strong center of low atmospheric pressure, counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere as viewed from above (opposite to an anti ...
'' and ''
Tornado Low Level ''Tornado Low Level'' (also known as ''T.L.L.'') is a multidirectional flight game developed by Costa Panayi and published in 1984 by the company he co-founded, Vortex Software. The game was released for the ZX Spectrum in 1984, with ports for ...
'' for
Vortex Software Vortex Software was a video game developer founded by Costa Panayi and Paul Canter in the early 1980s to sell the game ''Cosmos'' which Panayi had developed for the Sinclair ZX81. They converted the game to the ZX Spectrum, but due to the low sal ...
; * William Tang wrote the
Horace series The Horace video game series was created in the 1980s by William Tang for Beam Software. The series comprised ''Hungry Horace'', ''Horace Goes Skiing'' and ''Horace and the Spiders''. ''Hungry Horace'' and ''Horace and the Spiders'' were two o ...
of games (''Hungry Horace'', ''Horace Goes Skiing'' and ''Horace and the Spiders'') for
Beam Software Krome Studios Melbourne, originally Melbourne House, was an Australian video game developer, video game development studio founded in 1980 by Alfred Milgrom and Naomi Milgrom, Naomi Besen and based in Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia. Initially ...
, published by
Sinclair Research Sinclair Research Ltd is a British consumer electronics company founded by Clive Sinclair in Cambridge. It was originally incorporated in 1973 as Westminster Mail Order Ltd, renamed Sinclair Instrument Ltd, then Science of Cambridge Ltd, the ...
and Melbourne House.


Demos

Many
demos Demos may refer to: Computing * DEMOS, a Soviet Unix-like operating system * DEMOS (ISP), the first internet service provider in the USSR * Demos Commander, an Orthodox File Manager for Unix-like systems * plural for Demo (computer programming) ...
were made for the Spectrum and compatible computers. The
demo scene The demoscene is an international computer art subculture focused on producing demos: self-contained, sometimes extremely small, computer programs that produce audiovisual presentations. The purpose of a demo is to show off programming, visual ...
on the Spectrum can probably be traced back to Castor Cracking Group, The Lords and a few other groups and individuals back in 1986. The ZX Spectrum demo scene was slow to start, tp://ftp.worldofspectrum.org/pub/sinclair/magazines/ZAT/Issue25/Pages/ZAT2500019.jpg Advanced ZAT Programming, issue 25, 1994: ''Demo&Co''/ref> but it started to rise in the late 1980s, most noticeably in
Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russ ...
and southern Europe. Some demos were also released with magazines on
cover tape Covermount (sometimes written cover mount) is the name given to storage media (containing software and or audiovisual media) or other products (ranging from toys to flip-flops) packaged as part of a magazine or newspaper. The name comes from the ...
s. Although there are many demos made for the 48K Spectrums, most current Spectrum demos require the additional features found in the Spectrum 128K, that is, 128
KiB The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable unit ...
of RAM and the
AY-3-8912 The AY-3-8910 is a 3-voice programmable sound generator (PSG) designed by General Instrument in 1978, initially for use with their 16-bit CP1610 or one of the PIC1650 series of 8-bit microcomputers. The AY-3-8910 and its variants were used i ...
sound chip. Also, many demos have been designed to run from a
floppy disk A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, or a diskette) is an obsolescent type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined w ...
rather than a
cassette tape The Compact Cassette or Musicassette (MC), also commonly called the tape cassette, cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. Invented by Lou Ottens ...
. In many eastern European countries, the various Spectrum clones used to be more common than the original models, a fact that also reflects in the choices of hardware among the demoscene. For example, on most Russian demoscene events, the standard "compo Spectrum" is the Pentagon 128 with a floppy disk drive. Since there are considerable technical differences between the Pentagon and the original Spectrum, particularly in the video timing, there are also many demos that require a Pentagon to run properly. Piotr Marecki, cultural studies and digital culture scholar at Jagiellonian University, argues that this makes the ZX Spectrum demoscene unique. Nowadays clones and interfaces are being created that can run demos for various ZX Spectrum hardware accessories and clones, such as the ZX-UNO, the ZX Spectrum Next and the MB03+ Ultimate interface. The eLeMeNt ZX computer is specially designed to support enhancements used by demomakers, that includes 3 memory models of the Pentagon and the ability of switching, on fly, between various zx-clones timings, CPU speeds and gigascreen graphics. The earliest demos were simple music players with music ripped from games and perhaps simple effects or text scrollers. Many scrolltext may contain rude words. Many later demos feature so-called 'multicolor' effects (changing the color attributes of the ZX Spectrum's display configuration of 768 character blocks), which have to be fixed to a specific ZX Spectrum model. Megademos, demos with more content, usually split into several parts, appeared in the beginning of 90's, with the advent of ''The Lyra II'' by ESI. Most of the demos since 1996 have been "trackmos" (effects fixed to music), often featuring 3D objects, sometimes in low resolutions, to achieve more colours. In the former Soviet Union and Eastern/Central Europe, the ZX Spectrum often has a cult status similar to the
Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...
in the Western Europe: it was the most popular 8-bit homecomputer and also the first computer for many computer and demoscene enthusiasts. Therefore, whereas many major Western European demo parties organise demo, music and graphics competitions for the Commodore 64, the parties in the east often have the corresponding ZX Spectrum competitions instead. ZX Spectrum demos have been shown at multi-platform demoparties such as Assembly, and there used to be various Spectrum-only parties, such as Funtop in
Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
. The largest party today that regularly features the ZX Spectrum is
Chaos Constructions Chaos Constructions is the oldest demoparty in Russia, previously known as ''ENLiGHT''. Nowadays, it is considered to be annual computer art festival and IT conference. History The demoscene (russian: русскоязычная демосце ...
in
Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
. Outside of Russia there is the Forever demoparty.


Other software

Other software released for the Spectrum included: ; Programming language implementations: * C *
Pascal Pascal, Pascal's or PASCAL may refer to: People and fictional characters * Pascal (given name), including a list of people with the name * Pascal (surname), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name ** Blaise Pascal, Fren ...
*
Prolog Prolog is a logic programming language associated with artificial intelligence and computational linguistics. Prolog has its roots in first-order logic, a formal logic, and unlike many other programming languages, Prolog is intended primarily ...
*
Forth Forth or FORTH may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''forth'' magazine, an Internet magazine * ''Forth'' (album), by The Verve, 2008 * ''Forth'', a 2011 album by Proto-Kaw * Radio Forth, a group of independent local radio stations in Scotla ...
*
Z80 The Z80 is an 8-bit microprocessor introduced by Zilog as the startup company's first product. The Z80 was conceived by Federico Faggin in late 1974 and developed by him and his 11 employees starting in early 1975. The first working samples were ...
assembler Assembler may refer to: Arts and media * Nobukazu Takemura, avant-garde electronic musician, stage name Assembler * Assemblers, a fictional race in the ''Star Wars'' universe * Assemblers, an alternative name of the superhero group Champions of A ...
s/
disassembler A disassembler is a computer program that translates machine language into assembly language—the inverse operation to that of an assembler. A disassembler differs from a decompiler, which targets a high-level language rather than an assembly lan ...
s: ** '' OCP Editor/Assembler'' ** ''
HiSoft HiSoft Technology International Limited was a multinational information technology and business process outsourcing company headquartered in Dalian, China. Founded in 1996, HiSoft was listed on the NASDAQ public exchange in 2010. In November 2 ...
Devpac'' ** '' ZEUS Assembler'' ** ''
Artic Assembler Artic or ARTIC may refer to: Places *Artic, Indiana, an unincorporated community *Artic, Washington, an unincorporated community Transportation * Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center, a transit hub in Anaheim, California * Articu ...
'' *
Sinclair BASIC Sinclair BASIC is a dialect of the programming language BASIC used in the 8-bit home computers from Sinclair Research and Timex Sinclair. The Sinclair BASIC interpreter was made by Nine Tiles Networks Ltd. History Sinclair BASIC was orig ...
extensions and compilers: ** '' Beta BASIC'' ** '' Mega Basic'' ** ''MCoder'' ** ''COLT'' ** ''
HiSoft BASIC HiSoft Technology International Limited was a multinational information technology and business process outsourcing company headquartered in Dalian, China. Founded in 1996, HiSoft was listed on the NASDAQ public exchange in 2010. In November 2 ...
'' ** '' ToBoS-FP'' ;
Database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases sp ...
s: * '' VU-File''), word processors (e.g.: ''
Tasword ''Tasword'' was a word processor for the ZX Spectrum developed by Tasman Software. The first version was released in 1982 and spawned two major revisions in addition to several add-ons and, later, tailored versions for the +2 and +3 Spectrum mode ...
II'' ;
Spreadsheet A spreadsheet is a computer application for computation, organization, analysis and storage of data in tabular form. Spreadsheets were developed as computerized analogs of paper accounting worksheets. The program operates on data entered in cel ...
s: * '' VU-Calc'' ; Drawing and painting tools: * ''
OCP Art Studio OCP Art Studio or Art Studio was a popular bitmap graphics editor released in 1985, created by Oxford Computer Publishing and written by James Hutchby (original ZX Spectrum version). It featured a GUI with windows, icons, pull-down menus, pointin ...
'' * '' The Artist'' * '' Paintbox'' * '' Melbourne Draw'' ; 3D modelling tools: * ''
VU-3D VU-3D is a 3D modelling software package for the ZX Spectrum home computer. It was published by Psion in 1982. Using simple commands, the user may create a solid object or set of objects in three-dimensional space, observe, modify, print and st ...
''


Media


Tape

Because most British home computer owners used tape instead of disk storage into the mid-1980s, most ZX Spectrum software was originally distributed on
audio cassette tape The Compact Cassette or Musicassette (MC), also commonly called the tape cassette, cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. Invented by Lou Otten ...
s. The software is encoded on tape as a sequence of
pulses In medicine, a pulse represents the tactile arterial palpation of the cardiac cycle (heartbeat) by trained fingertips. The pulse may be palpated in any place that allows an artery to be compressed near the surface of the body, such as at the nec ...
that sound similar to the noises made by a
modem A modulator-demodulator or modem is a computer hardware device that converts data from a digital format into a format suitable for an analog transmission medium such as telephone or radio. A modem transmits data by Modulation#Digital modulati ...
. Since the Spectrum has only a rudimentary tape interface, data is recorded using an unusually simple and very reliable modulation: similar to
pulse-width modulation Pulse-width modulation (PWM), or pulse-duration modulation (PDM), is a method of reducing the average power delivered by an electrical signal, by effectively chopping it up into discrete parts. The average value of voltage (and current) fed ...
but without a constant clock rate. Pulses of different widths (durations) represent 0s and 1s. A "zero" is represented by a ~244  μs pulse followed by a gap of the same duration (855 clock ticks each at 3.5 
MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one he ...
) for a total ~489 μs; "one" is twice as long, totalling ~977 μs. This allows for 1,023 "ones" or 2,047 "zeros" to be recorded per second. Assuming an even proportion of each, the resulting mean transmission rate is ~1,365 average bits/s. Higher speeds are possible using custom
machine code In computer programming, machine code is any low-level programming language, consisting of machine language instructions, which are used to control a computer's central processing unit (CPU). Each instruction causes the CPU to perform a very ...
loaders instead of the
ROM Rom, or ROM may refer to: Biomechanics and medicine * Risk of mortality, a medical classification to estimate the likelihood of death for a patient * Rupture of membranes, a term used during pregnancy to describe a rupture of the amniotic sac * ...
routines. In theory, a standard 48K program may take about 5 minutes to load: 49,152 bytes × 8 = 393,216 bits; 393,216 bits / 1,365
baud In telecommunication and electronics, baud (; symbol: Bd) is a common unit of measurement of symbol rate, which is one of the components that determine the speed of communication over a data channel. It is the unit for symbol rate or modulatio ...
≈ 288 seconds = 4:48 minutes. In practice, however, such a program usually takes between 3–4 minutes to load (because of different number of 0s and 1s encoded using audio frequency shift keying, and not all memory needs loading), and 128K programs could take up to 11:23 minutes to load. Experienced users can often tell the type of a file, e.g. file header, screen image or main block of code, from the way it sounds on the tape. The standard method of storing files on tape uses a combination of header and associated data blocks. Both types of blocks are preceded by pilot and synchronization signals, used to accommodate numerous physical variations present such as tape deck speed and distortion arising from tape stretching. Headers have a short size of 19 bytes (1 zero-value flag byte, 17 header information bytes, and 1 checksum byte), where the header information consists of a type byte, a 10-byte filename, a word data block length, and two word parameters. Depending on the type byte, the loader presents one of the follow messages: Program: for programs written in BASIC; Bytes: for machine code, screen dumps, ''etc.''; or Character array: for an ASCII-encoded file. During standard loading and saving processes, the border of the screen flashes with cyan/red stripes for the pilot signal and yellow/blue stripes for the header and data blocks; which colour of the pair is used depends upon the bit that was last read from the tape. Pilot and synchronization signals are usually represented with a thick stripe size; on header and data blocks, the stripes are thinner. Striped border effects, as used in the standard loader or more complex ones (see below) can also be found on games written for other 8-bit computers, such as the Commodore C64, and the
Amstrad CPC The Amstrad CPC (short for ''Colour Personal Computer'') is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the Sin ...
464/664/6128: which, as it used the same
Z80 The Z80 is an 8-bit microprocessor introduced by Zilog as the startup company's first product. The Z80 was conceived by Federico Faggin in late 1974 and developed by him and his 11 employees starting in early 1975. The first working samples were ...
CPU, often received ports of loading routines originally for the Spectrum. The Spectrum was intended to work with almost any cassette tape player, and despite differences in audio reproduction fidelity, the software loading process was designed to be reliable; nevertheless it was still possible for tapes to fail loading with the message R Tape loading error, 0:1. One common cause was the use of a cassette copy from a tape recorder with a different head
alignment Alignment may refer to: Archaeology * Alignment (archaeology), a co-linear arrangement of features or structures with external landmarks * Stone alignment, a linear arrangement of upright, parallel megalithic standing stones Biology * Structu ...
to the one being used. This could sometimes be fixed by pressing on the top of the player during loading, or wedging the cassette with pieces of folded paper, to physically shift the tape into the required alignment. A more reliable solution was to realign the head, which was easily accessible on a number of tape players, with a small (jeweller's)
screwdriver A screwdriver is a tool, manual or powered, used for turning screws. A typical simple screwdriver has a handle and a shaft, ending in a tip the user puts into the screw head before turning the handle. This form of the screwdriver has been repla ...
. Typical settings for loading were ¾ volume, 100% treble, 0% bass. Audio filters like loudness and
Dolby Noise Reduction A Dolby noise-reduction system, or Dolby NR, is one of a series of noise reduction systems developed by Dolby Laboratories for use in analog audio tape recording. The first was '' Dolby A'', a professional broadband noise reduction ...
had to be disabled, and it was not recommended to use a Hi-Fi player to load programs. There were some tape recorders built specially for digital use, such as the Timex Computer 2010 Tape Recorder or
Grundig Grundig (; ) is a German consumer electronics manufacturer owned by the Turkish Arçelik A.Ş., the white goods (major appliance) manufacturer of Turkish conglomerate Koç Holding. The company made domestic appliances and personal-care produ ...
CR 100 Data Recorder. The ZX Spectrum Plus 2 and 2A models are fashioned after an Amstrad CPC 464 and feature a built-in tape "datacorder". It is possible to alter the colours between which the border alternates during loading, and/or to use more than two colours, in order to obtain more flashy visual effects during the loading process. Complex loaders with unusual speeds or encoding were the basis of the ZX Spectrum
copy protection Copy protection, also known as content protection, copy prevention and copy restriction, describes measures to enforce copyright by preventing the reproduction of software, films, music, and other media. Copy protection is most commonly found on ...
schemes, although other methods were used including asking for a particular word from the documentation included with the game — often a novella — or the notorious
Lenslok Lenslok is a copy protection mechanism found in some computer games and other software on the 8-bit Atari computers, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Sinclair QL, MSX and Amstrad CPC. The first game to use it was '' Elite'' for the ZX Spectrum. Ove ...
system. This had a set of plastic prisms in a fold-out plastic holder: the idea was that a scrambled two-letter code would appear on the screen, which could only be read by holding the prisms at a fixed distance from the screen courtesy of the plastic holder. This relied rather too much on everyone using the same size television, and Lenslok became a running joke with Spectrum users. One very interesting kind of software was copiers. Most were
copyright infringement Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder, s ...
oriented, and their function was only tape duplication, but when
Sinclair Research Sinclair Research Ltd is a British consumer electronics company founded by Clive Sinclair in Cambridge. It was originally incorporated in 1973 as Westminster Mail Order Ltd, renamed Sinclair Instrument Ltd, then Science of Cambridge Ltd, the ...
launched the ZX Microdrive, copiers were developed to copy programs from audio tape to microdrive tapes, and later on diskettes. Best known were the Lerm suite produced by Lerm Software and ''Trans Express'' by Romantic Robot. As the protections became more complex (e.g.
Speedlock A fast loader is a software program for a home computer, such as the Commodore 64 or ZX Spectrum, that accelerates the speed of file loading from floppy disk or compact cassette. Floppy disks Fast loaders came about because of a discrepanc ...
) it was almost impossible to use copiers to copy tapes, and the loaders had to be cracked by hand, to produce unprotected versions. Special hardware, like Romantic Robot's
Multiface The Multiface was a hardware peripheral released by Romantic Robot for several 1980s home computers. The primary function of the device was to dump the computer's memory to external storage. Pressing a red button on the Multiface activated it. As ...
which was able to dump a copy of the ZX Spectrum RAM to disk/tape at the press of a button, was developed, entirely circumventing the copy protection systems. "Snapshots" generated by these black boxes would later become the original filetype recognised by emulators: .SNA: although these memory dumps have been generally replaced by more complex files, incorporating original loading features and multi-level options.


ZX Microdrive

ZX Microdrive cartridge The
ZX Microdrive ZX Microdrive unit The ZX Microdrive is a magnetic-tape data storage system launched in July 1983 by Sinclair Research for its ZX Spectrum home computer. It was proposed as a faster-loading alternative to the cassette and cheaper than a floppy ...
system was released in July 1983. While the drives were cheaper than
floppy disk drive A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, or a diskette) is an obsolescent type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined w ...
s, the media was very expensive for software publishers to use for mass market releases (by a factor of 10, compared to tape duplication) and acquired a reputation for unreliability, with publishers reluctant to QA each and every item shipped. The main use became to complement tape releases, usually utilities and niche products like the ''
Tasword ''Tasword'' was a word processor for the ZX Spectrum developed by Tasman Software. The first version was released in 1982 and spawned two major revisions in addition to several add-ons and, later, tailored versions for the +2 and +3 Spectrum mode ...
''
word processing A word is a basic element of language that carries an objective or practical meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of what a word is, there is no consen ...
software and ''Trans Express''. No games are known to be exclusively released on Microdrive, but some companies allowed, and even aided, their software to be copied over. One such example was ''Rally Driver'' by Five Ways Software Ltd.


Floppy disk

thumbnail, 160px, The CF has a harder casing than a 3-inch floppy; the metal door is opened by a sliding plastic tab on the right side Several floppy disk systems were designed for the ZX Spectrum. The most popular (excepting Eastern Europe,) were the
DISCiPLE A disciple is a follower and student of a mentor, teacher, or other figure. It can refer to: Religion * Disciple (Christianity), a student of Jesus Christ * Twelve Apostles of Jesus, sometimes called the Twelve Disciples * Seventy disciples in t ...
and +D systems released by Miles Gordon Technology in 1987 and 1988 respectively. Despite becoming popular and being reliable (from using standard Shugart disk drives), most releases were utility software. However, both systems had the ability to store memory images onto disk, ''snapshots'', which later on could be loaded back into the ZX Spectrum and execution would commence from the point where they were "snapped", making them perfect for "backups". Both systems were also compatible with the Microdrive command syntax, which made porting existing software simpler. The ZX Spectrum +3 featured a built-in 3" disk drive and enjoyed more success when it came to commercial software releases. Most Russian releases since 1989 are made for the Beta 128 disc interface, the only system now in use there.


Others

In addition, software was also distributed through print media, fan magazines and books. The prevalent language for distribution was the Spectrum's BASIC dialect
Sinclair BASIC Sinclair BASIC is a dialect of the programming language BASIC used in the 8-bit home computers from Sinclair Research and Timex Sinclair. The Sinclair BASIC interpreter was made by Nine Tiles Networks Ltd. History Sinclair BASIC was orig ...
. The reader would type the software into the computer by hand, run it, and save it to tape for later use. The software distributed in this way was in general simpler and slower than its
assembly language In computer programming, assembly language (or assembler language, or symbolic machine code), often referred to simply as Assembly and commonly abbreviated as ASM or asm, is any low-level programming language with a very strong correspondence be ...
counterparts, and lacked graphics. But soon, magazines were printing long lists of
checksum A checksum is a small-sized block of data derived from another block of digital data for the purpose of detecting errors that may have been introduced during its transmission or storage. By themselves, checksums are often used to verify data ...
med
hexadecimal In mathematics and computing, the hexadecimal (also base-16 or simply hex) numeral system is a positional numeral system that represents numbers using a radix (base) of 16. Unlike the decimal system representing numbers using 10 symbols, hexa ...
digits with machine code games or tools. There was a vibrant scientific community built around such software, ranging from
satellite dish A satellite dish is a dish-shaped type of parabolic antenna designed to receive or transmit information by radio waves to or from a communication satellite A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radi ...
alignment programs to school classroom scheduling programs. One unusual software distribution method were radio or television shows in e.g.
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(Radio 101),
Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...
(
Ventilator 202 ''Ventilator 202'' (in Serbian, meaning: ' electric fan 202') was a live radio show broadcast by Beograd 202 radio station during the 1980s and hosted by Zoran Modli. It was one of the most important shows of Belgrade's "202" station and possibly ...
),
Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...
(Radio Študent), Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Lebanon or Brazil, where the host would describe a program, instruct the audience to connect a cassette tape recorder to the radio or TV and then broadcast the program over the airwaves in audio format. In former Soviet Union, mostly in Russia and Ukraine unauthorised radio operators (so-called radio hooligans) often exchanged software from cassette tapes for Spectrum and other popular computers by broadcasting it. Another unusual method which was used by some magazines were Unusual types of gramophone records#Unusual materials and uses, 7" 33⅓ rpm "flexidisc" records, not the hard gramophone record, vinyl ones, which could be played on a standard Phonograph, record player. These disks were known under various trademarked names including "Floppy ROM", "Flexisoft", and "Discoflex".


Popular music

A few pop musicians included Sinclair programs on their records. The Buzzcocks front man, Pete Shelley, put a Spectrum program including lyrics and other information as the last track on his XL-1 album. The punk band Inner City Unit put a Spectrum database of band information on their 1984 release, 'New Anatomy'. Also in 1984, the Thompson Twins released The Thompson Twins Adventure, a game on vinyl. The Freshies had a brief flirtation with fame and Spectrum games, with Chris Sievey, Frank Sidebottom making an early appearance in ''The Biz (video game), The Biz''. (Previously, Freshies frontman Chris Sievey's song Camouflage (Chris Sievey song), Camouflage contained a ZX81 music video as a B-side.) Aphex Twin included various loading noises on his ''Richard D. James Album, Richard D. James'' album in 1996, most notably part of the loading screen from ''
Sabre Wulf ''Sabre Wulf'' is an action-adventure game released by British video game developer Ultimate Play the Game for the ZX Spectrum home computer in 1984. The player navigates the pith-helmeted Sabreman through a 2D jungle maze while collecting ...
'' on Carn Marth. Shakin' Stevens included his Shaky Game at the end of his ''The Bop Won't Stop'' album. The aim of the game was to guide your character around a maze, while avoiding bats. Upon completion your score would be given in terms of a rank of disc, e.g. "gold" or "platinum". The game had a minor connection with one of his tracks, ''It's Late''. Scottish band Urusei Yatsura (band), Urusei Yatsura included a Spectrum program that showed a satanic message in the beginning of the song ''Thank You'' (from the album ''Everybody Loves Urusei Yatsura''). Other notable inclusions include the eighth studio album by The Stranglers, Aural Sculpture. Track 7 of side B on the cassette release includes a game called Aural Quest. This was developed by the band's keyboard player, Dave Greenfield, using the The Quill Adventure System, Quill Adventure System. It's notable for having two distinct versions, included on different masters of the album. In 2017, Radiohead released a special edition of their OK Computer, OK, Computer album, called OK Computer OKNOTOK 1997 2017, OKNOTOK. The included cassette tape features a ZX Spectrum program that generates random text and colours, whilst playing tones akin to a track included on the cassette. There was also a music program for the Spectrum 48K which allowed to play two notes at a time, by rapidly switching between the waveforms of the two separate notes, a big improvement over the Monophony, mono Spectrum sound. The program was branded after the popular '80s pop band Wham!, and some of the biggest hits of this group could be played with the Spectrum. The program was called ''Wham! The Music Box'' and released by Melbourne House, one of the most prolific publishing houses at the time.


See also

* ZX Spectrum demos * List of ZX Spectrum games


References

{{refs ZX Spectrum software, ZX Spectrum, Software