11 Apr
2012
11 Apr
'12
6:14 p.m.
I love this album and had no idea there was a spectrum tie-in;
apparently that was only done for the UK edition?
<http://www.headen.com/XL1.htm>
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12 Apr
12 Apr
5:54 p.m.
On 11 April 2012 23:14, Richard <legalize at xmission.com> wrote:
I love this album and had no idea there was a spectrum
tie-in;
apparently that was only done for the UK edition?
<http://www.headen.com/XL1.htm>
Cool.
Did anyone else enjoy both the Stranglers' album /Aural Sculpture/
*and* the Spectrum adventure game the cassette included, /Aural
Quest/? :?)
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7:04 p.m.
On Thu, Apr 12, 2012 at 4:54 PM, Liam Proven <lproven at gmail.com> wrote:
Did anyone else enjoy both the Stranglers' album
/Aural Sculpture/
*and* the Spectrum adventure game the cassette included, /Aural
Quest/? :?)
Sounds like another UK only release? Wouldn't make much sense to
release a Speccy tape in the US?
Only remotely related example I can offer up here was the Information
Society CD that came with a CD+G track. All 10 or so people with CD+G
capable devices were treated to a band bio and a low-res graphics show
:)
(I viewed it many years after its release on a Magnavox CDI. I think
the C= CDTV could play them, too?)
-j
8:23 p.m.
On 13 April 2012 00:04, Jason T <silent700 at gmail.com> wrote:
On Thu, Apr 12, 2012 at 4:54 PM, Liam Proven
<lproven at gmail.com> wrote:
I really don't know.
Did anyone else enjoy both the Stranglers'
album /Aural Sculpture/
*and* the Spectrum adventure game the cassette included, /Aural
Quest/? :?)
Sounds like another UK only release? Wouldn't make much sense to
release a Speccy tape in the US?
I guess not, although games written with The Quill had no sound or
graphics and might have worked on a TS2068.
But - perhaps it's me - reading between the lines of your comment, you
seem to be making the point that the game was for a minority machine,
one that was not significant in the USA? Or so I misunderstand?
If so, I'd challenge it. The Sinclair Spectrum was one of the most
successful home computers ever made - they sold pretty well across
much of Europe, I believe; certainly the later Spectrum 128 model was
designed in Spain by Investronica, not Sinclair Research itself.
At the time, the Commodore 64 was the only machine that outsold it,
and I think that when they were new, the C64 was well over twice the
price of the Spectrum. The Speccy was an affordable machine for the
masses, whereas the C64 - when new - was an elite, expensive machine
for the serious gamer. The even-more-rich who did not want their
children to have fun bought BBC Micros. :?)
I don't know of any hard sales figures, but the Spectrum sold several
million units, I think. It was *absolutely* the most logical machine
for a UK band to release a bonus game for; it was *the* dominant home
computer of the UK (and I suspect Europe) in the early 1980s. It was
quite widely cloned behind the Iron Curtain, too.
There's mention of the game on the Wikipedia article about the album:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aural_Sculpture
Only remotely related example I can offer up here was
the Information
Society CD that came with a CD+G track. ?All 10 or so people with CD+G
capable devices were treated to a band bio and a low-res graphics show
:)
(I viewed it many years after its release on a Magnavox CDI. ?I think
the C= CDTV could play them, too?)
Oh, yes, I heard of them. I don't think I ever saw a player, though -
excepting fairly rare exotica such as an Amiga CD32 or a 3DO console.
--
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Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven
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10:38 p.m.
On Apr 12, 2012, at 8:23 PM, Liam Proven wrote:
On 13 April 2012 00:04, Jason T <silent700 at
gmail.com> wrote:
The way I read it was that the Spectrum didn't make much headway in
the US, so releases were fairly limited. Here, the "for the masses"
machine was the C64, probably owing to the fact that Commodore was an
American company.
- Dave
On Thu, Apr 12, 2012 at 4:54 PM, Liam Proven
<lproven at gmail.com> wrote:
I really don't know.
Did anyone else enjoy both the Stranglers'
album /Aural Sculpture/
*and* the Spectrum adventure game the cassette included, /Aural
Quest/? :?)
Sounds like another UK only release? Wouldn't make much sense to
release a Speccy tape in the US?
I guess not, although games written with The Quill had no sound or
graphics and might have worked on a TS2068.
But - perhaps it's me - reading between the lines of your comment, you
seem to be making the point that the game was for a minority machine,
one that was not significant in the USA? Or so I misunderstand?
If so, I'd challenge it. The Sinclair Spectrum was one of the most
successful home computers ever made - they sold pretty well across
much of Europe, I believe; certainly the later Spectrum 128 model was
designed in Spain by Investronica, not Sinclair Research itself.
At the time, the Commodore 64 was the only machine that outsold it,
and I think that when they were new, the C64 was well over twice the
price of the Spectrum. The Speccy was an affordable machine for the
masses, whereas the C64 - when new - was an elite, expensive machine
for the serious gamer. The even-more-rich who did not want their
children to have fun bought BBC Micros. :?)
I don't know of any hard sales figures, but the Spectrum sold several
million units, I think. It was *absolutely* the most logical machine
for a UK band to release a bonus game for; it was *the* dominant home
computer of the UK (and I suspect Europe) in the early 1980s. It was
quite widely cloned behind the Iron Curtain, too.
10:45 p.m.
On Thu, Apr 12, 2012 at 9:38 PM, David Riley <fraveydank at gmail.com> wrote:
The way I read it was that the Spectrum didn't
make much headway in
the US, so releases were fairly limited. ?Here, the "for the masses"
machine was the C64, probably owing to the fact that Commodore was an
American company.
Correct reading :) I know the Spectrum line was huge but, afaik
(someone will surely correct me,) it wasn't even marketed in the US.
So a Spectrum tape packaged with a record would be somewhat
bewildering.
Then again, all the cool kids sought out the import singles, so maybe
a few made it over here!
-j
11:08 p.m.
On 04/12/2012 10:45 PM, Jason T wrote:
On Thu, Apr 12, 2012 at 9:38 PM, David Riley
<fraveydank at gmail.com> wrote:
I never saw a single one in those days. As close as anybody got was
two friends that had Timex-Sinclair 1000s (I had one as well, still have
it) and another friend who had a 2068.
I have STILL never seen a Spectrum in person. I'd really love to play
with one.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA
The way I read it was that the Spectrum
didn't make much headway in
the US, so releases were fairly limited. Here, the "for the masses"
machine was the C64, probably owing to the fact that Commodore was an
American company.
Correct reading :) I know the Spectrum line was huge but, afaik
(someone will surely correct me,) it wasn't even marketed in the US.
So a Spectrum tape packaged with a record would be somewhat
bewildering.
Then again, all the cool kids sought out the import singles, so maybe
a few made it over here! 
13 Apr
13 Apr
12:08 a.m.
I never saw a single one in those days. As close as
anybody got was
two friends that had Timex-Sinclair 1000s (I had one as well, still have
it) and another friend who had a 2068.
My folks nearly bought a TS1000, but thought better of it and decided to
buy a "real computer" which was, of course, a C64.
Many years later I picked up a TS1000 and while they are interesting to
play with I get more mileage out of the 64 even today. I have a 2068 around
here somewhere too.
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9:50 a.m.
On 13 April 2012 04:08, Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> wrote:
On 04/12/2012 10:45 PM, Jason T wrote:
Did you contact the acquaintance of mine from Twitter who was giving
away 3 of them for free a few weeks ago? I posted links to the message
here.
--
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Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven
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Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884
On Thu, Apr 12, 2012 at 9:38 PM, David Riley
<fraveydank at gmail.com> wrote:
?I never saw a single one in those days. ?As close as anybody got was
two friends that had Timex-Sinclair 1000s (I had one as well, still have
it) and another friend who had a 2068.
?I have STILL never seen a Spectrum in person. ?I'd really love to play
with one. The way I read it was that the Spectrum
didn't make much headway in
the US, so releases were fairly limited. ?Here, the "for the masses"
machine was the C64, probably owing to the fact that Commodore was an
American company.
Correct reading :) ?I know the Spectrum line was huge but, afaik
(someone will surely correct me,) it wasn't even marketed in the US.
So a Spectrum tape packaged with a record would be somewhat
bewildering.
Then again, all the cool kids sought out the import singles, so maybe
a few made it over here!
10:06 a.m.
On Apr 13, 2012, at 9:50 AM, Liam Proven wrote:
I never saw that message; I probably would have taken someone up on an
offer like that, though if it's someone in the UK I doubt I could
spare the shipping at the moment.
I've found that a surprising number of posts to this list either land
in my spam box or don't make it to me at all (perhaps swallowed by
GMail's spam box before it hits my POP/IMAP clients) and I only find
out about it through replies.
- Dave
I have STILL
never seen a Spectrum in person. I'd really love to play
with one.
Did you contact the acquaintance of mine from Twitter who was giving
away 3 of them for free a few weeks ago? I posted links to the message
here.
10:11 a.m.
On 13 April 2012 15:06, David Riley <fraveydank at gmail.com> wrote:
On Apr 13, 2012, at 9:50 AM, Liam Proven wrote:
I never saw that message; I probably would have taken someone up on an
offer like that, though if it's someone in the UK I doubt I could
spare the shipping at the moment.
I've found that a surprising number of posts to this list either land
in my spam box or don't make it to me at all (perhaps swallowed by
GMail's spam box before it hits my POP/IMAP clients) and I only find
out about it through replies.
I tick the option in my mail filters that says "never send to spam" if
something is from one of my mailing lists. Yes, very occasionally, I
get spam from the list itself, but it's a once-or-twice a month thing.
Without it, broken threads agogo. E.g. most of Gene's posts Gmail
thinks are spammy.
--
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Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven
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Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884
?I have
STILL never seen a Spectrum in person. ?I'd really love to play
with one.
Did you contact the acquaintance of mine from Twitter who was giving
away 3 of them for free a few weeks ago? I posted links to the message
here.
10:14 a.m.
On 13 April 2012 15:06, David Riley <fraveydank at gmail.com> wrote:
I never saw that message; I probably would have taken someone up on an
offer like that, though if it's someone in the UK I doubt I could
spare the shipping at the moment.
Here is that Spectrum post in full:
from Liam Proven lproven at gmail.com
to "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at
classiccmp.org>
date 9 March 2012 00:16
subject Free Sinclair stuff on Twitter
mailed-by gmail.com
9 Mar
@DeltaNC: If anyone would like a ZX81, a Rubberkey or a Plus let me
know. I have one of each and they're getting skipped otherwise.
Untested, no PSUs.
@DeltaNC: Reading an old Spectrum instruction manual, specifically
about loading software. You "App Store" kids don't know how good you
have it!
That's https://twitter.com/#!/DeltaNC if you don't speak Tweet.
Anyone interested? I think they're in Glasgow.
--
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Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven
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Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884
7:11 p.m.
On 04/13/2012 09:50 AM, Liam Proven wrote:
Uh? I never saw that email. I'd probably not want to ship one here
I have STILL
never seen a Spectrum in person. I'd really love to play
with one.
Did you contact the acquaintance of mine from Twitter who was giving
away 3 of them for free a few weeks ago? I posted links to the message
here. from the UK though. But thank you for the thought.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA
15 Apr
15 Apr
4:56 a.m.
> Did you contact the acquaintance of mine from
Twitter who was giving
> away 3 of them for free a few weeks ago? I posted links to the message
> here.
Just for records a friend of mine is in UK. If someone is giving away a
+2 or +3 (oh, how I want a +3 and some disks) I'm crazy for one :)
13 Apr
13 Apr
11:31 a.m.
On Thu, 12 Apr 2012, Dave McGuire wrote:
I have STILL never seen a Spectrum in person.
I'd really love to play
with one.
I have one and I can bring it to VCF East. Don't think I'll be able to
demo it though, my dad converted it to Russian SECAM and I don't have a TV
that can display that...
Alexey
14 Apr
14 Apr
4:08 a.m.
On 04/13/2012 11:31 AM, Alexey Toptygin wrote:
Ahh, don't bother if we can't fire it up and hack on it. ;) I
appreciate the thought, though!
It will be great to see you at VCF. I really enjoyed our chats last
year.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA
I have STILL
never seen a Spectrum in person. I'd really love to play
with one.
I have one and I can bring it to VCF East. Don't think I'll be able to
demo it though, my dad converted it to Russian SECAM and I don't have a
TV that can display that... 
13 Apr
13 Apr
12:10 p.m.
On 04/12/2012 10:08 PM, Dave McGuire wrote:
On 04/12/2012 10:45 PM, Jason T wrote:
I never saw a single one in those days. As close as anybody got was
two friends that had Timex-Sinclair 1000s (I had one as well, still have
it) and another friend who had a 2068.
I have STILL never seen a Spectrum in person. I'd really love to play
with one.
One day I'll get mine shipped over to this side of the Pond and will make
an attempt to haul it to a VCF. I have a ZX80 too, and I think I may have
kept hold of a +2 as well (the challenge of course will be hooking them up
to a display, because I really don't want to have to move a bunch of
PAL-capable TVs over if I can avoid it).
I seem to remember that there were some very good Spectrum emulators around
too, although of course they can't emulate how truly awful typing on a real
Spectrum's keyboard was :-)
Incidentally, despite the popularity of the Spectrum in the UK, I probably
saw about an equal number of C64s around the same time - there was
certainly no shortage of them over there.
cheers
Jules
4:37 a.m.
On Wed, Apr 11, 2012 at 04:14:41PM -0600, Richard wrote:
I love this album and had no idea there was a spectrum
tie-in;
apparently that was only done for the UK edition?
<http://www.headen.com/XL1.htm>
Cool! I only knew of one example of this beforehand. The Swedish group
"Adolphson & Falk" has a LP with an Atari 8-bit track on it. I have the
record and an Atari 800 on the way to test it :)
But after reading your link a friend found this:
http://www.kempa.com/2004/03/09/vinyl-data/
Which suggest it wasn't _that_ uncommon. And it states that XL-1 only
had the data track on UK pressings.
Last summer I visited the computer games museum in Berlin:
http://www.computerspielemuseum.de
They had vinyl records with Basic distributions on them. Apparently
floppy disks was hard to come by in East Germany, so vinyl was used
instead.
Cheers,
Pontus.
2:37 p.m.
They had vinyl records with Basic distributions on
them. Apparently
floppy disks was hard to come by in East Germany, so vinyl was used
instead.
In the easrly 1980s, some UK home computer magazines (for machines like
the Spectrum) came with flexile audio records (you played them on a normal
record player, at, I think 33+1/3 rpm) contianing programs for
whatever machine the magazine covered.
-tony
4476
days inactive
4480
days old
18 comments
11 participants
participants (11)
-
alexeyt＠freeshell.org -
ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
fraveydank＠gmail.com -
jules.richardson99＠gmail.com -
legalize＠xmission.com -
lproven＠gmail.com -
mcguire＠neurotica.com -
pontus＠Update.UU.SE -
pu1bzz.listas＠gmail.com -
silent700＠gmail.com -
spectre＠floodgap.com