Found a ZX Spectrum X 128K in the dump! *WORKS* \ VOGONS

Found a ZX Spectrum X 128K in the dump! WORKS

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First post, by Munwele

Posted on 2016-10-17, 21:15

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UPDATE: Sorry if I should not have bumped this. I replaced the keyboard membrane and the computer is now fully working! Thank you for your replies!

I am literally speechless. In my country there are a ton of regulations when it comes to getting stuff out of the dump. You need special permits. So my permit says I can take 4 computers max. This summer I got 3, they were nothing special to be honest. A Laser 486 server, a Mac Performa (which was dead) and a Compaq 386 which was also dead (I posted about it here).

So today I went to throw out some of my stuff (faulty motherboards and monitors) and there were only five computers because apparently, many of them had already been scrapped. They were all generic P4s, too modern for my liking, plus I have tons of them already.

Just as we were leaving, I spot this red box, it was not with the other PCs, but with sound and video stuff (players, VCRs etc). Since the box had stuff on it, I couldn't really see what was written on it. As soon as I spotted "um 128" I knew what it was. I quickly told my father, "We might have hit the jackpot!". I remove the stuff that was on it and unwrap the box. Remove one of the polystyrene halves and VIOLA! A Spectrum+ 128K! I think it needs a new keyboard membrane.

Images:

Last edited by Munwele on 2016-10-30, 12:03. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 1 of 18, by Errius

Posted on 2016-10-17, 23:16

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Is that Bomb Jack?

Is this too much voodoo?

Reply 2 of 18, by kixs

Posted on 2016-10-18, 03:37

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This one hasn't seen much use... nice find 😁

Requests are also possible... /msg kixs

Reply 3 of 18, by keenmaster486

Posted on 2016-10-18, 04:49

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Interesting. What country do you live in? Let me guess, it doesn't rank too highly on the Index of Economic Freedom.

World's foremost 486 enjoyer.

Reply 4 of 18, by chinny22

Posted on 2016-10-18, 11:42

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Even got the box! That's pretty damn cool indeed

Reply 5 of 18, by Munwele

Posted on 2016-10-18, 14:54

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Errius wrote:
Is that Bomb Jack?

Yes, it is 😀

keenmaster486 wrote:
Interesting. What country do you live in? Let me guess, it doesn't rank too highly on the Index of Economic Freedom.

Malta.

kixs wrote:
This one hasn't seen much use... nice find 😁

It'd been sitting in the box for quite some time, in fact, the plastic has reacted with the polystyrene!

Reply 6 of 18, by Munwele

Posted on 2016-10-18, 15:00

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chinny22 wrote:
Even got the box! That's pretty damn cool indeed

Sorry for replying separately. YES, that's what I thought, I even got the box! This is my first ever Spectrum, that I found in the DUMP, and it came with the box and the original polystyrene!

Reply 7 of 18, by Jo22

Posted on 2016-10-18, 16:05

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Cool! There's also a GUI for this model, called doors.

Perhaps it will even run SymbOS one day, who knows ? 😀

http://www.symbos.de/

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In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

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Reply 8 of 18, by chinny22

Posted on 2016-10-20, 19:22

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This has captured my imagination for some reason so did a bit of reading up and found this for loading games via sound files rather then tape.
http://mrpjevans.com/2013/04/load-zx-spectrum … ames-in-seconds
Keen to see this thing live again 😀

Reply 9 of 18, by Imperious

Posted on 2016-10-25, 09:30

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That particular model You have is referred to as the "Toast rack" and is the most high valued model it seems on Ebay. I am no expert on Speccy's but
I think that model didn't last long before Amstrad (Who bought out Sinclair) released the +2 version, making the "Toast rack" reasonably rare as well as
the last model designed and made by Sinclair.

Atari 2600, TI994a, Vic20, c64, ZX Spectrum 128, Amstrad CPC464, Atari 65XE, Commodore Plus/4, Amiga 500
PC's from XT 8088, 486, Pentium MMX, K6, Athlon, P3, P4, 775, to current Ryzen 5600x.

Reply 10 of 18, by Munwele

Posted on 2016-10-30, 12:04

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The computer now works! I have carefully replaced the keyboard membrane and it is fully working!
Thanks for the replies!

Reply 11 of 18, by vladstamate

Posted on 2016-11-03, 15:06

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Man, that is the computer I learned to code on. I would LOVE to get one of those. Unfortunately the 128k+ is so damn hard to find. Any other model is ok but this one not... 🙁

Congrats on your find!

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Reply 12 of 18, by brad1982_5

Posted on 2016-11-07, 19:04

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Awesome. My mate had the 48K version that just looked like this one. I had the rubber key version.

Reply 13 of 18, by PeterLI

Posted on 2016-11-09, 00:26

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MT is a great place. Been there twice.

Reply 14 of 18, by feipoa

Posted on 2016-11-09, 03:21

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Is it legal to rummage through the trash at the dump?

Plan your life wisely, you'll be dead before you know it.

Reply 15 of 18, by Munwele

Posted on 2016-11-11, 16:04

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Thanks to all of you for the replies!

It is illegal to rummage through the trash at dump, without a permit, that is. But I had a permit at the time, so I'm safe! 😁

Reply 16 of 18, by Zup

Posted on 2016-11-11, 16:39

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Imperious wrote:
That particular model You have is referred to as the "Toast rack" and is the most high valued model it seems on Ebay. I am no expert on Speccy's but
I think that model didn't last long before Amstrad (Who bought out Sinclair) released the +2 version, making the "Toast rack" reasonably rare as well as
the last model designed and made by Sinclair.

That's the second high valued one.

The most valued is the spanish 128k toastrack because it shipped with an auxiliar numeric keypad, and the ROM was different (it had no menus). This is one of those rare cases where the non-english model was shipped before the english one.

I have traveled across the universe and through the years to find Her.
Sometimes going all the way is just a start...

I'm selling some stuff!

Reply 17 of 18, by cuba200611

Posted on 2016-11-13, 22:57

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What's the other cassette (besides the obviously pirated version of Bomb Jack) holding?

There's a website called World of Spectrum that holds a crapton of games that can be legally downloaded. The owners of the website ask the creators of the games (or the companies that now own the creators) for permission to distribute their games freely. There are exceptions, most notably Ultimate, which became Rare, which was bought out by Microsoft.

You can then obtain a TZX to WAV converter to convert the tape files into audio files that can be played back directly to the Spectrum from your computer via a 3.5mm audio cable.

EDIT: Oh, and the trick that you linked above, chinny22, only works on tapes that use the standard loader. So games that use Speedlock (most Ocean/Imagine games), Alcatraz (most US Gold 48k games), etc. do not work.

Reply 18 of 18, by Munwele

Posted on 2016-11-15, 08:26

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cuba200611 wrote:
What's the other cassette (besides the obviously pirated version of Bomb Jack) holding? […]
Show full quote
What's the other cassette (besides the obviously pirated version of Bomb Jack) holding?

There's a website called World of Spectrum that holds a crapton of games that can be legally downloaded. The owners of the website ask the creators of the games (or the companies that now own the creators) for permission to distribute their games freely. There are exceptions, most notably Ultimate, which became Rare, which was bought out by Microsoft.

You can then obtain a TZX to WAV converter to convert the tape files into audio files that can be played back directly to the Spectrum from your computer via a 3.5mm audio cable.

EDIT: Oh, and the trick that you linked above, chinny22, only works on tapes that use the standard loader. So games that use Speedlock (most Ocean/Imagine games), Alcatraz (most US Gold 48k games), etc. do not work.

Hi, thanks for your reply. The other tape is Daley Thompson's Supertest by Ocean Software.

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