[techbubble]

All the Spectrum computers were awesome computers that somehow crammed a lot into a very compact package. The Sinclair ZX Spectrum+ was my first computer and I recently snagged one on eBay. With the right transformer and HDMI converter, I had it hooked to the living room TV in no time.

It took less than 30 mins for my 11-year-old daughter to figure out how to draw basic rectangles and circles in various colors on the screen. She was hooked. And I was transported back to my childhood. I saw the same joy I experienced as she discovered new ways to have the computer do her bidding.

Today’s computers can do amazing things, but they sort of miss out on the whole human user experience bit. Maybe they need to go back to basic ;-)

[dvfjsdhgfv]

> Today’s computers can do amazing things, but they sort of miss out on the whole human user experience bit. Maybe they need to go back to basic ;-)

It's partly because in 8-bit computers the programming environment was the first thing you were exposed to. You weren't force to program though, you could limit yourself to LOAD "*",8 - but also you were free to experiment with more commands if you wanted to.

In newer computers, the programming interface was replaced by something else, and then completely removed from the system.

[DEADBEEFC0FFEE]

Yes, that wild time of discovery, and adventure, and at the time cutting edge. It really was a golden time. I'm sure many generations think that.

[jtanworth]

Do you have a link to the HDMI converter you were using? I still have a 128k +2 which would love to try and test out again sometime.

[Zardoz84]

Same! I try a composite video to VGA (works like a charm with a Play Station 2), but can't sync with the Spectrum +2 video

[balabaster]

Are both devices from the UK? The reason I asked is because I moved from the UK to Canada before HDMI became a thing and we had to deal with PAL and NTSC signals - my DVD player wouldn't work in Canada until I got a PAL to NTSC converter to connect it to the TV.

Is your Play Station 2 PAL (UK) or NTSC (American)? The Spectrum +2 is (I would assume) PAL.

I'm reaching, but if your PS2 is American and thus already NTSC and works, then your converter may be expecting an NTSC input. If you convert the PAL to NTSC before feeding it into the HDMI converter, it should in theory work.

[Zardoz84]

Everything PAL. I live on Spain, and got both on Spain.

Think that analogue signals have a lot of tolerance. The Spectrum PAL signal was very far from followiing 100% the PAL standard.

[balabaster]

Back then, a lot of the TVs had frequency and vertical and horizontal hold dials. There was a fair amount of leeway in tuning the device to display the picture consistently.

I would assume nothing needed to be exact because you could fine tune on the fly. I remember when you tuned our 3 TV stations in the UK by dialing the frequency dial to the correct radio frequency. It's been a long time that I don't recall the radio frequencies by perhaps I recall ITV being 68 MHz(?)

[benj111]

"perhaps I recall ITV being 68 MHz" that would vary from transmitter to transmitter, or else they would clash.

[MagerValp]

I don’t know what the parent uses, but for RGB you want an OSSC, and for Composite or S-Video you want a RetroTINK 2x.