A Sinclair Spectrum for 2020

[Robert]

Sort of

The new Raspberry Pi 400 all in one.
The bundled book looks superb as it covers the basics of programming, just like with old Sinclair.
Nice Christmas gift for a kid at <£100.

 

[Amber Audio]

Takes me back to the 80’s and my Vic 20. Defo make a good Xmas present for a young un.

 

[JezmondTutu]

Hmm - I recall Manic Miner and Hungry Horace but not any programming!

 

[gintonic]

The new Raspberry Pi 400 all in one.

and here

https://pinkfishmedia.net/forum/threads/raspberry-pi400.247704/#post-4159976

 

[Fatmarley]

Hmm - I recall Manic Miner and Hungry Horace but not any programming!

I made a few games on my 48k speccy, but the more complicated they got, the slower they ran. A mate at school said it was because I needed to convert them to machine code. He gave me a bootleg copy of some software that was supposed to convert basic into machine code, but I didn't try it. Can't remember why but was probably because of the shiny, new Commodore 64 I got for Christmas.

 

[Amber Audio]

Freebie C64 Emulator, you can brush up on your 6502 machine code or wipe out some Mutant Camels. I used to play Uridium for ages.

There's an Amiga one also.
https://www.amigaforever.com/

https://www.c64forever.com/

​

 

[Rcook]

I made a few games on my 48k speccy, but the more complicated they got, the slower they ran. A mate at school said it was because I needed to convert them to machine code. He gave me a bootleg copy of some software that was supposed to convert basic into machine code, but I didn't try it. Can't remember why but was probably because of the shiny, new Commodore 64 I got for Christmas.

The piece of software was a compiler. The technical explanation is that games written in BASIC needed to be converted to machine code line by line, so was slower. A compiler converted the whole lot in one go. Compiled code was (is?) never as good as writing in pure assembly language. I learned to program on a Spectrum back in the day. Set me up for a career in computers.

As to a 'Spectrum for 2020', look up the "ZX Spectrum Next", which really is one.

 

[RJohan]

Rich, spoiled kids you where, with Spectrums and C64's

I had a lowly ZX81 while at uni. Later had a projekt converting it to a dark room computer. Came to the stage where it turned on and of the lamp and reminded one when it was time to take the pics out of the different bath's. Then I got bored of it. Most was in machine code, which isn't hard but a bit cumbersome.

 

[gintonic]

A compiler converted the whole lot in one go. Compiled code was (is?) never as good as writing in pure assembly language

sorry that isn't quite right. A compiler is always going to be better than using the built in interpreter.

But it isnt always the case that assembly language is better than the executable image created by the compiler.
If you write in assembly language then it still needs an assembler to convert to something executable. There might be gains made writing directly in machine code (only for the truly insane).

I've been writing compilers, assemblers, machine code and even microcode for targeting specific architectural features for 30 years, and speed of the executable image is often determined at how good your compiler is a targeting the specific architectural features on hhr processor.