tezza
Veteran Member
A 48K Spectrum arrived today! That's 3 computers in the space of 5 days. Luckily I have a few day's leave to play with these things.
The Spectrum (and it's little brother the ZX81) must have the WORST keyboard interfaces I've ever seen. Apart from the rubber keys (quite forgivable given the original cost), each button does 3-4 different things. It's QWERTY but important keys like the arrow keys are not clustered well (and require you hold down another key) and the SPACE key is tiny!! Some of the key labels are written in a dark red, so you can hardly see them!
Yuck!!
Ok, I'm being a little unfair. The units were cheap, and became very popular gaming machines in the UK so there must be some redeeming features. But did keyboard input really have to be designed like that?? Ok, once you get used to it I guess but "standard" it was not!
I'm sure once I get some good games for this unit, I'll feel more positive towards it. In it's raw state though, it certainly appears eccentric.
But then, that's what we love about these old computers, right?
The Spectrum (and it's little brother the ZX81) must have the WORST keyboard interfaces I've ever seen. Apart from the rubber keys (quite forgivable given the original cost), each button does 3-4 different things. It's QWERTY but important keys like the arrow keys are not clustered well (and require you hold down another key) and the SPACE key is tiny!! Some of the key labels are written in a dark red, so you can hardly see them!
Yuck!!
Ok, I'm being a little unfair. The units were cheap, and became very popular gaming machines in the UK so there must be some redeeming features. But did keyboard input really have to be designed like that?? Ok, once you get used to it I guess but "standard" it was not!
I'm sure once I get some good games for this unit, I'll feel more positive towards it. In it's raw state though, it certainly appears eccentric.
But then, that's what we love about these old computers, right?