If you are of a certain age and owned a ZX Spectrum  you will remember well the playground taunts from your Commodore owning friends regarding colour clash, its rubber keyboard and feeble sound effects. Likewise if you owned a Commodore 64 you will remember the playground taunts regarding washed out colours, peeks and pokes and the relative lack of software in your local WH Smith.

If you do, then you will be interested to read Robert John Shepherd’s article over at MyReviewer.com where he tries to settle the argument once and for all. Intelligently, unlike back in the early 80′s…

Were getting all hot under our geeky collars here at RGC at the prospect of a re-released ZX Spectrum for its 30th anniversary next year. Details are sketchy at the moment but we have it on good authority that the UK game developer Elite Systems, who recently re-released some of their original titles for Apple iOS are behind it. Elite were responsible for some of the biggest arcade ports to be released on Sinclairs home computer back in the 80′s.

As far as we are aware, it will consist of a bluetooth keyboard taking the form of a ZX Spectrum (rubber keys?) which will run some form of emulation and will be able to connect to Apples iPhone and iPad – aiming the machine not only at nostalgic geeks who used it the first time round, but also a new generation of gamers that mainly use their mobile devices for their gaming.

We hope that this will be all it could be and will play all Spectrum games ROMS and not just Elite’s own offerings but maybe we are just hoping for too much.

Watch this space for developments as we hear about them…

The software in question here is none other than the very rare Sinclair branded Macmillan Education titles; MacMan In The Treasure Caves, MacMans Magic Mirror and Soundabout.

As mentioned in our earlier post on this topic, Sinclair branded educational titles can fetch surprising sums in an auction and these were no exception, with Soundabout making a whopping £156.09, MacMan In The Treasure Caves making £129.45 and MacMans Magic Mirror making a very respectable £78.00.

Thanks to Guy Bearman for the info.

Click on the images to enlarge.

Sinclair era hardware:

ZX81 (Boxed complete)

ZX81 (in polys only, complete)

ZX Spectrum 16K (rubber keys, boxed complete)

ZX Spectrum 16K (rubber keys, boxed complete)

ZX Spectrum 48K (rubber keys, boxed complete)

ZX Spectrum 48K (rubber keys, boxed complete)

ZX Spectrum + (boxed complete)

ZX Spectrum + (boxed complete)

ZX Spectrum 128

Sinclair QL (Boxed complete)

Sinclair QL (Boxed complete)

Sinclair QL (loose with PSU & Scart Lead)

Sinclair Flat Screen Pocket TV (boxed complete)

Amstrad era hardware:

ZX Spectrum +2 (grey, Dixons 128K Computer Outfit)

ZX Spectrum +2 (black, + 2 Action Pack)

ZX Spectrum +3 (Boots Action Pack)

ZX Spectrum peripherals:

ZX Spectrum Expansion System (Microdrive, Interface 1 etc. boxed)

Rotronics Wafadrive (boxed complete)

Comcon Programmable Interface (boxed)

Romantic Robot Multiprint

Romantic Robot Multiface 3

Prism VTX5000 Modem (boxed)

DK Tronics Light Pen (boxed complete)

Ferguson MA20 RGB Interface (boxed)

Trojan Cadmaster Lightpen (boxed complete for 48K, 128K, +)

Trojan Cadmaster Lightpen (boxed complete for+2)

Cheetah Defender Lightgun (boxed complete)

Cheetah SpecDrum (boxed complete)

Currah MicroSpeech (boxed complete)

Currah MicroSlot (boxed)

Genius Mouse (boxed complete)

Sinclair ZX Interface 2 (with instr.)

Magnum Lightphaser (boxed, sealed)

DK Tronics Single Port Joystick Inteface (boxed)

Protek Switchable Joystick Interface (boxed)

Rare SPJ-1 Sinclair Analogue System Joystick (boxed)

Sinclair SJS-2 Joystick (boxed)

Spectravideo Quickshot II Joystick (boxed)

Spectravideo Quickshot I Joystick (boxed)

various loose Kempston Joystick Interfaces of various kinds, lots of misc. joystick interfaces…

ZX81 peripherals:

ZX 16K RAMPack (boxed complete)

ZX 16K RAMPack (boxed complete)

Memotech Memopak 16K (boxed)

Memotech Memopak 16K (boxed complete)

Memotech Memopak 64K (boxed complete)

Stonechip Electronics ZXPanda 16K (boxed complete)

JRS Software 16K RAM Pack

Various misc. loose RAM Packs, joystick interfaces

ZX Printer (boxed)

ZX Printer (boxed)

Alphacom 32 Line Printer (boxed, not pictured)

Other stuff:

2 x Spectrum Six Pack (software pack bundled with 48K rubber keys)

1 x Spectrum Six Pack (software pack bundled with later Spectrum+ 48K)

Micro Prolog (L 2/S) – by Logic Programming Associates
Which? Tax Calculator 1983-84 (4332) – by Consumer’s Association

Weathermaster (4325) – by Macmillan
MacMan’s Magic Mirror (4335) – by Macmillan

Disease Dodgers (4327) – by Macmillan
Planet Patrol (4326) – by Macmillan

Oil Strike (4324) – by Macmillan

Now of all the titles above the ones that I was particularly interested in were the Macmillan educational titles and the Which? Tax Calculator. Educational titles were not very popular for the ZX Spectrum, no matter how many times we told Mom and Dad that we needed the Speccy for our education, everyone really knew (including Mom and Dad I suspect) that we only wanted to play JetPac. So it follows that educational titles were not sold in huge numbers and are therefore rarer finds. Add to that, the above titles were not produced in any great numbers anyway and you end up with a set of very rare titles indeed.

It seems that on that night Sinclair collectors with much deeper pockets were ready to spring into action. I didn’t leave empty handed, I managed to bag Micro Prolog, the title I least wanted. The other titles all pushed the boundaries and exceeded the amounts I had ever seen paid for ZX Spectrum titles of this nature with the following winning bids:

As you can see with the one I won, I was way off the mark and as keen as I am, could never afford to (or want to) spend that much on one ZX Spectrum software title let alone six. It would end in divorce. Or castration in my sleep.

There are certain items that remain the holy grail of any collector’s wishlist and whilst these titles are definitely on my list, I won’t be spending this sort of money to acquire them. I’ll just wait until I see them in a box amongst some other stuff at a car boot sale going for a song. In my dreams…

Do you know of any auctions worth mentioning (past or present)? Let us know about them if you think they would be of interest – admin@retrogamescollector.com