ZX Spectrum - my first computer

Acquaintance

My first computer appeared more than ten years ago. He was brought by the godfather from Moscow. By the time I was in elementary school. Strictly speaking, this device even, perhaps, could not be called a computer, rather a prefix. Because, in my understanding, the computer had to consist of a screen, a system unit and a keyboard. Here was one keyboard, a bunch of wires and a blue power supply with a big white button on the side.





However, it did not bother me. Of course, the most worried about connecting the keyboard to the display. We did not have a monitor at home, but there were two televisions of the Foton brand. One black and white, the other - color. It never occurred to me that they could be combined, and get a full-fledged computer. However, it was possible.

A friend of my dad showed a diagram of how you can connect a keyboard to a TV - this is how a switch-lever appeared between the computer mode and the TV mode itself on the TV. Communication with the TV has been established. There were no problems with the power supply. It remains only to attach the keyboard to the recorder "Spring". Information was on a magnetic tape. On the tape were recorded or programs, or games. I inserted a cassette, entered the necessary command on the keyboard, and - let's go. The boot process was long, tedious and unnecessarily noisy. While the program or game was loading, unusual sounds were heard from the speakers of the tape recorder. In addition, sometimes at some stage in the boot process on the TV screen could appear some image. It took 30 minutes or more to download one program. The equipment simply tested the patience of its user. However, the desire to play chess with a computer, to “run on the floors” behind the monsters or build an unusual construction from cubes was unlimited. I had to wait. Well, finally, booted! Patience reward received.
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And if several cassettes were recorded on one cassette, but I want to download not the first one in the playlist, but, say, the fifth, I had to rewind the cassette, and look for the game, taking into account the sound of the noise from the speakers. Now it is even difficult to imagine that this was in fact: very tiring and not very exciting. The desire to communicate with the “smart” technique won.

In addition to cassettes with games, I also had tapes with various programs: “Artist”, “Layout”.
The same textbook served as the book of the publishing house "Peter" "System software for the ZX Spectrum (№ 1)", edited by N. Rodionov.

Basic is my first programming language

Besides the fact that this device was a wonderful toy, it also turned out to be a “programming” environment. The last one is simple, no frills: on a white background in the standby mode, a cursor in the form of a square with a white letter “K” in the middle flashes. Then this word meant nothing to me. The rule of all children's curiosity. Therefore, despite the fact that I did not understand what operators, arrays and functions are, I decided to try. The source of inspiration was the blue folder with “hack”, (as they said then), the text of the translation of the book by Stephen Vickers edited by Robin Bredvir “ZX Spectrum Programming in the language of“ Basic ”” 1989 edition.



It was for her that he began to figure out what a particular operator means, this or that number or letter. Some functions of the operators did not understand, for example, those that work with cycles, but well studied the operators working with graphics and sound. It is pleasant to remember how, not limited to any stereotypes and not too burdened with knowledge, in his 7-8 years, he boldly “programmed”, experimented: he changed the program code, invented something of his own, giving free rein to imagination and intuition. So, we can say that my first “Hello World!” Was written in “Basic” language.

Conclusion

Now I am studying at university, studying "C". On the table is a modern computer. And I hope there will be many of them. But the "children", "almost real" will remain the first forever. It's nice that my beloved ZX Spectrum is also beneficial today: the keyboard has turned into a simulator for the blind ten-finger method.