Long gone are the days of having a hardware break down in your computer's user guide
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Jim Blimey
@jimblimey@retrochat.online
mastodon 4.7.3Player of games, writer of code, drinker of beer, streamer of nonsense, an acquired taste. https://twitch.tv/jimblimey
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Joined March 12, 2023
Happy Birthday to the #ZXSpectrum! The machine that shaped my entire life.
A few days ago I acquired a Speccy + 48K. Keyboard was dead and I was feeling too rough to perform the membrane transplant from the Toastie.
Happy to report it is working perfectly in all its RF glory
Making a gopher request in Sinclair BASIC because why wouldn't you
Back to the #ZXSpectrum A to Z tonight, the Toastie is all ready for the letter H!
Live in 5
Been plugging away at the BBS space game when I can, done lots of backend stuff (cargo, items, mining) so thought I would reward myself with creating the first ANSI screen, not a bad start if I do say so myself.
If I were the hardware type I'd dismantle one of these and whip out the important temperature stuff and attach it to a Speccy's expansion port to show the info on a screen
Not feeling 100% tonight so I am going to leave it to my stream chat to decide what I play. Both of these bad boys are hooked up (well, their capture friendly siblings) and ready to go!
Live in 5!
Fancied knocking up my own client for my BBS game, grabbed the ZX graphics library from my unfinished space game, adjusted to 40 columns and kept it using the same font.
Will probably replace with a CGA font at some point, but looks good imho.
Really am very drained this week, but am still going to stream - nothing too troubling though!
Aztec Adventure on the Master System is a nice chilled game, so I think that is what I shall play.
8pm GMT over on twitch!
Sorry everyone, still feeling complete pap so taking a break from streaming this week.
Hopefully normal service will resume next weekend!
More Spectranet tinkers this evening, created a new version of the random pickler, this time using ZXDB instead of TOSEC and downloads all available compatible files (tap, sna, z80 - autoconverted to sna) skipping games without
So its going to be the +2B vs Dave! (Yeah I didnt realise it had got so dusty under its JPS beer towel)
Live in 5!
Lots of good progress with the BBS procedural space game, we now have ships and travels.. Lots of backend stuff involved in this game, its funny how I'm finding myself in all kinds of rabbit holes before having something to see on screen.
(Provided by SnapCTerm on the Spectrum today)
Lets keep it simple tonight with a good old #ZXSpectrum lucky dip.
8pm GMT on twitch!
@nina_kali_nina@tech.lgbt I got NetBSD up and running on a Pi 1B recently, it was surprisingly nippy
Just to prove ghosts DO exist!
Forgot to show off the latest bits and bobs to the BBS game on stream last night, but there has been lots of work done on mining, crafting and UI. Tonight I am swinging back round to ship systems including base types - its all good fun!
Our Mandy
What was supposed to be a bit of a silly stream turned into a look at educational software for the #ZXSpectrum, specifically something potentially used by social services (although cant confirm it was official)
Stream Archive [04/04/2026] Dave!
In honour of Storm Dave, I've delved into the ZXDB and extracted several #ZXSpectrum games with Dave in the title all aready for tonight's stream!
@haitchfive@oldbytes.space asm hurts my toes 😆
@haitchfive@oldbytes.space no just picked either broken games or rubbish games 😆
@kianryan@oldbytes.space I was very lucky to find it, it is as you might guess my pride and joy 😆
Random #ZXSpectrum games I've never played number 5677
Whodunnit
Released: 1984
Adventure Game: Graphic
@raymierussell@mastodon.scot how very dare you!
Tonight! Will this be the ultimate #ZXSpectrum type in stream?
Lets find out 8pm BST over on twitch
@ellyxir@humanwords.cc hello! Yeah I'm here too, tend to skip the shitposting here 😆
Last night's #ZXSpectrum shitshow is on tubes, seems H is for (nose) hair!
ZX Spectrum A to Z: H is for...
@haitchfive@oldbytes.space it wasnt kind to me last night 😆
Hear me out: my abandoned ZX Spectrum space game as a BBS game with far more than the original game, like an ANSI NMS.
Tonight we're seeing what was released for the #ZXSpectrum back in 1983.
8pm GMT over on twitch!
Last night's #ZXSpectrum lucky dip up on the tubes. New pickler needs some tweaking, but managed to get through many many games.
Stream Archive [18/04/2026] ZX Spectrum lucky dip!
@johninparis@zx81.social Getting your work displayed locally is pretty cool!
Have to admit this one occasion where I regret using a daft name over my real name.
My blood pressure was in their hands but chat came through for me and had me playing some very nice games!
Stream Archive [28/03/2026] ZX Spectrum and Master System requests stream
The random pickler often chucks up some utter crap, but every so often it gives me something incredibly unique. Last night it gave me a game called Europe Vision 2015, which turned out to be quite epic! (Headphone users beware)
Stream Snip [14/03/2026] Europe Vision 2015
@gazsp@mastodonapp.uk this looks very interesting!
Despite having no energy and feeling a bit bleh I quite enjoyed last night's stream.
Stream Archive [07/03/2026] Aztec Adventure, Wonderful Dizzy, Magicland Dizzy and more!
Replying to
@norwichamigagroup@mastodonapp.uk @glc@fosstodon.org @hayesmaker64@oldbytes.space @ponder@retrochat.online Yep, just looked at mine and they are the same
@gazsp@mastodonapp.uk a terminal emulator is key by key, sounds like I may be in for a whole world of pain trying to get it working 😆
Your printer port method is definitely much friendlier than trying to attach to an AY
Upon reflection I think I need to give 1983 a second go. This time using my tried and tested live random pickler.
@RavenLuni@furry.engineer that looks EPIC!
@johninparis@zx81.social hehe thats cool.
And yeah, me and a mate did send off a tape with a BASIC game back in the day but never heard anything back, so this definitely warmed the cockles
@gazsp@mastodonapp.uk I have a ZX Omni which has the ESP12 on AY, and the Spectranet for the other machines - one of which is a +2B. I'm nearly tempted to grab one of these as yet another thing to tinker with.
Am I right in thinking its less of a pain in the arse through the printer port than it is on the AY?
@gazsp@mastodonapp.uk I've been trying to get SnapCTerm working with the ESP12, and I've managed to get nihirash's asm wrapped up in C functions nicely but only works with Z88DK's newlib AND is currently blocking.. SnapCTerm requires classic lib with ANSI and of course a terminal cant run on blocking mode.
I LOVE the Spectranet but it is a bit of a faff (and its BASIC extensions can be an issue for some games)