ZX Spectrum was released by Sinclair Research in 1982 in the United Kingdom. It was one of the first portable, home computers in the country and gained massive popularity. It was sold in 5 million copies. The name Spectrum was chosen due to the fact this unit offered colored display, while the previous version was known for black and white capabilities. The first version had 16KB of RAM memory. You were able to purchase an additional module and expand the memory to 32KB. After it, there were 8 additional versions with the latest one being the most powerful. It had 128KB of RAM memory and a floppy disk support. Almost all versions had 3.5MHz CPU which was superior back in a day.
The console had several main rivals. The biggest one was Commodore 64 which was more popular in the United States. The second biggest rival was Dragon 32. ZX Spectrum is probably responsible for the computer popularity we have today. It showed people what is possible and what will be possible in the future. Even today, this iconic console is well-known for rubber keyboard which was smaller than rivals had and the rainbow motif. All versions were available in black color only. Using the keyboard only you can tell a difference between Issue 1, the first version and later models. Issue 1 has bright green keys, while newer models have gray buttons.
Today you can play the classic games which were developed for this console using emulators. The best ones are RetroArch, ZX Spectrum 4, Fuse and ZX 32. They work with operating systems such as Windows, Mac, and Android. All you need to do is load the ZX Spectrum ROMs in one of these emulators and the game will pop up.
We have compiled a massive library containing all the iconic games for the original console. Now you can play games such as Elite, Cookie and Daley Thompson's Decathlon among the other ZX Spectrum games.