ZX Spectrum v Raspberry Pi; The view of an 80's kid

At the risk of showing my age, my very first personal computer was the Sinclair ZX81, in the early 1980’s, back in the last century! I can still remember my excitement at getting my hands on this new electronic gadget and being able to play some basic games, and to create some really simple programs such as printing my name over and over again on the my small 12” portable black and white TV screen. The meagre 1K memory of the ZX81 computer plus a 16K expansion pack was enough capacity for the types of BASIC programs I wanted to write (at least for a while). Then my dreams came true and I eventually got my beloved ZX Spectrum which was light years ahead of the ZX81 with its massive 48K memory and its sound and colour capabilities. I have fond memories of going round to various friends’ houses and playing Spectrum games such as Jet Set Willy, Sabre Wulf and Ant Attack. I also enjoyed challenging my younger brother to playing Sensible Soccer, he usually beat me by the way. These games have since been lodged in the annals of time but some are still available to enthusiasts now wanting to re-create their youth by playing them on emulators. As well as playing games, the ZX Spectrum helped me to learn how to program and create my first computer programs. I think I learnt more about programming by experimentation on my ZX Spectrum than I did in the Computer Studies lesson in school. I wrote my programs in BASIC and quickly learnt how to create software routines to produce a basic synthesiser and an etch a sketch type drawing program, to name a few. I look back on those early years fondly and although I loved playing games I also learnt a lot about programming. This in turn helped me to learn other computer languages and allowed me to program other devices such as microcontrollers (see my blog on DesignSpark – How to build a Arduino Micro LCD Game Console)

So, fast forward to 2016 and I sit here wondering what the school children of today think about computing. More recently the closest that they got to programming was playing a games console, such as a PlayStation or Xbox, which is great fun, but it doesn’t allow you to experiment with the console to create computer programs or games. Fortunately, over the last couple of years computer programming has begun a new renaissance, and the opportunities for young people to learn about computing has grown with a plethora of computer and microcontroller platforms becoming available. There is now the BBC micro:bit which is being given away free to school children to help them to learn how to start programming. Also, what about the massively popular Raspberry Pi? Back in the 1980’s a computer probably cost a couple of weeks’ wages, in comparison now you can buy this much more powerful computer on a single printed circuit board for less than £35 (plus the cost of the additional peripherals such as a keyboard and memory card).

Take a look at a small comparison of the specifications of the Raspberry Pi 3 and the ZX Spectrum 48K to see how much has changed in the last 34 years -

My advice to the upcoming programmers would be to still enjoy playing computer games and the advances that have made from Jet Set Willy, but remember that much enjoyment can be had from creating your own software, whether it be on a Spectrum or a Raspberry Pi. Start by creating some simple programs, and you will quickly find that you start to learn some techniques that will help you to create some really complex software routines. This could then provide you with the inspiration to go on and create your own popular computer games or software applications in the future.