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ZX Spectrum (view source)

Revision as of 10:37, 9 February 2024

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Ports=
Connectors were kept to a minimum to control costs and speed up the initial launch. Other ports became available via add-ons.
* 3.5mm "Mic" and "Ear" jacks (actually line-out and line-in respectively, as they were meant to be plugged in to the same-named ports on a cassette recorder).
* 9V DC in.
* TV out (coaxial providing an analogue UHF signal).
* Edge Connector/expansion bus - literally the edge of the motherboard, sporting a double row of printed tabs. CanExposes beenough duplicatedfunctionality butto not"do hot-pluggedalmost anything with a Spectrum that you can with a Z80"<ref>according to the original Spectrum BASIC manual</ref>.
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=== Add-ons ===
Sinclair released several add-ons to extend the Spectrum's functionality, and numerous other companies got in on the action. The ZX printer, already released for use with the ZX81, wascould alsoplug Spectrumstraight compatibleinto the back, and the burgeoning games market allowed several competing joystick adaptors to thrive, at least until Amstrad starting building joystick ports into later Spectra.
 
All Spectrum add-ons wereare plugged in to the "edge connector" or "expansion bus" which, according to the manual, exposed enough functionality to do "almost anything with a Spectrum that you can do with a Z80". Some devices includedinclude a duplicated edge connector for daisy-chaining, and for the rest, "expansion doublers" could be bought.
 
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* Romantic Robot's "Multiface". Allowed any running program to be frozen and inspected, using an internal buffer memory to run user code. Magazines frequently published "Multiface cheats", which were mostly memory addresses to be zeroed to get infinite lives in various games.
==== Joystick interfaces ====
Some of the earlier joystick interfaces included ROM cartridge slots, but the cartridges never caught on: only ten commercial games were everofficially released this way<ref>[http://www.fruitcake.plus.com/Sinclair/Interface2/Cartridges/Interface2_RC_Cartridges.htm List here.]</ref> and they were discontinued within months. Later interfaces sometimes shipped with empty spaces on their circuit boards for the cartridge slot.
* ZX Interface 2 - The official one, sporting two joystick ports and the original ROM cartridge connector. The joystick part was built in to the Spectrum +2. Joystick movements simulate number key presses (1-5 for the left stick, 6-0 for the right) to make life easier for game developers.
* Kempston - the most popular, launched before the Interface 2.
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* Protek.
* Fuller.
* RAM Turbo - one of several attempts to combine multiple joystick protocols in one unit. At least two of the protocols worked, and it had a reset button to- makea rebootsfeature easierthat forwas ownersmissing offrom ruberrubber-key Spectrums.
 
==== Printers ====
* ZX Printer - Sinclair's spark-gap printer, printing on 100mm-wide rolls of aluminium-coated paper.
* At least one electrically-compatible clone of the ZX printer was spotted in the wild, printing on larger, more ordinary-looking thermal paper.
* Other printers could be attached via the Interface 1.
==== Others ====
* ZX Interface 1 - released by Sinclair shortly after the first Spectrum. Provides an [[w:RS-232|RS232]] port and connectors for Microdrives<ref>A midget data tape produced by Sinclair</ref> and a proprietary network.
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