Sinclair ZX Spectrum: A Visual Compendium by Clive Sinclair

by Sam Dyer

Invented by Sir Clive Sinclair, the successor to the ZX80 and ZX81 home computers would come to define an age of video gaming, with a range of games as quirky and eccentric as the computer that inspired them.

Re-live the glory days of the Spectrum with this collection of over 100 classic games. Starting with early titles such as The Hobbit, Hungry Horace and Psion’s Flight Simulation, we trace the lineage of the Spectrum through iconic titles including Manic Miner, Harrier Attack, Elite, Jetpac, Deus Ex Machina, The Lords of Midnight, Knight Lore and Head Over Heels.

Each game is represented by a selected screenshot or loading page, printed full-bleed on high-quality paper and, for the first time in a Visual Compendium, using special fluorescent inks to capture the vibrant look of ZX Spectrum palette.

Accompanying the iconic imagery is a wealth of anecdotes and reminiscences from the artists and developers that made the games, with quotes from the Stamper Brothers, Dave Perry, Bo Jangeborg, the Oliver Twins, Matthew Smith, Dawn Drake, Andrew Hewson and many more. The book also features interviews with key artists and profiles of the major games publishers, plus a look at the Russian and Eastern Bloc clone market and homebrew scene, which still produces new ZX Spectrum games to this day!

At 303 pages long, Sinclair ZX Spectrum: a visual compendium comes in both softback and hardback editions, with a spot-varnished dust cover, and is also available in a limited edition polystyrene box, modeled on that in which the original computer was packaged. So if you cut your gaming teeth on this quintessentially British computer, grab a copy of the visual compendium and take a glorious, garish, character-clashing step back in time.

Genres: Nonfiction, Gaming

Paperback

Published January 1, 1788

About the author

Sam Dyer is a Graphic Designer / author, based in Bath, UK.

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the early 80ies Sir Clive Sinclair created the legendary ZX Spectrum. A bare processor with 48K of memory it became the symbol of the 8bit era together with the Commodore 64 and the Amstrad CPC. Notoriously bad to use colour with due to its colour clash issues the Spectrum became the symbol of artistic ingenuity through limitations.
As it was mentioned in the book pixel art was not a style back then but an attempt to create the absolutely most realistic graphics with the limited means available.

[Binni Erlingsson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this would be a book collecting Spectrum art but it was far more actually. Detailed interviews, features and interesting comments, along with the great art. It’s a hefty, meaty book that takes multiple hours to go through.

I for one loved every minute with it.

Note thay my softcover version fell apart while reading, but I want to celebrate great work like this so I’m planning to pick up the hardcover at some point. Will also check out more books in the series.

[Natxo Cruz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Competent i enèsim resum/revisió històrica d'una de les màquines icòniques dels 80 que dibuixa un somriure entre aquells que en vam tenir una. Molt ben editat i traduït i apte tant per a qui vol evocar records del passat i per a qui vol aprofundir una mica més en la temàtica.