As it was in Leningrad - 2011. Real ZX Spectrum

 2011. Real ZX Spectrum

I'm tired of carrying a hefty coffin to festivals called
Pentagon 1024 SL. He was big and heavy. I wanted something
small and sleek, and I decided to buy a real branded ZX
Spectrum 128K. I've been looking at prices for a while now.
English ebay and took part in auctions a couple of times. First
I lost the auction, and I decided to win the second one no matter what
became.

The lot at the second auction included the computer itself in working condition.
condition, original power supply, wires and seven cassettes with games
(license). I asked the seller if he could send it all
to Russia by registered mail? The seller replied,
which of course it can and it will cost me £45
sterling with tracking of parcels worldwide or 36 pounds with
UK tracking only. He asked if I
win the auction, then do not pay it immediately, but remind him and
he will send me a receipt with the required shipping amount.

The previous auction ended at around £90 and I
I decided to make such a bid to win the auction for sure. I
bet £160 and won the lot with the final bid on August 14
at 117 lbs. I wrote to the seller, as he asked, and reminded about
myself, I chose the most expensive delivery. And for delivery on the same day
I bought a SCART RGB cable to connect the Spectrum toTV.
The cable cost me £14 including costs
delivery. The next day I received an email receipt and
In the morning I paid for the won lot and delivery.

In the evening I received a letter from the seller in which he writes that
I was in a hurry with the chosen delivery method. There were some
problems, and he was forced to look for another company. This time
wants to send it to me by courier for 59.90. But the difference in cost
promises to pay for delivery out of his own pocket. I don't mind.

A few hours later I receive a letter from him again. Seller
writes that he found another company and cheaper delivery.
He doesn’t indicate the cost, but I think it’s lower than even
original. The next day the seller sent the parcel via
DHL and gave me the tracking number for the parcel. And on August 17 I
received a message from him that Russian customs
the parcel was delayed. Allegedly this type of departure is not acceptable
forward to an individual. The seller asks me
what should he do now? Then he asks if I can point out
address of a legal entity and accept the parcel in this way? I
I tell him that nothing will work out. The parcel is wrapped
back to DHL.

The seller is again looking for a delivery method. He writes to me that many
they simply refuse to deal with shipment to Russia for the reason
customs restrictions. He finds another company, and a new one
shipping cost is 42.24pounds sterling. Seller
asks to pay half the shipping cost. I haven't yet
I'm in a hurry to send money. I don't even understand why he's looking for
some kind of wrong delivery methods, if their native Royal Mail with
Easily sends tracked mail to Russia.
Which is what I tell him. In response he writes to me that Royal Mail
Signed-For, postage with tracking, working
UK only and once the parcel reaches
territory of Russia, so the tracking function stops working, and I
I asked him for tracking. I answer him that it is complete
It’s nonsense that I’ve already received fifty parcels from the UK
in exactly this way and they are all perfectly tracked on the site
Russian Post.

The next day the seller writes that he will send me the lot in two
parcels using my method as soon as DHL returns the package to him.
It is supposedly stuck at customs for now. And with two parcels because
In terms of weight, everything didn’t fit in one. There is a weight limit of 2
kg, and then it becomes much more expensive.

On August 26, the seller writes to me again that he will receive his today
parcel from DHL. On September 20th I received one of two parts. B
The box arrived with a power supply, wires and cassettes. Spectrum itself
stayed another three days. When I had a complete set,
The RGB cable was also already in stock and I was able to test it right away
computer. The games were glitchy. Some lines were running across the screen. B
three games out of fouruploaded by me. I was upset. Disassembled
Spectrum and saw ULA AMSTRAD on the board instead of FERRANTI.

I did some research on the Internet - how can this be? After all, this model
was the last one released by Sinclair Research Ltd, and there is no way to get there
they couldn’t install Amstrad microcircuits. Internet on this
was practically silent about the matter. There were a couple of posts on the forums. On
one assumed that the board had been repaired and stated that
was at hand. At the second forum it was suggested that this is the most
the last batch of boards that Amstrad has already laid its paws on.
But there are no traces of soldering, after a possible replacement of the microcircuit.
discovered. And find this “snow” on the Internet, what it looks like
different models, I was not able to. This is not an emulator
emulated. I started looking for a replacement board and in March 2013
won the board at auction. A new board with Ferranti cost me
£39 including delivery. Around the same time I bought
in Poland DivIDE 2K11. Such a device for emulating a tape recorder with
Built-in support for CompactFlash cards. True, it turned out that
by changing the firmware you can also emulate a disk drive, but
somewhat simplified. But even in this version, I loaded
all the games and demos I've tested. After another half a year I
purchased K-Mouse Turbo Interface. It was already possible to use this device
connect joystick and mouse.

Having played enough with the Spectrum, I sold it in 2015
friend Mednonogov, fora very large sum of money. Together with
cassettes and with all the devices that I managed to buy by
that moment, including a pair of joysticks. I'm okay with this
didn't work.

The board turned out to be completely working, and I immediately installed it in
body instead of the old one. And I later sold the old board.