>> (Now I'm curious to know what the original retail price was...)
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX_Spectrum
>
> Lists some original retail price.  Don't thank me, thank Google. ;)

Hmm. So, at £99, this recreation is *almost* the same price as the 
original, 30+ years later. Nice.

>> Isn't that what the Raspberry Pi was supposed to do?
>
> Depends a lot on what you want to teach.

I guess the Pi by itself doesn't do a lot; it's great for building crazy 
robots, if *electronics* is what you're trying to teach. But you need 
more components to make a usable computer out of it. And then there's so 
many other bits plugged in, you lose sight of the fact that the little 
circuit board in the middle is the part that's actually "doing" stuff.

>> Don't get me wrong, I think it's *way* easier to learn system-level
>> programming on obsolete hardware. (It's how *I* did it!) But I doubt
>> many kids these days would get out of bed to see some blocky 8-bit
>> graphics.
>
> Also depends on what you want to teach.

When I was a kid, 8-bit graphics were all you could ask for. I can 
actually recall spending *multiple hours* playing Space Invaders. I 
can't imagine why; today it seems like the most boring game imaginable! 
It wouldn't hold my attention for ten seconds. And that's kinda my 
point; kids these days have smartphones in their pockets. Why would they 
bother with this obsolete thing? (Unless you manage to convince them 
that its arcane-ness makes it "special" rather than just dumb.)

>> Which is why they invented the Pi, with it's full-HD video and audio
>> capabilities and 3D rendering support... Which thus makes it impossible
>> to do system-level programming, kinda negating the point.
>
> You certainly can do system-level programming on the RPi.  How do you
> think you get a kernel developed to run on it? ;)

You're aware that to this day, the OS includes a closed-source binary 
blob that only people who sign an NDA are allowed to look inside, right? 
Literally, you cannot operate the GPU without signing an NDA or using 
closed-source code. And since this is a mobile phone SoC, the GPU 
controls the CPU, not the other way around...

But sure, once you've started the CPU, you can do system-level 
programming. Good luck getting anything interesting done; it's not like 
you can just poke 53280 to change the overscan colour... ;-)

>> And besides, for £0 you can probably just *download* a Spectrum emulator
>> onto your PC or indeed phone or tablet... You don't actually need a
>> physical box.
>
> Not the same, and as I said, it depends on what you want to teach.

I will admit, particularly for a younger audience, there's a certain 
something to having it be a hardware box.

Post a reply to this message