Text can be displayed using 32×24 characters from the ZX Spectrum character set or from a set provided within an application,įrom a palette of 15 shades: seven colours at two levels of brightness each, plus black. Video output is through an RF modulator and was designed for use with contemporary television sets, for a simple colour graphic display. Hardware design was by Richard Altwasser of Sinclair Research, and the outward appearance was designed by Sinclair's industrial designer Rick Dickinson.
The original model has 16 KB (16×1024 bytes) of ROM and either 16 KB or 48 KB of RAM. The Spectrum is based on a Zilog Z80 A CPU running at 3.5 MHz (or NEC D780C-1 clone). The Spectrum was released as eight different models, ranging from the entry level with 16 KB RAM released in 1982 to the ZX Spectrum +3 with 128 KB RAM and The ZX Spectrum by Sinclair to highlight the machine's colour display, compared with the black and white display of its predecessor, the ZX81.
Referred to during development as the ZX81 Colour and ZX82, it was launched as Home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research.
Online emulated version of Bard's Tale 1: Tales of the Unknown was originally developed for the ZX Spectrum an 8-bit personal
