Sinclair ZX Spectrum: A Visual Compendium Review

The early 1980s were a unique time for computers and gaming and the ZX Spectrum had a massive hand in forming the fledgeling industry in its early years, at least in the UK and Europe. Bitmap Books’ Sinclair ZX Spectrum: A Visual Compendium takes us back to those exciting days of colour clash in a celebration of the little black box.

The book takes you on a historical jaunt through the iconic systems life with full-page screenshots for each game covered along with a brief paragraph or two from a variety of people ranging from industry veterans, developers and artists who worked on or are connected to the game in some way.

It gives you insight into the significance and importance of a variety of titles ranging from Sandy White’s isometric marvel, Ant Attack, through to Rare’s heritage with Ultimate Play The Game’s Jet Pac and Sabre Wulf. Each and every game in the book has a story to tell and there were a number of games I hadn’t thought about in years that came flooding back to me as soon as I saw their art.

The bold, chunky art that the Spectrum is known for looks fantastic when blown up to fill the page and the garish colours help the whole thing pop, which makes for an inviting and engaging coffee table book. For those with nostalgia for the black box with rubber keys it’s a lovely trip down memory lane, but it’s also quite informative with sections devoted to Durell, Beyond and Vortex, to name a few. It even finds room to briefly touch on the Russian scene, that kept the humble “Speccy” alive well into the 90s.

The book is clearly made with love and there is a reverence to the machine and the games that graced it that shines from every page. The Spectrum is an important cornerstone in the industry, a machine that despite all odds became a gaming heavyweight, especially in Europe. This compendium manages to visually condense that into a lovely volume that anyone can pick up and get enjoyment from.

Bitmap Books have created a quality book that feels premium, looks wonderful and filled my old, haggard body with nostalgia for my younger years where I’d spend hours typing in code listings from magazines and looking forward to spending my pocket money on the next Dizzy game.

If you have an interest in the Spectrum at all or just want an interesting, enticing coffee table book, you can do a lot worse than the Sinclair ZX Spectrum: A Visual Compendium. Oh, it also has Spectrum coloured fabric bookmarks too, so there is that in its favour!