The Rubber Keyed Wonder
There was a documentary-style film that was released in 2024 that explored the Sinclair ZX Spectrum computer in detail. It was primarily a compilation of interviews from people who experienced the ZX Spectrum when it was first released and people who were involved in programming and developing games. The film goes into the details of how and why the Spectrum was created, it’s impact on people and society and also looks at the different versions from it’s ancestor computers to the iterations that followed it. There is a lot of interviews and conversations with well known industry veterans including programmers of hit Spectrum computer games.
It goes back to the creation of Sinclair by the genius inventor Sir Clive Sinclair and chronicles the events that lead to the creation of the ZX Spectrum. The film documents conversation with the creator of the Z80 CPU, the designers of the actual computer and the industry’s greatest artists, programmers and musicians. There are also stories and interviews from fans who talk about what it was like to own a ZX Spectrum when it came out during the 1980’s. The most popular and best games of the time are discussed as well as the various peripherals and accessories that were available for the computer at the time it was sold on store shelves. So it’s basically nearly two and a half hours of nothing but ZX Spectrum exploration and discovery. It’s a great time spent for anyone who has owned or experienced an 8 bit retro computer during the 1980’s and early 1990’s. I never owned an 8-bit computer during their commercial era though I had a couple friends who owned a Commodore 64 and another one who owned a BBC Micro so I did get to experience micro-computers at the time and have some nostalgia for them.
ZX Spectrum Expansion Pack
The original production, available as a blu-ray 2 disc special edition from the Gracious Films website comes with the film plus a second blu-ray disc with a few hours of extra interviews about the making of specific games such as Jet Set Willy and The Great Escape. In total it adds up to 6 hours of retro gaming footage in full HD for $61 (AUD). After extensive time editing the footage they had left over from the film they had found that they still had hours more of extra footage that could be published. The creator’s of the film asked the community if they would like to see this extra footage and they had received overwhelmingly positive feedback indicating that people were wanting this extra footage to be published. So they had decided to start a new kickstarter campaign to get the extra footage published so they could release it to the wider, public retro gaming community.
The original production was funded by a kickstarter in the first place and now they have created another one to get all the footage they acquired from the original project fully published. The new kickstarter campaign is for another film that is a sequel or companion film to the original from the same batch of footage but was not seen. It is an additional 6 hours of footage so that together with the special edition of the original film you can access 12 hours of retro computer footage exclusively about the ZX Spectrum. That is a lot of footage to binge if one day you feel like doing nothing except immersing yourself in the culture of 1980’s micro-computers. The ZX Spectrum Expansion Pack film has more footage that was in the first film but on different games including 3D Monster Maze, Trashman, Cabal, Bandersnatch and many more. If you are interested in obtaining the ZX Spectrum Expansion Pack you can pledge on the kickstarter page and get a physical version of the film for £30. Check out the kickstarter page which you can find just below in the “Relevant Links” section.
Relevant Links
- ZX Spectrum Expansion Pack Kickstarter Campaign [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/graciousfilms/the-rubber-keyed-wonder-zx-spectrum-expansion-pack] Pledge for various rewards including a physical version of the film.
- The Rubber Keyed Wonder – Official Purchase Page [https://www.graciousfilms.com/products/the-rubber-keyed-wonder] Buy the 2 disc special edition of the film on blu-ray from the publisher Gracious Films.
