I had been thinking about it for a while and eventually I had bought it – the genuine Sinclair ZX Spectrum, the 48KB model, for fifty quid on Ebay. I had it years ago, but it was a clone called “Leningrad” built on Russian components.

(photo from Wikipedia)

Now it is genuine!

Open it up! It didn’t risk to detach the keyboard, so I had to photograph from two angles.

The label “1982 ISSUE TWO” is visible at the bottom left.

There are a few lovely “extra” parts stuck on some chips. Maybe it was a result of the “last minute tuning” or maybe the previous owner did it.

The seller also gave a bunch of tapes. I haven’t seen 15 minutes cassettes before.

Extras.

So lovely books.

People had guts to put proper illustrations in manuals at that time.

I also bought a very old TV at car boot sale for a pound.

Unfortunately, this machine didn’t boot up. It beeped and printed rubbish on the screen. The seller argued for a while saying something about video synchronization problems but after the video (below) agreed to refund. Reluctantly I had to send it all back.