Everyones favourite console modder Ben Heckendorn has started a new project, to make a compact portable ZX Spectrum. Totally stoked that he has decided to mod the iconic Speccy on The Ben Heck Show but must admit to cringing whenever he says Zee X Spectrum (way too many times). I love you Ben but it’s bloody Zed!
In this first part he explores the innards of the Speccy and considers the options available to him in his quest to make Sinclair’s diminutive rubber keyed wonder into a handheld. He goes on to re-program a replacement dual boot ROM chip and tests it on the Speccy motherboard along with replacing the video RAM.
I love the part where he says he doesn’t know whether to keep the keys, in his words “they are iconic, but also kind of squishy”. Looking forward to the next installment.
Watch the build: The Ben Heck Show, episode 141 (first aired July 11, 2014) — the teardown, the tape-load test, the dual-boot EEPROM and the video RAM upgrade this post describes.
Original post can be found at Retro Games Collector
Ben Heck’s Sinclair ZX Spectrum mod – part 1