United Kingdom
Where it all began
Sinclair Research, Clive Sinclair's company, launched the ZX Spectrum in 1982: small, cheap and fitted with those famous rubber keys. In Britain it became the computer of a whole generation and the workshop of the bedroom coders, teenagers writing games in their bedrooms. That scene gave us Ultimate Play the Game and Matthew Smith, the creator of Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy.
Crash and Your Sinclair magazines told you what was worth buying, budget labels like Mastertronic sold games for pocket money, and the playground never stopped arguing Spectrum versus Commodore 64. Here in the US it arrived through Timex as the Timex Sinclair 2068 and barely made a dent.
Spain
The golden age of Spanish software
In Spain the Spectrum ruled the living room, and around it grew what Spaniards call the golden age of Spanish software. Dinamic, Topo, Opera Soft and Made in Spain, later Zigurat, released games made by kids and college students at home or in tiny offices, and many of them ended up selling all over Europe.
Every month MicroHobby hit the newsstands with reviews, maps and infinite-lives POKEs. Camelot Warriors, Abu Simbel Profanation and Livingstone Supongo all come from those years.
Brazil
Microdigital's TK computers
In Brazil the Spectrum took a different road. Those were the years of the country's computer market reserve, when bringing in foreign computers was nearly impossible, so the Brazilian company Microdigital built its own compatibles: the TK90X and, later, the TK95.
That's how many Brazilians discovered Spectrum games, hooked up to the family TV and loading tapes recorded on the household cassette player.
Italy
Newsstand tapes
In Italy the Spectrum was one of the best-loved home computers of the 80s. And there was a very Italian habit: at the newsstand, right next to the papers, you could buy magazines that came with a tape full of games.
Every month, a new tape to try at home. Plenty of Italian players remember those compilations as fondly as the games themselves.
France
Across the Channel
In France, other machines ruled: the Amstrad CPC and the Thomson computers, which reached schools through the Informatique pour tous plan. You rarely saw a Spectrum in a French home.
Across the Channel, though, it was everywhere, and plenty of its games later made the jump to other computers.
