List of ZX Spectrum clones

The following is a list of clones of Sinclair Research's ZX Spectrum home computer. This list includes both official clones (from Timex Corporation) and many unofficial clones, most of which are coming from Eastern Bloc countries.

Official clones
The Timex Sinclair 2068

The only official clones of the Spectrum were made by Timex. There were three models developed, only two of which were released:

Timex Sinclair 2068
Main article: Timex Sinclair 2068

A significantly more sophisticated machine than the original Spectrum. The most significant changes were the addition of a cartridge port, an AY-3-8912 sound chip and an improved ULA giving access to better graphics modes. The TS2068 was marketed in the United States, while very similar machines were marketed in Portugal and Poland as the Timex Computer 2068 (TC2068) and Unipolbrit Komputer 2086 (UK2086) respectively. A small amount of TC2068 were also sold in Poland.

Timex Computer 2048
Main article: Timex Computer 2048

A machine similar to the Spectrum 48K, but with the improved ULA from the TC2068 allowing access to the improved graphics modes. Marketed only in Portugal and Poland.

Timex Sinclair 2048
Main article: Timex Sinclair 2048

A never released variant of the TS2068 with 16 KB of RAM.

Inves Spectrum +
Inves Spectrum +

A clone of the ZX Spectrum+ developed by Investrónica in Spain in 1986, based on the work developed by Investrónica for the ZX Spectrum 128. Released just after Amstrad bought Sinclair Research Ltd, looked much like a normal 48+, but all the inner parts were redesigned. As the ROM was also modified, it has compatibility problems with some games (Bombjack, Commando, Top Gun, etc.).[1] On the rear there was a Kempston joystick connector.

Due to the fact that Invéstronica was the distributor of Sinclair's products in Spain, and because Amstrad already had its own exclusive distributor in Spain (Indescomp, later bought by Amstrad itself), in 1987 Amstrad sued Investrónica to stop the sale of the computer.[2] The court agreed with Amstrad, but the decision was not issued until 1991, when the computer was discontinued as the 8-bit computer market in Spain was dead in favor of 16-bit computers.

Decibells dB Spectrum+
Decibells dB Spectrum+

An official clone of the ZX Spectrum+ for the Indian market.

Unofficial clones

Didaktik
Main article: Didaktik

The Didaktik was a series of home computers produced in Skalica, former Czechoslovakia, now Slovakia. Later models compatible with ZX Spectrum were based on the U880 and Zilog Z80 processors. There were three main models of Didaktik ZX clones: First was Didaktik Gama (released in three variants 87, 88 and 89). Didaktik Gama has 80KB RAM comparing to original ZX spectrum. Gama-series was soon followed by the Didaktik M (first variant released at 1990 second variant release at 1991), M contain much better keyboard and Sinclair and Kempston Joystick ports. Last ZX spectrum compatible model was Didaktik Kompakt (1991) which has integrated 3,5 Floppy disk mechanic and sound chipAY-3–8920 and still 48KB of RAM.

Krišpín

A Czechoslovakian clone of ZX Spectrum, developed by František Kubiš at 1984, student of EF SVŠT (Electrotechnical Faculty of Slovak Technical University) Bratislava. ULA designed from discrete 74xx ICs, screen part or RAM was synchronized perfectly, without CPU blocking.

Mistrum

A Czech clone of the 48K ZX Spectrum. The ROM include Roman chars and Roman chars with Czech diacritic marks. As the Mistum was a hardware design they may look very different as each builder made his own case and keyboard. An article on how to build a Mistrum was published in the Czechoslovak amateur radio magazine Amatérské Radio nr 1/89. This magazine article has been translated into the English language: (archived) or via ftp.

Cobra

A ZX Spectrum clone built in Braşov, Romania.[3]

CIP-03

A Romanian ZX Spectrum clone made by Intreprinderea Electronica. It is called 'Calculator pentru Instruire Personală' which means 'computer for personal teaching'. The keyboard looks nice, but the key switches are very simple and therefore so is the 'feeling'. A nicely built PCB with 45 chips (most 74-family) inside. The ROM is original Sinclair, although instead of the Sinclair copyright message, it states 'BASIC S'. Only one set of 8× 1-bit 64 KB RAMs present. The power supply is the size and weight of a couple of bricks including a huge transformer unlike the now-standard switching power supply.

Felix HC series

A series of ZX Spectrum clones was manufactured in Romania from 1985 to 1994, by ICE Felix. The designation HC means Home Computer, and for the first three models in the series, the number is the year of first manufacture. Models in the series were: HC 85, HC 88, HC 90, HC 91, HC91+ (HC128), HC 2000, HC386.

The earliest version, HC 85, closely resembled the Spectrum, with a built-in BASIC interpreter, Z80A processor, 48 KB RAM, tape, and TV interfaces.[4] It was used in schools/universities and as a personal computer.

An optional Interface 1 extension was available for the HC 85, HC 90, and HC 91. It was functionally similar to the ZX Interface 1, but instead of Microdrives it supported single-density or double-density floppy disks.

The HC 90 had a redesigned circuit board supporting fewer, larger memory chips; it was functionally equivalent with the HC 85.

The HC 91 had a modified keyboard with 50 keys instead of 40. It had 64 KB RAM and extra circuitry which provided CP/M support, if the Interface 1 extension was also present.

The HC 2000 (manufactured from 1992–94) had a built-in 3.5-inch 720 KB disk, and 64 KB RAM, it could be used both as a Spectrum clone with added disk functionality (only 48 KB RAM available) or in CP/M mode, giving access to the full 64 KB memory. Essentially, it brought the HC 91, Interface 1, and floppy disk in a single case.

The last model to be made in the Z80 line was the HC91+. It was a ZX Spectrum 128K clone in a HC91 case and keyboard and had some compatibility problems. For the first time, the AY-8910 sound chip was offered as an add-on service and was soldered on the board by factory technicians. Demoscene demos had problems running multi-colour effects and displaying sound VU-meter like effects lacking some data from the AY chip probably.

JET

A Romanian clone. Developed by the Romanian TV factory.

TimS

TimS was developed around the university of Timișoara in Romania and the name TimS comes from TIMişoara and Spectrum. The models were extended in various ways and production continued into the early 1990s. The computer is fully compatible with ZX Spectrum, but comes with 64 KB RAM. At the back it has Source (ALIM), parallel and serial connectors, cassette player, monitor and TV connector, reset button. Later models have a joystick connection, 192 KB RAM and AY-3-8912 sound chip.

Czerweny CZ

The Czerweny CZ 2000, Czerweny CZ Spectrum and Czerweny CZ Spectrum Plus were Argentinian produced clones from 1982 (after the Falklands war) until an electric fire destroyed the factory in Paraná city in June 1986. [5]

Microdigital TK90X
Main article: TK90X

The TK90X was the first Brazilian ZX Spectrum clone made in 1985, by Microdigital Eletronica, a company located at São Paulo, Brazil, that manufactured some ZX81 clones before (TK82, TK82C, TK83 and TK85) and a ZX80 clone (TK80). The ROM were hacked to allow an UDG editor and accented characters (incompatibility issues are very rare or none). The keyboard membrane is more resistant than the original from ZX-Spectrum 48K (very similar to the actual PS2/USB keyboard we use now), and there is also a Sinclair-compatible joystick connector between expansion and mic/ear connectors.

Microdigital TK95
Main article: TK95

The TK95 microcomputer was the evolution of TK90X made in the 1980s, by Microdigital Eletronica, a company located at São Paulo, Brazil that manufactured some ZX81 clones before (TK82, TK82C, TK83 and TK85) and a ZX80 clone (TK80). The first version was launched in November 1986. This "evolution" was mostly "cosmetic" at the keyboard and whole ABS plastic case. The board is exactly the same as the TK90X and its 16 KB ROM has only minor differences.

ATM
Main article: ATM (computer)

ATM (ATM Turbo) was developed in Moscow, in 1991, by two firms, MicroArt and ATM. It has Z80 at 7 MHz, 1024 KB RAM, 128 KB ROM, AY-8910 (two ones in upgraded models), 8-bit DAC, 8-bit 8-channel ADC, RS-232, Centronics, Beta Disk Interface, IDE interface, AT/XT keyboard, text mode (80×25, 16 possible colours, 8×8 pattern), and three graphics modes.

Baltica

A Russian clone of the 48K ZX Spectrum. ULA replacement made with K556PT4 and K155PE3. CPU running at a higher frequency (4 MHz) which made it less compatible.

Best III

A ZX Spectrum clone made in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1993. The size of the system unit is 16.8 × 10 × 2½ inches. It even uses a Russian Z80 clone as CPU.

Bi Am ZX-Spectrum 48/64 and 128

A Russian clone of the ZX Spectrum. The name of the Bi Am ZX-Spectrum 48/64 suggests that it comes with 64 KB RAM. The size of the system unit is 10 × 8.4 × 2 inches. Made of metal. Has the sign Made in RF (Russian Federation) at the back. It was produced in 1992–1994.

The Bi Am ZX-Spectrum 128 was a 128 KB version of the same computer.

Blic

Blic is a domestic clone of the ZX Spectrum 48K. Designed in 1990 on the basis of Leningrad. The board is redistributed, some changes are made. On the board there is an inscription "(C) Blic 1990 Personal computer". When turned on, I displayed the inscription “BLIC” home computer with three rectangles of blue, red and green colors in it.

The firmware contained a modified font of the Latin and Cyrillic alphabet. Keyboard languages were switched to Cyrillic and Latin using the POKE 23607.56 and POKE 23607.56 commands, respectively. The layout of the Cyrillic keyboard is YAVERTA (see photo below).

Hardware implemented the connection to the TV through a high-frequency antenna input, but only in black and white. For the color image, the standard connection for separate Soviet ZX Spectrum clones was used to connect separate RGB color channels and a sync pulse.

The keyboard is rubber, the location and size of the keys is almost identical to those on the original English ZX Spectrum 48K. http://speccy.info/%D0%91%D0%BB%D0%B8%D1%86

Composite

A Russian clone of the ZX Spectrum with 48 KB RAM.. It is a modified version of Leningrad 2, produced by co-op Composite.

Dubna 48K
Main article: Dubna 48K

A Soviet clone of the ZX Spectrum home computer. It was based on an analogue of the Zilog Z80 microprocessor. Its name comes from Dubna, a town near Moscow where it was produced, and "48K" stands for 48 KBs of RAM.

Ella Ra

Also known as the Elara-Disk 128 was a Russian clone of the 128K ZX Spectrum with 58-key keyboard, disk drive, kempston and sinclair joystick. It is possible to expand it, but it's slightly incompatible due to some ports being changed.

GrandRomMax

A Russian clone of the ZX Spectrum made in 1993 in Moscow. It is very similar to the Pentagon but INT is re-made to be like the original. There exists four or five models of it but there are only minor differences between them, for instance one has wrong released turbo Beta Disk interface so when you read/write disks on your own GRM everything is normal, but when you want to save something to this disk on any other machine then all information on disk will be destroyed. They are not easy to expand because of some PLM (small ones) chips inside which do not allow you take some signals you may need to attach modem, etc.

The GRM2+ board was used to create the GrandBoard2+

Grandboard 2+

A Russian clone of ZX Spectrum. The size is 350×280×35 mm (13.2 × 8.4 × 2 inches). Developed and manufactured from 1994, by Independent Science-Manufacturing Laboratory of Computer Techniques in city Frajzino. Based on board GRM2+

  • CPU: Z-80 NEC (8-bit)
  • Clock frequency: 3,45 MHz
  • Capacity of the main memory: 128 KB
  • Text: 24×32, eight possible colours
  • Graphics: 256×192, eight possible colours
  • Software: BASIC, TR-DOS 5.03, LPRINT 3
  • Hardware: Turbo, storage on cassettes, FDD 2× 720 KB, mouse, sound processor AY-8910m (YM 2149F), printer

Hobbit
Main article: Hobbit (computer)

A Soviet/Russian 8-bit home computer, based on the Sinclair Research ZX Spectrum hardware architecture. It also featured a CP/M mode and Forth mode or LOGO mode, with the Forth or LOGO operating environment residing in an on-board ROM chip.

Kay 1024
Main article: Kay 1024

A Russian clone of the ZX Spectrum that came in 1998. It was made by NEMO company and has 1024 KB of RAM and was a rival of Scorpion ZS 256 and has a slightly lower price. It has controller for PC keyboard and HDD but not for floppy although it was available as an extension card. It's very easy to connect General Sound. Has turbo mode at 10 MHz.

Krasnogorsk

A Russian clone of the ZX Spectrum which used PZY K573PF2(5) to produce the TV signal. It was developed and manufactured from 1991 but was never made in as many copies as the Leningrad 1.

Kvorum

A series of Russian ZX Spectrum clones.

Kvorum had 48K KB memory. Probably a clone of the standard 48K Spectrum

Kvorum 64 had 64 KB memory.

Kvorum 128 was a clone with built in tests, memory monitor and copying in ROM. Possibility to run CP/M and TR-DOS (betadisk).

Kvorum 128+ was as the Kvorum 128 but comes with built-in 3.5" drive.

Leningrad

A series of two Russian clones of the ZX Spectrum.

In 1988, came Leningrad 1 a clone of the 48K which came to be the cheapest of the mass-made clones. They attempted to make the design as simple as possible and more compact. It was designed by Sergey Zonov who later went on and created the Scorpion.

Leningrad 2 came in 1991. The joystick was changed to Kempston compatible and the keyboard was much improved. It sold in great numbers.

Master

A clone of the ZX Spectrum made in Russia in 1990. It runs at 2.5 MHz with 48 KB RAM. It has ports for Sinclair and Kempston joysticks. The name suggests it's related to Master K11

Master K

A Russian clone of the ZX Spectrum made in Ivanovo in 1991. 48 KB RAM, 16 KB ROM and built in(?) kempston joystick interface. The size of the system unit is 14 × 8 × 2½ inches, the weight is 1.5 kg approx.

Moskva

Moskva was the name of two ZX Spectrum clones.

Moskva 48K (Москва/Moscow) was the first mass-produced clone of the 48K Spectrum in Russia. It was first made in 1988.

Moskva 128K was a faithful clone of ZX Spectrum 128K with built-in printer interface, joystick, TV/RGB port but without sound processor and disk drive. It was first made in 1989.

Nafanja

A Russian ZX Spectrum clone from 1990, designed for transport in a case. It was made for diplomatic offices and children. It is compatible with Dubna 48K and has a joystick port. At the time of launch time the price was 650 roubles.

Парус BN-201 (Parus VI201)
Парус ВИ201

па́рус ВИ201 ("Sail VI-201")[6]

Orel BK-08

A Russian ZX Spectrum clone from 1995 that had 64 KB RAM, NMI button, extended keyboard, two joystick ports (round DIN connectors). Back edge connector was replaced with rectangular DIN connector. There is no RF modulator, but RGB video output. Memory access and display timing is different from original, but close.

Pentagon
Main article: Pentagon (computer)

Peters MC64

A Russian ZX Spectrum clone from around 1993. Size is 14 × 7.2 × 2 inches. The name suggest that it has 64 KB of RAM and was made by Peters Plus, Ltd. that went on to make the Sprinter.

Peters MC64S1 has Service monitor (additional ROM), fast loading in the RAM frequently used software. Assembler & monitor, test of a video and copyist for tape are included in first version Service monitor.

Peters MC64S2 has Service monitor 2, which included of Tetris, test of a video, copyist for tape and text editor. It has a printer slot.

Peters 256

A Russian clone of the ZX Spectrum.

Peters MD-256S3 has Service monitor 3, including an alternate (for TR-DOS) disk operational system IS-DOS.

Profi

A Soviet ZX Spectrum clone developed in 1991, in Moscow by Kondor and Kramis.

It has Z80 at 7 MHz, up to 1024 KB RAM, 64 KB ROM, Centronics, AY8910 sound chip, Beta 128 disc interface, IDE interface, and 512x240 multi-colour (i.e. two possible colours per 8×1 block) graphics mode for CP/M.

Users liked to plug in two 8-bit DACs to play 4-channel modules of Scream Tracker.

It was possible to run CP/M and a graphics mode with 512x240 pixels was added to be able to run 80 characters per row. It has both parallel and serial ports, sound processor and the possibility to use an IBM keyboard. In later issues it also had a hard disk interface and turbo mode.

Robik
Main article: Robik

A ZX Spectrum clone produced between 1989 and 1994, by Selto-Rotor (Scientifically technical industrial creative association) a former military factory.

Santaka 002

A clone of ZX Spectrum Plus produced in 1990 in Lithuania. It has Russian symbols instead of lower case English and is reported to be a good and reliable machine because it was produced by ex-military plants as a part of conversion program.

Scorpion ZS-256

Scorpion (Russian: Скорпион), was a very widespread ZX Spectrum clone produced in St. Petersburg, Russia by Sergey Zonov. It had a Z80 processor and from 256 to 1024 KB memory, the Shadow Service Monitor (debugger) in the basic ROM activated by pressing the Magic Button (NMI), a ProfROM with additional included ZX-Word editor, a clock, HDD utilities and more. Various extensions were produced, including SMUC — adapter of IDE and ISA slots, which allowed the use of IBM PC compatible hard drives and extension cards.

Sever (North) 48/002

A Russian clone of the ZX Spectrum. It was made in 1990 and comes with 64 KB RAM and 16 KB ROM. The size of the system unit is 12x8x2½ inches, the weight is 1.5 kg.[7]

Sintez and -Sintez-

A Soviet clone of the ZX Spectrum developed in the "Signal" factory within the Moldovan SSR in 1989.

The original Sintez resembled the "Spectrum +" model, while the -Sintez- was an improved version with a more common mechanical keyboard, an added serial port, as well as the ability for an 8080 or related processor (for example 8255) to be added and used together with the UA 880.

While it was software compatible with ZX Spectrum 48K and has two Interface 2 joystick ports, its hardware was quite different, utilizing different memory chip set-up, lacking slowdown when accessing certain areas of memory, as in original ZX Spectrum, so, certain applications and games may not behave correctly or crash.

Spektr 48

A Russian clone of the 48K ZX Spectrum. It used a membrane keyboard and has both Latin and Cyrillic letters. It was made in 1991, by Oryol PC manufacturer, a former military factory. The ROM includes a monitor program.

Symbol
Soviet computer SYMBOL

Russian clone of ZX Spectrum, produced on JSC "Radiozavod" in Penza from 1990 to 1995.

Sprinter
Main article: Sprinter (computer)

ZX Next

Also known as ZX-Forum 2 or XX Frium2. A relatively unsuccessful Russian clone of the ZX Spectrum. It was designed with two Z80 processors, one serving as the video processor, and had an RS-232 port, turbo mode, IBM keyboard, 10 Mbit/s local network and a CGA graphics mode with 640x200 pixel resolution. The memory is expandable to 512 KB.

AZX-Monstrum

An open project to build a ZX Spectrum compatible computer. The CPU is Zilog Z380 (a 32-bit version of the Z80, capable of running at 40 MHz), it has its own graphic adapter, AT-keyboard, own BIOS and extended BASIC-ROM, and RAM expandable up to 4GB linear. The computer is supposed to be almost 100% compatible. Standard devices of are HDD-controller, DMA vs IRQ controller, ROM-Task Switching and more. So far only the HDD-controller is produced but the rest exists as drawings. All the plans are freely available.

Elwro 800 Junior
Elwro 800 Junior system
Elwro 804 Junior PC

Polish clones of the ZX Spectrum. It had a full size keyboard and even a paper holder. The reason it has a paper holder is that the case was originally designed for a small electric organ. A disk drive was available and there also was a version of CP/M called CP\J for this machine. The updated 804 Junior PC had an internal 3.5" diskdrive.

In Poland the computer that won a contest for being the school computer - "Elwro 800 Junior" used DIN connectors for monitor output, cassette adapter, and Junet. Junet had two inputs - in and out(like MIDI). Student computers connected by DIN cables to the teacher's computer, which had the costly floppy drive and printer. Other uses of Junet were for sending messages, or to allow the teacher to see what students are doing on their screens, at the teacher's computer. The computer had also optional Spectrum net, but it was simple jack input/output. To send data the user had to do SAVE on cassette in Spectrum mode, and input had to be connected to Timex/Spectrum. Other ports used D-subminiature connectors, for RGB video, joystick, printer, and floppy drive.[8]

Harlequin

A UK clone of the 48K ZX Spectrum, designed and developed by Chris Smith to aid the reverse engineering of the ZX Spectrum custom ULA chip, and its research documentation. Complete in 2008, it is the first 100% timing compatible clone. Until 2012/13 the Harlequin existed only as a breadboard prototype, but recently, José Leandro Martínez, Ingo Truppel and others produced a limited number of PCB versions (documented here) as an exact board replacement for an actual ZX Spectrum.

HT 3080C

A Hungarian ZX Spectrum clone made by Híradástechnikai Szövetkezet, released in 1986. It was the third computer from the company. The two first computers HT 1080Z and HT 2080Z were clones of TRS-80 and were unsuccessful because of the poor graphics features and high price. They were both school computers. In 1986, in Hungary the school computers have to fulfill new requirements: they have to produce high resolution graphics and support the special Hungarian characters. That's why the HT 3080C came out and it was both compatible with the previous HT machines as well as the ZX Spectrum. You could switch between TRS-80 and ZX Spectrum mode. It had a graphics resolution of 256x192 (standard Speccy) and an AY-chip for sound (to be compatible with the previous HT machines, not with the 128K Spectrum). ROM: 32 KB (Speccy+HT ROMs), RAM: 64 KB (possibly also a requirement for Hungarian school computers, because all school computers in Hungary had 64 KB). It had a Commodore serial port so you could also connect peripherals made for the C64 to it, for instance the 1541 disk drive.

RR-Spectrum

An East-German private clone of the ZX Spectrum.

Samsung SPC-650

A South Korean clone of the ZX Spectrum+ with the same design.

Spectral

An East-German clone of the ZX Spectrum. It came with built-in joystick interface and either 48 or 128 KB RAM. It was sold in kit form by Hübner Elektronik.

Software emulators

Several emulators are also available to enable Spectrum software to be run on other hardware.

References
  1. del Vas, Jesús Martínez. Queremos su Dinero: EL Hombre tras Amstrad España. Dolmen Books. p. 124. ISBN 9788417956288.
  2. Ferrándiz Javier, José Ramón. Jurisprudencia sobre propiedad industrial, publicidad y derecho de la competencia. La Ley. p. 377. ISBN 9788497257954.
  3. Ars Technica: The underground story of Cobra, the 1980s’ illicit handmade computer
  4. Microcalculatorul personal HC-85., Authors: A. Petrescu, F. Iacob, T. Domocos, T. Mihu, E. Dobrovie
  5. https://www.lanacion.com.ar/tecnologia/la-historia-de-czerweny-cz-spectrum-la-computadora-sinclair-con-sello-argentino-nid1886082
  6. http://mebliok.com/otechestvennye-kompjutery-parus-vi-201
  7. ZX Spectrum clone sever in action
  8. Arthur Tatnall, Bill Davey, Reflections on the History of Computers in Education: Early Use of Computers and Teaching about Computing in Schools, Springer, 2014 ISBN 364255119X pp.277-281
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