eZX Spectrum: a word from our imaginary sponsors
Turn up the colour. Gather round the television. Practise looking astonished at a keyboard. Here are twenty-nine adverts from the magazine rack of an alternative computer age.
Original retro advert mockups inspired by late-1970s and early-1980s computer advertising. These are playful concept illustrations of the current design; the linked documentation describes the hardware.
The future has function keys.
Twelve rainbow function keys. A proper full-size keyboard. A yellow NMI key and a green Drive key. Four joystick ports, because good company deserves a connection. A colourful character, indeed.
Explore the hardware specification.
Four ports. One very lively living room.
The eZX Spectrum brings four DE-9 joystick ports to the party. Proper keys. Rainbow function buttons. Serious fun starts at home.
Read about controller support and the hardware specification.
Three personalities. One very clever computer.
Classic Spectrum: revisit the classics. Next compatible: explore the Next generation. eZX primary: discover a new direction.
Three separate FPGA configurations, one machine. Choose your mode with AntOS. Tomorrow called. It remembered your childhood.
Read about the Classic Spectrum image, Next-compatible enhancements and eZX primary chipset. The configurations run separately, with one replacing another when selected.
COLOUR TELEVISION? TRY COLOUR TYPING.
Twelve rainbow function keys. Full-size keys with coloured legends. A yellow NMI button. A green Drive button. eZX Spectrum brightens up the daily input.
THE LITTLE BLACK NUMBER. NOW IN WHITE.
Black or white enclosure. Red wordmark. The same colourful keyboard character. Meet eZX Spectrum.
ROOM TO GROW. WITHOUT MOVING HOUSE.
Start with 32 MB of HyperRAM. Add a DDR3 SODIMM when you want more room. One eZX Spectrum. Plenty of room for bright ideas.
THE GOOD OLD DAYS HAVE A VERY BRIGHT FUTURE.
Classic Spectrum. Next compatible. eZX primary. Three separate FPGA configurations in one computer. Choose your mode with AntOS.
DO NOT ADJUST YOUR SET. ADJUST YOUR PROGRAM.
For curious minds and late-night tinkerers. Explore Z80NG, the clean-room Z80N-compatible CPU used by the Classic and Next-compatible images. eZX Spectrum: curiosity comes with keys.
PLEASE BRING A JOYSTICK. WE HAVE GOT THE COMPUTER.
Four DE-9 joystick ports. Twelve rainbow function keys. One very good excuse to stay in. eZX Spectrum. Serious fun, excellent company.
More machines than desks
Home micros, consoles and arcade personalities bring the spirit of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s to both Ant64 and eZX Spectrum. The range depends on the available FPGA cores, their integration and the software each personality needs.
THE AMIGA HAD A FUTURE. LET'S GO THERE.
Amiga personalities: OCS, ECS and AGA. Explore the planned AAA recreation of Commodore's unshipped chipset, and SAAA, our own extended design. Ant64 and eZX Spectrum: a new home for old ambitions.
ST TODAY. STe TOMORROW. SAME DESK.
Atari ST and STe personalities. A familiar world of music, graphics and programming, reimagined in FPGA hardware. On Ant64 and eZX Spectrum.
YOUR FIRST COMPUTER. AND YOUR OTHER FIRST COMPUTER.
C64. BBC Micro. Two very different childhoods, one reconfigurable idea. Explore home-computer personalities on Ant64 and eZX Spectrum.
THE CONSOLE WAR HAS MOVED INTO ONE HOUSE.
Nintendo NES and SNES. Sega Master System and Mega Drive. Console personalities for Ant64 and eZX Spectrum. Choose a system. Pick up a controller. Settle it on screen.
THE ARCADE IS OPEN. SLIPPERS WELCOME.
Bring arcade personalities home with Ant64 and eZX Spectrum. Reconfigurable hardware, four controller ports, and decades of inspiration. Your living room has just levelled up.
OLD MACHINES. NEW TRICKS. NO EXTRA BOARD.
The built-in Accelerator connects FPGA personalities to shared AntOS services: display, sound, input, storage and networking. Graphics layers can sit above and below the guest display. Ant64 and eZX Spectrum.
CHANGE THE COMPUTER. KEEP YOUR COMPOSURE.
AntOS stays running when the FPGA changes personality. Files, tools and a scriptable environment stay at your fingertips. Ant64 and eZX Spectrum: different personalities, a familiar home.
10 PRINT "WHAT'S NEXT?"
Built-in AntBASIC. Built-in Luau. Start at the Ready prompt, then make the machine your own. Learn, experiment and script AntOS on both Ant64 and eZX Spectrum.
Explore the personality designs, Accelerator, AntOS, AntBASIC and Luau. AAA is a planned recreation of an unshipped Commodore chipset; SAAA is this project's own extension.
YOUR COMPUTER WOULD LIKE TO MEET THE OUTSIDE WORLD.
GPIO opens the door to hands-on electronics. Connect a suitable breakout. Read switches. Light LEDs. Turn a bright idea into a blinking one. Ant64 and eZX Spectrum: curiosity, connected.
TODAY, A FLASHING LIGHT. TOMORROW, WHO KNOWS?
A GPIO port. A breadboard. A head full of ideas. Explore inputs and outputs with Ant64 and eZX Spectrum. The most interesting peripheral could be the one you make.
YOUR NEXT HIT COULD START WITH A COMPUTER KEY.
USB MIDI brings instruments and controllers into the picture. Compose, experiment and make some noise with Ant64 and eZX Spectrum. DIN MIDI is available through the MIDI/audio expansion. Give your imagination a keyboard solo.
For eZX Spectrum, USB MIDI applies to the primary and Next-compatible images. DIN MIDI uses the MIDI/audio expansion. See the eZX MIDI specification and Ant64 hardware overview. The electronics scenes illustrate project ideas, rather than wiring diagrams.
REACH OUT AND PHREAK SOMEONE.
Meet Phreak: the scriptable wireless subsystem for Ant64 and eZX Spectrum. Dual-band Wi-Fi 6. Bluetooth LE. Text AT commands through AntOS. Optional LoRa and GPS add new directions to explore.
NO INTERNET? STILL ON SPEAKING TERMS.
Add Phreak's optional LoRa radio for direct, low-power links. Messages. Sensor readings. Turn-based games. Ant64 and eZX Spectrum: keep the conversation going. Range depends on terrain, antennas and settings.
SHALL WE EXPLORE A NETWORK?
Phreak puts a wireless workbench inside Ant64 and eZX Spectrum. Explore Wi-Fi and BLE signals, map your own network, and learn in a home hacking lab. Curiosity is the best password.
Explore Phreak, communications and Phreak projects. LoRa and GPS require their optional hardware. The terminal scene is a fictional home-lab homage to early-1980s computer thrillers.
DEAL YOURSELF A NEW ADVENTURE.
Games on NFC cards. A pocket-sized library for Ant64 and eZX Spectrum. Each card points to its game. The vision: tap, load, play.
GOOD COMPUTERS GOSSIP.
Meet Gossip, the communications system built into AntOS. Messages, files and game data, shared peer to peer. Choose your friends. Make the connection. Ant64 and eZX Spectrum.
YOUR NEXT BIG IDEA STARTS WITH BASIC.
From first program to university laboratory. AntBASIC includes ARM64 and RISC-V assemblers: explore two instruction sets from your BASIC listing. Ant64 and eZX Spectrum. Small computers. Serious education.
WHY JUST PROGRAM A COMPUTER WHEN YOU CAN DESIGN ONE?
Explore digital logic with Verilog and reconfigurable FPGA hardware. Learn about counters, state machines and processor design. Ant64 and eZX Spectrum: give your ideas a logic of their own.
The NFC advert illustrates the planned game-card experience: cards contain a link, not the game payload; downloading and launching titles remain development work. Explore NFC game cards, Gossip, AntBASIC, its ARM64 assembler and RISC-V assembler, and FPGA personalities.
THE BACK OF THIS COMPUTER IS ONLY THE BEGINNING.
A rear-mounted 40-pin GPIO connector opens Ant64 and eZX Spectrum to DIY electronics, experiments and expansion. Connect your ideas. Build your own peripherals. Add an optional accelerator module through a suitable adapter.
The rear-facing header exposes 28 GPIO signals alongside power and ground. An external accelerator is an optional co-processor expansion using a dedicated adapter, separate from the built-in compute hardware. The advert illustrates expansion concepts; see the GPIO pinout and accelerator adapter design for the electrical and mechanical requirements.
BASIC THAT GIVES YESTERDAY'S MACHINE CODE A RUN FOR ITS MONEY.
Games written in AntBASIC can outrun assembly-language games from the old days thanks to modern hardware. For more speed or direct hardware control, write ARM64 or RISC-V assembly inside your BASIC listing. Performance depends on the program and hardware compared.