Spectrum Software Today
As audio tapes have a limited shelf-life, most Spectrum software has been digitized in recent years and is available for download in digital form. The legality of this practice is still in question. However, it seems unlikely that any action will ever be taken over such so-called "abandonware".
One popular program for digitizing Spectrum software is Taper: it allows connecting a cassette tape player to the line in port of a sound card or, through a simple home-built device, to the parallel port of a PC. Once in digital form, the software can be executed on one of many existing emulators, on virtually any platform available today. Today, the largest on-line archive of ZX Spectrum software is World of Spectrum, with more than 24,000 titles.
The Spectrum enjoys a vibrant, dedicated fan-base. Since it was cheap and simple to learn to use and program, the Spectrum was the starting point for many programmers and technophiles who remember it with nostalgia. The hardware limitations of the Spectrum imposed a special level of creativity on game designers, and for this reason, many Spectrum games are very creative and playable even by today's standards. Games for the ZX Spectrum continue to be developed and released long after the machine itself was discontinued.
ZX Spectrum games continue to inspire developers and gamers on modern platforms such as iOS with many games being produced using similar styles of game-play mechanics to those from the ZX Spectrum era. The game-play style of Hunchback can be found in iOS game The Rescue for example.
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