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(Image credit: Tom's Hardware / Pexels) Share Share by: Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Another day, and another Z80-based news story showing that there is life in the old microprocessor. Internet rocket scientist, gamer, astronomer, and YouTuber Scott Manley has taken the venerable Sinclair ZX Spectrum to another world. Well, virtually!
Flying a simulated spacecraft controlled by a ZX Spectrum and Sinclair BASIC my first computer and programming language.Terribly inefficient right now because the serial port is so slow and the CPU spends lots of cycles bit banging to talk to it.There's a Python program in… pic.twitter.com/LUywMLnYFG February 2, 2026
Manley's project aims to control a lunar lander through an elaborate process that uses a four-decade-old computer to communicate with Kerbal Space Program. How does the ZX Spectrum communicate with the game? Serial!
The ZX Spectrum did not come with a dedicated serial port, but there were first and third-party offerings, such as the ZX Interface 1, that could provide up to 19,200 Bits per second (19.2 KB/s). Using a little BASIC code to read the serial port, Manley can see real-time numbers and control his planetary descent. Manley confesses that the BASIC code on the ZX Spectrum is inefficient, largely down to the speed of the serial interface and how overworked the CPU will be, but you have to admire the approach.
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Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/retro-gaming/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/retro-gaming/zx-spectrum-flies-simulated-spacecraft-using-basic-python-and-serial-kerbal-space-program-lunar-lander-powered-by-1980s-hardware#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com
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