The Spectrum faithfully recreates the 80s original with its rubber keys and classic games, delighting older gamers, while younger players may face a steep learning curve due to tricky controls and tough gameplay. However, modern features like save and rewind help mitigate that frustration. It was made with as few components as possible and connected easily to the TV. Programs ran from compact cassettes, some of you may remember listening to music from these before the advent of CDs. It was possible to program in Basic and play some games. The ZX Spectrum's competitor was the Commodore 64, a popular machine that Retro Games had already recreated.

Very few Yugoslavians had access to computers in the early 1980s: they were mostly the preserve of large institutions or companies. Importing home computers like the Commodore 64 was not only expensive, but also legally impossible, thanks to a law that restricted regular citizens from importing individual goods that were worth more than 50 Deutsche Marks (the Commodore 64 cost over 1,000 Deutsche Marks at launch). Even if someone in Yugoslavia could afford the latest home computers, they would have to resort to smuggling. In 1983, engineer Vojislav "Voja" Antonić was becoming more and more frustrated with the senseless Yugoslavian import laws. "We had a public debate with politicians," he says.

In 1961, a young Clive Sinclair was developing and selling pocket calculators, digital wristwatches, and mail-order radio kits through his own company, Sinclair Radionics. In 1975, he founded the company that would become Sinclair Research and began development of the electronics he would best be known for. The Sinclair ZX80 personal computer debuted in 1980. True to his radio-building background, Sinclair marketed the computer in both kit form for £80 ($108) or preassembled for £100 ($135). It was one of the first computers available at that price point, especially compared to the likes of the Apple II Plus, released a year earlier for $1,195.