Post

AI, ZX Spectrum, and a Blast from the Past: Reviving Dad's 1986 Game

2026-06-09

That moment when AI suddenly is good enough to deal with game code written in 1986 originally by Dad on a ZX Spectrum 48k … when Andrew was four and I was six. Cassette tape rediscovered in 2009 and coverted to digital…

That moment when AI suddenly is good enough to deal with game code written in 1986 originally by Dad on a ZX Spectrum 48k … when Andrew was four and I was six. Cassette tape rediscovered in 2009 and coverted to digital format by Hai-sing Deakin and Nick… and playable but not converable (yet) to modern systems (unless keying in manually thousands of characters)…. then in 2024 I had a go at seeing if AI would import it (failed) by trying to read hundreds of print screens and extract the code…. Failed, some progress but high failure rate when matching. But tonight, in 2026… it worked… scanning the code, rebuilding the game and correcting 40 year old syntax errors… it’s working perfectly in a web browser… and is really good…

Topics: Learning technologySystems & softwareFamily

Matthew Eaves — escape room franchise founder, operator, and writer. Also: franchise, posts, contact.