The well-received ZX Spectrum film The Rubber Keyed Wonder is now available to pre-order on Blu-ray, following its successful world premiere at the BFI Southbank in October 2024.
You can sample the bonus features, the Blu-ray comes in Standard and Special editions. The docuemntary is described as follows:
The Rubber Keyed Wonder tells the story of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. This film goes into all the finer details of how and why the ZX Spectrum was created, what impact the computer had as well as the various versions that followed right the way through to the latest iteration of the system with the ZX Spectrum Next.
The story begins when Sir Clive Sinclair first started developing products back in the 60’s right up to the present day. Along the way we hear from many contributors including the creator of the Z80 chip itself, the original ZX Spectrum’s designers, as well as from some of the ZX Spectrum’s greatest game developers, artists and musicians. In addition we focus on the many fans themselves, sharing their own stories on what it was like to simply be an owner of the little computer they loved so very much. Whether it was through the many wonderful games, the peripherals and all the other things that went along with being a Speccy lover. Such as when they first received it (often under the Christmas tree!) and what it was like to be part of a growing community thanks to the various gaming magazines and playground arguments along the way.
Ordering from the publisher’s website adds reversible covers, digital downloads, and a 12-page booklet.
Here are the details for the standard and special editions:
The Rubber-Keyed Wonder Standard Edition
This edition features: Audio commentary & photo gallery plus around 40 minutes of Special Features including extended interviews and specially made Featurettes with subtitles in English, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish & Polish.
Special Edition details
If you prefer the double disc version, you can expect all of the above, plus a second disc with:
- From Jet Set Willy to Mega-Tree: The Game that Never Was!
- Steve Turner: Making Quazatron
- Sandy White: Making Ant Attack
- From Equinox to Stormlord: The ZX Games of Raff Cecco
- Julian Gollop The Early Days: Board Games to Video Games
- The Last Ninja 2: Making of with Mev Dinc
- The Great Escape – Making of with Denton Designs
- Steve Turner: Avalon to Dragontorc
- The Real Micro Men: The Fight for the BBC Contract
- Clive Townsend: Making Saboteur
- Batman to Head Over Heels: The Games of Jon Ritman
- Chuckie Egg: Making of with Nigel Alderton
- Finders Keepers to Stormbringer: Dave Jones on the Magic Knight
- US Gold & the ZX Spectrum
- Match Day 1 & 2: Jon Ritman on a Footballing Classic – Extended
- World Cup Carnival – the worst game ever made?
- Peter Harrap: Creating the Monty Mole Series
- Archer MacLean talks Sinclair computers.
That is a total running time of 6 hours – incredible!
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Where to buy The Rubber-Keyed Wonder
I really fancy this, and if you’re like me and also missed the BFI premiere, you probably do too. Finally, we have the chance to get hold of it.
You have two main options for buying this documentary. You can opt for the Gracious Films Website, where the Standard edition is £25 on Blu-ray and the Special edition is £35.
Or you can buy The Rubber-Keyed Wonder on Amazon for £14.99 on Blu-ray, without the various unique physical extras.
Affiliate Disclosure: Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you make a purchase through those links. This comes at no extra cost to you. Thank you for your support!
Christian Cawley is a writer and editor who covers consumer electronics, IT, and entertainment media. He has written for publications such as Computer Weekly, Linux Format, MakeUseOf.com, and Tech Radar.
He also produces podcasts, has a cigar box guitar, and of course, loves retro gaming.
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