Porting my 3D points renderer on a ZX Spectrum 48K

2026-05-17 | original

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Why This Matters

This project demonstrates the technical challenge and ingenuity involved in porting a 3D renderer to the ZX Spectrum 48K, showcasing how vintage hardware can still be pushed to perform complex graphics tasks. It highlights the enduring relevance of retro computing and the creative problem-solving skills of developers, inspiring both enthusiasts and industry professionals to explore innovative uses of legacy systems.

Key Takeaways

Porting modern algorithms to vintage hardware requires creative optimization.
Retro computing projects can inspire innovative problem-solving techniques.
Open-source tools like z88dk facilitate development on legacy systems.

The backstory

It all begun with the Speccy - the ZX Spectrum 48K+, to be precise.

I got it when I was 13 years old - the best gift ever:

3D tinkering

An entire career has passed since then.

And one of the habits I picked up along the way, was fooling around in my free-time with SW-only 3D graphics.

In fact, a few years ago, I ported the main logic into an ATmega328P microcontroller, implementing "points-only" 3D rendering, and driving an OLED display via the SPI interface... at the magnificent resolution of 128x64 :-)

The challenge - run it on the Speccy

So the path to even more useless tinkering was clear:

I just HAD to make this work for the Speccy, too! :-)

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Explore topics: zx spectrum z88dk 3d rendering microcontroller oled display