ZX Spectrum Reviews

Getting started

To get started is straightforward with a little REST API know-how. The API accepts ZXDB ID's only and will return some basic details of the title along with all reviews currently allocated to it. For example, to search for Knight Lore, which is ZXDBID 9366 simply use the URL:

http://www.zxspectrumreviews.co.uk/api/title/9366.

And dependent on your flavour of browser the above link will return in either XML or JSON. Using the same URL in Postman will return JSON.

There is some API documentation available here.

(NOTE) 11th November 2025: an alteration has been made to the Reviewer nodes and the addition of CompilationReviewScores. Please see the documentation above for more info.

April 2026: Flannel Panels have been added for each issue (where reviews appear in that issue).

For GDPR purposes all contact data has been replaced with [redacted]. If you spot contact data or would like it removed, please leave a message on the Spectrum Computing Forum link below.

If you spot anything in a review that requires an amend (spelling mistakes, incorrect scores etc) then please leave a message on this thread in the Spectrum Computing Forum.

Updates

August 2026

API Documentation is available again.

When viewing magazine issues, Awarded Reviews number is now clickable to display the awarded titles.

Reviews are now displayed in the order of the issues release date, rather than by the date the reviews were added (which always meant Crash was first).

July 2026

For years ZXSR was purely a website. Unfortunately in 2018 it had to be taken down due to moving employers and being unable to take advantage of the unlimited free hosting provided by said employers webserver. In 2018 the site was changed to a REST API instead, because of the limited free webspace by the provider.

So it's pleasing to announce that the site has become a fully-fledged website again as well as an API. Using latest Microsoft technologies (.NET Core/Blazor), the site is resurrected, albeit very different looking. It's still a work in progress so expect changes over the coming months.

API endpoints remain exactly as they were (see below) and this site is also powered by it, rather than database connections.

There are some limitations. For example there are no images present anywhere as they were taking up a lot of webspace, but with a much cut-down ZXDB (my heartfelt thanks to Einar Saukas for his unbelievable work in maintaining this incredible database) and a lot of data optimisations in the ZXSR database it's all managed to fit in with the limited space available, and with room to spare for more reviews.

There will of course be bugs. If you do spot any then please leave a message on this thread in the Spectrum Computing Forum. Don't hold your breath for quick replies though...