The ZX Interface 2 was released in 1983 by Sinclair Research Ltd and was mainly aimed at the computer games market. It provided two joystick ports and a socket for instant loading from ROM cartridge software. The retail price was £19.95 (order code 8501) with the ROM cartridges initially costing £14.95, although most titles later dropped to £9.95. A variety of literature and advertisements were produced promoting the ZX Interface 2 and ROM cartridge software.
Whilst Kempston and cursor joystick interfaces were already established, the ZX Interface 2 had the benefit of twin joysticks ports and was also seen as the offical Sinclair standard. It sold fairly well for this reason.
The ROM cartridge feature was not such a success. The additional cost of the cartridges over cassette made them very expensive, and the limited range of titles available were all conversions of existing games. The ZX Interface 2 was also marketed as being able to run titles on the 16K Spectrum that were originally written for the 48K Spectrum, and yet only one such title was ever produced.
Finally, the interface provided a through connector where other devices could be plugged in. However, only the signals required to allow the ZX Printer to operate were exposed, and the through connector simply labelled for use by the ZX Printer.
