I loved my 48k Spectrum. I think Thro' the Wall was my first game, too! Was it on a compilation tape along with some other games, that you had to keep loading in sequence and stop the tape part-way?

I also had the same BASIC Programming manual and tried my hand at some programs, but usually something went wrong. I tried a "20 questions" style game but obviously forgot to hit the RAND command at some point, and it ended up with every answer being "blancmange"!

I loved the Dizzy games on the Spectrum, I think they came out quite late, maybe even the early 90s. I can't believe it was still going then!