chuntey

English

Etymology

Coined on the comp.sys.sinclair newsgroup, from an accidental misspelling of chutney.

Noun

chuntey (uncountable)

1. (computing, slang, humorous) A supposed aura surrounding the cassette loading mechanism of the ZX Spectrum computer, highly sensitive to disruption, which will cause the loading process to fail.
   • 2001, Adam Short, “I could do with some help here - networks and stuff”, in comp.sys.sinclair (Usenet):

     The hardware itself is largely indifferent to the happy little chuntey particles, as it focuses it's^[sic] energy on flinging sub-atomic and extra-atomic particles across it's^[sic] transistors and capacitors. These particles are miserable, unlike the happy chuntey and will try to harm unlucky chuntey particles as they hurtle past.

   • 2005, Mike Wynne, “Feature Requests”, in comp.sys.sinclair (Usenet):

     It interfaces with the latent chuntey receptors built into all PCs since the PC-AT, but rarely used these days. Via clever use of the Windows DDK I've managed to provide a means of detecting the level of chuntey in the room thus simulating a virtual wobble at the precise moment a real ZX81 would.
     Alternatively, after a random number of keypresses, it may decide to either corrupt one row, one column or just a single byte of the 4116 RAM chips - but that's mere hearsay.

   • 2006, Matt Rudge, “Wanted: gif of a loading thing”, in comp.sys.sinclair (Usenet):

     Are you seriously trying to force a disruption of the chuntey?
     I have a bad feeling about this.....

   • 2007, spi...@freenet.co.uk, “Some very sad news”, in comp.sys.sinclair (Usenet):

     What a time to return, eh?
     Are you psychic? Felt a disturbance in the chuntey?

   • 2007, Duncan Snowden, “GODFOREBID , but it willll happen one day................”, in comp.sys.sinclair (Usenet):

     And think of the chuntey. There you are, quietly setting up your shiny new ZX Methuselah, your mum walks into the room and suddenly you're 112 and she wants you to read her a story about ponies.

   • 2008, SnakeOilSteve, “OT is SIM card a computer ?”, in comp.sys.sinclair (Usenet):

     I've also successfully used Ian Rawlings as a computer, although he's not Turing complete and the chuntey is exceptionally strong within him.

   • 2019 August 27, Keith Stuart, “Click, whir, ping: the lost sounds of loading video games”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     The veteran games programmer Fred Williams, who wrote several classic titles for Codemasters, reminded me about ‘The Chuntey’, the name given by Spectrum fans to the invisible field surrounding the machine’s cassette player into which only positive vibes could be admitted or else the process would break down. Loading was a religious ceremony and the sounds were sacrosanct.

Anagrams

• chutney, untechy