Sinclair ZX80 / ZX81 / Z88 Forums

Hi,

I know that this board is pretty much Sinclair ZX centric, but someone suggested that boards like this might be a good place to let folks know what is happening in the Memotech world ...... and, after all, it has a Z80 processor too

For those of you who don't know, Memotech was a UK Company that produced (briefly) a small, but quality, range of Z80 based micros in the early '80s. If you want to know more about it, you can check out my small website here :-

http://www.primrosebank.net/computers/mtx/mtx512.htm


There is a quite active Facebook group at :-

http://www.facebook.com/groups/2443017753/

The Facebook group is probably the most active place at the moment, but there is also a relatively new Forum at :-

http://www.mtxworld.dk/memorum/index.php

If you are into the Memotech, you might like to check out these links.

While I'm on, if you have any old Memotech MTX related equipment that you want to dispose of, I'd be very interested in taking it off your hands,

Regards
Dave

Dave,

I'm not a user and I don't own one, but some units were sold here in New Zealand. There is a review in this edition of New Zealand Bits and Bytes.
http://www.classic-computers.org.nz/bit ... sue3.2.htm. I've added the pages to this post.

It's good to see someone putting in the time to document some of these more obscure machines.

Terry (Tez)

Hi Tez,

Thanks very much for the article, I was aware of an article in a NZ magazine called Computer Input from November 1984, although I've only seen the text of the article, not a full scan.

I wasn't aware of this article though, I will certainly add it to the collection, thanks for taking the time to upload it - and for the kind words!

Regards
Dave

Maybe you're interested in this: z88dk supports the Memotech MTX too (I'd like to add support for QuickSilva HRG and G007 as well but I miss tech specifications and "Guinea Pigs").
As you can see the "microman" demo can be run on it too:
http://www.z88dk.org/wiki/doku.php?id=l ... _functions

Hi Stefano,

Am I right in assuming that you are Stefano B*****o?

I was aware of Z88DK, although I have not done anything with it (not that I could anyway).

I do have references to it on my website, here http://www.primrosebank.net/computers/mtx/mtxtools.htm

I know that Paul Daniels was experimenting with it, but I don't know if he has made any progress yet.

As you wrote the MTX code for Z88DK, do you have a Memotech then? Are you doing anything interesting with it?

regards
Dave

stefano wrote:Maybe you're interested in this: z88dk supports the Memotech MTX too (I'd like to add support for QuickSilva HRG and G007 as well but I miss tech specifications and "Guinea Pigs").
As you can see the "microman" demo can be run on it too:
http://www.z88dk.org/wiki/doku.php?id=l ... _functions

Yup, I'm Bodrato, I don't mind showing my surname
I don't have a Memotech computer, but I thought the Memotech stuff had to be in z88dk for the sake of completeness.
It's a piece of history which I enjoyed to dig in, that's it.

My main goal is to provide a common platform permitting all the z80 lovers to stay interconnected sharing code and ideas, thus I'm adding as much target platforms as possible, so any expert of a specific computer will be involved due to his beloved one.

stefano wrote:My main goal is to provide a common platform permitting all the z80 lovers to stay interconnected sharing code and ideas, thus I'm adding as much target platforms as possible, so any expert of a specific computer will be involved due to his beloved one.

Now here is an interesting thing. I am trying for years to find out memory use on other machines with a Z80 processor as well as an emulator for those machines. My idea is to export the ZX81 emulators I have coded to other Z80 based machines than the ZX Spectrum or the SAM-Coupe.

When the computer uses pages to make address #0000 to #3fff codable and a screen above 32K then a full working Lowres emulator is definitely possible
(like SAM81). Perhaps not always the same screen as on a ZX81, but capable of running lowres games in MC is possible.

All I need is indeed experts of their machine and the software to code the program. On a JOYCE I stated that all is possible, but I just don't have the right software to make it all possible. By heart the MEMOTECH could do the job as well.

I'm not sure it is as easy as it looks.. be warned that besides the CP/M systems very few computers have RAM at address 0.
BTW I could sort the default ORG addresses we're using with z88dk, if you like..

Err, the MTX can run CP/M...

A modified ZX81 or a modified ZX Spectrum 48k/plus can have RAM at 0 to 16k...
Or same machines with suitable expansion device can do the same...

Mark

I know many computers can be tweaked to get added memory, but perhaps I misunderstood the question.
The fact is that many z80 computers put their ROM at address 0, which is the first address being executed at startup.
For many targets z88dk supports the more common configurations natively choosing the proper ORG address and packaging at once, thus it could provide a useful list for about 30/40 computers.