Hello - introduction

[crasher]

Hello

In 1980, at the age of 13, i laid my hands on a ZX80. Things have never been the same since.

My first introductions to computers were via this ZX80 (owned by a school friend) and a Commodore PET (at school).
I got a ZX80 in kit form, which i assembled and then I managed to convince my parents to buy me a ZX81 when they were first released. From then on i have been hooked on computers.

During the early 80's i had a few games published in the various computer magazines (in the days when they published full listings), mainly for the ZX81 and PET. Didnt pay a lot, but was enought to get me ram packs, and a printer etc.

I did O level in Computing, then did A level (there were only 3 of us in our school who did the A level), and completed my A level project on a BBC (as that was what the school insisted on it being done on!). Interestingly i did O level in Design Technology, and my project was the design and construction of a new case (complete with proper keyboard) for the ZX81 made out of fibreglass. Was a great success, and had the negative-mold not broken when the finished item was extracted i probably could of churned out a few more of them! Hey ho.

I grabbed a HND in computer science, with a Distinction in applications programming.

Here i am x number of years later, still working in software development!!

I recently purchased another ZX81 (off eBay) and also a PET. And i am now rediscovering the delights of this fantastic machines all over again

So hello from me. I am glad to see a community like this still thriving.

Regards

Barry

[sirmorris]

Hi Barry!

Welcome aboard

You've joined at a very busy time with lots of new software and hardware appearing for our beloved little door-wedge.

Do you remember what programs you had published and where?

[crasher]

Hmm now you're testing the 30-year-old memories

THere was one called "Helecopter Lander", which got published in an early edition of Computer and Video Games. It was for the PET (sorry), but had originally been written for the ZX80 as a collaborative effort between myself and my school friend who owned the ZX80 at the time. It proved unplayable on the '80 due to the screen flicker (it was in BASIC as i'd not yet discovered the joys of machine code).

The problem was the the printer i used (to print off the listing for the PET) could not handle the special characters (for CLS, HOME, cursor-down, cursor left/right etc) so if you typed in the listing as published you'd not get a lot happening. I recently dug out the scanned listing and had a go at de-bugging it - took me all sunday afternoon but got it running in the end

I also had a variation of Pontoon (21's - the card game), which conversely i'd written for the PET and then converted across to the ZX81 (16k). THe graphics were not much to write home about (on the sinclair, the PET version was better) but i prided myself on the "logic" - in as much as it used arrays to record which cards had been dealt, and would work out when it needed time to "shuffle the deck" (ie clear the arrays). I eventually submited a version of this (for the PET) as part of my O level Computer Studies course work.

I built some subroutines and modules that got absorbed into other works by my peers at the time. THere were 4 of us in our O level class who would work together and submit programs to these magazines on a regular basis - i often wondered whether they published them simply to keep us quiet Of the 4, only 1 went on to actually get anywhere - my mate Andy wrote some games for Activision, for the Commodore 64. It was good in a way because i would get advance "tester" copies to play and spot bugs etc

[gus]

Hmm now you're testing the 30-year-old memories

...
I also had a variation of Pontoon (21's - the card game), which conversely i'd written for the PET and then converted across to the ZX81 (16k). THe graphics were not much to write home about (on the sinclair, the PET version was better) but i prided myself on the "logic" - in as much as it used arrays to record which cards had been dealt, and would work out when it needed time to "shuffle the deck" (ie clear the arrays). I eventually submited a version of this (for the PET) as part of my O level Computer Studies course work.

...

Hi Barry,

Good to read you story !

Like you can read on the Development forum there are a guy programming a Pontoon game for the ZX80. So I think that if you can publish your ZX81 version here will be very interesting.

Gus

[Neil]

Hello to all forum members,
My name is Neil and I live in Central Florida. My first computer, although I wanted the Atari 400, was the Timex 1000 that was given to me in 1984 or 85. Soon after, when I heard about the 2068 64k model, I found a used one for 50 bucks and made the purchase. Not too much later, I became involved with the Central Florida Timex/Sinclair Users Group of which were several very experienced users. It became a mad rush to the bookstore at the only Orlando mall that carried the ZX Computing Monthly magazine where I could see the many peripherals for the Spectrum, but, rarely anything on the Timex 2068. During this time period of 86-87, I met and became very close friends with Eric Johnson who was a Timex/Sinclair Authorized repair guy who had his repair lab in his garage. Eric had the advantage of having his uncle who worked at the Research and Development Lab in Waterbury, Conn. close at hand for technical assistance as well as parts. I was becoming sick of screwing with tapes for data storage and settled on the Larken Disk System which Eric had lots of experience with, so I knew that tech support was a phone call away or a 20 minute drive away. Eric met an untimely death in 2008 or 07 and was a huge loss to the Timex/Sinclair community and a great loss as a friend. I inherited most of Eric's collection including a few items which I believe to be prototypes of projects that came from Timex's Lab when they shut down. One of the things that I inherited was 4 or 5 little parts bins from his workstation. Inside these little drawers are parts such as...1/4 in mono female jacks, resistors, capacitors, chips, edge connectors, labels for the 1500..still on a roll...etc. etc. I feel like many of these components are shared with the Spectrum, maybe not..but they need to be on a technicians bench, where they can be used to fix Timexes or Sinclairs.
It was welcomed news to hear of the new hardware for the ZX-81the ZXPander. I can't wait to learn more of this new piece of hardware.....peace...neil

[Moggy]

Hi Neil welcome to the club
the ZXpand is indeed a fantastic add-on for zeddy fanatics like Myself.
There are other projects in the pipeline like Andy-Rea's ULA replacement, check out the current thread on this subject, the back and forth between Andy and Prime is a great read.

The ZXpand manual can be found here......
http://www.rwapsoftware.co.uk/zx812.html

Welcome again Neil.
Regards Moggy

[sirmorris]

Hi Neil!

[sirmorris]

Hi Neil!

[Neil]

Nice to meet all of you, I am playing catch up in the message base, ...lots of great stuff here that will help me learn more about the 1500 and the Spekky. Big congrats to all of you who have worked and continue to work on these hardware projects for the Sinclair family of computers. Peace...neil

[oscar]

As yet another newbie to this forum, I may as well join in on the theme of this thread

I'm in Adelaide (South Australia), and started programming in BASIC on a TRS-80 model 1 (not mine), but my first computer of my own was a ZX81. Later progressed to a Spectrum 48K, CPC6128, Amiga 1000, Amiga 2000, then gave in to the PC realm. Over the last few years I've been trying to get more Sinclair stuff which is a bit of a battle here in Australia (the C64 was much more popular here). So I've now got a couple of working ZX81s plus I still have my 48K Spectrum and a few other bits and pieces. All I need to do now is to find an old TV so that I can use the ZX81 as it was designed, rather than an emulator.

When I first had my ZX81 I wrote a fair bit of assembly language code; no fancy assembler for me, just a pen and paper and a copy of Rodney Zak's Z80 reference, and patience entering the hex data on that tiny keyboard. Ah, good times

About two years ago I started getting back into Z80 code on an emulated ZX81, it's fun to try to apply what I've learnt in the intervening 30 years of software development to the platform where I began. Played a bit with z88dk which is quite cool stuff but in a way it makes it too easy, so I'm back to using my Zaks book.

I'll get a ZXpand quite soon once I get the TV sorted out.

So, who's next?