Sinclair ZX80 / ZX81 / Z88 Forums

Hello all,

Have been lurking for a little while having found this via the main RWAP site.

Registered on this forum in late September (but does not feel like that long ago! ). I have been reading a lot of the older topics. It is such a shame that a lot of the images and other attachments do not appear to exist anymore

I first saw, and played with a ZX81 when the then high street stores in the UK first started selling them way back in about 1982.
However the ZX Spectrum with its colour, sound and rubber keys was the first computer to make it into our house. I had much fun both with the software side and by building and playing with hardware including building some of my own circuits.

Then some years later, I decided that I had to move on from tapes. I did not fancy the Sinclair Microdrive, and disk drives for the Spectrum were still expensive, so I waited and then bought an Atari STFM.

Next up was an IBM compatible, the first in a line of "PC compatible" machines. But when Windows made it hard to access the hardware level directly I looked again at the 8 bit and 16 bit micros. Even with a "PC" I still used my Atari ST. But the ZX Spectrum had found itself boxed up and stored in the loft.

A bit (okay, lot) of internet browsing showed that various 8 bit and 16 bit microcomputers had active web sites including Sinclair, Amstrad, Acorn as well as Atari.

Thanks to various trades (including eBay and RWAP) I now have some ZX81's, various ZX Spectrums, some Amstrads, some Acorn BBC machines, some more Atari ST machines and various hardware add-ons for some of these machines.

I am mostly interested in hardware topics but also I am also interested in continuing my education of getting better at assembly language.

Mark

Welcome aboard Mark!

Yes, welcome Mark - the more souls the better!

1024MAK wrote:I am mostly interested in hardware topics but also I am also interested in continuing my education of getting better at assembly language.

Good to know. For hardware-only ppl it's mostly about repairing things, building things that others designed etc, leaving it up to 3rd parties (assembly programmers) to make use of it. For software-only ppl hardware is like something cast in stone, even when it might be easy to modify something. But when you know both sides of the hardware-software boundary, it's like stepping into a new world, enabling one to do things that look like black magic to others.

It's a good time to get involved in retro-computing, with things like programmable logic, cheap PC's & almost limitless supply of software (both on PC & retro-computer side).

One thing I do find a shame is that (on many sites) so much attention goes to the gaming aspect only, reducing those old homecomputers to a sort of console. These babies have so much more to offer from an educational POV. Luckily I have the feeling that there's a new generation that's getting interested in these things (and related fields like general electronics). Perhaps they're discovering what they're missing out on, in terms of 'discover how that box works on the inside', 'build something with your own hands' (vs. just buy stuff made in China, watch movies & play games). Those put-together-some-electronic-gadget-a-day sites are popping up all over the place...

Welcome aboard Mark.

I agree with RetroTechie there's more to old puters than just playing games, a couple of My interests are Mathamatics and cryptography.Thanks to one members work on forth (Kmurta) the Zeddy can produce factorials to thousands of decimal places, and I have spent a lot of time working on an encipher program, each to their own I suppose.
You will find a great depth of knowledge here Mark I have been taught lots thanks to the kindness of people on this forum.

Enjoy Your hobby but please do not suggest any impossible hardware project to Andy, because rest assured,
HE CAN AND WILL BUILD IT


Regards
Moggy

<cue the music>

Somebody looking for a short guy in a rubber face mask

Welcome Mark, i like you, love the hardware side of things more so than the programming, i'm mostly into the ZX81, but do hold a fondness for commodore machines particularly the PET and VIC-20 both of which i once owned, i built a few external devices for the PET as it had a fairly easy to use (from a software point of view) user port... Opps gone off on one aint i ?

A question then if you'll be so kind what hardware idea do you have up your sleeve ?

And finally we have a few Master Programmers around here, so 'm sure whatever the problem there be an answer

Regards Andy

"Please Sir put the soldering iron down and step away from the workbench"


Moggy

(is that why there are fireworks all over the sky tonight )