Sinclair ZX80 / ZX81 / Z88 Forums

Hello all!
I have just registered with this forum, (my first ever!) I had no idea there were so many retro-programmers out there!
About four months ago I had this sudden urge (whilst nursing a pint of ale) to go back to my teenage years, and revisit my ZX81 days (it had been in the back of my mind for many a year, but for some reason, kicked in at that moment).
So since Christmas, after acquiring a laptop, I've been surfing the web and found some great material and info to get me going. I found this site, and thought I gotta join!
I've got a ZX81 (a friend's, not my original), my WHSmiths computer tapes, and my original copy of Mastering Machine Code by Tony Baker.
In 1982, I wrote a M/C game, which I sent off to a publisher, Quicksilva, which they declined (why? it was better than there stuff!) I then started work, and things just fell by the wayside..
I found the tape yesterday, so now I'm on a mission to bring it all back from the dead..!
I've downloaded Eightyone and Tasm to start, but need help with Tasm (temper.zip?)
Looking forward to picking a few of your brains out there... cheers!

Hello and welcome.

Everyone here will be happy to help where possible, just ask.

Greetings,
Dr Beep

Welcome to the forums - is it worth getting someone to copy the tape into a .p file for use in an emulator?

Thanks for the replies!
I have seen some conversion programs; I was going to download one and have a go myself? I had no idea until a month or so ago there was anything out there for ZX81! Thought I would have to try and load my '81 with the actual recording!

Also, from a document on using Tasm (by Tim Swenson) he mentions header and footer templates, (line0.asm, line1.asm..... etc., in a temper.zip folder?) I found some references to it in this forum, but the links are dead. Do I put out a request for it again in a specific section?
Thanks and regards..

RWAP wrote: ↑Tue Feb 28, 2017 10:35 pm Welcome to the forums - is it worth getting someone to copy the tape into a .p file for use in an emulator?

Howdy!

Halloo!

Hello!

I use TASM so attached is a Hello World folder containing everything you need to get going. Hopefully I have not butchered it too much since I first downloaded it...

I will try to post some instructions later on but am short of time at the moment!

Lardo

It's all pretty simple (which is good as I am not in front of my Pc) - put your code in the helloworld.asm file and variables in the separate variables file (you can see the reference to them in the helloworld.asm file) etc.
To build a .p file you need to start up a command prompt (in Windows) and then navigate to the folder where you unzipped everything. Type in "zxasm helloworld" and press enter.
This will build the helloworld.p file - assuming you have EightyOne installed just double click the .p file and it will open and run and in this case say Hello World on the screen. It will also build a .lst file which is basically all of the separate files combined into a single file along with the memory locations of the commands and data etc. Useful for seeing what is going on!
Needless to say you can rename most of the files so long as you remember to change the names anywhere they are referenced.
Any specific questions feel free to send them over and I will do my best to answer although I've only been using it all for a few months!

Lardo

Brilliant! Thank you LB, I shall try this out tomorrow, as I haven't got my laptop with me at the moment.. I'll let you know how I get on. Many thanks.

Lardo Boffin wrote: ↑Wed Mar 01, 2017 6:02 pm Hello!

I use TASM so attached is a Hello World folder containing everything you need to get going. Hopefully I have not butchered it too much since I first downloaded it...

I will try to post some instructions later on but am short of time at the moment!

Lardo

Thanks LB, I've copied the code and it appears to work fine!
I'm up and running!

Thanks and regards..

Lardo Boffin wrote: ↑Wed Mar 01, 2017 6:02 pm Hello!

I use TASM so attached is a Hello World folder containing everything you need to get going. Hopefully I have not butchered it too much since I first downloaded it...

I will try to post some instructions later on but am short of time at the moment!

Lardo