billdeg
Technician
Can someone post a screen shot of a working program on a timex sinclair 1000/zx81?
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Timex Sinclair z81/1000 screenshot?
- Thread starter billdeg
- Start date
tezza
Veteran Member
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billdeg
Technician
thank you. I am kind of joking around here, but last night I got a Sinclair from a friend of mine (he gave it to me), and I was having trouble getting a clean signal. As far as the 1000/zx-81's go, you get what you paid for.
in addition to the Sinclair, I also got an Apple IIc. I never had one of those before. I believe I now have most of the Apples except for the Apple laptop and the Apple I. (not counting MAC's which are too new for my interest)
Bill
in addition to the Sinclair, I also got an Apple IIc. I never had one of those before. I believe I now have most of the Apples except for the Apple laptop and the Apple I. (not counting MAC's which are too new for my interest)
Bill
chuckcmagee
Veteran Member
Snicker, yes, you do need a tv that still has the manual fine-tuning knob. All my TVs are electronic fine tuning so, if I hold my body in the correct position, with the lead wire, I can just make out the prompt from the Sinclair.
Good thing about them is they have this yummy Z80 CPU chip sitting there. Good for a replacement in your S-100 system, anyway.
Good thing about them is they have this yummy Z80 CPU chip sitting there. Good for a replacement in your S-100 system, anyway.
You can send those nasty 68K macs you find to Ohio
Do you have a Timex 2068?
I keep an old 19" non remote color TV around incase I want to relive playing my Atari 2600 on it. That or I am too lazy to move it out of the basement.
wmmullaney
Veteran Member
I'v been using my 1000 with a tv capture card with NO fine tuning and it works great. Also with a tv with no fine tuning: rock solid picture.
chuckcmagee
Veteran Member
"Rock Solid" that just means that you got lucky and the induction coil inside the RF unit HAPPENS to be correct. Out of the 4 units I have, NONE are very close to the correct freq.
I haven't had one installed in a while but my TV capture card had manual tuning so I could slide between channels, this was common on the older PCI video capture cards.
I was given a ZX81 from a friend, who bought it, powered it up in the 80's, put it in the generic white box and put it away. I have all the packing stuff, receipt and everything. I think this makes it worth $6 lol. Still, just shows you that designers thought out of the BOX back then.
Vince
I was given a ZX81 from a friend, who bought it, powered it up in the 80's, put it in the generic white box and put it away. I have all the packing stuff, receipt and everything. I think this makes it worth $6 lol. Still, just shows you that designers thought out of the BOX back then.
Vince
billdeg
Technician
My name is Bill and I have Sinclair 1000 Syndrome.
OK...let me come clean here. I have about 10 of these little things. In fact they seem to multiply like tribbles...I have about 300 cassettes, Timex printers, add on hardware, books, etc. I might even have a disk drive or parts for one. Where did I get all this? There was a guy running a Sinclair user group for many years and he accumulated every possible Sinclair thingy you could imagine. He meticulously kept track of every product ever made for the 1000/ZX81 in a notebook. He had a lot of product flyers, etc. They also trickle in from other sources. For example I just got another one the other day from a friend nearby. When people know you are in the hobby old computers stick to you like magnets.
I know I know, I should document all of this, but for now it's safe and it'll get done at some point... I have higher priorities.
The original owner of this collection gave it to someone I know, who in turn sold it to me for a price one can't refuse. The total came to about 8 boxes full of systems and stuff.
I never brought this story up because I really don't like these computers, and I did not want to be branded a "Sinclair guy" - I was more interested in the documents and books than the systems. What's much more fascinating to me is the number of Sinclair-related vendors, add-on products, how-to books, and for that matter the total number of user group members. I had no appreciation for the fanatical following these things had back then, but I was only 13 at the time.
And with all of this, I have never once gotten a clear enough signal on any of these systems to have a useful computing experience.
"K" to you all.
BD
OK...let me come clean here. I have about 10 of these little things. In fact they seem to multiply like tribbles...I have about 300 cassettes, Timex printers, add on hardware, books, etc. I might even have a disk drive or parts for one. Where did I get all this? There was a guy running a Sinclair user group for many years and he accumulated every possible Sinclair thingy you could imagine. He meticulously kept track of every product ever made for the 1000/ZX81 in a notebook. He had a lot of product flyers, etc. They also trickle in from other sources. For example I just got another one the other day from a friend nearby. When people know you are in the hobby old computers stick to you like magnets.
I know I know, I should document all of this, but for now it's safe and it'll get done at some point... I have higher priorities.
The original owner of this collection gave it to someone I know, who in turn sold it to me for a price one can't refuse. The total came to about 8 boxes full of systems and stuff.
I never brought this story up because I really don't like these computers, and I did not want to be branded a "Sinclair guy" - I was more interested in the documents and books than the systems. What's much more fascinating to me is the number of Sinclair-related vendors, add-on products, how-to books, and for that matter the total number of user group members. I had no appreciation for the fanatical following these things had back then, but I was only 13 at the time.
And with all of this, I have never once gotten a clear enough signal on any of these systems to have a useful computing experience.
"K" to you all.
BD
chuckcmagee
Veteran Member
Don't forget, there is usually a good, working Z80 CPU sitting in the middle of those Sinclair boards. I experimented with the RF modulator on one. I was about to chuck it when, WAIT, there is a good CPU sitting right there. So, guess it goes into a drawer somewhere in case I need a replacement Z80 chip some day.
jh1523
Experienced Member
LOL I guess then I had better luck than any of you guys with my Sinclairs. Actually they weren't either Sinclair or Timex, but clones. I grew up in Eastern Europe, and in the mid-80s the market was flooded with unauthorized clones - literally dozens upon dozens of varieties. I personally had (and probably still have somewhere):
TIM-S, and advanced Spectrum clone with 64k RAM, fast ROM (ROM was copied automatically to RAM at boot), on-the-fly replaceable ROM (you could make the first 16k writeable, and place your own code there), "turbo" mode - a switch that changed the system speed from 3.5MHz to 6MHz, almost doubling the execution speed. The downside was that it also altered the casette timings and pitch, so programs saved in normal mode wouldn't load in turbo mode, and the other way around.
COBRA, another clone; this one was a DIY kit, came as a bare motherboard and a pile of components that had to be soldered in place. Worked beautifully. Had a "bios" extension containing a monitor/debugger and a modified version of OPUS.
HC-91, a standard Spectrum clone with an added interface 1, adapted to work with a 3.5" floppy drive instead of a microdrive. Used standard 3.5" floppies, which was a definite plus. Can also run CP/M from disk.
No video problems with either.
TIM-S, and advanced Spectrum clone with 64k RAM, fast ROM (ROM was copied automatically to RAM at boot), on-the-fly replaceable ROM (you could make the first 16k writeable, and place your own code there), "turbo" mode - a switch that changed the system speed from 3.5MHz to 6MHz, almost doubling the execution speed. The downside was that it also altered the casette timings and pitch, so programs saved in normal mode wouldn't load in turbo mode, and the other way around.
COBRA, another clone; this one was a DIY kit, came as a bare motherboard and a pile of components that had to be soldered in place. Worked beautifully. Had a "bios" extension containing a monitor/debugger and a modified version of OPUS.
HC-91, a standard Spectrum clone with an added interface 1, adapted to work with a 3.5" floppy drive instead of a microdrive. Used standard 3.5" floppies, which was a definite plus. Can also run CP/M from disk.
No video problems with either.
tezza
Veteran Member
I'm with you Bill. I amazed that there WAS (is?) a fanatical following for these things. I always found them frustrating and highy irritating!
They were cheap I guess...
Tez