- #RETRO SINCLAIR ZX SPECTRUM SOFTWARE#
- #RETRO SINCLAIR ZX SPECTRUM CODE#
- #RETRO SINCLAIR ZX SPECTRUM TV#
Would love to see it again! Dundee (of Sinclair fame) is just 50miles from me so back in the day I knew quite a few guys that worked there. Note: I stupidly sold the Eprom programmer in the 90's.tried hard to get it back a couple years ago but the guy couldn't find it.so if anyone in UK happens upon it let me know (easily recognizeable in a two tone enclosure with 2off ZIF sockets on top). Home built serial-parallel interface (another 6402) so could drive a Centronics printer without any TSR/driver. Home built Eprom programmer (to burn 2716 & 27128), designed around a 6402 UART and operated via RS232 from Interface 1.
#RETRO SINCLAIR ZX SPECTRUM CODE#
Hi all, Repaired lots of ZX Spectrums back in the day, my own of which was my pride and joy, as follows:- ROM replaced with 27128 Eprom so I could play with the code including changing the startup copyrigt message at boot on my friends Spectrums. No idea what was wrong, even to this day. I've just tried to adjust the RF frequency a bit and broke everything never worked again.
#RETRO SINCLAIR ZX SPECTRUM TV#
I wanted to let the computer working all the time, but it interfered with the TV and radio reception. Only had to change the CPU, EPROM, and a handful of discrete ICs The second and final time was when I wanted to use the computer as a personal assistant and run an agenda program made by me. It was a great triumph when I had finally managed to get it back working again. It was very tough to repair it, as I was missing funds, equipment and knowledge (was 13-12 at the time?). Everything was cobbled together on some PCB and the programming voltage wire touched the extension interface. I've broken my Speccy twice: The first time, I've made an EPROM programmer that required 24V or something like that.
When in the electronics engineering school, there was still some Spectrum traffic: home grown stuff, hand-assembled units (you could buy the PCB and the keyboard) even if the whole thing was declining as the PCs and Prince of Persia was on the rise.
#RETRO SINCLAIR ZX SPECTRUM SOFTWARE#
the audio played the software and the screen was the typical save screen from one fairly known copy program. There was even a technical/computer learning program on national TV that broadcasted a few games and applications on TV (i.e.
I didn't even had to buy a cassette reader as my boombox happily connected to the Spectrum. The computers were reasonably available (YMMV), not very expensive, had a mechanical keyboard, tons of software available on pirated C45/60/90 cassettes and so on. I had one myself and I must say that it was definitely a huge deal to me at the time. Sinclair clones were quite a nice thing to have back in my home country (Romania). Yes is was compromised, with crap sound, keyboard and poor graphics - but it was enough to do the job! For anyone interested in the early UK computer industry, TheRegister regularly publishes well researched articles, including interviews with the people involved: People forget how relatively poor the UK was at the time, most people just couldn't afford a £400 BBC Micro or a £300 C64. The simplicity of the "Speccy" is what has given the UK such a big base of skilled software and hardware professionals (and true hackers) today. As you can imagine, when they tried it in an anechoic chamber the the EMC test gear practically laughed at it. I year or two back, someone did some research into restarting production with the original design. I used to listen to AM radio at the same time as playing on my Spectrum without any great problem. Might be worth approaching! Here is a photo of the Issue One PCB, note the hand laid out traces, and the memory daughterboard: RFI-wise, they weren't clean, but they weren't that noisy either.
It seems a waste of his talents, but if that is his vocation now, then so be it.
This is Richard Altwasser's LinkedIn: Current occupation is "Reader at Portishead Parish" which sounds to me like he is retired and has taken up religion.
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