Replies: 0
Views: 15
Last Post By: gus ON: Thu Nov 20, 2008 6:57 pm
Topic By: gus ON: Thu Nov 20, 2008 6:57 pm
Hi,
I the past I do use a lot a very fine feature of the EO. That's the capability of SAVE & LOAD to WAV Files, but in the new releases 1.0x This feature is not working anymore.
In the mean time where can I found the oldest versions ? I think that the 0.87 works but I can't found/remember

Thanks in advance,
Gus

Replies: 2
Views: 242
Last Post By: siggi ON: Wed Nov 19, 2008 5:32 pm
Topic By: siggi ON: Wed Nov 19, 2008 5:32 pm
Maybe Wilf still has a copy of ROS????

http://www.pictureviewerpro.com/hosting/zx81/zxarchive.htm

Siggi

Replies: 17
Views: 486
Last Post By: sirmorris ON: Tue Nov 18, 2008 1:48 pm
Topic By: sirmorris ON: Tue Nov 18, 2008 1:48 pm

How come no one thought of trying new modulation techniques instead of playing with baud rates?

Replies: 2
Views: 242
Last Post By: siggi ON: Wed Nov 19, 2008 5:32 pm
Topic By: BrunoFlorindo ON: Tue Nov 18, 2008 8:52 am
Wow, I never saw that site until now. Maybe the author's msn e-mail address is still valid?

Replies: 0
Views: 30
Last Post By: Andre ON: Mon Nov 17, 2008 5:47 pm
Topic By: Andre ON: Mon Nov 17, 2008 5:47 pm
Bonjour ZX81-TS1000/1500fans,

"ZXAKURO" is a cross-puzzle game using digits instead of words. There is only one possible answer for each grid. Digits 1 to 9 can be used only once in each continuous row or column. This fantastic brain game has large grids and digits on a neat and clear screen. The most noticeable feature is the FAULT INDICATOR which is unique to the ZX81-TS1000 version. When ending a game, the cursor pinpoints the faulty square.

GAME FEATURES:

-Instructions accessible at any time during the game.
-Any grids are accessible by code. (This allows you to re-start where you had previously stopped).
-Large and well defined play grid and digits.
-Colorful and clear screen.
-25 grids of different shapes.-Fault indicator when ending a game. (The cursor will position itself in the faulty square).

GAME OPTIONS:

CODE: Allows you to access any grids.
QUIT: Allows you to get out of the game. (Take note of the CODE to return to this grid later).
INFO: Allows you to re-look at the instructions
ENTER: Grid verification bringing the next grid...or bringing the cursor to flash in the faulty square

The ZX81-TS1000/15000 version of ZAKURO is the only one to have the "FLASHING FAULT" feature. And remember the program is written only with the Sinclair basic language.

Take a look at the screen shot...



Try the game and let me know your comments.

Have fun will travel, ANDRE***
http://www.zx-team.de/andre
http://zx81.ordi5.free.fr/andre

Replies: 5
Views: 162
Last Post By: Pyjamarama ON: Mon Nov 17, 2008 9:44 am
Topic By: Pyjamarama ON: Mon Nov 17, 2008 9:44 am
Hi again.Still no luck but I found the following info

"this is a PAL-version; the pre-1985 machines were produced for the US-market and therefore NTSC-versions. PAL or NTSC can be selected by soldering a link wire to a specific location (R30?)"

Does anyone know if it is possible to turn it to PAL and how can it be done (the questionmark makes me wonder )?
Thanx

Replies: 6
Views: 126
Last Post By: BrunoFlorindo ON: Mon Nov 17, 2008 5:41 am
Topic By: BrunoFlorindo ON: Mon Nov 17, 2008 5:41 am
Will do. But if you don't hear from me in about two weeks, please remind me.

Replies: 2
Views: 78
Last Post By: BrunoFlorindo ON: Mon Nov 17, 2008 5:40 am
Topic By: BrunoFlorindo ON: Mon Nov 17, 2008 5:40 am

yerzmyey wrote:BrunoFlorindo:

>In the ZX Spectrum world you can now do a couple of things:
-Stream digitized video from a CF or SD card, monochrome of full-colour
----------------
Yes. I use it by myself, however I'm only a poor (and pure ) BASIC coder, I make only slow BASIC loaders/players. The final effect is - the movie is in kinda 'slowmotion'. But we were thinking about making a prog on PC - for removing every second frame from the Spectrum film. It *should* work theoretically. Hm. We will see.

>-Same as above, but with digitized audio (the AY chip plays a little bit of sound after every video frame)
---------------
I'm not sure if there is a point of it but maybe You're right...? To listen such music instead of MP3...? Hm. I know Atari XL/XE guys do the same however it's not very popular.

>-Stream digitized video by loading data the old way (from tape, an mp3 player, etc)
-------------
??? What do You mean exactly? I'm not sure I understood.
Without HDD/CF? Too short amount of data, in my humble opinion.

>-Play music with digitized samples through the AY chip. Instead of using all the memory to store 4 seconds of digitized audio, tunes can now last for many minutes.
-----------------
Oh, I thought You previously mentioned *streaming*. Which require HDD/CF. Then You can stream unlimited amount of data (depending only on Your disk space).
As for this issue - yes, it can be surprising but ZX48K can play music in style of Amiga500 (composed music, don't mistake it with streaming). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yuTusrb1Xc

>Challenge: Can someone do this on the Zeddy?
------------
It will be hard.
Surely the video-streaming will work only with assembler, not with BASIC.
But on the other hand - resolution 320/200 (or was it 320/256?) is temting.
What RAM would be required to fit the player and amount of data needed to keep the move fluent? Let the coders say.

Replies: 2
Views: 53
Last Post By: floydbloke ON: Sun Nov 16, 2008 10:46 pm
Topic By: floydbloke ON: Sun Nov 16, 2008 10:46 pm
Thanks for the help as always sirmorris, my symptoms certainly look very much the same as the discussions you pointed me at. I'll check the ULA number when I get home tonight to confirm. (My apologies too, I should really have searched a bit harder than taking the lazy way out by just posting a question).

Unfortunately neither of the options you suggest are very appealing in that I don't have the physcial space for another telly, and here in NZ I don't fancy my chances of being able to get hold of another ULA. ZX81's for sale are few and far between, let alone their parts.

I might have a crack at Andy Rae's cirucit though, even with my limited electronics and soldering expertise I might be able to pull this off. On this topic, I'm struggling to get hold of an LM1881N locally, could I use a LMH1981MT instead (National Semiconductor will send me a sample free of charge) and if so what do I need to do with the pins that I don't use. Can I leave them 'floating'?

Also, the BF199 is proving difficult to source, are there equivalents I can use, e.g BC548 or BC639. (apologies again, other than PNP/NPN I really don't have much of a clue about the differences in transistors).

Replies: 2
Views: 53
Last Post By: floydbloke ON: Sun Nov 16, 2008 10:46 pm
Topic By: sirmorris ON: Sun Nov 16, 2008 3:02 pm
Howdy!

This looks like the 'back porch' problem. Early ULAs didn't form their video signal correctly, it was missing the part which a receiver uses in order to set the black level of the image.

This wasn't suck a problem in the old days with old days TVs, but the more moderner the TV, the more picky it is about its signal.

You most likely have two options. Get an old b/w portble TV from a jumble sale/car boot/freecycle or replace the ULA.

Here's some more info:

http://www.rwapservices.co.uk/ZX80_ZX81/forums/i-ve-got-my-zx-81-8-d-t54.html#p349


Good luck!

Replies: 2
Views: 53
Last Post By: floydbloke ON: Sun Nov 16, 2008 10:46 pm
Topic By: floydbloke ON: Sun Nov 16, 2008 9:13 am
My father very kindly dug the old Zeddy out of the closet and sent it down to me.

In high anticipation I hooked and powered it up, unfortunately to be presented with a screen that looks like this.

You can just make out the cursor.

When I switch input sources on the TV (tuner card in PC in this case) then back to 'TV', very momentarily the screen looks as it should , but then quickly fades to black as per the attached image.
Fine-tuning the frequency has no effect. The ZX81 is a NZ model, with an option switch for Ch 2/3 at the bottom of the unit, Ch 3 appears not to work at all.
I rudimentarily fitted the composite video mod as per http://www.zx81.de, with the same result except the picture qualtiy was slightly worse. Again though, this time flicking the switch on the bottom from 2 to3 and back would for an instant show the correct grey screen with black k, only to fade immediately.

Any thoughts as to what the problem might be and, more importantly, would it be fixable for not too much cost.

Replies: 4
Views: 126
Last Post By: yerzmyey ON: Thu Nov 13, 2008 9:21 pm
Topic By: yerzmyey ON: Thu Nov 13, 2008 9:21 pm
Aha. Thx.
Well - the result is the same somehow. Good news.

Replies: 4
Views: 126
Last Post By: yerzmyey ON: Thu Nov 13, 2008 9:21 pm
Topic By: sirmorris ON: Thu Nov 13, 2008 8:12 am
This circuit has the mod built-in.

Replies: 15
Views: 510
Last Post By: Moggy ON: Thu Nov 13, 2008 12:14 am
Topic By: Moggy ON: Thu Nov 13, 2008 12:14 am
Hi floydbloke

nice game cant wait for your next project. i noticed in an earlier post that you might use
zxas as your assembler if so use this link and download zxas(ge) for the ts1000, it doesn't have the bugs of the original zxas (ie error reports and non compilation of perfectly legal instructions).

http://www.zx81stuff.org.uk/zx81/indexframes.html

Also mastering machine code on your zx81 is iffy in places (addresses for the calculator routines are a bit out) depending on which revision of the book you have.

hope this is of use
all the best ,moggy

Replies: 2
Views: 78
Last Post By: BrunoFlorindo ON: Mon Nov 17, 2008 5:40 am
Topic By: yerzmyey ON: Wed Nov 12, 2008 12:03 pm
BrunoFlorindo:



>In the ZX Spectrum world you can now do a couple of things:
-Stream digitized video from a CF or SD card, monochrome of full-colour
----------------
Yes. I use it by myself, however I'm only a poor (and pure ) BASIC coder, I make only slow BASIC loaders/players. The final effect is - the movie is in kinda 'slowmotion'. But we were thinking about making a prog on PC - for removing every second frame from the Spectrum film. It *should* work theoretically. Hm. We will see.


>-Same as above, but with digitized audio (the AY chip plays a little bit of sound after every video frame)
---------------
I'm not sure if there is a point of it but maybe You're right...? To listen such music instead of MP3...? Hm. I know Atari XL/XE guys do the same however it's not very popular.




>-Stream digitized video by loading data the old way (from tape, an mp3 player, etc)
-------------
??? What do You mean exactly? I'm not sure I understood.
Without HDD/CF? Too short amount of data, in my humble opinion.



>-Play music with digitized samples through the AY chip. Instead of using all the memory to store 4 seconds of digitized audio, tunes can now last for many minutes.
-----------------
Oh, I thought You previously mentioned *streaming*. Which require HDD/CF. Then You can stream unlimited amount of data (depending only on Your disk space).
As for this issue - yes, it can be surprising but ZX48K can play music in style of Amiga500 (composed music, don't mistake it with streaming). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yuTusrb1Xc




>Challenge: Can someone do this on the Zeddy?
------------
It will be hard.
Surely the video-straming will work only with assembler, not with BASIC.
But on the other hand - resolution 320/200 (or was it 320/256?) is temting.
What RAM would be required to fit the player and amount of data needed to keep the move fluent? Let the coders say.




>http://www.worldofspectrum.org/forums/showthread.php?t=14420 (the last pages of that thread are the best)
http://www.ys3.org/?p=106
----------------
I will take a look.



>@Yerzmyey: Imagine if you could code something to play your digitized tunes on your zx81 at a demo party. I don't know if the Sample Tracker can be changed to create music for non-Spectrum AY-interfaces, but it would be cool![/quote]
--------------------
Well, could be possible but not for sure.
1) this engine requires almost all powers of ZX Spectrum
2) Dunno how would sound music fit by force into 16Kb, hehe. Original ZX-MODs from SampleTracker are prepared for 48Kb and they have themselves up to 36Kb or so.

Replies: 4
Views: 126
Last Post By: yerzmyey ON: Thu Nov 13, 2008 9:21 pm
Topic By: yerzmyey ON: Wed Nov 12, 2008 11:16 am
An interesting question:
when the memory is internal: hi-res mode work without any problems (like on ZX81 1Kb)??
Greetz.

Replies: 15
Views: 510
Last Post By: Moggy ON: Thu Nov 13, 2008 12:14 am
Topic By: floydbloke ON: Wed Nov 12, 2008 8:30 am
Thanks to sirmorris' templates, a stunning emulator and a scanned PDF of 'Mastering Machine Code on your ZX81' I've managed to cobble together my first assembly language program so I thought I'd share it. A simple game, based on the Casio mg-888 game-calculator of the same era as the zeddy, of chance where you have to try and wipe out all the numbers by selecting them. The total of the selection should equal the total of the dice, then newline wipes the numbers and rolls the dice again. Depending on the option selected at the start, you can pass if the total can't be made with the numbers left on the board (or you can pass any time you like). 0 to clear your selection if you've made an error.

Replies: 0
Views: 35
Last Post By: BrunoFlorindo ON: Tue Nov 11, 2008 8:42 pm
Topic By: BrunoFlorindo ON: Tue Nov 11, 2008 8:42 pm
Not by me. I wish it was mine though.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Sinclair-ZX81-Compu ... .m20.l1116

Replies: 14
Views: 663
Last Post By: Citabria ON: Tue Nov 11, 2008 7:20 pm
Topic By: Citabria ON: Tue Nov 11, 2008 7:20 pm
Thanks for the welcome. I haven't done anything with my ZX81 in at least 15 years but I would like to try it out when I get time. I would like to try a direct video output mod. I also have a 2K TS1000 to try out.

The ZX81 was not my first nor last computer but it's one of my favorites because the hardware is so simple and the software is so clever.

Replies: 6
Views: 126
Last Post By: BrunoFlorindo ON: Mon Nov 17, 2008 5:41 am
Topic By: gus ON: Tue Nov 11, 2008 2:03 pm
Hi Bruno, that will be grate if you do preserve the tape I can't find SpectraTerm or Smart Term on any site on the WEB

Thanks in advance,
Gus

Replies: 6
Views: 126
Last Post By: BrunoFlorindo ON: Mon Nov 17, 2008 5:41 am
Topic By: BrunoFlorindo ON: Tue Nov 11, 2008 3:33 am
Hi Gus. I do have terminal software for the ZX81, but it's not the one you're looking for. It's called SpectraTerm and it came with the Byte Back 300 bps modem (which I also have). Hmmm, now that I think of it, I'm not sure if this tape has been preserved or not. If you can't find it on WOS or in [url]zx81stuff.org.uk[/url] let me know and I'll TZX it for you.

I have the TS2050 modem but can't remember if I have the cassette. I'll try to find it between today and tomorrow.

Keep in mind that on a ZX81 no modem will work without the appropriate interface.

Replies: 6
Views: 126
Last Post By: BrunoFlorindo ON: Mon Nov 17, 2008 5:41 am
Topic By: gus ON: Mon Nov 10, 2008 7:27 pm
HI to All !!!
Well looking on the WEB I found that the TS2050 comes with a cassette that have a Smart Terminal I (for TS1000) and a Smart Terminal II (for TS2068) on the other side...
so the program that I need is Smart Terminal I
Any help ?
Gus

Replies: 6
Views: 126
Last Post By: BrunoFlorindo ON: Mon Nov 17, 2008 5:41 am
Topic By: gus ON: Mon Nov 10, 2008 6:18 pm
Hi Bruno !!!
Any other terminal software for the TS1000 ? how can I do some testing on the EO with the 2050 modem enabled ???
Thanks again,
Gus

Replies: 30
Views: 1064
Last Post By: BrunoFlorindo ON: Mon Nov 10, 2008 5:09 pm
Topic By: BrunoFlorindo ON: Mon Nov 10, 2008 5:09 pm
Excellent job! I enjoyed reading it and look forward to read the next one.

Sadly I have no articles to offer for now, but here are some things that I would love to see one day:

-Advertisement of someone who's willing to build hardware projects that appear on your magazine (for a price, of course)
-Hardware projects (Spectrum-compatible AY-interface, etc etc.)
-Stories/Memories from ZX81 users around the globe

Replies: 2
Views: 78
Last Post By: BrunoFlorindo ON: Mon Nov 17, 2008 5:40 am
Topic By: BrunoFlorindo ON: Mon Nov 10, 2008 5:02 pm
In the ZX Spectrum world you can now do a couple of things:

-Stream digitized video from a CF or SD card, monochrome of full-colour
-Same as above, but with digitized audio (the AY chip plays a little bit of sound after every video frame)
-Stream digitized video by loading data the old way (from tape, an mp3 player, etc)
-Play music with digitized samples through the AY chip. Instead of using all the memory to store 4 seconds of digitized audio, tunes can now last for many minutes.

Challenge: Can someone do this on the Zeddy?

I remember old threads from the ts1000.us forum where someone mentioned there are many tricks which can be used to store animations. If we use those tricks and inspire ourselves on what the Spectrum people are doing, I think we could do even better.

As I write this, people are trying to come up with the best way of compressing video and displaying it without wasting a lot of cpu cycles. The trick behind one of the video clips was to hide the 64 bytes of sound data behind screen attributes, something that the Zeddy doesn't have.

I know the Zeddy is slower than the Spectrum but... can it be done?

Here's some links with information that might be useful:

http://www.worldofspectrum.org/forums/s ... hp?t=14420 (the last pages of that thread are the best)
http://www.ys3.org/?p=106

@Yerzmyey: Imagine if you could code something to play your digitized tunes on your zx81 at a demo party. I don't know if the Sample Tracker can be changed to create music for non-Spectrum AY-interfaces, but it would be cool!

Replies: 17
Views: 486
Last Post By: sirmorris ON: Tue Nov 18, 2008 1:48 pm
Topic By: BrunoFlorindo ON: Mon Nov 10, 2008 4:47 pm
Excellent job decicoder! If you want another challenge try doing a zx81 version of Zinetrix. I wonder how impressed zx81 users would be if they could watch digitized video playing from tape or an mp3 player. Who needs IDE interfaces when you can load stuff at high speed through the old ear port? Hehe, I wish we had this stuff back in the days. How come no one thought of trying new modulation techniques instead of playing with baud rates?

Replies: 14
Views: 663
Last Post By: Citabria ON: Tue Nov 11, 2008 7:20 pm
Topic By: BrunoFlorindo ON: Mon Nov 10, 2008 4:41 pm
Welcome to the forum! Always good to see new people, especially when they know about hardware!

Replies: 6
Views: 126
Last Post By: BrunoFlorindo ON: Mon Nov 17, 2008 5:41 am
Topic By: BrunoFlorindo ON: Mon Nov 10, 2008 4:36 pm
I've never seen the version for the zx81. The only version I've seen preserved is for the TS2068 (last one on the bottom):

http://www.speccy.org/trastero/cosas/Drivers/Drives.htm

Replies: 4
Views: 106
Last Post By: Moggy ON: Sun Nov 09, 2008 6:10 pm
Topic By: Moggy ON: Sun Nov 09, 2008 6:10 pm
Hi Citabria

try this link for the rom you are after

http://www.aeri.com/search/68764

regards Moggy

Replies: 4
Views: 106
Last Post By: Moggy ON: Sun Nov 09, 2008 6:10 pm
Topic By: sirmorris ON: Sun Nov 09, 2008 10:29 am
I haven't been able to find one. I think I might prefer a second option right now though; Littlejohn's posting about his 32k upgrade has made me think about putting ROM in the 8k block..