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The ZX81 Turns 40

theregister.com

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Re: The ZX81 Turns 40

#61

Post by ourcat »

Twirrim wrote: post #48
ourcat wrote: post #22

I had one of these at age 10. I still have it (at age 50) and it still works. Also the printer and a roll of paper. Whenever people ask me what my earliest memory is, I say the 16k RAM Pack. :)

I'm 40, I vaguely remember my parents had one at some stage, and I'm reasonably sure it had the 16k RAM pack, but the first I really remember is the ZX Spectrum with the 48K ram, and rubber keys. First thing I ever programmed, though mostly I wanted to play Chucky Egg, Manic Miner, Granny's Garden etc.

I never had a 'Speccy'.

Some old friends of mine wrote a song ages ago about the effect those machines had on us all, called "Hey Hey 16k" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts96J7HhO28

Re: The ZX81 Turns 40

#62

Post by dcminter »

Theodores wrote: post #45
dcminter wrote: post #3

If like me you have fond memories of the ZX81 (though not perhaps of the keyboard), then you might find this print interesting: http://www.alisoneldred.com/john-harris/fine-art-prints-1/sc...

Good find. For me the artwork looks better as the manual with the red writing.

I found it a while back and couldn't resist. I'm having it framed at the moment. I have the original manual from my own ZX81 (from which I taught myself to program) so I get the best of both worlds there.

I plan to have the print visible in the background on the webcam for work meetings to earn a bit of nerd cred.

Re: The ZX81 Turns 40

#63

Post by zokier »

trynton wrote: post #35
zokier wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

0 is actually what I'd expect as an answer. Even on very modern Python you get In [1]: 2.0**64 - (2.0**64-1.0) Out[1]: 0.0 Thats how floats behave like with operands that differ greatly in magnitude. Also this In [2]: 2.0**64 == (2.0**64 - 1.0) Out[2]: True

> 0 is actually what I'd expect as an answer. Even on very modern Python you get Given a four byte mantissa, it should be 1 for anything under and equal to 2^32 and 0 for anything over 2^32. Instead it outputted some random number. A bug in checking the flags or some-such. Or maybe a bug in the float to string routine.

The sign takes one bit off the mantissa.

Re: The ZX81 Turns 40

#64

Post by rootbear »

criddell wrote: post #15
nickt wrote: post #11

In terms of ROI, the best £69.95 I ever spent (I still have the receipt from WH Smith). It wasn’t the first computer I ever used, but it’s the first one I ever owned at age 9 and it led me down the path that’ll be familiar to many here... I’m glad I still have it, and the Spectrum and Amiga’s that followed. Incredibly, the ZX81 hardware and software scene is still alive. You can get parts for it quite easily, includi…

I asked for a TI-99/4A because that's what my best friend had and we would make games and share them with each other. When I think back to the microcomputers of the early 80's, I'm kind of astounded that they sold in the numbers they did. They were pretty useless.

I never had any of the classic 8-bit home computers. I built a CP/M system from an Ampro Little Board, connected to the Heathkit H19 terminal I put together. The downside of that was little commercial software, but I mostly used it for accessing the University VAX 11/780. I follow a bunch of retro-computing Youtubers now and I feel like I missed out on something. My best friend had an Apple II and was always suggesting I get one. He still has it.

Re: The ZX81 Turns 40

#65

Post by ddingus »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #30
criddell wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I asked for a TI-99/4A because that's what my best friend had and we would make games and share them with each other. When I think back to the microcomputers of the early 80's, I'm kind of astounded that they sold in the numbers they did. They were pretty useless.

They were imagination amplifiers. The computer itself didn't do much so you had to fill in the gaps by imagining the things it wasn't doing - often guided by some exciting cover art on books and games packaging. You could also expand your imagination by thinking of the things you might do if you worked hard at it, or if it was only slightly bigger/faster/better. Modern computing is the opposite. It does so much it do…

Great phrase!

In my view, this is one of the appeals very low resolution graphics can bring to the table.

Code does not have to do much, which helped the fun alone.

See the blue ones? Yeah, collect those. Reds are baddies...

Or, on a ZX81 or PET, it was just shapes.

Still that was enough. Let the mind run wild!

Re: The ZX81 Turns 40

#66

Post by elvis70 »

ourcat wrote: post #22

I had one of these at age 10. I still have it (at age 50) and it still works. Also the printer and a roll of paper. Whenever people ask me what my earliest memory is, I say the 16k RAM Pack. :)

The 16k RAM Pack, a life lesson in itself.

Re: The ZX81 Turns 40

#67

Post by neilv »

criddell wrote: post #15
nickt wrote: post #11

In terms of ROI, the best £69.95 I ever spent (I still have the receipt from WH Smith). It wasn’t the first computer I ever used, but it’s the first one I ever owned at age 9 and it led me down the path that’ll be familiar to many here... I’m glad I still have it, and the Spectrum and Amiga’s that followed. Incredibly, the ZX81 hardware and software scene is still alive. You can get parts for it quite easily, includi…

I asked for a TI-99/4A because that's what my best friend had and we would make games and share them with each other. When I think back to the microcomputers of the early 80's, I'm kind of astounded that they sold in the numbers they did. They were pretty useless.

The TI 99/4A was great in some ways, especially because at one point TI was dumping or loss-leadering them, so, IIRC, a family eventually could pick up one for $50.

Though, one of the big drawbacks of it, relative to some other home computers of the time, is that you couldn't really take advantage of the overpowered graphics processor using the TI BASIC that came with it. To use assembly language, you needed a rare add-on. IIRC, there was also an Extended BASIC cartridge, which was also rare.

But the TI 99/4A wasn't useless -- you could do a lot with character set definition and sound from the stock BASIC, and it came with a great introductory book that taught you enough to get started creating with those. With some creativity, you could do a lot with that. (Flight simulator? So long as you didn't bank too fast for characters to be redefined for the horizon, maybe. :)

I recall the family going to some dingy school-supply audio-visual store to look at their Apple computers. They had the //c and I think //e on display. Then my parents saw the price, and I could tell it was way too high. So, TI 99/4A it was, plugged into a portable little B&W TV that my dad bought from a guy at work. (Until I made enough money lawn-mowing and babysitting and various money-making schemes, and a kindly computer store owner gave me what had to be a below-cost deal on a semi-compatible PC.) Apple got some pre-Mac glory for microcomputer innovation, but I suspect that the non-Apple $100-$250 home computers reached more families at the time.

Having a computer was infinitely better than no computer, and the TI 99/4A was a good little imperfect computer.

Re: The ZX81 Turns 40

#68

Post by Theodores »

dcminter wrote: post #62
Theodores wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good find. For me the artwork looks better as the manual with the red writing.

I found it a while back and couldn't resist. I'm having it framed at the moment. I have the original manual from my own ZX81 (from which I taught myself to program) so I get the best of both worlds there. I plan to have the print visible in the background on the webcam for work meetings to earn a bit of nerd cred.

It deserves to be licensed as a desktop wallpaper in Ubuntu or another operating system.

Re: The ZX81 Turns 40

#69

Post by timbit42 »

sys_64738 wrote: post #39
TMWNN wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

sys_64738 is referring to Commodore running a tradein program for $100 off a C64 with any computer or videogame console. People purchased the Timex Sinclair for $45 solely to trade in ( https://dfarq.homeip.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/timex-co... supposedly, Commodore used them as doorstops.

The C128 from 1985 had a Z80 built into it. Where did those come from I wonder?

Bil Herd claims he took the Z80 used in the prototype C128 from one of the ZX81 doorstops.

Re: The ZX81 Turns 40

#70

Post by DoubleGlazing »

I had one. I loved it, even though I was too young to "get" coding on it. It was the arrival of Spectrum that got me in to coding.

That being said, when I got my Spectrum I taped my ZX81 to the handlebars of my bike because I thought it looked cool. I crashed in to a lamp post whilst pretending to type on it.

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