Sinclair ZX Spectrum Prototype • Hacker News Board

Re: Sinclair ZX Spectrum Prototype

#51

Post by blue1 » Tue, Mar 05, 2019, 11:44 PM UTC

reaperducer wrote: post #48

mysterydip wrote: post #5

For those like me looking for a bit of retro nostalgia but with some modern conveniences, I discovered a laptop version of the spectrum being made now with new parts: https://retroradionics.co.uk/omni-128-hq-laptop.html review here: http://markfixesstuff.co.uk/review/zx-spectrum-omni-laptop-r...

That's very cool. I wish there was a Commodore 64 version. Running an emulator on a laptop isn't quite right because of keyboard differences. Plus there's the whole joystick port thing.

The mega 65, when it will be ready, should do

Re: Sinclair ZX Spectrum Prototype

#52

Post by garganzol » Wed, Mar 06, 2019, 12:16 AM UTC

userbinator wrote: post #25

The custom gate array it uses was reverse-engineered and is described in detail in this book: http://www.zxdesign.info/book/ (Incidentally, it's GFDL so you can also find a legal PDF of it, but only buying a physical copy will support the author.)

Great book. The author should strongly consider to sell the PDF version of it.

Re: Sinclair ZX Spectrum Prototype

#53

Post by reaperducer » Wed, Mar 06, 2019, 3:57 AM UTC

blue1 wrote: post #51

reaperducer wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's very cool. I wish there was a Commodore 64 version. Running an emulator on a laptop isn't quite right because of keyboard differences. Plus there's the whole joystick port thing.

The mega 65, when it will be ready, should do

The laptop form factor is really the key for me.

Re: Sinclair ZX Spectrum Prototype

#54

Post by balabaster » Wed, Mar 06, 2019, 2:15 PM UTC

benj111 wrote: post #46

balabaster wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back then, a lot of the TVs had frequency and vertical and horizontal hold dials. There was a fair amount of leeway in tuning the device to display the picture consistently. I would assume nothing needed to be exact because you could fine tune on the fly. I remember when you tuned our 3 TV stations in the UK by dialing the frequency dial to the correct radio frequency. It's been a long time that I don't recall the ra…

"perhaps I recall ITV being 68 MHz" that would vary from transmitter to transmitter, or else they would clash.

Maybe, but our TV's had analogue frequency dials instead of buttons, so we had to tune them manually.

Re: Sinclair ZX Spectrum Prototype

#55

Post by beardyw » Wed, Mar 06, 2019, 2:28 PM UTC

The Complete Spectrum ROM Disassembly is a great book which I have had since those days. It is incredible how much they packed into that thing, and reading through for each function your reaction is going to be "is that it?". Available as a PDF with a quick Google. I have referred to it often to see the most economical way to do stuff.

Re: Sinclair ZX Spectrum Prototype

#56

Post by memsom » Thu, Mar 07, 2019, 9:30 AM UTC

JoeDaDude wrote: post #39

Great article! I wonder why the "Related Items" list does not include the Timex 2068 Color Computer [1]? Is this because the Museum does not have one? I cut my teeth on the 2068 and only just gave it up on eBay a year or so ago. I would have been glad to donate it to this museum had I known about it. Maybe a Wanted Items list could be posted? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timex_Sinclair_2068

Mainly because it was never available in the UK. There was a euro variant in Portugal and Poland, but it was incompatible with the UK Spectrum (both hardware and software), so didn't really have much point in the UK - where the Speccy was ubiquitous and easy to find software and peripherals for.