ZX-81 Question

From: Glen Goodwin <acme_ent_at_bellsouth.net>
Date: Sat Mar 23 23:34:20 2002

> From: John Chris Wren <jcwren_at_jcwren.com>

> Assuming I wanted to get a ZX-81, what would I want?

Take a stable ZX81 or TS1000 and pull off the composite video to feed a
monitor. Add a decent keyboard and bump the RAM to 64KB. You'll want a
printer and a good cassette recorder, too.

If you don't plan to add any hardware which requires a ROM, then you might
want to add NVRAM to the unoccupied 8-16K address space. A Hunter board is
perfect for this, if you can find one.

If you require hardware which could benefit from having code in ROM, then
the 8-16K space can be used by an add-on ROM.

> And are there any
> really good 'net resources for the ZX-81?

Yes! The ZX-TEAM home page is a good place to start:
http://home.t-online.de/home/p.liebert/zx-team.htm

Kai Fischer's ZX96 page shows an example of how far you can take this
machine:
http://home.freiepresse.de/befis/zx96_e.htm

Zebra Systems in NYC still sells unbuilt kits, but they are expensive:
http://www.zebrasystems.com/zebrasystems/zx81/index.html

For software, visit the University of Trondheim archive:
ftp://ftp.nvg.unit.no/pub/sinclair/zx81/

You can download the software and transfer it from a DOS-based PC to the
ZX81 using ZXTAPE and a modified PC-type parallel printer cable.

One program which is indispensable if FASTLOAD, which allows 4800 baud
cassette I/O, as opposed to the native 300 baud. This means you can LOAD a
16 KB program from cassette in < 40 seconds instead of 5 minutes.

The possibilities really are endless. My main ZX81 has an 80 MB hard drive
hung off it, which I will never come close to outgrowing. Let me know if
you have more questions . . .

Glen
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Received on Sat Mar 23 2002 - 23:34:20 GMT

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