Timex/Sinclair 2068

From: Al Hartman <alhartman_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Thu Feb 27 09:02:01 2003

> From: "TeoZ" <teoz_at_neo.rr.com>
>
> Their improvements included more memory, a sound
> chip (yamaha?) that was incorperated into the later
> spectrums anyway (just different location) and
> built in joystick ports.

Yes, as well as Composite Video Out available on the
expansion port.

And don't forget the Cartridge slot!

> It was more bang for the buck compared to what the
> c64 costs during the same time. Timex also was
> going to make a disk system addon, did make a 1200
> baud modem, and some other stuff before they pulled
> the plug. No software meant a dead system.

The Spectrum was actually a bigger system in Britain
than anywhere else, being a home-grown system.

A disk system WAS made, but Timex in the U.S. never
marketed it.

We got a number of them from Timex in Portugal at
Zebra Systems and sold them for awhile. They were very
nice, and styled just like the 2068.

Timex Portugal sold 2068's a while longer (as they had
a lot of them in stock).

I really wanted us to sell them with 5.25 or 3.5
drives. But Timex was stuck with tons of 3" Amdek
drives and made it so attractive for us that we went
with those.

The bad thing for our users was that media was scarce
and expensive. Though nothing stopped them from adding
on their own external drives of any type. (not 1.2 or
1.44mb)

> Even if they didnt make the 2068 non compatible with
> the spectrum the british market and US market were 2
different thing.

Yes, but there was so much more cool software for the
Spectrum, and as you note... Very little for the 2068.

A Spectrum emulator solved that, however.

And people would call us constantly about the Twister
card so they could run ZX-Spectrum Microdrives. The
Interface One for the Spectrum also added serial
ports, which helped people run faster modems than the
1200 baud Timex Modem.

> Not having a disk drive available, and limited
> graphics and sound limited how usefull the machine
> was for games.

Yes. And not having a standard parallel port for
printers other than the 4" thermal printer wasn't so
good either. But, who really wanted to type long
documents on that keyboard anyway..

> I think they only made 20,000 units or so, and they
> get close to $100 on ebay for one. Mine is here
> somewhere and I did keep the original box (20
> years of dust and all)

I don't know how many were made. Your number sounds
like a good ballpark. Though Timex Portugal kept
making them. The made a 2048 and a TX-2068 which was
more like a Spectrum.

We were working on our own "Twister Card" at Zebra
Systems. It would have incorporated the Spectrum
expansion bus, a Spectrum Emulator, a Kempston
compatible Joystick port, Composite Interface, and an
RGB Interface.

We never got it to work properly though.

Which was a shame. If we had completed it, I think it
would have been the best expansion item in the US
market.


Regards,
Al Hartman
Received on Thu Feb 27 2003 - 09:02:01 GMT