OOOOThe Boston Conputer Society
SINCLAIR-TIMEX USER GROUP NEWSLETTER
Way is this nbn-riisws av'ticie ori tne front page of this much
delayed BCS S/TUG Newsletter ? Perhaps oecause every word in
tit comes eitner from your erstwhile editor with the exception
of John Connell’s effort, from tne perennial Mike Coughlin,
who is not even a member, pr‘ from some other newsletter
received in excha'nge. It^^seems that our membership is quite
simply doing nothing. Or at least nothing they want to share
with the wide-world. There has been continual request for a
newsletter," and’ a few volunteers to “help" out, but no news!
Things have gbt to change. The membership will have to
take more responsibility for this publication. We need a brief
but accurate record of each meeting. The volume of exchange
newsletters requires that readers review past issues to glean
information, find someone out there must be using softwav'e the
rest of the group hasn’ t heard of.
If we hope to keep some interest in the original ZX
machines and the hundreds of TS1000’s gatrhering dust around
the region, members will have to let us know what, if
anything, they’re still doing with them. (Mine is running an
Avaiov-i Hill game I got for ^£.00 at Uni-Tech without the
instructions. Anybody out there have the rules to "Midway"?)
What’s happened to the FORTH phreaks ? We know you’re out
there somewhere ? Have all the educators who thought really
cheap computing might be a good idea given up ? Can our
orphans be TOade to interface with some of the newer machines
and find a future as satellite systems ? We keep hearing aoout
amazing hardware k luges from Dave Miller; is no one else
fiddling about with ZX/TS equipment ? The machine code group
is still meeting. Who’s going to write up their proceedings ?
Anyone having material to submit for this publication
please get unfolded typed copy in column-forniat to me for the
next (and hopefully not the last) newsletter! which will come
out in May. *
And finally, i4.4f we are to have more than four 4 page
publications a year, containing anything more than recaps of
oast meetings and the odd tidbit, someone is going to have to
contact the remaiihihg Timex/Sinclair suppliers and other
appropriate sources to garner advertising.
I’m waiting. Will Stackman Editor? l&S Raymond St.
Cambridge MA 0£140 (617) 547-0655
It would be pleasant to report
that the new year has brought some
new hopes onto the scene one year
after the demise of the the Timex
Computer Corp. . Higginbottom still
remains a rumor; a less and less
believable one in the face of the
impending Commodore/fltar i price
war. Various suppliers, notably
Games to Learn By in CT. , and
Zebra Systems in NYC. continue to
offer what limited support is
available. "Spectrumi z ing " your
2068 will allow you access to a
great deal of software, much of
which must be purchased by mail
from the U. K. . However, hardware
peripherals are best run using the
Timex buss. Telecommunications is
becoming popular but without even
one local T/S BBS, this does
little to advance the cause. find
very little has been done to
access the advanced capabilities
of the £068 (all that memory, 64
or 80 column screens,
sophisticated sound), fi number of
dedicated users are out there, but
without surrounding support and
hope for some recognition, let
alone gain, things seem to be
stagnating. Which is why this
newsletter has very little news.
The Very Late August issue of the
Triangle Users Group from Vfl.
arrived for Xmas (We’re not the
only ones behind. ) Contains a
utility for printing sideways from
Dick Scoville, ditto a review of
£068 FIG Forth put out by Hawg
Wild Software from Little Rock
which suggests some serious
limitations to this
implementation. For one thing it’s
slow!
The following tips, aids, hints
were compiled by Geo. Mockr idge in
TIMELINEZ from the San Francisco
Bay Area.
POKE £3609,100 Actually any nurnbat
between 0 and £55. This will
change the sound each keystroke
makes from Click to Beep and
beyond.
POKE £369£, 255 Use before every
PRINT and defeat the scroll.
POKE £3658, 8 To get Caps Mode.
POKE £3658,0 To go back to U/L.
POKE £3561, n (n = i to 35) to
control repeat time for key¬
strokes. 10 to 15 for text.
Try USR 15002 to get out of an
INPUT loop (without crashing?)
DIM a$(704) : PRINT AT 0,0; OVER
1; PAPER x; INK y; a$ will allow
a change of paper and ink without
clearing the screen.
The new Zebra Systems Catalog is
available, quite extensive, and
listing a new l.ow price for the
Koalapad and some fancier drawing
software for the same. The Zebra
Talker with Text to Speech
software is also available at a
comparable price. Modem users (see
John Connell’s article) may want
to checkout LETTERITER/BUFFERITER
which is a word processor
specifically designed to
interface with the £040 printer
and the £050 Modem. The
adventurous may want to get a
Spectrum 3 ROM and try their own
conversion. Write to Zebra
Systems, Inc. , 78-06 Jamaica Ave. ,
Woodhaven, N.Y. 11421. Their BBS
is up M— F 5:30 pm to 9 am. Sat,
Sun. & Holidays at (718) £96-££29.
1
BONTft Software in California
offers two routines to check if
the 2040 printer is on.
For ZX81/TS100/1500;
1 REM <= CLS ?flCS STAN
2 POKE 16516,71
9996 LET PRT = USR 16514
9997 IF PRT > 16383 THEN PRINT "
PRINTER OFF"
9998 IF PRT <=16383 THEN PRINT
"PRINTER ON"
9999 STOP
FOR TS 2068;
1 REM FLfiSH CLS G THEN LN <>
2 LET PRT = USR(s+PEEK 23635+256*
23636)
9997 IF prt >16383 THEN PRINT
"Printer off"
9998 IF prt <=16383 THEN PRINT
"Printer on"
9999 STOP
SINCLAIR 10^
^liiw
i'M km..
-i.. : 4:,
OSBOeiBBOSO
O ra B B a n Cl B B c
LORDING Tja
FLASH
BONUS
UIERS
3D PLAf'P
SELF LI^
SANDA?'®
tape unlock^
STANDARD HC LOADES
PHASOS
try THIg
JUST FOR FL®
SIN^
FLOUEia
ETCHSKETCB
SPEED LANDES
DODG§
KEYGRM§
TOUCH TYPS
STATISTIC®
SLOPl
FN PLOg
NICH§
SUPER FN PLOg
EXTENSION TO . .g
B
multiple PROGRPHS XH
PRINTER HI REB ■•Sr.uRfl
MAGAZINE B
MAGAZINE S
CUBIC MA^g
DRAGON* S DEATH _
OSCILISOOPg
16K TAPE UTIL ITS
ISK ASSEMBLES
TEXT P
TEXT 2,g
TIMEX SINCLAIR 100®
JRC POST^
PRINTER HI R^
INDIANA SENT
Us thejlR oupertape to REUIEU
Xn? CATALOG ABOUE WAS PRINTED
OUT By the first PROGRAM. A
NAME READER. THIS COLLECTION IS
since its
SIDES LOADING
CAN BE tricky . THIS NOTE URS
T'/PED USING TEXT EDITOR 2.3
yNIpH CAN BE ADAPTED FOR 30
COLUMN OUTPUT . THE IMAGE BELOW
CURIOSITIES ALSO
INCLUDED. DOCUMENTATION IS
UAPIABLE, BUT
WHOLE, AN INTERESTING
CONGLOMERATION.
1
4
MODEM NOTES
The software supplied with the
Westridge £050 Modem only lets a
TS Computer act as a "dumb"
terminal, a receiver with no
memory. Anything to be saved must
be copied from the screen on a
£040 printer.
The so-called "Smart II"
software for the £068, by
contrast, allows the computer to
store up to £7K bytes of
information received. Text can
then be reviewed on screen later,
printed out on any compatible
printer, or saved onto tape.
This software also allows the
user to transm, it previously
prepared text material either from
software memory (editable only by
backspace deletion) or from
text files prepared on a word-
processor (e. g. Tasword ) and
loaded into memory for
transmission.
The following hints suppose
that you have worked with your
£050 after carefully reading the
manual, and that you are
proficient in £068 "BASING".
1) The memory (called ’the buffer’
in the manual) starts at decimal
location £6710, the same location
where BASIC programs start.
PY'ograms will therefore be
contained in the ’ buffer’ .
£) Then, to print out a buffer of
say 5000 bytes, one would enter
FOR n=£6710 TO 31709; LPRINT
CHR% PEEK n;: NEXT n
To save this data to tape, enter
SAVE "buffer" CODE 26710, 5000
3) The text you receive (from
other computers) will contain CR
(carriage returns, ASCII 13) and
sometimes LF (linefeeds, ASCII 10)
as well. " Smart erm II" lets you
suppress either or both of these.
If you plan to printout the
’buffer’ later on a full-width
printer, the results look best
with linefeeds suppressed (LF
suppression: ON) but carriage
returns left on (CR suppression
:OFF)
4) CON, whatever that is, should
be set to NONE.
5) Sometimes prepared text will
not have a CR at the end of each
line. Tasword, for example, does
not. It also has unwanted space
between paragraphs. Possible
solutions include using a symbol
(such as #) to denote CR and
copying the text byte-by-byte
using BASIC, ie first POKE 13
anywhere there’ s a #, then
suppress all spaces (ASCII 32)
after a #. In other words,
reprocess your prepared file
before dumping it to memory for
transmission.
6) When transmitting such text to
a mainframe, the first few bytes
after a CR can be garbled.
Inserting a dozen ASCII 0’s (no
operation) . after each ASCII 13
(CR) gives the big one time to
catch up (or something like that).
The Westridge £050 Modem makes
it quite feasible to use your TS
2068 for both recreational
computing and communicating with
that mainframe at work an hour’s
drive away. Try out the BCS BBS at
(617) 646-3610 (when it’s up) or
more reliably, Yellowdata at (617)
489-4930.
John Connell (413) 596-6869
10 PRINT CODE CHR$ RND;
20 GOTO 10
10010001111101110010100000010110
00011000100000001100100111001000
00000101010101101001111001010011
00110010111100110111010110000001
10100101001110100111000000100111
11110010110110110000010011110101
NEED fl FEU COIN-FLIPS 7
1
7) If you try to transmit 500®
□ytes of text previously prepared
and loaded via CODE £671®, 5®®®,
you will discover unfortunately
that your Westridge Modern will not
cooperate.
It seems that Smarterm II doesn’t
believe that the buffer contains
your text i.e. BUFUSD must equal
50®® or more. I have not yet
discovered where to POKE this
value.
Instead I fill the duffer with
enough bytes, say 500®, before
loading the actual text. No, you
don’t nave to type "x" 5®®® times.
There’s a trick.
Turn off your modern. Switch
duplex to half. Write a few bytes,
say "abcdef ghi j " ; BUFUSD now
equals 1®. Transmit this
"buffer". Since the modem is
off, "tranrnission" is very fast;
and the 1® bytes are copied into
the buffer because the setting is
half duplex. BUFUSD has been
doubled. Repeat this process, BUFSD
is doubled again and now equals
40. Ten such "transmissions" will
quickly fill the buffer with 51£®
bytes.
You may now load and transmit
your text. Good luck.
J.C.
1 REM <= CLS ?RCS
2 PfH(E 16516,71
9996 LET FRT=iJSR 16514.
9997 IF PRT>16383 THEN f^mCT “PR
INTER
9998 IF PfTT<=16383 THB< PRINT
RINTER OH-
9999 STC»» ; RBI FOR 751008
1 REM FLASH CLS 8 THEN LNO
9996 LET prt^USR C5-»PEEK 23635-1^2
56SPEBC 236%)
9997 IF prt >16383 TfCN miNT “Pr
inter Off-
9998 IF prt<=16%3 THB< PRINT -P
rinter oi»-
9999 STCN» : REH for 2068
MORE 2068 TIPS »N HINTS
Got a long load. If you don’t want
auto-run, add BEEP to the SAVE
instruction, ie SAVE "Long load";
BEEP 5, 1. If you want
auto-run, make the target line a
BEEP.
Want SCROLL for your 2068. Try POKE
£3692, 1 or £ where you’d scy'oII on
a ZX8i.
Problems with non-compat i bi 1 ity
between Spectrum software and the
various adapters (ROMSwitcn,
Chameleon, etc. ) have been traced
to i0K ohm pill-up resistors used
in the Spectrum to insure that IN
statements from the keyboard read
£55 when no key is pressed. The
Timex keyboard is different. Most
converters can be modified with
approriate resistors; some newer
models already have oeen.
BASIC software incompatibility
is often due to a difference in
RAMTOP. l6K programs are
part icul ary vunerable. Consult
approriate manuals for necessary
modifications. (An article would ae
welcome. )
An Atari-compatible trakoall can be
adapted for use with £068 by
cutting the trace from pin 7 and
then run a jumper from pin 7 to 6ND
(Pin £9 on the Z-S® can be used).
This will not change joystick
performance as this line is
supposed to be logical low which
GND will supply.
Now that cheaper RBG monitors are
appearing (Panasonic composite/ RBG
have been seen for around 1^£0® ! )
E. Arthur Brown’s Interface ($19. 95)
may be a good investment although
tinkering seems to be required. Be
prepared to adjust your "pots". The
Sears monitor and its accompanying
cable seems to be the easiest to
use. (Cost around $35® on sale)
BRANB-H
Oyep a year ayo^ TRS announced
the MC-10, a miniature color com¬
puter with a token ized BASIC prob-
3.biy intended to compete with our
TS2868. Marketed with no apparent
enthusiasm and euen less supports
conw^uter became an "orphan"
almost iiraned iate ly .. selling at re¬
duced prices u^ere auailable.
Conv>arison with the 2068 are in-
structiue. Both keyboards haue real
keMS . but HC-10 has only 3 func¬
tions a key, with "control" to the
ig-ft used for tokens and "shi+t"
to the right for punctuation and
gr-sphics. Although it can be ex¬
panded to 16K RAM, the MC-10 starts
,Dff with only 3,142 bytes RAM due
to the Micro-Color system.
Its color capabalities are uery
limited, of course. The only text
screen is a rather ghastly green
with black letters - no changes
possible. Only lo/res block gra¬
phics can be used with pixel color.
In fact, despite the ingenuity of
this miniscule system, color is
probably best avoided on this
corfiputer .
However, since the whole system
»ias sold for under $100 minus prin¬
ter , <a small thermal with moving
hiisdi .perhaps other virtues might
be’ found. There is a RS23c _ interface
for modems and printers. Cassette
mass storage is as fast as the
2068. but there is no Verify
co?rima.nd. In fact, the Remote
Control shut-off included on the
special hook-up cord required is
not ir^D len»nted . But a RESET button
is built ini Many TRS BASIC
pnograiTss ca.n be used ‘.a. 1 though none
can be loaded from the CoCo) . Error
TTsessages are two letter ab¬
breviations and useful. The^SOUNB
function is comparable to BtEP .
These limited capabilties might
still fr:ake this a usable teaching
machine, but the implementation of
BASIC and the lack of a line editor
precludes even this use. Keyboard
Vauout is "logical" but barely func
tional. BIM, BATA, S-. REM have not
token ized. iwhile functions
such as SGN and LOG are. The arrow
keys, in the absence of an editing
system, are almost irrelevant.
So u#iy should we care? TS2068
is incontrovertably the better com¬
puter and about as available. The
same number were probably sold.
There is much more TS user and 3rd
psnty support; there is even more
residual manufacture support for
the TS868.
Suite simply, there are no token
ised popular machines currently
marketed. Corrarodore BASIC permits
a curious set of abbreviations.
There are utilities which allow
assigning function keys, etc. to
speed typing in other systems. But
Those of us who prefer programming
to typing have few options. The
failure of the MC-10 and the demise
of TIMEX leaves the aging QWERTV
keyboard as the default computer
input once again. Whichis one more
reason to wait for the GL. Maybe
there'll be a I'vorak version with
tokens moved as well.
*
/ i
/
/
/
/
*
/
/
/
/
'V
is
I ■■■'
>
/ :
/
/
> *
■4-
/
*
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
r
MOBS OS-BOARD ME30RI fOS ZX-81/T3-1000
New meaory chips are available that reduce
the need for the vobhl7 BAM pack. The
original ZZ-81 used two ^ x 4 bit SAM
chips while the TS-1000 uses one 2k x 8
chip. Vlhile ^ X 8 memories are available,
they are expensive (about $40) and haj^ to
install since something must be unsoldered.
Inmos Corp. makes miJX x 4 memory which can
easily replace the two memories that
are used on most ZX-81 ' s . The IKS 1420-1 OL
sells for $8.35 in small qxiantlties.’ Only
three pins must be changed on each new
memory. Find two 20 pin DIP sockets whose
pins will plug into the old memory sockets.
Bend pin 19 of the new sockets so they
stick out to the side and not connect to
old pin 18. Then plug the new socl^ets in
the old so the overhanging end is towards
the edge connector, as shown in the dotted
lines in the diagram. Pin 20 is soldered
to the 5 volt supply (a short connection) ,
while pins 1 and 19 are soldered to All
and A10. I used fairly long connections,
as shown, but you could find a shorter
connection with a little searching.
Plug in your new memory chips and test.
You should notice an Increased delpy for
the reversed K to appear. The command
PRINT PEac 16389*256 - I6384
will retxirn 4096 if everything is working.
^ sockets
beginner), be sure to use 22 pin sockets,
even thou^ you will have to bend 5 pins
out of the way. Why? Because someone is
going to make a 16k x 4 memory chip.
If this airticle has really inspired you to
do a memory modification, remember MosteR
is selling a 32k i 8 bit memory in a 28 pin
package. It souldn*t, take many changes to
the Sinclair/Tlmex board to make it fit.
Price is supposed to be around $50, part
number is MK4856. I
TIMEX/SINCLAIR
GAMES TO LEARN BY
Charles Warner
P.O. Box 575
2 South Street
Williamsburg.Mass.
01096
413-268-7505
igarbuiarp'
David Oubay
RO. Box 78
28 Claire Hill Rd.
Collinsville, Ct.
06022
203-673-7089
T/S 2068 Computer Program Recorder
T/S 2040 PRINTER fiOMSlUITCH
§nftuiarp=
OVER -50- TS/2068
-40- TS/1500
includes: 1000
HOME/ BUSINESS /EDUCATIONAL
WORDPROCESSOR / GAMES
VUOVLC DEATHCHASE
VU-FILE plight FROGGER
VU-3D SIMULATOR PINBALL
X
'oo
jpoao^)d aaxwna’y
■yooA ^Xcvuo'dd
■^ot/dS ^\-H-L
■L-
-L/§
Ol.
9§n
•uoi::5.eiuuoj.ui: dtMsuaqaiauj 0908-^32 aoT^io SDO :i3eq.uo3
'sndiuBo 04, ax;j.q.nu|5 Xq.TSJaATun ai-ia aptv* pue uota^ag etqwnTog
oa auTTpay yiaw aMa a>iea >^0 ‘XeMssajdxg 33 aqa- asnf
■pAig Aassxuuow wouj uoxa'^^OT stqa Moeay ‘AuFuqT-i qjf aqa oa
auaneCpF ‘uoasog ux a'-<‘TOd axqiunxog a® sndwFO uopwieq ss^w/n aqa
J.O lunxaoaxpriy aouaxog aqa ux 210:2. a® qa'-^ow qoea j,o A\?psaupa|«t
puxqa aqa uo saaauj dnoug xaiuxi/<.AXBT3uts aqx “AaatDos uaaridiuo^
uoasog aqa j.o uoxas^Tiand e sx uaaaaiswaN 001/3 303 SPI
The Boston Computer Society
One Center Plaza
Boston, MA 02 1 05
|rM
22 MAY /
I •JaasX
NON-PROFIT
Circle Chess Group
A. F. Stanonis
P.O. Box 63
Des Plaines, IL
60017
