Timex Sinclair User Group Meeting 86126819736 — November 1, 2021
David Anderson, Adam Trionfo, Carl Miles, Jeff Burrell, Stuart Galanter, Tim Swenson, Jeff Fetta, Mark Sheck, Jeff Teel, Rich Sutherland, Greg Bennett, Francois Lanciault, Kevin Steinhaus, Willie Jones, Leroy, Paulo, Thomas Skopinski, Bob, Al
Second Zoom meeting of the reconstituted Timex/Sinclair user group, hosted by David Anderson. After a long round of introductions, Adam Trionfo recapped the prior meeting (June 29 — 12 attendees) and noted that he and Carl Miles have been scanning a backlog of 2068/1000 books (including Sharon Zardetto Aker's TS2068 reference) and uploading them to archive.org.
The technical centerpiece was Jeff Burrell's demo of his FPGA-based 2068 edge-connector interface. The board pairs an FPGA (16K true dual-port SRAM as a VGA frame buffer, plus 1 MB SRAM and 4 MB flash) with a CH376 USB mass-storage chip (FAT file system, talks via I/O ports), an SD card socket, and a real-time clock. The flash holds multiple selectable ROMs — stock TS2068, his "2068+" with a high-speed serial X-ROM for PC downloads, the Spectrum GW ROM, and the TC2048 ROM. He showed BASIC-64 and Frogger running over VGA in the 64-column mode, loaded as TAP files pushed from a PC. A stripped-down version of the board could land around $60; he's ~85% of the way to a full 2068 hardware emulator.
Stuart Galanter (Zebra Systems) covered the modern peripherals he's begun importing from Karl Beckmann's Ginger Electronic in Germany: the ZX-CCB composite video adapter for the ZX81/TS1000 (fits inside the modulator can, sold bundled with jumper wires and an extra RCA jack) and tactile-switch replacement keyboards with overlays. He also gave a long history of Zebra's stock — including the ZX81 kits, books, and Memotech RAM packs he is still selling on eBay — and asked the group for recommendations on a tape-loading replacement to import or build.
A wide-ranging discussion followed about running Spectrum software natively on the 2068 without dropping into Spectrum emulator mode. Carl Miles laid out the idea of a remapped 2068 ROM that puts Spectrum ROM-call addresses back where Spectrum software expects them (using the X-ROM space for the Timex extensions); David flagged Daniel Nagy's Facebook/GitHub work on rewritten ZXE / 2068 ROMs (~25K, so it needs the X-ROM). Tim Swenson noted that BASIC-only Spectrum programs largely just run, that the 20% speed difference and lack of a 50 Hz mode will break some timing-sensitive games, and pointed to his port of the Boriel ZX BASIC compiler to the 2068. Other side topics: 3D-printing replica 2068 cartridge shells (Mark Sheck works for a 3D-printing company), Knighted Computing's lost catalog of 2068-native Spectrum ports, Leroy's MakeDOS 64 for AERCO, and Tim's ZXZine. The group agreed to meet on the first Monday of each month going forward, with a separate slot for European attendees.
Highlights
- Jeff Burrell demoed his FPGA 2068 interface board: VGA output, SD card, USB mass storage (CH376), 4 MB flash with multiple selectable ROMs (stock 2068, 2068+, Spectrum GW, TC2048).
- Stuart Galanter is importing the ZX-CCB composite video adapter and tactile-switch replacement keyboards from Karl Beckmann's Ginger Electronic in Germany.
- Long discussion on running Spectrum software natively on the 2068 by remapping ROM calls — Daniel Nagy's rewritten ROM work and Carl Miles's call-mapping table cited as starting points.
- Adam Trionfo and Carl Miles are scanning a 2068/1000 book backlog to archive.org, starting with Sharon Zardetto Aker's TS2068 reference.
- Group agreed to meet recurring on the first Monday of each month, with a separate slot to be arranged for European attendees.
Projects discussed: FPGA "Advanced 2068" Topics: User group meetings & events · Hardware projects & new boards · Spectrum emulation & software · Video upgrades (composite, RGB, HDMI) · Pico / modern interfaces (UnoDos, etc.) · Cartridges, EPROM & dumping
Summary generated from the meeting recording; the full transcript is kept in the group's private archive.