Skip to content

TimexSinclairUserGroupExtraMeeting — December 20, 2021

David, Carl Miles, Tim Swenson, Adam Trionfo, TJ, Mark, Bruce

An informal extra Zoom meet that ran wide across hardware, software, and community-publishing topics. David opened with news that Don Dindang (Superfoe) — known for the discrete-logic Harlequin Spectrum boards based on Chris Smith's The Spectrum ULA — is working on a Harlequin variant that emulates the TS2068, with the home and expansion ROMs and the sound chip in their 2068 positions; current form factor is Spectrum but a 2068-PCB drop-in was floated. David also shared the 3D-printed 2068 cartridge shells someone posted to groups.io (with the right ridges) and the 1980s Brendels TV ad for the 2068.

On restoration and storage: Carl walked through the spray-paint match for the 2068 silver/grey two-tone (Krylon Shortcuts "Chrome" SCS-032 and matte shadow grey SCS-085, with a lacquer overcoat on the silver to stop it lifting). David is helping Neil Cohen revive a 2068 + Larken + Oliger setup and image Neil's Portuguese 3-inch Zebra discs using a Greaseweasel (STM32-based universal floppy controller); Tim and David noted that on Linux you can just dd a whole disc into a file and feed it to SpecEmu or FUSE — though neither emulator does TS2068 floppy emulation. Carl also showed his pocket-computer collecting (Casio PB-100, PC-3, PC-4, VX-4 with CASL/C, and Sharps), and his new Sord M5 (a Japanese CGL M5 with a flip-up cartridge door).

A software thread covered languages available for the 2068 (HiSoft Forth, Quill — a Forth with 2068 graphics extensions, HiSoft Pascal, HiSoft BASIC, Mega Basic, HiSoft C); Larry Kenny's history (Larken disk systems for the ZX81 and 2068, and his later CNC cutting machines that he initially tried to drive from a 2068 in Pascal before moving to a PC); and Art Colgate / S-Tech Automation in Albuquerque using Timex factory rejects as the brains of a 3-axis mill, with Ray Kingsley's HOT-Z as the assembler. Adam's recent article on porting Spectrum machine code to the 2068 prompted a longer discussion of disassembly tools (SkoolDaze), the 50 vs 60 Hz interrupt issue (e.g. Jetpac crashing), and Ariel Renieri's Argentine utility that wraps Spectrum titles (Atic Atac, Chucky Egg, etc.) into 32 K AROS-style cartridge ROMs across banks 0–3; David offered to post the link to the list. The group agreed flash chips are now the sane choice over EPROMs for new cartridges.

Other threads: full-size printers on the 2068 via the A&J Microdrive's Centronics port and William McBryan's printer drivers, Larry Kenny's final LK-DOS including a full-size printer driver, and the existence of TrueType fonts that reproduce the 2068/Spectrum/ZX81/QL printer character sets for preservation. David showed John Houlihan's December-20-1981 Timex 2000 concept sketch — exactly 40 years before the meeting — noting how fast Gary Grimes then iterated the industrial design. The session closed on community publishing: Tim Swenson is producing e-zines in Scribus and the group decided to consolidate contributions into Tim's existing magazine rather than start a parallel one, with a working convention of plain-text/OpenOffice/Word articles plus a separate zip per article carrying source code and binaries (no in-line code, no .rar/.7z, standard .zip only). David also asked about a 64 K RAM pack for a TS1500 that doesn't block the tape I/O ports (the Memotech is too tall) — to load a Larry-Kenny-modified View File that needs the full 64 K — and was pointed at Rich Mellor's sinclairzxworld.com forum and at internal-RAM mods as the likely path. Adam was handed the homework of trying the FUSIX cartridge image.

Highlights

  • Don Dindang's discrete-logic Harlequin board is being extended to emulate the TS2068 (home + expansion ROMs, sound chip in 2068 positions).
  • Carl's TS2068 case respray recipe: Krylon Shortcuts Chrome SCS-032 silver + matte shadow grey SCS-085, with a lacquer overcoat on the silver.
  • Imaging Neil Cohen's Portuguese 3-inch Zebra discs via a Greaseweasel; on Linux, dd-ing the whole disc to a file feeds SpecEmu / FUSE directly.
  • Ariel Renieri (Argentina) has a tool that converts Spectrum titles (Atic Atac, Chucky Egg, ...) into AROS-style 2068 cartridge ROMs across banks 0–3.
  • Decision: consolidate community articles into Tim Swenson's existing Scribus e-zine; submit as plain text + a separate standard .zip for source/binaries.

Topics: ZX Spectrum · Cartridges, EPROM & dumping · Disk & floppy systems (Larken, AERCO, Oliger) · Machine code, Z80 & assemblers · Printers & plotters · Newsletters & documentation

Summary generated from the meeting recording; the full transcript is kept in the group's private archive.