Text modes? Colors? Size? Weight? Price?
8 messages · 2002-05-14 → 2002-05-14 · Yahoo Group era · View archive on archive.org
Participants: Johnny Red, William McBrine, Louis Florit, David Solly
Preserved from the Timex/Sinclair 2068 Yahoo Group (2001–2019), which is no longer online. Text reproduced from the archive.org archive; email addresses masked.
Messages
1. Text modes? Colors? Size? Weight? Price?
Louis Florit · Tue, 14 May 2002 09:44
I'm helping with some documentation and was wondering if any of you had
any of these data:
List of the available text modes on the Timex Sinclair 2068.
I found these, but I don't know if they cover the text modes (the
attributes, perhaps?)
Graphical resolutions
256x192 pixel, 32x24 attributes (Spectrum screen)
256x192 pixel, 32x192 attributes (extended colour mode)
I know there was an 80 column mode with the correct zebra OS cart.
Number of colors possible?
Size? Dimensions? I don't have these data or my TS2068 handy- anyone
care to measure it up for me?
Weight? Same as above.
Price? I read somewhere it was originally priced at $199.95
Considering the sale prices of some of this hardware now, you could argue
it was a good investment :)
Louis
2. Re: [ts2068] Text modes? Colors? Size? Weight? Price?
David Solly · Tue, 14 May 2002 10:30
Hello....
Text Modes:
64 : Tasword II; LARKEN DOS; LARKEN Max BBS
51 : HiSoft Pascal ver. 1.7M
M-Script allowed an almost limitless line length but could only display 64
characters at a time.
Some company called Beaver Softerware also produced screen handlers that
allowed 64 characters.
The Zebra OS-64 card displayed only 64 charaters to the best of my
knowledge. There may have been third party software to extend this but the
result must have been murder on the eyes.
Colours:
There are 8 primary colours and 8 "bright" colours on the standard T/S 2068.
There was also inverse, over and flash modes.
Cost:
I have periodicals from about 1983 in which advertisements for the T/S 2068
quote US$300. (I got mine early 1984 for C$125!)
Dimensions:
Width 37.5 cm
Depth 19 cm
----Original Message Follows----
From: Louis Florit <[email]>
Reply-To: [email]
To: Timex Sinclair 2068 e-group <[email]>
Subject: [ts2068] Text modes? Colors? Size? Weight? Price?
Date: Tue, 14 May 2002 09:44:41 -0400 (EDT)
I'm helping with some documentation and was wondering if any of you had
any of these data:
List of the available text modes on the Timex Sinclair 2068.
I found these, but I don't know if they cover the text modes (the
attributes, perhaps?)
Graphical resolutions
256x192 pixel, 32x24 attributes (Spectrum screen)
256x192 pixel, 32x192 attributes (extended colour mode)
I know there was an 80 column mode with the correct zebra OS cart.
Number of colors possible?
Size? Dimensions? I don't have these data or my TS2068 handy- anyone
care to measure it up for me?
Weight? Same as above.
Price? I read somewhere it was originally priced at $199.95
Considering the sale prices of some of this hardware now, you could argue
it was a good investment :)
Louis
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3. Re: [ts2068] Text modes? Colors? Size? Weight? Price?
Johnny Red · Tue, 14 May 2002 16:10
Oh sorry, I forget something:
80 columns mode is 512x192 pixels mode by software (not hardware as 64
columns mode). It is slow drawing in the screen (Basic 64).
Johnny Red, Portugal
4. Re: [ts2068] Text modes? Colors? Size? Weight? Price?
Johnny Red · Tue, 14 May 2002 16:10
Hi,
> List of the available text modes on the Timex Sinclair 2068.
> I found these, but I don't know if they cover the text modes (the
> attributes, perhaps?)
> Graphical resolutions
> 256x192 pixel, 32x24 attributes (Spectrum screen)
> 256x192 pixel, 32x192 attributes (extended colour mode)
512x192 pixels, no attributes
256x192 pixels, 32x24 attributes (Dual Spectrum screen)
Johnny Red, Portugal
Timex Computer World
www.timex.pt.vu
5. Re: [ts2068] Text modes? Colors? Size? Weight? Price?
William McBrine · Tue, 14 May 2002 11:32
On Tue, 14 May 2002, Louis Florit wrote:
> List of the available text modes on the Timex Sinclair 2068.
> I found these, but I don't know if they cover the text modes (the
> attributes, perhaps?)
> Graphical resolutions
> 256x192 pixel, 32x24 attributes (Spectrum screen)
> 256x192 pixel, 32x192 attributes (extended colour mode)
There are no text modes on the 2068. All text is rendered into pixels in
software; i.e., what used to be called a "bit-mapped" display, or graphics
mode. Both text and graphics can be used at any time on the same screen.
This sets the 2068 apart from most computers, then and now, which did and
do have separate text modes. (But modern PCs usually run in graphics mode
all the time once they're past the boot stage.)
In addition to the modes listed above, there's:
512x192 pixel, 1x1 attribute (high-resolution mode)
There's just one attribute for the whole screen in this mode.
> I know there was an 80 column mode with the correct zebra OS cart.
Actually 64 -- the cartridge was called "OS-64". The mode is built-in to
the 2068, and doesn't need the cart; what the cart does is to provide a
64-column version of BASIC. The mode is also used in MScript (a word
processor) and in my own Draw 512 (an art program).
Since it's bitmapped, it's possible to get 80 columns out of it, but it's
not great. (6-pixel-wide chars x 80 = 480, with 32 pixels left over.) Of
course it's also possible to get 64 columns out of 256 pixels, as Tasword
Two does -- you could extend that to 128 chars in the 512-pixel mode. If
you were crazy. ;-)
> Number of colors possible?
There are eight basic colors, along with "bright" and "blinking", for each
attribute area. This is very similar to the IBM PC's color text modes. The
high-resolution mode doesn't support bright or blinking IIRC.
> Size? Dimensions? I don't have these data or my TS2068 handy- anyone
> care to measure it up for me?
>
> Weight? Same as above.
I can get back to you on that.
> Price? I read somewhere it was originally priced at $199.95
That sounds about right. But I paid only $100 for my first one because it
had already been discontinued. :-( They can't have been on sale at full
price for very long... the poor thing was practically stillborn.
> Considering the sale prices of some of this hardware now, you could
> argue it was a good investment :)
Really? I paid about $7 for my last 2068, at a thrift store. Original box
and all. :-) I guess I'll have to check out the eBay prices...
--
William McBrine <[email]>
6. Re: [ts2068] Text modes? Colors? Size? Weight? Price?
William McBrine · Tue, 14 May 2002 11:42
On Tue, 14 May 2002, David Solly wrote:
> Text Modes:
>
> 64 : Tasword II; LARKEN DOS; LARKEN Max BBS
> 51 : HiSoft Pascal ver. 1.7M
But those aren't really text modes, just special uses of the basic 256x192
display. At least for Tasword -- I dunno about Larken. (Does it use the
512-pixel mode?) I don't remember it having that mode -- maybe it was a
later version than what I had. My (earlier) copy of HiSoft Pascal didn't
have a 51-column mode, either, but I assume that's using 5-pixel-wide
characters. There was some software that did the same thing on the TRS-80
CoCo, which also had a 256x192 graphics display. (But unlike the 2068, the
CoCo also had a separate text mode, which was 32x16).
--
William McBrine <[email]>
7. Re: [ts2068] Text modes? Colors? Size? Weight? Price?
William McBrine · Tue, 14 May 2002 11:53
On Tue, 14 May 2002, Johnny Red wrote:
> 80 columns mode is 512x192 pixels mode by software (not hardware as 64
> columns mode).
64-column text on the 2068 is just as much software-rendered as 80-column
text. But 80-column is slower, because 64-column is more "natural" for the
512x192 pixel screen. Each character is then one byte wide, and the fact
that the columns are interlaced isn't as much of a problem.
Oh, that's the most interesting thing about the high-res mode -- the
interlacing. Odd columns come from the first bank of display memory, and
even columns from the second. Of course this makes for great programming
entertainment when trying to cross column boundaries.
--
William McBrine <[email]>
8. Re: [ts2068] Text modes? Colors? Size? Weight? Price?
Johnny Red · Tue, 14 May 2002 20:01
> Oh, that's the most interesting thing about the high-res mode -- the
> interlacing. Odd columns come from the first bank of display memory, and
> even columns from the second. Of course this makes for great programming
> entertainment when trying to cross column boundaries.
Timex Basic 64 made it very well, using 64 columns or 80 columns.
Basic 64 suports up to 128 columns in 512x192 pixels mode. Of course this is
very slow and almost unreadable.
You can find Basic 64 in my website and use it on warajevo emulator.
It came with a demo for high resolution graphics and text.
Johnny Red, Portugal
Timex Computer World
www.timex.pt.vu