Timexpo Museum
4 messages · 2004-11-01 → 2004-11-01 · Yahoo Group era · View archive on archive.org
Participants: Johnny Red, Tarquin Mills
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. Timexpo Museum
Tarquin Mills · Mon, 01 Nov 2004 16:41
Timexpo Museum
175 Union Street
Brass Mill Commons Mall
Waterbury
Connecticut
CT 06706
USA
Dear Sir/Madam,
I understand from a website (http://www.timexsinclair.com/timexpo.html)
that your official museum of the Timex company does not include
Timex's positive contribution to the home computer world.
Timex made computers for the great Sinclair Research in their
Dundee factory in Scotland. Timex then went on to produce a clone of
the Sinclair Research ZX81 for the US (and other markets) the TS1000,
TS standing for Timex/Sinclair. This became the cheapest computer in
history selling for as little as $10. Worldwide the TS1000 and ZX81
out sold all other computers up to that point including CP/M machine,
Apple II and even the IBM PC. Timex went on to produce an improved
version of the TS1000 called the TS1500. In Britain, Sinclair produced
the ZX Spectrum, a classic, better than the ZX81 in every way. Timex
designed the TS2068, this was an improved ZX Spectrum clone designed
to take on the Commodore 64, unfortunately, wrongly, Timex withdraw
from the market a few months later, after tens of thousands had been
sold. However Timex in Portugal kept making and designing Sinclair
clones for non-Sinclair controlled markets, while Timex also continued
motherboard production for embedded systems. Before Timex US left the
computer market they had plans to develop new computers, and I
wondered what they would have done with the QL. To this day
Timex/Sinclair systems still have a following.
Even though Sinclair and Timex systems were inexpensive this
did not make them bad, they were a computer everybody could afford,
often people's first computer. They were full computers, most of my
fellow computer science students started programming (in BASIC) on
Sinclair computers, often made by Timex. As the computers were so
standardised nearly all software would run on them and it was cheap
too, and popular games were of very high quality.
The following is a quotation from Camille Goudeseune about Timexs in
1985 from net.micro.zx:-
Yes, I do admit to owning the volkswagen of computers. Essentially, there
is nothing the humble ZX can't do that, say, a PC can. It's just slower,
lower resolution, and 2^1000 times cheaper. Also, I like my ZX because
you don't need to read a stack of manuals to master it, both in hardware
and software. It's a wonderful thing if you write in assembler, and among
the gizmos I've added to my system are 2 good keyboards, an 8-bit parallel
I/O board, 16K (eventually I'll get around to piggybacking another 32K
above that), the only new $50 printer in existence, and a "robot" radio-
controlled car. And all this for under $500, considering that I bought
90% of that stuff over 3 years ago! Beat that, PC et al!
(Now if only I could buy about 128 of them and figure out parallel
processing... (sigh) :-} )
Camille Goudeseune
I have signed the petition on the website but felt this was
not enough, so I have written to you to express my disappointment that
the computing part of Timex's history seems to have been air-brushed
out of your museum. I and others would like to see a permanent display
of Timex computers and a virtual display on your website.
Yours sincerely,
Tarquin Mills, BSc (Hons)
(member of the Computer Conservation Society)
=======================================================================
The museum sent an email in reply:-
Dear Mr. Mills:
Thank you for your inquiry regarding Timex Sinclair computers in our
museum.
We have in fact had a 2068 on exhibit in the museum since late June. We
put it in place as part of a special show entitled "Virtual Galleries",
an exhibition dealing with technology and self expression. The TS 2068
proved so popular, we have left it in place even after the exhibit
ended.
To show how far home computers had come in a relatively short time, I
had the 2068 running, with a 1983 Sanyo portable TV as the monitor and a
Panasonic cassette player to load the programs. I initially tried to
get a TS 1000 or 1500 running, but the 2068 worked better. Every day,
we loaded and ran a game program, "Hungry Horace" with the machine,
using a joystick to play it. We exhibited various accessories such as
the printer and Timex-made cassette tape player, but did not have much
luck in getting these to function properly. The basic computer, running
the game however, worked fine. We have recently stopped running the
game every day but will be deciding in the near future what we are going
to do long term about the TS computers in the museum. We have a very
extensive collection of the machines and the accessories and software.
Among the pieces in the collection are original Sinclair machines that
the Timex engineers were working with as they worked on making changes
and improvements, particularly in designing the 2968. Several
prototypes are also present. Hopefully, we will be able to continue to
illustrate this interesting aspect of the company's history on an
on-going basis.
Thank you for your interest in the Timex heritage.
Yours,
Geoff Giglierano
The Timex Museum
--
Tarquin Mills
Norwich Sinclair and Clones Show (ORSAM 2004)
http://www.speccyverse.me.uk/orsam/
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/Sinclair/petition.html (Bring Back YS)
2. Re: [ts2068] Timexpo Museum
Johnny Red · Mon, 1 Nov 2004 18:39:
On Monday, November 1, 2004, at 03:41 PM, Tarquin Mills wrote:
> Timex made computers for the great Sinclair Research in their
> Dundee factory in Scotland. Timex then went on to produce a clone of
>
Yes, and that's why Timex computers were killed in West Europe...
We all can thank Timex Dundee factory to kill Timex Computer.
Johnny Red, Portugal.
3. Re: [ts2068] Timexpo Museum
Johnny Red · Mon, 1 Nov 2004 18:42:
On Monday, November 1, 2004, at 03:41 PM, Tarquin Mills wrote:
> I understand from a website
> (http://www.timexsinclair.com/timexpo.html)
> that your official museum of the Timex company does not include
> Timex's positive contribution to the home computer world.
This is simple:
They SIMPLY DON'T WANT TO REMEMBER IT.
History page of Timex of Portugal website do not refer the computers in
the text.
They wrote about polaroid cameras, but nothing of Timex Computer.
I wrote to them and them answered that they don't want to remember it.
It is just a piece of history that for them, it never existed.
Johnny Red, Portugal
4. Re: [ts2068] Timexpo Museum
Johnny Red · Mon, 1 Nov 2004 18:49:
On Monday, November 1, 2004, at 03:41 PM, Tarquin Mills wrote:
> from the market a few months later, after tens of thousands had been
> sold. However Timex in Portugal kept making and designing Sinclair
> clones for non-Sinclair controlled markets, while Timex also continued
> motherboard production for embedded systems. Before Timex US left the
> computer market they had plans to develop new computers, and I
> wondered what they would have done with the QL. To this day
> Timex/Sinclair systems still have a following.
Yes, Timex of Portugal was about to release the Timex Computer 3256 and
it disappeared with great mistery.
It was when Timex factory in Dundee, Scotland took all the technology
of Timex of Portugal to kill it for ever...
Johnny Red, Portugal