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Newsletters & documentation

User-group newsletters and periodicals — SYNC, Time Designs, SINCUS, scanning/OCR, magazine archives.

190 threads · 1560 messages · 2002-05-13 → 2026-06-02

Preserving the user-group newsletter trail has been a continuous project across both eras of this list, but the scale and tooling have shifted dramatically. The earliest groundwork on the Yahoo side came from David Solly ("Zabad"), who in 2008 announced he had scanned his hard-copy collection of Timex/Sinclair newsletters to PDF and was both giving the originals away and mailing CD-ROMs of the scans to anyone who would host them. That same era's hardware-from-newsletters thinking also showed up in 2015, when Al Hartman went after a Zebra OS-64 cartridge on eBay specifically to harvest its design so that Mark could lay out a reusable board for OS-64, Spectrum-emulator, and 2068-cartridge re-creations — a pattern (read the old magazine, then rebuild the thing) that defines a lot of what the group does today.

The groups.io era turned that one-person effort into a steady pipeline. David Anderson has been scanning and uploading whole runs to archive.org — OHTSUG, ISTUG, SMUG Bytes, The Plotter, Time Designs, SyncWare News, CATS, Nite-Times News, TS Horizons, ZXzine — often OCR'd, and frequently with the contributor still on the list to comment on their own old articles. Two landmark donations anchor the recent work: Jack Boatwright's roughly 80-pound box of newsletters ("the postman really struggled with them") arriving in 2022, and Lon Hildreth lending the boxed-up TENET / TS2060 / bank-switching / Application Development Library documents from inside Timex in 2023, which the group treats as primary-source material rather than reminiscence.

The newsletters aren't just archived — they get used. Warren Fricke's "Obstacle Run" from Time Designs Vol 2 No 1 was retyped via zmakebas and debugged in the thread; Tim Swenson's QL Core War from CATS v6 n12 (1989) was rediscovered and then re-implemented in Sinclair BASIC by Eduardo Fuentes with a Redcode-94 update; Richard Booth's 1985 "Applied Sinclair" book was typed in fresh because the cassette is lost; Carol Corcoran's first 64-column listing was identified as the precursor to the OS-64 cartridge and the Portuguese "basic 64"; and the Larken RamDisk reverse-engineering project leans on schematics and articles only the newsletter scans preserve. Adam Trionfo's biographical digs — "Who is Bob Swoger?" (Chicago Area Timex Users Group, Nite-Times News editor, SNUG founder), the New Mexico Timex companies trail out of a SyncWare News pointer, and the Bill Miller collection — are essentially newsletter-driven oral history.

A throughline worth noting is that the group has also been documenting how the old newsletters were made: Chris Nystrom describes building column-printing and split-page-taping features into his TE2000 text editor specifically so the Abilene TX group could push a full-page newsletter through a 2040 thermal printer, and that same TE2000 work later got picked up by the Dallas/Ft. Worth group and TS Horizons. So newsletters here serve three roles at once — they're the artifact being preserved, the source code (literally) for current type-ins and hardware rebuilds, and the record of how the community used to talk to itself before this list existed.

Key threads

  • Old newsletters to give away (archive.org) — Yahoo-era root of the preservation effort: David Solly (Zabad) scans his Timex/Sinclair newsletter hoard to PDF in 2008, gives originals away, and mails CD-ROMs to anyone who'll host them — the first wave that the current archive.org work builds on.
  • Zebra OS-64 Cartridge on Ebay... (archive.org) — 2015 Yahoo-era thread where Al Hartman buys an OS-64 cart to dissect for new blank boards (OS-64, Spectrum emulator, 2068 cartridges) — the early version of the read-the-old-docs-then-rebuild-it pattern that drives current TENET / OS-64 work.
  • New books and newsletter uploaded to archive.org (#87 on groups.io) — Kicks off the recent-era archive.org pipeline (OHTSUG newsletter + Hartnell books) and folds into a long-running discussion about which Timex/Sinclair books are still unscanned and how to fill the gaps.
  • Huge Thank You to Jack Boatwright and Whiz Kids (#1619 on groups.io) — Jack Boatwright ships ~80 pounds of user-group newsletters (his own subscriptions plus the inter-group exchange piles) to David Anderson in 2022 — the single biggest input into the current scanning queue, and the group organizes a Paypal pool to cover his shipping.
  • Even more newsletters, featuring Willie Jones! (#1654 on groups.io) — ISTUG newsletter run goes up on archive.org and triggers a whole side-project: SMUG Bytes documents the group's Timex Digitizer, which the list then reverse-engineers into a modern PCB — newsletters as active engineering spec, not just memorabilia.
  • New Timex documents uploaded (TENET / bank-switching / 2060 spec) (#4481 on groups.io) — Lon Hildreth, a former Timex programmer, lends his preserved internal Timex docs (Application Development Library, Bank Switching Controller spec, 2060 material); LOAD ZX Museum's TENET team joins in — the most important primary-source drop on the list since the Yahoo era.
  • Who is Bob Swoger? (#2197 on groups.io) — Newsletter-driven biography: traces Bob Swoger through Chicago Area Timex Users Group, Nite-Times News, the PDP-11/23 BBS he wrote from scratch, and the founding of SNUG — exactly the kind of person-history the preserved newsletters make recoverable.
  • Timex One-Shot "Newsletter" Page? (#3508 on groups.io) — Self-reflective thread on how the old newsletters were actually produced: Chris Nystrom explains how he built column-printing and split-page-taping into TE2000 to push full-page layouts through a 2040 printer for the Abilene TX group, later picked up by Dallas/Ft. Worth and TS Horizons.

All threads (190)

↳ marks a thread where this topic begins mid-conversation — the link jumps to the message where it starts.

Thread Msgs Activity Started by
⭐ Bill Miller Collection ↳ #5630 📎 169 💬 2024-01-13 Timothy Swenson
⭐ Zebra OS-64 Cartridge on Ebay... ↳ 📎 59 💬 2015-10-07 Mark J. Blair
⭐ Local Timex Users; was: I Have Unscanned Timex/Sinclair Books ↳ #98 📎 56 💬 2022-06-07 Adam Trionfo
⭐ "64 Column Mode Support" from T/S BASIC; was: New Timex documents uploaded 📎 49 💬 2023-11-30 Adam Trionfo
⭐ Timex Digitizer was: Even more newsletters, featuring Willie Jones! 📎 45 💬 2022-07-20 David Anderson
⭐ Larken 256K RamDisk ↳ #1533 📎 40 💬 2022-06-28 Neil C.
⭐ You must see this 📎 25 💬 2023-10-21 David Anderson
⭐ Who is Bob Swoger? 📎 24 💬 2022-12-20 David Anderson
⭐ I need assistance 📎 23 💬 2023-04-11 David Anderson
⭐ LOAD "" CODE with Zesarux 📎 23 💬 2024-01-01 David Anderson
⭐ Math Subroutines Book by Richard Booth 📎 23 💬 2023-06-22 Adam Trionfo
⭐ New Mexico Timex Companies; was: ROM code calls in the 2068 📎 22 💬 2023-05-19 Adam Trionfo
⭐ TS2068 Music Maker; was: Thank you, Tim Swenson! 📎 21 💬 2022-03-07 Adam Trionfo
⭐ Core War 📎 20 💬 2023-07-29 David Anderson
⭐ Obstacle Run ↳ #795 📎 19 💬 2022-02-18 Adam Trionfo
⭐ Timex Newsletter Achiving 📎 15 💬 2022-05-04 Adam Trionfo
⭐ "Bubbles" T/S 2068 BASIC Program; was: TS Online User Group Meeting Sunday Decem 📎 12 💬 2025-12-29 Adam Trionfo
⭐ The Timex/Sinclair 1000 Merchandising Display 📎 12 💬 2025-04-18 Adam Trionfo
⭐ "Machine Code Graphics Loop" by Bernard Bush 📎 10 💬 2022-05-31 Adam Trionfo
⭐ ZX Appeal newsletters - scanned 9 💬 2010-03-03 zxbruno
⭐ ZXzine Issue #11 Timer in Assembly question 9 💬 2025-01-27 qwertyfan2000
⭐ Timex Sinclair PROM Burner 📎 8 💬 2024-02-21 andy
⭐ Clark Calkins' CP/M-Like OS; was: UPDATED! Timex/Sinclair User Group Meeting Mon 📎 8 💬 2023-07-03 Adam Trionfo
⭐ Type-In Program Suggestions (Master List?) 8 💬 2021-07-02 Adam Trionfo
⭐ Ottawa-Hull usergroup newsletter indexed 8 💬 2021-07-01 David Anderson
⭐ Do T/S 2068-Exclusive Type-In Games Exist? ;was: "Sorting TimexSinclair.com Prog 📎 8 💬 2024-09-27 Adam Trionfo
⭐ High resolution scans of SYNC available 7 💬 2025-12-29 David Anderson
⭐ ZX81 Floating Point Calculator 📎 7 💬 2022-08-11 Ryan Gray
⭐ Timex literature and software preservation project? 7 💬 2007-08-31 zxbruno
⭐ Help needed to prepare JPGs before creating PDFs 6 💬 2009-11-11 zxbruno
⭐ Digitizing T/S 2068 & ZX Spectrum Documentation 6 💬 2006-05-04 hatulzabad
⭐ Lattice of Coincidence 5 💬 2024-02-05 David Anderson
⭐ Another book being scanned 5 💬 2010-04-09 zxbruno
⭐ MTERM manuals 📎 5 💬 2021-12-10 François Lanciault
⭐ West Los Angeles ZX Computer Users Group Memo, Jan. 18, 1984 📎 5 💬 2021-07-02 Adam Trionfo
⭐ Some issues of SyncWare News now available 4 💬 2017-02-22 david
⭐ Spiders - Video Art from Synchro-Sette (Vol. 3, no. 2, Feb. 1984) 📎 4 💬 2022-06-09 Adam Trionfo
⭐ TS 2068 keyword reference 📎 4 💬 2021-08-03 David Anderson
⭐ TS 2068 Schematic 3 💬 2024-05-30 David Anderson
⭐ New uploads to Archive.org 3 💬 2022-06-19 David Anderson
⭐ New additions to archive.org 3 💬 2022-05-12 David Anderson
⭐ Timex Sinclair Winter Catalog 1983 📎 2 💬 2024-01-16 andy
⭐ Yet another Timex Sinclair newsletters 2 💬 2022-06-10 François Lanciault
⭐ Scanning/uploading since late April 2 💬 2023-05-30 David Anderson
⭐ The Mystery of the Missing 253 by Wes Brzozowski 1 💬 2005-07-20 Jarek Adamski
⭐ Books, magazines, newsletters, software available on Google Drive 1 💬 2024-10-19 David Anderson
Spectrum and Times Christmas Demos ↳ #5283 📎 34 💬 2023-12-24 Adam Trionfo
Why people stuck with their Timex computers for so long 📎 23 💬 2026-01-21 Adam Trionfo
Spectrum Next Availability? ↳ #8783 📎 22 💬 2026-01-11 Adam Trionfo
Spectrum Next 2.0 ↳ #5783 📎 21 💬 2024-02-12 Greg Skuza
Old newsletters to give away 17 💬 2008-08-13 Don Dindang
Timex One-Shot "Newsletter" Page? 📎 17 💬 2023-05-16 Adam Trionfo
Huge Thank You to Jack Boatwright and Whiz Kids 16 💬 2022-07-22 Jack Boatwright
Zxzine #10 is available 📎 15 💬 2024-01-17 Adam Trionfo
Beepers: 21 Electronics Projects for the Timex/Sinclair 1000 and 1500 Book 📎 15 💬 2023-05-31 Michael A. Druckenmiller
Potential source for the TS2068 SCLD Chip? 📎 14 💬 2024-01-05 David Anderson
"2068 Buggy Software" Archived 📎 14 💬 2022-06-10 Adam Trionfo
Cambridge Z88 📎 14 💬 2024-10-12 Greg Skuza
"The Plotter" Newsletter Available 13 💬 2004-06-20 Jack Boatwright
It Arrives!!! Cry for Joy! Ring the Bells! 📎 13 💬 2025-01-21 Floppy Days Podcast - Ra
On Typing In BASIC Games; was: 64 Column BASIC routines - TAP format - Update 1 ↳ #2426 📎 12 💬 2022-12-08 David Anderson
1983 and naming 📎 12 💬 2023-11-13 Adam Trionfo
Games to Learn By Inc. Catalog 📎 12 💬 2025-03-03 Jon
Archive.org hacked and down. 12 💬 2024-10-24 David Anderson
ZX80 Ad in Scientific American Magazine? 📎 11 💬 2023-02-21 Adam Trionfo
ZXzine #12 ↳ #8302 📎 11 💬 2025-07-18 David Anderson
Sadness for Timex Computer Corp. 11 💬 2022-05-23 Adam Trionfo
Past VCF Timex/Sinclair Presentations 📎 11 💬 2025-06-04 Adam Trionfo
Some art drawn on the TS 2068 📎 11 💬 2022-03-03 David Anderson
Thoughts on a magazine? 11 💬 2021-12-02 David Anderson
VCFSW - Timex/Sinclair documentation and hardware 10 💬 2026-06-02 David Anderson
Timex Sinclair Online User Group Meeting Sunday, May 19 10 💬 2024-05-15 David Anderson
Mourning the "Death" of Timex Computers - February 22, 1984 📎 9 💬 2026-02-05 Adam Trionfo
Final edition of ZQA! 9 💬 2003-05-07 Abed Kahale
Next ZXzine 9 💬 2025-06-01 Timothy Swenson
Ham radio 8 💬 2022-12-28 Adam Trionfo
Reminder: Timex/Sinclair Online User Group Meeting Monday Jan 1 📎 8 💬 2024-01-01 David Anderson
A seasonal advert or two 📎 8 💬 2023-12-07 David Anderson
Timex Portugal documentary now with English subtitles 8 💬 2025-02-11 David Anderson
Where can I find ink for the 2040, and magazine has arrived. 📎 8 💬 2025-01-29 Christian Mann
BEFORE I SCAN 📎 8 💬 2024-11-08 Paul Holmgren
Looking for 2068 Escape (game) ↳ #34 📎 8 💬 2021-05-11 mr.ratwell
Looking for a user's group 📎 7 💬 2024-04-05 kurth
New Timex Interview 7 💬 2010-08-17 cheveron
Timex Computer Club card! ↳ #5188 📎 7 💬 2023-12-11 David Anderson
The Spectrum in the US 6 💬 2023-11-29 Ryan Gray
PG Offline Export Options 📎 6 💬 2022-03-29 Adam Trionfo
T/S 2068 Review from 📎 6 💬 2022-03-10 Adam Trionfo
Inspired by Ryan’s charts 📎 6 💬 2023-05-09 David Anderson
Darker printing on the 2040 5 💬 2022-09-07 David Anderson
The horror, the horror 📎 5 💬 2022-08-19 David Anderson
COMPUTE!’s Gazette 📎 5 💬 2025-06-13 David Anderson
Flyer/brochure for VCF Midwest 5 💬 2025-05-02 David Anderson
Started scanning another TS book 5 💬 2008-03-19 Adam Trionfo
An “art” rogram 📎 5 💬 2022-02-15 Adam Trionfo
Some brochures and other nifty stuff 📎 4 💬 2023-02-21 David Anderson
Infoworld 2068 Review 4 💬 2024-02-14 Adam Trionfo
BBS Newsletters Archive Progress 4 💬 2024-02-12 David Anderson
Sinc-Link issues 4 💬 2010-04-06 icbrkr
BASIC Games; was: Re: Compute magazine 4 💬 2025-04-19 qwertyfan2000
User group newsletters Info sought 4 💬 2025-02-18 Paul Holmgren
Keyboard Tutorial T/S 2068 Video Idea 3 💬 2024-08-19 Adam Trionfo
New magazines/newsletters on archive.org 3 💬 2015-08-31 david
Sudoku 3 💬 2005-09-11 rafael_mnrq
RETRO looking border ad 3 💬 2014-07-16 pxx1_2000_32724
"Sinclair Survival" and ""Across the Pond" Timex Columns 3 💬 2024-02-13 Adam Trionfo
Bouncing Ball 📎 3 💬 2022-09-05 Adam Trionfo
TS1000/ZX81 books 3 💬 2022-08-26 Ryan Gray
ZX81 NEWS MARCH 2010 3 💬 2010-03-06 Andre
Synchro-Sette Tapes? 3 💬 2022-06-09 Adam Trionfo
Timex Timeline 3 💬 2023-11-18 Ryan Gray
"Time Design" magazine? 3 💬 2008-12-04 Peter Hoffman
National Education Corp Tech Literacy Series 3 💬 2022-02-08 David Anderson
Guest Editorial from Dave Franson 📎 3 💬 2025-02-10 David Anderson
LIST user group newsletters? 3 💬 2021-11-11 David Anderson
Computer Shopper 📎 3 💬 2023-06-11 David Anderson
Added new scanned magazines to Archive.org 2 💬 2016-02-28 david
Choose One of Three BASIC Type-In Programs for Adam to Type into BASIC 2 💬 2023-04-11 Adam Trionfo
Tim and Paul’s Rhode Island Road Trip 2 💬 2023-03-25 David Anderson
Zebra advertising 2 💬 2015-08-08 david
Computer Shopper articles 2 💬 2026-01-21 David Anderson
It is finished* 2 💬 2022-10-09 David Anderson
Romatic Robot Videoface review 📎 2 💬 2022-10-03 David Anderson
A brief update 2 💬 2022-09-22 David Anderson
Derby (horse race) 📎 2 💬 2022-09-05 David Anderson
118 Timex Programs on a 60-Minutes Tape? 📎 2 💬 2022-08-17 Adam Trionfo
Timex Computer World - Website Announcement - YouTube Video... 2 💬 2024-01-07 Carl Miles
Library Disks for LIST User Group? 2 💬 2022-08-08 Adam Trionfo
Some newsletter scans 2 💬 2009-08-09 zxbruno
Timex Abandons TS2000 Disk Drive; was: New Timex documents uploaded 2 💬 2023-11-27 Adam Trionfo
TS1500 features 2 💬 2023-11-18 Ryan Gray
gleanings from messing with newsletter archives 2 💬 2025-02-03 Paul Holmgren
Latest meeting now on YouTube 2 💬 2022-01-17 David Anderson
A parts inventory program by Rich Jelen 2 💬 2025-01-24 David Anderson
there's Gold in them there archives 2 💬 2025-01-07 Paul Holmgren
What’s ew at TimexSinclair.com 2 💬 2021-07-25 David Anderson
What's new at TimexSinclair.com 2 💬 2021-07-21 David Anderson
Great Timex Database 1 💬 2023-02-02 Adam Trionfo
Some updates to TimexSinclair.com and other fun things 1 💬 2022-11-20 David Anderson
magazine Ham Radio and Timex computer content 1 💬 2024-02-03 Paul Holmgren
Memory calculator 📎 1 💬 2022-09-11 David Anderson
Software Scans 1 💬 2003-02-24 jboatno41
TS 2000 image 📎 1 💬 2024-01-02 David Anderson
Adam's T/S 2068 Blog #1: Adam's First Post (June 22, 2022) 1 💬 2022-06-26 Adam Trionfo
YS Maga-BASIC Programs 1 💬 2002-05-13 David Solly
40 years ago this weekend 📎 1 💬 2023-11-05 David Anderson
Zebra Systems on TV in 1988 1 💬 2022-02-08 Adam Trionfo
My Efforts Page 1 💬 2023-07-19 Michael A. Druckenmiller
Doc about Timex Portugal 📎 1 💬 2025-01-30 David Anderson
Data Expansion Forth Worth Newsletter, vol. 3, no. 9 (Audio Comments) 📎 1 💬 2023-05-27 Adam Trionfo
QZX Magazine 1 💬 2023-05-22 Paul Anderson
Byte Power Tape Magazine (Fall 1987) 📎 1 💬 2023-05-08 Adam Trionfo
Timex 2068 article 1 💬 2024-09-24 qwertyfan2000
Search in Dave's Website 7 💬 2022-09-03 David Anderson
Sign up for a monthly(ish) email/newsletter 7 💬 2022-05-09 David Anderson
8bitnews 7 💬 2023-06-17 Floppy Days Podcast - Ra
New Aquisition 📎 6 💬 2026-05-12 Floppy Days Podcast - Ra
Randomness 📎 5 💬 2023-07-27 Ryan Gray
Literature 📎 5 💬 2023-05-09 Paul Anderson
Timex in Dec. 1982 Fortune Magazine? 4 💬 2023-02-21 David Anderson
Zx Zine Magazine 4 💬 2025-02-10 SuperMikeNJ
Who misses ads like this one? 📎 3 💬 2024-09-18 David Anderson
TIMEXsinclair Showcase 📎 3 💬 2003-03-15 Jack
Looking for Syntax ZX80 newsletter volume 3, number 1 dated January 1982 2 💬 2016-11-06 sarossell
8-Page Timex Brochure in Danny Ross Video? 2 💬 2023-02-19 Adam Trionfo
I need your help with a blog post for the TS site about VCFMW 2 💬 2025-09-23 David Anderson
Computes Gazzette 📎 2 💬 2025-07-21 SuperMikeNJ
ZXzine “unboxing” 📎 2 💬 2025-01-24 David Anderson
SyncWare News 2 💬 2023-05-22 Paul Anderson
ZX81/TS1000, WHAT'S NEW ! 2 💬 2006-11-22 zx81ab
What's New at TimexSinclair.com? 2 💬 2023-05-03 David Anderson
THE JANUARY ZX81 PROGRAM 1 💬 2006-01-02 zx81ab
ZX81, THE MARCH PROGRAM... 1 💬 2006-03-08 zx81ab
Digit Magazine 1984 1 💬 2026-01-01 Richard Rowland
Timex holiday card 1 💬 2025-12-20 larry lorenson
Z-Term 64 Manual Scan? 1 💬 2024-02-20 Adam Trionfo
New Home for SP at www.timexsinclair.org 1 💬 2003-10-23 Alvin
Latest newsletter available online 1 💬 2025-09-28 David Anderson
taken Magazines & 2068 thanks Peter! 1 💬 2010-05-29 mwilliwood
huge lot of t/s magazines and non working 2068 1 💬 2010-05-29 mwilliwood
ZXzine 1 💬 2025-01-27 Richard Burt
Reminder: TS Online User Group Meeting Sunday January 19 1 💬 2025-01-15 David Anderson
ZX81/TS1000, FEB 2007, THE NEWS 1 💬 2007-02-07 zx81ab
Quantum Levels 1 💬 2023-05-22 Paul Anderson
LarKen Manual 1 💬 2023-05-22 Paul Anderson
ZX81, OCTOBER 2006 1 💬 2006-10-02 zx81ab
ZX81, the NEWS 1 💬 2006-08-29 zx81ab
ZX81, the SEPTEMBER 2006 NEWS 1 💬 2006-08-10 zx81ab
JULY 2006. ZX81 NEWS 1 💬 2006-07-10 zx81ab
ZX81 NEWS 1 💬 2006-06-29 zx81ab