Utilities & applications
Productivity and utility software — word processors, spreadsheets, databases, editors, image/digitizer tools.
139 threads · 1362 messages · 2002-01-30 → 2026-10-05
The productivity and utility side of the TS2068 keeps coming back to 64-column text and to the Zebra Systems catalogue. In the Yahoo era, Al Hartman and William McBrine sorted out the word processors (2015): Tasword was a Spectrum port drawing 4-pixel-wide characters, MScript was what Al used because it supported the Zebra disk system, and the OS-64 cartridge looks more like MScript. The 2023 "64 Column Mode Support" thread followed David Anderson's scans of Timex internal documents. Gustavo Pane traced Carol Corcoran's 64-column routine to Appendix C of the technical manual (and to "Basic 64" in Portugal), noted that David Solly made the OS-64 version, and Ryan Gray mapped OS-64's memory use. OS-64 runs in monochrome high-res mode, so its print and FDD/RS-232 drivers and its fonts sit in the unused attribute areas of the two display files. Jay Carlson wrote a selective BASIC renumber utility while working in OS-64 on a Twister/HDMI setup, and Chris Nystrom recalled using their own Text Editor 2000 to print a full-width user-group newsletter in two halves on the TS2040.
Graphics tools are the other big strand. In 2009 Al Hartman objected to Zebra's Graphics Designer being archived without Stewart Newfeld's permission and offered cheap legitimate copies instead. By 2023 David was archiving Zebra tapes himself (Tech-Draw, Sprites 2068, Bob Swoger's QED editor), and Adam Trionfo found that Tech-Draw needs the Zebra graphics interface and tablet. Ryan used leiradel's tape2wav to turn opaque TZX blobs back into WAVs that tzxtools could re-encode, and Joe VandeZande's Greaseweazle images of Zebra FDD 3-inch disks were extracted with Johnny Red's TOMATO and similar tools. For image conversion, the 2023 thread turned up img2spec/Spectrumizer and the ZX Spectrum Image Composer. By 2026 David's Retro Pixel Converter had TS2068 extended-colour and 64-column modes, debugged by Josef Jelinek, who then produced Blade Runner "loading screens." Jon built TSVideoCodec, an SCLD-aware delta video codec that outputs .tap or DCK cartridge images with AY sound. François Lanciault's 1980s VU-3D AT-AT model and the Timex digitizer PCB revival (Tim H, Willie Jones) round out the graphics side.
Developer utilities came up too. Jeffrey Burrell wrote tapToCart to put BASIC programs on AROS cartridges, Ryan adapted QuickFont v2.3 to detect when it is running from a DCK, and Carl Miles and Ryan's TS1510 clone cartridges use a p2ts1510 tool. Tim Swenson's tsmake preprocessor for zmakebas handles 2068-only tokens. David typed in Bob Mitchell's FRAMES-based Digital Clock, added CLEAR 65019 so it survives NEW, and wrote AdamPhone (tone dialling plus a clock). Adam got Tad Painter's software Speech Synthesizer running. Mike Druckenmiller and others discussed Dan Tandberg's Rampager monitor.
Many threads here only drift into the topic. They include the Metagraphics and Timeblasters archiving threads (tape recovery more than utilities), the Yahoo file-upload notifications, the 2004 cartridge-rarity list (where VU-Calc and VU-File carts were judged nonexistent), the blank-tape recommendations thread, a Zoom meeting announcement, and the "Guide to Games" book thread, which turned into the image-converter discussion.
Key threads
- "64 Column Mode Support" from T/S BASIC; was: New Timex documents uploaded (#832 on groups.io) — Traces the origins of the 64-column routine and OS-64, and maps where OS-64's drivers and fonts sit in memory.
- BASIC to cartidge (#1220 on groups.io) — Jeffrey Burrell's tapToCart for turning BASIC into AROS DCK cartridges, with Ryan's QuickFont adaptation.
- T/S 2068 Image Converter Utility? (#837 on groups.io) — Surveys image-to-SCREEN$ converters (img2spec, ZX Spectrum Image Composer) and how the results look on real hardware.
- That Guide to Games book and a new fun toy (#81 on groups.io) — Introduction and debugging of David's Retro Pixel Converter with TS2068 modes.
- TS2068 SCLD-aware video codec (#27 on groups.io) — Jon's TSVideoCodec: delta-encoded extended-colour video with AY sound on cartridge images.
- A plethora of programs (#1048 on groups.io) — Archiving of Zebra Tech-Draw, Sprites 2068 and QED, plus the tape2wav/tzxtools recovery trick.
- Zebra FDD 3” sk images (#1200 on groups.io) — Greaseweazle imaging of Zebra FDD disks and extracting programs from them.
- Renumber Programs (#854 on groups.io) — A selective BASIC renumber utility and how Sinclair BASIC stores line numbers.
- Clock program (#1111 on groups.io) — FRAMES-based digital clock utilities and the CLEAR/RAMTOP technique for keeping machine code resident.
- Some news. Also looking for Zebra Systems Graphics designer (#1829 on groups.io) — Al Hartman's copyright objection over Zebra Graphics Designer and offer of legitimate re-releases.
- Hello, new user here with some questions... (#1603 on groups.io) — Comparison of Tasword, MScript and the OS-64 64-column word processing options.
All threads (139)
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