ZXF01all.pdf

PRICE LIST

New:

PC-PSU with supply for 2 Floppies and MB02

36,00

MB02-Printerlead

13,00

Spectrum +2A, new and original package, complete

220,00

Diskinterface D80 + Flopppy for Didaktik or Spectrum

111,00

B-Laufwerk for D80

60,00

Proface AT Extern (Keyboardinterface for connecting PC-Keyboards to Spectrum)

55,00

Proface AT intern

52,00

Melodik AY-Soundbox (unboxed)

21,00

128k upgrade Kit for 48k (only Hardware Specialists)

21,00

128k upgrade Kit incl. building inside (send Spectrum board)

52,00

Mice Maus (Mouse using Kempston Port)

25,00

+2 Cassetterecorder

36,00

Floppy Disc drive (1,86 with MB02, 720k with Opus, 780k with +D) Please specify

24,00

PSU for +2A/B and +3 or PSUl for +2 (also 48k and 128k) Please specify

31,00

FDD lead for 2 drives

4,00

Microdrive

25,00

Multiface 128 (working also on 48k)

26,00

Dust Cover 48k+/128k

8,00

Keyboard membrane 48k

11,00

Keyboard membrane Spectrum +/128k, new quality, not aging

21,00

Printer Ink Ribbon original STAR LC 10 , Doublepack 2 pieces

11,00

Microdrive Cartridges (ex-software)

3,50

Plus 3 Tapelead

10,50

Spectrum +2 Lightpen

36,00

Spectrum +3 Lightpen

27,00

Silverpaper for ZX Printer

5,00

Phaser-Pistole with Software (Tape or +3)

20,00

+3 drive belt

2,00

Wafadrive Cartridges

16K= 7,00

32K= 7,50

64K 8,00

Used:

Sinclair ZX Spectrum 128k, complete with all cables

144,00

Sinclair ZX Spectrum +2, complete with all cables

70,00

Sinclair ZX Spectrum +2A, complete with all cables

65,00

Sinclair ZX Spectrum +3, built in 3li drive, complete with all cables

100,00

Sinclair Spectrum 48k (Gummy), complete with all cables + Introduction Tape

64,00

Sinclair Spectrum 48k +, complete with all cables + Introduction Tape

64,00

+3 Drive (tested)

74,00

Interface I

62,00

Opus Discovery Diskinterface with 1 x 720k Drive (new ROM)

118,00

Joystickinterface

1-Port 3,00

2-Port 11,00

Joystick (many different)

2,50

Sinclair SJS-Joystick (+2/+3)

6,00

Also we have a lot of Software offers and books. Please contact us and we will send you our pricelist.

Products marked with 8BC or KS are sold in the name of 8-Bit Company or Kompakt Servis. We organise

the business.

Prices excluding postage. Delivery as long as stock lasts.

Orders to: SINTECH, Gastäckerstr. 23, 70794 Filderstadt, Germany

Tel./Fax: 0049 711 775033

email: sintech@online.de http://www.sintech-shop.de

SUMMER 2002/Issue 1

ZXF/01 page 4

SUMMER 2002/Issue 1

Contents

The ZX Spectrum lives on...

Five pages of Spectrum news pp 5-9

...if anything, it's getting stronger. Over the

past few years I've been on something of a

journey. It all started in 1994 I think, when I

bought a copy of Gerton Lunter's Z80 for my

ageing 286 and started reliving the 'Spectrum

experience' on its monochrome monitor.

Sluggish on that particular machine though it

was, Z80 positively flew when I upgraded to a

second hand 486 two years later. When I

bought my first Pentium in late 1998, however,

it stopped altogether, protesting that the

computer I was trying to run it on was simply

too fast. That was also the time when I made

my first connection to the Internet...

When I first published ZX Format on the web

(in the year 2000) I was still very firmly in

'retro-mode,' overwhemled by the sheer

amount of emulators and Spectrum software

available on the net, yes, but viewing this all

ultimately as just a number of people coming

together to speak fondly of their past. The

subtitle of my site was Remembering the ZX

Spectrum . But then I really started learning. I

discovered comp.sys.sinclair first of all - and

that then alerted me to the existence of the

demo scene, which I started then to explore

with increasing amazement. I discovered the

trade in Spectrum hardware at ebay and the

range of new devices being developed for the

machine today: the +3e hard disk interface

and ROMs, the Proface PC keyboard

interface, the new Spectrum+ wearproof

keyboard membrane; to name but a few. I

discovered Spectrum classics being remade

as modern PC games and vice versa. I

discovered endless software projects - for the

PC and the original machine itself. I

discovered the eastern European clones and

their tremendous contribution to the longevity

of the Spectrum spirit. And very quickly I

began to realise that my plea for the

Spectrum to be remembered was more

than a little superfluous, for with all this

going on, there was no danger of it being

forgotten whatsoever.

So the subtitle of ZXF is Spectrum

Computing Today , which is exactly what I

want this magazine to reflect. At the

cutting edge of computing technology

some might consider the likes of the ZX

Spectrum best only remembered, perhaps

through an ocassional game of Manic

Miner on an emulator; but this is in fact an

active and developing scene - no longer

just a thing of the past for me - and

remembering is only part of what it's all

about.

I want to learn more about the ZX

Spectrum, that special little machine that I

grew up with and continue to enjoy. It

doesn't matter that it's old: I don't expect it

- or desire it - to be 'state-of-the-art'

anymore. And the way I personally learn

best about something is to write about it.

So here is ZXF: my small contribution to

the Spectrum world and the next step in

my journey.

Remake reviews: Cybernoid 2 and Sabre Wulf pp 10-11

Chris Cowley's BASTRIS laid bare pp 12-16

The ZXF interview: Garry Lancaster on the +3e pp 18-21

The Plus 2 tape recorder and how to maintain it pp 23-25

How far would you go to achieve obscurity? pp 26-27

Important! This is a trial issue . I've thoroughly enjoyed

myself producing this little bundle of pages and I'm more

than happy to keep on doing this into the future; I'm not

going to, however, if nobody likes it. If you enjoy ZXF and

you want it to continue then consider yourself duty bound to

let me know this (mail@cwoodcock.co.uk). All other

feedback will be gratefully received also - criticisms (please

be kind), improvement suggestions and notifications of any

errors you think you've spotted are essential for this sort of

project to succeed.

This issue has been entirely put together by me. It was

great fun, however it's not a level of input I anticipate being

easy to maintain in the future. If you would like to contribute

to future issues of ZXF - even if it's just to write a letter -

please do ; contact me again by the email address above.

Editor: Colin Woodcock

Thanks to: Garry Lancaster, Chris Cowley, Jeff Braine, Cliff

Lawson, John King and Thomas Eberle.

Colin Woodcock

mail@cwoodcock.co.uk

ZXF/01 page 5

ZXF/01 page 6

Retro's not what it used

to be

> New look for Retrospec

The site regarded by many as the place

on the web for game remakes has had

itself a makeover. The redesigned

www.retrospec.org launched on 18 April

and has taken a move away from its

exclusively Spectrum roots towards the

8-bit scene more generally (many of its

existing titles, after all, were released in

other formats originally).

Of the many games available for free

download, the very latest addition is

Graham Goring's remake of Raffaele

Cecco's Cybernoid 2 (see page 10 for a

full review of this title). There are also a

few new screenshots to drool over of Jeff

Braine's SabreWulf remake - still under

development, but looking absolutely

gorgeous (and not to be confused with

Kieran and Declan Sandwell's remake of

the same title reviewed on page 11).

Windows +3e

> New ROMs for the Spectrum +3e

Hot on the heels of version 1.04, version 1.10

of Garry Lancaster's +3e ROMs offers new

streams and channels for you to play with

using the OPEN # command, the most

interesting of these being windows!

With a choice of 48 different character styles,

justification, automatic scrolling and all the

usual INK and PAPER type controls,

Lancaster's windows offer a powerful way of

displaying text output. They even overlap!

For more information on the +3e see the

feature on page 18. Check out also

www.z88forever.org.uk/zxplus3e/

Spectrum fashion lives on at

www.retroaction.co.uk, where you can

pick up this cheeky little ZX number

for £11 plus p&p. Check out also

www.eightballentertainment.com/

ebay in May

> Look at what you could have won

The computers themselves aside, what

about this little lot for an ebay find in May:

- Sinclair Interface One & Microdrives

- Sinclair Interface 2

- Sinclair ZX81/Spectrum Printer and paper

- Rotronics Wafadrive

- Video Vault "Clive Drive"

- Datel Plus D Interface and disk drive

- dk'tronics 48k ZX Spectrum Lightpen

- Nidd Valley DigiMouse and software

- Cheetah SpecDrum

- Rombo VIDI-ZX Video Digitiser

- Prism VTX 5000 modem

- Kempston Pro JS Interface

- Sinclair Spectrum Light Gun

High prices this month:

- 48k Spectrum - boxed and unused - £166

- Boxed Spectrum 128 Heatsink - £104

- "ZX Spectrum Expansion System" £92

- Complete set of Ultimate games £122

> Windows:

where does he get

his ideas from?

Above: The new-look Restrospec: damn those guys

are good.

_______________________________________

Harrier Attacks

> Durell classic remade

Pavel Dovgaluk has brought Durell's

Harrier Attack! to the PC. A near exact

facsimilie of the Spectrum original, the

new version only strays beyond eight

colours to include a scan of the original

cassette inlay cover. Ultra smooth

scrolling and a complete absence of

colour clash, however, are the subtle

signs of careful and loving improvement.

So you can now fly your plane behind a

cloud... and not turn white. Progress

takes on many forms. Download it at

http://harrierattack.narod.ru/

___________________________________________

Below: SabreWulf - it just looks too good to be true.

Tell me it's real. Please...

English succession

> German magazine hits UK

Suc-Session , the long running magazine of

the Spectrum-User-Club in Germany, will now

be sold in both German and English versions.

Translated by Ian Spencer and Natalie Mayer,

the January/February 2002 issue can be

downloaded for free as a sampler from

www.sintech-shop.de/home/

spectrum-user-club.htm and features news,

interviews, game tips and articles.

ZXF/01 page 7

ZXF/01 page 8

The King of Crap

Graphics galore

> New editor in alpha

Jaime Tejedor Gómez, otherwise known - I'm

given to understand - as Metalbrain , has

released version 0.4 of his new Spectrum

graphics editor for the PC, SevenuP . A fair

way from completion it might be, but

SevenuP - a Windows based program -

looks extremely promising indeed. Already

accepting the standard .SCR screen$ file

format, this is a serious editor for the

creation of new Spectrum art. SevenuP

even adds in the appropriate colour clash as

you draw.

Announcing the alpha in comp.sys.sinclair

some weeks ago, Metalbrain described some

of his plans for future versions, which

includes support for sprites and animations.

SevenuP is available for download for both

Windows and Linux; respectively these can

currently be found at http://eqquinox.com/

usuarios/metalbrain/speccy/SevenuP-v0.1

.ziP and http://eqquinox.com/

usuarios/metalbrain/speccy/

SevenuP-dyn-v0.1.bz2

Meanwhile, Alexander Shabarshin has just

released version 1.1 of his DOS based

Spectrum graphics emulator, SCRED

(SCR-EDitor), which, along with the C++

sources, can be downloaded from

http://shaos.ru/nedopc/zx/index.htm at a

mere 55kb on the road. Choice is our

bounty. Now can someone please tell me

how to convince my PC that something

ending in .SCR is not necessarily a

screensaver ?

Emulator news

> CSSCGC results are in

The winner of the comp.sys.sinclair Crap

Games Competition (CSSCGC) 2001 has

finally been announced. Hurrah! Just when

the regulars were starting to wonder what

had become of this, the sixth annual

celebration of the standard of Spectrum

programming most infamously established

by the Cascade Cassette 50 , this year's

host - Adam D Moss - bounced in to declare

Fire Electric Pen by Joe MacKay the

current champion of Spectrum smelliness.

Says Judge Adam of Fire Electric Pen, "the

game combines disarming Engrish with a

fundamentally appalling idea realized very

frustratingly "

Runners up this year were Tomaz Cedilnik's

Wild West Head Hunter ( "The first entry of

the year's compo to promise so much and

deliver laughably little, and one of the very

best submissions in that vein" ) and Pablo &

Jaime Tejedor's Games With Frontiers .

Download the lot from http://www.ygv50.

dial.pipex.com/csscgc/ . Previous years'

entries can be accessed from

http://homepages.enterprise.net/

cavan/ysac/cgi-bin/csscgc.cgi , and if

you're tempted to have a go in the 2002

competition, you can find an online guide to

creating a crap game at http://

www.unsatisfactory.freeserve.co.uk/

crap.html .

It's not escaped the attention of many

CSSCGC players that some of the competit-

ors over the years have shown blatent

disregard for the rules of this sport, turning in

entries that are actually quite good. One

such observer is Chris Cowley (author of

vbSpec) whose new site, Speccy Game

2002 , aims to put all this talent to a use. So

far the only entry for the competition is Chris'

own Bastris (listing on page X), but I gether

there's time yet to submit a game - so get

programming and submit your entries at

http://freestuff.grok.co.uk/game-compo/ .

SPECTACULAR SPECTACULATOR

Jonathan Needle's 48k Spectrum emulator

Spectaculator has hit version 2.0, with new

support for multi-channel sound and

multicolour graphics. Also new to this version

is support for TAP and TZX cassette file

formats, managed via an innovative 'virtual

cassette recorder'. Spectaculator comes with

a small games pack featuring seven classic

titles, including The Hobbit and the ubiquitous

Manic Miner; the games come with their own

help files in text or HTML format which can be

accessed from the main Spectaculator help

menu: at last we have an emulator capable of

telling us which keys to hit! Creating a new

help file for your own Speccy favourite is a

simple matter of putting together a web page

(or text file) and saving it in the same folder

as the game file with the same name as the

game itself. Clever. Spectaculator is one of

the newest emulators about at present, but

showing a great deal of promise. Find out

more at http://www.spectaculator.com/

REAL DEVELOPMENTS

No sign of the much awaited Windows

version as yet, but Ramsoft 's mighty

RealSpectrum 48/128k emulator made it to

version 0.94.22 (beta 12) in April. By

Ramsoft's own admission, this is a fairly

uneventful update, but one which - in addition

to numerous bug fixes and other tweakings -

achieves perfect floating bus emulation for the

first time. Clearly the Ramsoft staff are rather

chuffed with themselves on this and have

produced a technical report explaining it all at

www.ramsoft.bbk.org/floatingbus.html .

SPINNING AROUND

SPIN (SPectrum INterpretor) is a new

Spectrum emulator under development by

Paul Dunn (aka Dunny) and Mark

Woodmass (aka Woody), and has just

reached version 0.2a. Already acclaimed

as one of the nicest looking Spectrum

emulators, SPIN is developing at quite a

speed, new versions being released

practically every other week (by the time

your read this I've no doubt several new

versions will have been released since

0.2a), and is shaping up as an extremely

competent emulator to rival the likes of

RealSpectrum. Many users are in fact

reporting it to have become their emulator

of choice to replace ZX32 (not updated

since April 2000).

Once complete, SPIN will feature support

for the new RZX recording format, allowing

you to record your own key presses and

thereby ensure that record-breaking game

of RoboCop of yours is never forgotten.

RZX is due to replace as the standard the

AIR format previously employed for this

purpose: due to the way in which timings

were calculated, an AIR file could only be

played back using the emulator software

which created it (ie, a recording created on

RealSpectrum, for example, could only be

played on RealSpectrum and not on other

emulators supporting AIR file recording);

RZX files, however, are fully portable and

can be replayed on any RZX supporting

emulator.

Mark Woodmass is known for his own

emulator, SpecEmu , which he will now no

longer be developing (version 1.3 can still

be download from www.geocities.com/

specemu/ , but is no longer supported).

Meanwhile, SPIN itself can be downloaded

from http://homepage.ntlworld.com/

paul.dunn4/SPIN.Zip .

< SevenuP

ZXF/01 page 9

ZXF/01 page 10

Fist returns

> New remake in progress

Was there ever a correlation between the

keys you pressed in The Way of the

exploding fist and the subsequent

movements of your karate fellow on the

screen? Was there my a**e. But boy was

that game fun. And now, Melbourne

House's aussie classic is being remade by

sés for us lucky PC users. So far only the

first demo has been released, but it's

enough to wet the appetite for sure. Soon

you'll be able to duff up your mates the old

fashioned way. Check it out at

http://ses.mgbr.net/.

2002 Tour due soon

> ST2002 announced

The Speccy games tournament is back and

will run from 16 September to 2 December

this year. At the time of writing the specific

games have yet to be decided, but

Aleksandar Lukic (winner of ST2001),

announcing the tour in comp.sys.sinclair ,

has expressed a preference this year for a

shift towards "genuine Speccy games"

rather than coin-op conversions. The new

tour will not this year be overseen by

Michael Bruhn, who ran both the 2000 and

2001 predecessors.

With RZX still under development, no

decisions have yet been made as to how

game performances will be recorded (and

submitted); the current concensus appears

to be to wait until a week before the tour

begins and see what's available then. Last

year saw the use of the AIR format for the

first time, however due to AIR's portability

problems this meant all entrants had to use

the Real Spectrum emulator to ensure

compatibility.

Cybernoid 2 (PC)

Programming: Graham Goring

Graphics: John Blythe

Level design: Russell Hoy

Music: Will Morton

Download it from: www.retrospec.org

bounce off the metal walls.

Cybernoid 2 is a fairly tough game for

lightweights like myself; that hasn't stopped

me coming back to it time and time again,

however. And I can see this continuing

until the game is done, which means it had

better make itself at home on my hard disc;

it's going to be around for some time.

I have to confess, my early Spectrum days

were almost at an end when Raffaele

Cecco's sequel to Cybernoid hit the shelves

in Autumn 1988. My planned SAM Coupe

was starting to occupy my thoughts pretty

seriously by this stage and this release just

passed me by completely. When I

downloaded this remake I therefore had to

download the original from WOS also, just

to see what it was like.

Which is where I encountered the first

rather startling thing about this remake - it

feels almost exactly the same as the

original. Not being a games programmer

myself, I don't know how easy or difficult

this is - but I was well impressed all the

same.

In the original Cybernoid your job was to

retrieve stolen cargo plundered by nasty

pirates; Cybernoid 2 sees those blighters'

return and yet more goods to be recovered.

In a nutshell your job is to fly around the

five levels of the pirates' base and shoot

pretty much everything you see, not

forgetting, of course, to pick the cargo up

along the way. Your ship is positively

brimming with weapons, from rockets to

heat seeking missles to bouncing bombs -

all of which, mercifully, are replenished

each time you die.

Graham Goring's remake is programmed in

Blitz Basic (fast establishing itself as a

favourite language for remakes, although

some CSSers have reported problems

running Blitz games on their systems). The

graphics are colourful and detailed, whilst

remaining faithful to the original. Animation

is smooth and groovy. But where

Cybernoid 2 really scores for me is with its

music and sound effects. Will Morton's

funky Ba badaba ba badaba ba bum that

accompanies your efforts as you fly from

screen to screen stays with you long after

you've shut the game (and the computer)

down, and I particularly like the twangy

'ping' that your laser bolts make when they

The Spectrum original and the remake .

________________________________________

Changing fonts

> Spectrum typeface madeover

Not a new Windows Spectrum font - oh no.

Paul van der Laan's Clairsys is a replace-

ment for the good old Speccy typeface,

never known - let's be honest here - for its

elegance. The font has been built into new

ROM files available from www.type-

invaders.com/zxspectrum/ for use with an

emulator (if you were really clever I suppose

you could blow these onto EPROMs and use

them with a real Speccy); there's also a

.TAP file for emulators that don't separate

out the ROMs from the main program code.

"Open your eyes"

"Oh... wow... it's so... different... I love

the n... oh look - they kept the a..."

VERDICT

Graphics

< old

Sound

Playability

< new

Addictiveness

Overall

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