ZXF02all.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

Coming back to Sinclair?

ZXF/02 page 4

AUTUMN 2002/Issue 2

Contents

Coming back to Sinclair?

Eight - that's right: eight - pages of Spectrum news (5-12)

Computers today are everywhere. How

often have you heard that before? It's

exactly what people like us were predicting

20 odd years ago to somewhat cynical ears

- guess what: it actually came true;

divorcing computers from the fabric of our

lives today would be like splitting up

Microsoft: desirable for many, but

ultimately far too much hassle to be

bothering with for real. In many ways, it's

brilliant. In many other ways, it's just plain

dull. And the more these machines

become embedded in the daily grind, the

duller they seem to get. The abilities of the

average 'work computer' would have blown

us away not so long ago, but there they sit,

running Office, looking beige (even the

trendy new black ones), next to the fax

machine and an in tray. Just appliances.

Just tools to get the job done.

Why go back to the Spectrum? The

answer's really not at all that complicated.

Why go camping? Why listen to radio?

We've known for time aplenty that less is

often more when it comes to escaping the

stresses of a working life. And these days,

as the pace gets faster and faster still, the

need for less and simpler and slower is

perhaps greater than it has ever been

before.

In recent months I've started collecting

Spectrum hardware for a new little project

of mine, a device I intend to call the

ZX-BOX . The idea came to me when I

looked at LCD's home page and I've since

discovered that at least one other

enthusiast has hit upon my idea exactly.

Beyond that I'll keep you guessing for now;

the point is that this idea marked my return

to Spectrum hardware - out came the old

128 and Plus D interface from the taped-up

box under my old bed - for the first time in a

good ten years, I might add - and I've been

searching the local car boot sales and ebay

listings ever since (and just this by itself has

been a lot more fun than I would previously

ever had imagined it could be - especially the

drama of an ebay auction!). I don't have to

do any of this and the end result I already

know won't be much to speak of by today's

standards in technology. But the problem

-solving processes I'll go through on the way

will take me right back to those simpler days,

when you wanted more - yes - and ingenuity

was the way that you got it.

If you're just returning to the Spectrum scene

then this issue of ZXF is dedicated to you.

Things have moved on a bit since you were

last here, but you'll soon get used to the

changes and start feeling at home again.

The Spectrum scene is an active one: there's

plenty to get involved in, no matter what

'level' you are; so pull up a chair and get

stuck in.

And one final note: let's not forget that

hobbies such as ours are a luxury far from

the minds and lives of the vast majority of

people on this planet. May I ask you to pay

particular attention to the back page of this

issue: a small, but very deserving charity that

I once worked for as a childcare volunteer.

Some of you wrote to me saying ZXF was a

magazine you would pay for; I'm not asking

for that, but if you do have a pound or two

spare in your pocket I know the White Cross

would make good use of them. Just a

suggestion.

Until next time.

Remake review: PeeJay's Maziacs PC (13)

What you thought about ZXF 01 (14-15)

The ZXF interview: Alex Goryachev on the Sprinter (16-20)

Back to the Spectrum: your ZX2000 user guide (22-26)

From Bitmap to Screen$: loading screen tutorial (27-31)

+3/2A SCART lead: improve your Plus 3 picture (32-33)

The Genuine User Friendly Interface (34-35)

Errata (ZXF01)

Page 22 - goto - The entry for ZX32 should have (05/04/00) entered

under 'updated'; under 'Save to tape (TZX)' it should read 'Yes'

Page 8 - new - The download URL for Metalbrain's SevenuP is

incorrect. See this issue's new for correct details. Also on this

page, the fourth line up from the bottom of the right hand column

should read "(listing on page 12)"

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.

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: John King, Alex Goryachev and Thomas Eberle.

Colin Woodcock

mail@cwoodcock.co.uk

ZXF/02 page 5

ZXF/02 page 6

Double the fun

> +3e ROM for 16 bit IDE interface

One of the drawbacks of Garry Lancaster's

+3e IDE hard disk interface (see last issue

for more about this project - featured recently,

by the way, in Shaun Bebbington's Retro

Computer Mart page in Micro Mart : nice

one Garry) is that half of the disk's capacity is

lost in the conversion from 16 to 8 bit; a 1Gb

disk will only give you 500 Mb of space on

which to store your Spectrum programs, for

example (which must be just awful).

In fact, 16 bit IDE interface designs do exist

for the Spectrum - a whole range of

interfaces designed by Sami Vehmaa and

called ZXATASP (see http://home.sol.se/

amiga/ ), and now Garry has released a new

version of the +3e ROM to be compatible

with them. The interfaces themselves look

like monsters compared with Garry's simple

little device, still winter's coming and

something's got to fill those long evenings.

For the ROM, visit www.zxplus3e.plus.com .

Spanish SPArkle

> New Spectrum archive online

SPA2 , the SPAnish SPectrum Archive is a

new website of "a project aimed at the

collection, storage and preservation of every

Sinclair Spectrum program ever released in

Spain," and it launched on 16 September.

The site, sort of the Spanish equivalent of

WOS, opened its doors with no less than 500

titles already avilable in TZX and DSK format,

and it also aims to collect inlays and

instructions. The Spanish contribution to the

Spectrum is often underacknowledged - this

site, along with the great new Es.pectrum

emulator (see Emulator News ) should help

broaden the picture. And the site is in

English as well as Spanish, so you really

have no excuse. Get over to

www.speccy.org/spa2/ right now.

More miner action

> Willy's continuing adventures

Miner Willy (I played it safe there with that

title, didn't I?), the character that has become

an icon of the ZX world, is in no danger of

loosing his appeal, it would appear. New to

the MM scene over the last few months are

the JavaScript version of Matthew Smith's

1983 classic and, just recently, a new

spectrum version featuring themes from the

comp.sys.sinclair folklore.

The first of these really is quite a sight to

behold, four levels of the original game in

pure JavaScript (no, not Java - Java Script ),

coded by Carl Woffenden and to be found

online at www.bigredswitch.co.uk/

games/manic/ . Although this version has no

sound, the graphics have been taken straight

from the original (minus the colour clash). I

really didn't realise you could do stuff like this

in JavaScript; as one CSSer put it, this is "the

single most best use of JavaScript I think I've

ever seen."

Manic Miner CSS , on the other hand, is a

new spectrum version of the game, put

together by N Fishwick ( Fishy Fish in CSS)

using Andrew Broad 's Manic Miner Screen

Editor and featuring such levels as the

Chuntey Generator, Scribbler's Fridge and ***

L@@K, W@W, R@RE! *** Described by

Stuart Campbell already as "the best MM

'sequel' I've seen," you can download the

game from www.fishyfish.net/manic/

Andrew Broad himself is something of a

Miner Willy guru, having released a number

of MM sequels over the last five years,

including Manic Miner 4 and Manic Miner:

The Hobbit. His amazing site at

www.cs.man.ac.uk/%7Ebroada/

spectrum/willy/ contains a wealth of MM

information, but will be closing soon as he is

due to leave university (where it's hosted).

So get over there whilst you still can (and hit

Save).

Crap is back

> CSSCGC 2002 launches

Equinox Tetrachloride has taken on the

challenge to host this year's

comp.sys.sinclair Crap Games

Competition , and the entries are already

coming in. This year's contest is the seventh

annual celebration of the standard of

spectrum programming most infamously

established by the Cascade Cassette 50,

nineteen -count 'em - years ago.

For those of you uninitiated with this ancient

ZX tradition, Eq's introductory text at

www.cl4.org/comp/spectrum/cgc2002/ tells

you pretty much all you need to know:

" CGC entries are laughably poor homebrew

Spectrum games, usually written in the

powerful BASIC language.

"Some of these games delve richly into a

putrid goldmine of special effects: beepy

sound, colour clash, the lot. Others are just

pseudo-games that hinge upon cheap jokes.

As long as the game is crap and somehow

amusing in its crapness, it is a genuine

contender for the mouth-watering prize."

If you're a returner to the Spectrum scene,

you'll no doubt be looking for a reason to

program with purpose, just like you used to:

here it is, and what's more you can do it

secure in the knowledge that your clumsy

coding will actually be considered a feature.

If you need guidelines, check out "So, you

wanna write a crap game" at

www.unsatisfactory.freeserve.co.uk/

crap.html

ZXF 's own entry, Groundforce, saw lack of

quality simply oozing out of ZX SPIN for a

frightening

number of

evenings;

meanwhile, my

old mate Gareth

has released

his own foray

into the dregs,

sharing with us

all in Ferrari Driving Experience , his recent

day out at Thruxton and advising that "playing

the game is virtually indistinguishable from

the real thing."

Check out the

loading screen

tutorial in exp to

find out how to

front-end your

creation with a

work of

spectrum art, and also a few BASIC loader

tips (if you don't know what that is, read 'Back

to the Spectrum' first).

The Cascade Cassette 50

Can it really be as bad as they say it

is? Actually, it's worse. The

Cascade Cassette 50 compilation

(Cascade, 1983) is the most

appalling collection of BASIC games

ever conceived, marketed with

complete and utter absence of

conscience. Not even magazine

type-in listings were this bad. No

really. But for something to be as

thoroughly dreadful as all that, it invariably falls off the bottom of

the bad scale and ends up at the top of the good one. So actually,

it's brilliant.

"Congratulations! You

are now the owner of

the sensational 50

game tape called

CASSETTE-50 brought

to you by CASCADE "

ZXF/02 page 7

ZXF/02 page 8

Emulator news

OVERVIEW: New directions in Spectrum emulation

A busy few months it's been indeed, with two brand new emulators hitting the scene and

updates implemented in many of the existing titles, a few of which we haven't heard of in a

good while. All of this, by itself, is blimmin' marvelous stuff, but the planned enhancements to

SPIN are especially exciting. TZX management seems to be one of the most significant

areas of emulator development over the last 12 months and the current direction being taken

is giving us increasing amounts of control over our virtual little cassettes. And quite right too.

The tape recorder might have been physically external to the early Spectrums, but so integral

was its being to to the use of the computer, it was to all extents and purposes a fully fledged

part of it; it too needs to be emulated right alongside the Spectrum itself, and emulators such

as Spectaculator are doing a particularly good job of this at the moment.

With both Klive and the new beta release of Spectaculator featuring both the Currah Micro

Speech and the Cheetah SpecDrum on their list of emulated features, a new corner seems to

have been turned in peripheral hardware. Previously the remit only of the the likes of

RealSpectrum and Gerton Lunter's Z80 , peripheral devices have been studiously avoided by

many of the 'mainstream' emulators until now. But with the emulation of the main machine

and all its variants now generally about as close to perfect as it's possible to get, some new

directions are needed for authors if they are to keep on improving their babies and outdoing

their competitors (let's be honest here - it's because there are so many Spectrum emulators

that their quality is so outstanding). The implications of all of this are quite exciting.

blown emulator of all Spectrum models (but

not the +3e) which includes support for both

the Currah Micro Speech (see below) and the

Cheetah SpecDrum. Version 1.1 of the

emulator, released just a few weeks after 1.0,

also supports real tape loading through your

soundcard and loading from mono .WAV files.

You can load and save .SCR screen$ files

(for some reason, many emulators that allow

you to save .SCR files don't also allow you to

load them back in, so this is a definate bonus)

and - what fun! - there is also an option to

increase the speed of your emulated Speccy,

taking it full throttle to 'Max Power!' if you so

desire (2000% on my machine): take that

Bilbo Baggins' carpet.

Klive's help system leaves a lot to be desired,

consisting of a credits box only; I was left

wondering how exactly you are supposed

to load in .WAV files (it isn't obvious) and

when I selected Real Tape Mode I

received the message "Real Tape Not

Supported!" at the bottom of my screen,

but as to whether this is a report on my

soundcard or something to do with the

status of the program I remain none the

wiser. Even without these enhanced

features, however, Klive is an excellent

little emulator that has got the competition

thinking - as we shall see - and you can

grab hold of a copy for yourself at

ftp://ftp.worldofspectrum.org/

pub/sinclair/emulators/pc/

windows/Klive11.zip

VBSPEC

Hello again... The Currah Micro Speech

ES.PECTRUM

Es.pectrum is a new Spectrum emulator by

Javier Chocano, released recently in beta.

The emulator supports a wide range of

machines, from the original 48k to the +3.

Previously only supporting tape based

machines, the latest version as I write (0.6b2)

has been updated to include .DSK support; in

testing, a few disk images seemed to work

fine, however Operation Wolf crashed fairly

quickly and when I tried to format a new disk I

was told it was write protected... emulate your

way out of that one if you can.

Where Es.pectrum breaks the mould is in its

support for foreign models, including the

entire range of Spanish Spectrums (there's

even a Spanish +3e), a French +2 and

Pentagon/Scorpion support. This gives us

UK users access to new Spectrum

perspectives, including the original 1985 128k

Spanish operating system - a kind of

48/128 hybrid (no tokeniser, but also no

menus) - which was developed, of course,

into the UK 128 system for a (desperate

and futile) launch by Sinclair in the

following year.

Es.pectrum also supports the Magnum

Lightgun bundled with +3s and +2As - is, I

believe, the first emulator to do so - giving

you mouse controlled access to the

handful of games that supported this

device (not quite the same as a real gun in

your hand, but if you've ever handled the

Magnum you'll know you're not missing

much). Get it from www.espectrum.tk .

KLIVE

Another new emulator: Klive by Steve

Snake has taken us all by surprise.

Coming quite out of the blue, this is a fully

The Currah Micro Speech, manufactured by Welwyn

Electronics, was released late 1983 for £29.99. The

little black box, which also acted as a sound amplifier

by mixing the Spectrum's sound output with the RF

television signal, was a speech synthesis device that

ran together allophones (speech

sounds) into words. And now you can

find out just how good it was, courtesy of

Spectaculator and Klive .

When you power up your speech-

enhanced Spectrum, Currah's own

the screen; from this point on all your

key presses will be articulated until you

(gratefully) discover the 'LET keys = 0'

command that turns this rather annoying

feature off. Actually programming the

unit to speak for you is a simple matter of assigning a

sequence of allophones to the variable s$, so typing

in 'LET s$="he(ll)(oo)"' will produce a reasonable

"hello" when you press enter. The allophones

themselves come in four flavours - single letter (as in

h and e above), double vowel (as in oo ),

double consonant (as in ll ) and 'complex' (for

example ar , as in, erm, ar m). For each of

these sets (see a complete list at

http://mudhole.spodnet.uk.com/

~majik/sinclair/

thirdparty/allophones.html ),

intonation can also be made high

or low by using upper case or

lower case letters respectively.

A few Spectrum games (50 in total)

detected and supported the Currah

Micro Speech, adding synthesised

messages to the action (a

complete list of these games can

be found at

www.worldofspectrum.org/

infoseek.cgi?Currah*speech ). If you've got a

copy, try loading up Jetman and listening to

what our hero tells you when your careless

joystick management ends him up dead (yet

again). The cheeky blighter.

ZXF/02 page 9

ZXF/02 page 10

Emulator news

vbSpec, the Spectrum emulator by Chris

Cowley written entirely in Visual Basic (don't

ask why, just accept it, ok?) has been

updated to version 1.50 and now supports

fully .TZX files, including a little cassette tape

interface. Chris credits Mark Woodmass

(co-author of SPIN) for his help in this work.

Download it from http://freestuff.grok.co.uk/

vbspec/ .

SPECTACULATOR

A massive update for Jonathan Needle's

lovely Spectaculator ; not only has 128

support been added at last (128+ and original

+2 only), version 3.0 beta also features the

Currah Micro Speech and the Cheetah

SpecDrum (now where did he get that idea

from...?). Although this is a beta realease, it

runs like a thoroughbred on my machine; the

main reason for the beta suffix, in fact, is that

Jonathan has yet to update his excellent help

system to include all these new features - and

since he's just become a daddy it's unlikely

he's going to find the time for this in the

immediate future. Ain't that the truth.

This is the second update to Spectaculator

since the last emulator roundup in ZXF 01,

version 2.5 (released in July) having added in

Romantic Robot's Multiface 1 to the

emulation; accordingly, version 3.0 now

supports the Multiface 128 also. You can

download this fantastic emulator - still the

best for creating your own .TZX files, as far as

I'm concerned - from

www.spectaculator.com . And here's a tip

for Jonathan - when all else fails, the vacuum

cleaner oftens puts babies to sleep; welcome

to the bizarre, but beautiful world of

parenthood.

REALSPECTRUM

The one we've all been waiting for (and then

kind of forgotten about, amidst all this

activity) now has a name. Described by

Ramsoft staff as "another revolution in

Spectrum emulation," RealX , the

"next-generation RealSpectrum optimized

for DirectX" is (still) on its way. In the

meantime we have a new update to the

classic RealSpectrum to keep us occupied

while we wait. Version 0.96.16 (beta 13),

otherwise known as "Katun," adds in

support for the Rotronics Wafadrive (a

looped tape storage device not unlike the

Sinclair Microdrive) and thus we have yet

another file format: the format specs for

.WDR files are promised at the website.

Katun also adds in support for the Magnum

lightgun via the PC mouse.

Beta 13 has also been compiled to run

under Windows: RS32 is a seperate

download but essentially the same old

RealSpec running in a window, and allows

WinXP users the access to the emulator

that was denied to them by the DOS

version. Head over to

www.ramsoft.bbk.org/realspec.html for

more information on it all.

X128

A considerable number of spechums (I'm

sorry, I hate that word; this is the first and

last time I'll use it) around the world have

remained faithfull to this DOS emlator,

despite all of the bewildering changes going

on (not all of us are lucky enough to have

high speed Pentiums, after all); now their

loyalty has been rewarded. Version 0.94 of

James McKay's creation comes with bug

fixes and better support for a number of file

formats, including TR-DOS. There are also

a host of new "half-finished" features, such

as ZX81 emulation, Interface 1/microdrive

support and "an experimental attempt at

'movie' files." You can find out what that's all

about at www.worldofspectrum.org/x128/ .

Z80

Not an update, but the full version of Gerton

Lunter's classic Z80 Spectrum emulator is

once again availible through the new Outlet

site reported on elsewhere in the news

section. Once upon a time (three years

ago, in fact) this was an amazing emulator;

it's still very good, but its £15 price tag for

the full version (£20 if you want both the

DOS and the Windows versions) makes it

the only commercial PC Spectrum emulator

around that I know of, and compared to the

likes of RealSpectrum... well let's just say

that you get more for your nothing these

days. All the same, good printer emulation -

and still the only windows emulator to

feature microdrive support: head over to

www.fidcal.com/

Outlet/ .

SPIN

SPIN had been quiet for

a few weeks, until Paul

Dunn - co-author with

Mark Woodmas of this

daringly innovative

emulator - bounced

cheerily into

comp.sys.sinclair to

announce version 0.3 open and ready for

business. A lot has been added this time.

A lot. To begin with there's support for the

Magnum lightgun and the Currah Micro

Speech (are we begining to spot a pattern

here?); there's improved support for

compressed zip files and better RZX

compatibility with RealSpectrum 's version

of the format. Now the interesting stuff: you

can now insert a blank tape to record on via

the Recording menu (although the whole

process is not as intuitive as

Spectaculator's approach to this: new tapes

being recorded onto don't show up in the

tape browser as they do in Spectaculator - to

all extents and purposes recording and

playback are treated as completely seperate,

handled by different buttons and menu

systems) and there is now basic support for

block editing, allowing you to cut, paste and

insert new blocks - previously you needed

dedicated software such as Taper to manage

such tasks.

But that's not all. New also to this version is

the 'keyboard helper' a keyboard input

window that is, quite simply, superb - both

the idea and its implementation. We've

needed something like this for ages;

Spectaculator's keyboard map is good, but

this is better: not only does the helper find all

those awkward commands, symbols and

punctuation marks, it will

actually input them for you

into the emulation window

too.

In fact, the keyboard

helper offers not one, but

three different ways of

doing this. First is the

Onscreen Keyboard

(pictured), the keys of

which you click with your

mouse and behave exactly

as the keys on the real

thing do. Second is the Command Finder,

which features an alphabetical scrolling list of

commands, symbols and modes, which can

be clicked on and entered. finally there is the

Quick BASIC window, into which you can

type your line of BASIC into a text box and

have it sent to the Spectrum as either an

ASCII string (for 128k modes) or 48k tokens.

ftp://ftp.worldofspectrum.org/

pub/sinclair/emulators/pc/windows/

SPIN03.zip . Have fun.

Above: The SPIN keyboard helper. Genius.

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