The Sinclair ZX-80

Hello and welcome to the Floppy Days Podcast for May, 2018, where we remind everyone of the days when everyone knew how to program a computer, not just use it for social media.  My name is Randy Kindig and I host this podcast.

We are coming near the end of the computers to be covered on this podcast that were introduced at the beginning of the 8-bit era, when things really started to take off, that being the year 1980.  This month, we will be talking about a limited, inexpensive, but definitely historically significant line of computers known as the Sinclair Z80, ZX81, and Timex Sinclair 1000 and 1500.

I was very happy to get an old friend, and vintage computer podcasting legend, Earl Evans to help me host this episode.  Earl does a great job of researching and discussing vintage computers and his help was great. In addition, I was able to get some members of the Sinclair ZX80/81 community to provide memories and to help provide information, as well as assisting with going through the topic of emulation.  As a result, there turned out to be so much information to present that it turned into 2 episodes. So, this month we will cover the history of the ZX80 computer line and tech specs and next month we will cover the remaining topics such as peripherals, software, emulation, magazine & newsletters, Web sites and more.  I’m also working on a special interview with someone key to the development of the ZX80 that I’m hoping will come to fruition.

Links Mentioned in the Show:

New Acquisitions and What I’ve Been Up To

• VCF Southeast 6 - http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/otherevents/vintage-computer-festival-southeast/
• Streaming video and audio on an Atari 8-bit (from Nir Dary) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ9RllBv1pg
• Michael Tomczyk interview on Floppy Days - http://floppydays.libsyn.com/floppy-days-70-michael-tomczyk-vic-20
• Sofia RGB board for Atari 8-bit - http://atariage.com/forums/topic/258702-new-development-gtia-in-cpld/page-1
• F18A (TI-99) - http://codehackcreate.com/store#!/F18A-V1-8-Video-Board/p/14022176/category=0

Upcoming Shows

• Pacific Commodore Expo NW - http://www.portcommodore.com/pacommex - June 9-10, Living Computers: Museum + Labs, Seattle, Washington
• KansasFest - https://www.kansasfest.org/ , July 17-22, 2018, Kansas City, Missouri
• VCF West - https://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-west/ , August 4-5, 2018 - Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA
• Commodore Vegas Expo v14 - http://www.commodore.ca/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=12676 , Aug. 11-12, 2018, Las Vegas, NV
• VCF Midwest - http://www.vcfmw.org/ - September 15-16, 2018, Elk Grove Village, IL
• Portland Retro Gaming Expo - http://www.retrogamingexpo.com/ - Oregon Convention Center on October 19-21, 2018
• Tandy Assembly - http://www.tandyassembly.com , Nov. 10-11, Springfield, OH
• TI International World’s Faire - http://ctiug.sdf.org/ - Nov. 10, Evanston Public Library, Evanston, IL
• World of Commodore - https://www.tpug.ca/category/woc/ - December, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Feedback

• Memotech MTX sites from Claus Baekkel
• • www.mtxworld.dk
  • http://www.nyangau.org/memotech/memotech.htm
  • http://www.primrosebank.net/computers/mtx/mtx512.htm
  • http://www.primrosebank.net/computers/cpm/cpm.htm

Interview with Earl Evans

• Pi1541 - https://cbm-pi1541.firebaseapp.com/

History

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX80
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX81