Lmst

Excerpt from an advertisement for the #Sinclair #Zx80. Its success surprised even Uncle Clive, who expected to sell around 20,000 computers with a bit of luck and ended up selling more than 50,000, despite its numerous shortcomings. But 45 years ago, it was impossible to get more for less. #retrocomputing

@Chrishallbeck Lived and still live in the future. 🤓

Started in ‘78 with the school Commodore PET, then my Uncles TRS80 and by 1980 my own hand forged “Sir Clive”, steam powered #Sinclair #ZX80 with #Z80 processor @ 3.XX MHz with 4K ROM (later a #ZX81 upgrade) and 1Kb RAM.

<https://flickr.com/photos/bootload/albums/72157607718005837/>

A Sinclair ZX80 in a foam box with power and tv cable.

A UK advert for the ZX80. It was $100 AUD when released.

The ZX80 setup. Computer alligator clipped to a small TV, connected to the tape player to load programs.

Mazogs on my #ZX80 (Minstrel 2). An astonishing flicker-free feat of programming genius.

Photo of Mazogs running on my ZX80 clone computer, displaying on my green screen CRT Philips monitor.

It's the title screen of the game which shows all the main game elements, the hero, gold treasure, the monsters, the walls and even a sword.

ZX80/81 core receives an update after 6 years!! Thanks to tdlage26 :ablobcatbongo:

=== zx8x_250316.rbf ===

- Update T80
- Add Chroma 81 interface
- Add download of CHR file

MiST: https://github.com/tdelage26/mist-binaries/tree/master/cores/zx01

Sidi: https://github.com/tdelage26/SiDi-FPGA/tree/master/Cores/Computer/ZX8X

#MiSTBoard #FPGA #ZX80 #ZX81 #Sinclair

Yay! The #Minstrel2 and #Minstrel3 from Tynemouth are both back in stock at #z80kits

These clones of the Sinclair #ZX80 and #ZX81 respectively are great fun to build and use. Get one quick before the run out again!

https://z80kits.com/shop/tynemouth-minstrel-2/
https://z80kits.com/shop/tynemouth-minstrel-3/

assembled Tynemouth Minstrel 2 kit. It is a green PCB with a load of black chips and a blue tactile switch keyboard.

assembled Tynemouth Minstrel 3 kit. It is a green PCB with a load of black chips and a green tactile switch keyboard.

I limit the number of hashtags I follow here to single numbers as I can't add hashtags to lists.

That means the output is all on the main following feed & I can't cope with the sensory overload.

eg, I'd like to follow #speccy #Spectrum #ZXSpectrum #ZX80 #ZX81 & have their output in my 8 Bit & Retrotech list, not on main. It's normal to do this with individual accounts/groups, but because I can't do it with lists I don't follow any of them.

#Mastodon #Fediverse #Autism #Hashtags #HashtagGames

Got an inline switch for the #ZX80, like I have for all my other computers.

Photo showing an inline switch for the ZX80 and also my Acorn Electron.

#PacMan on the #ZX80!!!! Another astonishing flicker-free achievement on a computer that shouldn't be able to produce animated games.

Title screen of PacMan on the ZX80 clone computer (Minstrel 2). It is being displayed on my vintage Philips green screen CRT monitor. In front is the computer and next to that is my cassette recorder which was used to load the game into the ZX80.

Gameplay screen of PacMan on the ZX80 clone computer (Minstrel 2). It is being displayed on my vintage Philips green screen CRT monitor. In front is the computer and next to that is my cassette recorder which was used to load the game into the ZX80. I'm not actually playing the game, as I was holding the phone to take this photo.

I have (very carefully) filed down the video output socket on my #ZX80 clone to make the top panel truly level. It was previously about 1MM too tall for my spacers that I fitted.