29 Jul
2013
29 Jul
'13
10:28 a.m.
On 29 July 2013 16:26, Peter Corlett <abuse at cabal.org.uk> wrote:
On Mon, Jul 29, 2013 at 11:17:07AM -0300, Alexandre
Souza wrote:
[...]
Had you not encountered the TS2068 before?
The best official Spectrum clone ever. 2 improved graphics modes - as
well as 256*176 with a colour resolution of 32*22, it also had the
same pixel res but with a colour resolution of 32*176 (a different
colour for every line of pixels, allowing attribute clash to be
banished if the programmer were careful) and a 512*176 mono mode with
64 columns of text.
It could also map its extended RAM over the ROM, giving a flat 64K of
RAM, meaning that it could run CP/M - something the Sinclair variant
didn't get until the Amstrad Spectrum +3.
I like to imagine that the Spectrum, and indeed Sinclair, would have
prospered and survived had the UK Spectrum 128 used the TS2068's ULA
chip instead of an essentially-unmodified one with the same (fairly
crappy) graphics mode.
Although to be fair, it did leave Spectrum owners a lot more usable
RAM than BBC Micro owners (well, except in Mode 7. Pity the poor
Electron owner who didn't *have* the one screen mode that left you 20K
of RAM free.)
The TS2068 is the basis of the enhanced Spectrum SE machine:
http://www.zxshed.co.uk/sinclairfaq/index.php5?title=ZX_Spectrum_SE
Jarek Adamski (http://8bit.yarek.pl/) hand-built a few of them, based
around a slightly stripped-out version from Portugal called the
TC2048:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TC2048
- Timex Sinclair 2068 (Sinclair, US)
According to Wikipedia, that's a tarted-up ZX Spectrum for the US market.
Compared to the original hardware, its keyboard looks rather good! IMO, the ZX81 was clearly the worst keyboard in the
world for over a quarter of
a century, from its launch in 1981 until 2007. Why 2007? Because that's when
the iPhone came out.
Whereas I will not disagree, AFAIK the "keyboard" of the Atari 400 was
a near-identical membrane type:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_400#The_early_machines:_400_and_800
--
Liam Proven ? Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile
Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven
MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? Skype/AIM/Yahoo/LinkedIn: liamproven
Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884