ZX Spectrum (was Re: Commodores )

On 02/12/2007, Gordon JC Pearce <gordonjcp at gjcp.net> wrote: I was going to comment on that. I still to this day think it's a crying shame that Sinkers didn't use the enhanced ULA from the Timex-Sinclair 2068 in the Spectrum 128. The more flexible RAM paging scheme would have been a boon, too - the TS2068 could page out the ROM making a CP/M port for the Speccy viable. The Amstrad +3 could do that too, but it didn't have the better ULA either, so you were stuck with a 32*24 text display - not a lot of use for Wordstar or Supercalc - or weeny 4-pixel wide characters for 64 columns and eye-strain. The 2068 could do 64 columns of 8-pixel wide characters, meaning that an 80 column screen of fairly legible 7-pixel wide characters was viable. Plus it also had a mode that largely got rid of attribute clash - still only 32 columns of colours, but a different set every pixel line. (Screen resolution 256*192, colour resolution 32*192. Even weirder than a normal Speccy.) I'm sure with a bit of work they could have made a TS2068-alike that was entirely Speccy compatible in 48K mode but had a better BASIC in 128K mode. Even the SAM Coupe managed that, an entirely third-party machine with a faster Z80. -- Liam Proven ? Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/liamproven Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lproven at gmail.com Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884 ? Fax: + 44 870-9151419 AOL/AIM/iChat: liamproven at aol.com ? MSN/Messenger: lproven at hotmail.com Yahoo: liamproven at yahoo.co.uk ? Skype: liamproven ? ICQ: 73187508