ZX Computings - OpenLibra

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Club Roundup
The National ZX80 and ZX81
Users' Club has changed its
name to the National ZX
Users' Club, in response to the
launch of the Spectrum. It has
also decided to totally
disassociate itself from the
Atom and BBC activities it
was involved in, and
concentrate just on the ZX
machines. The club's monthly
magazine — INTERFACE — is
now all ZX material, a
development which has
generally been greeted by club
members. The club can be
contacted (mail only) at 44-46
Earls Court Road, London W8
6EJ, and €1 will bring you a
sample issue of the magazine,
which features news, special
offers, reviews, and many
programs. Interface was the
first publication in the world to
publish Spectrum programs.
The ZX81 User Group,
North London Hobby
Computer Club, Polytechnic of
North London, Holloway Road,
London N7 8DB (01-607
2789), has decided to publish
an occasional news sheet to
be distributed among
members. The first issue of
the newsletter was sent to all
members of the wider club, in
an attempt to 'flush out' any
unknown ZX owners. The
newsletter also includes the
following bit of information:
"We've been given the
business card of Chris Robins,
CWR Developments, 6
Jackson Road, Islington N7
6EJ, who does ZX81 repairs.
No more details, so if anyone
uses him, let us know how
you get on."
Jim Walsh and Paul
Holmes, aided by Andrew
Greening, Allan Walters, Nick
Steel and John West, produce
a ZX magazine called
DATABUS for their school
ZX81 club. They had an
article on the Spectrum in an
issue they were handing out a
week after the new computer
was launched. The rundown
on the Spectrum was
interesting indeed, and
included the following
comments from Paul Holmes:
"The Sinclair Spectrum has
two principle additions to the
ZX81: the ZX Microdrive
capability and a full colour
graphics system. It has no
different modes for hi-res or
text, both use the same hi-res
RAMs. A number of extra
commands are added, plus
colour control codes. The
eight colours are each labelled
on the top of the keyboard and
may be used in three different
ways.
"PLOT provides the usual
possible facilities except on a
192 x 256 grid: All 8 colours
are available on the screen at
once. DRAW is for drawing a
line between any two points.
OVER, used in conjunction
with DRAW, CIRCLE, PLOT,
etc. causes unClRCLE,
unPLOT, etc. FLASH, BRIGHT
and INVERSE are for use with
the PRINT command to
achieve flashing text, two
levels of brightness and
inverse video. POINT is to test
a hi-res point. READ, DATA,
RESTORE are provided as well
as multistatement lines. The
sound command is BEEP and
this operates the internal
speaker, and has ten octaves
and a single volume.
"Moving onto the ZX
MICRODRIVES now: It can
hold 100K bytes and takes
interchangeable 3Vi floppy
disks. Eight drives can be
connected at once. Extra
commands which are provided
are: CAT, producing a Disc
Catalogue, ERASE for deleting
a file, OPEN and CLOSE - to
open and close files. The disc
and tape will share a number
zx News
of commands: VERIFY,
MERGE, LOAD/SAVE. These
are for verifications of
programs, merging programs
and variables and the loading
and saving of programs, etc.
The disk saves 1 6K in 3.5
seconds, whilst the cassette
interface has been pushed up
to 1 500 Band (the ZX81 was
under 300 Band). Everything
is very much the same, the
cursor/edit controls are
basically the same.
"The Spectrum has a full
ASCII character set and lower
case available from the
keyboard. It maintains a 24 x
32 text display, 21 user
definable graphics are also
available. Two control keys
give TRUE VIDEO and
INVERSE VIDEO, if you want
to get back to normal it is
quite easy.
"The Spectrum is a World
beating computer, and has
proved people right about
Sinclair's ability, and the BBC
wrong about the choice of
company WELL DONE
SINCLAIR."
Other local clubs we know
about include:
• EZUG (Educational
ZX80/81 Users'Group), Eric
Deeson, Highgate School,
Birmingham 1 2. Send a large,
stamped, addressed envelope
Hints N' Things
Thirteen-year-old James Higgo
of Hertford has discovered
some useful techniques to
overcome common ZX
problems. He listed three of
them for us here at ZX
Computing-.
1. If loading fails, I pass the
tape output through my Hi Fi
and drop the Bass, lift the
Treble and jiggle about with
the various twiddly bits. This
usually works after about
three tries. Sometimes,
however, there is an
unwanted blip on the tape
which cannot be eliminated. I
have not used this system
much as I use TDK tapes,
which are usually perfect for
use with my mono SANYO
tape recorder. If you do not
have the right sockets on your
Hi Fi, you can join a few jack
sockets to the leads coming
from the stylus on the record
player somewhere inside the
Hi Fi, and also a couple — one
from each speaker — for
output. Most systems will
have an earphone output and a
microphone input anyway.
2. I have a games paddle (of a
sort) on my computer which
consists of five press-to-make
buttons, a small box and a
strip of ribbon cable. The box
has the first four buttons on
the top in a + formation, and
one on the side for fire. The
buttons are connected via
ribbon cable to the computer
keyboard on the underside of
the PCB. The upper button to
the up-arrow, the left one to
the left-arrow etc, and the fire
to the 0 key (actually, mine
goes to 9, but 0 is more
suitable in view of games tike
OS Defender). A joystick can
be connected in place of the
box and buttons. The paddle
will work with most arcade
games.
3. If you get stuck in a M/C
routine, or want to get out of a
program like ZX CHESS, I find
switching a lamp off next to
the computer is worth a try.
The computer often gives the
C error and the program is
there for the saving.
Sometimes a few memory
locations are filled with
garbage in the process and in
M/C, this is hard to rectify.
for details. EZUG also caters
for the BBC Microcomputer.
• Roger Pyatt, 23 Arundel
Drive, Orpington, Kent (66)
20281.
• Austin Knott, 269
Telegraph Road, Deal, CT14
9EJ.
• Christoph Moeller, Gross
Kurfurstenstrasse 41 a, 4800
Bielefeld 1, Germany.
• Danmarks Nationale ZX80
og ZX81 Club, Skovmosvej 6,
4200 Slageise Dk Denmark.
• Steve Brumby, 38 Eastfield
Road, Messingham,
Scunthorpe, Sth. Humberside.
• Ken Knight, 22 Mount
Street, Aylesbury, Bucks.
HP20 2SE (0296 5181).
• David Blagden, PO Box 1
59 Kingston upon Thames,
Surrey.
• Anthony Quinn,
Heckenrosenweg 6, 3170
Gifhorn, W. Germany.
• Conrad Roe, 25 Cherry
Tree Avenue, Walsall, WS5
4LH.
• Ian Watt, 107 Greenwood
Road, Clarkeston, Glasgow.
• J. Palmer, 56 Meadowfield
Drive, Edinburgh (031-661
3181).
• Leeds Microcomputer
Users Group. Meets
fortnightly on Thurs eve in
Leeds, new members
welcome. Contact: Paul
O'Higgins, 20 Brudenell Mt,
Leeds 6, tel: (0532) 742347
after 6.
• Brunei Computer Club:
meets alternate Mondays
1900-2200 hrs at St
Werburgh's Community
Centre. Contact: Mr R
Sampson, 4 The Coots,
Stockwood.
• Worle Computer Club:
meets alternate Mondays
1 900-22.30 at Woodsprings
Inn Function Rooms. Contact:
S Rabone, 1 8 Castle Rd,
Worle, Weston-Super-Mare,
Avon, tel: 0934 51 3068.
• P Compton, 29 North
Marine Road, Scarborough,
Nth Yorks, Y01 2 7EY.
• Jonathan Meyer, Vanspaen
Straat 22, 6524 H.N.
Nymegan, Holland.
• Royston H Wallis, 22
Mallard Crescent, Pagham,
Bognor Regis, West Sussex,
P021 4UU.
• Raymond Betx, Chemin du
Moulin 38, 1 328 Ohain,
Belgium.
• Cardiff, The 81 Club. This is
organised by Mike Hayes, 54
Oakley Place, Grangetown,
Cardiff. Cardiff 371 732.
If you'd like your club listed
here, just drop a line to the
National ZX Users' Club and
the information will be passed
on to ZX Computing.
32 ZX COMPUTING AUG/SEPT 1982 16