[HN Gopher] How to build your own ZX80/ZX81 (2019)
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How to build your own ZX80/ZX81 (2019)
Author : elvis70
Score : 72 points
Date : 2025-01-23 21:02 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (searle.x10host.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (searle.x10host.com)
| sumanthvepa wrote:
| It was my first computer. We lived in India, and importing it
| into the country was a huge deal in the 80s. Programming on it
| felt magical. Even taught my self Z80A assembly language to wring
| the maximum out of the machine. It determined the trajectory of
| my career.
| fifticon wrote:
| I live in denmark, and mirror your comment almost to the word.
| Especially the idea that programming it felt like doing magic.
| gluecode wrote:
| Same for me, but with an ATARI 800 XL. I had too many POKEs and
| PEEKs in my BASIC code. Indian customs took 30 days to release
| this machine in the 80s.
| rbanffy wrote:
| I absolutely love the video chip of the Ataris. The display
| list approach is nothing short of brilliant, allowing
| multiple display modes on a single frame.
| flohofwoe wrote:
| To be fair, that was also possible on some other 8-bit home
| computers of the time, but required the CPU to get involved
| (with tricky timing code to write the hardware registers at
| the right time). The 8-bit Atari's display list coprocessor
| is basically the daddy of the Amiga's Copper :)
| xcf_seetan wrote:
| Also my first computer. I got a kit version for half the price.
| It made me the pioneer of micro computing in my little town, as
| i was the first to have one. :) I was only 15 years old. Most
| amazing is that it had 1Kb ram and I had 2 games for it: a
| chess game and a flight simulator all character based. It was
| so cool.
| ggambetta wrote:
| Mine too! I have a picture with my late dad and the ZX81 that
| has a special place in my heart:
| https://gabrielgambetta.com/computer-graphics-from-scratch/d...
| dcminter wrote:
| That is an absolutely adorable picture!
| olddustytrail wrote:
| Don't sit so close to the screen, it'll ruin your eyes!
| forinti wrote:
| I had to get glasses at 48, so it turns out all the
| warnings were true.
| ggambetta wrote:
| I had to get glasses at 17. To be fair, by then I had
| already spent too much time in front of a screen XD Got
| LASIK a few years later, and now, 15 years after, still
| seeing great.
| pkphilip wrote:
| Same here. I did use the ZX Spectrum in India. Late 80s.
| rbanffy wrote:
| I had a ZX-81 clone for a few weeks. When my family saw what it
| could be done, they returned the Prologica CP-200 and got me an
| Apple II+ clone (still very bare, but it would later gain
| floppies, 80 column-display, a Z80 coprocessor, extra memory and
| a modem). I still have that computer and the //e clone that I
| added later as a second workstation for software development. I
| did a ton of educational software on Apple IIs.
| klelatti wrote:
| Out of interest what was it on the ZX81 that impressed your
| family and convinced them to upgrade?
| marktbaldridge wrote:
| I actually did build my own ZX80.
| http://www.markbaldridge.com/2019/02/vintage-microcomputer-c...
| buescher wrote:
| Now you just need the vintage "portable" black and white TV set
| to hook it up to.
| jonjacky wrote:
| Also of interest, posted here a couple of years ago:
|
| ATX-80 - ZX-80 computer clone with ATmega8 processor
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29569523
|
| This is not an exact replica like the one linked above, but an
| ingenious DIY re-creation built with modern parts, including just
| two ICs, with an ATMega8 processor instead of a Z80. Not an
| emulation, but a complete rewrite of the original Z80 monitor and
| BASIC interpreter in AVR assembly.
| Theodores wrote:
| Great idea in principle, however...
|
| In the early 1980's, the ZX81 was the poverty specification
| machine. Rich kids had their fancy BBC Micro Model B, Atari 800,
| C64 or other proper machine, in a heated study room, with
| dependable electricity and other niceties.
|
| Working class kids had the ZX Spectrum, Vic 20 or, if their
| grandma got the memo wrong, something like a Dragon 32 or Oric 1,
| which counted them out of the games swapping world of the
| playground.
|
| Poor kids had the ZX81 and really poor kids had the ZX81 that you
| had to make yourself, the kit-form version that was PS20 cheaper.
| Or failing that, a hand-me-down ZX80 or a Microbrain thing with
| just a hex keypad and a few LEDs.
|
| Hence, although it might seem a great idea to make a ZX81
| nowadays, for the British poor kid, it comes with the stigma, the
| reminder that it was you that had the kit-form ZX81, with no
| heated study room, and no 16K of RAM.
| Scubabear68 wrote:
| We were relatively poor back then. I got a Timex Sinclair 1000
| after begging relentlessly for it, $99 was a lot to my dad. I
| was around 13 or so.
|
| Learned BASIC, assembly, a bit of Forth on that thing, and as I
| grew up branched out to C64 and Apple II's and PCs, eventually
| became a professional developer.
|
| It all was enabled by the TS 1000 (and by extension the
| creation of the ZX-80 and ZX-81).
|
| To steal a cheesy movie quote, that $99.95 little slab of
| plastic and chips changed my stars.
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