Compumater

Ok, I see now. A keyboard will be much more useful then the Atari peripherals SIO port once the H2 comes out.

Uhhh... It is a show stopper for me. Its the main reason I pre-ordered one of these units. The sio port for use with a Atari XE keyboard. It was part of the original specs.

A sad day indeed. Radio Shack was my go to place back in the 80's and 90's. But, little by little they thinned out the stuff I went there for. The Computers slowly vanished, then the car sterio equipment, Then the speakers, and during it all the parts pile kept getting smaller and smaller. I remember they had a few cool ideas in the late 90's. First I think it was called the univerum catalog. it was like 12 huge volumes they had at every store, and you could order all kinds of rare stuff. Heck I bought 3 new Atari 7800 games from it. They also hung onto the Remote control cars a lot longer then I thought they would. I owned two of them and both worked great, but no one uses remote control cars anymore. They did piss me off with the Cell phone antics. bugging the crap out of you everytime you came in. I've never owned a call phone, and hopefully never will, and the look they would give me when I told them that was priceless. I'm sorry to see them go, I bought a set of cordless phone batterys from them about a month ago. It was still the place to get stuff like that in a hurry. I predict that sears, my other favorite store is not to far behind them.

Here is a Zip of it if you need it. SoundBlaster_1.0_1350B.zip

That SoundBlaster is rare, its an original 8 bit model. I believe it it the first one SoundBlaster made. I would sell it to someone in need on EBay for their PC/XT rig and get yourself a cheap 16bit SoundBlaster. I do have the original drivers for that card, as it was my first sound card. They include a dos wav player, and windows 3.1 drivers

I was interested in Curt's original plan. He was going to do a repro of the Atari 700 Computer module. But it got rolled into the now Vapor unit AKA : The XM. I even went and bought a Atari XE keyboard because at some point before I realized he was just a scam artist he mentioned that the XM would be compatible with this keyboard and may even end up working with the original Atari 7800 Basic cart that had been found at some point. Now 5 years later, I really don't use the 7800, and have sold off all 300 of my 2600 carts. I still have the complete original Atari 7800 game set, but like I said, I never really use it any more. People grow up, get old, move on, and I have. I'd just like my money back from this thief, so I can spend it on something that someone actually has produced and wants to sell. Sorry if this comes off as rude, but not answering E-mails for over a year is rude, not giving regular updates to your investors it rude, and not producing a product 5 years past its due date is criminal. .

I was just thinking about setting up my old WWIV 4.24a BBS on a HP 200LX I just got. Its a funky MS-Dos 5.0 based 80186 hand held computer. It runs 99% of dos programs as long as they are CGA or MONO. I've got tomorrow off, and am going to transfer over the files and see what happens.

Good luck with that. I emailed him about a dozen times last February and March. first asking him to verify that I had moved, and then when I realized he was never going to ship, to ask for a refund. I'm still waiting for a response. No product, no refund, no response. What a great guy.

I Love it man. I was a timex1000 user back in the day, and once the zx81 and t/s1000 computers got out of style, I picked up many of them at yard sales to turn into my creations. I will try and dig out my personal master creation. It was also a wooden frame like yours. I built a custom power supply, and installed a 32k ram pack, printer, and byte-back 1 relay module inside. Then I bought a real keyboard to wire it all up to. I used it for years as my main "hacking" machine. I would program with it, and then transfer the programs over to one of the other 1000's that I had. The byte-back plug in was WAY ahead of its time. I used it to control lights in the house, came up with a program for my old model train set, and even did the Christmas tree lights with it one year. The zx81 is one of the few computers of any era that a person could really get to know. I must have 30 books written on it. Each one giving up some new trick that could get a little more from our little friends. I even got a monochrome monitor at a school sale and converted mine to display an inverse composite signal. Heck If some one didn't know better they would have thought I had a half decent computer. I moved on to bigger and better things, but I kept almost all of my timex stuff, and pull it out once a year to piddle for a month.

I am an avid collector of ZX81/Timex Sinclair 1000 items. I can say that I do not currently have any kaboom clones, but I will keep an eye out.

Still waiting for this. I have a cuddle cart for the 2600 and it has transformed how I play. I'll bet the H2 will do the same for the 7800. Can't wait for it to hit the streets! Please put me down for one when ever its finished.

God, This one looks great! pease add me to the list when it is ready for a cart.

Wo Hoo! Can't wait to get this one, so I can play it on my 7800. Thanks for another great game!

Looks great! Glad to see some progress after all these years. I can't wait to get it on a cart to add to the collection! Thanks.

A TIA Cart would be fine with me, and let me add ITS GREAT TO SEE YOU BACK AT WHAT YOU LOVE! Please add me the list for whatever you end up releasing.

Another post here just jogged my memory. I remember some screen shots for a homebrew hack of Frogger a long while back, and I was wondering if it was ever finished? If it was, did it ever get a run of carts? I'd love to have one to add to the pile here...

please put me down for a non-xm cart! Thanks. I'm on the pre order list for the XM, as I have been for years, but I've lost all hope in it ever being finished. Maybe someday I'll be surprised...

The Emulator is called Eighty One. The version is X I think you have to install version 1.0a and then download and use the icon for the update. Its really a great timex emulator with tons of options. I use it to program games, and then transfer the programs over to the zxpand via a SD card. As for timex keyboard issues. I know what you mean. I have collected about 12 working and not working units over the years to tinker with, and here are some tips to hep repair your keyboard. A lot of times, the keyboard ribbon cables crack. If the crack isn't to far up the ribbon you can use a razor or sharp sissors to trim the ends back to that point. It makes it harder to put the computer back together but I've fixed 4 of them that way. If the unit is dead, 9 times out of 10 its a bad ULA chip so if you have some spare zx or timexs to play with swap that chip out and your good to go. They also make replacement keyboards now, I think the guy that sells the zxpand has them or can get them. I was lucky enough to find a large lot of timex stuff years ago on flea bay that included a homemade unit with a full size, but unmarked keyboard, and the Best Keyboard of all time The Suntronics full size keyboard. Thats the one that looks like a Breadbox C64 case but a little shorter and black with gray keys. It comes with all the marks on the keys. If your into timex sinclair 1000 computer as I am, its the holy grail of key board solutions. but its $$ I did not get the optional sound board when I got my Zxpand It wasn't avalible yet, and I didn't really feel I would use it much. The joystick port sounds cool though... Good luck playing with the emulator, maybe it will spark some interest in fixing up you units! /s

Looks good so far, can't wait for it. As always your attention to detail is perfect. I can't even belive anyone remembers this game! Please add me to the list for a cart!

So, I'm An old time computer geek. I love maxing out 8bits. I have posted my reviews and memories of using a Coleco Adam for fun and for running a small buisness that I ran in the late 80's, I recently posted a moment of joy as I got my beloved TRS-80 Model IV on the "Net" using a slave laptop to link her up. and even posting a post or two to the near dead USENET. As my name suggests I also love tinkering with the primitve Spectravideo Compumate and I am working on a compilation Audio CD with a bunch of games and "apps" that will make your Compumate go. BUT Today I want to talk about a old friend. The Timex Sinclair 1000 (aka ZX-81), I have has a TS-1000 since 1985 when I got one out of a mail order catolog for 19.99. Its a VERY primative computer to say the least, 2K ram stock. 16K with ram pack. Mine has a thermal printer, and a radio shack cassette deck for loading programs. I've used it on and mostly off for many years. Its a toy, a game if you will. I'll load it up, and try and get it to do something usefull jamming every bit of the 16K to play a game or try to build a BBS (my holy grail for a ZX81). Anyway I was surfing the net, and found A device called ZXpand. I read about it, and decided to buy one to play with. HOLY COW! This thing is freaking great! Its a 32K ram pack. its a multi brand Hi-res board, and the best part, its a "Hard Drive" it has a SD card slot, and I loaded all my self made programs as well as a FTP of every Timex game made onto it. Now Ditch the tape deck and ram pack wobble and you have "SUPER Timex" I can load any game made quickly, and without worry of a bad load. Same with saves. As anyone who has messed with the timex 1000 knows you'd better save every program 3 times to get a good save on tape. Well problem solved! this thing rocks. I'm currently trying to figure out a way to create the worlds only timex sincliar 1000 BBS using the ZXpander by maxing out the programming in 32K and using some sort of load and save for files and messages on the SD card. I'll let you know how It works out. I'm also working on muti-load text advetures, and a "Choose your own adventure" type game. these are only possible using this new device. I'm in no way affiliated to ZXpand, and I don't care if anyone buys one, but This thing is great. I keep thinking What if? If the timex sinclair had had a set up like this, I would never have bought my ADAM, or my TRS-80 or my C64. I'd have kept using my 1000 until the PC hit the big time. I think there is a version of 81 Emulator that has zxpand built in. check it out. and please share your old zx81/timex 1000 stories with me! Also if anyone has a serial port adaptor for the timex 1000 and wants to sell, let me know! I need one for my BBS project. /s

Looks Great! Love this game too, can't wait to play it on my 7800. Please add me to the pre-order list. Thanks for all the great work!

Please add me to the next order list!

Please Ad me to the list for one of these!

After reading that post on your refund issues, My gut just sank. All I can say now is... Uh Ohh.. I think I'm out some cash. Thats typical Ebay type BS "oh the checks in the mail" I've had to deal with a few times, and never with happy endings. Bummer for all of us if this is the case.

Its really not hard at all to hook up "vintage" computers to the net. You need a few things to get it up and running. First your computer must have a serial or RS232 port. Next go to your local radio shack or computer store, or E-bay, and buy a Null modem cable. It looks just like a regular serial cable, but there are some internal changes that make it work. Make sure that one end with fit the vintage computer and the other end your modern computer. Step three is to buy a USB to Serial adaptor for your modern computer if you need one. Now you will need to have a terminal program for your vintage setup. I'm using Fast-Term-II for my model IV, and I hope to get a copy of AnsiTerm working soon. I'd set your baud speeds to 1200-2400 to start to see if your setup can handle it. Now hook all that stuff together and turn on both computers. This is what you need to get it on the net. Get a Free copy of "Telnet BBS Server v1.4" it was made to hook old C64/128 computers to the web, but it works for all oldies. Thats it. you fiddle around with the config of both terminal programs and bam. you'll be surfing in no time! Be aware that the Model 3 has a nonstandard 64 letter screen instead of the more recent 80, so some bbs's may look funny, and unless you find a terminal program that works with VT100 or ANSI, make it text only on the bbs's you sign upto! Goodluck, and look for my posts on DOVENET and other BBS fourms as North*Star /s