Exidy Sorcerer

[VectorGamer]

I was reading the obituary of Exidy founder Pete Kaufman in which the article mentioned the Exidy Sorcerer. Apparently not a lot of people ever heard of this thing.

 

 

CPU: Zilog Z80, 2.106 MHz (later 4 MHz) RAM: 4 kB, expandable to 48 kB. larger sizes came standard in later runs ROM: 4 kB, cartridges could include 4 to 16 kB Video: 64×30 character display, monochrome Sound: none (external additions possible) Ports: composite video, Centronics parallel, RS-232, sound in/out for cassette use, 50 pin ribbon connector including the S-100 bus.

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exidy_Sorcerer

[JamesD]

I had a book with programs for the Sorcerer when I was a kid.

[Tempest]

I've been looking for one for a long time now. They're not all that useful, but they're kind of neat. The graphics remind me of a TRS-80 Hi-Res board.

 

I wasn't aware he had passed. That's sad.

[BassGuitari]

As far as games go, the Sorcerer is probably about on the level of an Ohio Scientific; good text, very limited graphics. I'd love to play around with one, but it's not hard to see why it didn't succeed (and why nobody remembers it today).

 

Interestingly (IIRC), Sorcerer cartridges used shells from 8-track cassettes.

[Tempest]

As far as games go, the Sorcerer is probably about on the level of an Ohio Scientific; good text, very limited graphics. I'd love to play around with one, but it's not hard to see why it didn't succeed (and why nobody remembers it today).

 

Interestingly (IIRC), Sorcerer cartridges used shells from 8-track cassettes.

Actually they had pretty decent graphics. Very Hi-Res for the time, but they weren't sprites. Check this emulator out: http://www.liaquay.co.uk/sorcerer/

[JamesD]

The Sorcerer had 512x240 B&W graphics.

They saw the TRS-80 as a great computer but it needed better graphics.

[am1933]

Always loved the Exidy, great looking machine when it was new.

[Opry99er]

Hey Tempest....

 

 

http://m.ebay.com/itm/Exidy-Sorcerer-Large-Collection-/251464565504

 

Better break out the piggy bank.

[Tempest]

That's been up forever. There's always two or three Sorcerers up for sale on ebay at any given time but they're usually overpriced. That collection is pretty cool though and the expansion unit is even rarer than he Sorcerer itself, if I had nothing but money to blow on this I'd be all over that.

[JamesD]

FWIW, there are more Sorcerers on ebay right now than I've ever seen at one time.

[Opry99er]

Yea... Id rather have an Ace, and--by comparison-- the Ace is cheap.

[Tempest]

Yea... Id rather have an Ace, and--by comparison-- the Ace is cheap.

Ace? Is that like a Smart Alec?

[Opry99er]

No... Jupiter Cantab Ace. A rare machine that runs Forth natively... Tape load only (except for a rare peripheral)...

 

They pop up on eBay from time to time for $300-$700.

 

Cool machines, just overpriced.

[carlsson]

The ironic part is that once upon a time when the liquidator of Jupiter Cantab sold out remaining stock, about spring 1984, it supposedly was the cheapest computer on the (UK) market, cheaper than any ZX-81 clones, VTech Lasers and so on.

 

I doublt even placing £300 in the stock market of 1984 would have paid off as much buying 10 Jupiter Aces at £30 or whatever they cost back then, and then resold them 30 years later at £300 each, a profit of £2700 or 900%. But who knew back then this unpopular Forth computer would become rare and desired several decades later?

[JamesD]

I'd rather have an Exidy than an Ace but they have always been expensive.

[am1933]

The ironic part is that once upon a time when the liquidator of Jupiter Cantab sold out remaining stock, about spring 1984, it supposedly was the cheapest computer on the (UK) market, cheaper than any ZX-81 clones, VTech Lasers and so on.

 

I doublt even placing £300 in the stock market of 1984 would have paid off as much buying 10 Jupiter Aces at £30 or whatever they cost back then, and then resold them 30 years later at £300 each, a profit of £2700 or 900%. But who knew back then this unpopular Forth computer would become rare and desired several decades later?

They were indeed £30, I remember seeing them being sold for £29.99 with a RAM pack, If only I knew then what I know now, Sinclair QL's were also being practically given away at one point.

[MarkO]

With ALL the Sinclair ZX-81 and Timex-Sinclair 1000 out there, someone should clone the Jupiter Cantab Ace ROM and make a new Keyboard Overlay, so that the ZX-81/TS1000's can be converted.. I have Eight of them, I wouldn't miss one or two being made into a Jupiter Cantab Ace.

 

 

MarkO

[carlsson]

I seem to recall the Jupiter Ace has been reverse engineered and there is a kit/replica to build your own, but of course it wouldn't look just like the original one.

 

But yes, this thread was mainly about the Exidy Sorcerer, a machine that I've never seen, only read about. I hope those who want one will find their specimens one day without offing an arm and a kidney.

[English Invader]

Terry Stewart has done a video review of this machine:

[JamesD]

It looks like the case is thermoformed plastic

[barnieg]

If you have a ZX spectrum + an Interface 2 (or compatible) you can run an emulator ROM

 

http://www.fruitcake.plus.com/Sinclair/Interface2/Cartridges/Interface2_RC_New_Jupiter_Ace.htm

 

 

With ALL the Sinclair ZX-81 and Timex-Sinclair 1000 out there, someone should clone the Jupiter Cantab Ace ROM and make a new Keyboard Overlay, so that the ZX-81/TS1000's can be converted.. I have Eight of them, I wouldn't miss one or two being made into a Jupiter Cantab Ace.

 

 

MarkO

[ClausB]

In 1981 I worked at a store that sold Exidy Sorcerers, Vector Graphics S-100 CP/M machines, and Ataris. I played around with the Exidy. It had a nice, sharp, monochrome display. No bit-mapped graphics mode, but half the character set was user-definable in RAM, so it had some fine-looking games.

 

I have a working Sorcerer board (which I repaired and fully socketed) but no Exidy case and keyboard. In the day, I modded the ROM for a third-party keyboard and modded the RAM to 57K. I meant to make a CP/M machine out of it but never finished.

[ClausB]

The boss had repaired a customer's Sorcerer S-100 box but had no Exidy cards to try. I suggested trying a Vector Graphics card and when he turned it on it went poof. There was some difference in power circuits. The Sorcerer board was dead and I felt terrible. He didn't blame me though. He replaced the customer's board and gave me the dead one to fix as a project. I didn't know enough to troubleshoot it so I desoldered ALL the chips and bought new chips and sockets, and it worked!

 

I bought a JDR keyboard, a nice surplus unit with long, smooth travel. It has an 8x8 matrix where the Exidy had 16x5. I designed a decoder circuit to make it appear as 16x4 plus Shift. Then I reprogrammed the Monitor ROM's keyboard map to match. I also rewired the DRAM interface to address 1 row of 4164s for 56K contiguous RAM. The plan was to interface a floppy and write a CP/M BIOS. Now I would like to keep it as a 56K Sorcerer and replace the cassette interface with an Arduino and SD card.

[ClausB]

The keyboard is a Key Tronic A65 and I don't remember whether it came from JDR or another seller from the back of BYTE.

[Mr SQL]

The boss had repaired a customer's Sorcerer S-100 box but had no Exidy cards to try. I suggested trying a Vector Graphics card and when he turned it on it went poof. There was some difference in power circuits. The Sorcerer board was dead and I felt terrible. He didn't blame me though. He replaced the customer's board and gave me the dead one to fix as a project. I didn't know enough to troubleshoot it so I desoldered ALL the chips and bought new chips and sockets, and it worked!

 

I bought a JDR keyboard, a nice surplus unit with long, smooth travel. It has an 8x8 matrix where the Exidy had 16x5. I designed a decoder circuit to make it appear as 16x4 plus Shift. Then I reprogrammed the Monitor ROM's keyboard map to match. I also rewired the DRAM interface to address 1 row of 4164s for 56K contiguous RAM. The plan was to interface a floppy and write a CP/M BIOS. Now I would like to keep it as a 56K Sorcerer and replace the cassette interface with an Arduino and SD card.

ES.jpg

Nice machine! You could use the cassette interface to load from ipod, what's the BUAD rate on the Sorcerer?