Tag: Sinclair ZX80
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Coming soon: RISCYFORTH
When I was much younger FORTH fascinated me as an alternative interpreted language for the Z80 eight-bit processor machines I was typically using. Compared to BASIC – the language that the Sinclair ZX80, ZX81 and Spectrum came with – FORTH was reputedly lightening fast and very powerful. My brother and I even obtained a tape…
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What did happen to Comp Shop
Nine years after asking “Whatever happened to Comp Shop?”, I now have the answer. For those who don’t know, Comp Shop was the ground-breaking computer shop, first in New Barnet and then later also on Tottenham Court Road, that played a major part in the early days of UK microcomputing through its production and sale…
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BINSIC – Sinclair BASIC emulator – is back
BINSIC was my 2012 project to emulate Sinclair ZX80/81 BASIC on a modern computer. It is a series of Groovy classes that provide a mixture of interpretation and ‘domain specific language’ (i.e. executing BASIC as native Groovy). Over the years bitrot seems to have set in and the code in the GitHub repo wouldn’t work…
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What computer output is supposed to look like
This month is the 41st anniversary of me coming face-to-face with a “micro-computer” for the first time – in WH Smith’s in Brent Cross. I am not truly sure how I knew what I was looking at (beyond I suppose the shop’s own signage) – because at that time not even “The Mighty Micro” –…
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A little plug for BINSIC
Thirty-three years ago my brother and I got a new cassette player for Christmas. That allowed us to write and save games for our ZX80 computer (like many ZX80 owners we found that an older cassette player just didn’t work) and in 1981 I wrote a Z80 machine code version of Conway’s Game of Life…
cartesian product ... stuff about computing mostly 