Redesigning the ZX Spectrum 128k -A lifelong dream

[myPinballs]

Some final tests for the setup coming to the Play Expo event at the end of this week. 8th - 9th October over in Manchester. Bought a new 32" TV for the event and been playing about with the settings. The Zoom2 option seems to give a good full screen image especially for R-Type so will give that ago and also have the regular 4:3 option to.

Reminder of the event dates - 8th - 9th October in Manchester - playexpomanchester.com. Come to my stand to see the proto in full action, have a chat with me and see it all first hand along with my other pinball and arcade projects. Its only a few days to go now. I am packing up my stuff as we speak

I will be making the boards available through my web store here - mypinballs.co.uk/electronics/store.jsp in due course. I will keep everyone interested here updated with progress aswell. The first batch revision board blanks will get ordered when i'm back from expo.

myPinballs2016-10-03 09:52:46

 

[deano76]

I'm at Play Expo this weekend, whereabouts will your stand be ?

 

[retromax]

Are we able to hook up hard drives via the IDE connector?

I was also wondering that, or what it can be used for?

 

[retromax]

Would this fit in a dk' tronics keyboard?, I only have a 16k one in mine and never thought of whether or not a 128 would work?

 

[iamjimmi]

Wowzers!

 

[Flinnster]

Thanks for bringing back many memories

I still have a zipstick just behind me, but the speccy's are long gone. Many of my fave games in the screens there, obviously played all the arcade conversions that came to 8bit - and yes I do remember pinball simulator.

Denizen by Players... wow I remember sitting there listening to the AY music on that very screen decades ago. The interface design very much inspired the look of one of my first 32bit games projects... happy days
I also went on to work for the Oliver Twins for about 6 years

Looks like a great project, congrats! I hope the shows go well My only request would be loading of software from SD card, and the ability to have a 128k rubber keyed model

 

[Flinnster]

Anyone know of other cool 128k music game intros that i could try to on the prototype. I really like the 128k version of commando. This plays the music throughout the game to! Nice

Try Dizzy Kwik Snax 128k. Full band members playing a channel of the music on different instruments

Chase HQ had a great 128K conversion too. 2nd'd on the Robocop theme - wasn't it nicked for an 'Ariston' advert in the late 80's?

Tim Follin cranking out sinewaves...

And one of my all time faves.. the AY being pushed to the limit on all channels:

Flinnster2016-10-04 03:49:27

 

[myPinballs]

I'm at Play Expo this weekend, whereabouts will your stand be ?

I'll be in the pinball area

 

[myPinballs]

Would this fit in a dk' tronics keyboard?, I only have a 16k one in mine and never thought of whether or not a 128 would work?

I think it should fit ok. The layout for the pcb is designed to fit inside a regular sinclair plus or 128k case bottom. Would be interesting to see.

 

[myPinballs]

Are we able to hook up hard drives via the IDE connector?

I was also wondering that, or what it can be used for?

The IDE connector and associated logic was added to allow the easy use of Compact flash card hook up. You can get adapters that hook compact flash card straight onto an ide connector etc. The issue with this is the os to access the files on the card. Some of the newer spectrum os roms have file systems that can read to an ide device, but they appear to be only for the +3 models which use a later ula and have some other differences. I don't believe currently that this os rom will work on my machine.

There are other 3rd party devices that can be plugged on to the standard spectrum expansion port which add sd card support though.

If anyone has more info on os roms for the 128k/+2 (grey) model machines then that would be great to hear about. I currently use the +2e os rom

 

[myPinballs]

Try Dizzy Kwik Snax 128k. Full band members playing a channel of the music on different instruments

Chase HQ had a great 128K conversion too. 2nd'd on the Robocop theme - wasn't it nicked for an 'Ariston' advert in the late 80's?

Ah yes, dizzy kwik snax! I had forgotten about that game, but the band music thing was awesome. Bringing back some memories again! Still wishing they'd done a 128k version of r-type Imagine what could have been done with that extra memory!

 

[Guests]

Really, really, really awesome. Must be such a nice thing to create yourself and see working.

 

[Flinnster]

Ah yes, dizzy kwik snax! I had forgotten about that game, but the band music thing was awesome. Bringing back some memories again! Still wishing they'd done a 128k version of r-type Imagine what could have been done with that extra memory!

R-Type was mindblowing at the time anyway, how they simply fit it into a 48k, but I suspect decent AY music during gameplay and every level in memory would have worked a treat!

 

[myPinballs]

Ah yes, dizzy kwik snax! I had forgotten about that game, but the band music thing was awesome. Bringing back some memories again! Still wishing they'd done a 128k version of r-type Imagine what could have been done with that extra memory!

R-Type was mindblowing at the time anyway, how they simply fit it into a 48k, but I suspect decent AY music during gameplay and every level in memory would have worked a treat!

Have you read this book from the author of r-type for the spectrum? Very interesting read about how he managed to do it and what it was like working for activision/electric dreams etc. I can relate to a lot of it myself, seems programmers from all sectors get treated the same

http://bizzley.imbahost.com/download.html

 

[Flinnster]

No! Thanks for the heads up, it looks awesome

As for working in the games industry... 25yrs and counting

 

[myPinballs]

Pre-ordering now available on my website store here : http://mypinballs.co.uk/electronics/store.jsp Total cost of board is £100, or £120 with the custom ULA chip inc vat plus postage. 50% upfront for pre-order, then remainder when ready.

 

[myPinballs]

Things have been rather hectic here arcade and pinball wise since the play expo show (oct 16) where i was demoing my proto zx spectrum 128k board. A few updates on progress to report now i've got a minute.

Been doing more soak testing and experiments to check reliability.I also decided to make another run of proto boards as after checking everything there were so many updates/mods/changes to the first rev protos that i wanted to confirm everything was correct before ordering a load. and i also decided to add a few new things based on various bits of feedback. First i've added a vga connector by adding parts to create a v sync signal and secondly i've modified the ay sound output going to the scart socket and line out jack to be full stereo. Next, i've double checked and fine tuned some mount hole alignments and the overall board size so that it fits nicely in the + case. This is something else i also want to double check before making a load. If the next small run of protos works out ok without too many mods need then i will make some up for people who are interested in them, then run a larger load next. I've also built up a stock of 128k ULA chips for inclusion in the boards.

Some pics of checking case fittings and mount points, VGA positioning etc