As it was in Leningrad - Spectrum in St. Petersburg in 1996

 1996

At the end of the school year, my classmate Denis offered to buy from
him Spectrum-128 for only 100 thousand rubles. It was inexpensive
and I said that I would take it, but after my birthday in June, since
I was counting on the money given for my birthday. Yes and
it worked out, they gave me money and I went to Denis’s house
see what kind of Spectrum it is. It was a local St. Petersburg
B-EM model in a metal case with an extended keyboard and
external power supply. Only the manual was included
user, board circuit installed between the board and the case
as a dielectric spacer, and a cable for connecting to
TV. The cable is quite long - about three meters
probably. Denis turned on the computer, loaded some game,
In general, he showed that the computer was working, and I parted with the money,
but I found my second Spectrum.

This model was made on a Composite board with soldered second
floor of memory chips, but without a music coprocessor. And
printing for the coprocessor was not provided, but there was a lot
free space in the corner of the board. So I scheduled the installation
coprocessor independently.

This computer contained a first-class tape reader.
I could load programs from chewed tape. My tape recorder
I didn’t chew the film, but the friends I let play with ittape recorders were voracious. That's why I don't like to give mine
cassettes to other people. Also this computer gave much more
a cleaner and more color-rich picture than my 48. And I became
use the 128th model as the main one, and the 48th computer as
subsequently disassembled and began to cut microcircuits from the board for
modifications or repairs. So I don't have my first Spectrum
preserved. On the new computer I started running all the games,
which I had, in hopes of finding some graphics improvements.
But the graphics got better, only in the game Dizzy-5. appeared there
additional animation and new sprites when Dizzy went down
underwater.

Once I managed to burn down the power supply by causing a short
short circuit at the output. For some reason I disassembled the power supply and assembled
it is turned on. Something got stuck on something, and
the winding of the toroidal transformer burned out, and the computer took a long time
I spent some time in a non-working state. Change
I still couldn’t find a transformer, and I don’t have another power supply
it was. With the advent of my Scorpio with a disk drive, this computer
I gave it to my friend and classmate Dimka. He has been for many years
I never installed a coprocessor there, although I already installed it on the board
sockets for microcircuits, and in the end, after 10 years, this
the computer returned to me again, along with literature on
Spectrum. Dimka decided to quit the Spectrum forever. I
I haven't even turned on the computer since thensince then, and in 2015 I gave
computer for Oleg Sazonov. I hope he doesn't come to me anymore
will return.

 1997. Buying a Scorpio

Advertisement for Scorpio in books, and then an article in ZX Review, where it was
an interview with Sergei Zonov, as well as an article about MAGOS for
Scorpios did not give me peace. I needed that Scorpio and
in June 1997, having saved up from scholarships and from the past day
birthday, I went to the Scorpio brand store on 12th
Krasnoarmeyskaya street.

We were met by a "barbel" (that's what I call him because I don't know him
name, but this is not Ilya Fomin). I ordered the coolest assembly on
that moment model - Scorpion ZS 256 Turbo+. Ready-made models in
It was out of stock and had to wait a couple of days. At the appointed time
day I took an adult acquaintance with me, and we went to the company
pick up the ordered computer. We arrived 40 minutes early
at the appointed time, and Usach met us again. How did he
I burst out that why did we arrive ahead of time, nothing yet
collected and not verified. Then it seemed to quiet down - after all, we could
just leave without buying anything. He gave me catalogs of floppy disks and
He said to choose any two discs as a gift for yourself. While I
I was leafing through catalogs, time flew by, and here is my Scorpio
was already on the table in front of me.

The board was equipped with a 512 kB professional ROM and an IBM controller
keyboards. All this was neatly collected instandard
AT-case with a branded Scorpio sticker on the face.
The drive was 5.25" TEAC, from the old models that were with
electromagnetic lowering of the head onto the disk. Computer for me
cost 188 USD, which amounted to 1 million 128 thousand rubles.
I bought the keyboard and mouse separately from Juno.

As a gift, I chose a collection of works from Enlight 96 for myself.
I also bought a disc with Digital Studio (basic disc with
set of music). And at home the game UFO 2 and ZX magazine were already waiting for me
FORMAT #1, which my friend Dimka gave me for my birthday.
The keyboard immediately began to glitch, it would periodically freeze or
stuck, and the mouse for 35 thousand rubles did not work at all. I
went to Scorpio and demanded an explanation. They are, of course, everything
blamed it on cheap China. But they still added about the keyboard that
Most likely, all keyboards will stick - this is a feature
controller, but they changed my mouse to an even cheaper one (28
thousand), having previously checked it on your computer. Here
Now I could leaf through the magazine with pleasure and play
UFO 2.

Almost in the very first days of operation I climbed inside
computer and completely disconnected the built-in speaker from the built-in
the same sound amplifier. There was no volume control here
provided, and the amplifier screamed quite loudly, and even at
obscene high-frequency tweeter. I output the sound without amplification to
a separate connector on the back panel of the computer andlistened through
stereo record player Melody 103 Stereo. The sound was
rich, but with a background hum. As Sergei Zerov told me,
who configured my board and assembled the computer, this is due to
the fact that the sound circuits pass along several meters, on
which are divided by high frequency. He advised me to cut these off
tracks and output audio directly from the coprocessor. But I
Of course, he didn’t do this.

>And about the keys sticking - why is this? How to work with 
such a controller? 

The keys allegedly stuck only on cheap keyboard models.
Sticking manifested itself in the fact that by pressing the button once,
Scorpio could get an infinite number of clicks. In which
cases this happened, I do not know. Scorpio people
distributed a way to fix this glitch by installing
resistor and capacitor at the input from the keyboard. But I have this one
The modification was already made when the computer was sold and did not help.
True, when I unsoldered the modification, the keys completely stuck
always. So this modification is still part of the problem
eliminated.

The second part of the problem was that the microcontroller was weak
Intel, from the early eighties, simply couldn’t keep up
"press" buttons as quickly as they could be polled
Spectrum. Therefore, the controller slowed down the Z80 with the WAIT signal. And in
in the case of polling keyboard ports in a loop, i.e. without delay
between surveys,the WAIT signal was generated so often that
Scorpio hung tightly. Or Scorpio started out strong
slow down

If the ports are polled after HALT, then the computer will not
it froze, although it slowed down, and this was noticeable in the demos.
In short, soon I had to buy a normal Spectrum
keyboard.

                  1997. Buying a monitor

I'm tired of my old TV with skewed beam mixing,
and in September 1997 I went to Juno to buy a video monitor.
I didn’t go to the stalls much and bought a monitor at the first
caught. I asked for a monitor type 32 VTC 202 for Spectrum, and
the seller said that there was a better monitor, and they slipped it to me
Philips CGA monitor on a rotating stand for 280 thousand
rubles The monitor looked great, clean and tidy.
Had a color switch - you could select color mode or
monochrome green or amber. The monitor was immediately connected to
to some Spectrum through a box with a bunch of switches.
By flipping switches, it was possible to switch signals with
one connector pin to another. After clicking for a while,
The seller received a stable color picture on the monitor. He
carried out a standard color test, and I noticed some
doubling the outline on some inscriptions. I asked what is this? And
the seller said it just need to adjust the monitor inside,
andgave me a piece of paper with the phone number of the master who will come and that’s it for me
will connect and configure, and for free. At the same time he gave me his phone number,
so that if there are problems with the master, you call him immediately. OK.

I brought the monitor home and began to figure out its connection. Soldered
adapter from DIN7 to DB9, but nothing worked. Do
nothing, I started calling this master. He immediately responded and that
came to my house the same day. I showed him the Scorpio diagram, he
looked at the diagram, then connected an oscilloscope and began to look
to signals that were output to the TV. He said that
I got the signals mixed up and instead of the video signal the green one is connected
and vice versa. He showed me on an oscilloscope what it looks like.
Then he dug a little deeper into Scorpio and said that for
connecting this monitor you need to output signals separately
frame and line scanning, and even invert them. But
now he will not be able to do this, since he does not have the necessary
microcircuits He offered to take the computer and monitor with him and
make improvements in the coming days. I agreed and at the same time
asked to adjust the monitor to get rid of the loop. And before
When I left, the master began to insist that I pay him at least for
wasted time and delivery costs. I gave him 30 thousand and he went
home.

A couple of days later I called him, and he said that everything
connected and you can come and pick it up. I took two with me
friends as helpers, and weWe went to the named address. go
It was not far - about five kilometers. We were allowed into the apartment.
On the table stood my Scorpio with the case cover removed and the monitor.
Everything was turned on, and the same test screen was on the screen.
picture with flowers. The picture was bright and saturated, but the outline
around the green color has not gone away. The master said on this
about the fact that this is a malfunction in the monitor, and without a circuit it cannot be found
will climb. Well, if he doesn’t help, then I won’t pay him, -
I thought. My friends and I packed up and started moving towards
exit, smiling and waving his arms. Open the door and here we are
They made their feet down the stairs. I think I was right when
the second time I didn’t pay, because the first time the master didn’t pay anything
connected - this is firstly, and secondly, he should have
work for free, as we agreed with the seller of the monitor
on the market.

At home I looked at what was done in Scorpio to connect
monitor. There was a microcircuit glued there with its paws up and
soldered. But the monitor screen clearly lacked the second gradation
brightness But the geometry of the image was magnificent. Mixing
rays are generally perfect. And if it were not for the doubling of contours in those
places where a green cannon is used, then I would do it that way
left.

The next day I called the seller and explained that the master
I connected it incorrectly and could not fix the defect. The seller has already
was aware that I had cheated the master, but the masterhid that money
he was paid, but he could not fix the monitor. In general, I
asked for a replacement, and the seller said to bring the monitor over the weekend
to Juno, and he'll pick something up for me.

This coming weekend I took the monitor to the Juno market.
The seller accepted my defective monitor without any problems and replaced it with
gave me 32 WTC 201 m in a beige case, as I asked.
The monitor was immediately checked and there were no defects in the image. I
took the monitor home and on the same day successfully connected it to
Scorpio, having previously torn off the microcircuit that he had glued
master. The monitor did not have very clear convergence of beams and did not
The picture is too bright. But if you don't sit in front of a screen in bright
It was a sunny day, then the brightness was enough. Subsequently I
I found what needs to be twisted in the monitor to increase the brightness and
this problem has disappeared. The monitor often whistled, especially in
the first minutes after switching on. But a light tap on the body
the whistle calmed down and it was possible to work further.

 1998. Buying a printer

In August 1998, a default occurred. The ruble has depreciated sharply and
I urgently needed to spend my scholarship on something. I
I thought it would be nice to buy a dot matrix printer. In this
I've already worked a lot with text in The Last Word 2 editor,
and it would be easy to have a hard copy of the typed textsAmazing. In addition, the printer can be used to print
abstracts and term papers. It's decided. I went to Juno again.

There were a lot of dot matrix printers - for every taste and wallet size.
I looked closely at Panasonic printers, because these are exactly what
printers were sold in Scorpio and we had the same one at school
printer. But prices had already risen, and they were quite expensive.
But I still found a printer at the old, pre-crisis price. Right there
That’s what was written on the piece of paper lying on the printer. The printer was
For some reason he was taken out of the stall and stood on a chair. Printer
was called Electronics MS-6313, and its cost was 300
rubles, which was exactly equal to all my savings for that
moment. I asked to see the printer in operation, and the seller
I tucked a piece of paper into it and turned it on, holding down some buttons.
The printer began to print its entire alphabet. When paper
ended, the seller handed me a piece of paper, I looked (Russian
the letters are there, all the needles are printing) and said that I would take it. K
The printer came with a power cable and a connection cable.
to the computer, instruction manual in the form of a book.

I brought the printer home, read the user manual,
I connected it to Scorpio and tried to print from iS-DOS.
Surprisingly, everything worked right away. However, the next
the day something bad happened. I turned on the printer after turning on Scorpio
(although it would seem that it makes no difference), and suddenly there was acotton, and from
Scorpio was overcome by stinking smoke. I immediately turned everything off and took it off
cover from the computer. There was a piece of debris lying inside that was made from
power supply. The power supply would no longer turn on. I pulled out the block
power from the building and went to Scorpio so that I could get it there
repaired. Sergei Zerov refused to repair it, saying that
they bought power supplies externally and with that person they
no longer cooperate, since the power supply turned out to be very
unreliable and has a whole box of faulty power supplies.
He advised me to buy a standard power supply for PC and
connect it. This is the lifetime guarantee in Scorpio.
I spent all the money on a printer, and new money will only appear
with another scholarship in September. But will they give me a scholarship and
how much it will be taking into account the financial crisis - that’s the main thing
question. I tried to power the computer from my power supply
the first 48th Spectrum. But the power supply only produced 5V, but
At the same time it got very hot. I didn't risk driving him in this
mode for more than 10 minutes. But at least there was a computer
is working properly, and the power supply did not take anything with it to the next world. I
I was left without a computer for a while.

After some time, I got it from a friend for a few days
12 V power supply. But when I connected it to the computer, I
accidentally mixed up the wires and applied 12 V to the 5 V input, and the board
stopped working altogether. I ask my mothermoney and going back to
Scorpio. This time with a board. Zerov came out to me and asked,
what happened. I said what I had done, he took the payment and
asked me to sit for five minutes. And soon he came out of his closet with
my board. He said that he replaced the microcircuit and pointed with his finger
which one (561TM2 in a frequency divider from a quartz resonator).
He said that this chip protected my board from burning, right away
failing and shorting the power supply. Charged 35 for repairs
rubles But how can this be? The cost of such a chip on Juno 50
kopecks The Scorpio ad states that it's free for life.
repairs, you only need to pay for the parts. Again, deception. I
upset.

I returned home, connected the board, turned on the computer and discovered that
that the keyboard does not work. Pancake pancake. The next day
I take the keyboard controller and the keyboard itself with me to study,
to go to Scorpio after classes. During the lecture I let you in
controller in a circle and when it comes back to me,
it turns out that the jokers managed to remove and turn over the microcircuit
ROM. But I found out about this later, when I arrived in Scorpio in the evening
and asked to check the controller and keyboard. This time to me
Mustache came out. He took the controller and dragged it into the closet. A
a minute later he ran out of there and cursed at me. Pokes me in
face with a controller and, scattering saliva around himself, yells:
"Which idiot turned over the chip on the board?" I look -really upside down. Then Usach cools down a little and
He says that he will now write down another microcircuit and check it. Then
returns and reports that the controller is working, but not working
keyboard He takes 10 rubles from me, and I return home.

I still don't have a power supply, and now I don't have a keyboard either.
Having received a scholarship, I go to Scorpio to get a power supply. to me
they sell a heavily used power supply with a power of 150 W and rusty corners
for 260 rubles. On a piece of paper they draw which wire goes with which
tension, and I'm going home. It would seem that now everything will be
Just put the power supply in the case and be happy. But that's not the case
it was. When assembling Scorpio into a case in place of the power supply
install a piece of aluminum with drilled holes in it
holes. External connectors are soldered into the holes. Native block
The power supply is screwed onto plastic stands at the very bottom of the case.
Now to install the new power supply I need to remove this
piece of iron and move it somewhere else.

I move the hardware along with its connectors to the place where the PC
boards are installed, having previously drilled the rivets and
pulling this structure out of the body to attach the external strips
plat. I connect the power supply, carefully checking the polarity and
wires and turn it on. Works. But no keyboard yet. To a new one
I don't have money for a keyboard. Yes, in general, not on any keyboard
no money. I really can’t wait another month for the next scholarship.I want it, and I ask my friend Dimka to buy me a keyboard on credit.

Not far from his house there is a thrift store called Polinom, where he
buys me a keyboard for 130 rubles and brings it to me.
I check the keyboard, but it doesn't work at all. Dimka takes
keyboard with him and brings another one. But this keyboard too
It doesn't work well - several keys don't work. This time
I'm going to change the keyboard. But there is no more exchange, and I had to
just return the keyboard back to the store and get a new one
Still saving up the keyboard.

A month later I bought a keyboard and paid everyone off
debts.

 1999

I'm pretty tired of the freezing keyboard controller, and I
I decided that I needed to do something with it. In the operating instructions
there were instructions to modify the controller to eliminate the effects
freezing or sticking of keys on cheap Chinese and
Taiwanese keyboards. To eliminate this shortcoming
it was necessary to install an additional resistor on the KBCLK signal and
the capacitor is there too. But my controller was modified back when
manufacturing. True, the instructions indicated certain ranges
resistor and capacitor values, and I decided to play with them. I
I unsoldered the installed open-frame elements, but did it like this
It’s sloppy that my contacts came off at the ends
elements. I started soldering my resistors and capacitors fromthe specified range, but it did not get better. It only got worse.
Now the keys being pressed are constantly getting stuck. And return
I couldn’t get the old modification back because I couldn’t measure the denominations
I can’t find any broken elements, but after going through all the denominations,
existing ones, I have not achieved not only an improvement in work,
but at least the same, so that it was originally. It pushed
me to buy a regular Spectrum keyboard, and in February I
went to Juno.

After wandering around the market, I found in one place a brand new expanded
keyboard in a black case. There are no connectors in the case
established, i.e. No one had used the keyboard before. For
I gave away the keyboard for 80 rubles.

Just four days later the computer crashes again. On this
times just when you turn on the power. There is an image, but it is too strong
slows down a lot. You can directly see how the initial menu is drawn.
I charge again and go to Scorpio. This time he meets me
Barbel. But he’s kind of friendly, he smiles, and that makes me very happy.
annoying. It would be better if he screamed and sprayed saliva. I explain
symptoms, and he goes into the closet with the payment. After a while
leaves there with Zerov. Zerov said he couldn't
Now fix my board, since they have a rearrangement there. But he
points his finger at the microcircuit (the same 561TM2) and says that I
I can replace it myself, or come another time. I
I say that I’ll change it myself, and headvises me to put under
chip crib. Mustache accompanies me to the door, while
He apologizes several times for what happened. Then slyly
winks and says that I’ll see everything for myself later.

I returned home and connected the board, pulling it out of the case and
laying it on a newspaper. Surprisingly, the board works fine. But
later, just in case, I change the microcircuit myself, to
this time placing it in the crib. And Scorpio after this
permutations were no longer involved in Spectrums and
refocused on selling PCs and components for them.

Towards the end of February I manage to get some at a flea market
necessary connector for connecting the keyboard to the computer. There
requires a Soviet double-row plug with 16 pins brown
colors with spring latch. I had a hard time finding one and took it right away
two sets of connectors. I sawed through the keyboard housing
hole for installing a DB25 socket and a pair of buttons for
Reset and Magic. Internal keyboard flex cables
I connected them by putting on the plugs from the UKNC keyboard kit. And with
on the back side of the plug contacts I soldered the wires that I brought out
on DB25. The keyboard worked immediately, and with this keyboard I
I still use it. And I generally use a PC keyboard controller
disconnected and connected only once to complete the game with the mouse
"Black Raven" for the second time.

At the end of February I am asked to print a certain amount
sheets with a questionnaire forstudents. And this needs to be done very
urgently. I type the questionnaire itself and send the file for printing,
printing sheets one after another. And suddenly I notice that one needle
I stopped printing. I took the printer apart and found that
one wire fell off. While I was turning my head back and forth, I
Two more wires fall off. And the first wire fell off
inside the head. Out of anger, I completely unsoldered all the wires from
heads. And the next day I’m going to Juno to look for a spare
printer head. I ask where I bought the printer, but
There are no spare parts. I'm going to Polinom, where I saw the same one
printer when I returned the keyboard. But we already bought the printer. I'm going to
Logros and leave an advertisement on the wall for the purchase of a printing
heads. Nobody responds to my ad, and in July I again
I’m going to Juno at the same stall. There are no heads, but they tell me that
maybe in a week.

At the very end of July I meet Evgeniy Yurievich Buder from
Welcome corp. I came to him for floppy disks and left with
print head for the printer. And Buder gives it to me
the head is completely free, but if it works for me, then
I can give him money for the head later. In this head too
One needle does not print and the wire is broken at the very base
coils and I return the head to Booder. He says he'll see
What can you come up with and asks to call him.

In September, Buder tells me the guy's phone number,to whom he
I once gave away such a printer for free, and asks to demand it from
his head for free - Buder has already agreed. I'm calling back
to that guy, and we arrange a meeting. Looks like a guy
he's a drunkard and he won't agree to give me his head for anything
free. I buy a head for 50 rubles, but it is disassembled
condition, and for some reason one coil is missing. I'm coming back
home and rearrange the coil from my head. Now all the needles
I'm printing.

>Exciting! :) 
My only fatal cases were combustion of the processor and 
memory in 48K from 12 V (they were all in cribs, my father changed them), 
a couple of broken drives that had to be replaced and a burnout 
monitors, but I had a spare black and white TV. The most unpleasant thing 
was in 2003, when the PC did not work, and only 
red color. Then I wrote ZXRar after all :) 

When I started working with text editors,
independently in the TLW2 settings I set the color red
background for the screen. I recently had cribs under microcircuits
change to collet ones. Scorpio was terribly buggy, it could have worked for a couple of times
hours without problems, but it could start freezing every five minutes. But
the most infuriating thing was that sometimes it wouldn’t even start, and
I had to remove the monitor from it, then remove the cover from
case, plug in the ROM and press the processor. When is it
It stopped helping, I bought new cribs and changed them. More with
thoseIt hasn't been buggy yet.

I only broke drives for the Commodore 64.

At the beginning of 2000, the printer breaks down again when I climb
replace crooked needles in the print head. I have now
There are plenty of needles, and I think, why not change them? Bye
I disassembled the head, tore off two wires from different coils. Tried
build up the torn wires and tore off two more wires. Decided
stop dealing with this rubbish and buy yourself another one
(imported) printer. At the beginning of April I go to Juno and find
color matrix printer for 651 rubles. It doesn't seem expensive. Please
show. They tell me that there is no printer now, but they give me the address
service center, where there are many different printers. On
On the way back I suddenly notice a completely new TEAC 5.25" drive.
directly in the original cardboard packaging. It costs only 50 rubles, and I
I buy it right away. At home I examine him and see that he is not at all
used. The grease is not even smeared on the worm screw and
lies in one place with a red blob. And there are no heads at the end
traces of the magnetic layer, which necessarily remains there when
work. I connect the drive to Scorpio and make sure that the drive
fully working.

Free access to old games from Welcome just destroyed my and
without that there is no supply of floppy disks. There was nowhere else to write games.
It is either very difficult or simply impossible to get new floppy disks. B
stores, if you come across large floppy disks, then only HD, without
internalrings. Having bought one of these, I am convinced that for
They don't fit Spectrum. Both my drives format them
only for the first half, and then the check gives an error. U
Buder can still buy clean new discs, but he
He does not part with them willingly, since he himself can no longer get them. I
I’m deciding to buy SMUC - a hard drive controller for Scorpio -
and in mid-May 2000 I am going to Scorpio.

There are no controllers available. Last available sold today
in the morning, before I arrived. We'll have to wait until next week
when they promise to collect one. But I was pleasantly surprised by the price - it
It turned out to be 400 rubles, not 600, as I thought. Because
Spectrum cu in Scorpio it’s not 30 rubles, but only 20.
The controller costs 20 USD.

I don't have a controller yet, but I already bought a hard drive cable.
disk for 40 rubles. A week later I’m going to Scorpio again. On this
since I arrived successfully and in just 50 minutes (I arrived strongly
early and the company was still closed) I left there with the controller. How
then it turned out that it was version 1.2 of the controller - rare, but not
the most recent one in existence. I come home and plug it in
controller to Scorpio and begin to study it. Please note,
that the TURBO indicator on the Scorpio body goes out spontaneously.
And the indicator does not deceive me - the speed is really
switches spontaneously to NORMAL mode. I don't like it at all
I like it.

At the beginning of June II got a 210 MB hard drive through a friend
temporary use to test the controller. I connected the drive
and tried to work with him. Created partitions on the disk,
I copied floppy disks, but everything worked with glitches. I made a list
of 20 comments both with this sheet and three days later with the controller and
hard drive went to Scorpio. Sergey Zerov took everything from me
kit and took it to the closet for inspection. After some time he
came out from there and confirmed that all my comments were valid
be. SMUC appears to be faulty, but others are out of stock. to me
they gave away the only one on which floppy disks are written in Scorpio
images on the hard drive, i.e. obviously tested and working. I
I return home and check with myself.

Everything seemed to work the first time, but then glitches appeared again. I
I'm going to Scorpio again. This time I'm taking the payment with me too
Scorpio. They take the boards for testing and I had to sit through
two hours waiting for testing to complete. The reason for the glitch is
they don’t find it, but just in case they change my ProfPZU from the version
4.00, on 4.01. After this all problems disappear and I begin
to finding a cheaper hard drive. Buy in Scorpio
unrealistically expensive. So they offer me to buy a 150 MB disk for 17
cu, and not Spectrum ones (20 rubles each), but full-fledged ones (for
30 rubles). I buy at a thrift store at
Unreal computer club 425 MB disk for 18 USD and I think that
this is verycheap. I've been leafing through the Computer Price magazine for several days
and calling all sorts of companies in search of a suitable disk. New
Conner Peripherals CFS-425A drive works immediately after
connections, and I start filling it with games and software. And in
Scorpios work as hucksters. Here.

In July I decide to build SounDrive 1.51+ for Scorpio. I'm going to
Mikronika store and buy all the necessary microcircuits for 150
rubles And the next day I go to Juno and buy a bunch
resistors of two values. The seller, when he found out how much I was
I needed resistors, I poured them out in handfuls, roughly counting “10, 20,
30" etc. In reality it turned out a lot more, and after that I
There are still about the same number of resistors left to assemble the device. A
three more days later I finished assembling SounDrive, posting the diagram
compactly in a free space in the corner of the board. At first the sound is strong
It wheezes and distorts, and I spend several more hours checking it.
Then I check again, and everything works as it should. It was somewhere
a small short circuit that cleared itself while I was moving
wires.

In November I decide to expand the memory in Scorpio to 1 MB and go to
Juno buy a SIMM module. I bought it for 15 rubles and the next one
day began to connect it. But after turning on the computer I saw
just a blank screen. Having checked the modification with the diagram and not finding
differences, I sorted everything out. Two days later I went to Scorpio again,
so that they solder the missing connector for the ISA bus into the controller
SMUC, and at the same timeFind out why the memory expansion didn't work. By
regarding the installation of the connector, they told me to come to them in a week,
because renovations are currently underway and the workshop is not working. And about
I remember they said that they don’t do any modifications to boards or anything
They can't help me. I went to get the connector only a month later,
when I really needed it - I bought the first 2400 modem for
ISA bus. But Zerov was not there that day and I left with nothing. Via
I’m going to Scorpio again in two days. Zero passed me by several times
walks by and doesn't even notice. In the end I grab him by the
sweater sleeve and hand it to SMUC. I remind you that he promised to solder
connector He says that he has no time and takes him out of the closet
a brand new solderless connector so I can solder it myself.
They could have done this right away, instead of chasing me around the city
several times. That same evening I soldered and connected the modem. But that one
does not want to dial the number.

In mid-December 2000, passing by a commission
store, I look through the window from the street side and see
how the seller puts 5.25" floppy disks into a stack and puts them under
counter. On the way back I look out the window again and see that
The floppy disks are still there. I go home for money and come back
to the store. I ask: are there any floppy disks? Seller first
asked if I really asked about FLOPE DISKETS? Then
I thought for a few seconds and answered that there was. Climbed somewhere
corner and pulled it out from behind the countera box of blue BASF floppy disks.
The floppy disks are new, but the envelopes of three floppy disks melted, and the seller
puts them aside. And for the remaining ones the seller asks for 5
rubles But I did see a large mountain of floppy disks under the counter.
Why does the seller hide them? I asked if there was a cheaper one.
Seller: “What is cheaper?” I say that before that
bought for three rubles elsewhere. The seller says that
I agree to sell for three rubles, and I take the whole pack along with
box and stickers.

On New Year's Eve we are given 1,350 rubles along with the scholarship, and I
I'm going to spend money on Juno. I want to buy another monitor,
AVU adapter for phone and GMX. Of all the above I bought
only an adapter, but about GMX in the Scorpio stall they told me that
no in reality and never will be. You need to go to the office and order
assembly.

At the beginning of January 2001, the first modem communication session took place
through a terminal program with Buder. This allowed me to
in the future, no longer have to go shopping for floppy disks with games to remake, but
send them via modem. I spent more than three hours on the road,
traveling by tram with one or two transfers.

In the second half of January, I read an article about working with hard
disk on Spectrum. I started experimenting and sending the disk
different teams. And suddenly the disk stopped responding to them.
The disk access (busy) indicator is constantly on.
device) and nothing else happens. I'm leaving in a weekwith
disk to a friend who has a PC. I connect to PC, but nothing
I can't check if it works. Windows doesn't allow
access the disk until a letter is assigned to it. I create on disk
one minimum size partition using FDISK. But more
I didn’t have time to do anything because I already had to go home. By
At least the disk doesn't freeze. At home I delete the created partition
and I create the Spectrum partition again, and all my disks
restored almost unchanged. Lost
only drive names.

In February I buy another, faster modem. This modem
supports error correction and works more stable on mine
lines with HF AVU.

In the spring, I’m still going to Scorpio to order the production of GMX. But
It turns out that you don’t need to order anything and they have one
collected copy. I return home happy and
I'm looking forward to watching demos written for Scorpio
Pentagon. The next day I disassembled the Scorpio and pulled out the board
from the body. I started connecting GMX according to the instructions. There
you need to make several cuts on the board and solder the flat
cable that outputs video signals from the GMX to the main board. But
After this modification the computer does not work. I several times
I carefully check the instructions for modification and do not
I find differences. I'm going to Scorpio again. Sergey Zotov is very busy,
but takes my payment for verification. He is very surprised by my noodles from
wires, whichI made SounDrive on the board. But I convince
Zerova, that I disabled the modification and it does not affect
work. A week goes by, another goes by. I call periodically
Scorpio and I ask how my payment is. Every time Zero finds
some excuses why he hasn't done anything yet. Time goes by
I sit without a computer and don’t make any more games for Buder. He
concerned about this. I explain the reason and he sends me to
Alexander Mayorov (MAS), developer of the MacroModem program and
Overall a very big-headed guy. I negotiate with MAS, and he
agrees to help me.

After more than a month, I'm going to Scorpio again. Zero fee even
never turned it on, as he himself said. I collect the payment and go to
MAS. I bring him the board and GMX with instructions. And in just
a few days I call him, and he tells me that it’s been a while
I connected it and I can pick it up. I came to him again, he turned on
my board and showed that everything was working. I don't remember how old I am to MAS
paid for the work, but along with the repaired board I
I become a SPbZXNet point on its node. Returning home I
began to compare the “chirps” that MAS left on the computer diagram with
instructions for connecting GMX, and I find only one thing
different from what I did. MAS unsoldered the diode from the Altera chip
on the main board, thereby eliminating frequency conflict between
main board and GMX. This is not stated in the connection instructions.
it was. And now I already havethe most sophisticated Scorpio and I read
email. It immediately became boring.

A little later, when I connected to Fido, I purchased a wonderful
RGB monitor Philips CM8833-II, in exchange for a bottle of beer (11
rubles). I found the monitor in one of the advertisements in
echo conference SPB.EXCHANGE. The salesman worked for a company
repairing copiers and said that
They are emptying out a warehouse and need to get rid of several monitors.
I regret that I didn’t take the rest of the monitors then.

Then there were purchases of General Sound sound cards. And first I
I bought its first version, which was not slot-based, but connected
via a small adapter and flat cable. Then I bought
slot version, and gave the first card to Konstantin Zaitsev
(Budder) in order for him to write a MOD file loader with
CD at General Sound. Then I bought and installed
TurboSoundFM.

In this configuration, my Scorpio lasted until the end of November
2013 when I put my GMX up for sale after disconnecting it from
main board. Then there were unsuccessful attempts to restore
the work of the main board by redistributing it back. But the fee is not
earned. I bought another board and it became my main one.
Then I sold all the sound cards and don’t regret it.

In 2015, I replaced the hard drive with a CompactFlash card, and
in the spring of 2016 I moved the board to a new case
"horizontal" design with an ATX power supply. Toturn on such a power supply, I had to install it on the board
Scorpio is a tiny microcontroller from Atmel and write for
him the program. After that, with just one button on
face of the case, I can turn the power supply on and off, and
also generate RESET, MAGIC signals and switch frequencies
processor by simply pressing and holding the button for different times. For
the last function, however, I was missing one output to
display another LED indicator of the processor frequency, and I
I disabled this feature completely.