AY-Track: BAC stereo rulez forever :-)
By: Macros
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Upgrade ;)
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Progress - progressive
moving forward, improvement
in the process of development.
Dictionary S.I. Ozhegova
Not so long ago I often heard
from the pisishniks: "...I own the computer
I ran it myself!" or “my friend collected it himself
computer!" Of course, with detailedacquaintance with these “man-made creations”
eternal" it turned out that in the understanding
these pisishniks "assemble yourself" means
buy a case, motherboard, video card,
disk drive and other hardware, then all this
join using slots and connectors,
secure with bolts and self-tapping screws. A
these “folk craftsmen” themselves are not even
know what a processor is (or rather, they
believe that this is Word) and the absence of
sale of two-core cable 20 cm long
For them it turns into a tragedy.
What is all this for? - you ask. Yes so,
I decided to tell you how I spent
upgrade your Scorpio. But I'll start with
from the very beginning.
Many, many years ago there was a
de firm "Parsec". It's true then she's still
didn’t sell my price lists for 5 rubles, like
does this now, but she sold computers
terami - there were "Leningrads" 48th and
128s, without disk drives and with disk drives,
a bunch of cassettes with games and so on, radio parts
on little things. They posted advertisements around
throughout the city, they say, "Spectrum computers -
for you and your children." Temptation to buy
this computer was great because it cost
it's not very expensive and in general I'm a radio
I have been interested in technology since childhood. Although, not
I also understood how Spectrum differs
128th from 48th, but I clearly understood
what is the difference between one with a disk drive and a mod-
whetherwithout a disk drive - at a price. Therefore, I am pleased
Spectrum 128K without a disk drive and accessories
processor.
Many games at that time were overloaded,
a lot of tape was chewed, even once
The computer was taken to the same Parsec for repairs.
True, they repaired it for some reason
they couldn’t, but on the second try I didn’t-
corrected the problem. And there's just a mic-
The circuit was poorly soldered...
Through school friends I met
several more Spectrum owners,
although they changed cassettes very little back then,
that's when I first saw Spectrum
128 with disk drive, coprocessor and expansion
with a new keyboard. I can't even express
words, what delight I felt when I saw
demos from Enlight'96. Forgetting everything
in the world, I was looking at the TV screen,
on which two screens showed
fancy figures, and all this is accompanied by
excellent music. It was then that I knew
cash, what is a music coprocessor and
that my computer also has two ek-
wound areas.
Then it was decided: I’m buying myself a sop-
processor. I ordered it from one company,
who went to Moscow for radio parts.
A month later they “delighted” me immensely:
There is no coprocessor in Moscow. It remained
only one thing - order it in St. Petersburg from
Comrade Zonov. And again waiting, but time
I didn’t waste me in vain. At firstwe started
exchanged with that owner of the 128th Spectrum
use programs on cassettes. I stuffed
shaft of the program in BASIC, compiled something
Roval, used procedures from the package
New Supercode, and when I saw that it was possible
do it in assembler (my friend was
advanced person, knew assembler),
asked him to record a cassette version for me
this gens-4 and began to create. Right here
came from St. Petersburg the book "How to write a game
in assembler" and two issues of "ZX-Review". Oh
I didn’t yet know about the existence of Inforcom
knew and paid a lot of money when ordering
one or two books from the Scorpio company.
Finally, having received notification of the parcel,
I ran to the post office and, having paid a considerable
amount, received his long-awaited support
tsessor. By luck in one
from the ZX-Review I had, there was a diagram
connecting the music coprocessor to
some computer, having studied which, I
I realized that I need to build an address decoder
ca and find the H1 signal on the board. Decoder
I assembled according to the proposed circuit and connected
went straight to the processor, because schemes
Of course, I didn’t have a computer.
H1 was found experimentally. You should have seen it all
those same folk craftsmen who “assemble” themselves
developing" computers, what would they say about the
less than a flat cable with 20 wires
MGTF? But then I wasn't interested
because I typed PLAY in BASIC 128
"A","B","C" andI heard a three-voice sound!!!
Then on the cassette version of Sound
Tracker, which is especially for me
remade comrade, I typed my first
melody. On gens-4 I typed my first
programs, on Art-studio I drew my
first drawings.
But very soon I realized that in such
configurations for creativity
not enough. I needed a disk drive. After all, then
I would have access to new software.
And one fine day Mr. Zono-
Wu receives a transfer for the required amount.
Then - waiting. It took more than two months
parcel post, how many calls to Scorpio
it was done! But there was only one answer -
but: sent, wait...
And then, finally, I saw in the mailbox -
ke a little green receipt, grabbed it and
ran to receive the parcel. Parcel post
turned out to be small, about the size of a notebook, and
freely flat package with a proud inscription
"Scorpion ZS 256 Turbo +". Of course
it wasn't a computer. It was the motherboard
as I ordered.
On the same day I began to connect it.
A three-inch dis-
code, 40-key keyboard is sealed off from
Spectrum. And I’ve heard so much
I am from “smart people”... And about what is needed
the most powerful power supply, and the fact that
we only go around the shielded housing...
A lot of things, butthat day nothing could
stop me! I took the power supply from
old Spectrum, the keyboard was soldered to
short 16-wire cable, connect-
was connected to a Samsung TV via RGB and... Oh,
miracle! It all worked! True floppy drive
required another 12 volts. At first I collected
the simplest power supply based on a zener diode and
transistor, but it got really hot. And
that's when I first felt that
I am driven by nothing other than the desire to
perfection! It was said strongly, of course,
but look: first I got
computer, then I bought a new motherboard,
more advanced machine, assembled a simpler
power supply, then bought two
tailors microcircuits - 7805 and 7812 and assembled
normal power supply. But, you must admit,
the board lying on the table is not very
I go to the computer. A body was needed. And I
I bought a case from ibm PS/2 with a powerful
pulse power supply. I bought a monitor
five-inch disk drive (although it is very
quickly burned out)... And my Scorpio has already become
more like a computer. No, I don't want to
bodies so that it would be similar, albeit externally,
on pc. I really needed a good
A smart and reliable computer. That's just the cla-
the Viatura had 40 buttons and a decent amount of
worn. I worked with this configuration
very long. Did a lot of things, a lot of things
I saw it. And throughout it all
time did not leave me the desire to do
barkmy computer is more advanced. But
from technical literature on computers
there were only a couple of issues of ZX-Review and a book
"Periphery with your own hands." By then
I already knew about the existence of Inforcom and
I ordered all issues of ZX-Review since 1993. K
I'm surprised at the cost of this
set was equal to the cost of four
(!) ZX-Review numbers, if you order them from
Mr. Zonov... I'm even on this magazine
signed up for 1997. But I only came
one number, and then - ... Inforcoma does not
became, but there were still friends from Speccy,
who did not see any tragedy in this -
dii and continued to create.
I made the latest upgrade
recently - in November 2000. I'm with a friend
I ordered it in St. Petersburg (to the same friend
Zonov) ibm keyboard and mouse controller.
I'm tired of such phrases in program descriptions.
ramm: "the rat is supported, but I have
It’s not there, so it might be buggy.” How much do I
I read them... And I decided: I’ll buy this
be this device, and I will write for it
programs, and they will not glitch! But
the main thing that pushed me to this -
the same desire for perfection. One
a friend bought himself such a controller in the summer, and
once I saw what possibilities
opportunities appear when installing it, I
Got it - I'll buy it!
I also heard that schemes have already been invented
graphic extensionsopportunities
Speccy. But it’s not clear why so many years
ZX-review only wrote how to remake
int signal and how to implement the #FF port?
Now that we have something new
printed edition for Spectrum, not
Is it worth covering the issue of hardware? Du-
I think many people would be able to describe the unique
universal approach to memory expansion up to
1 mB, expansion of graphic capabilities
tey... For example, I still haven’t soldered myself
neither covox nor soundrive, because me-
I don't have any schematics for these devices. And in electron-
In the media, we often see that
someone somewhere expanded the screen to 768 pixels
fall horizontally... So write in
"Paragraph"! Give people the opportunity to repeat
appreciate your improvements! Provide fragments
schemes, let's have a universal approach, because
everyone then will still be “lying”
struggle”, how to implement this in your own
share the computer.
...Well, I told you about the upgrade.
If I spouted something unnecessary, it’s not be-
yes. After all, you, Sinclairists, will understand me!
PS: Now my keyboard is handy, comfortable
naya. Buy yourself such devices - good
what a thing.
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