Super Spectrum

St.Petersburg codepage 866
Petrodvorets-5
Saturday April 26 1997
14:16

Dear All!

We all suffer from the fact that the graphics of our dear Speccy
are limited to 2 colors and 16 colors in the attributes. We hope that
a Speccy with improved graphic capabilities
are gradually moving into the realm of pseudo-science fiction, so I
would like to share with you the story of my QEC-16 board, which
when connected to the KAY-256 turns it into a machine capable
of competing with the Amiga and PiSishka.
Without going into details, I will only say that the board expands memory
up to 1 MB, colors up to 16 and 95% of old and new programs allow themselves
to be colored without the slightest change in code and much more..
The idea for this board came to me 3 years ago and since then
it has been constantly improved until the device circuit
appeared on about 50 microcircuits. At that time, I foolishly thought that
this would be in demand. I turned to Nemo, thinking that now the circuit
would be torn away from me, but he reacted extremely coolly to this idea
and after he explained to me that people would not accept it, and if they
accepted it, it would not be soon, he advised me to do something more necessary, namely
connecting the CD to the Speccy(?)in order
to listen to music while working (!!!!), and color graphics are not a very
necessary thing for a household computer. After that, I realized that with
this attitude Speccy will very quickly bend and don’t delay
this moment, so all work on the board has been stopped.
So guys, buy General Sound and let piles of two-color pixels jump on your
screen under the eight-bit music.

Sincerely yours Igor

P.S. Please ignore if the words are missing some letters
[-=Raydac Soft'93 Adventure Group=-]

Let me answer yld Saturday, the 26 of April 1997:

IM> We all suffer from the fact that the graphics of our dear Speccy
IM> are limited to 2 colors and 16 colors in attributes. hopes that
IM> a Speccy with improved graphic capabilities will appear soon
IM> are gradually receding into the realm pseudo-science fiction, so I
IM> would like to share with you the story of my QEC-16 board, which
IM> when connected to the KAY-256 turns it into a machine capable
IM> of competing with the Amiga and PiSishka.
IM> Without going into details, I will only say that the board expands the memory
IM> up to 1 MB, colors up to 16 and 95% of old and new programs allow themselves
IM> to be colored without the slightest change in code and many others..

!!!!!

2Serge_Zonov: Since Nemo is not interested in this, then how about a similar upgrade
scorp?

Hasta la vista, Igor.
With God's blessing, Novikov Sergei

SN> !!!!!

SN> 2Serge_Zonov: Since Hemo is not interested in this, then how about
SN> a similar upgrade of the scorpion?

I'm afraid that with a scheme of 50 cases it is very difficult to interest manufacturers. That's how much PCAD it takes to separate them all! Then buy lots of these microcircuits and pay for wiring. But this is not a computer, but just an attachment to a computer.

Best wishes! Michael KLUG

SN> !!!!!

SN> 2Serge_Zonov: Since Hemo is not interested in this, then how about a similar
SN> scorpion upgrade?

IM did not indicate the “rate of fire” of his card.

Warm greetings, Slava.

SN>> such a scorpion upgrade?

MM> I'm afraid that with a scheme of 50 cases it is very difficult to interest
MM> manufacturers. This is how much PCAD you need to spend to separate them all!
MM> Then buy batches of these microcircuits and pay for wiring. But this
MM> is not a computer, but just an add-on to a computer.

The element base is the most common (and cheap (all parts cost approximately 70 thousand)).
The number of cases can be reduced by using a custom IC.
It’s not difficult to produce this board, you just need to invest a fair amount of money. I would
start producing it myself, but at the moment I don’t have the money for implementation
of this project (for reference: X-Trade spent 4 million rubles on the release of General Sound)
And without this board, we will soon remember Specky, only looking at PiSish
emulators.
Another small advantage that this board has is the ability
to obtain a 16-bit data bus without any switching and thus connect many devices requiring similar bus capacity.

Sincerely yours Igor

Tuesday April 29, 1997 02:37, Andrew MOA wrote to Sergei Novikov:

IM>>> Without going into details, I will only say that the board expands memory
IM>>> up to 1 MB, colors up to 16 and 95% of old and new programs allow themselves
IM>>> to be colored without the slightest change in code and many others..

SN>> !!!!!

SN>> 2Serge_Zonov: Since Hemo is not interested in this, then how about a similar
SN>> scorpion upgrade?

AM> Well, Seryozha will probably say something, but somehow I was immediately cooled by the words
AM> about, it seems, fifty buildings...

Yeah... 50 cases will cool anyone you want, including the user, what kind of a box will it be - no less than the Spectrum itself :) So, is the Kharkov
development in Online 79 really bad? It seems that it has more possibilities and
the circuit is of a reasonable size...

AM> Andrew

Regards, Dmitry (OLDMAN).

Dear Michael! Sergei Novikov
* Subj: ~Super Spectrum~

MM> Sun 12:25 27 Apr 1997 Sergei Novikov writes to Igor A Maznitsa & Serge
MM> Zonov:

VM> Get msg, Sergei!

VM> 27 Apr 97 12:25 -- Sergei Novikov reported to Igor A Maznitsa & Serge
VM> Zonov about Super Spectrum:

IM>>> Without going into details, I will only say that the board expands memory
IM>>> up to 1 MBt, colors up to 16 and 95% of old and new programs allow themselves
IM>>> to be colored without the slightest change in code and many others..

SN>> !!!!!

AM> Well, Seryozha will probably say something, but somehow I was immediately cooled down
AM> words about, it seems, fifty cases...

Have you seen the General Sound board?????
Sincerely yours, Igor

AM>> cooled the words, about, it seems, fifty cases...

SN> 50 cases - this was said about the first version of the device. But there were
SN> a lot of improvements, and now, I am sure, it consists of 80 cases, no
SN> more ;)))))
The number of cases did not increase.
SN> PS: In general, it would not be a bad idea to first see this device in operation and
SN> measure it with a kilometer.

DG> Yeah... 50 cases will cool anyone you want, including the user,
DG> what a box it will be - no less than the Spectrum itself :) And what,
DG> is the Kharkov development in Online 79 really bad? It seems
DG> it has more possibilities and the circuit is of a reasonable size...

The QEC-16 board increases the graphic power of the computer to which
it is connected, while it is compatible with all modifications (estimate, there will be
512x192x16 colors).

You don’t need to quote entire letters in order to write one or two lines
of your response. This is obvious overquoting.

Best wishes! Michael, CoModerator of ZX.SPECTRUM

Is it only for KAY???

IM> Without going into details, I’ll just say that the board expands memory
IM> up to 1 MB, colors up to 16 and 95% of old and new programs allow
IM> to be colored without the slightest change in code and many others..

More details plz!

IM> The idea of this board came to me 3 years ago ago and since then
IM> has been constantly improved until the design of the
IM> device appeared on about 50 chips. Is it too cumbersome? It will be expensive...

IM> So guys, buy General Sound and let piles of two-color pixels jump on your
IM> screen to eight-bit music.

Yeah, and 48 kilos of memory :)

No joke, but with color, something needs to be decided too. Although, until the majority admits this, there will not be more than 2 colors on the spec. All Spectrum manufacturers will have to support this standard and this bells and whistles should be easily connected to any Spectrum without major problems. Then, you will have
super-spectrum...

IM> Sincerely yours, Igor

It was nice to chat, (DrD)

Dear Vyacheslav!

VM> By the way, after careful reading again I still don’t understand -
VM> having got the card, you get a Spectrum with a memory meter and 16 colors
VM> instead of 8? Where then is the sub? Or did you mean 16 colors per point?
By connecting a card you get a Speccy with 1 MB of page memory and 16 colors per
point,
while 99% of programs simply won’t notice that they are running on an unusual machine.
To switch modes in the circuit, I used the 1FFD subport, but
another is possible.
VM> That’s what I just realized :) I’m talking about something else - fancy graphics (if
VM> has one) can only be used for static graphics? Otherwise
VM> will slow down...
Nothing will slow down and there will be sophisticated graphics both on screensavers
and in games. The advantage is that games from a standard Specky will run
without modifications on this machine, and games from this machine will run without modifications on a
standard computer.
In adapting games, the main thing is that the game is not very distorted packaging
sprites, and the game did not check what it displays on the screen.

Sincerely yours, Igor

Here our Speccy lovers got their hands on the “hands” and wrote you a message:

...cut...

We would like to tell you about the glitches in the subj demo (I asked for it...):

1.The arrow in the map comes out on the left if it is on the right edge (only from the mouse).
2.Somewhere on closed areas do not open on the map.

Wish: Selecting any item in the menu should work immediately, and not after
exiting the menu.

Looking forward to exiting as soon as possible!

DEX & SEM & BOB
of CODERS' ACADEMY
...cut...

Bye, Vladimir ! ;)

... ...Hey, if you're in Taganrog, come in!...