Date   : Sun, 28 Dec 2008 22:03:39 +0000
From   : afra@... (Phill Harvey-Smith)
Subject: OT: ZX80 ROM ?

Jules Richardson wrote:
> Phill Harvey-Smith wrote:
>> Mind I do have one of my Spectrum +2 machines setup with an addon rom 
>> board, and the port of the ZX80/81 roms for that machine so I can have a 
>> machine that is switchable ZX80/81/Spectrum +2.....
> 
> That's interesting... I installed Fuse yesterday (the speccy emulator, not the 
> filesystem interface of the same name) and whilst it covers a lot of different 
> Sinclair machines, it doesn't do the ZX80 or ZX81. Wonder why, if it's just as 
> simple as a ROM change - or did you have to modify something else, too?

Well, the versions of the 80 and 81 rom that will run on a +2, have been 
modified to account for the different screen hardware, but IIRC things 
like the keyboard matrix are pretty much identical across the 
80/81/Spectrum.

The roms I used I got here : 
http://www.fruitcake.plus.com/Sinclair/Interface%202/Interface%202%20RC_New.htm

They are meant for the interface 2, but since all that happens is that 
the inteface 2 rom overlays the internal rom, I just whipped up a board 
with a 64K eprom, a couple of switches and an LS00, to allow me to 
switch at will.

> I destroyed my +2 many years ago (and my 48K Spectrum), but I'm still keeping 
> the ZX80 and another 48K Spectrum purely for sentimental reasons :-)

Well I have several speccies of all generations, so modding one of them 
was an interesting project :)

> (Hmm, Speccy Econet interface, anyone? Quite possibly been done...)

Humm prolly doable, cirtainly the hardware would be doable, integating 
the firmware in with the Spectrum OS might be more of a challenge tho.

Cheers.

Phill.


-- 
Phill Harvey-Smith, Programmer, Hardware hacker, and general eccentric !

"You can twist perceptions, but reality won't budge" -- Rush.