I have not always been a fan of the Timex/Sinclair 2068 computer. Maybe this isn’t the best way to begin my first blog entry on David Anderson’s TimexSinclair.com website. Yet, that first sentence does show a bit of hope, don’t you agree? I haven’t always been an admirer of this relatively rare home computer from the early 1980s because I didn’t know it existed until the mid-1990s. I’m making up for lost time, and I am an enthusiast of it now. I hope I can express some of my interest in this computer in future blog entries. Let’s get started.
First, I’m going to make one presumption: if you’re reading this blog, then you have an interest in Timex/Sinclair computers. Perhaps you like the Timex/Sinclair 1000, the ZX81, or the Sinclair Spectrum. Somehow you found your way here and you’re now reading these words. Great. Welcome and I hope you stick around as I learn more about the Timex computers so that I can share a bit of what I come across with you. I haven’t dabbled much into any Timex computer system but the T/S 2068, but that doesn’t mean I won’t cover them in future posts that I make to this blog.
Second, and lastly, I’m just getting my feet wet here and I don’t have an exact idea of where this blog will lead me. My original intention was just to make a few blog posts covering one book, which I will mention shortly. Yet, with some luck, and if my interest continues, then I will cover other Timex-related topics. For now, I’m going to take it easy and just work my way forward one step at a time. For better or worse, if you keep reading past this paragraph, then I hope you’re prepared to hear from an American, who lives in the Southwest part of United States, and who will talk about a computer which never caught on much in his own country. My ignorance about this computer will probably slip through, but if you can forgive a few minor errors now and then, then I believe you will enjoy what I will cover in my future posts here.
Well, you are still reading… that’s a good sign.
Once I was introduced to the T/S 2068, did I fall in love with the system the very first time I typed on its keyboard? No. That might be an impossibility to someone unfamiliar with the unusual layout of a Timex 2068 home computer. Yet, I did want to bring up the keyboard as soon as possible, as it has a bad reputation as being overly-difficult to use. Maybe part of that bad rap is well deserved, but I don’t believe anyone would have difficulty using the keyboard to type a program in BASIC. I wouldn’t want the T/S 2068 to be the computer I used for all of my word processing needs, but for typing in a BASIC program or using programs that require any keyboard entry at all, the chiclet-style keyboard is just fine.
Here is a picture of the T/S 2068 computer from the Wikipedia page:
I first proposed to David the idea for a few blog entries covering the T/S 2068 system about two weeks ago. We had a conversation about it in a private Zoom call one weekend. My original plan was to cover some programs from a book called “Timex Sinclair Color Graphics” by Nick Hampshire. This is the book’s cover:
David describes this book as, “a lightly edited retitle of ZX Spectrum Graphics by Nick Hampshire. The cover splash graphic notes it’s for the TS 2048 and TS 2068 computers. Does not address the Timex-specific high resolution modes.”
The original cover of the book looked like this:
I own the T/S 2068 version of this book and I have OCRed the description from the back cover to give further details about what I’ll cover in some of my first entries to this blog:
A dazzling display of color graphics in 45 complete programs for the Timex Sinclair 2048 and 2068 microcomputers. The author clearly explains the theory behind high-resolution-graphics plotting by presenting practical, concrete programming examples. Applications of these graphics displays range from art to games to educational simulations in math, science, and business. All program listings have been tested and are annotated for easy reference and modification. Use them as is or change them to suit your own specific needs!
“Programs include color plotting; drawing maps, rainbows, geometric figures, pie charts, and bar and line graphs; character and shape design; and moving figures on the screen. The programs build to reveal the techniques of three-dimensional drawing, including adding perspective, shading, and color to achieve stunning results in high-resolution graphics.
This forty-year-old book sounds exciting to me because I have an interest in video art that was created using 8-bit game systems and computers. I’ll defer giving my personal full definition of “video art” until a later time, but for now, know that I loosely believe that line drawings, circles, boxes or any objects of various shapes that can be drawn on a high-resolution screen (in this case, think of “high-resolution” being approximately 256×192 pixels) is video art. Mostly, I prefer this art to be in-motion, but that’s not always the case. You’ll find that I break my own definition of what I consider to be video art all of the time.
I did make a post about the “Timex Sinclair Color Graphics” book on June 7, 2022 on the TS2068 discussion group, which you can read here.
In upcoming posts I hope to explore some programs that are in this book.
Consider this blog’s future content to be fluid. I may change its focus as I come across new material. I’m already getting distracted by scans of newsletters that David has made in the last few days, such as… Ah-ha! I already caught myself straying off-course in this very first blog entry.
I hope you enjoy the posts I make here, and feel free to leave feedback for me.
Adam
