Welcome to the first issue … the collector’s issue … of T1MEX SINCLAIR USER, the independent magazine which aims to help you make the most of your machine. Look to TIMEX SINCLAIR USER each month for enjoyment, information, and uses for your machine and at least eight pages of programs! As well, each issue will include news of new products and events related to your computer, in-depth reports of new hardware and software and reviews of available books. There will also be features and stories of general interest on how different people are using their computers for new and unusual applications.
This page will act as your view into the future; what’s coming, what’s being planned, what’s new and available for your machine. Through this page, we will give you a glimpse of the future, every month!
Even now, rumors abound about the new machines and add-ons that Timex and Sinclair will be introducing in the coming months. Last January, at the C.E.S. (Consumer’s Electronics Show) in Las Vegas, TIMEX unveiled the T/S2000. It has color, sound, hi-res graphics and great (according to those who have used it) programming capabilities. And it’s true, we’ve seen them, plug-in ROMs for the T/S2000. Perhaps this marks the end to your struggles with those long loading programs on sometimes unreliable tape recorders. It seems that ZX technology with cartridge convenience is just around the corner! Before this new computer hits the market, we will have all the details on it for you. Watch for our up coming T/S2000 features.
But even before the new T/S2000 comes on stream, which we hear will be the fall of ’83, a new TIMEX SINCLAIR machine, the T/S1500, will make its debut. From what we have been able to learn, it is basically the T/S1000 with a built-in 16K RAM and a regular typewriter keyboard. This machine, too, will be taken apart and examined for you in an up coming issue.
On this page also, we will provide you with information and speculation on what is happening with Clive Sinclair and Sinclair Research. What about those rumors concerning a flat screen computer using ZX BASIC? It was spoken of as a “maybe” for 1983-84.
Our guess is that TIMEX will wait on that one until the T/S2000 is well and truly launched — an event we look forward to with great excitement! In any event, this page will keep you ready for the new, the exciting, the useful, and the interesting additions to the Timex Sinclair computer line.
The new TIMEX printer seems to have answered some of the complaints about the ZX printer put out by Sinclair. The new TIMEX printer still uses narrow paper (about 4.5 inches wide) and a 32 character line length (the same as the screen), but it does use regular, untreated paper. The image you get is clear, reproduceable, and very readable. The ZX printer uses thermal paper and often gave results that were less than good. TIMEX SINCLAIR USER will feature these and other printers for your computer in future issues.
On page 63, you will find a one-page article titled, “Starting Out.” This page is designed to help the new user get started . . . with as little frustration as possible. It will appear every month. It will, we hope, invite those who join the ranks of new computer users to take the plunge and get involved with their T/S1000. If you feel there are ideas or tips we have omitted that would make it still easier for that new, first-time user, please let us know.
And while we’re on about letters from you, we will be able to provide help and tips to all users. Write in with your questions. If we cannot answer your question, we are sure that there is a reader out there who can and will. Further we welcome any new or special uses or ideas for the T/S1000/ZX81 you may develop.
This is probably a good time to deal with the confusion that may exist about the differences between these two machines, the T/S1000 and the ZX81. Fundamentally, they are the same machine. The ZX81 has IK of user available memory, while the T/S1000 has 2K. All ZX81 peripherals work equally well on the T/S1000 and, of course, the reverse is true (provided the IK memory difference is taken into account). With a 16K RAM added onto them, the two machines ar virtually inter-changeable. Any software from one w run on the other. If at times we talk about the ZX81 the T/S1000, please read it as ZX81 AND T/S1000.