OS-64 is a ROM that supports the Timex/Sinclair’s 64-column mode. It is fully compatible with 32 column commands and functions.
The original Zebra manual is available on archive.org.
OS-64 is supplied on cartridge. Insert in the TS2068’s cartridge slot (with the power turned off), then turn your computer on. The boot screen will be black with white characters and the OS64 copyright message will be displayed along with the Sinclair and Timex messages.
- PRINT, PRINT AT, PRINT TAB, LIST, LLIST, LPRINT and program editing commands work in 64 columns.
- You lose nearly 5K of free memory at the bottom of BASIC.
- Loading programs larger than 33K will crash the 2068.
- FLASH, BRIGHT and INVERSE do not work with OS-64.
- OS-64 uses Display File 2, so a normal SCREEN$ will not work to SAVE or LOAD. You must SAVE/LOAD two separate CODE files in order to deal with a SCREEN in 64 column mode.
- If you have a TS 2040 printer, LPRINTs and LLISTs to the printer will be in 64 columns.
Once you set either PAPER or INK, the other is set to its compliment (i.e. PAPER 4 [green] will set the INK to 2 [red]). This change affects all the ink on the page, so that itโs impossible to have more than one color of INK on any page. The BORDER is automatically set to the same color as PAPER.
If you have a TS 2040 printer, LPRINTs and LLISTs to the printer will be in 64 columns.
Jeff Street, the Zebra programmer who wrote OS-64, included printer drivers for four Centronics interfaces. OS-64 supports LLIST, LPRINT and COPY (COPY will dump to EPSON compatible printers only). Most programs will work with OS-64โs built-in 80 column printer drivers without modification.
You can also load your own custom driver; the documentation tells you where to load it and how to call it (can be either Centronics or serial).