SyncWare News
| Title | Description | Computers |
|---|---|---|
| 1000 2K Text Writer | This program was written on a 2K TS1000 and will handle a full screen of text. It gives you a full screen editor that will handle about 20 words per minute. You can print the screen to the printer by Lprinting, and Stop will bring you to a halt at line 410. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| 1000 Auto Analysis | Program to analyze, diagnose and recommend solutions for engine problems. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| 1000 One Chip Mod: A Built-in NVM | This battery backed-up RAM is a miniaturization and functional equivalent of the famous “Hunter” board. It was designed by Mr. Wilf Rigter of the Vancouver, BC T/S User Group. I owe many thanks to Mr. Rigter for inspiring me to write this article, and assisting with technical advise during the construction and refinement of this | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| 2068 & Spectrum Reviews | Hall of the Things, Manic Miner, Jet Set Willy, Lunar Jetmen. These four programs for the ZX Spectrum have several things in common. First of all, they are all of truly “ARCADE” quality with excellent graphics and sound. Secondly, they have all occupied the #1 spot on the European charts in 1983 or 1984. Lastly, | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| 2068 Art | This short program will have you staring at your screen for hours. | Timex/Sinclair 2068, Downloadable |
| 2068 Buggy Software | It isn’t considered normal when а magazine like SyncWare gives you а program that’s riddled with bugs. But then, we never promised you a normal magazine. Since this is our special April Fool’s issue, we thought we’d introduce you to SyncWare’s in house bug. Actually he’s a worm–a friendly little fellow–who took up residence in | Timex/Sinclair 2068, Downloadable |
| 2068 Cassette Connection: Part II: Loading Tips | In the last Issue, I recommended removal of a couple capacitors in the SAVE circuitry of the TS2068. This provides a “brighter” save signal, which makes subsequent loading more reliable. This is all that is required to get many systems working “up to spec,” and makes the use of “fast-load” routines possible, even practical. On | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| 2068 Character Builder | The TS2068 offers a very powerful feature in its capacity to build up user-defined characters. However, the procedure for building up those characters is a bit of a pain in the neck. This program will simplify that procedure for you. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| 2068 Label Maker | Program to print return address labels or any other message on 15/16″ labels. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| 2068 LOAD Notes | Stan Nagrod reports the removing R11 from his computer cured his loading problems. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| 2068 Lotto | Program to pick Lotto numbers. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| 2068 Machine Code in a DATA Statement | Program allows you to place machine code located anywhere in memory into a DATA statement in line 1 of your BASIC program. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| 2068 PC Board Aid | This program is designed as an aid in laying out a PC board for the Sinclair computers. The 2040 listing will give the correct 0.1″ spacing for the edge connector. | Timex/Sinclair 2068, Downloadable |
| 2068 Piano | Type-in program to let you play the TS 2068 like a piano, using BEEP. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| 2068 Print Command Compiler | This article addresses itself to one of the calls in particular; the PRINT routine at 2159h (8537d). The author, Ray Kingsley, points out the fact that you can put the message in memory, point the system variable CH_ADD to the location of the start of the message, and call the PRINT routine. He also very | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| 2068 Review: Checkrec & Inventory | Review of “Checkrec 2000” and “Household Inventory 2000“, two programs written in BASIC, in spreadsheet format. Programs available from WMJ Data Systems. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| 2068 Screen Copy | Printer driver based on 117-byte routine derived from Tom Wood’s Pro/File 2068. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| 2068 Tower of Brahma | Variation of Tower of Hanoi for the TS 2068. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| 2068 Variable Save Trick | After a lot of experimenting, I may have a solution. The “may have” is because the process alters the system variables and, although it seems fine so far, I prefer to test it much more before using it with complete confidence. The process simply involves fooling the computer about where to start saving. Since we | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| 2068 Window | Machine language screen utility to support replacing and restoring a section of the display with another, pre-defined section. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| 2068 Windows | With the wave of new micros touting their window abilities maybe other 2068 owners like myself have been keeping quiet. Well, if you have been feeling sorry for yourself because you have a computer that “won’t do windows” then cheer up! Those windows are painlessly easy on the mighty 2068! | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| 2068 Word Images | One particularly strong fascination the computer holds over me is its almost magical ability to conjure up powerful images in my mind. You can use the computer to illustrate this phenomenon by programming it to choose and print words on the TV screen. By consciously thinking about the images your mind creates in response you’ll | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| 2068 Word Wrap Utility | When printing a text to the screen by using the PRINT statement, words at the end of the screen often will be cut off in the middle and continued on the next line. This makes the text difficult to read. This utility will put the entire word at the beginning of the next line so | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| 256K Ram! | Aerco offers a 256K RAM upgrade either configured as a RAMdisk or port mapped in 64K banks shadowing the cartridge bank. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| 64 Column BASIC | Short machine language program to allow using 64 column mode with BASIC programs. | Timex/Sinclair 2068, Downloadable |
| 64 Column Basic: TS1000 Style! | Teaser about a 64 column mode for TS1000 owners with Oliger Video board. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| A Challenge | Request to improve included subroutine (“flowchart”). The subroutine plots the program above it (prior to line 9901) as a flowchart. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| A New Thrust | Sinclair’s new venture is high performance aircraft. Note the issue date. | |
| A TS1000 REM Generator | Short program to generate a 1 REM line with any number of spaces. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| A TS2068 Music Maker | The Timex/Sinclair 2068, with its built-in sound chip is capable of producing sound and music in three parts. The program included here will allow you to create, enter, and play music in three-part harmony. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| A Video Upgrade? | Why upgrade the TS1000 video with a TMS9918 video display processor (VDP?) If you find that your computer does its job, but you would like to see it work a lot faster (in SLOW), if you’re tired of that annoying fast mode flicker, if you have a program longer than 16K of BASIC and want | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| A Word to Authors | Advice on writing articles for the magazine. | |
| A&J Notes | When using the A&J Microdrive “ESOS” (Exatron Stringy Operating System), there are times when you don’t want it to change your RAMTOP. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| ABC-123 Part 2 | Finishes the “ABC/123” program for the TS 1000 introduced in prior issue. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| ABC-123: Educational Games for the ZX81 | The “ABC/123” program is quite long, so we are breaking it into two parts. The result of this first installment will be a self-sufficient program in its own right. It is a trainer in the recognition of the alphanumeric characters, both upper and lower case. | Sinclair ZX81, Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Adding On To Gladstone | Many memory expansion boards have been offered for ZX81’s and TS1000s. One of the first to break down through the $100 price barrier was the Gladstone 64K RAM pack. It gave you use of RAM memory from locations 8K through 64K. Its only short coming was that you had to ALWAYS use all of the | Sinclair ZX81, Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Addition: A "Training" Program | Program to teach young children basic math. Draws a train engine as successive correct answers are provided. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Additional Byte-Back Memory Pack Notes | Thanks to John Oliger’s NOT M1 decoding circuit, many new and excellent pieces of software are coming into the market place that make use of machine language routines in the 32K-48K (8000-BFFF hex) region of memory. Some examples of these would include Hot Z-II by Ray Kingsley and Memotext in RAM, Version 3, modified and | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| AERCO Disk Drives | Aerco has announced their disk drive interface, which will have an extra 64 K of memory (cartridge bank) for you to use (see more details inside). CPM 2068 should follow soon, which would enable file transfer between other types of CPM computers (that can read the standard IBM 3740 disk format) by disk, which is | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Another Video Primer | Definitions of common terms used to describe video signals. | |
| Appointment Watch | APPOINTMENT WATCH is a spread sheet program written in machine code and BASIC. It requires at least 16K of memory. In 16K, Appointment Watch allows the user to enter and store 100 appointments. It allows you to enter the Date, Time, and Place of your appointments, as well as with whom they are, and the | Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Are We Not Hackers? | There has been a lot of press over the last year about “hackers,” referring to the dishonest minority of computer users who delight in crashing BBSes, breaking into data-bases, and generally wreaking havoc. | |
| Audio Frequency Counter Program for the Timex/Sinclair ZX81 | This program will run with as little as 1K of RAM and will allow frequency measurements of up to 28,500 Hz. This is useful for tuning RTTY tone generators, electronic musical instruments, tone encoders, and for calibrating audio generators. The audio signal is fed to the computer’s earphone jack, and the frequency is displayed to | Sinclair ZX81, Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Bank Switching the 2068 | TS2192 COMPUTER The 2068 was introduced to us as a memory manager, capable of handling up to 256 banks of 64K memories, a veritable elephant among small plastic boxes. Close inspection revealed that an item called a BEU (meaning either Bus Expansion Unit or “hello” in Elephant) was necessary to access most of the extra | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| BASIC Bank Switching | Short recap of ways to add RAM to the TS 2068 and switch it in/out. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| BASIC Tipics: Use Logic | This article explores a blend of two forms of logic: arithmetic and Boolean logic (AND, OR, and NOT) operations. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Basic Topics | Is It A Number? By Fred Nachbaur The following routine contains a trap to insure that you enter a number. This is useful in math drill programs, to prevent cheating by entering an expression. The BASIC interpreter will accept the question as the answer by evaluating the expression for you. For example, in response to | Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 2068, Downloadable |
| Basil's Compendium: "Painless" MC Development | This chapter will give you a look into “real life”, and will show you how to make a “rough draft” of your programs in BASIC. I always find it easier to debug my programs in BASIC before actually translating them into machine eode, as the results of an error are much less drastic in BASIC. | Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Basil's Compendium: A Few No-Nos | Recaps utility routines described in prior articles and why machine code containing the values 118, 126 and 11 may be problematic. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Basil's Compendium: Addition, Overflow, Carry | This article will show you how to add and subtract, and how to “increment” and “decrement” registers; it will tell you about overflow and carrying; and it will Introduce the concept of flags. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Basil's Compendium: Basic Machine Code for the ZX-81/TS1000 | As the title implies, this series is designed to introduce the beginner to the basics of machine coding. The beginner in machine language that is. We must assume that you already have a working knowledge of BASIC. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Basil's Compendium: Deluxe Loader Program | This installment gives you a simple loader program that will make it very easy for you to enter machine code in decimal notation. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Basil's Compendium: Go To/Go Sub | This article introduces the concepts of JUMP and CALL, the machie code analogs to Basic’s GOTO and GO SUB. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Basil's Compendium: Hexadecimal and 256-imal | This article introduces the concept of hexadecimal notation and “256-imal.” | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Basil's Compendium: Let A = ... | This installment is going to show you how to assign values to a number of variables — or, as computer jargon has it, to load registers. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Basil's Compendium: LET A= ... | This installment will teach you how to enter an actual program in machine code. | Sinclair ZX81, Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 1500 |
| Basil's Compendium: PEEK, POKE & USR | Reviews the operation of the ZX81 memory, discusses PEEK and POKE and introduce the USR command. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Basil's Compendium: Where to Put the Program | This chapter will list some requirements for the place where we will put the machine code, and will show you how to find a memory location that meets those requirements. | Sinclair ZX81, Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 1500 |
| Basil's Compendium: Why Use Machine Code? | If you have the choice between simple and complicated, simple is usually the more elegant. It’s often a poor bargain to trade many minutes of machine code writing for a saving of a few milliseconds in program execution. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Basil’s Compendium | Chapter discusses conditional instructions and behavior of various flags. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| BBDOS: A Disk Operating System for the Aerco FD-ZX Interface | ZX81/TS1000 owners who have been using the Aerco FD-ZX Disk Drive Interface owe Jerry Chamkis and his Texas staff a debt of gratitude for providing them with a reliable, high speed, mass storage system. But even as nice as the FD-ZX unit is, its disc operating system (DOS) leaves much to be desired. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Become a Sinclair Tycoon | Advice on how not to run a software/hardware business. | |
| Best of PCW Assembler Routines | Review of the book published by Personal Computer World. Includes machine language routines for the Z80 CPU. | |
| Bug Alert | Corrections articles in SWN v3n3: “GET”, “ONE-CHIP MODS,” and DICE 1000. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Bug Alert | Missing section of World Geography by Shawn Byrne, published in volume 5, number 4. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Bug Alert | Correction to reverse-video driver, “Adding on to Gladstone”. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Bug Alert: One-chip NVM | The “One-chip NVM” in SWN 4:1 shows a minor discrepancy between the schematic (Fig. 3) and the pictorials and instructions. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Bugs Strike Again | Notes on fixing “ETAMITLU” by Jeff Moore. | |
| Building a 2068 Database, Part 1 | The concept of a Completely Interactive Database System (CIDS) that has been implemented on a micro-computer is interesting in that this type of environment Is normally only found on mainframe computers. What I hope to do is cover the various aspects of implementing just such a system in the next few issues. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Building a 2068 Database, Part 2 | Part 2 of a series in building CIDS, a database program. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Celestial Basic: Skyplot | Eric Burgess’ “Celestial Basic,” is a collection of astronomy programs converted for Sinclair Basic and published in “More Uses for your TS1000: Astronomy on your Computer.” | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Celestial Computing | Computerists and astronomers have much in common. Both have a fastidious interest in detail, an appreciation of precision and a love of things beyond the ordinary. It is natural that this publication carry a regular column devoted to computer astronomy. | |
| Celestial Computing: Astronomical Software 1, Planet Finder | AS1 provides functions frequently found only on more expensive software for more expensive computers. Combined into two compact “Time Options” and “Coordinate Options” menus, we see many selections that were treated as separate programs in Eric Burgess’ ‘Celestial Basic.’ Planet Finder is a collection of astronomical images and information. It’s a cleverly designed, graphically interesting | Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 1500, Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Chroma Soft TS 1000 Review | Review of a program that displays color by flashing at different rates. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Circuit Board Hint | After building circuit boards from artwork or kits, it’s a good idea to clean all the rosin from the board. This makes it easier to see bad connections and shorts, and also gives a cleaner appearance. | |
| Clear That Screen! | The purpose of this article is to present some alternatives to this command, and in this process maybe show some ways of handling your display file. | Sinclair ZX81, Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 1500 |
| Coming Events | Computerfest ’88 (Dayton, OH), Third Annual International/Great Northwest TS Mini-Fair (Portland, OR), Timex-Sinclair-Amstrad Computer Users 1988 Midwest Regional Conference (Cleveland, OH). | |
| Computerfest Update | Details about the 1987 T/S Computerfest, held in Indianapolis, Indiana. | |
| Contest Deadline Nears | The Second Annual Programmer’s Contest deadline is rapidly approaching. As of January 31, on a single entry has been submitted. Deadline extended to April 15, 1987. | |
| Contest Nears Conclusion | 60+ contestants who submitted over 80 programs to the Big Contest; Timex 2068 disk drive has been submitted to the FCC for approval; Kirt Olsen of Syntax has stated that he will not take on any new subscribers; QL is out of the FCC (after one year) and is available by mail order. | Sinclair QL, Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Converting the Oliger 64K Ram for the 2068 | To use the JLO 64 K RAM board (from the TS1000) on the 2068, it is necessary to make these changes. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Curve Tracing - 2068 | Use the TS 2068 to print mathematical curves, handwriting, doodles, etc. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Custom Keyboard Tip | Did you hook up one of those TI keyboards to your ZX81/TS1000? Don’t you wish it had all the Sinclair legends on the keys? Well, if you can find an old membrane keyboard (remember those?) you can cut it up and paste the legends onto the keys with silicone glue. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Customize your M-SCRIPT | I am one of those people who can’t have a program for long before I find something to improve or otherwise fool with. In this case, the victim is MSCRIPT. MSCRIPT is a beautiful, full featured word processor. In a month of using the program, I’ve found only four things to complain about. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Decimal to Hex and Back | Converting from hexadecimal to decimal number systems has been the bane of many an aspiring machine code programmer. This listing does the converting for you. When you RUN the program, a prompt asks you for a hex number. You can either type one in to get the decimal equivalent, or press ENTER to flip to | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Decoding the EXROM | The following circuit will allow you to use the memory area above the EXROM, which ocupies the 0 to 8K chunk in that memory bank, as RAM. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Dice 1000 | Program to “roll” graphic dice. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Dunnington Flowcharter | Program for the T/S 2068 that will draw a flowchart of another program, which is loaded from tape. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Editorial | Another amazing year has passed and we have seen a number of computer companies bite the big one, as well as a number of computer related publications. Syncware News is now firmly planted and has every intention of “sticking around.” | |
| Editorial | In case you hadn’t noticed, a few changes have occurred with SWN in the last couple of months. The appearance among others, is quite different. Another change that has transpired is the editor/publisher personnel. We are very happy to have Tom Woods as our publisher. Not only is he involved in publishing, but also in | |
| Editorial | Season’s greetings; Second Sort-of-Annual Programmers Competition; new improved publication. | |
| Editorial: Another Year Older; 2nd Annual Fest Planned; TS Communications | Issues this year will include more material for the less technically inclined on the basics of T/S computing. 2nd Annual Midwest T/S Computer Fest will be May 2-3, 1987 in Indianapolis, IN. Indiana Sinclair Timex Users group is currently running a bulletin board, with software they’ve developed, on an unexpanded TS2068. | |
| Editorial: Quantum Levels Premiers; Timex & Other Rumors; Amstrad Invasion | August/September issue of Quantum_Levels available; Timex Portugal announced plans to bring the home computer battle back to North American shores; Sears, Roebuck will be offering Amstrad’s new word processor. | Sinclair QL |
| Editorial: Sinclair-Amstrad Deal; SyncWare Grows; Journal Goes | Sinclair Research sold rights for Spectrum computers to Amstrad. Jeff Moore becomes editor. SyncWare Journal in construction. | |
| Enter Q_Review? | Teaser about new publication supporting the Sinclair QL. | Sinclair QL |
| EPROM Programmer, Part II: Fixing Your Home ROM | Correct the home ROM by transferring it into RAM, changing the code, and then programming a 27128 to replace it. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Expanded 2068 Input Prompts | One day, as I was rummaging through the TS2068 ROM, I discovered that there was more to the INPUT command than what was described In the manual. Digging a little deeper, I found that what’s presented here is covered In detail In the Spectrum manual. Well, so much for international communications. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Extensions to Pro/File Review | There are four issues of Extensions that total 31 pages of well documented changes, additions, and instructions. These modifications can either be keyed into your computer or you can purchase the programs on tape. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Fast Times at Clairmont High TS 1000 | Game to get Walter Wimply to class. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| FAT M-Script | Use this listing in place of the Basic loader supplied with M-Script. It gives a backup capability and will provide larger letters that help improve readability. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Floppy Disk | ||
| For Your Support | Column announcing hardware, software for Timex/Sinclair owners. Products from Bruce Taylor, Fred Nachbaur, Tom Woods, John Oliger, Jack Donahy, 21st Century Electronics, Zebra Systems, Steve Wyatt, G. Russell Electronics and Tad Painter listed. | Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| For Your Support | Product announcements from Barry Carter, Aerco, Zebra Systems, Pete Petri, JRC Software, Chia-Chi Chao, Poretsky & Poretsky, D. Lipinski Software, K. D. Lewis, American Surplus Trading, Toronto Software World, John Oliger, Rick Munday, A.F.R. Software, Sum-Ware, Al White and WMJ Data Systems. | Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| For Your Support | Product announcements from Robert Fischer, UAS, Tom Laffin, Knighted Computers, RAMEX, Ben Johnson, Fred Nachbaur, Tom Bent, Jim Houston Enterprises, Paul Bingham, Sum-Ware and Ray Kingsley. | Sinclair ZX81, Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| For Your Support | Product announcements from C. W. Associates, Gulf Micro Electronics, Aerco, G. Russell Electronics, Melvin MacKaron, Ace Software, Rheesware, EZ-KEy, Falmouth Computer Service, Damco Enterprises, A.F.R. Software, John Oliger, Van Vangor, T-Ware, Integrated Data Systems. | Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| For Your Support | Product availability announcements from Imre Auersbaucher (educational software), Hawg Wild Software (2068 fig-Forth, CP Spectrum Forth, EMU-1 Spectrum emulator, User Design Graphics toolkit), Dale Lipinski Software (5 new programs for the 2068, and 8 new ones for the 1000 and 1500, dealing with accounting and file management), Sinware (updated HotZ 2068), Games to Learn By | Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| For Your Support | Product announcements from English Micro Connection, TEJ Computer Products, Macshak Software, Delphic Enterprises, Pleasantrees Programming, Communications Systems Center, Toronto Software World, T Dailey, People’s Software Supply, S. J. Wyatt and John Oliger. | Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| For Your Support | Product announcements from G. Russell Electronics, Byte-Back, Variety Sales, Chia-Chi Chao, Larken Electronics, Sams, Fred Nachbaur, Lemke Software Development and E. Arthur Brown. | Sinclair QL, Sinclair ZX81, Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| For Your Support | Product announcements from Softaid, TEJ Computer Products, G. Russell Electronics, Integrated Data Systems, Sharp’s, Richard Booth, J. Keene, Pratt Programs, Robotron Industries, Knighted Computers, Ray Rash and Fred Nachbaur. | |
| For Your Support | Product announcement from Bill Bell, G. Russell Electronics, Dunbar Aitkens, I. B. A. Computer Users Network, Brice Road Pharmacy, Damco Enterprises, Sharp’s, C. W. Associates. | |
| For Your Support | Product announcements from John Oliger Co., NovelSoft, Willcocks Research Consultants, Grey & Clifford Computer Products, Knighted Computers, G. Russell Electronics, Jim Houston Enterprises, Larken Electronics, Chia-Chi Chao, Fred Nachbaur, Robert Fischer, Bill Heberlein, Bill Bell, C. W. Associates. | |
| For Your Support | Product announcements from Chia-Chi Chao, NovelSoft, Willcocks Research Consultants, Grey & Clifford Computer Products, Knighted Computers, Fred Nachbaur/Silicon Mountain Computers, Robert Fischer, Larken Electronics, Bill Bell, Thomas Woods, Jim Houston Enterprises, WIDJUP Co., David Hill. | |
| For Your Support | Product announcements from Fred Nachbaur, John Oliger Co., Grey & Clifford Computer Products, Larken Electronics, Chia-Chi Chao, Robert Fischer, Bill Bell, G. Russell Electronics, EZRA Group II, RMG Enterprises, David Hill, Paul Holmgren, GLENN Technics, John Deering. | |
| For Your Support | Announcement of version 2.5 of ZX-TERM*80, version 3 of SRAM Hi-Res Extended BASIC from Silicon Mountain Computers. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| For Your Support | Hardware and software offerings from Chia-Chi Chao, Mike Trivisonno, Jack Donahy, Fred Nachbaur, Tim Worcester, Games to Learn By, Kraig Pritts, John Oliger, Tom Woods and Knighted Computers. | Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| For Your Support | Products from Allan Wolach, C. W. Associates, Chia-Chi Chao, Don Dailey, Ed Grey, Fred Nachbaur, G. Russell Electronics, Newpower Inc., Paul Bingham, Robert Fischer, SAF User Group, Samson Okoloko, Steve Wyatt, Time Designs and Tom Woods. | |
| For Your Support | Hardware and software announcements from many vendors. | Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| For Your Support | AN-TO Productions is marketing QUICKEY 2068 keyboard overlays. Overlays are available for the following programs: AccuDraw T2, Artworx v1.1, Tasword/Tasprint, Mscript (regular and V5) and Omnicalc II. There is also a key finder and a blank overlay for your own programs. Bill Bell announces the availability of an Oliger Video Version of BBDOS for the | Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| For Your Support | ZEBRA SYSTEMS, INC., is currently offering Graphics Collection tapes for use with their TS2068 Graphics Designer Series programs: The Banner Designer, The Greeting Card Designer, and the Sign Designer. Each tape includes 30 graphics. Collection subjects include holidays, office, sports, and religion to name but a few. There are currently 12 collections available with more | |
| Forth is a State of Mind | One of the problems encountered when introducing Forth to others is explaining how a language that is so strong and rich can and must be extremely simple and elegant. These terms are not as contradictory as they seem on the surface. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Forth-With | “Just what is FORTH like?” FORTH is like FORTH and nothing else – it’s that simple. It has been shown that people who have never been exposed to a procedural language like BASIC, Fortran, Pascal, etc. grasp FORTH almost immediately. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Forum | Letters to the editor, corrections. Letters from Thomas Griffin, Bob Orrfelt, Dennis Silvestri and Pete Kelly. | |
| Forum | Address for QZX; Tony Gomez has board to convert Compusa disk to interface with DEC drives; Roy Brann offers feedback on machine code article; Kingsley Langenberg would like to know where to find spare parts for ZX81. | |
| Forum | Terminal program for TS1000; bus conversion to Spectrum; tilde character; Byte-Back modem with Modem II; converting Spectrum software; RAMTOP with Compusa drive; making backups on the 2068. | Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Forum | Timex Portugal moving ahead with Timex 2068; bug in TS1500 ROM LOAD routine; errors in John Oliger’s article in 2/4; Pro/File 2068 books shipped; questions about A&J Microdrive; Spectrum ROMs; corrections to “Clear That Screen”, articles in vol 1; sources for replacement chips. | Timex/Sinclair 1500, Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Forum | Bill Ferrebee operates a BBS with a Timex interest group; Ray Rash has a 2068 biorhythm program; Dan Pinko will repair blown SDS load filter; Bary Wingersky has rewritten Cave-Man WP for 2068; Radio Electronics has 4-part hardware story in progress for Timex. | |
| Forum | Although it was not out intention to cause either mass hysteria or high anxiety, last issue’s front page seemed to cause both. I never got so much mail in my life! Would you believe 18 inches deep? If I haven’t responded quickly to your letters recently, please understand why. | |
| Forum | Make Mscript work with Tasman interface; 2040 printer and Memotech 16K RAM; pull-up resistors on data lines; load amp circuit; print command compiler. | |
| Forum | Short program by Arthur B. Marzano; introduction of new editor, Jeff Moore; SUM, Time Designs merge. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Forum | Screen interference with Zebra Disk System; 2040 paper feed problems; translating to other languages; balance of articles; UV lamp warning; Spectrum +2 announcement; TS1500s in music lab at community college; microdrive info wanted. | Timex/Sinclair 1500 |
| Forum | Monochrome monitor compatibility; Pascal help wanted; 2068 Art revisited; 2068 business graphics wanted; keyboard troubles; ink jet woes; more on Mandelplot. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Forum | Computerfest Update; SyncWare programmers contest; who is Orrin McGill; external power; questions about color monitors; ZX81 flight trainer; what’s a MIDI; corrections to errors; TS computers in model rocketry. | |
| Forum | Random Access From Our Readers (short tips, suggestions and requests from readers) Silicon Mountain Computers to Close Doors Cedric Bastiaans, SWN Author, Dies Late News on Cleveland 1988 Mid West T/S Conference A Plug for SNUG Missing Person Report Truth or Consequences Further Info on that “Other” PC (IQ8300 is same as PC8300, Power 3000) | Cambridge Z88, Lambda 8300, Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Forum | Letters from Jean-Claude Touzin, P. H. Skipper, Chris Sloan, Paul Bingham, Tony Gomez, Paul Edwards. Correction to article about TS1500 ROM bug fix that appeared in SyncWare News v2 n6 forum. | Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Forum | Letters from Alex Burr about the Timex Sinclair Amateur Radio User Group, Bob Howard re battery powered daisy wheel printers and Richard Norek about illegitimate line numbers. | |
| FORUM | Letters from readers. Tom Saine has questions about running Chess with his TS 1500 and AERCO disk drives. Computerfest updates. Charles Sullivan asks about converting a ZX80 to a ZX81. Wayne Kay gives advice on power line protection. Warren Fricke expresses concern about addition of QL coverage. Barry Malpas gives info about CAN, a newsletter | Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Forum | Letter from Paul Holmgren inviting Timex/Sinclair owners to attend the Second Annual Midwest Timex-Sinclair Computer Fest. Letters detailing: wish list of add ons for the TS 2068 from Pete Kelly ZXLR8 problems from John Baney questions about 64 column mode from John Pigg printing challenges from John Christensen user group request from T. G. Morley | Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Forum: Spectrum Compatibility | Add pull-up resistors to ROM, consistent with Spectrum design. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Fred's Soapbox | All too often I hear comments like “Since I got my TS2068, the TS1000’s been sitting on the shelf, awaiting a trip down memory lane.” | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| From the Publisher's Desk | As many of you may already know, SyncWare News is published by four partners who are geographically spread out across continental North America. All of us, with the exception of Basil who is retired but very active in the Symphony, college, and civic matters, work full time jobs to support our families. Due to the | |
| GET: A String Input Routine | Machine-language routine to format numbers on entry. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Getting Started with Beta BASIC | Introduction to Beta BASIC, an extension of Spectrum BASIC. Requires a Spectrum BASIC ROM or cartridge. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Getting Started With Beta BASIC, Part 2 | Printer & DOS Routines In Part 1 (SWN Vol, 5 No. 5) of this intro to Beta Basic (BB) we looked at some of the editing and data-manipulation features which may be used on programs entered in T/S mode as well as those written in BB. This time let’s see how it may be adapted | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Halt Right There! | You ZX/TS users have been told, and told again, “Don’t mess with the interrupts” and “Never use the HALT command.” The severity of the admonitions seem to imply that a fate-worse-than-crashing awaits those who would tamper with such things. When HALT is encountered, the Z80 CPU stops running your program. In this way it is | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Hang-Mult 2068 | The mainframe where I work has a Hangman-style number guessing game in its library which has fascinated me. I wrote HANG-MULT to emulate the mainframe’s program on my TS-2068 and thought other SWN readers might enjoy it too. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Happy Birthday to Us | This issue marks the beginning of the third year of support for TS computers. | |
| HOT Z/Zeus Comparison | Comparison between the two machine-language utility programs. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| How Fast is Fast Enough? | Todays word is SPEED. Regardless of which machine you own, you can speed up your SAVE and LOAD times in several different ways. The most economical is the tape based fastload, of which there are several programs out for the 1000. The 2068 has a speed limitation due to design considerations, although it does load | Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Instant Sorting | Explanation of Shell-Faulk sorting algorithm and implementation in BASIC and machine language. | Timex/Sinclair 2068, Downloadable |
| Ireg 1000 | The TS1000 owners manual states (p. 123) that upon return from machine code, the I register must have the value lEh. However, it can be a lot of fun breaking the rules. The I register points to the upper byte of the character generator table in the ROM. If we change it, the character set | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Letter Scramble | Short program presents scrambled words to user, user must unscramble them. | Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Location for Machine Code | When you turn on your TS2068 computer, POKE 23730, 255 and ENTER. Then press NEW and ENTER. This will put RAMTOP at address 65535 which is as high as possible. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Looping in Machine Code | Suggestions looping and operating on data in the loop. | Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Machine Code Topics: 2068 BASIC ROM Calls | This is the first of an occasional and indefinite series on machine-code programming for the 2068. I do not intend to take you through the rudiments of Z80 instructions, nor even the discovery and invention of the poked REM statement, but if you know how to do it even a little bit, then maybe I | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Machine Code Topics: How to Write Relocatable Z80 Code | Relocatable code will execute, without modification, when placed at any available address. The techniques to make code completely relocatable are the subject of this article. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Make Your Own 2068 & TS1000 EPROM Progammer | Here is a project that will let you “burn” (program) EPROMS using your computer. It will handle either the 2764 type (8K bytes) or the 27128 (16K) EPROMs. | Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Mandelplot: Mathematical Printer Art | The purpose for writing this article is to show you how easily you can get beautiful math-art creations using a minimum of hardware. The program presented is for the ZX81/TS1000 or TS1500, but can readily be extended to virtually any computer ever built. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Megabasic Magic | Review of YS (YourSinclair) Megabasic. | |
| MEMONOTES Makes Debut | Quarterly newsletter, for owners of Memotext and/or Memocalc and truly serious 1000 owners, is available. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Memotech Revisited | All Timex Sinclair computer owners can expect to get an offer from Memotech soon. This offer is in the form of a trade in. They will reduce the price of their MTX512 computer a substantial amount, depending on what you have to trade in. The MTX512 has been upgraded considerably since it was first announced. | |
| Microdrives! | Zebra Systems has the Sinclair microdrives running on a 2068 (with a Spectrum ROM). They should have a bus conversion out soon for attachment of those and other Spectrum peripherals. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Midwest TS Computerfest | Announcement about event scheduled for May 3 and 4, 1986. | |
| More About Mscript | MSCRIPT uses the true 64 column mode of TS-2068, and therefore, the border does not change color during loading and saving. It would be better if a message is printed after “Start tape & press ENTER” to indicate the acceptance of the keystroke. Also, MSCRIPT does not confirm the Restart option, so hours of work | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| National Landmark Quiz | Mr. Dunnington tells us that this quiz was taken from the Readers Digest for July 1988. In the form that he sent it, the questions and answers were quoted verbatim; with true editorial timidity, I changed the wording rather drastically, in order to minimize the danger of copyright violations. The principle remains intact. The quiz | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| New Updates | Computer Updates appears from the shadow of Pro/File Updates. 12 page quarterly includes updates to all software from Tom Woods. | |
| NVM and the 2068 | Often while folks gather and talk about their computers I hear something like this, “Why don’t you try this” and the almost standard reply is “I didn’t know you could do it that way, thanks.” This article is the result of my being in that same boat and finding an answer by myself. Way back | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Off the Wall | A list of amusing re-imagined definitions of computer terms. | |
| Off the Wall | Short program that makes the TS 1000 attempt to list its own ROM. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Off the Wall | Fred Nachbaur responds to criticisms about the magazine’s prior contest in “song” form, parodying Dire Straits’ Money for Nothing. | |
| Off The Wall: How Many Combinations? | How big is 64 K, really? Have you ever wondered exactly how many possible combinations there are in 65536 memory locations, each capable of assuming values from 0 to 255? Well, 64K bytes is 524288 bits, so the number of possibilities is 2**524288, or about 2.6E157826 (26 followed by 524,287 zeros). Printing this number in | |
| On Loading | The program presented here creates a modified LOAD command. It moves the routines needed for the LOAD from ROM into RAM and adjusts them to work there. The routines are changed so that when the LOAD completes, machine language code from the 1 REM statement is executed. By changing statement 1, you can completely control | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| One Chip Mods | Modify memory-mapped Byte-Back modules to work better with an expanded TS1000. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| One Chip Mods: Kempstonize Your Joystick Port | Although the circuit described can be built on an external card perfectly well, it is somewhat unique in that it can be installed inside your TS2068, without interfering with the normal operation in any way. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| One Chip Mods: Recycle that 16K RAM pack | Instructions on how to alter a standard 16K RAM pack to work as 2 8K banks in the 8-16K region of the TS 1000. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Part 2: Retain Buffers & Macros | Patching Mterm to allow it to remember buffers and macros. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Pat's Soapbox: Just for the Fun of It | Why are you still wasting time with that toy? Why don’t you get a Mac, an IBM, or one of the clones? We have all heard these questions many times. Don’t you get tired of it? Of course you do, and so do I. Let me give you a few of the responses I give | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| PET ASCII Output Program for the Timex/Sinclair ZX81 | This article describes a project which may be useful for anyone desiring to use software for the ZX81, TS1000 or TS1500 on a different computer. The program version presented here is designed to convert Sinclair BASIC programs into ASCII text which can be sent from the Sinclair computer to the serial port of a Commodore | Sinclair ZX81, Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Plane Frame | Plane Frame is a mechanical and structural engineering program. | Sinclair ZX81, Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 1500 |
| Poor-Man's EPROM Eraser | Recommendations for erasing EPROMs with an ozone or germ lamp. | |
| Port Projects: Get the LED-OUT | In any number of monitoring and/or control uses for your ZX/TS, you may find that using a TV set to check on your system is inconvenient or impractical. This would be so, for example, in outdoor or dirty environments or when you simply wish to check the status of one or two system parameters without | Sinclair ZX81, Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 1500 |
| Profile 2068 | Contrary to popular belief, there is a Profile manual under construction. (I have seen the proofs with my own eyes.) There is however, one chapter to go before it is ready for the printer. The manual is comprised of not only instructions, but several modifications, program improvements and upgrades and will be a good tutorial | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Program Segmentation | Author introduces the concept of breaking programs into smaller segments and loading the segments from disk as needed. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Put MSCRIPT on EPROM | Describes how to make an AROS EPROM cartridge from the original MSCRIPT tape version. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Put Those Extra Banks To Work | Several recent developments in the Timex 2068 hardware have made our computers much more flexible and powerful. Extra memory banks available to us now give us room to do things never before possible. Such extra memory banks are available on the AERCO disk interface and RAM cartridges. Relocate ZEUS assembler to a different bank. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Q & A | Byte-Back UM-64; One Chip Mods; “Delete” machine code. | |
| Q&A | Problems with quality of 2068 display; TS1500 high res video; Aerco/Royal printer compatibility; curing interference on 2068 saves; more on spikes; print message notes; Canada customs. | Sinclair ZX81, Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 1500, Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| QL Price Drops $200 | Sinclair Research drops the price. | |
| QL Submissions Invited | Request for articles for QL Review. | Sinclair QL |
| QL Super Basic | In the last issue I gave you a brief overview of the hardware angle to Sinclair’s latest computer, the QL. This time, I’ll tell you about some of the features available in this computer’s built-in Super Basic language. | Sinclair QL |
| Quick Screen Display 2068 | If you are looking for a way to rapidly store and retrieve an entire screen display, then this approach may be useful to you. It moves the 6912 bytes of the normal screen display file (DFILE1) to an address in RAM, from which it may then be retrieved as one block of data and reinserted | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Random Access From Our Readers | One of our readers (whom I won’t identify) wrote to point out that I had omitted the letter “u” from “florescent” in one of our recent issues, Seemed to think that I might have left it out on purpose, to avoid running the risk of the common misspelling, “flourescent”. Sorry about that, but they’re two | Timex/Sinclair 1500, Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Read a 2068 Header | Program to read the information block/header of a TS 2068 program saved to tape. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Redefine the TS2068 Character Set | Every 2068 user should know by now that they can define their own graphics characters, but did you know that you can also design your own type fonts? Well now you are no longer locked In by the standard 2068 block characters. The really amazing part Is that It Is quite easy to redesign them. | Timex/Sinclair 2068, Downloadable |
| Review: Timex Sinclair Intermediate Advanced Guide | This book was mentioned in an early SAMS offering, but due to the Timex pull-out it was not marketed until September. The demand was strong enough for it. The book starts with a brief but thorough explanation of the insides of the 2068, its architecture and its electronics. A full explanation of digital mathematics follow. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Run TS1000 Machine Code in High Memory | This trick was originally published in Syntax Quarterly, Summer 1983. It will allow you to use the 32-48K RAM area for machine code, if you have the Memotech or JLO 64 K boards (and maybe some others, but not the Byte-Back UM). | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Run Your Memotech 64K on the 2068 | Advice on adding 64K RAM units to your 2068 system in a manner which would not require additions or modifications to the RAM pack. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Send a 2068 Message | Describes how to use ROM calls and machine language to print built-in error messages. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Share-Ware: The T/S Lifeline? | Software has always been a difficult commodity to market and distribute. Users want new software, they want support for their software purchases. What’s more, EVERY computer buff likes to build up a big library of programs. Most are never or rarely used, but there is a certain element of the pack rat in all of | |
| Sinclair QL Update | The latest word is that Sinclair will take orders as early as November, with deliveries as early as January (FCC permiting). Several improvements have been made to it since it was first introduced, mainly to correct the original discrepancies in the operating system, etc. | Sinclair QL |
| Software Lo-Res for TS 1000 | Machine language utility to create large characters on the screen. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Sorting Through The TS2068 Sorts | This article compares the sorting speed of three routines on randomized, inverted and ordered data. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Spectrum Compatibility & the 2068 Romswitch | As most 2068 owners know by now, you can gain access to the hundreds of Sinclair Spectrum software titles available in the U.K., by changing your 2068 ROM (Read Only Memory). This can be done in a number of ways, and one quite elegant method is by the use of the Russell Electronics’ Romswitch. | Sinclair ZX Spectrum, Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Spectrum Software | There is just a ton of excellent Spectrum software from games to a floating point compiler. You can get this software from any number of suppliers in this country. With the Pound slipping in price, the cost of Spectrum programs is, relatively speaking, very low. This differential may help justify the acquistion of a Romswitch | Sinclair ZX Spectrum, Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Stringy Floppy | ||
| Structured Basic Tree Programs | Structured BASIC is BASIC which is organized so that each module or section of a program has ONE entry point and ONE exit point. The opposite of this, so-called “spaghetti” BASIC, is programming that has multiple entry and/or exit points in its modules. | |
| SWN Merger Announced | This is the last issue of SyncWare News that will be issued under that name. With this issue, we complete 5 years. We believe that we have performed a service for users of the Sinclair line of computers, and we believe that our readers have appreciated that service. For our part, we certainly appreciate your | |
| SWN On Line | SWN editors join Compuserve. | |
| SyncWare Meets QL | Sinclair Research has been promising the North American arrival of their new QL computer for so long, it’s hard to remember just when the first mention of it was made. Were it not for the fact that this machine is being sold in the U.K., one might well wonder if it is just the figment | Sinclair QL |
| Syntactic Sum | The ’SYNTACTIC SUM’ shown after the programs is a convenient parity check which was required by the editors of the now defunct Sinclair oriented newsletter SYNTAX ZX80, a publication of the Harvard Group. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| T/S On Line | TS2050 modems are still relatively easy to come by. Several manufacturers are offering modems and software of equal or better quality than the ‘officially’ supported Timex equipment. A source like Fischer and Ishii’s “THE GUIDE TO T/S TELECOMMUNICATIONS” is all you need to tie it all together. | Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Tasman + Quadra Chart | This program addition will allow you to make full size printer copies from Quadra-Chart. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| The 'Old Gents' Flowcharter | Program for the T/S 2068 that will draw a flowchart of another program, which is loaded from tape. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| The Amazing 2068 Pix Fix | Program to draw pictures on the computer screen. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| The Cassette Connection | In Volume 1, I ran a series on improving cassette reliability on the ZX81. Well, now that the TS2068 has arrived, that’s all obsolete, right? Wrong! If anything, in my experience the 2068 needs even more “outside help” in getting reliable loads. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| The Fame & The Glory | And now, here are a few more words about the last contest. First, we would like to thank all of the contributors who donated prizes for this contest. I’m sure that all of you will agree that this is indeed a formidable list of prizes for a TS based contest and we would like to | |
| The Owner's Manual: What it is... | ||
| The TS2192 Computer | The greatest part of this announcement is that if you own a 2068, then you don’t have to buy another computer! However, nothing is for free. It does require converting a 1000 64K RAM pack, of which we show the conversion for one. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| TI99 Keyboard | So, you got one of those TI99 keyboards from Radio Shack for $2.95 and still have not wired it up to your 1000 or 2068, right? I was going to write this up a while ago, but I learned that so many different companies made the circuit boards that it would be difficult to give | Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| TIMACHINE Review | Review of the floating-point BASIC compiler for the TS 2068 and Spectrum. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Timex 6820 Computer | Timex announces their return with a 68020 computer, running Timex Unix (TUNIX) and other operating systems. Note the issue date. | |
| TMS9918A Video Upgrade For The TS1000 | As can be expected with any major hardware upgrade, there are a few conflicts when the Oliger video system is used in conjunction with other equipment. Summarizes the fixes we and others have come up with to date. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| TMS9918A Video Upgrade: Part 1 | The TMS9918A video project consists of two PC boards, a small modification/addition to the main computer board, and a +5, +12, -5 VDC power supply (an expansion board of some type is necessary). Video board “A” contains the TMS9918 VDP chip, 16K video ram and one support chip for I/O interfacing. Board “B” contains the | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| TMS9918A Video Upgrade: Part 2 | This second installment involves some explanation of the changes to the operating system and how they have been implemented. By actually placing the contents of the ROM on EPROM, you can change any routine, implement extra commands outside of the 8K ROM and have BASIC control of your new routines. It is only necessary to | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Tom's Soapbox: Sink or Swim, We're All In This Together | Editorial about copying versus supporting individuals/companies directly. | |
| Translations: Memotext in RAM | Here is how to make a copy of the “Memotext” word-processor, which you can save to tape and reload later into RAM or NVM (non-volatile memory) in the 8-16K range. | Sinclair ZX81, Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 1500 |
| Translations: Memotext to ZX Pro/File | If you have a Memotext word-processor module and 64K RAM, you undoubtedly have already made use of its powerful “text” files mode. Memotext also supports “data” files, organized in six fields per file, up to 31 characters per field. Entering data files is just as easy and fast as text, thanks to the re-defined keyboard, | Sinclair ZX81, Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 1500 |
| Tri-Base Arithmetic | Turns your TS 1000 into a multi-base arithmetic calculator and number converter. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| TS1000 Advanced Calculator Program | These programs convert the TS-1000/1500 computer (with 16 col., 32 col. or an 80 col. printer) into a superior printing scientific calculator which saves the last 25 formulas and 900 variables for reference and/or use in future expressions. The enhanced version, CALPR-1, provides for labeling of all expressions and variables for improved calculation notes. Poking | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| TS1000 Banner | This program actually comes as an addendum and application to the LPRINT Hints given in Vol. 1. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| TS1000 Error Reports: Basic & Advanced | Article explores how error reports work on the TS1000/ZX81 computer, and furthermore, how to use “custom” error reports in your own programs. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| TS1000 Move It! | One of the nice features of the Z80 is that it has a number of commands which actually are a whole subroutine in a single op-code or machine-language instruction. Quite probably the most powerful of these are the “block-transfer” group of commands. These allow you to easily transfer blocks of memory anywhere you wish, at | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| TS1000 Review: Stock Plot | If the terms “Dow Jones Industrial Average”, “Price Earnings Ratio”, “shares”, “Current Dollar Profit”, and “Portfolio” mean anything special to you, buying this program might just be the kind of “investment” you’d like to look into. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| TS1000 Visible Sort | This listing is a great way to get a handle on how sorting routines actually sort. Since the program has been designed to be friendly, it guarantees that the code is difficult to follow. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| TS1500 Fix | A bug in the LOAD command that puts the stack pointer at the address where the bad load occurred. The listings (done with Hot Z) show the original ROM and the fix for an EPROM. | Timex/Sinclair 1500 |
| TS1500 HI-RES | Software-only high resolution routines for the TS 1500. | Timex/Sinclair 1500 |
| TS1500 Is More Than Meets the Eye | Demonstration program from Greg Harder how the TS1500 is improved over the 1000, allowing for software-only high-resolution graphics. | Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 1500 |
| TS1500 Video Topics | How would you like reverse video on your TV screen when using your TS1500? Not only is it possible, but it’s also ridiculously simple. All it involves is installing an SPST switch, and soldering two wires. Yes, you can use the TS1500 with John Oliger’s TMS9918A video upgrade. The required modification to the computer’s NMI | Timex/Sinclair 1500 |
| TYD BITS | Probably most of you have received notice of the bankruptcy of QUANTUM COMPUTING. Apparently, the notices were sent to everyone on the company’s customer list. I doubt that there is much hope of collecting anything from the company, as the notice listed unsecured debts as over $60,000, with total assets of $0.01 (that’s one cent). | |
| TYD BYTS | Take Care of Those 2040 Printouts As we all have discovered, to our sorrow, those printouts produced by the TS2040 printer are pretty fragile stuff. No paper has an unlimited life, of course, as witness the incredible lengths to which libraries go to try to protect their most valuable books, But your printer’s paper reminds | Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| TYD BYTS | Don’t Clog Your Memory With GOSUBs Perhaps you didn’t know that you can exhaust the memory of your TS 2068 in a surprisingly short time, if you repeatedly use a GOSUB without a corresponding RETURN. Try the following: and RUN the program. You’ll get an OUT OF MEMORY report when N-78. What happens, of course, | Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| TYD BYTS | Tips on adapting Fred Nachbaur’s universal printer driver to the two types (B and C) of the Tasman CPI (Centronics Parallel Interface). Bob Swoger recommends mineral oil for edge connector and other contacts. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Tyd-Bits | Poking MODE; Help for Tasword. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Tyd-Bits: Fun with Hot-Z II | Hot Z II uses a fascinating “trick” for getting back into itself if you should stumble into the error restart, RST 08. This is done by jimmying the ER_SP system variable. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Tyd-Byts | Several suggestions have been made in the past to prevent the mysterious crashes in our computers. Here’s another. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Tyd/Byts | This first little “ditty,” (UFO 2068) creates a UFO that you can add to your games and play around with. Bits will print out all of the possible bit patterns (0 to 255). | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Universal Printer Driver | In Volume 1, I ran a series on getting the most out of your ZX/TS with full-size printer and Memotech Centronics interface. Since then, this CIF has become unavailable. Fortunately, several other printer interfaces (both parallel and serial) are available. These include Centronics Parallel IF’s by Aerco, Byte-Back, John Oliger, and Tasman, and serial IF’s | Sinclair ZX81, Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| UPD Modifications | “Print an ASCII character” routine for Centronics interface from EPROM Services. Patch for the “Universal Printer Driver“. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Upgrading Mterm | Add printer output routine to Mterm that supports the Gemini 10X and 80 column printing. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Upgrading VU-Calc 1000 | VU-CALC for the ZX81/TS1000-1500 is a good program, but it has some limitations. Fortunately, modifications can easily be made which overcome these three limitations. | Sinclair ZX81, Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 1500 |
| Uploader 2000 | Almost any program you have in BASIC for the ZX81/TS1000 can now be used on the TS2068 with the use of UPLOAD2000. This is a program that allows you to convert most BASIC 1000 programs into working versions for the 2068. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| US & UK Versions Different | ||
| Volume No.1 of SyncWare | We are presently reconstructing and re-editing volume one of SyncWare News. We appreciate your patience. We are hoping to have Volume one out by the end of November. I’m sure that the original subscribers can comprehend the magnitude of this task. The original five issues amounted to 190 pages of 5 “by 8.5”, reduced type! | |
| VU-3D and the Tasman I/F | With some simple modifications you can get full size printer copies from the popular TS2068 ” VU-3D” program, using the TASMAN parallel printer interface. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| VU-Calc and the Tasman I/F | Here is a short program which will allow you to use your “80 Column” Printer to print a real spread sheet for presenting data (including tables you’ve already SAVEd) from the Psion Software program VU-CALC. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Watch Out For RFI | How to manage radio frequency interference with your computer. | |
| Welcome Back Memotech | Oxford Data is supplying Memotech hardware add-ons and Memotech MTX computer. | |
| What, We Worry? | Short, amusing piece about the three main individuals behind SyncWare News at the time: Tom Woods, Fred Nachbaur and Tom Bent. | |
| Who Won? | Gregory Harder, Denver, CO, came in first with Software LO-Res and John Byrne of Cookeville, TN, took second place with GET input program. In the 2068 corner, first prize went to John Nguyen of Louisville, KY, for submitting PIX FIX, and second prize went to Wes Brzozowski of Endicott, NY for his fully implemented 64 | Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| WINKJET1 Review | Review of William Pedersen’s printer driver for the Olivetti PR2300 inkjet. | Timex/Sinclair 2068 |
| Word Sinc II.5 & Wordfont: TS1000 Review | If you’re looking for a general use word processor program for home use, WORD SINC II.5 might just be for you. Although several people who have used the earlier versions of WORD SINC, including myself, did not care for the program, this adaptation has several features that make it worth buying. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| Wordsearch: A Comparison between the ZX80 and TS1000 | The differences as to how the two machines handle relational operators turned out to be the key to making the WORDSEARCH program operate successfully on the TS1000. In the process of translating from ZX80 Basic to TS1000 Basic, a number of “tricks” were discovered that allow successful conversion of programs between the two computers. | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| WRX 16 Hi-Res for the 1000 | For several years, ZX81/TS1000 owners have dreamed of a simple bit-mapped high-resolution system for their machines. The quest began with the appearance of “software-only” high-resolution packages, which offered an improvement over the crude 44×64 block pixels, but left much to be desired regarding precision and ease of use. Several manufacturers came out with hardware add-ons | Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
| ZX81 & QL Regulator Bug | Suggested solutions to power regulation problems in the ZX81/TS1000 and QL: add capacitors. | Sinclair QL, Timex/Sinclair 1000 |
SyncWare News was a more technical publication, printing many hardware articles by Fred Nachbaur, John Oliger and others.
They produced the magazine entirely on Timex Sinclair computers. They used Memotext on the TS 1000, MSCRIPT on the TS 2068 and QLWP on the QL.
Staff
- Thomas Woods, publisher
- Thomas J. Bent, associate editor and editor
- Jeffrey D. Moore, editor
- Fred Nachbaur, technical director
The magazine did not have a single office address. They split editorial offices between Moore, in Louisville, Ohio, and Bent, in Columbia, Maryland. Nachbaur was the Canadian contact. Woods’ address in Jefferson, New Hampshire, was listed for subscription, billing and ad artwork.
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