This is the Sunday, January 15th, 2023, meeting of the Timex/Sinclair Online User Group meeting. It’s hosted by David Anderson and Adam Trionfo.
You can find all of the Timex/Sinclair products discussed in this meeting and more at https://TimexSinclair.com/
Adam Trionfo is a computer polyglot but his main focus has been the Bally Astrocade, an early computer/game console. You can find Adam’s encyclopedic website about the Bally here: https://ballyalley.com/
Tim Swenson gave a demonstration of Sinclair QL emulators, including showing off some microdrive cartridges. Tim demonstrated sQLux, a QL for Unix, and SMSQ/E.
https://github.com/SinclairQL/sQLux
https://www.wlenerz.com/smsqe/
Charlie Ingley, in New Zealand, has designed a Microdrive replacement for ZX Spectrum and Sinclair QL users: https://vdrivezx.com/vdriveql/
Nigel Searle announced the QL in the US at the Boston Computer Society in May 1984: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xss0bsf9N7c
Of course, one can’t mention the Sinclair QL without mentioning its most famous user: Linus Torvalds.
João Diogo Ramos, of the LOAD ZX Spectrum museum in Portugal, told us about the upcoming Game Of The Year ceremony on January 29th (Sunday) at 15h00 London/Lisbon time. It will be streamed online, as in the two previous years. This year it’ll take place at the museum.
João also gave an impromptu virtual tour of the museum.
https://loadzx.com/en/
http://planetasinclair.blogspot.com/2023/01/os-nomeados-por-categoria-no-goty-2022.html
Jeff Burrell demonstrated his FPGA video generator solution, which runs parallel to the SCLD and displays TS 2068 video in full color and beautiful resolution.
Francois Lanciault, who attended the first ever meeting, rejoined us to see Tim’s presentation and told us about history with the Sinclair computers.
David Anderson gave an update on using a Windows computer and the FUSE and EightyOne emulators to preserve cassette tapes via a traditional tape player and Audacity.
https://fuse-emulator.sourceforge.net/
https://sourceforge.net/projects/eightyone-sinclair-emulator/
https://www.audacityteam.org/
https://github.com/shred/tzxtools
Carl Miles asked about some products for the TS 2068 he purchased from David Anderson via andertone.com.
And last, we continued in our discussion about restoring a TS 1000 for Adam. One day Adam will have the full power and glory of the TS 1000. Our discussion included how to preserve ZX81/TS1000 keyboard tails, including stiffening them with Kapton tape.
Gustavo told us before the meeting that 5,000 TS 2068 computers were imported to Argentina in the 1980s. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to that in the video.
You can learn more about these meetings, the Timex/Sinclair computers, hardware, software and accessories at https://timexsinclair.com.
You can sign up for meeting reminders and see the calendar of our upcoming meetings here:
https://www.timexsinclair.com/about/community/