ZX81 worth

For experts to discuss very technical stuff and newbies to ask why the Spectrum they bought off ebay doesn't work.
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MrPixel
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ZX81 worth

Post by MrPixel »

so i found a zx81 on ebay for 44 dollars. 2 things

can i upgrade the memory?

i've only used emulated ones. is it really that slow?
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PeterJ
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Re: ZX81 worth

Post by PeterJ »

Hi [mention]MrPixel[/mention]

The original. ZX81 came with just 1K of memory, but could be upgraded to 16K with a Ram Pack which plugged into the back. You would also need an.old style TV that accepted analogue signals, a tape player, cassette tapes, and software.

The speed question was answered on the post you asked a couple of days ago.

As you are a beginner I would stick with an emulator, and buy hardware if you really get into it.

Post the eBay link here and we can take a look.
MrPixel
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Re: ZX81 worth

Post by MrPixel »

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RMartins
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Re: ZX81 worth

Post by RMartins »

Seems a bit high, since it does not include the power supply or cables.

Optionally you can go for something like this:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Timex-SINCLAIR ... 3174458344

It's a licensed version made by Timex.

NOTE: it was made in Portugal :D
Ralf
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Re: ZX81 worth

Post by Ralf »

The questions is what are you going to do with it? What do you need it for?

If you want to do some programming, stick to emulation at the moment. You will see if you enjoy it and want to do more of it.
If you are going to write down something more serious you will end working on PC anyway as it's simply much more comfortable.

But maybe you just want to be an user who wants to have some genuine experience with physical touching of old rubber keys ;)
Or you are an hardware collector. In such case buy it, why not?
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Ast A. Moore
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Re: ZX81 worth

Post by Ast A. Moore »

I think the bigger question should be: How are you going to hook it up to an NTCS TV?
Every man should plant a tree, build a house, and write a ZX Spectrum game.

Author of A Yankee in Iraq, a 50 fps shoot-’em-up—the first game to utilize the floating bus on the +2A/+3,
and zasm Z80 Assembler syntax highlighter.
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Seven.FFF
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Re: ZX81 worth

Post by Seven.FFF »

I picked up my TS1000 for $25, including a vintage 16K RAMpack.

There are some modern additions you can buy for it, including a RAM/SD card interface, and a hi-res/color/HDMI/RAM interface. This would drive the price u quite a bit. Also, it's likely that you would probably end up doing any coding for it in an emulator, because working on the original hardware would still a bit painful and limiting. The touch sensitive keyboard is rather slow and frustrating for data entry.
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beanz
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Re: ZX81 worth

Post by beanz »

Yeah TS1000 are 10 a penny...you can pick one up for $15 easy on ebay. (and they have 2k rather than the ZX81s 1k)
Nomad
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Re: ZX81 worth

Post by Nomad »

If you really want to go down a rabbit hole...

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLFIBQ1 ... ep&index=1[/media]

Figure you would come out the other side poorer but either destroyed or have a deep understanding of vintage hardware, troubleshooting, electronics, low level systems programming, applications programming, communication protocol.

The Timex machines are going to be your best bet - more units available, more chance of finding books, magazines in your local area. Not having to mess with PAL/NTSC conversion.
Spoiler
pray you don't have to mess with SECAM :lol:
Another option would be to go down the MSX rabbit hole - you would get a z80, but depending on the model you could luck out and get a very high end machine with tons of ram, and peripherals or a potato.. that is the luck of the draw with MSX. At least it would be NTSC. On the plus side MSX was much more likely to work out of the box compared to say S-100 bus stuff. The big issue in US is trying to find parts, books. MSX standard never really got a lot of love in UK/US sadly.

Like others have said, Timex makes sense because that was the model that got the widest release in your neck of the woods, that did not require a great deal of know how to use.
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beanz
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Re: ZX81 worth

Post by beanz »

btw,

In case you didn't know about this item it's cheap and gives composite output on the ZX81/TS1000 (and ZX80). I've put these in all my units (6 or so) and it gives a great composite output for a great price.

https://www.sellmyretro.com/offer/detai ... -zx81-3712
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