Books and manuals

[SparkyNZ]

Where is the best place to find old Zx Spectrum programming books online (as PDF) ?

Is there a good "all rounder" book that covers most info on the speccy from graphics to machine code etc?

[ParadigmShifter]

Dunno why you'd need a book when you have teh interwebs?

Jonathan Cauldwell for beginners

https://jonathan-cauldwell.itch.io/how- ... trum-games

This site is very good for cross-platform but is a bit more advanced(at first anyway, JC goes into some advanced stuff later on)

https://www.chibiakumas.com/z80/ZXSpectrum.php

Always open site when programming Z80:

http://z80-heaven.wikidot.com/instructions-set

If you need timing info this is most straightforward I found

https://map.grauw.nl/resources/z80instr.php

EDIT: Modern sites are going to be better because they will assume you are developing on a PC and using an emulator so they won't explain how to poke opcodes into memory using a basic program and such. Old books not that useful (apart from Rodney Zaks of course)

[Bedazzle]

https://vtrd.in/z80ops.html

[ParadigmShifter]

https://vtrd.in/z80ops.html

Yeah that's an example of a site that is not very good for beginners, the TRS80 calc site is best for instruction set and the last one I posted is good for opcodes/timing

[PeterJ]

@Joefish compiled a good guide to the Z80 instruction set. More details here:

viewtopic.php?p=81236&hilit=Z80#p81236

[ParadigmShifter]

They look like the kind of thing that would be useful if you were writing a disassembler/monitor or an assembler.

Anyway I suggest you check out my links in the first post if you want something more useful.

[SparkyNZ]

Thanks. I will check out your links and use them as a reference. To answer your first question.. The reason I asked about .PDF files is that I do quite like looking at the vintage books.. It's all about nostalgia - it takes me back to the 80's. I miss those days of ring-bound manuals.. Although - to be quite honest - I used to struggle back in the day with only books and no peer support. I do have a good Z80 reference that I printed out.. I'm actually from the CBM/6502 background so I know very little about the speccy's hardware and ULA. That's the real reason I was looking for a good book from back in the day. I know the Compute series of books were pretty good in the day.

[PeterJ]

@SparkyNZ,

Welcome to the forums.

There are loads of PDF scans of old books on our main website. Just go to advanced search and change machine type to ZX Spectrum and Genre to paperback books.

What sort of experience have you got of the Spectrum and general coding?

A couple to get you started:

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/2 ... e_Beginner

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/2 ... e_Language

The Jonathan Cauldwell book mentioned earlier is excellent, but does have a few typos. Don't let that put you off though.

[SparkyNZ]

@SparkyNZ,

Welcome to the forums.

There are loads of PDF scans of old books on our main website. Just go to advanced search and change machine type to ZX Spectrum and Genre to paperback books.

What sort of experience have you got of the Spectrum and general coding?

A couple to get you started:

I only have experience with the Spectrum by playing some games on my friend's years ago. I've done some 6502 and 68000 assembly coding in the past. I never did get the chance to play with the Z80. I've been coding (not games) for 40 years but I do like to dabble with systems I missed back in the day.

I wouldn't really know where to start coding on the ZX. To be quite honest.. I fancy borrowing some software sprites from some speccy games and using them on a Vic 20. I hope that doesn't offend too many people here. My first computer was the Vic 20 and one thing that I always liked about the Speccy more than the C64 was the use of the hires graphics on the speccy. They were always more detailed in my opinion. The C64 tended to use chunkier multi-colour mode in a lot of its games. So yeah - the speccy graphics may be nice to see on the Vic. I certainly don't have grandiose plans - just dabbling and having a bit of fun.

I was lucky enough to find a memory layout for Nodes of Yesod.. so I thought it would be fun to grab the spaceman and put him onto the Vic

I'll check out those PDF links and see what else I can find. I wouldn't even mind having a go a typing in some BASIC programs on the speccy too.. but I think I'd rather type listings out letter for letter rather than fight with the command shortcuts on the speccy keyboard etc.. So yeah.. just trying to find my way and experience nostalgia in a few different camps. I really like using CBMPrgStudio with the Vic - its nice to use a modern IDE and then run the code on an emulator. Not sure if there's anything similar for the speccy but it would be nice if there was/is ?

[g0blinish]

for opcodes I am using anothher tool:
http://g0blinish.ucoz.ru/pb/z80i_09.zip

[PeterJ]

@SparkyNZ,

I think you may find the original ZX Spectrum User Guide useful. It's exceedingly well written. I can't find a PDF of version 3, but this is version two:

http://www.retro8bitcomputers.co.uk/Con ... amming.pdf

For an IDE for BASIC programming, take a look at BasinC:

https://arda.kisafilm.org/blog/?page_id=848&lang=en

https://arda.kisafilm.org/blog/?cat=13&lang=en

[SparkyNZ]

For an IDE for BASIC programming, take a look at BasinC:

This is great!! Just been typing in some programs from the Speccy manual! Hehe. I feel like a big kid. Thanks for that! That will help me understand the Speccy's graphics etc.

Funnily enough.. I don't have my regular computer setup with me at the moment - I'm using a laptop - it feels a bit like using a Speccy lol

[SparkyNZ]

For an IDE for BASIC programming, take a look at BasinC:

The only thing that frustrates me with BasinC is that I can't figure out how to break a line up.



I tried a 1-line program on page 121 of the user manual. I just wanted to get rid of the colons and split it up onto a number of lines but the editor is fighting me trying to enforce syntax etc. I can't find anything in the options that seems to help. Is this just the way it is? I hope not - seems really cool otherwise.