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No ZX Spectrum laptop

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  No ZX Spectrum laptop "James Harris" <james.harris.1@gmail.com> - 2015-09-06 11:19 +0100
    Re: No ZX Spectrum laptop deKay <nospam.andyk@lofi-gaming.nospam.org.uk> - 2015-09-06 18:00 +0000
    Re: No ZX Spectrum laptop AndyW <Andy@nojunqmail.com> - 2015-09-07 07:58 +0100
      Re: No ZX Spectrum laptop "James Harris" <james.harris.1@gmail.com> - 2015-09-07 18:37 +0100
        Re: No ZX Spectrum laptop AndyW <Andy@nojunqmail.com> - 2015-09-08 07:19 +0100
          Re: No ZX Spectrum laptop "dott.Piergiorgio" <dott.piergiorgio@gmail.com> - 2015-09-09 07:20 +0200
    Re: No ZX Spectrum laptop "Brian-Gaff" <briang1@blueyonder.co.uk> - 2015-09-07 08:33 +0100
      Re: No ZX Spectrum laptop "James Harris" <james.harris.1@gmail.com> - 2015-09-07 18:44 +0100
        Re: No ZX Spectrum laptop "Brian-Gaff" <briang1@blueyonder.co.uk> - 2015-09-08 09:29 +0100
          Re: No ZX Spectrum laptop "James Harris" <james.harris.1@gmail.com> - 2015-09-08 16:34 +0100
            Re: No ZX Spectrum laptop "Brian-Gaff" <briang1@blueyonder.co.uk> - 2015-09-09 11:54 +0100
              Re: No ZX Spectrum laptop "James Harris" <james.harris.1@gmail.com> - 2015-09-12 15:55 +0100
                Re: No ZX Spectrum laptop Duncan Snowden <duncan_s@talktalk.net> - 2015-09-13 17:46 +0100
          Re: No ZX Spectrum laptop "dott.Piergiorgio" <dott.piergiorgio@gmail.com> - 2015-09-09 07:38 +0200
          Re: No ZX Spectrum laptop AndyW <Andy@nojunqmail.com> - 2015-09-09 07:40 +0100
    Re: No ZX Spectrum laptop "Brian-Gaff" <briang1@blueyonder.co.uk> - 2015-09-10 09:23 +0100
      Re: No ZX Spectrum laptop "James Harris" <james.harris.1@gmail.com> - 2015-09-12 16:16 +0100
    Re: No ZX Spectrum laptop Marcos Cruz <null_email_so_use_my_contact_page@programandala.net> - 2015-09-19 19:41 +0000

#3952 — No ZX Spectrum laptop

With the Recreated ZX Spectrum aka bluetooth keyboard (of all things) 
and the ZX Spectrum Vega I am surprised that, to my knowledge, no one 
has come up with a ZX Spectrum laptop.

I am thinking of a machine which had the normal appearance of a laptop, 
i.e. with keyboard and screen and internal battery power, but where the 
innards behaved as a ZX Spectrum. As the Spectrum's display was of low 
resolution I expect that a suitable screen would not be expensive to 
add.

Imagine being able to carry and use the box anywhere and not have to 
plug it in to a TV.

James

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#3953

"James Harris" <james.harris.1@gmail.com> wrote:
> With the Recreated ZX Spectrum aka bluetooth keyboard (of all things) and
> the ZX Spectrum Vega I am surprised that, to my knowledge, no one has
> come up with a ZX Spectrum laptop.
> 
> I am thinking of a machine which had the normal appearance of a laptop,
> i.e. with keyboard and screen and internal battery power, but where the
> innards behaved as a ZX Spectrum. As the Spectrum's display was of low
> resolution I expect that a suitable screen would not be expensive to add.
> 
> Imagine being able to carry and use the box anywhere and not have to plug it in to a TV.
> 
> James

Ben Heck made a handheld one. That's pretty close.

-- 
Yup.

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#3954

On 06/09/2015 11:19, James Harris wrote:
> With the Recreated ZX Spectrum aka bluetooth keyboard (of all things)
> and the ZX Spectrum Vega I am surprised that, to my knowledge, no one
> has come up with a ZX Spectrum laptop.
>
> I am thinking of a machine which had the normal appearance of a laptop,
> i.e. with keyboard and screen and internal battery power, but where the
> innards behaved as a ZX Spectrum. As the Spectrum's display was of low
> resolution I expect that a suitable screen would not be expensive to add.
>
> Imagine being able to carry and use the box anywhere and not have to
> plug it in to a TV.

Simplest way would be to pick up an old cheap netbook, add a lightweight 
linux distro that boots directly into a Speccy emulator.
Some of the very old netbooks (EEPC 701 or 900) are available on ebay 
for peanuts. There is one going now for £29 on BuyItNow.
£30, an hour's work in installing the OS and software and then a day 
speccyfying the case with a decent speccy paintjob. Not sure how to 
speccyfy the keyboard, the keyboard is too low profile for zombie flesh 
keys.

I own several old netbooks including the 701, I have it running Speccy, 
NES, SNES, Atari St emulators and DOSBox.

Andy

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#3956

"AndyW" <Andy@nojunqmail.com> wrote in message 
news:55ed3584$0$3477$862e30e2@ngroups.net...
> On 06/09/2015 11:19, James Harris wrote:
>> With the Recreated ZX Spectrum aka bluetooth keyboard (of all things)
>> and the ZX Spectrum Vega I am surprised that, to my knowledge, no one
>> has come up with a ZX Spectrum laptop.
>>
>> I am thinking of a machine which had the normal appearance of a 
>> laptop,
>> i.e. with keyboard and screen and internal battery power, but where 
>> the
>> innards behaved as a ZX Spectrum. As the Spectrum's display was of 
>> low
>> resolution I expect that a suitable screen would not be expensive to 
>> add.
>>
>> Imagine being able to carry and use the box anywhere and not have to
>> plug it in to a TV.
>
> Simplest way would be to pick up an old cheap netbook, add a 
> lightweight linux distro that boots directly into a Speccy emulator.
> Some of the very old netbooks (EEPC 701 or 900) are available on ebay 
> for peanuts. There is one going now for £29 on BuyItNow.
> £30, an hour's work in installing the OS and software and then a day 
> speccyfying the case with a decent speccy paintjob. Not sure how to 
> speccyfy the keyboard, the keyboard is too low profile for zombie 
> flesh keys.

I wasn't thinking of this for my own use. I just wondered why no one had 
come up with a laptop version of the Spectrum.

While they are recreating the internals (which I would have thought 
could be done cheaply with an FPGA or an Xmos device or an Arm CPU 
running an emulator, especially if there was no TV out needed) I would 
have thought it would be cost effective enough to add a screen and 
battery.

James

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#3958

On 07/09/2015 18:37, James Harris wrote:

> I wasn't thinking of this for my own use. I just wondered why no one had
> come up with a laptop version of the Spectrum.

Money. The chances of payback is pretty low. unless it can be made for 
peanuts there is little profit to be made from old farts like us. I do 
my speccy-ing these days via Marvin on android.

Andy

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#3961

Il 08/09/2015 08:19, AndyW ha scritto:
> On 07/09/2015 18:37, James Harris wrote:
>
>> I wasn't thinking of this for my own use. I just wondered why no one had
>> come up with a laptop version of the Spectrum.
>
> Money. The chances of payback is pretty low. unless it can be made for
> peanuts there is little profit to be made from old farts like us. I do
> my speccy-ing these days via Marvin on android.

after watching some amateur astronomy field trip, mid-80s, I consider 
the Spectrum with a 5" CRT monitor and a (slight hacked) walkman a fully 
portable system... and an useful one. (in the pre-GPS days, having to be 
not much far from what equates Ordnance survey's marking stones/plates 
or similiar reference... the speccy has considerably reduced the 
scope-laying time (and, as a former PCI cadre, the little satisfaction 
of having introduced IT to rural Southern Italy people (whose, trust me, 
even mid-80s, can be rightly termed "peasants"...)

Best regards from Italy,
dott. Piergiorgio.

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#3955

Surely many emulators can do this for you in any case? Even when I was 
handling Z80, it ran on Laptops fine.
 Brian

-- 
From the Sofa of Brian Gaff Reply address is  active
"James Harris" <james.harris.1@gmail.com> wrote in message 
news:msh3sj$umq$1@dont-email.me...
> With the Recreated ZX Spectrum aka bluetooth keyboard (of all things) and 
> the ZX Spectrum Vega I am surprised that, to my knowledge, no one has come 
> up with a ZX Spectrum laptop.
>
> I am thinking of a machine which had the normal appearance of a laptop, 
> i.e. with keyboard and screen and internal battery power, but where the 
> innards behaved as a ZX Spectrum. As the Spectrum's display was of low 
> resolution I expect that a suitable screen would not be expensive to add.
>
> Imagine being able to carry and use the box anywhere and not have to plug 
> it in to a TV.
>
> James
> 

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#3957

"Brian-Gaff" <briang1@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message 
news:msjeg2$mtd$1@dont-email.me...

> Surely many emulators can do this for you in any case? Even when I was 
> handling Z80, it ran on Laptops fine.

I remember seeing a ZX Spectrum emulator running in a Java applet in a 
web browser on, IIRC, a Windows 98 PC. So speeds of emulators are not a 
problem!

BTW, Brian, why do you top post on Usenet? Still in email mode? :-(

James

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#3959

Its easier for me if people  top post in here due to the serial nature of 
reading with screenreaders.
 I think it is highly irritating to have to wade through loads of quoted 
text merely, in some cases to find the poster has said about three words as 
a reply.

Short of  using quotfix, which mucks up accessibility the  client I use only 
posts this way.

 In most cases people these days group threads by conversation and as the 
sub line is visible one can hardly need to quote at all unless you are such 
an infrequent user you get the  messages before expired when you download 
them.


Anyway, we have been here before and its not going to change, so...
 I had hoped that this was blindingly obvious... joke intended.
 Brian

-- 
From the Sofa of Brian Gaff Reply address is  active
"James Harris" <james.harris.1@gmail.com> wrote in message 
news:mskib5$4i4$1@dont-email.me...
>
> "Brian-Gaff" <briang1@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message 
> news:msjeg2$mtd$1@dont-email.me...
>
>> Surely many emulators can do this for you in any case? Even when I was 
>> handling Z80, it ran on Laptops fine.
>
> I remember seeing a ZX Spectrum emulator running in a Java applet in a web 
> browser on, IIRC, a Windows 98 PC. So speeds of emulators are not a 
> problem!
>
> BTW, Brian, why do you top post on Usenet? Still in email mode? :-(
>
> James
> 

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#3960

"Brian-Gaff" <briang1@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message 
news:msm66e$7h8$1@dont-email.me...

> Its easier for me if people  top post in here due to the serial nature 
> of reading with screenreaders.

OK

If replying to a long post do you still put all of your comments at the 
top? Or if you do intersperse your comments where they apply do you also 
put those ones above the piece of text you are replying to?

> I think it is highly irritating to have to wade through loads of 
> quoted text merely, in some cases to find the poster has said about 
> three words as a reply.

Agreed. That is *one* of the irritations about the way people misuse 
Usenet. Nothing personal but guess what another one is...!


> Short of  using quotfix, which mucks up accessibility the  client I 
> use only posts this way.

OK

> In most cases people these days group threads by conversation and as 
> the sub line is visible one can hardly need to quote at all unless you 
> are such an infrequent user you get the  messages before expired when 
> you download them.

OK

> Anyway, we have been here before and its not going to change, so...

I though that might be the case. AFAICS people who place three words at 
the end of a long quote will carry on doing what they do too. :-(

James

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#3964

Chuckle, but of course i am stuck with just a few readers that screenreaders 
work with. The main issue for me is that of the serial access and poor ways 
to edit the quoted text in screenreaders as well. its really not easy when 
no mouse is used. Many can just run down with the mouse highlighting lines 
as they go, etc, and can see when the reply is coming up when scrolling. 
Blind have to listen to all the quotes, or cursor up and down to find the 
bit burried in quotes that is new to them.
 Its a totally different ethos. Imagine the mouse had not been invented and 
your screen only had a couple of lines.
 Brian

-- 
From the Sofa of Brian Gaff Reply address is  active
"James Harris" <james.harris.1@gmail.com> wrote in message 
news:msmv3b$64d$1@dont-email.me...
> "Brian-Gaff" <briang1@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message 
> news:msm66e$7h8$1@dont-email.me...
>
>> Its easier for me if people  top post in here due to the serial nature of 
>> reading with screenreaders.
>
> OK
>
> If replying to a long post do you still put all of your comments at the 
> top? Or if you do intersperse your comments where they apply do you also 
> put those ones above the piece of text you are replying to?
>
>> I think it is highly irritating to have to wade through loads of quoted 
>> text merely, in some cases to find the poster has said about three words 
>> as a reply.
>
> Agreed. That is *one* of the irritations about the way people misuse 
> Usenet. Nothing personal but guess what another one is...!
>
>
>> Short of  using quotfix, which mucks up accessibility the  client I use 
>> only posts this way.
>
> OK
>
>> In most cases people these days group threads by conversation and as the 
>> sub line is visible one can hardly need to quote at all unless you are 
>> such an infrequent user you get the  messages before expired when you 
>> download them.
>
> OK
>
>> Anyway, we have been here before and its not going to change, so...
>
> I though that might be the case. AFAICS people who place three words at 
> the end of a long quote will carry on doing what they do too. :-(
>
> James
> 

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#3967

"Brian-Gaff" <briang1@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message 
news:msp32k$dig$1@dont-email.me...
> Chuckle, but of course i am stuck with just a few readers that 
> screenreaders work with. The main issue for me is that of the serial 
> access and poor ways to edit the quoted text in screenreaders as well. 
> its really not easy when no mouse is used. Many can just run down with 
> the mouse highlighting lines as they go, etc, and can see when the 
> reply is coming up when scrolling. Blind have to listen to all the 
> quotes, or cursor up and down to find the bit burried in quotes that 
> is new to them.
> Its a totally different ethos. Imagine the mouse had not been invented 
> and your screen only had a couple of lines.
> Brian

If you are registered blind then I am sure that editing would be very 
different. I guess that it's more about telling where you are in the 
text than the absence of the mouse per se. I don't use the mouse a lot. 
In fact, I think I do all my navigating around and editing of Usenet 
posts with the keyboard. But then it's easy for me to see the context 
and where the cursor is, etc. (There is a key combination that will send 
a post but I deliberately don't use it. It's too easy to send a post 
before being ready. Sending is the one thing I stick to using the mouse 
for.)

When you mentioned having only a couple of screen lines it reminded me 
of a computer from yesteryear. I had to think for a bit to work out 
which one it was but then remembered: the NewBrain:

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grundy_NewBrain

It had a Z80 processor, IIRC a 2-line display, and was one of the first 
machines to run from internal batteries. That portability was quite a 
big advance at the time. It could be connected to a monitor and then 
would render a much bigger screen. The integrated display was just for 
working on the move.

James

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#3973

There's a Sinclair connection with the NewBrain, of course. But reading
that Wikipedia article, I had no idea it was so capable. I'd always
assumed it was on the ZX81/Jupiter Ace sort of level, probably going on
its looks. But it actually seems to have been a serious machine for its
day, keyboard notwithstanding. Then again, if you wanted portability,
it had everything else beaten hollow.

Expensive, though. 229GBP was a *lot* in 1982. That's over fifty quid
more than a 48K Speccy.

On Sat, 12 Sep 2015 15:55:46 +0100
"James Harris" <james.harris.1@gmail.com> wrote:

> When you mentioned having only a couple of screen lines it reminded
> me of a computer from yesteryear. I had to think for a bit to work
> out which one it was but then remembered: the NewBrain:
> 
>   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grundy_NewBrain

-- 
Duncan Snowden.

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#3962

Il 08/09/2015 10:29, Brian-Gaff ha scritto:
> Its easier for me if people  top post in here due to the serial nature of
> reading with screenreaders.
>   I think it is highly irritating to have to wade through loads of quoted
> text merely, in some cases to find the poster has said about three words as
> a reply.

because I tend to reply immediately below the single topic, I wonder if 
your screenreader use different voices for quotes and replies....

> Short of  using quotfix, which mucks up accessibility the  client I use only
> posts this way.

for example, how is now my voice ? ;) (I'm a definitively amused, 
because I'm deaf, but not mute, and my voice indeed sounds a bit 
mechanical... an useful thing in dealing with advertising/telemarketing 
calls and like annoyances, by the way)

>   In most cases people these days group threads by conversation and as the
> sub line is visible one can hardly need to quote at all unless you are such
> an infrequent user you get the  messages before expired when you download
> them.

I think that my quoting is a "natural" one, because I guess sounds like 
an actual conversation/debate...


> Anyway, we have been here before and its not going to change, so...
>   I had hoped that this was blindingly obvious... joke intended.

LOL, as written above, the joke about people whose don't want to discuss 
(as in dealing with annoying telemarketing calls) being the worst deaf 
rightly applies...

Best regards from Italy,
dott. Piergiorgio.

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#3963

On 08/09/2015 09:29, Brian-Gaff wrote:
> Its easier for me if people  top post in here due to the serial nature of
> reading with screenreaders.
>   I think it is highly irritating to have to wade through loads of quoted
> text merely, in some cases to find the poster has said about three words as
> a reply.


A: Top posting

Q: what's the most annoying thing on usenet?

:-)

Andy

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#3965

Anyway, as I was saying before the off topic bits, the ability to run 
emulation and still have a Windows laptop is surely better then attempting 
to make a full speccy laptop. Withe the best good will in the world, the 
market for a dedicated Spectrum laptop would by now be so small that to make 
one the investment costs would never get covered I'd imagine. It was hard 
enough with the Sam machine as we all know. I was quite heavily involved in 
the funding and testing of development versions of that, but I do not regret 
it at all. I learned a lot.
 Back then of course i still hade sight enough to use such things.

 Brian

-- 
From the Sofa of Brian Gaff Reply address is  active
"James Harris" <james.harris.1@gmail.com> wrote in message 
news:msh3sj$umq$1@dont-email.me...
> With the Recreated ZX Spectrum aka bluetooth keyboard (of all things) and 
> the ZX Spectrum Vega I am surprised that, to my knowledge, no one has come 
> up with a ZX Spectrum laptop.
>
> I am thinking of a machine which had the normal appearance of a laptop, 
> i.e. with keyboard and screen and internal battery power, but where the 
> innards behaved as a ZX Spectrum. As the Spectrum's display was of low 
> resolution I expect that a suitable screen would not be expensive to add.
>
> Imagine being able to carry and use the box anywhere and not have to plug 
> it in to a TV.
>
> James
> 

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#3968

"Brian-Gaff" <briang1@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message 
news:msreio$qc0$1@dont-email.me...
> Anyway, as I was saying before the off topic bits, the ability to run 
> emulation and still have a Windows laptop is surely better then 
> attempting to make a full speccy laptop. Withe the best good will in 
> the world, the market for a dedicated Spectrum laptop would by now be 
> so small that to make one the investment costs would never get covered 
> I'd imagine.

I don't know. Who would have thought that a ZX Spectrum would be viable 
today, even the Vega with so few keys. And yet they expect it to sell!

I was thinking more, though, about the recreated one. It seems so good a 
copy that there's not much added to the original. (Some inbuilt 
software, different ROM images, maybe and, of all things, bluetooth so 
that the old dead-flesh keyboard which was much criticised at the time 
as a keyboard can be used for the very purpose of typing into other 
devices!)

If the recreated one will sell then how about adding a battery and a 
screen? (Rhetorical, already discussed. Just reiterating my thought 
processes.) A 256 by 192 screen has very low resolution and might be 
very cheap. In fact, as pixels are so small today such a screen could be 
too small and it might be cheaper to source a screen that has double or 
four times the resolution.

IMO the main problems with what you suggest, using a normal laptop, are 
1) the cost and 2) the lack of a preprinted keyboard. An Arm-based 
emulator should be much cheaper than a normal laptop. And to program the 
Spectrum in Basic one really needs to see what keys result in which 
keywords and symbols.

> It was hard enough with the Sam machine as we all know. I was quite 
> heavily involved in the funding and testing of development versions of 
> that, but I do not regret it at all. I learned a lot.
> Back then of course i still hade sight enough to use such things.

I hadn't heard of the Sam machine. From looking it up it looks expensive 
compared to the Spectrum. I don't know if it was or not.

James

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#3980

En/Je/On 2015-09-06, James Harris <james.harris.1@gmail.com>
escribió/skribis/wrote:

> I am thinking of a machine which had the normal appearance of a laptop, 
> i.e. with keyboard and screen and internal battery power

> Imagine being able to carry and use the box anywhere and not have to
> plug it in to a TV.

I use the Fuse emulator on Debian. It's not what you mean, but I find it
much more useful: It's almost the same feeling of a portable Spectrum,
and it's not _only_ a Spectrum.

First I used an Asus Eee I bought second-hand years ago and customized a
bit:

http://programandala.net/en.picture.2010.11.13.zx_spectrum_128.html

Recently I'm using a home-made portable Raspberry Pi as my main machine:

http://programandala.net/es.computadora.raspesis.html

So I carry the Spectrum and use it a lot anywhere anyway :)

Regards,

-- 
Marcos Cruz
http://programandala.net

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