Thread: Zx81
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Old 4th May 2020, 4:12 pm   #322
SiriusHardware
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Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Newcastle, Tyne and Wear, UK.
Posts: 11,482
Default Re: Zx81

I stand corrected - I was thinking in any case that by indulging in my usual fetish for optocouplers, the stick could turn on the five opto leds fed from a common supply and through a common return, and the opto outputs could be across any key / row intersection desired, no matter whereabouts in the row / column matrix they might be. Add a bit of switching and you can 'set' the output matrix to match the keys used on a few different games.

I can't remember if the '81 ever came to have a de facto standard joystick, in the way that the 'Kempston' became one of two standards - the other being the Interface 2 standard - on the Spectrum.

My 'Other' ZX81, the one which is suffering from weak UHF output, is in a full sized third party 'Dktronics' enclosure / keyboard - in fact I 'rescued' it from a fellow forum member precisely because it had that rather uncommon form factor. It's in really nice condition as well.

The modern replica replacement keyboard membranes are apparently a lot better than the originals, in so far as any membrane keypad can ever be good, of course.

Last edited by SiriusHardware; 4th May 2020 at 4:20 pm.
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