Month: June 2021

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Sinclair ZX81

I’ve actually had this for a couple of weeks now but hadn’t got around to adding it to the site. I’ve still not got around to connecting it up yet either due to being busy with other projects. I don’t see me spending a huge amount of time actually using this one as the Spectrum was a far better computer, but it will certainly be interesting to see what limitations people had to deal with on the first home micros!

I was always fascinated with the keyboard on these when I was younger, it always looked kind of futuristic like some sort of touch screen device. I expect the reality of actually typing on it will be a very different experience from what I imagined.

The interface stuck out of the back of the is the 16K memory expansion. This was pretty much an essential addon due to the ZX81 only having 1KB on board. The sticky residue on the interface was from a previous owners attempt to tape the interface to their ZX81 due to it being extremely common that if you gave it the slightest nudge when powered on, the computer would crash and you would lose your work 🙂

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Philips CD Interactive

When I was younger I remember seeing a CD-i in a UK store named Comet. It was running an interactive encyclopedia on the demo unit and I remember navigating around and seeing videos of Whales and various other things. It seemed like magic at the time considering my other encyclopedia was a set of books with photos in it. After seeing this in the store I begged my parents for a CD-i for ages but they were not exactly cheap.

I never did get one back then but mainly because the PlayStation came out and my parents purchased one of those for me for my Christmas and Birthday present (Thank you!!!). But today this changes and I took delivery of a Philips CD-i 210. This is the unit that was less like a games console and more like a piece of Hi-Fi equipment.

The unit is in pretty good condition with just a few light scratch marks here and there. It also came with a selection of CD-i titles and some video CD’s which it can play since it has the optional Digital Video module (MPEG 1).

The only issue with it was the tray wasn’t ejecting but upon opening it I could see the drive belt for the drive was stretched and had come off the wheel. So I replaced this with a similar size belt and now all is good.

So I am fully aware the CD-i isn’t the best machine in the world but it’s an interesting one to have a play around with non the less. I will be on the lookout next for the peacekeeper light gun for the CD-i which is actually an interesting device since it is one of the few light guns that will actually work on modern TV’s. That is because it’s not technically a light gun, it’s actually closer related to a WiiMote where it has an infrared module that sits on the top of your TV and the gun uses that to track its relative position. I have actually come across a DIY project which looks like it will let you use WiiMotes as a controller on the CD-i so I may go down that route as it looks like a fun project.

Anyway I will do a full write up on the system after I have had some experience using it. I was also do a write up of the controller mod if I go down that route.