As if by magic (or perhaps simply coincidence) it seems that Papaya Labs have been looking into the issue of powering some CF cards from the ZX PSU. I actually knew this, but neglected to mention it in my previous post. Yes, I'm slack. Live with it. Anyway, some research has gone on, and with a little constructive wiring on the CF adapter it's easily possible. Innit marvelous.

It seems odd considering how popular these devices are becoming, but when I first got my DivIDE board I was a little confused about how to use it. That seems silly now of course, but I'm a software engineer - hardware isn't really my forte. So it's good to see a kind of manual available for the thing over on divide.cz. It's a little light, but then there's not much to it really - currently there's some detail of how to use the hardware itself, and a little on using FATWare (arguably the most popular of the firmware options). There are a couple things i would take issue with, for example CF adapters not needing power, as some do, but on the whole it's a good place to point people to if they have "FAQ"s. Good show.

Just a very quick pointer (while I await the compilation of some code) to Gasman's blog about the upcoming Oxford Spectrum Meet. It's like the #ukscene pubmeets but specifically for the Spectrum scene, and not specific to the demoscene. It's planned for October 20th, and Oxford is fairly simple to get to. I may well be attending, but don't let that put you off. Details on G's blog.

There are two Wikis that I know of that cater to the ZX community. One of them is the ZX Spectrum Technical Wiki, the aim of which is to feature a load of technical information. About the ZX. Oddly enough. It's a little light on content at the moment, but what's there is good stuff.
On the other hand if you're a Russian reader you'll be more interesting in the Russian ZX Wiki, which is chock-full of useful information. And it's been massively updated recently too, with most of the changes and additions coming from ZXDN and Alone Coder. Quite handily, it's actually rather readable when pumped roughly through Google translate, so go have a snoop. You may just learn something.

Due to being busy with non-scene things (and also due to being slack (but I know where it's at)), I've completely failed to mention that the MiniGame Compo has been running, and the 1k results are out. Of the 7 entries, ZX prods came in 4th and joint 5th. For now tho' there's the 2k gamepack to download and try out, but with only 1 ZX entry - the voting is open so see what you think.

I don't have a Nintendo DS. I have no intention of getting one (that's before the fact that I now have to ask permission before I can spend any money on anything). So that's my excuse for not noticing a new release (v0.3) of SpeccyDS, the ZX emulator for the... Nintendo DS. Yes it came out a month ago, and no I'm sure those people who own the machine don't mind - they probably already have it if they know what's good for them. There's a bundle of changes, including a new GUI and some speed-ups, and importantly the Z80 core has had a fix to the CPI instruction. Lovely.

The latest beta version of DSP, the multi-machine + ZX emulator has been released. In general there's not a huge amount that will affect those using it to emulate just a ZX (apart from a ROM-load issue). Interestingly tho', support has been added for the PZX file format, which is a proposed simplified alternative to the complex TZX format, and also support has been added for a couple more TZX blocks. I'd say it's worth trying out if you're considering using the .PZX format. Yes.

I'm posting this mainly out of interest than it being anything specifically useful. As part of my webcheck routine I monitor Russell Kay's Xe03 Development Blog, where he details his work on porting Xe03 to the ZX. What's interesting about the latest post is that it kinda harks back to the old days of software development... if you need a tool, write it. These days most tools are available already, and do everything you need, but it's interesting to see that Russell's approach to his current assembler not having the features he requires is to write a new one. I don't think it's something I'd undertake, I would just stick with what I had and make the most of it (especially when it comes to assemblers), but maybe that's just me.

This morning it dawned on me that the world was still waiting for me to put up the non-demo ZX releases from Sundown 2007, so they're now all on Demozoo - two demos, four music tracks and one graphic entry in total. There are two more demos in the pipeline - the third-place Machined by 4D+Triebkraft, and the out-of-compo Sexy by Simbols and Milytia, which will be up as soon as their final releases arrive.

Obviously a result of almost not having a Chaos Constructions at all in 2007, the second party from the organisers of the recent St. Petersburg has been announced. From the description of Chaos Constructions Hackaround (or $CCH7 for short) it sounds a little like a sub-subject (!?) of the scene. Often at demoparties (at leas the ones I've been to) you get a section of people sharing their hardware hacks, and it's these people that will be most interested in the party, which is taking place at the end of November. The site doesn't specifically mention the ZX, but considering the most popular clone is often seen as a hacked machine (the lovely Pentagon) then I wouldn't be surprised if some Speccy-related stuff makes an appearance. There will also be some seminars - about hackery.