Bunch of Tools
	I'll quickly mention here some tools that you may like to check out. They've all been updated, it would seem. First up I notice that Z80 (the cross-assembler, not the emulator) has been updated to version 4.04. Looks like it's mainly a minor bug-fix release. WOS has reported that another cross-assembler, ZCAV2 has been updated, and now features support for all undocumented opcodes. Should I also mention that Virtual TRD has posted a few iS-DOS utilities, including... an assembler. So, this bunch of news does have a theme. If you're looking for something to do with these assemblers, then (tho' it's not demo-related) Mihai Novitchi has uploaded the source to Manic Miner onto his homepage (which currently has very little else on it). According to follow-up posts on CSS, it compiles nicely with Z80 into a playable .SNA. Sweet.
	[icabod] - 23/04/2002 22:26

	ASCii Party-place
	In case you're thinking of going to the upcoming ASCII'02 party (which takes place in a few days time), you may find a map useful. You can go grab one from POS.
	[icabod] - 23/04/2002 22:05

	Demotopia update
	The latest in our series of "Gasman's been updating Demotopia again" posts. Not so many this time, but we mustn't be too greedy. Gas has other things to do too, you know.
	[icabod] - 23/04/2002 21:59

	Sprinter Poll - Features
	Well there's a new poll up on the Peters Plus page, again allowing you to decide the future direction of the machine. The title of the poll is "Which feature of Sprinter is most important to you?" I'd advise that before you select from the options (Architecture Flexibility, ZX Compatibility, Graphics, Stereo, Standard Data Formats, and Usage of periphery), you check out the forum for details of what each option actually means. Personally? I'd say that ZX compatibility is the lowest importance. It's handy, but we already have Spectrums for that. I'm gonna flip a coin on "Architecture" and "Periphery". I think they're the two things that the community will find trickiest to do without developer support. Just my opinion, of coz.
	[icabod] - 23/04/2002 21:56

	Happy 20!
	According to a bunch of other ZX sites, today the ZX Spectrum is 20 years old. So who am I to argue? Happy birthday!
	[icabod] - 23/04/2002 19:29

	El Trastero moves
	I've had a note to say that the URL of "El Trastero del Spectrum" has changed. It's now hosted over on speccy.org, a site I should really have noticed earlier. I've also been reminded that for those people who don't actually know Zilog it may be difficult for you to get hold of the divIDE40 kit. So in the interests of sanity, you can have his email addy. If you contact me for it. I'm deciding not to put up people's email addresses unless they authorise it. Spam's a nasty thing.
	[icabod] - 23/04/2002 00:26

	Utilities for MB02
	Here's news of a couple tools (insert joke about members of RA here). No silly. These are tools for the MB02, that schweet disk interface for the ZX. First up is a Flash utility for... uhm... flashing something on your MB02, perhaps. I really can't tell as the page is cleverly in Czech. Or Slovak. I dunno. Know of a translator which'll handle these languages? Let me know. Anyway, you can grab this tool along with a few others from here. I also got word from z00m that another version of TAP2MBD has come out, fixing an image-corruption bug that was found. There's still a couple issues apparently, but they're being worked on. In the meantime, you can click here to grab v1.1 Alpha.
	[icabod] - 23/04/2002 00:12

	Doxy 98 old news
	It's taken a little while for anyone to notice, but there's a mention on the ESA webpage that there's been a bug in a released version of the demo "The Last 48". The bugged release came out at Doxycon'98, which was ooh, ages ago. You can grab a fixed version from their site.
	[icabod] - 23/04/2002 00:01

	More Demotopia Demos
	Ooh, Gasman has been busy. You can tell as he's just posted another 35-or-so demos onto Demotopia, surely the most complete ZX demo archive on the 'Net (and I think there's still a couple missing). I won't bore you with what's new. You can see for yourself here.
	[icabod] - 22/04/2002 23:57

	Retro Computer Mart 5
	If you need another fix of Retro zine-age (and haven't already subscribed to Retro Review or SUC-Session), then you could always check out the latest of Shaun's "Retro Computer Mart" articles. This one covers a bit about RR actually, along with some stuff about a ZX81 clone, C64's, and some information about a "Retro Computer Show" here in the UK, being held sometime in June. If you're in the Cheshire area it could be worth a visit. It's always nice to have a day out.
	[icabod] - 19/04/2002 19:41

	Demotopia Update
	Only three days after the last update, Demotopia has grown in size again, with a set of 26 new demos. Like last time, there's a bunch of them in TRDOS format only, but we all have systems that can handle that, right? I won't list the additions here. You can go there yourself to find that out.
	[icabod] - 19/04/2002 19:34

	UnrealSpeccy for Slow People
	A little mention that there's a new version of UnrealSpeccy released. Or rather, it's an alternative version. The site says it's an "optimized edition of unreal speccy for slow computers", and gives a sample spec of a P100 with EGA graphics. So if you're one of the unfortunate ones who doesn't have a shit-hot machine, this could be your saviour.
	[icabod] - 19/04/2002 19:30

	Sprinter Sound Poll Results
	Yes, the poll for which sound-system you'd prefer on the Sprinter is in, and you can check the results over at the Peters Plus General Forum. Alternatively, you can see the results here: 39.1% : Sprinter's sound system (16bit stereo) 30.4% : AY sound 21.7% : General Sound card sound 6.5% : Sound of another card with DAC 2.2% : Sound isn't important for me There's a comment in the forum from the Sprinter manufacturers, and although it's not the most popular choice the developers of the General Sound have been contacted about possibly producing a card for the machine.
	[icabod] - 19/04/2002 19:22

	Notes
	Happily there's not much news at the moment, which is handy for me as I really don't feel like writing loads. divIDE40 : I got an email from Zilog a little after I posted the previous news about this device. For some added info, it "makes from your common ZX (or clone, it's compatible fully) a R80-emulator-like system". Sounds neat. The price is 600 CZK (about 15 USD). TAP2MDB : This handy tool has been upped to "v1.0 Stable". There's been a few minor changes along with MBD verification. Grab the new version here. C'ya.
	[icabod] - 18/04/2002 20:46

	Demotopia Update
	A note to mention that a bunch of demos have been added to Demotopia. 30 of them to be precise. This seems to be mainly a follow-up to the announcement that TRDOS images will now be provided on the site. I'll leave you to get there and find out what's new.
	[icabod] - 16/04/2002 21:42

	SUC-Session Un-SUCcessful?
	Got a mail from Fbi about the recent translation of SUC-Session into English. It seems that most new subscribers are from other European countries than the UK (Hungary, Portugal, etc). It's curious, as this is prolly the longest-running of the ZX 'zines. Now I will admit that I've not subscribed yet, but that's purely due to me being a lazy slackarse (just ask the guys from Retro Review - it took me ages to subscribe to that). It's actually on my "to-do" list. Anyway, if you've not checked out the 'zine yet, have a look. You can download the first English issue for free, so it can't hurt. The second issue will be released soon. Oh and I should mention that subscription fee's are accepted in other currency's that Euros - I work it out to be about 10ukp for a yearly subscription, unless my calculator hand slipped. Bargain.
	[icabod] - 16/04/2002 21:38

	Retro Review 3 preview
	A post has appeared on the Retro Review homepage giving some information on what's going to be in the next issue. So far the most interesting thing (IMHO) is the guide to writing an emulator. I've seen a couple guides on this subject before (one on the homepage of Marat Fayzullin, who seems to do nothing but write emulators, and once maintained the CSS FAQ). It'll be interesting to see if the RR-series gives a different perspective or not.
	[icabod] - 16/04/2002 21:25

	divIDE 4.0
	In a very short post to the X-board, Zilog gave out some information on his project, divIDE. Basically it would seem that v4.0 of this IDE interface is complete. I guess. Schemes and things are available if you follow the links.
	[icabod] - 16/04/2002 21:17

	Game On - A retro roadshow
	I just read about an interesting roadshow/event that's starting here in the UK on May 16th, and then travelling around the world, calling at Paris, Helsinki, Tokyo, and random-America, all over the next two years. The show is called "Game On", and it's a "cultural exhibition" on the history of games. This means that technically, the Spectrum should feature - after all, it was one of the first affordable home computers, bringing games to a mass market. Kinda. So, it looks like it could be interesting. All we need now is a similar show detailing the history of the demoscene. Perhaps as the scenes are closely related, demos will get a mention in this show? Nah, prolly not.
	[icabod] - 16/04/2002 21:01

	ASCii 02 - in the air
	There's a couple bits of news about the upcoming ASCII'02 party. First up, there's a new set of rules, slightly updated. You can check out v3.01 here. Secondly, and more worryingly, it seems that at the moment there's no party-place. The party was to be held in a school, but they've changed their minds and decided they don't want the place filled with demo enthusiasts. But fear not, Himik is still "in talks", and should be able to arrange another place.
	[icabod] - 16/04/2002 20:36

	RealSpec, RZX, and newRS
	Ooh, there's been an interesting update over on the Ramsoft/RealSpectrum homepage. To start with there's news that beta 12 should be released in a few days time. I'm looking forward to it, as it's my personal "emu-of-choice". This will be "followed by a number of new builds", including a win32 build... nope, not winRS (which is still in development), but a version that'll work in WinNT/2000/XP. Very handy for me. Also quite handy is an upcoming linux port, as I've recently installed SuSE on my PC. There'll also be a special version featuring RZX, a system to allow recording of input, useful for game competitions. But there's also a little controversy with this subject, as you can see if you follow comp.sys.sinclair. I don't really know the history of it all, so I'll leave that to Dunny, [1, 2, 3]. From a quick glance, perhaps the RZX support isn't so complete just yet. Ramsoft's RZX format is available here Finally, there's a mention of a completely new RS-project, with absolutely no details as to what it is. Guess we'll just have to wait.
	[icabod] - 13/04/2002 18:13

	Sprinter FAQ update
	Another update on the Peters site, this time a large FAQ update. New details on the General FAQ include a list of software that's available for the machine, details of postage to Europe, and details on updates to the system, amongst other things.
	[icabod] - 13/04/2002 17:39

	Scorpion Homepage
	It looks like Ricsibu has been on a mission. To quote his email: "Finally I found the MOA homepage", MOA of course being the software developers of the Scorpion. Apparently. Anyway, there's a heap of information, providing you pass it first through a translator (or can read Russian). News hasn't been updated since September 2000, but we'll let that pass.
	[icabod] - 13/04/2002 17:31

	Auto-running emulators
	Quick thanks to Mikhail Sudakov for pointing out that in fact ZX32 actually supports auto-running of .TAP and .TZX files. Y'see, this is the problem with emulators... there are lots out there, and each has it's pro's and cons. It's tricky to find an emulator that does everything you want it to. As I mentioned, I'm still waiting for an emulator that gives the option of loading/resetting straight into USR 0 mode.
	[icabod] - 13/04/2002 17:21

	Sprinter BIOS and updates
	A couple days ago Peters Plus posted a new download of the Sprinter BIOS on their page. The download is for v2.12.251, and there's also a bunch of ZX ROMs for when you put the machine into Spectrum mode. There's also the release of the first update for SP2000 (SP2000-Light) boards. In this pack you can get an even newer BIOS, v3.00.253, alond with a new version of the system firmware. There's also a bunch of new software features. Full details can be found in the press release. Finally, I'll mention that a new version of Sprint has been released, featuring increased compatibility. There's also now a mailing list for this emulator, hosted by YahooGroups.
	[icabod] - 13/04/2002 17:14

	Sneaky Previews
	A very little note, coz I'm really quite tired. Just to point out that you should be watching se.raww.org/se.raww.net. I know what's coming... but I'll leave you to check the site(s) and work it out for yourselves. Oh, and the two sites... they're the same. Pick the one you find it most fun to type.
	[icabod] - 10/04/2002 23:19

	Spectaculator Updatulated
	Yes, a mention before I get some much-needed sleep that Spectaculator, a 48k ZX Emulator running under Windows, has been updated. It's now at version 2.0, and here's a list of the few of the changes: Improved sound emulation. .TAP/.TZX support, including auto-load. Virtual Tape-deck - rather nice, I think. Contended memory emulation. Multicolour (scanline) emulation. Doesn't crash if you don't have a soundcard. I have to say, I like the auto-loading tapes idea. Just double-click a .TAP-file in Windows and the emulator will start it loading. I've often lamented the lack of something like this on other emulators... or more accurately, I think it'd be neat to go straight into 128k USR 0 mode. Very handy for loading demos.
	[icabod] - 10/04/2002 23:08

	Forever with the fixes
	Hehe. Another fix has been released for UnrealSpeccy - this one handily called "fix 2.5". Actually to be precise, it's more of a DIY patch. There are two ways to do it, either by patching the source-code and recompiling (meaning you'll need to buy/steal Visual C++), or by manually patching the .EXE. Seems like a bit of hassle, especially as the instructions for both are only in Russian, natch! Anyway, the "fix" just alters a couple audio envelopes (#0a and #0e, in case you wondered). They played wrong apparently, not that I would have noticed. A rough translation of the page can be grabbed through Babelfish. Anyone care to provide a good translation?
	[icabod] - 10/04/2002 20:14

	Retro Review issue 2
	Well today in the post came the second issue of Retro Review, the new retro 'puter 'zine. And yes before you ask, I did get the first issue too. I've only had a chance to have a quick flick through this latest copy, but on the face of it it's looking rather nice. So what's in it for the ardent Spectrum enthusiast? Sprinter review : Yes, this is the first proper review we've seen of the Sprinter, spanning 6 pages. A good write-up it seems. As I say, I've scanned through it, and I'm even more keen to get one of these machines now. Drive Interface reviews : A comparison of the main drive solutions for the ZX. Of coz the MB02 comes out on top, even tho' the reviewers didn't try it for themselves. But ask any user, and you'll get the same answer. Well, that doesn't seem like so much, but team it up with articles on C64 emulation, 3D0 consoles, and Amiga upgrades, and it's a worthwhile purchase.
	[icabod] - 10/04/2002 19:52

	ASC-II 02 registration
	Another little note about an upcoming demoparty. You should all know that ASC-II'02 is happening at the end of this month. Well there's now a place for you to register for the party. Just get yourself along to POS and select the appropriate menu item on the right. A few people and groups have already confirmed they'll be there, so if you're in the area (Ishevsk), why not pop along.
	[icabod] - 09/04/2002 23:08

	ZX Speedcam
	Thanks go to Ed at my workplace for this bit of news, which I'm going to honestly steal: " A 32-year-old father from Kinnesswood has had enough of speeding drivers who, he says, are endangering his and his neighbours' children. Matthew Henson has taken the unusual step of building his own speed gun and lying in wait to record the offenders' speeds. The vigilante speed warden is compiling the information for a local campaign to get the council to notice the problem since, he says, the drivers always slow down when they see police with speed guns. Mr. Henson built his gun from a ZX Spectrum and the infrared technology from a TV remote control. " See, it took a while to get to the good bit, but it was worth it. Yeah, a Speedcam made from a ZX Spectrum. The news was from some car insurance mailing list he managed to get himself onto. Not seen it elsewhere. Wonder if we can get the specs for it?
	[icabod] - 09/04/2002 22:59

	Official Forever3 downloads
	A very short note to mention that all Forever3 releases are now available for download from the official party-page. How nice.
	[icabod] - 09/04/2002 22:46

	Final Forever Demo
	A little mention quickly to the final release from Forever3. It's the missing ZeroTeam entry, titled "Codephobia". I'm just about to run it through, tho' I've already heard it's a top demo <g>.
	[icabod] - 08/04/2002 20:47

	Shit 2002 Results
	As well as a new gallery for Rom/Progress, and an update to Relict's gallery, there's a couple items on ZpiXel about the recent graphics-compo, Shit 2002. Diver has been good enough to provide an article/review of the competition, tho' it's only in Russian right now. It contains techy details and the like. A good read if passed through a translator, I guess. Also, the results are out! Yes, here's a quick rundown of the top few. Or should that be bottom few? Shit 2002 1 - Lennuk - Moroz 2 - Z80 is best - L'Orange 3 - Tankwar - Gas13 You can find the full results here. Odd that my name doesn't appear in the voters list, as I'm sure I did it. Oh, mebbe I forgot to click "Send". Aah well. The three winners will be receiving real prizes too, tho' don't expect them to be too good <g>.
	[icabod] - 08/04/2002 20:41

	Turn your AY into MIDI
	VORC, the chiptune site, mentioned an interesting article titled "MidiPSG". It details how to create a Midi system using an AY-3-8910A soundchip (yes, the chip used in a ZX). It's apparently quite an old article, but it's not been mentioned anywhere. So, what's the catch? Of coz, the article is written in Japanese. best get out your trusty Babelfish.
	[icabod] - 08/04/2002 20:28

	Oooh, Forever releasing
	Thanks go to Yerzmyey for another large batch of Forever3 releases. First up, we have a bunch of Graphics and Tunes from the party. Simple player/viewer for each, but the purpose is served admirably. Next we have a whole bunch of Intros from the party. Well, 3 intros counts as a bunch, I think. And finally, Yerz sent out Factor6's demo presented at the party, "Reject".
	[icabod] - 07/04/2002 21:35

	Raww Arse hit the bigtime
	Well, not quite the bigtime. You'll know that Retro Computing Today-bloke, Shaun, is writing a retro-column for UK zine MicroMart. Well apparently in the latest issue there's some mention of the worlds best demo ever, "BOA". And there's mention of this site, too. Very nice, thanks! Oh, just found the article online: here.
	[icabod] - 07/04/2002 21:19

	TAP2MDB into Beta
	Okay, the last release of this tool was an alpha release. Well now I've been told by z00m that TAP2MDB has come up to v1.0 beta. Apparently there was previously a system ID problem... something to do with BS-DOS not noticing that a disk had changed. Anyway, you can grab the latest version here.
	[icabod] - 07/04/2002 21:04

	AY-Emulator fix2
	Another emulator has had a fix released, this time it's AY-Emulator. v2.6 fix2 brings with it corrected .HLP-files, and an added sample rate of 48000Hz. The source is also available if you want it.
	[icabod] - 07/04/2002 19:51

	More Forever Photoz
	Yes, a little mention for some more photos taken at Forever3. Again, spotted the link on Forever-C64, which in turn grabbed the news from Atari Area. Get to the photos with this link.
	[icabod] - 07/04/2002 19:46

	Hardwave and Millennium
	I'm just going, for now, to point you to a couple official sites for a couple demoparties. One of the sites even works (!!). I spotted in a post on POS that there's a new official homepage for Millennium hosted over on Scenosaurus. Can't spot any English version yet, tho' I haven't looked too hard. A quick run of the site through Babelfish gives the required information, and also something about "cabbage soup". I kid you not. If that wasn't enough for you, I also noticed a mention on Scenergy of "Hardwave Demoshow 2002" - the official homepage gives up a "404", but you can look at the information on Scenergy itself. Babelfish seems to fall over when trying to even look at this neato ZX news site, so your guess is as good as mine. Translate.ru may work, but it's taking ages for me. Anyway, it's another May-bound party, supporting PC and ZX, being held... ehm... somewhere. The usual compos are there, but oddly no mention of a ZX music compo. Hmm. Let's hope the site appears soon.
	[icabod] - 07/04/2002 19:33

	Shit 2oo2 voting is over
	If you've not got your votes in already, then you've missed the mark for deciding who's the crappest ZX-artist. The guys over at ZpiXel are in the process of counting the votes for Shit 2oo2, and will soon be putting up the full gallery and results.
	[icabod] - 04/04/2002 21:57

	ZXMak update
	It would appear that there's been another emulator update in the last couple days. ZXMak v0.280 beta 2 has come out with, ooh, some changes. Changes are to do with SCL-reading, the Z80 Engine and Debugger, and "SUPER-BEST QUALITY of AY sound" -- I'll take it they like it? Also on the same page you can grab the latest (v1.2b2) release of the universal disk thingy.
	[icabod] - 04/04/2002 21:53

	Forever Photoz
	A few more photos from the recent Forever3 party have popped up. I found these ones mentioned on the Forever-C64 site, tho' they came originally from a ZX discussion board. Nice stuff. Grab them from this site. The file you want it FR02SHOT1.ZIP. Photos are courtesy of Poke. Ta muchly.
	[icabod] - 04/04/2002 21:49

	Bundles of news
	Here's some news: +3e ROMs : A new update for the +3e ROMs has been released. New in v1.10 are, uhm, channels and bugfixes. Lovely. UnrealSpeccy : Another fix to this "finished" emulator has been released. Best go grab that one too, eh? Yerzmyeys Music Tape : If you're an AY-fan, you could do worse than pick up a new release from Yerzmyey - containing 37 of his tunes. Grab it here. And yes, it contains that fine music from "BOA." Z80 ASM : There's a new version of Nick Fleming's Z80 X-ASM, allowing you to code Z80 on your PC. I won't tell you what's updated, coz until now I didn't even know it existed! WOS DVDs : A post on c.s.s from Neuro mentioned that if you pop over to his site you can grab yourself a DVD-R of the entire WOS archive. Minus Zenobi software. Very handy. Hoods Site : Got a URL sent to me for Hoods homepage. Lots of MB02 info, tho' it's all in Czech, natch! Go here. Done.
	[icabod] - 04/04/2002 14:38

	Sprinter Sound
	As I mentioned a few days ago, Peters have now posted a new poll on their website, inviting people to vote on the preferred sound for the Sprinter system. Options are AY, General Sound, Sprinter-Sound, other, or mute. I'm not sure which I'd prefer... as long as it's compatible with AY then I'm happy with it, but even that's not really important. So when you vote, try to think of the Sprinter as a future demo-platform -- it could influence your vote.
	[icabod] - 01/04/2002 21:59

	MORE Emulation
	Just in case you thought your emulator collection was looking a little... thin, a new emulator has been announced. Spotted it on comp.sys.sinclair. It's by a Spanish author (Javi) and has the pun-tastic title of "ES.pectrum". I've not tried it yet (I'm still waiting for Win-RS), but it's a Winulator written using Delphi. It's currently in beta version (aren't they all?), but importantly Javi has noticed that the only way to really test an emulator is with demos. It apparently runs some top demos correctly, including Overscan and MDA. Noice. The screenshots certainly look good enough. There's currently no disk emulation, but hey who needs it? If there's a problem running it, you could try removing the file "espectrum.eng", which'll run it in native Spanish mode. Hmm.
	[icabod] - 01/04/2002 21:47

	Demotopia goes TRD
	Following on from the redesign of Demotopia, Gasman has put up the first of the TR-DOS-based demos onto the site. Yep, it's moving into broader territory than the previously strict "only .TAPs" regime. The demos that have been put up so far are grabbed from Virtual TR-DOS, and provided as .SCLs (with some optional .TAPs for completeness). This new policy should help the site become the home of ZX demos.
	[icabod] - 31/03/2002 22:32

	TZX-Vault update
	If you're yearning for some tip-top tape images, then you should pop over to TZX Vault, where there's been an Easter Update of, oooh, large proportions. A few "Missing In Action" tapes have appeared, along with a few re-done jobs. You can download the new stuff in only 8.6Mb. Hmm.
	[icabod] - 31/03/2002 22:26

	Demotopia redesign and update
	If all is right with the world, you should all regularly check Demotopia, the planets best ZX demo archive. What, you don't? Well I'll tell you now that the site's had a little redesign, and it's now a tad easier for you to find what you want. And you don't need to load up a huuuuge list of demos, just to download one that begins with a 'Z'. Very handy, especially as the full list of demos reaches millions. Almost. There are 5 new productions added too, which are listed down the side of the page. Or I'll list them here: "Adrenalize", "Carminadle Part 4", "Made In Spain 5 Estrellas Intro", "Missing In Fun", and "SE#4 preview". And you could also check out Gasman's party calendar. He's more likely to keep his up-to-date than I am, what with me being a slack-arse and all. Hmm. My only niggle with the redesign is the lack of screenshots for the party winners. But hey, that's just me being an arse, right!?!?
	[icabod] - 30/03/2002 18:41