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Please Introduce yourself...

Posted: 15 Nov 2013 23:10
by Crazyboss
Hi guys

In this section you can introduce yourself. I would like to start by introduce myself :)

I am Claus - 40 years old, and the admin of this board. I am DANISH, but living in Sweden since 2006. I am married with a Chinese, and with (soon) two kids.

I got my (original) Memotech MTX 512, in 1987 and used it for around a year, before I moved on to other platforms. But I learned to program basic - teaching myself from books, magazines and the MANUAL which came with the Memotech computer. 24th january 2003, I got the DOMAIN www.mtxworld.dk (until 2013 I didn know there was a usergroup/magazine in the past sharing the same name ;)) summer 2012 i put up a forum on the domain.

Back in 1987, I enjoy playing the Memotech games - especially I found ANDY KEY's games very good for the time. And enjoyed them very much, therefor it was a special experience when I finally had the chance to meet ANDY in person, during the MEMOFEST MEETING 21st September 2013, and spend the time before and after with ANDY and his very nice family. I remember a funny episode in ANDY's kitchen, when ANDY and ME are talking about some z80programming, I guess it was something about SAVING BITS (AND or OR) bits. And ANDY's teenage son looked at us and said "YOU TWO GUYS ARE SIMPLE WEIRD" :)

Today I use Memotech to test conversions, I like to convert and release new games both for Memotech MTX and also for Colecovision. Currently I converted MSX and COLECOVISION games for the Memotech MTX, like Space Invasion, PACMAN, Comic Bakery, Spectron and Telebunny.

I also converted a few Memotech games for the Colecovision, those are published by www.collectorvision.com in Canada.

As most people using the Memotech we have a age where we have a family and work - means lack of time to play with the Memotech. I wanted to use more time on this hobby but its hard to find time for it. I have a working Memotech MTX512 (Thanks to JIM). But it seems like my PSU are not good shape, I hope MARK can reproduce a good and stable one.

My primary goal in this Memotech world, is to convert more games for this nice computer.I enjoy spend time on disassemble the sources, change and modify the code to build a new source which I can assemble to run at the Memotech. I use (ofcause) ANDY's MEMU emulator, and real Memotech (with RS232 - and RUNLOADER232) to transfer and test games. I supply the games in wav(es) too, so people who just have a unexpanded Memotech can just "load" the wave file into the Memotech, with nothing more than a pc with a sound card, and a mini-jack wire. Also supply .MTX and .RUN files, and lates also .BAS files.

Re: Please Introduce yourself...

Posted: 16 Nov 2013 19:30
by 1024MAK
I'd just like to thank Claus for providing and maintaining this forum :D, the wonderful http://www.mtxworld.dk web site :D and for the games conversions :D.

Thank you Claus ImageImageImage

If you ever need any donations to help with the cost, I'm willing to make a donation ;)

Mark

PS Don't worry about being called WEIRD :lol:

Re: Please Introduce yourself...

Posted: 19 Mar 2015 20:24
by PicMatt
Hello I am new here and to the Memotech.... but not 1980's home computers.

I am 46 and grew up in the 80's when all this exciting stuff took place. My first computer was a ZX81 with 16K ram pack (hired-wired by my dad to stop it crashing!) and custom keyboard (again made by my dad).

I then "graduated" onto an Oric1, I personally loved the keyboards, although "experts" will tell you it was rubbish, I wonder how many have actually tried it ;)

My best friend had more money (well his dad did.... lots of "dad" stuff here!) and so managed to get an MTX512.... I was very jelous and always have been... until now!

I managed to buy the only affordable MTX I have seen on ebay, for £52 a couple of weeks back... although its not all good, I wasn't expecting too much for the money ;)

I am an elctronics and software/firmware (Pic Micros) engineer by trade and wanted an MTX I could get involved in and not having to worry about the politics of "upgrading" it. I have never been much of an 80's computer collector in the modern sense (although I have many types now), I am not really bothered by poly-boxes, packaing etc etc. If it's there great, if not, great ;) It's all about the hardware for me.

I will post about my ebay "special" in another thread.... I may have a long road ahead ;)


Regards



Matt :)

Re: Please Introduce yourself...

Posted: 19 Mar 2015 20:52
by Dave
Hi Matt,

Welcome to the forum!

I'm glad you got your hands on an MTX after such a long wait ;)

You've come to the right place for getting help/advice for fixing it (if it's broken), but it sounds like you know what you're doing anyway!

Regards
Dave

Re: Please Introduce yourself...

Posted: 19 Mar 2015 21:14
by 1024MAK
Welcome on board Matt!

:D :D :D

Erm, the idea of this section is for new members to start a new thread rather than hijacking an existing thread... :roll: :lol:

But never mind :P

I was (half) watching that MTX that you bought for £52 and was slightly surprised that it did not go higher. I say half watching, as I was at work that day and was out and about.

Shout out when/if you need help. We are happy to help as much as we can.

Mark

Re: Please Introduce yourself...

Posted: 28 Jul 2015 09:09
by pixelprowler
Hi all

My name is Wayne, I'm 36 years old and come from Malta.

My first contact with a Memotech MTX was back in the late 80s when my Uncle bought one for study/work but inevitably got hijacked by my cousins and myself for 'gaming'. I remember our favourite games were Quazzia and Fathoms Deep.

Soon after we all got ourselves Commodore Amiga 500s and eventually PCs, and the Memotech faded away in memory.

Around 10 years ago I started collecting old hardware and I remembered my Uncle's Memotech, unfortunately all he had left was the small collection of games, the machine was long gone. Soon after however I managed to get my hands on a working MTX 512 (complete with PSU, Speculator and Manuals) from a colleague at work for the princely sum of Lm10 (around €23).

The machine works but I did not have a suitable cassette player to try the tapes out until very recently (literally last week).

I managed to load a couple of them but as you know the loading process is more miss than hit...I just have to find the time to try the rest.

Here's a list of the software I have on tape... all of them are the cheap Syntax Software kind

3D Tachyon Fighter
Astromilon
Astro-Pac
Blobbo
Chamberoids
Chess
MTX Demo Tape
Designer
Fathoms Deep
Goldmine
Highway Encounter
Karate King
Kilopede
Knuckles
Little Devils
Lords of Time
Maxima
Mission Alphatron
Music Pad
Nemo
Obliteration Zone
Obloids
Qogo 2
Quazzia
S.M.G
Son of Pete
Speculator
Spellicopter

Re: Please Introduce yourself...

Posted: 28 Jul 2015 12:46
by 1024MAK
Welcome on board Wayne!

:D :D :D
pixelprowler wrote:Here's a list of the software I have on tape... all of them are the cheap Syntax Software kind
:lol: :lol: :lol:
That will make a couple of members on here laugh or cry, one member is a former games / system software programmer. Also not all the titles you list were published by Syntax Soft :roll:

More games and software information at http://www.primrosebank.net/computers/m ... ftware.htm and http://www.nyangau.org/memotech/memotech.htm. Not forgeting the web site of which this forum is part - http://www.mtxworld.dk/main.php

Mark

Re: Please Introduce yourself...

Posted: 28 Jul 2015 13:11
by pixelprowler
Hi Mark,

My apologies... I never meant to insult anyone here (especially not on my first post :D ) but, funnily enough all of the tapes have "Syntax Software" cases and labels.... and the software titles are type-written on both the case insert and labels.

Given that back in the day Malta's copyright laws were still in the distant future I would not be too surprised that these are in fact copies of copies of copies of the original...that's what I meant by cheap, not the software itself but the media.

I could be wrong tho... I don't have enough info on the subject.

I remember however that when we first got out Amiga 500s in the early 90s you could go to the local computer shops and buy copies of games over the counter for little more than the cost of the floppy. Heck, they would even give you a list of games they had in stock and in some cases photocopies of the manuals.

This only lasted a couple of years until the laws changed.

Re: Please Introduce yourself...

Posted: 28 Jul 2015 13:50
by thewiz
Hi Wayne,

Thanks for listing the titles you own. I notice you have spellicopter. Are you able to sample this to a wav at 16bit 44100Hz? Preferably both sides?

I might be able to convert it to a .mtx file.

Cheers

Re: Please Introduce yourself...

Posted: 28 Jul 2015 14:59
by Dave
Hi Wayne,

Welcome!

As you have found, loading software from tape can be a frustrating experience.
[Caution : shameless advertising to follow ] :-)

You may be interested in MAGROM
http://www.primrosebank.net/computers/m ... magrom.htm

It is a convenient way to play 38 games from ROM with "instant" loading.

Alternatively, you might be interested in Andy Key's REMEMOrizer product, check out the thread on the forum

Regards
Dave