Downloading and using CP/M software on the Z80 Playground

Hey CB how can I get the Gerbers so I can get some boards fabbed ?

Interesting, I really like the idea of a retro style 8 bit machine to play around with. It takes me back to my Sinclair ZX81 and Atari 8 bit days. The SAM Coupé was actually an attempt at creating a "Super Spectrum". Unfortunately for MGT, this was at the dawn of the 16 bit era... 8 bit was now old hat, and it failed to sell. Ironically, it's spiritual successor, the 'Spectrum Next', has a waiting list as long as your arm and the SAM Coupé is a valuable collector's item.

ROFF4 might be the old text formatter to create a reasonable looking printer output. I used ROF on a mainframe and micro back in the day. Actually used an editor (QED) in combination with ROF to write my Masters circa 1981.

I had a Sam Coupe developed as Spectrum compatible plus improved graphics, sound & 3"disc. Being z80 will run cp/m. I had word processor and CALC spreadsheet. Still in loft.

I suspect that one of the early Infocom target systems used ESC 7 or chr$(128 + '7') for clearing the screen and the code was just left in!

if you take the /M off the title it becomes very disturbing

This stuff is pretty amazing. I’m getting inspired to build one of these myself. I used to love those infocom games back in the day. Keep up the great work!

I would think that the 128 and 64 lables are based on the amount of memory they are targeted at, not the commodore 128 etc.

Nicely done :). It never ceases to amaze me that people have forgotten to how to use CP/M so hopefully your great wee walkthrough here will help all those Flipping Whipper-Snappers ;-)

The terminal configuration was always one of the things that was hardest to get right with a new software install. VT100 and ANSI are mostly interchangeable, except the colour/8bit stuff, which you probably won’t bump into on early CP/M software...

The Sam is mostly a (not very good) Speccy clone, made by Miles Gordon Technology, the same folks who did several of the disk drive interfaces on the classic ZX. PCW disk format is one of the more common ones found today, since it was one of the later CP/M machines still sold and made. Also found on the Sinclair +3 and the Amstrad CPC.

The 7 at the start of the game is probably it telling that it’s an “Inform-7” file format (the games are all written in a meta-language, and executed in a Text Adventure VM, called zMachine in modern parlance).

And, once again, thanks for another awesome vid.

-Dx

You could make the esp32 connect to the internet and download the software from a repo :P