Sinclair ZX81 Keybpard Membranes

We have now found a source for making some ZX81 Keyboard Membranes which will be the same as the original, with the integral touch sensitive keyboard. They will also be self-adhesive, like the originals, making for a nice simple replacement which can be achieved with the aid of a phillips screwdriver and a hairdryer (or small knife). The latter is required to heat up the old membrane or lift it from the ZX81 case.

Cost will be £10 each plus post and packing. We are therefore inviting people to let us know of their interest at this stage, by leaving a comment on our guestbook: http://www.rwapsoftware.co.uk/membranes.html

We aim to have these on the market by June 2008, so be sure to place an order as soon as possible, in order to avoid disappointment.

A January Sale in Retro Computing Gear?

OK it is not unheard of, but not exactly as common as all of the other January sales - this one is being run by us and has a lot of Sinclair QL, ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 second hand items at greatly reduced sums (including hardware and software). There is also a wide range of general retro computing books which may be of interest to hardware and software designers. Actually, we even have a set of books for the Psion 3 for sale !!

The sale ends at the end of January 2008, although everything is with limited stocks, so get your order in quick. We also aim to add some more items at the start of January to help clear our shelves for projects in 2008. See the link at the top of our home page (http://www.rwapsoftware.co.uk) for details - the sales list is provided as a word document (don't worry, we have virus checked it!) - if you would like it in another format, please ask.

Now what can our customers expect for 2008?

Well, we have our fingers in a few pies at the moment, with the following projects hopefully coming online during 2008:
- Sinclair QL Hardware (not yet confirmed but it will be welcome news for Super Gold Card and Q40 / Q60 users).
- More stock of the DivIDE Plus, hopefully putting our production problems behind us.
- Replacement composite video kits (possibly even an external version) to make your Spectrum,. ZX81, BBC Micro, Sinclair QL (etc) work on a modern TV.
- Joystick interface with a through port (suitable for PlusD and hopefully the original DivIDE hard disk interface).
- Microdrive connectors - both the flexible cable to connect a ZX Microdrive to a ZX Interface 1 or a Sinclair QL, and a replacement "hard connector" to join two ZX Microdrive units together (although they will not be able to be screwed together).

Let's hope 2008 is a good year for retro computing and brings us all some good luck and wealth

We wish all our customers a happy and prosperous new year.

www.rwapservices.co.uk

** Merry Christmas to all our Customers and Readers **

Well with 2007 quickly drawing to a close, we would like to take the opportunity of wishing our customers a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

Our sites will all continue to run during the festive season, although there will be delays in sending out orders between 22nd December 2007 and 2nd January 2008. We are, however, expecting one last shipment of DivIDE Plus hard disk interfaces for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum before Christmas and will post them as soon as possible (fingers crossed and with luck and a following wind, they might hit UK customers doorsteps in time for Christmas).

We will remain available on MSN and email if you have any queries, or please feel free to contribute to our guestbooks and forums.

Our Sites
RWAP Software Site supporting retro computers and in particular the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, Sinclair QL and Commodore 64, with just a spattering of 3" disks, DSDD disks and ADSL Filters.

RWAP Adventures Site providing adventures programs for the Sinclair QL, ZX Spectrum and adventures for use on your PC.

Play Lotto - Why not give it a chance this Christmas, join our online syndicate and see if we can win the Lottery together.

Internet Business Angels - Providing support and advice for people looking to enhance the internet presence of their business.

RWAP Services - Overall website looking at our full range of services, including proof reading, perl programming and website review.

Following the end of our financial year, it is perhaps time to look back on the retro computing scene and see where things should go next.

A lot of people ask what use are retro computers in this modern age of super fast PCs with oodles of memory and storage capacity?

Well, as well as there being an active retro scene, with a lot of people wishing to relive their youth and pass on their technical expertise, one avenue that could perhaps be developed further is in the field of robotics. Modern PCs have less and less control over their native hardware, with Microsoft actually removing some low level access from each version of Windows. This can make it very difficult to write software which can communicate effectively with a piece of custom built hardware, such as a robot, or even an old printer.

Add an 8 or 16 bit computer into the equation, such as the Z80 based Sinclair ZX Spectrum, or the 680000 based Sinclair QL, and you have access to a wealth of information on how to access each port, open source operating systems, simple programming tools and active discussion forums where people are more than willing to provide you with the technical assistance you need.

So, what has been happening in each of your key markets over the past 12 months?

Sinclair QL
We are pleased to report that in the past 12 months, we have raised over £1500 for the Sinclair QL user group (Quanta) who will make these funds available for people needing to raise finance in order to pursue development opportunities for the QL. They will be glad to receive detailed proposals and certainly it would be nice to produce a low cost mass storage device, such as a compact flash reader.

The recent show in Birmingham was surprisingly well attended and it is hoped that this enthusiasm can continue. Quanta needs the support of its members and if its membership numbers continue to decline, then we may well see them being wound up and the funds which they hold being given away to Charity, rather than being used for the good of the QL community. Please therefore subscribe to Quanta and renew your subscriptions.

Unfortunately, the one downside for the QL, is the lack of a high quality peripheral to add more speed and memory to the original QL. The Super Gold Card sometimes makes an appearance on the second hand market (although it is as rare as hens' teeth) and it is no longer able to make new ones of these as some of the chips are now obsolete.

Sinclair ZX Spectrum
This has now become our main source of turnover, with replacement keyboard membranes remaining an ever popular (and necessary) item.

We were happy to be able to bring the DivIDE Plus hard disk interface to market in the past 12 months, although delays in manufacture and shipping problems have caused some frustration. These now appear to be behind us, although we still struggle to source certain parts, such as the through connectors and edge connectors. Feedback from customers once they have received this interface has been very positive, with only a few minor issues which people struggle with when they first use the card, pushing us to open our own Spectrum forum.

We have now been able to source replacement flexible connectors to join the ZX Microdrive and ZX Interface 1 units (hopefully we will soon be able to supply the hard connector to join two ZX Microdrive units).

2006/07 has also seen the launch of the ever popular Competition Pro Joystick for the Spectrum and other retro computers (which use the standard Atari joystick socket).

During 2007/08 we hope to build further on the success of the DivIDE Plus, and bring more new products to market, including the composite video kit and Kempston joystick interface with through connector, as well as improved firmware for the DivIDE Plus.

Sinclair ZX81
The main downfall of the ZX81 is the lack of replacement keyboard membranes. These are now failing in large numbers, but with a cost of around £10 to produce, it is unlikely that the market will ever be large enough to warrant a new production run. Kits are still sometimes available on the internet, although you do need to bear in mind that these are now 25+ years old.

Use our website for more information on Sinclair range of computers and available items

www.rwapsoftware.co.uk

News In Time for Christmas

1. Things are indeed looking up - we are hoping to clear the backlog of DivIDE Plus orders by Christmas (20 units on their way from Poland - 16th November, with another 20 soon to follow).
2. We have reduced the price of our popular Competition Pro Joystick for all retro computers with a 9 pin DIN socket - it is now only £12.50 plus p&p.
3. Sinclair QL owners will be fighting to get their hands on the latest Super Gold Card - one only and priced at £250, this could be your last chance of getting one as they have not been made in many years and the parts are obsolete.
4. We now have a small stock of brand new ZX Microdrive Cartridges - £2.50 each plus p&p
5. We can now also supply the fly leads to connect ZX Microdrive Units to the ZX Interface 1 - at only £10 plus p&p, they are jet black as per the original.

Keep your eyes out for more news as it becomes available and lets hope for a Happy Christmas.

Visit our website RWAP Software for more details on these and other retro computing goodies.

Well it is always pleasing to receive good feedback on our customer service.

We have heard back from one ADSL customer, who had had problems for a few months with losing his broadband connection whenever someone used the downstairs phone. He appeared to have enough filters in place, and despite spending several hours to technical helplines (on 0845 numbers), they had time and time again blamed something on his PC setup. We sent some replacement filters, and a quick email to us, with a diagram of his system, and we spotted the issue - he had not plugged his phone extension cable into the "PHONE" socket on a filter. Although there was no real need to use our own filters, he was as pleased as punch that we could resolve the issue so quickly.

Oddly, we were the only ones to mention REN on his phone equipment, which had exceeded the recommended REN 3. Still problem solved, and one more happy customer. By the way, we were surprised that our filters are even cheaper than ARGOS sell them for !!

Now all we need is another 100,000 pleased customers, and we could consider retiring !!

Just some useful tips and ideas

OK, we all need to think about anti-virus software and a firewall, but do we take the plunge and spend money on it or risk our data and personal details with one of the free ones, or Microsoft's own firewall (which is heavily attacked).

Having looked at the options, we have taken the plunge of renewing our subscription with Symantec and purchased their Norton 360 product, which is quicker than previous versions of Norton Internet Security (so it does not tie the system up as much), has faster scanning, provides its own firewall and antivirus protection and much more.

The advantages of Norton 360 are that it also provides regular backups of your data (full or incremental backups) and also provides 2GB free online storage for you to store your most important files, in case of the all too drastic hard disk failure. One of the bonuses is that when you look at the price tag, of £59.99, this may appear very high, but often PC World has discounted offers and you also must remember that this now includes the facility to install it on 3 computers in the same household, so that works out at just under £20 per PC !!

Not too bad when you think of the damage that one virus can do.

The other trick for this month, has to be to look at switching to the Alliance & Leicester's current account - it still offers the best rate of interest of any current account (6.5% fixed until Jan 2009), excellent online service and you only need fund it with £500pm (most other similar accounts need minimum funding of £1000pm). Keep your eyes open for special offers too - they often offer very high interest bearing savings accounts if you open them at the same time as a current account.

Well worth the small bit of paperwork it takes to switch

We have recently had some very successful reports for people using old DOS and emulator programs who are struggling to find a compatible printer. Whilst Printfil has been one product which we have commended in the past for this sort of situation, it is limited to mainly text and does not understand many control codes. We and several others have found that QPCPrint is now a much better alternative, particularly if your program outputs a mixture of text and graphics and expects to output to an EPSON compatible printer. QPCPrint understands a much wider range of ESC/P2 programming codes, and can therefore provide output much closer to the original on any modern Windows Printer - more details and a link to a demonstration version of QPCPrint is available on our webpage dedicated to older printers and printing from DOS / emulators

Why do we need this?

I suppose the answer is that if you have never found that you cannot print from a program, you do not need this. However, many users of emulators and DOS programs find that their program will only send output direct to the parallel port, using its own inbuilt command codes. Many modern printers will not even accept plain text sent to the parallel port (that is if they even connect through the parallel port - most are USB nowadays). As printers have developed, they expect Windows to do all of the hard work and convert text and graphics into something which they can understand without having to convert - this cuts down on the cost of hardware, but means a loss of compatibility with older programs.

How do Printfil and QPCPrint work?

Both Printfil and QPCPrint are Windows based programs, set up as pseudo printer drivers on your computer. They look for any output set to a parallel port (eg. LPT1 is the default), then capture this output and convert it into data which can then be printed on any modern printer connected to Windows. This can be done in the background, or you can use options to view the output and decide which printer to use.

Printfil is the only program of the two which can handle a printer which is actually connected to LPT1. However, QPCPrint is more accurate when it comes to printing from a program which expects an EPSON printer.

Try them both and see what you think. We can offer some advice and assistance if you are struggling.