Hello from the Mississippi Gulf Coast

[David R.]

Hi, I'm David.  No, not that David (i.e., definitely not the 8-bit Guy).  So, why am I here?  It's because I'm interested in the X16 project, and I've always been interested in computer programming.  Never got into Commodore (had a ZX-81 an Actrix DS, and a CoCo 2 back in the day).  I'm an A+, a navy veteran, electronics and instrument technician, a BASIC programmer, and am learning to program the RetroMax (Maximite II clone) in MMBasic.  I also have a working SC126 CP/M machine (a z180) running MBASIC that I built from a kit.

I'm not an assembly language coder.  Maybe getting involved here might change that?  As I head toward retirement I'm hoping I will have time to keep learning and growing, and maybe amount to an actual programmer someday.

Oh, and the Linux version of the emulator can now be confirmed to run on PCLinuxOS with kernel 5.14.6 (64-bit).  The readme said I'd have to build it, but the x16emu file showed up as an executable file, so I ran it from the command line and it ran.

Anyhoo, glad to be here, and hope I can contribute in some meaningful way to the project.  If I had to state a wish, it would be to develop a laptop/luggable version of the X16.  (How cool would that be?)

[Scott Robison]

Being in the Mississippi gulf coast area, did you have an actual ZX-81, a Timex Sinclair 1000?

I hope for a handheld X16! ?

[Scott Robison]

Oh, and welcome regardless. ?

[David R.]

I built my ZX-81 from a kit.  I also had several TS-1000 machines and 16K RAM packs that I acquired at clearance as the model was dying out on the shelves.  Good times.  I built one of those old TS-1000s into a Bud slope-front case using a TI-99/4A keyboard bought surplus for about ten dollars, and using the original membrane matrix as a wiring guide (almost wore out the continuity function on my meter doing that project!)  It was ugly but strong.  Gave them all away when I got my Coco 2, gave the Coco 2 away when I got my Actrix DS, and gave it away when I was building and selling MS-DOS/Windows machines part-time in the early 90s.  I wish I'd held onto that Actrix (they are a rather rare beast now!) but the fellow I gave it to was still using it last I spoke to him about a year ago.

I found a luggable case with a 17" FHD display built in that would be a good fit for the X16, but it's way too expensive, and I'd have to gut it to get rid of features I wouldn't use.  I'll probably wind up doing some custom kit-bashing to make the X16 laptop (maybe call it the X15 and paint it all "jet black"? ? ).

Thanks for the welcome, Scott.  See ya around in the days to come.

[rje]

Welcome, David!