SINCUS meet at the Chase/1st City Bank Branch on the Vestal Parkway, Vestal, NY at 7pm, Wednesday, October 17. 22 in attendence.
Gary Ennis, President, opened the meeting,with comments for the requirements for articles to be printed in the newsletter to be 46 columns wide and in by the EXCOM (EXecutive COmmittee Meet) which is generally the 1st Wednesday of the month. November 7 is next EXCOM. For your info the EXCOM’s are open to SINCUS members,it is usually at the Vestal Public Library in the conference room.
Paul Hill,Rec Secty, gave a report on the Computer Chess-O-Rama held October 14 at the Vestal Library. The match was held last Sunday at 2pm, between the Sinclair computers and a Radio Shack TRS 80 64K Color computer and Commodore 64 (two) with Atari dropping out the day before. The C64’s used SARGON 2 and whipped the ZX81 and the TS 2068 using Voice Chess. A bright note was “The ChessPlayer” on a 2068 which beat the TRS 80’s “Microchess”, one game at level 2, and was ahead in a level 8 match when the game was finally called due to the hour and no night lights were available. The idea and driving force behind the venture was Ted Koranye(whose picture appeared with ZX81 in the Monday Press) and he deserves the credit. Thanks to those who loaned us your computers for the display of Sinclair computers,a ZX80 to the TS2068. Much thanks to all who came and helped out, with an Extended thanks mode to Stan Livingston and Scot Eddy for their help.
Last chance for price reduction on the 2050 type modems. See Dave Schoenwetter for sign up sheet. Prices starting to rise on many items.
Rec Secty note: REGULAR MEMBERSHIP DUES are pro-rated….if you owe or bring in dues for a friend, the dues are from July to July. Overpayment, if done by check will be credited towards next years dues. If your dues were due two months ago, then you owe from that month until next July. We are trying to get every one paying as of July. Next year, many have dues coming due before July, in the interest of saving the Financial Secretary’s sanity, please check by April 1985 as to when your dues are due, and then have your check for your dues in the FinanCial Secretary’s hands by July. Thank you for your cooperation.
Dave Schoenwetter demonstrated his handmade serial /centronics I/F which he had hooked up to Gary Ennis’ Gemini 10X printer, and a modem which ran tapes of previously recorded BBS messages. Dave gave an idea of the problems of designing and building the I/F, plus he gave an overview of the local BBS’s, their ops and pluses.
John Sims,Trustee, gave a couple reviews of recent books he had found, three he liked were “The Sinclair 2000 Explored”,”THe Working 2068″ and “50 Programs for the 2068”.
Wes Brzozwski talked on the Spectrum ROM and the potential for all the Spectrum programs on the market being used in the 2068. Wes had a copy of the emulator sold by the Triangle User Group. He also had the Spectrum ROM mounted so it could plug into the command cartridge port. With a small (4 byte) MC program loaded in off tape, he could switch via software the Spectrum ROM on and off. Wes had ordered several books and programs direct from England and had received all, at about half the price being advertised by commerical outlets in the USA. Using a Color monitor and running “Manic Miner” and “Sabre Wulf”, one could appreciate the programming quality that goes into the English programs. You can just drool over some of the programming effects that they had with the Spectrum.
We won’t mention Gary’s trip home, ok gang?