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Silicon Mountain Computers

Owner(s): Fred Nachbaur
C-12 Mountain Station, Nelson BC Canada V1L 5P1

Silicon Mountain Computers was owner Fred Nachbaur’s second Sinclair-focused company. This company specialized in “never-before-seen” hardware and software for the Sinclair ZX81 family, including the Timex 1000, 1500 and the PC8300 clone.

Fred’s goal was to “provide the best hardware and software ever created for these machines.”

Unlike SyncWare, Silicon Mountain products pushed the Sinclair ZX81 to its limits with a bare minimum of additional hardware. Many of the programs only required an 8K static memory board and Wilf Rigter’s WRX 16 hi-res software.

Fred passed along all the software to Jim Horne, who sold it under Insomniac Electronics, in 1988.

Products

Name Description Computers
Bargain Pak #1 Includes BLACKJACK, HI-RES CHESS, and INVADERS. Arcade action, casino fun, and thought-provoking entertainment all on one inexpensive tape. 16K. Timex/Sinclair 1000
Bargain Pak #2 Programs enhanced by Greg C. Harder. High resolution versions of Voyage of the Seawitch, Blockbuster and Spirogram. 16K. Timex/Sinclair 1000
Bargain Pak #3 Programs enhanced by Greg C. Harder. High resolution math pack, including Fourier and Julia-FPP. 16K. Timex/Sinclair 1000
Dungeon of Ymir High resolution, “Dungeons and Dragons” graphic adventure game, Rogue-like. Travel to the ninth level of the Dungeon of Ymir to retrieve the Sword of Kaslo and save your village from certain doom. The dungeon is crawling with 16 types of monsters, 124 in all. Some are easy to vanquish, some are mean. A wide range Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 1500
High-Res Blackjack Blackjack program written in SRAM HI-RES Extended BASIC. The game logic was adapted from a similar game Fred had written earlier for the first “TRS-80 Pocket Computer.” Timex/Sinclair 1000, Downloadable
High-Res Chess Upgrade Upgrade to Psion Chess. Big board display showing all chess pieces as they should look. Messages printed in 64 column characters on left. Comes with instructions on modifying original Psion Chess. Uses WRX16 Hi-Res routines. Timex/Sinclair 1000
HIGH*RES Mandlebrot-FFP Program to implement the Mandelbrot Set using SRAM HI-RES Extended BASIC. 16K. Timex/Sinclair 1000, Downloadable
HR*Copy Print high-resolution graphics to 9-pin dot matrix printers like the Epson, C. Itoh and others. Timex/Sinclair 1000
IF/Firmware Card Low-footprint card to replace original interface of Westridge/Timex 2050 modems. 26-pin header connects to modem and includes 8K EPROM socket. Through-connector for peripheral chaining. Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 2068
M1* Adaptor Small board to make RAM above 32K available for machine language. ULA plugs into this board, which corrects the M1 NOT memory addressing problem. Timex/Sinclair 1000
Macro-Life Adapted by Gregory C. Harder from the Spectrum program by Toni Baker. High resolution version of Conway’s Game of Life. Programmed in SRAM HI*RES Extended BASIC. 16K. Timex/Sinclair 1000, Downloadable
PC8300 Timex ROM Custom adaptation of the Timex/Sinclair 1000 ROM for the Lambda 8300 computer. Adapted by Fred Nachbaur, the replacement EPROM came in a 2764, a 28-pin device (several additional pins were necessary for programming EPROMs). The PC8300 ROM was a 24-pin 8K ROM. In order to fit the replacement EPROM to the PC8300, several pins were Lambda 8300, Downloadable
SCRAM Board Improved version of Hunter board. Comes with battery-backup to make memory non-volatile. Developed with Larken Electronics to support Silicon Mountain’s WRX-16-based high-resolution software. Mapped in the 8K from 8-16K block. Can be re-mapped to 16-24K or 24-32K. Three SCRAM boards can provide 24K RAM for the ZX81 or 40K for the TS 1500. BOARD ENABLE Timex/Sinclair 1000
SCRAM-Wich SCRAM board with two 8K static RAM chips, mapped to the normal 16-32K RAM region. Top 8K can be switched out in 2K blocks, allowing you to keep machine-code above RAMTOP. Timex/Sinclair 1000
SMC CPI-1 Printer Interface Updated version of Tasman B printer interface with more decoding to improve compatibility with both TS 1000 and TS 2068 computers. Timex/Sinclair 1000
SRAM Hi*Res Extended BASIC Thirty-eight new commands extend graphic capabilities of ZX81/TS 1000 in 4K machine-code routine package. Features include upper/lower case, 64-column mode, user-defined graphics, sprites, plotting commands, windows and faster tape speeds/load. Incorporates Wilf Rigter’s WRX16 routines. Requires 8K RAM in the 8-16K region. Timex/Sinclair 1000, Downloadable
The Terminal Complete (hardware and firmware) communications package. Consists of 2050 modem, modem interface/firmware card, and ZX-TERM*80 EPROM. Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 2068
Universal Printer Driver Supports printing to via wide variety of printer interfaces and printers. 16K. Timex/Sinclair 1000
Year at a Glance Year-at-a-Glance calculates any year between 1800-2099, showing the whole year on a single screen. Press “M” to give the month legends, “D” for day-of-the-week. Move the cursor around the calendar to highlight any date, then press ENTER: you’re shown your appointments or other significant events for that date. Move the cursor to a non-date field, Timex/Sinclair 1000, Downloadable
ZX-TERM*80 Terminal program that offers 40, 60 and 80-column mode on the ZX81/TS 1000. Supports data transfers, full ASCII support, printer support and more. Requires M1 NOT adapter. 32K or more RAM recommended. Also available on EPROM for use with the IF/Firmware Card. Timex/Sinclair 1000, Downloadable

Books

Periodicals

Downloads

Name Description Computers
PC-8300 Timex ROM Lambda 8300

Articles

Title Description Computers
"All The News Fit to Print" Arctan Computer Ventures offers programs for ZX81/TS1000 users; E. Arthur Brown has exclusive publishing rights to The Hacker’s Handbook; Dungeon of Ymir version three available; Money Machine II available; Soundesign and Tracer available from RMG; replacement SCLDs from Capitol Area Timex/Sinclair Users Group; Tomahawk from Knighted Computers; ROMON for Sinclair QL; Zebra Systems purchased the Sinclair QL, Sinclair ZX81, Timex/Sinclair 1000
A ZX-TERM*80 Quirk Timex/Sinclair 1000
Add a Full Size Printer to Your System Overview of printer interface options for the TS1000/ZX81. Sinclair ZX81, Timex/Sinclair 1000
For Your Support Announcement of version 2.5 of ZX-TERM*80, version 3 of SRAM Hi-Res Extended BASIC from Silicon Mountain Computers. Timex/Sinclair 1000
For Your Support AN-TO Productions is marketing QUICKEY 2068 keyboard overlays. Overlays are available for the following programs: AccuDraw T2, Artworx v1.1, Tasword/Tasprint, Mscript (regular and V5) and Omnicalc II. There is also a key finder and a blank overlay for your own programs. Bill Bell announces the availability of an Oliger Video Version of BBDOS for the Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 2068
Forum Random Access From Our Readers (short tips, suggestions and requests from readers) Silicon Mountain Computers to Close Doors Cedric Bastiaans, SWN Author, Dies Late News on Cleveland 1988 Mid West T/S Conference A Plug for SNUG Missing Person Report Truth or Consequences Further Info on that “Other” PC (IQ8300 is same as PC8300, Power 3000) Cambridge Z88, Lambda 8300, Timex/Sinclair 2068
High-Res Blackjack for the ZX81/TS1000/TS1500 High resolution graphics version of Blackjack using Silicon Mountain’s SCRAM Hi*Res Extended Basic and non-volatile RAM board. Sinclair ZX81, Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 1500
PC8300 ROM Upgrade Review of replacement ROM written by Fred Nachbaur. Lambda 8300
Product News Catalogs from Silicon Mountain Computers, Byte-Back, JRC Software. Service manuals from Sams Computerfact. RAMEX discontinues support for 2068 and Millenia K disk systems.
Sinclair Survival Column Fourth annual year-end wrap up. Notes about products from Silicon Mountain Computers, Pixel Sketch & Graphics Editor and Pixel Print Desktop Publisher from Stan Lemke. Timex/Sinclair 1000, Timex/Sinclair 2068
Timex Tidbits Lambda 8300, Sinclair QL, Timex/Sinclair 2068
ZX81 News & Resources AERCO and Larken disk systems for ZX81/TS 1000 available. Reports on difficulties with Mini XMOD. Silicon Mountain Computer products discussed. Timex/Sinclair 1000

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