TK90X v3 ROM (ZX Spectrum compatible) by Rodolfo Guerra

English Manual October 2021 - Montevideo, Uruguay

The ZX Spectrum ROM is copyright Amstrad PLC.

Amstrad have kindly given their permission for the redistribution
of their copyrighted material but retain that copyright.

WHAT IS TK90X?

The TK90X was the first Brazilian ZX Spectrum clone made in 1985 by Microdigital
Eletrônica, a company located in São Paulo, Brazil, that had manufactured some ZX81
clones (TK82C, TK83 and TK85) and ZX80 clones (TK80, TK82) before.

The case was a little taller than the original ZX Spectrum and the keyboard placement was
equal to the original keyboard, except for two additional commands that did not exist in
the Spectrums: UDG and TRACE (UDG for a very nice User-Defined Graphics Editor as well
as Portuguese and Spanish characters such as ç, ñ and accented vowels, located on the
place of £ symbol, and TRACE function for debugging purposes instead of ©).

The TK90X was followed by the TK95, which had a different keyboard and case (similar to
the Commodore Plus4) and exactly the same circuit board and schematics. The unit had
some differences on the ROM (v2) that made the TK95 more compatible with the original
ZX Spectrum software. Curiously, some games became incompatible due to this
modification. The D1 diode (originally included to select the default language on machines
sold in Brazil) was removed to improve compatibility.

During that period, Brazilians were not allowed to import computers and therefore the
TK90X became the first affordable color computer for Brazilians. It was exported to other
Latin America countries where it was very successful, especially in Uruguay but also in
Argentina.

TK90X TK95

WHAT IS ROM v3 AND WHY?

As a TK90X user at the time I always thought that the machine ROM changes were a real
improvement, although I would have liked to enhance the compatibility and make some
extra changes keeping the added features.
This is how ROM v3 was born, as a true alternative to update real and emulated TK90X and
TK95 computers and also (why not?) real ZX Spectrum and other clones.
OBJETIVES

• Incorporate improvements on the work that Microdigital did at this time.

• Preserve and respect the original code, adding the new features without removing
anything.
• Improve v1 compatibility and fix v2.
• Generate a stable and true alternative to update our machines.
• Internationalize the TK90X, translating the rom into multiple languages.

NEW FEATURES

• Improved compatibility: better than TK95 and much better than TK90X with ROM
v1.
• Replacement of £ and © characters instead of Σ and ) to improve compatibility with
programs that use them.
• Error messages in Spanish and Portuguese obtained from the TK90X v1 ROM, better
than TK95 messages.
• Faster keyboard reading speed.
• BASIC speed fixed (not like in TK95 ROM where certain processes run slower than
normal. Ex: BASIC LIST render is at least twice as fast than TK95).
• Unused error messages deleted (corresponding to the inactive language) and
dissociate the port 254 that was used as flag in v1 together with a diode to select
the default language.
• Flashing indicator of the BASIC current line.
• Extended BASIC Editor: when editing BASIC lines it is possible to move the cursor up
and down freely (without losing the possibility to move the current line pointer
between the numbers of previous and following lines).
• UDG Editor patched as in TK95 ROM (compatibility improvement, Match Day I and II
works fine).
• Native TURBO loading at 4000 bauds, automatically detects normal or TURBO
programs and support both, even alternatively.
• Renumbering BASIC tool, activated by RAND USR 14850.
• Special font charaters for Russian, German, Czech, Norwegian, Polish and Swedish
versions (Spanish and Portuguese via UDG 0 and UDG 1 commands).
• Available versions in 13 languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Romanian, Catalan,
English, Russian, German, Czech, Polish, Dutch, Norwegian and Swedish.

BOOT-UP SCREENS

TK90X (ROM v1 or v2) TK95 (ROM v2) TK90X (ROM v3), new boot-up screen
TK90X SYNTAX DIFFERENCES (FOR ZX SPECTRUM USERS)

UDG 0: activates the Portuguese characters set

UDG 1: idem with Spanish characters set
UDG 2: invokes the User-Defined Graphics Editor*
(to access UDG press SYMBOL SHIFT + X, the place of £ on the ZX Spectrum)

TRACE 1: enables the BASIC debugging facility

TRACE 0: disables it
(to access TRACE press CAPS SHIFT + SYMBOL SHIFT to activate EXTENDED MODE, then
press SYMBOL SHIFT + P, the place of © on the ZX Spectrum)

SOUND command instead of BEEP

GOTO, GOSUB, RAND, CONT instead of GO TO, GO SUB, RANDOMIZE, CONTINUE

Pound sterling “£” and Copyright “©” symbols cannot be entered directly from the
keyboard. Instead type PRINT CHR$ 96 for “£” and PRINT CHR$ 127 for “©”.

QUICK REFERENCE FOR UDG EDITOR (UDG 2)

*UDG 2 (the TK90X UDG Editor) UDG 0 enabled (portuguese set) UDG 1 enabled (spanish set)

A to U................................ ....... Select character

CAPS SHIFT + A to U...................... Copy character
EDIT.......................................... Clear character
INVERSE VIDEO............. ............... Invert character
CURSOR KEYS (5,6,7,8).................. Move around
CAPS SHIFT + CURSOR KEYS............ Bit to 1 and move
SYMBOL SHIFT + CURSOR KEYS......... Bit to 0 and move
CAPS SHIFT + 2, 3 or 9................... Bit to 1
SYMBOL SHIFT + 2, 3, 9.................. Bit to 0
DELETE...................................... Exit and back to Basic

As in the original Sinclair ZX Spectrum computer to save the UDGs you have to use the
following Basic sentence:

SAVE “filename”CODE USR “A”,168

NEW TURBO LOADING MODE

The new native TURBO mode allows you to load programs from .TZX files at 4000 bauds
aprox, reducing loading time considerably.

The original 1500 bauds mode still exists and is automatically selected when required. You
can even combine both modes alternately without problems.

Normal speed loading (blue and yellow stripes) New Turbo loading mode (black and white stripes)

The new Turbo Loading mode is automatically activated when you load an already
converted .TZX tape file. You can convert normal loading speed programs to TURBO using
the available command line converter named TZX2TURBO. Keep in mind that only
normal (unprotected) .TZX files can be converted.

If you plan to use TURBO files in Spectrum emulators, please select normal loading speed
(or INPUT REAL TAPE) option in the emulator (not instantaneous speed).

If you want to use a simple .TAP file (or anything other than .TZX), you will first have to
convert it to normal .TZX (there are several converters available), then you will have to
convert it to TURBO.

TZX2TURBO CONVERTER by Juan José Ponteprino

Usage is very simple:

tzx2turbo <in tzx file> <out tzx file>

TZX2TURBO command line converter

NOTE: New TURBO system is compatible with MULTI-LOAD games and also with TZXDuino
players.
LANGUAGES

There are 13 languages to choose from. The ROMs are identified by the 2-letter ISO 639-1
code that allows you to know which language they correspond to.

The language codes are:

CA - Catalan
CS – Czech
DE – German
EN – English
ES – Spanish
IT – Italian
NL – Dutch
NO – Norwegian
PL – Polish
PT – Portuguese
RO – Romanian
RU – Russian
SV – Swedish

Several languages require special characters (mainly Russian, but you will find them in
other languages as well). To check the available special characters you can run the
following program, which shows the complete font set:

Accents for Portuguese and Spanish (and maybe other languages) are directly supported
through “UDG 0” and “UDG 1” sentences respectively, just as it worked in the original
TK90X / TK95 ROMs.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Mario Villar Corbo from Uruguay: lots of help and smart ideas
Chivy Tayler from Uruguay: help with German translation and beta-testing
Hache Beroldo from Argentina: beta-testing
Juan José Ponteprino from Argentina: for his great TZX2TURBO converter
Rui F. Ribeiro from Portugal: info about the flag and diode to select the language
César Hernández Bañó from Spain: Catalan translation and beta-testing
...and a lot of people who helped me with this project!

CONTACT: [email protected]

WEBSITE: https://sites.google.com/view/rodolfoguerra

If you like this ROM please consider to make a donation to support

the development. You can use PAYPAL through the following link:

https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/reguerra71