Compukit UK101 Simulation Reviews

This is the most brilliant simulation of an excellent machine. The memories came flooding back of queuing to buy my cardboard box of a motherboard and chips with the promise of ROMs. I built the computer the next day and waited impatiently for the ROMs that would take six weeks to arrive. I was in heaven. I went from never touching more than a calculator to writing programs in basic, assembly and machine code. Practical Electronics was a great source of games such as the text based 3D Star Trek and I purchased a bunch of games on tape. I wrote my own but never had the nerve to actually sell them. I did design a memory expansion board with a friend but as we ordered the samples to be made loads appeared in the magazines and we gave up. From “Exchange and Mart” (forerunner to the Internet) I bought an American Teletype machine all driven internally by solenoids and wrote in assembler code a printer driver to set up each character and operate the various carriage and paper movements. I once typed out the text from a UK101 dungeons and dragons game and it took all day. I wrote a block-move program (no DMA chip then) to read and write to tape allowing space invaders to load in a couple of minutes and then upgraded the tape interface to a staggering 2400 baud with no errors on a Sony electronically controlled tape drive I bought in an auction for £12. I added colour and sound with construction kits and added the brilliant Watford Electronics ROM that gave proper error codes, on screen editing and a true 32 line display similar to a Commodore PET. Why do people think that Sinclair invented affordable domestic computing as a hobby in 1980? I changed my job to work in IT and over the next 34 years have gone from the UK101 to BBC model B, CP/M, MSDOS, QB45, Molecular n/Star, Novell, Windows and now back to the UK101. What we need is the Watford Electronic WeMon ROM image and a loads more games. I will see what I can find on eBay... Well done Tim Baldwin on a fantastic job.

I had a Compukit UK101 when I was about 14. My Dad brought it home from work at the Building Research Establishment in Garston, Herts. I remember Hectic and New York Taxi particularly. I am seriously looking forward to see If I can get this to run at home. Many thanks for all the effort which must have gone into it. Just one thing though. Is there anywhere in the manual which explains what the various memory locations are for which are used by POKE and PEEK BASIC statements. Will add more feedback when I have got the program running.