Cheryl Ladd on ZX81

Anything Sinclair ZX Basic related; history, development, tips - differences between BASIC on the ZX80 and ZX81
itguyinaction
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Cheryl Ladd on ZX81

Post by itguyinaction »

Hello guys!

Welcome to everyone.

I've found one interesting story about ZX81. British station broadcasted on radio the program for ZX81 which was drawing Cheryl Ladd (sure in black and white and in low resolution). Do you know anything more about this story?

And the most important, is that possible to get a copy of this piece of software? The best in the format which could be run by emulator. I tried to find the copy of this program but no success. I know that it was also created for BBC Mikro. So perhaps someone has a copy for this computer?

Regards
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stefano
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Re: Cheryl Ladd on ZX81

Post by stefano »

Radio West, in Bristol.
they pioneered the software broadcasting over standard radio channels. . (which happened locally in many places around the world) .
https://lulz.com/how-people-used-to-dow ... dio-10302/
https://gigazine.net/gsc_news/en/201811 ... rom-radio/
https://archive.org/search.php?query=da ... ol&sin=TXT

I remember a program in BASIC in an italian magazine in the eighties for a Sinclair computer using PRINT, PAUSE and graphics symbols to build a Marilyn Monroe lo-rez image.

I suppose you could do this stuff with a millimeter-grid printed paper sheet and a bit of work to type the right symbols
itguyinaction
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Re: Cheryl Ladd on ZX81

Post by itguyinaction »

Thanks a lot for this help.

Concerning re-creating this picture program, theoretically it's possible but you will never be sure how close this reconstruction would correspond to the real one. Thus I would prefer to get a real one but it's so challenging...
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stefano
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Re: Cheryl Ladd on ZX81

Post by stefano »

sure. the picture I found is probably for the BBC Micro.
The original files are surely in some forgotten tape of the zx81 users in Britain, but I had a similar bad surprise when I looked for the zx spectrum programs which were broadcasted in Italy (RAI radiotext): nobody remembered them because they were just interesting basic programs, where everybody was rather interested in copying and sharing professionally written games.
the historical interest is quite recent :D


EDIT: for the record the few RADIOTEXT Spectrum programs I could gather from my uncle 's tape were put online by 'flydream' here: https://zxspectrum.hal.varese.it/italiani100.htm
Last edited by stefano on Sat Jun 12, 2021 10:21 am, edited 1 time in total.
itguyinaction
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Re: Cheryl Ladd on ZX81

Post by itguyinaction »

I guess the same. ZX81 had lower resolution than BBC Micro. However I found one inconsistency. In these press articles they are saying about resolution 40x80 however that doesn't fit well neither for ZX81 nor BBC Micro.

Moreover I tried to make the following trick using GIMP. I cut it to have just one picture, next I scaled to 40x80 and next to black and white picture (or greyscale as second option although looking on possibilities of both computers it should be rather just black and white). It can be done really quickly and somehow corresponds to this reconstruction idea. However the final image looks so awful that I don't believe it looked like that originally. Either I should have better picture than the one from that newspaper from your links as input.

Concluding the only option is to find someone having old tape somewhere on the shelf with this program....
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stefano
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Re: Cheryl Ladd on ZX81

Post by stefano »

for what I remember of the Marilyn Monroe case, the picture was.. the way you can imagine it!

I did the same experiment for that case, to make it recognizable you must zoom a portion of the face a lot
itguyinaction
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Re: Cheryl Ladd on ZX81

Post by itguyinaction »

Let's count that someone has this old program in his/her resources... :o
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1024MAK
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Re: Cheryl Ladd on ZX81

Post by 1024MAK »

Good luck with your hunt.

As well as home computer programs being broadcast via radio stations, some of the U.K. television stations also broadcast home computer programs. I remember Channel Four broadcasting ZX Spectrum programs via the TV audio in a show on I think Sunday mornings.

One problem is that I fear the number of listeners that actually recorded and kept these programs that were broadcast was never huge. And the number of people active now is a very small fraction of the number of people that were active in the early to mid 1980s.

I mean, I live in a town that was covered by Radio West (one of only two independent/commercial radio stations that I could receive) and until reading the links provided earlier, I was not even aware that this radio station even had a show about home computing! :shock: If only I had known (although it would not have helped here, as I did not have a ZX81 back then, but I may have recorded the BBC Micro programs for use on the machines at school).

Even with the computer programs broadcast on the TV, I only ever tried to record some of them. And not all worked. Even though I was into electronics, that knowledge is of limited use if there is only one TV in the house and it does not have a line out or headphone out socket. Meaning the shoebox cassette recorder has to be held at just the right distance from the TV loudspeaker with the TV volume control set just right….

On the subject of the block graphics resolution, 40 x 80 is not one that I recognise. So either it is for a machine that I am not familiar with. Or the numbers have been remembered incorrectly or have been mixed up.
The ZX81 resolution, as everyone here knows, for text it is officially 32x24 characters, with the block graphics being 64x48.
The BBC Micro MODE 7 (teletext) resolution is 40 x 25 for characters and control codes. The effective block graphics is however 78 × 75, and the control codes allow seven colours plus black (link).

Mark
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itguyinaction
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Re: Cheryl Ladd on ZX81

Post by itguyinaction »

If you have this Cheryl Ladd program for BBC Micro it would be great. Could you check? :D

Yeah concerning resolution I know that computer resolutions were different so that's why I'm wondering why on some webpages they mention this 40x80 pixel resolution... From where does it comes from...?
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1024MAK
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Re: Cheryl Ladd on ZX81

Post by 1024MAK »

itguyinaction wrote: Sat Jun 12, 2021 11:28 am If you have this Cheryl Ladd program for BBC Micro it would be great. Could you check? :D
Sorry, you misunderstood what I said (or what I intended to say). If I had known about the radio broadcast, then I may have recorded the BBC Micro programs, but I did not know about it, hence I did not record anything from the radio any home computer.

I will however put up a post on the Acorn forum (called StarDot) and ask.

Mark
ZX81 Variations
ZX81 Chip Pin-outs
ZX81 Video Transistor Buffer Amp

:!: Standby alert :!:
There are four lights!
Step up to red alert. Sir, are you absolutely sure? It does mean changing the bulb :!:
Looking forward to summer later in the year.
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