"Microdata" No. 2 from 1984

A Norwegian review of the MTX500 (Courtesy of Yngve Kristiansen). Yngve has run the review through Google Translate to convert it into English and I have made the text available here. The translation will not be perfect and I have made a few minor corrections, although not speaking Norwegian, there are probably many more errors. If you can make any corrections, please let me know and I will update the article.

[Manual corrections by me, and other words that I have no idea about!]

In these days when the prices of microcomputers falls almost daily and the news comes almost every day, it's a big company that introduces their new computer. Memo Tech is perhaps best known as a manufacturer of accessories to the ZX 81 and ZX Spectrum. Now the company has abandoned them, and started to produce their own on computer, the Memo Tech MTX-500.

By Bord Haugerud

When all the other computer manufacturers seem to fight over producing the cheapest machine, one with both sound and colour, Memo-tech has made a computer that will not stain any computer desk. In England costs the £275, and I'm afraid it means that it will cost over 3500 Norweigian Krone.

The appearance of the MTX-500. Actually similar to the more a 16 bit forretningsoompu- ter than a hjemmedatama- skin. At first glance the MTX resembles the SM1, Memotech's business computer. The MTX-500 is actually a smaller version of this.

KEYBOARD

The keyboard is well built and put in a solid large aluminum enclosure. The machine is so wide because it also contains 12 numeric keys and 8 function keys to the right of the main keyboard. The quality of the keys lives up to the look. They have a professional and solid feel, and the touch typist will quickly feel at home with the keys. Word processing will be as one game. The keys are much better than keys on the Commodore 64 but there is also a small minus point - the RETURN key is very widely used, but only slightly larger than the other keys. It should have like the Commodore 64's RETURN key.

CONNECTIONS

At the back of the machine are the usual connections for: Power, TV and cassette player (mic and ear). There are also connections for monitor, Centronics parallel printer and two joy- sticks. All Atari Joysticks can be used and work so that they emulate kursortastene. It means that one does not need to purchase more expensive options to use the computer for games. The RS-232 interfaces are also found on the back and on the left is the cartridge port.

The processor in the MTX-500 is a Z80A at 4MHz, which also is used by Sinclair in their ZX Spectrum computers.

CP / M

Perhaps most importantly, the Z80A processor allows CP / M programs. Since programs written on a CP / M machine can be used on an- tion, this opens [the door] to a large collection of forretningspro- programs. Memotech have also introduced their  colour CP / M floppy disk system and an 80 character card.

A communication board will be necessary to use CP / M programs. The card fits inside the machine, and the RS-232 interface can communicate at a rate of up to 19,200 band. A typical cassette player can be used for storage of programs and data. Transfer speed is 2400 band which is fast compared with other home computers.

RAM

The MTX-500 comes with 32K RAM and MTX-512 has 64K RAM available for applications. Up to two additional internal memory cards can be connected, and it expands the machines with 32K, 64K, l28K or 256K RAM. The price for the l28K is £150 including VAT.

GRAPHICS AND COLOURS

The Mernotech MTX-500 has four different graphics modes: 40 characters and 24 lines with multi-colour, 64 X 48 pixel with colour and Graphics I and II with 256 X 192 pixel and colour. The colours available are: White, gray, black Iysegrønn, green, dark- green, pale yellow, yellow, pink, red, dark red, light blue, tender- Keble and violet.

The Graphics options are great and the machine's sprite graphics surprised me greatly. One can have up to 32 different sprites on the screen simultaneously and these are independently of each other. With alcohol (have we found Andy Key's secret?) can make super BASIC games which are quite fast.

ROM

If you look into the machine, it has three 8K ROM that total 24K of ROM. There are more than any hjemmedatama- skin with exception of BBC Model B and its springs Electron. To add to the BASIC and Operating System ROMs, there is an assembler and dis-assembler. It will probably please many Z80 machine code programmers. MTX BASIC is quite powerful and has approx. 120 commands including sound and graphics commands. ROM can also be expanded to 72K with one Cartridge. A Pascal ROM is almost ready for MTX-500.

A FAST MACHINE

In English computerblacler have seen ads for MTX-500 with a sports car background to make it look quick. After some tests were run I learned that Memo Tech's BASIC is approx. 30 percent faster than Commodore 64's. MTX-500 is only 2 percent slower than the BBC Model B in calculations and output. The MTX-500 may also using a Z80B CPU. The difference between the Z80A and Z80B is the latter ones processor speed at 6MHZ. This means that MTX will be the fastest home computer on the market.

SCREEN

Screen, when you turn on machine is blue with white text. The screen was "steady" and characters were clear at quite long distance, even though it was a TV that was used, also in høygrafikk MODE screen was nice and one could clearly distinguish the different colours of screen. When a sprite came høygrafikk screen, they had a tendency to float slightly when they collided with other høygrafikkobjekter.

All BASIC commands can be entered with only two signs and it is necessary to leave a gap between the BASIC abbreviation and the rest.

Editing parameters are large, and command AUTO 200, 5 will start auto-line numbering on line 200 with 5 line spaces. Unlike the Commodore 64 where one must point addresses to høygrafikk and sprites, the MTX-500 only one command SPRITE followed by a number between 0 and 31. Høygrafikk is also easy to with DRAW x, PLOT X, Y, PAPER, INK, CRS, CRVS, ATTR, CIRCLE X, Y, R, LINE X, Y, X, Y and ARC X.

The MTX-500 can make very good games due the large speed and mulighezen for machine code.

To use the graphics commands similar to LOGO's commands. The Included also "Turtle Graphics".

NODDY

Memo Tech have also made a new computer language, . The language is very easy to learn, and beginners will have no difficulty in programming in Noddy. There are only 8 commands one must learn to use << Noddy >>. To call up the language, use the PLOD  command.

SOUND

Sound is something that is important on a computer, but on many home computers is hard to use because of many commands. This is not case with the MTX-500. The sound card is a Texas Instrument chip which has three channels and a noise channel. The sound comes through the modulator to speaker on the TV, but it is also possible to send the sound to a stereo. The sound is clear and resonant, and it should only take a few commands to play a melody. I compare the sound between my own CBM64 and the MTX-500. The result was better in Commodores favour but the CBM64 need you to poke all sounds and it is very cumbersome. The MTX use one just SOUND command to produce sounds (and noises).

MACHINE CODE

The MTX-500 is also a good Machine for those who can read machine code. Machine code of MTX is stored in special code lines in BASIC. To use the machine code in a BASIC program one must use the command ASS.n, each n is the line number location of the machine code.

CONCLUSION

The MTX-500 is a well designed and built computer. With a price of 275 pounds you get much data for money. It has a professional look and the keyboard is amazing, this may cause it to become popular ferretningscomputrer. In addition, the CP / M disk makes it very very powerful. I did not tried a few games, but they will probably soon appear on the market One thing that is certain is that MTX-500 will be a tough competitor to the Commodore 64, Electron, SHARP and MZ700 and not least Acorn's BBC Model B; It may also be it can compete with larger machines due to major development alternatives and the great speed.