Икар 64 (Icarus 64): Part 4
30This is a well-built "tank" of a ZX Spectrum clone .. or "household computer" (бытовой компьютер) ... running on a genuine Z80 that was first built in the Ukrainian SSR, and then independent Ukraine (1991-1993) ... as far as I can tell.
This particular machine is working but appears to have video synchronisation issues. As I've got two machines, I can see that this one has had some modifications made to it - I suspect these are causing my problems.
The modifications are made around a 256bit (32 x 8bit) PROM (a К155РЕ3) labelled "44" on the board. There's some other 256bit PROMs used around the board as well - have these been dumped?
Reverting the changes so it matches my first machine seemed to fix the issue.
Next I made up a simple cassette (or magnetophone ... "МГ") cable and was able to load "Sanxion - The Spectrum Remix (2023)" with no problems. Playing it via the touch keyboard wasn't so easy ... for me at least.
So next I'll look at connecting up joysticks.
It would be interesting to get a connector for the DB32 (?) expansion port ...
{Edit: researching the manual & schematics, that "DB32" port appears to be a parallel (printer) port ...
соединитель програмнио настраиваемого параллельного интерфейса
(Programmable Configurable Parallel Interface Connector)
And the connector type is ...
Х3 = Поземка РП15-32ГВФВ ГЕ0.364.160 ТУ}
Loads of information (link to archived files) can be found here:
https://www.xapkib.info/site.php?id=297
Other videos on the Icarus 64:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5pwokf56wML7hP6DnaWvj01D7IUqEIIh