Tim Holyoake

@timholyoake.uk

146 Followers 256 Following

RetroComputing. Liberal Democrat. Caterham 7 Owner. In remission from Mantle Cell Lymphoma. More often at https://oldbytes.space/@psychotimmy Blogs at https://z80.timholyoake.uk/ , https://mcl.timholyoake.uk/ & https://railwaywalks.timholyoake.uk/

A S5 Caterham 7 in a standard car park space.
An email from Brooklands Museum that reads: Hi there, You’re already part of the Brooklands story - whether that’s through a visit, an event, or simply discovering us along the way, but we realise that you don't appear to be subscribed to our newsletter to receive exciting updates. From stories of speed, flight and innovation to family days out, events, behind-the-scenes moments and hands-on experiences - there’s a lot we could share. Over the coming weeks, we’ll be introducing a refreshed newsletter - designed to bring you the most interesting, inspiring and relevant stories from Brooklands Museum.  There is no action required to receive our new newsletter. If you’d prefer not to hear from us, you can unsubscribe at any time using the link below.  Thanks for being part of Brooklands Museum - we’re glad you’re here.  Warm wishes,  The Brooklands Museum Team
A stone circle in Dolgellau, by a rugby and cricket pitch.
A bright yellow Caterham 7, parked at Otter Garden Centre, Ottery St Mary
A view of fields and a tree on the higher ridgeway, Ottery St Mary, Devon
Bluebells
Wooden bench covered in lichen in the Coleridge Medical Centre Grounds. The plaque reads: Donated to O.S.M. in memory of Princess Diana by the guiding and scouting associations
The end of a game of Reverse on the Pico MZ-700 emulator. The score was 59 to me, 5 to the computer.
River Otter, Ottery St Mary, Devon. The river is high, but not flooding.
A video showing the River Otter at Ottery St Mary from the footbridge. The river is 2-3 times its normal width and probably the same deep. It's flowing very rapidly towards Otter Mill in the background where the river makes a 90 degree turn right. This was taken around 3 hours after the peak.
Tar barrel night, Ottery St. Mary, November 2025. A lit barrel soaked in tar is carried through crowds of people.
A Sharp MZ-700, manufactured in 1983. It's a computer in a keyboard.
The bottom left of the image shows a Pico RomWBW computer in a brown wooden case. The output from it is shown on the screen in the background. It is just about to boot into CP/M.
St Mary's Church, Ottery St Mary, Devon. There is grass and gravestones in the foreground. The sky is cloudless and blue.
The Pico MZ-700 vs a real MZ-700
The home page for the Pico MZ, announcing that the new version 3.0.0 which includes MZ-700 emulation will be released in November 2025.
The intro screen for ZAT SOFTs 1982 MZ-700 game "Painful Man", by Snail, running on the PicoMZ. The previous player scored 2690, the high score is 5000. There's a block graphics blue and yellow snail in the bottom left corner.
A muddy desire path going straight on, where the actual path bends to the left around a tree.
A game of space invaders being played on the Pico MZ (MZ-700). The aliens are a mixture of yellow and cyan. The score is 0 with a high score of 0. 3 bases are left.
Knight's Space Invaders for the MZ-700 running on the development version of the Pico MZ.
Tar barrels on Paternoster Row. They are on fire and being carried through a large crowd.
Emulator output on the left - 8m 36s for the primes below 10,000. Real machine output on the right- 8m 34s for the same task.
The screen for the Pico MZ-700 is on the left, above the real MZ-700. The output for the real machine is on the right. They're both running endless prime number calculations using the same BASIC program. The emulator is currently too fast!
The keyboard of a Sharp MZ-80K with its unique 25 blue graphics keys
Pico MZ-700 emulator running my version of Moonlander. The spacecraft is just about to crash on Pluto and make a big crater.
The upper 255 characters of the Sharp MZ700. Blue characters on a yellow background.
Souvenir program for the Ottery St Mary tar barrels 2025. The cover shows a man engulfed in flames from carrying a lit tar barrel through the streets of the town.
Silver Street, Ottery St Mary, Devon.
The Pico MZ emulator showing the boot screen. It is white text on a blue background and reads MONITOR 1Z-013A, followed by a flashing block cursor
Sharp MZ700 monitor announces itself for the first time on my Pico mz platform. Colours are wrong, as is everything else, but it's a start.
A screenshot showing the github picomz-80k repository with a newly created branch called mz-700-emulation - an autumn / winter project!
A broken wooden spatula, caused by an over enthusiastic doggy desperate to read the latest Lib Dem literature. You can just see a tooth mark around an inch from the top.
Seven sleepy donkeys at the Sidmouth donkey sanctuary.
Ottery St Mary Silver Band playing "Una Paloma Blanca" or "I am a cider drinker". Take your pick!
A field of cows in Ottery St Mary
The tumbling weir, Ottery St Mary
My Sharp MZ-80K. Yellow keys on the bottom row, dark blue graphics keys.
Sharp MZ-80K with green cursor / space bar / carriage return keys.
The Pegasus display at the national museum of computing. There's a picture of the Pegasus when it was running at the science museum, a card noting that neither of the surviving examples are operational, 3 boards from a Pegasus and the book of the history of the machine.
Cadhay House
Old Town Hall, Ottery St Mary. Now the heritage museum.
Four Sharp MZ-80K language manuals. Express BASIC, SP-5025 BASIC, Z80 Machine Language and Sharp Pascal.
A page from a notebook explaining how DOGS ran in a window on the Whitechapel MG-1 workstation.
The Pico MZ-80K running on an RC2014 VGA card. The screen shows the Sharp Space Invader game in progress.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge statue, Ottery Church.
Tiverton Parkway was opened by David Mitchell MP on 12th May 1986. Some of the cobwebs on the roof look as if they've been there since then.
Sharp BASIC and unary minus ?-2 -2 ?--2 2 ?---2 1412 ?----2 139 ?-----2 143 ?------2 1553 ?-------2 280 ?--------2 284
Sharp BASIC for ?6/2(1+2) generates 3 and then a Syntax Error, ?6/2*(1+2) generate 9 as expected by the usual arithmetic conventions.
A page from the Sharp User's Club Software Manual 3, describing how logical operators work (or don't) in Sharp MZ series BASICs.
A game of Monster Chase in progress. The screenshot shows a grid of 30x16 characters. A dot represents a blank square, the yen symbol the monster and a stick figure is used for the player. * means a square has a gold piece on it. Currently, the player has made 5 moves, collected one gold piece and has a score of 1.
Yellow, red and blue Caterham 7s parked in a layby on the Black Mountain Road in the Brecon Beacons National Park, Wales. The twisty road is in the background.
Front page of "Liberal Democrat News", 13th May 2005. 21 newly elected MPs join 41 re elected MPs giving Charles Kennedy 62 MPs to lead.
The front page of "The Social Democrat", 15th June 1987. David Owen is quoted as saying "Whether the Alliance is in Governement on its own or with others, we will ensure a national coalition which will unite this nation"
A game of The Valley in progress on a RC2014.
A Maxell MD2 Mini-Floppy Disk in the original cardboard jacket. It contains programs for a RM380Z written in 1981/82.
The Pico MZ-80K/A hardware - demo base, Pico 2 and SD card
A Pico 2 on the VGA demo base, plus an SD card, ready to run the emulator
The dates of Easter Sunday for 2025 - 2035 inclusive, as calculated in BASIC by the PicoMZ80K/A
Chaddesden Wood. Owl statue in foreground, trees and bluebells in background
A game of draughts on the Pico MZ80K/A, running in MZ-80A mode.