Hi Everyone. This time Retro Relix reviews, fixes and tests some modern mods on the 1983 MTX range of computers from Memotech. Although not everything went to plan, we still managed to showcase some of the great mods out there and play some games. Enjoy...
Oooooh! anything with an assembler on board has to be ACE! My friend had one but I never got to program it... I missed out! A machine with a Z80 assembler would have really complemented my other mate's BBC with it's built-in 6502 assembler. That would have truly been the best of both worlds.
It's fun to see and hear the MTX500 in action, because my only other exposure to this computer was seeing a photo of it in a magazine back in the day. Gorgeous case design. It's kind of surprising to see how primitive and simplistic the games are... such a contrast to the upscale look of the case. Upon its release the Memotech was already outclassed by the dowdy, beige plastic, ergonomically-challenged breadbin Commodore64 with its powerful SID chip, 64K ram (38K available for BASIC), and price/performance value.
Cool, i remember when this was launched and had a look at one at Olympia back in what? Must be around 1984, it had some pretty funky expansions, I remember them showing something with must have been 4096 colours from an expansion box it was connected to, this was way before the Amiga came on the scene so people were pretty astounded by it at their stand. Never actually used one beyond that and certainly no-one I knew ever had one. It's interesting to note that a lot of the games were pretty basic even by the standards of back then. I knew memotech had to get out of the peripheral space as that was going nowhere, but they came into what was even then a very crowded market. I've been collecting a bunch of old machines recently to play with stuff like it's the early 80s! The MTX is somewhat out of the budget I'm willing to pay so impressed that you went and got a second one!!!! Interesting video about it.
Really enjoyed this video, and it was good to see some games played on a system you don't often see games on . There was some interesting mods to the mtx 500 but he left a few unanswered questions .. no doubt this video will make a good point of reference for people who wish to do the same , thanks for taking the time to make a really good informative video .
Their memory expansions for the ZX81 were SO much more stylish than the official Sinclair "brick". And then they brought out this absolute beauty. I never got to program one (My mate Lee had one but I never played with it). We used to say that it was "a real computer" because it made a "pang" noise when you flicked it not the usual dull plastic "thud". I'd forgotten the built-in assembler! Imagine having one of these AND a BBC Micro... Z80 and 6502 assemblers! SO nice! No more hand-assembly with a pad of squared paper and a pen.
Had one of these with all the addons - floppy drive, CP/M system, and some device that I think made it semi Spectrum compatible. Great hardware (built like a tank), especially the BASIC - it's a souped up MSX basically. Picked it up at some sort of fire sale. Because I'm an idiot I gave it to my young brothers in law to play with.
Another excellent review. This system is fab, I'm not sure I'd ever heard of it before. I'm really impressed by some of its capabilities, and some of those games look great.
I still have my original 500 from the shop where I worked, which had a small stock of 500 and 512s. Built like a tank and had much promise. I did convert one of the games we made for it (Next War) but it was never released.
Pretty cool. Looks like a nice piece of kit - the display and colors are really nice. I had several of their Zeddy add-ons back in the day. Probably the best aftermarket products - better than Sinclair itself.
i so wanted one of these but they were like rocking horse shit , even on the Tottenham court road which back in the olden days was the place to get anything electronic
Given that the keyboard cable wires were broken, I really don't understand why you used a desoldering tool to remove the solder and remaining wire. A regular soldering iron and solder braid would have allowed the clean up of the board with a lot less damage to the pads, especially in view of the fact that the keyboard is using a single sided PCB. Interesting machine though. I like the way they split the software resources across the EPROMs (a little like the BBC Micro in that respect).
Is a text prompted voice used here? It’s quite robotic, with the beginning of sentences cutoff 😬 I’m also surprised that considering the MTX here had 512KB of system RAM, another 16KB of dedicated VRAM, dedicated and discrete video and sound chips. That the graphics and audio quality of this micro still doesn’t compare to the C64 of the same era. It’s a high quality gorgeous looking thing though. One of the best designed micros in that department anyway.
The Memotech's sound and graphics don't compare to the Atari 400/800 from 1979, but then again, the C64 wasn't much more advanced than the Ataris either, despite coming out 3 years later. At that time, in the UK, the C64 was the second most popular computer. Like the Memotech, it was initially priced quite high, out of the reach of many. CBM then slashed prices (and margins) to the bone, deliberately trying to kill off a good number of competitors in the process.
Hi, Retro Relix. I think you can try and break up this video into two in the middle: one for the 500 and one for the 512. I kind of lost attention halfway through the video.
I'm calling bullshit on the 14x speedup of the graphics capability. I stopped watching as soon as I saw that. If you're not willing to show what the actual experience of using this computer was like, don't bother with making a video about it🙄
![[UNCUT] "บอสณวัฒน์" แฉ! แหล่งซุกเงินแก๊งบอส ขยันผิดที่ไม่กี่ปีก็เข้าคุก l คนดังนั่งเคลียร์ l17ต.ค.67](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/BL56qIfXYZM/mqdefault.jpg)
Always thought this was such a beautiful looking Computer.
Agreed. Which due to the extra cost, probably didn’t contribute to its success :(
pretty nice looking
Hi Everyone. This time Retro Relix reviews, fixes and tests some modern mods on the 1983 MTX range of computers from Memotech. Although not everything went to plan, we still managed to showcase some of the great mods out there and play some games. Enjoy...
I still own one. Haven't looked at it for years. The assembler on board was awesome! I learned so much
Oooooh! anything with an assembler on board has to be ACE! My friend had one but I never got to program it... I missed out!
A machine with a Z80 assembler would have really complemented my other mate's BBC with it's built-in 6502 assembler. That would have truly been the best of both worlds.
My father used to make the cases at
H C Holified in Abingdon, i also owned one which i presumed my father got at a hefty discount 😊
It's fun to see and hear the MTX500 in action, because my only other exposure to this computer was seeing a photo of it in a magazine back in the day. Gorgeous case design. It's kind of surprising to see how primitive and simplistic the games are... such a contrast to the upscale look of the case. Upon its release the Memotech was already outclassed by the dowdy, beige plastic, ergonomically-challenged breadbin Commodore64 with its powerful SID chip, 64K ram (38K available for BASIC), and price/performance value.
Cool, i remember when this was launched and had a look at one at Olympia back in what? Must be around 1984, it had some pretty funky expansions, I remember them showing something with must have been 4096 colours from an expansion box it was connected to, this was way before the Amiga came on the scene so people were pretty astounded by it at their stand. Never actually used one beyond that and certainly no-one I knew ever had one. It's interesting to note that a lot of the games were pretty basic even by the standards of back then.
I knew memotech had to get out of the peripheral space as that was going nowhere, but they came into what was even then a very crowded market.
I've been collecting a bunch of old machines recently to play with stuff like it's the early 80s! The MTX is somewhat out of the budget I'm willing to pay so impressed that you went and got a second one!!!!
Interesting video about it.
Really enjoyed this video, and it was good to see some games played on a system you don't often see games on . There was some interesting mods to the mtx 500 but he left a few unanswered questions .. no doubt this video will make a good point of reference for people who wish to do the same , thanks for taking the time to make a really good informative video .
Their memory expansions for the ZX81 were SO much more stylish than the official Sinclair "brick". And then they brought out this absolute beauty. I never got to program one (My mate Lee had one but I never played with it). We used to say that it was "a real computer" because it made a "pang" noise when you flicked it not the usual dull plastic "thud".
I'd forgotten the built-in assembler! Imagine having one of these AND a BBC Micro... Z80 and 6502 assemblers! SO nice! No more hand-assembly with a pad of squared paper and a pen.
Had one of these with all the addons - floppy drive, CP/M system, and some device that I think made it semi Spectrum compatible. Great hardware (built like a tank), especially the BASIC - it's a souped up MSX basically. Picked it up at some sort of fire sale. Because I'm an idiot I gave it to my young brothers in law to play with.
Another excellent review. This system is fab, I'm not sure I'd ever heard of it before. I'm really impressed by some of its capabilities, and some of those games look great.
Such an elegant case shell design! Never heard of this computer before, it has some similarities with MSX1 computers.
Quality video mate.
what a strong case! great review, thanks.
I still have my original 500 from the shop where I worked, which had a small stock of 500 and 512s.
Built like a tank and had much promise. I did convert one of the games we made for it (Next War) but it was never released.
You should convert the game file to a sound file and make available to hobbyists to load. I can put you in touch with the Memofest team too.
I really wanted one of these at the time. Nice system, but the market was way overcrowded by the time it came out.
Pretty cool. Looks like a nice piece of kit - the display and colors are really nice. I had several of their Zeddy add-ons back in the day. Probably the best aftermarket products - better than Sinclair itself.
i so wanted one of these but they were like rocking horse shit , even on the Tottenham court road which back in the olden days was the place to get anything electronic
Thanks ! Nice video.
The hero computer in 1985's Weird Science ... it summed a girl ! Filmed in fall 1984.
a Memotech server! 😄
😂
Given that the keyboard cable wires were broken, I really don't understand why you used a desoldering tool to remove the solder and remaining wire. A regular soldering iron and solder braid would have allowed the clean up of the board with a lot less damage to the pads, especially in view of the fact that the keyboard is using a single sided PCB. Interesting machine though. I like the way they split the software resources across the EPROMs (a little like the BBC Micro in that respect).
Can it run zx spectrum software?
Is a text prompted voice used here? It’s quite robotic, with the beginning of sentences cutoff 😬 I’m also surprised that considering the MTX here had 512KB of system RAM, another 16KB of dedicated VRAM, dedicated and discrete video and sound chips. That the graphics and audio quality of this micro still doesn’t compare to the C64 of the same era. It’s a high quality gorgeous looking thing though. One of the best designed micros in that department anyway.
The Memotech's sound and graphics don't compare to the Atari 400/800 from 1979, but then again, the C64 wasn't much more advanced than the Ataris either, despite coming out 3 years later. At that time, in the UK, the C64 was the second most popular computer. Like the Memotech, it was initially priced quite high, out of the reach of many. CBM then slashed prices (and margins) to the bone, deliberately trying to kill off a good number of competitors in the process.
Hi, Retro Relix. I think you can try and break up this video into two in the middle: one for the 500 and one for the 512. I kind of lost attention halfway through the video.
you really need a hiss filter on your audio 😵
I'm calling bullshit on the 14x speedup of the graphics capability. I stopped watching as soon as I saw that. If you're not willing to show what the actual experience of using this computer was like, don't bother with making a video about it🙄
A totaly june if you can't be productive and only play...on dat...
Wtf for upgrade? . For games.. ?...a junk...just drop him in garbage recycle shit