Hecka chonk

Continuing my look at Eastern European (mostly) Sinclair ZX Spectrum clones, here’s… this.

“This” is about as far as I got in identifying this machine. It has no markings or labeling whatsoever. The keyboard makes it pretty clear it’s a Spectrum clone, but other than that, I have no clue.

The first thing you notice when you pick this machine up is the weight. The device isn’t huge. The closest size comparison I can find in my collection is the Commodore Plus/4. The Plus/4, a smidge less than 3 lbs (2 lbs 15 and 3/4 oz if you’re picky), or 1365g. The Thing is a whopping 4 lbs 2 oz, or 1890g. I suppose it’s not literally that heavy, but it feels like you’re picking up a brick.

The machine is constructed of fairly thick plastic. It has a crack along the top edge, so it’s not exactly built like a tank (although you should have seen the person it landed on). There’s a red power LED in the top left and a speaker grille in the top right.

The keyboard is the main feature. It’s surrounded by a metal frame and consists of a 4 x 10 grid of identically sized keys. The key labels appear behind circular cutouts in the tops of the keys. The Caps Shift, Symbol Shift, Enter, and Break/Space keys are dark orange. The other keys all have yellow labels.

Because the labels are seen through a circular cutout on the key, the label isn’t able to use the full size of the key. This is unfortunate because the labels use the “black bar in the middle” layout which I think is a terrible use of space. The text for the special commands which appear at the top and the bottom of the keys is tiny. I know my eyes aren’t what they were, but I suspect most people would struggle to read them.

One positive note is that they didn’t try to fit Cyrillic characters on the keys in addition to the standard letters. While that would presumably beneficial for the user, I think even the letters on the keys would become almost decipherable.

Let’s take a look around, shall we?

To be honest, there’s nothing to see on the front or sides of this machine, but for completeness, here they are.

As always, the real action happens on the back.

Well, all things are relative, aren’t they? Starting on the left, there’s a momentary switch which I assume is a reset button. Next to that are three unmarked DIN sockets. They’re all 5-pin DINs so setting things up is a bit of an adventure I’m sure. Presumably, they are for the cassette recorder, display, and maybe a joystick. Fortunately, none of them are the power connection. It is (or was) a fixed cable connection on the far right. There are also some ventilation holes.

When you first open the case, you’re faced with the keyboard, which connects to the mainboard via a couple of ribbon cables.

Now here’s where the “Hecka chonk” title for this post came from. Just look at the size of these things! No dainty keycap on top of a switch here. These are full-on plastic bricks. I’ve never seen a keyboard like this.

The other side of the keyboard is pretty chunky. I think the wiring could be reasonably described as being on the robust side. I think a fencing contractor and welder may have collaborated on this. Bloody marvelous!

The rest of the insides are interesting…

Up top, there is the power supply with a handy user-accessible fuse. Then there’s what appears to be a ginormous heat sink. After the wiring for the rear connectors, there’s a pretty grim-looking speaker.

The mainboard is - different. The left-hand side seems to contain a fairly standard Spectrum clone layout. I’m guessing that the big green empty socket is where the Z80 (or equivalent) would be. It looks like a couple of EPROMs next to that in the green sockets.

The right-hand third of the board is completely empty. I’d love to know what this was intended to be used for. Is it possible that some other processor could be supported? Was it a spot for a floppy disk controller? I’m not sure we’ll ever know, because this machine is a bit of a mystery…

Even the underside of the case is completely blank, other than more ventilation holes. Nothing embossed on the case, and if there was ever a label, it’s long gone. It’ll have to remain a mystery for now, but I’m happy I have it, if for nothing other than that amazing keyboard.