The Sinclair ZX80 had a non-standard character set and many normal ASCII characters, including lowercase letters, were absent. The full ZX80 character set is listed below, with some annotation. |
Decimal Code | Hexadecimal Code | Character |
---|---|---|
0 | 00 | (Space) |
1 | 01 | " |
2 | 02 | block graphic |
3 | 03 | block graphic |
4 | 04 | block graphic |
5 | 05 | block graphic |
6 | 06 | block graphic |
7 | 07 | block graphic |
8 | 08 | block graphic |
9 | 09 | block graphic |
10 | 0A | block graphic |
11 | 0B | block graphic |
The ZX80 has 16 (including space and inverse space) 'block graphic' characters which consist of a character square divided into four smaller squares, with every combination of none, one, two, three or four of the small squares 'filled-in', as shown in the top two rows below. The six graphic characters in the bottom row are intended for drawing horizontal bar charts, with the 'chessboard' patterns giving a grey shade. | ||
12 | 0C | £ |
13 | 0D | $ |
14 | 0E | : |
15 | 0F | ? |
16 | 10 | (¹ |
17 | 11 | )¹ |
18 | 12 | -¹ |
19 | 13 | +¹ |
20 | 14 | *¹ |
21 | 15 | /¹ |
22 | 16 | =¹ |
23 | 17 | >¹ |
24 | 18 | <¹ |
25 | 19 | ;¹ |
26 | 1A | ,¹ |
27 | 1B | . |
28 | 1C | 0 |
29 | 1D | 1 |
30 | 1E | 2 |
31 | 1F | 3 |
32 | 20 | 4 |
33 | 21 | 5 |
34 | 22 | 6 |
35 | 23 | 7 |
36 | 24 | 8 |
37 | 25 | 9 |
38 | 26 | A |
39 | 27 | B |
40 | 28 | C |
41 | 29 | D |
42 | 2A | E |
43 | 2B | F |
44 | 2C | G |
45 | 2D | H |
46 | 2E | I |
47 | 2F | J |
48 | 30 | K |
49 | 31 | L |
50 | 32 | M |
51 | 33 | N |
52 | 34 | O |
53 | 35 | P |
54 | 36 | Q |
55 | 37 | R |
56 | 38 | S |
57 | 39 | T |
58 | 3A | U |
59 | 3B | V |
60 | 3C | W |
61 | 3D | X |
62 | 3E | Y |
63 | 3F | Z |
64 | 40 | not used |
65 | 41 | not used |
66 | 42 | not used |
67 | 43 | not used |
68 | 44 | not used |
69 | 45 | not used |
70 | 46 | not used |
71 | 47 | not used |
72 | 48 | not used |
73 | 49 | not used |
74 | 4A | not used |
75 | 4B | not used |
76 | 4C | not used |
77 | 4D | not used |
78 | 4E | not used |
79 | 4F | not used |
80 | 50 | not used |
81 | 51 | not used |
82 | 52 | not used |
83 | 53 | not used |
84 | 54 | not used |
85 | 55 | not used |
86 | 56 | not used |
87 | 57 | not used |
88 | 58 | not used |
89 | 59 | not used |
90 | 5A | not used |
91 | 5B | not used |
92 | 5C | not used |
93 | 5D | not used |
94 | 5E | not used |
95 | 5F | not used |
96 | 60 | not used |
97 | 61 | not used |
98 | 62 | not used |
99 | 63 | not used |
100 | 64 | not used |
101 | 65 | not used |
102 | 66 | not used |
103 | 67 | not used |
104 | 68 | not used |
105 | 69 | not used |
106 | 6A | not used |
107 | 6B | not used |
108 | 6C | not used |
109 | 6D | not used |
110 | 6E | not used |
111 | 6F | not used |
112 | 70 | not used |
113 | 71 | not used |
114 | 72 | not used |
115 | 73 | not used |
116 | 74 | not used |
117 | 75 | not used |
118 | 76 | not used |
119 | 77 | not used |
120 | 78 | not used |
121 | 79 | not used |
122 | 7A | not used |
123 | 7B | not used |
124 | 7C | not used |
125 | 7D | not used |
126 | 7E | not used |
127 | 7F | not used |
Character codes 64 to 127 print as ? The true question mark is code 15. | ||
128 | 80 | inverse space |
129 | 81 | inverse " |
130 | 82 | block graphic |
131 | 83 | block graphic |
132 | 84 | block graphic |
133 | 85 | block graphic |
134 | 86 | block graphic |
135 | 87 | block graphic |
136 | 88 | block graphic |
137 | 89 | block graphic |
138 | 8A | block graphic |
139 | 8B | block graphic |
See after code 11 for the forms of block graphics | ||
140 | 8C | inverse £ |
141 | 8D | inverse $ |
142 | 8E | inverse : |
143 | 8F | inverse ? |
144 | 90 | inverse ( |
145 | 91 | inverse ) |
146 | 92 | inverse - |
147 | 93 | inverse + |
148 | 94 | inverse * |
149 | 95 | inverse / |
150 | 96 | inverse = |
151 | 97 | inverse > |
152 | 98 | inverse < |
153 | 99 | inverse ; |
154 | 9A | inverse , |
155 | 9B | inverse . |
156 | 9C | inverse 0 |
157 | 9D | inverse 1 |
158 | 9E | inverse 2 |
159 | 9F | inverse 3 |
160 | A0 | inverse 4 |
161 | A1 | inverse 5 |
162 | A2 | inverse 6 |
163 | A3 | inverse 7 |
164 | A4 | inverse 8 |
165 | A5 | inverse 9 |
166 | A6 | inverse A |
167 | A7 | inverse B |
168 | A8 | inverse C |
169 | A9 | inverse D |
170 | AA | inverse E |
171 | AB | inverse F |
172 | AC | inverse G |
173 | AD | inverse H |
174 | AE | inverse I |
175 | AF | inverse J |
176 | B0 | inverse K |
177 | B1 | inverse L |
178 | B2 | inverse M |
179 | B3 | inverse N |
180 | B4 | inverse O |
181 | B5 | inverse P |
182 | B6 | inverse Q |
183 | B7 | inverse R |
184 | B8 | inverse S |
185 | B9 | inverse T |
186 | BA | inverse U |
187 | BB | inverse V |
188 | BC | inverse W |
189 | BD | inverse X |
190 | BE | inverse Y |
191 | BF | inverse Z |
The ZX80 normally displays black text on a white background. The inverse forms of characters reverse this, i.e. white characters in a black square. | ||
192 | C0 | not used |
193 | C1 | not used |
194 | C2 | not used |
195 | C3 | not used |
196 | C4 | not used |
197 | C5 | not used |
198 | C6 | not used |
199 | C7 | not used |
200 | C8 | not used |
201 | C9 | not used |
202 | CA | not used |
203 | CB | not used |
204 | CC | not used |
205 | CD | not used |
206 | CE | not used |
207 | CF | not used |
208 | D0 | not used |
209 | D1 | not used |
210 | D2 | not used |
211 | D3 | not used |
Character codes 192 to 211 print as ? | ||
212 | D4 | "¹ |
213 | D5 | THEN |
214 | D6 | TO |
215 | D7 | ; |
216 | D8 | , |
217 | D9 | ) |
218 | DA | ( |
219 | DB | NOT |
220 | DC | - |
221 | DD | + |
222 | DE | * |
223 | DF | / |
224 | E0 | AND |
225 | E1 | OR |
226 | E2 | ** The 'raise to a power' operator |
227 | E3 | = |
228 | E4 | > |
229 | E5 | < |
The 'less than' and 'greater than' symbols for codes 228 & 229 are shown the wrong way round in Appendix II of the ZX80 manual. | ||
230 | E6 | LIST |
231 | E7 | RETURN |
232 | E8 | CLS |
233 | E9 | DIM |
234 | EA | SAVE |
235 | EB | FOR |
236 | EC | GO TO |
237 | ED | POKE |
238 | EE | INPUT |
239 | EF | RANDOMISE |
240 | F0 | LET |
241 | F1 | not used prints as ? |
242 | F2 | not used prints as ? |
243 | F3 | NEXT |
244 | F4 | |
245 | F5 | not used prints as ? |
246 | F6 | NEW |
247 | F7 | RUN |
248 | F8 | STOP |
249 | F9 | CONTINUE |
250 | FA | IF |
251 | FB | GO SUB |
252 | FC | LOAD |
253 | FD | CLEAR |
254 | FE | REM |
255 | FF | not used prints as ? |
Most of the character codes from 213 to 255 are the BASIC keywords. They are stored within the program as a single byte but in listings they are expanded to full words, including a space before and after as necessary to improve readability. The system of storing BASIC's words is used because of the very small memory capacity of the unexpanded ZX80. 'PRINT ' would normally take up six bytes whereas character 244 is only one byte. Strangely though there are eight BASIC functions which are not assigned single-character codes. These are CHR$, STR$, TL$, PEEK, CODE, RND, USR & ABS, and must be typed in full. | ||
Note: Characters marked ¹ cannot be typed from the keyboard. E.g. character 212 will display as a double quote when printed via its code, but the double quote obtained from Shift Y has code 1. Similarly all characters with codes from 64 to 211 cannot be obtained from the keyboard. Reverse video letters can only be printed using the CHR$ function and their code. |