Z80-Retro-Manual

So you've decided to build the Z80-Retro Single Board Computer! Welcome to the club of retro enthusiasts.

This document is intended as a guide to building and setting up your Retro. It is complimentary to the series of YouTube videos that probably brought you here in the first place.

• Z80-Retro GitHub Organization
• Z80-Retro YouTube Playlist

The document is split into different sections. It is recommended to read through all the documents in the order provided below at least once before starting the project. You might need to refer back to this guide multiple times so go ahead and bookmark this page right now.

You can download the PDF version of this manual.

Sections

• Preface
• General
  • Z80-Retro Architecture
  • Z80-Retro Build
  • Z80-Retro Memory
• Software
  • Z80-Retro Development Environment
  • Z80-Retro Firmware
  • Z80-Retro Install CP/M
  • Z80-Retro File Transfer
  • Z80-Retro IO Ports
• Daughter Boards
  • Z80-Retro VDP Build
• Emulation
  • Using the EtchedPixels EmulatorKit
• Git and Collaboration
  • Z80-Retro Org and Git

Document Conventions

• Links:

  Wherever a better resource exists on the internet that provides additional detail, a link will be provided. For the most part, these will be links to the Johns Basement YouTube videos or GitHub repositories.

  eg: Video Link: Z80 Retro #7 - 512K Bank Selected Memory

• Commands:

  Commands that you need to enter into a shell terminal or into a terminal session will be given in this format:

  • Shell (for example on a Raspberry Pi)

    $ make
    ...
    

  • Terminal Session (for example, a minicom session into CP/M)

    A> stat *.*
    ...
    

Prerequisite Knowledge

There is some assumed ability required before beginning the project. You will need some soldering skills as well as an understanding of Linux, Bash, Git and Makefiles. While care has been taken to provide Makefiles that automate many of the tasks, you will still benefit from understanding how they work. Especially in cases where your own environment differs from the environment presented in the Johns Basement videos.

Refresh your knowledge in these areas:

• Add links to resources

• REQUIRED: Soldering through hole components

• REQUIRED: Git workflows

• REQUIRED: Linux and Bash

• RECOMMENDED: Simple surface mount soldering techniques

Document Status

This is a working document and readers should expect updates from time to time as errors are fixed and refinements made.

Versions will be released according to the Semantic Versioning Standard 2.0.0.

Contributing

If you find any errors or omissions you can raise an Issue on this GitHub repository. Pull requests are also welcome and will be reviewed.

If you do decide to raise a Pull Request, please be mindful of the how the documented is formatted.

• GitHub style Markdown syntax
• Code snippets must be formatted correctly.

Authors

• John Winans https://github.com/johnwinans
• David Latham https://github.com/linuxplayground

Copyright

Copyright (C) 2023 John Winans.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".