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ZXGuesser @zxguesser.bsky.social · 2d

I generally avoid posting anything with lots of recovery errors because they have a habit of doing the rounds on the internet for ever after which make me wince when I see them, but sometimes I get too excited to wait 😄

ZXGuesser @zxguesser.bsky.social · 2d

The "matching pyjamas" in the closing scene were Donnie's his-and-hers paisley bowling shirts.

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ZXGuesser @zxguesser.bsky.social · 2d

The countdown, logo, and the various index pages are for display as regular teletext pages, but the schedules etc are data pages intended to be downloaded somehow and printed off.
Unfortunately the main daily and weekly schedules seem to be compressed or scrambled

Schools transmission history for the third of November 1988

Schools Continuity Sheet for the 7th of November 1988, showing opt outs for the Ulster region

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ZXGuesser @zxguesser.bsky.social · 2d

😍

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ZXGuesser @zxguesser.bsky.social · 2d

Now we're cooking! This is the sort of recovery quality I wanted to see from these recordings 😀

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ZXGuesser @zxguesser.bsky.social · 2d

And the thing I most wanted to extract after seeing the tell-tale shape of it in the raw signal - gratuitous logo!

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ZXGuesser @zxguesser.bsky.social · 2d

More IDENT from a much longer recording. You can see how the timings shift up the page as the items are broadcast.
(excuse all the mangled content this is still with a very hacked together teletext recovery process)

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ZXGuesser @zxguesser.bsky.social · 2d

Technically we knew we had it four years ago, I just gave up at the "saw some mangled packets in the terminal window" stage and never got around to the "post screenshots that make sense" bit 😅

ZXGuesser @zxguesser.bsky.social · 3d

The downside is it means there's yet another teletext service to archive and all the tape captures to re-check 🤣

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ZXGuesser @zxguesser.bsky.social · 3d

Still needs some work, but that was only a 20 second sample. Hopefully we can find some more recordings where this signal escaped and have a proper poke around 😄

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ZXGuesser @zxguesser.bsky.social · 3d

Feeling at a loose end now that #ChunkyFringe is done and all the TVs are packed way until the next event, so I went picking at an old scab, and figured out how to process a hidden internal channel 4 teletext service called IDENT from a file that's been lurking on my hard drive since 2021 👀

Page 100 of a service called IDENT. It lists page numbers for things like a countdown, daily schedules, and transmission logs

The IDENT countdown page. Showing what I think are timings for trailers.

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ZXGuesser @zxguesser.bsky.social · 4d

Ah well, ChunkyText is online all year round so I can put things like that up any time 🙂
It's just that I only pester people when there's an event coming up 😆

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ZXGuesser @zxguesser.bsky.social · 4d

All the tellies up and running at #ChunkyFringe

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ZXGuesser @zxguesser.bsky.social · 5d

Panic averted and candles extinguished

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ZXGuesser @zxguesser.bsky.social · 5d

Power failure at ChunkyText towers. Hopefully we'll be back online tomorrow! 😱

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ZXGuesser @zxguesser.bsky.social · 7d

try it on the link here: bsky.app/profile/zxgu...

ZXGuesser @zxguesser.bsky.social · 7d

control codes are entered by tapping the escape key, then pressing one of the key combinations shown in the Control keys table in the sidebar.
So to set a page of white graphics for example you'd enter a mosaic white code (escape, shift+7) on each row like this blockparty.zxnet.co.uk/editor/#0:QI...

Teletext Page Editor

blockparty.zxnet.co.uk

ZXGuesser @zxguesser.bsky.social · 7d

(tick 'Show control codes' in the editor settings to make them visible)

ZXGuesser @zxguesser.bsky.social · 7d

control codes are entered by tapping the escape key, then pressing one of the key combinations shown in the Control keys table in the sidebar.
So to set a page of white graphics for example you'd enter a mosaic white code (escape, shift+7) on each row like this blockparty.zxnet.co.uk/editor/#0:QI...

Teletext Page Editor

blockparty.zxnet.co.uk

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ZXGuesser @zxguesser.bsky.social · 7d

Mouse draw is an alternative to using the keyboard to toggle pixels of a mosaic character on and off. As such it will only do anything on a region of a page which is already set to a mosaic mode.

There's a video here from a previous event which may or may not help with how to use it 😅

Block Party 2022 - ZXNET Teletext Editor Demonstration

YouTube video by The Centre for Computing History

www.youtube.com

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ZXGuesser @zxguesser.bsky.social · 7d

Well my other posts don't seem to have worked, so I've decided to try superliminal advertising to get people to create some #TeletextArt for Chunky Fringe.

blockparty.zxnet.co.uk

Teletext rendition of the Navy officer from the Simpsons episode "New Kids on the Blecch" shouting "Hey you! Make a Chunkytext page" out of the window.

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ZXGuesser @zxguesser.bsky.social · 7d

Here's another pre-chunky-fringe teletext treat! A new vhs recovery has allowed us to complete another Turner the Worm story from 1995.
The evil Robert Ratford is attempting to blow up the Earth!

Read on at: zxnet.co.uk/teletext/tur...

Journey to the Middle of the Globe.
Turner and Glug have been asked to visit the home of Professor Walthamstow Worm - Turner's uncle.

Turner: "We're here, uncle."
Walthamstow Worm: "Lads, I'm glad you could come. I have a favour to ask."
Glug: "What's that smell?"

Walthamstow: "My arch-enemy, Robert Ratford, has stolen an experimental digging machine and is heading towards the centre of the earth!"
(offscreen): "But why?"

Walthamstow: "He intends to detonate the Earth's core, and send the planet hurtling towards the Moon."
Turner: "What for, Uncle?"
Walthamstow: "He wants to eat it."

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ZXGuesser @zxguesser.bsky.social · 7d

* Chunkytext reserves the right to remove excessively pornographic worms, or libellous/defamatory zombie noises 😆

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ZXGuesser @zxguesser.bsky.social · 7d

Another reminder that the #ChunkyFringe teletext editing system is online for anyone to have a go at creating real teletext pages:

blockparty.zxnet.co.uk

Channel your inner @mrbiffo.bsky.social* and come and admire your creations in all their chunky glory on CRT tellies in Harrow this Saturday!

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Reposted by ZXGuesser

Super Page 58 @superpage58.bsky.social · 7d

This happens IMMINENTLY. Come join us for all the Digitiser/teletext/retro tech/silliness you could want for precisely no money down. North London. Saturday. See you there.

MrBiffo @mrbiffo.bsky.social · 11d

One week today... we're going to be doing a whole bunch of nonsense at Chunky Fringe. It's all the fun of Digi Live without us having to spend a fortune on props. Details here: www.arbitraryfiles.com/events/cf25/...

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ZXGuesser @zxguesser.bsky.social · 7d

As it happens I just ported the old teletext twitter code over to the bsky search API a few weeks ago to generate pages like this... 🤓

A teletext page from an imaginary service "Foonefax" which is showing Foone's latest three bluesky posts

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