The world of teletext has been reserved for BBC users - that is until this OEL adaptor for the Spectrum arrived, says Ian Scales Product: OEL TTX2000 Price: £143.75 Availability: OE Limited 0768-66748 The company which brought Spectrum users the VTX 5000 Prestel adaptor has just released the TTX 2000 Teletext adaptor, also for the Spectrum. OEL's newest little gizmo allows Spectrum users to join the wonderful world of telesoftware and instant information, a place in the sun so far reserved for those with BBC micros and teletext TVs. Teletext is the technology behind the Ceefax and Oracle services provided by the BBC and ITV respectively. You've robably already seen 'teaser' teletext pages doing through a few predetermined accesses. You may even have seen a TV set with a teletext adaptor which enables teletext signals to be decoded and displayed at will. (See the box for more on teletext.) The TTX 2000 is supposed to sit under the Spectrum. Connection is simple - the TV aerial goes into the teletext unit and the results are output from the Spectrum in the conventional way. The 2000 attaches via a ribbon cable from the edge connector and the cable has a male appendage for the further connection of printers and other peripherals. The unit has its own 18-volt adaptor which, unfortunately, has the same business end as the Spectrum power jack. A few fried Spectrums could be in the offing. Another minor quibble is the documentation. Teletext may be simple, but seven pages of meagre instruction is a little tight-fisted. In Use ------ Setting up is simplicity itself. Just tune in the decoder to the four channels and settle down to use it. No need for passwords, baud rates, user ID numbers etc. The only problem is getting the reception just right. Teletext is pedantic about perfect reception and you may find you get either a full page of information or nothing. Be prepared to mount an external TV aerial if you don't already have one. There are only eight commands to remember plus few ENTERs where needed. Accessing a page involves pressing 'P' followed by a three-figure number - the pages start at 100 (depending on which system you use) and seem to go up to about 900 or so. You can change channels with a single command, save displays to Microdrive or send them to the ZX printer. Teletext also has a 'wheels within wheels' function where information at a a particular page number is rotated on each cycle, so by the time you've finished reading one page the next arrives. You suppress this feature with a Hold command. R reveals a concealed line (where the page is concerned with a quiz for instance). You can also exit to Basic and use the Spectrum normally. Nothing in computing is as simple to use as Teletext. Its second big plus is that it doesn't cost you anything. Once you've bought the adaptor there are no uptime or user fees or telephone charges to feel guilty about. Verdict ------- The prospect of access to Ceefax and Oracle via your computer is attractive, but there are some drawbacks. For instance, a limited amount of information is available, and it takes some time to access it. If you can't afford Prestel but would like to take part in the information revolution, however, the TTX2000, even considering the limited amounts of information available may still be for you. Report Card ----------- Features 3/5 Documentation 2/5 Performance 3/5 Overall Value 2/5