I've done a handful of programming on my monochrome 84+ (kiddie scripts, really) ~~and the screen isn't very good for actual games. Blur is a big issue but it's just a symptom of the fact that the 84+ uses a black-and-white LCD. None of the later versions in the series (with their "hi-res" and color[1]) have that eZ80.~~ Yes they do! Thanks souprock. Guess this point is pretty moot. An 88-key keyboard is still much better than you can get on an 84 though, the 84 seems more like a handheld game console than a real computer when actually working with it.
The Chloe 280SE would be a very sexy option for a Z80 hacker with that VGA-out, provided it's at a reasonable cost.
[1] after working with an 84+ for a year or so in my spare time, it really did seem like the +C was high resolution. I don't have one myself but a friend does and it feels like the Rolls Royce of calculators... not much power compared to regular cars, but it sure looks nice.
There is a C compiler for it. You get sizeof(int)==3 and sizeof(void*)==3 with that compiler.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zilog_eZ80
Here is the TLDR:
- 24 bit processor
- backward compatible with Z80
- resets into Z80 mode
- Z80 mode has 16 bit addresses and 8 bit registers that can be used as 16 bit pairs.
- ADL mode (address and data long mode) has 8 bit registers that can be used as 16 bit pairs or as 24 bit extended pairs.
- A 8 bit MBASE register controls which bank of address space is seen by Z80 mode.
- ADL mode has two banks of registers: main B, C, D, E, H, L and alternate B', C', D', E', H', L', with some support for fast switching between them.