ZX Spectrum stuff

[simonsunnyboy]

I'm currently thinking of buying myself a ZX Spectrum.
Now I have a few questions:
* can I connect it to my soundcard to use that as the tape recorder?
* is it possible to playback .tap and tzx via soundcard to a real Speccy?
* can I grab a Composite video signal before it enters the modulator?

Which model would you suggest as well? I could get a reasonable cheap +2 with builtin tape recorder.

[Womble]

A fine choice sir - on to the questions....

* can I connect it to my soundcard to use that as the tape recorder?

Yes - you can play sound files to the speccy as if they were coming from a tape recorder.. but as to the source of the sound file....

* is it possible to playback .tap and tzx via soundcard to a real Speccy?

As above - it is possible (at least the speccy wont care), some of the emulators can allow you to emulate the loading process, ie what comes out of the speakers sounds like spectrum loading code - you may be able to feed that into a speccy and get it to load from it. There may well be apps that allow you to play these files as if they were tapes, in which case the real machine will be happy to load from it.


* can I grab a Composite video signal before it enters the modulator?

On an original spectrum not easily, not without taking the lid off and modifying the board. If you get a 128K, or a plus 2 or 3 spectrum it has an RGB output socket - I dont think there ever was a machine that had composite tho.

[alexh]

If you are going to get a spectrum, you may as well get a 128+3 IMHO they are still very cheap, dont suffer from keyboard problems like the 48, +'s and 128's do.

However with the launch of REAL spectrum a few years ago, an emulator with cycle accurate everything I find it difficult to believe that the "spectrum experience" is in any way degraded playing via emulators...

Perhaps the rubber keyboard of the 48?

[RetroGamerUK]

http://www.worldofspectrum.org/
I have found the forum here to be most useful for Speccy related stuff

Lemme know if you need any speccy software images (either tape images or .z80 images) as I have gzillions! and there are not that many download sites nowadays, seems they have been dusting off the old copyright scrolls.

I also have a speccy 48+ BTW and boxes full of original games

[Baz]

A few years ago I got a CD with 5000 Speccy programs and a couple of thousand C64 games for 7 quid at Electronic Boutique. The same company also did an Amiga CD

You might want to consider 48K at 11K per minute i.e. 4 minutes to load a program. Even more for 128K. Instant on a pc.

Nice nostalgia trip, but my Spectrum remains boxed up

Baz

[RetroGamerUK]

Actually whenever I dig my speccy out and load up a game from tape, I find myself sat there mesmerized by the noise, it takes me back I can tell you.
I can even remember distinct patterns of noise with some games, this adds to the nostalgia
And the fact that it takes so long to load is an incentive to play the game more instead of "flicking" through games like I do with Emulation.
Having said that, due to lazyness my speccy is also boxed up, as is my STE.

[Sarek]

My speccy fell to bits about 10 years ago, bit it still works fine. The screws are missing, the keyboard rubber is loose, as is the PCB, and the top flips up. The paint is worn off the LHS and the PSU has been terminal blocked back together, but thinking back, I believe I took the terminal block off for something else, so probably just twisted wires now. It is currently stored in a draw. Would it pass a P.A.T ?

[RetroGamerUK]

As long as the Mains voltage carrying / containing parts / cables are not damaged or worn in such a way as to present a shock / fire hazard, and the correct plug and fuse are fitted correctly, then it would pass yes.
The 9VDC output can be held together with chewing gum, it would not matter as the voltage and potential energy release is not nearly high enough to be considered dangerous.
And this is all assuming that the PSU actually complies with todays complex European safety blarney.

Whats with the New Avatar Sarek? trying to lose the Logical reputation?
I don't blame you really given the level of bullying you have endured from these irrational humans, but I prefer the old look personally

[simonsunnyboy]

Well I certainly had my share of Speccy emulation, but I want a real thing

Thanks for your input in any case!

[Womble]

It is true that there is nothing like the real thing, but its amazing how time as washed away the painful memories of such things as

R: Tape Loading Error

[Mug UK]

Code: Select all

10 Print "WH SMITHS sell crap ";
20 POKE 23692, 255
30 Goto 10


Instant non-breakable (except via power supply) text screen


Or

Code: Select all

RANDOMIZE USR 1234

with optional "Loading Game - Please Wait" in the middle of the screen.

Never ending loading


(not that I did any of this stuff when I was a wee boy!)

[RetroGamerUK]

I still have some of those Boots C16 computer cassettes, and last time I tried to load from one (about 2 years ago) it worked!!
I seem to remember they came in packs of 5, anyone remember the price? £2.99?

[Womble]

Ah yes those bright yellow C15 tapes - iconic!!

Hey Muggy - you might be able to answer a looooong running question of mine.

Re that never ending loading trick (we used to do that - tho it was round a mates house coz he never wanted to play anything other than Matchpoint, he only smelt a rat when the C90 ran out).

My Qn is - what the hell is the speccy doing when its pretending to load?

[Mug UK]

No idea .. probably from a Your Sinclair mag or something is where I'd have picked up on it.

Quick google only brought up two references - one in Spanish:

En otra consulta referente a la sentencia RANDOMIZE USR 1234 hay una pequeña confusión en cuanto a conversiones, pues se asocia dicha dirección al valor 04C2 en hexadecimal, cuando debería ser 04D2h. Éste en concreto aparecería como "truco" en la MH #110, en plena fiebre de alocada investigación "randomicera".

Translated (badly) into:

In another consultation referring to sentence RANDOMIZE USR 1234 there is a small confusion as far as conversions, because this direction of the hexadecimal value is associated in the heat of 04C2 in, when This one in concrete would have to be 04D2h. would appear like "trick" in the MH # 110, fever of wild "randomicera" investigation.

Still makes no sense

[Womble]

Hmm - clear as mud

I always thought it was an odd choice of command to kick off machine code, surely "randomise" is the last thing you want to happen, something specific versus something random would be better.

[RetroGamerUK]

There are a few Topics in the WorldofSpectrum.org Forums about this,
Apparently, using addresses from 1200 to 1350 or so have similar effects, some even produce a tone,

"The address 1331 is a part of the ROM-LOADER from tape. With the right values it will load, but with a direct call to it it only makes a lot of noise. "

http://www.worldofspectrum.org/forums/v ... 9&forum=10

[Womble]

Cool - good link that

[Grunaki]

Code: Select all

10 Print "WH SMITHS sell crap ";
20 POKE 23692, 255
30 Goto 10


Instant non-breakable (except via power supply) text screen

Scroll?

[aktiv8]

Actually whenever I dig my speccy out and load up a game from tape, I find myself sat there mesmerized by the noise, it takes me back I can tell you.

Thats one of the joys of TZX format too

[aktiv8]

"The address 1331 is a part of the ROM-LOADER from tape. With the right values it will load, but with a direct call to it it only makes a lot of noise. "

Off the top of my head Rqandomize usr 1331 gives magenta and cyan loading ctyle lines with a high pitched "loading tone"

God Im sad for remembering that

[Mug UK]

I'll probably be corrected on this one but ...

RANDOMIZE USR xxxx = call the code and you're not bothered about the result.

L=USR xxxx = call the code and when finished L contains a result you were after.

Bit like calling subroutines with or without variables on the stack and expecting a result or just calling the routine and doing nothing with any results after it.

I await the corrections ....

[Goldrunner]

I remember buying a Spectrum 128 in 1986 (the Sinclair one not that crappy Amstrad poo) and waiting 15 minutes for it to load The Neverending Story, in this case the name was very appropriate. Thing is back then you stayed with the game longer even when it was crap since you dreaded waiting for another game to load!

Still you can't beat the good old Speccy the best 8-bit computer in the world and it was British too. Built with workenship to be proud off, OK maybe not but it did look cool in black

[RetroGamerUK]

I had one of those Sinclair Speccy 128s and also had the 128 version of the Neverending Story, which I completed of course .

What was the heatsink for though? overclocking?

[Goldrunner]

It was to keep the Speecy cool, I remember the heatsink did get quite warm which was good for those long winter nights. It seems unbelievable now that a computer running at 3.5 MHz could ever get warm. BTW, is it me or are winters no as bad as now

[keili]

The copro in the TI99/4A also gets very hot. I once burned my finger.