Your 21st Century Speccy Life
Been meaning to write this short point of view for some time now. I want to give others a sense of how the humble spectrum fits into life in the 21st century. There are two aims
1. Promote the humble Spectrum in 21st century for people who have no idea what’s out there.
2. I am intrigued to see how other people use their Spectrums in this modern age.
I have a few 48k Spectrums all have the composite mod which means they connect to modern TVs. I have also universally replaced the old regulator with a modern switching regulator (my choice being the Traco Power TSR 1-2450). The benefit being no more heat sink and no heat so no heat damage to parts or keyboard membranes. Talking of membranes most/all my spectrums have had these replaced with new manufactured ones. Now I don’t use my spectrums daily but they are used quite a lot and for over 10 years now and I don’t have any reliability issues - yet.
I have a selection of peripherals but the most important ones are Interface 1 and Interface 2 (Ram Turbo) and most importantly a programmable ROM cartridge from Paul Farrow. The IF1 and IF2 along with Paul’s software allows my Spectrum 48k to connect through the RS232 port (on IF1) into my Home PC via an onboard PCIe serial card. I can load and save files using LOAD “” and SAVE “myfiles” direct from Spectrum to PC and back.
I have a couple of other bits.
A VdriveZX which is a modern Microdrive that uses an SSD card and is directly compatible with the Emulator .mdf format so I can load and save from real Speccy into emulators.
I have Paul’s Spectra unit, amongst many other features this allows SCART connection to the TV with emulator crisp display, it has ROM cartridge slot, RS232 connection, reset switch and Joystick port all in one unit so no need for IF1 (unless you use networking or Microdrives) and no need for IF2 any more.
I use a Romantic Robot Multiface 1 - very useful bit of kit.
All these bits allow my Spectrum to coexist with my PC and to swap back and forth between Emulators and Spectrums.
I do have a tape player, originally I bought a new modern/old style one but it never really worked. So then I just bought an old style one off eBay and this has been very very worth while. Because for all the modern tech the old player still has uses. As an example the programable ROMS writer software is backed up in them. Also some games (not many) are not available digitally so....
1. load through tape
2. Multiface
3. Save to Microdrive
4. Put SSD in PC load MDF to emulator
5. Take sna snapshot
6. Load sna onto ROM
7. Now you have a tape version, a Microdrive version and a ROM snapshot
I mess around with programming and switch back and forth between PC and Spectrum.
I have a custom case and keyboard, I have a Spectrum + plastic key keyboard and the have a DTronics keyboard. I prefer the rubber keys though.
Never been tempted to get a +2 or +3 128k or indeed any other make of old 8bit computing history, just had a real soft spot for these old 48k machines.
Lastly would love to hear how the Divide fits into 21st century life. I’ve many times nearly bought one. Also if anyone uses Gotek 3.5” floppy drive I would like to hear about them, tempted to put one in my old Opus Discovery.
A couple of videos:
1) This show cases the pin sharp picture and the VdriveZX. The SSD Microdrive is internal only, it requires you to supply the Microdrive case. The Spectra interface is just great.
https://youtu.be/9aAp2rSYqfQ
2) This show loading and saving from the Spectrum to PC and back. Lots of software and a programable ROM cartridge in use.
https://youtu.be/q-kB9QE4LN0