On Jun 15, 11:42 am, LCD wrote:
> Hi there,
>
> I currently checking my Spectrum collection (And uploaded some MIA
> titles to WOS) and found there also three Challenge Research Sprint tape
> recorders which are able to load Spectrum games at 4 times the original
> speed (only standard loader games, just like MB02), they are compatible
> with +D as there is a ROM Switch and a Thru-Port. The Original price was
> over 60 Pound if I remember it correctly.
> They are absolutly rare I suppose, right? What are they worth now, in Euro?
>
> Greetings
>
> LCD

1 Euro and a wet fish. Preferably carp.

Simon

Simon schrieb:
> On Jun 15, 11:42 am, LCD wrote:
>> Hi there,
>>
>> I currently checking my Spectrum collection (And uploaded some MIA
>> titles to WOS) and found there also three Challenge Research Sprint tape
>> recorders which are able to load Spectrum games at 4 times the original
>> speed (only standard loader games, just like MB02), they are compatible
>> with +D as there is a ROM Switch and a Thru-Port. The Original price was
>> over 60 Pound if I remember it correctly.
>> They are absolutly rare I suppose, right? What are they worth now, in Euro?
>>
>> Greetings
>>
>> LCD
>
> 1 Euro and a wet fish. Preferably carp.
>
> Simon

Koi carp? That expensive!!!

Its one of those things really. Lots of things are worth a lot to the right
person. I do remember trying one of these and finding it rather unreliable
myself, but then the production quality of tapes was not exactly high
either.

Your best bet is to shove one up on Ebay and see what happens. After all,
its not that rare, but by now it might well be.

Lots of strange loading devices were made. The Clivedrive, the Wafer drive
had quite a following, though I never liked the large amount of memory they
grabbed.

Then there were the many different disc drives.

Almost everyone had one totally incompatible with all the others!

Brian

--
Brian Gaff....Note, this account does not accept Bcc: email.
graphics are great, but the blind can't hear them
Email: briang1@blueyonder.co.uk
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________


"LCD" wrote in message
news:1f6cd$4854f1c8$557f552b$12959@news.inode.at.. .
> Hi there,
>
> I currently checking my Spectrum collection (And uploaded some MIA titles
> to WOS) and found there also three Challenge Research Sprint tape
> recorders which are able to load Spectrum games at 4 times the original
> speed (only standard loader games, just like MB02), they are compatible
> with +D as there is a ROM Switch and a Thru-Port. The Original price was
> over 60 Pound if I remember it correctly.
> They are absolutly rare I suppose, right? What are they worth now, in
> Euro?
>
> Greetings
>
> LCD

Thx Brian,

In fact, I never saw one on the eBay.
Have now just sold two of these devices, the third one has a weak
rewinding, so I keep it.
I myself loved this device, almost all my games are cracked (by me self)
and compressed, so the loading was very fast. I used it often to
transfer games from tape to +D.
The Clive Drive was a 3" device, but I remember there was also a strange
2.5" disc device, which looks to be rarer than rare, but it is not
possible to find media for it.
I own also a Wafadrive. I remember at the end of YS era the adverts
where these device was offered very cheap, I think fourteen pound or so.
The only compatible devices I remember is the Disciple and +D (which was
then also used in SAM Coupé).
The problem was, Sinclair has not produced a disc system, so there could
be no standart etablished, on the other side, Commodore released a
Floppy system and it became standard. The Sinclair floppy-like system,
Microdrive, was used later in QL. It had a large amount of memory, fast
loading (in comparsion to C64) but long seek times.
Just imagine, Sinclair would produce a Spectrum 64 with internal +D disc
system based on +D. There would be no incompatible storage systems.

LCD

Brian Gaff schrieb:
> Its one of those things really. Lots of things are worth a lot to the right
> person. I do remember trying one of these and finding it rather unreliable
> myself, but then the production quality of tapes was not exactly high
> either.
>
> Your best bet is to shove one up on Ebay and see what happens. After all,
> its not that rare, but by now it might well be.
>
> Lots of strange loading devices were made. The Clivedrive, the Wafer drive
> had quite a following, though I never liked the large amount of memory they
> grabbed.
>
> Then there were the many different disc drives.
>
> Almost everyone had one totally incompatible with all the others!
>
> Brian
>

On Mon, 16 Jun 2008 17:27:22 +0200 da kidz on comp.sys.sinclair were rappin'
to MC LCD:

> The problem was, Sinclair has not produced a disc system, so there could
> be no standart etablished

The only "standard" was the +3 drive. AFAIK that was totally
incompatible with any 48k solution, but was standard enough for a few
games to be released in the format.

Chris


--
+-------------------------------------------+
| Unsatisfactory Software - "because it is" |
| http://www.unsatisfactorysoftware.co.uk |
| Your Sinclair: A Celebration |
+- http://www.yoursinclair.co.uk -----------+

DISCLAIMER: I may be making all this stuff up again.

Chris Young schrieb:
> On Mon, 16 Jun 2008 17:27:22 +0200 da kidz on comp.sys.sinclair were rappin'
> to MC LCD:
>
>> The problem was, Sinclair has not produced a disc system, so there could
>> be no standart etablished
>
> The only "standard" was the +3 drive. AFAIK that was totally
> incompatible with any 48k solution, but was standard enough for a few
> games to be released in the format.
>
> Chris
>
>
But it was released:
a) By amstrad, not by sinclair
b) too late
c) in wrong format, because the 3" drive was cheap at tis time and
Amstrad had a large stock of this stuff. At this time Amiga and Atari ST
had 3.5" Discs
d) as you mentioned correctly, incompatible to 48K or 128K in USR 0 mode.

LCD

Yes, being involved in the early days of the Sam I have a couple of these
and some add ons.. It could of course function as a Spectrum if you liked.

There was not that much on a Microdrive you know. I have quite a few. On
Speccy if you got 90k you were doing well.
The Sixword disc system as well as having a native mode, had an interface 1
emulator which allowed several virtual microdrives on one floppy, so the
lack of a real disc standard should not have been a problem except possible
because of the rom copyright.

I well recall the mtx 512 debacle when they had a machine with a spectrum
compatible basic but Sinclair threatened to take action and it went out
with a buggy version of Msoft basic and the Noddy display language. The
thing could very easily become a spectrum with ram disc though by the time
the third party folk 'invented' this it was far too late for memotech.

Brian

--
Brian Gaff....Note, this account does not accept Bcc: email.
graphics are great, but the blind can't hear them
Email: briang1@blueyonder.co.uk
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________


"LCD" wrote in message
news:ad685$48568618$557f56cb$2617@news.inode.at...
> Thx Brian,
>
> In fact, I never saw one on the eBay.
> Have now just sold two of these devices, the third one has a weak
> rewinding, so I keep it.
> I myself loved this device, almost all my games are cracked (by me self)
> and compressed, so the loading was very fast. I used it often to transfer
> games from tape to +D.
> The Clive Drive was a 3" device, but I remember there was also a strange
> 2.5" disc device, which looks to be rarer than rare, but it is not
> possible to find media for it.
> I own also a Wafadrive. I remember at the end of YS era the adverts where
> these device was offered very cheap, I think fourteen pound or so.
> The only compatible devices I remember is the Disciple and +D (which was
> then also used in SAM Coupé).
> The problem was, Sinclair has not produced a disc system, so there could
> be no standart etablished, on the other side, Commodore released a Floppy
> system and it became standard. The Sinclair floppy-like system,
> Microdrive, was used later in QL. It had a large amount of memory, fast
> loading (in comparsion to C64) but long seek times.
> Just imagine, Sinclair would produce a Spectrum 64 with internal +D disc
> system based on +D. There would be no incompatible storage systems.
>
> LCD
>
> Brian Gaff schrieb:
>> Its one of those things really. Lots of things are worth a lot to the
>> right person. I do remember trying one of these and finding it rather
>> unreliable myself, but then the production quality of tapes was not
>> exactly high either.
>>
>> Your best bet is to shove one up on Ebay and see what happens. After all,
>> its not that rare, but by now it might well be.
>>
>> Lots of strange loading devices were made. The Clivedrive, the Wafer
>> drive had quite a following, though I never liked the large amount of
>> memory they grabbed.
>>
>> Then there were the many different disc drives.
>>
>> Almost everyone had one totally incompatible with all the others!
>>
>> Brian
>>

Well, lets face it Cliff Lawson put the Amstrad hardware on the speccy and
did a reasonable job in a short time of making it work. He did want to write
the front end code to allow file access from Basic, as the actual disc
routines had been written, which is why you could run CP/M on the +3 of
course.#

Pity about the overloaded sound though as well.#

I still have one of these machines here, but as its not been used for some
time I suspect it will need a new disc belt.

Brian

--
Brian Gaff....Note, this account does not accept Bcc: email.
graphics are great, but the blind can't hear them
Email: briang1@blueyonder.co.uk
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________


"Chris Young" wrote in message
news:4856BC42.MD-1.4.17.chris.young@unsatisfactorysoftware.co.uk...
> On Mon, 16 Jun 2008 17:27:22 +0200 da kidz on comp.sys.sinclair were
> rappin'
> to MC LCD:
>
>> The problem was, Sinclair has not produced a disc system, so there could
>> be no standart etablished
>
> The only "standard" was the +3 drive. AFAIK that was totally
> incompatible with any 48k solution, but was standard enough for a few
> games to be released in the format.
>
> Chris
>
>
> --
> +-------------------------------------------+
> | Unsatisfactory Software - "because it is" |
> | http://www.unsatisfactorysoftware.co.uk |
> | Your Sinclair: A Celebration |
> +- http://www.yoursinclair.co.uk -----------+
>
> DISCLAIMER: I may be making all this stuff up again.

Sure he did the job well, but this means the software part. The hardware
was outdated at the time. As the rewriting of the 48K was not possible,
he could use a "Shadow" ROM like the one in +D, to control the drive.
The +3 has a total of 64Kb ROM, I think, and the DOS for controling the
drives from 128K Basic is stored in such a Shadow ROM, right?
CP/M is an Addon, so running it on +3 was possible only if this addon
was purchased.
I have a +3 too, but it is a +3e, without disc drive.

LCD

Brian Gaff schrieb:
> Well, lets face it Cliff Lawson put the Amstrad hardware on the speccy and
> did a reasonable job in a short time of making it work. He did want to write
> the front end code to allow file access from Basic, as the actual disc
> routines had been written, which is why you could run CP/M on the +3 of
> course.#
>
> Pity about the overloaded sound though as well.#
>
> I still have one of these machines here, but as its not been used for some
> time I suspect it will need a new disc belt.
>
> Brian
>

Sam can read +D discs, that's enough. On the Disc that came with SAM
there was a program to convert Speccy Basic Files from +D to SAM Basic.
If you got the right microdrive formatter, there could be 120 Kb stored
on it. 90 is just normal, but I had tapes which stored 105 Kb at normal
formatting.
+D and Opus are able to use microdrive syntax, and there was no
copyright problem.
Sorry, but I do not remember mtx 512, it was a UK-only product I
suppose? (I'm living in Austria).

LCD

Brian Gaff schrieb:
> Yes, being involved in the early days of the Sam I have a couple of these
> and some add ons.. It could of course function as a Spectrum if you liked.
>
> There was not that much on a Microdrive you know. I have quite a few. On
> Speccy if you got 90k you were doing well.
> The Sixword disc system as well as having a native mode, had an interface 1
> emulator which allowed several virtual microdrives on one floppy, so the
> lack of a real disc standard should not have been a problem except possible
> because of the rom copyright.
>
> I well recall the mtx 512 debacle when they had a machine with a spectrum
> compatible basic but Sinclair threatened to take action and it went out
> with a buggy version of Msoft basic and the Noddy display language. The
> thing could very easily become a spectrum with ram disc though by the time
> the third party folk 'invented' this it was far too late for memotech.
>
> Brian
>