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The ZX Spectrum 2012 revival

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  • The ZX Spectrum 2012 revival

    SO, the speccy is 30 this year, and there is talk of a new FPGA ATMEL Risc hardware reboot.. FU*K THAT, you need an original spectrum. A nice 48k rev 1 thru 4, that is any 48k squishy key, or a clacky key Spectrum+ or Spectrum 128.. NOT a +2 or +3, as these are made by Alan sugar and not Clive Sinclair, and are therefore shite.

    So, go to ebay, pay from 20-100 euro for your kit, do the COMP OUT mod: http://womblesretrorepairshack.blogs...video-mod.html so you can plug it in to a AV in port, then set about getting a stash of games and blah: http://theisozone.com/dl-start/43715/1/ and http://zxaaa.untergrund.net/ftpeng.html

    This is a nice one: ftp://ftp.untergrund.net/users/AAA/A...pack.part1.rar and ftp://ftp.untergrund.net/users/AAA/A...pack.part2.rar make up a .exe which will install an emulator and extract a very nice set of .tzx files which you can use..

    There are plenty of .tzx players out there that will play a .tzx file out of your soundcard into the back of the spectrum, but the one i found actually works is playtzx-win32 (attached), it's a command-line utility, here is me running a .tzx i made from a .sna of ghostbusters:

    Code:
    >playtzx ghostbst.tzx
    
    ZXTape Utilities - Play TZX , TZX to VOC Converter and TZX Info
    
    
    ZXTape file revision 1.10
    Number of Blocks: 7
    
    Starting playback on CoreAudio using 44100 Hz frequency.
    
    CoreAudio initialized
    Block   1:    Description: 48K Snapshot - 3000 bps
    Block   2:    Program :   GHOSTBST  Length:    19  Normal Speed
    Block   3:    --------------------  Length:   738  Normal Speed
    Block   4:    --------------------  Length: 16386   Speed: 219%
    Block   5:    --------------------  Length: 15667   Speed: 219%
    Block   6:    --------------------  Length:  6397   Speed: 219%
    Block   7:    --------------------  Length:   514  Normal Speed
    Of coarse, you can search for a .tzx player, and get one with a nice GUI that works i suppose.

    One thing that bothered me slightly is there are many different types of file for the speccy, and they all work in emulators just fine, but to get them to manifest as AUDIO, you need to make them into a .tzx for a tzx player using the oldschool Taper proggy, complete with it's own GUI (attached) - use the right-mouse once in side to pop out the menus, open a file then save as and rename it is a .tzx or whatever, or you can use a .tap file, and play it in winamp with the .tap player plugin for winamp (attached)..

    Hardware - much more fun.
    Attached Files
    jUst plAythAtbEAt

  • #2
    IDE support for the speccy comes in the form of this: http://www.divide.cz/

    it's current incarnation does away with some of the original ideas, to instead support CF / SD, giving you a cool storage solution etc.

    jUst plAythAtbEAt

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    • #3
      Ethernet for the spectrum? oh yes... read about it here...,


      It seems there isn't anywhere to buy these easily yet, but as it's an open project, i guess you can build your own..
      jUst plAythAtbEAt

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      • #4
        New Keyboard membrane for my squashykey issue 2 48k machine working now.. RWAP software sorted me out and now it's perrrrfect..

        Also now have my divide interface, from http://divide.cz/

        it came with a 512mb card that does not work with the interface, but i pulled the folders from it and used them to populate another CF i had lying about.. now it boots fine.. all works.. 800mb of .z80 files currently xferring over.. lol.. epic.. IDE drive on a speccy
        jUst plAythAtbEAt

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