Sinclair Spectrum questions

[moetzmoet]

I have a few questions on an original Sinclair Spectrum computer along with it's AC adapter. I'm hoping the older members on this forum might be able to answer.

1. I was told I should only need a normal cassette deck with an "out" plug to load up games. Will any cassette deck do? Or do I need one with some specific qualities?

2. When I find a suitable cassette deck do I just plug it into the computer with a normal audio cable into the "ear" slot?

I've googled for some of the info I needed already but can't seem to find really specific answers for these ones.

So which one of you dinosaurs had a Sinclair Spectrum growing up? 

[P]

I think Let had a ZX Spectrum growing up.

Although I don't have a Spectrum (I might get one some day as they are quite cheap) I think I know how they work. The ZX Spectrum uses the simplest form of tape drive connectors with just two 3.5 mm mono phone jacks EAR and MIC (exactly like Family BASIC), so you can use any cable with two male 3.5 mm mono plugs. Stereo plugs should also work but people say that they can cause loading problems so it's better to stick to a mono cable.
You plug the cassette deck audio output jack to the EAR on the Spectrum and the cassette deck record/IN/microphone jack to the MIC on the Spectrum. The EAR is the input on the Spectrum and the MIC is the output, they are labeled from the cassette deck's perspective.
When loading data from a tape the EAR jack is used and when saving to a tape the MIC jack is used, so you don't need both plugged in at the same time.

As for the cassette deck, it can be about any deck without any specific qualities other than that it must be able to play and record (if you want to save) to cassette tapes, it should have mono output and I guess it shouldn't be too cheaply made. You can also theoretically replace it with about any mono audio device that can play and record audio as it doesn't use a proprietary tape drive like the Commodore 64 for example. I had mixed results with that though so I stick to tapes.

If you just wish to load games it doesn't need to be able to record, but since the Spectrum lacks both cartridge port and an FDD, and it doesn't have any other way to save data so I imagine it would be pretty pointless not to being able to save, especially if you are going to do any programming on it. I don't know if any Spectrum games actually saves any data to an empty tape though, MSX games sometimes do.

There are some tape drive replacement devices like the ArduiTape, TAPuino and CASDuino that can play certain tape dump formats like TAP, CAS, CASS, TZX, SNA, T64 and sometimes pure WAV files, but they tend to be specific for certain computers (TZX is a Spectrum format) and they often lack functions like the ability to record which makes them a bit less interesting since they can't save in that case.
ArduiTape uses WAV files (so it works with ZX Spectrum, MSX, Family BASIC and about almost anything), but I'm not sure if it can record.

[L___E___T]

I think Let had a ZX Spectrum growing up.

Although I don't have a Spectrum (I might get one some day as they are quite cheap) I think I know how they work. The ZX Spectrum uses the simplest form of tape drive connectors with just two 3.5 mm mono phone jacks EAR and MIC (exactly like Family BASIC), so you can use any cable with two male 3.5 mm mono plugs. Stereo plugs should also work but people say that they can cause loading problems so it's better to stick to a mono cable.
You plug the cassette deck audio output jack to the EAR on the Spectrum and the cassette deck record/IN/microphone jack to the MIC on the Spectrum. The EAR is the input on the Spectrum and the MIC is the output, they are labeled from the cassette deck's perspective.
When loading data from a tape the EAR jack is used and when saving to a tape the MIC jack is used, so you don't need both plugged in at the same time.

As for the cassette deck, it can be about any deck without any specific qualities other than that it must be able to play and record (if you want to save) to cassette tapes, it should have mono output and I guess it shouldn't be too cheaply made. You can also theoretically replace it with about any mono audio device that can play and record audio as it doesn't use a proprietary tape drive like the Commodore 64 for example. I had mixed results with that though so I stick to tapes.

If you just wish to load games it doesn't need to be able to record, but since the Spectrum lacks both cartridge port and an FDD, and it doesn't have any other way to save data so I imagine it would be pretty pointless not to being able to save, especially if you are going to do any programming on it. I don't know if any Spectrum games actually saves any data to an empty tape though, MSX games sometimes do.

There are some tape drive replacement devices like the ArduiTape, TAPuino and CASDuino that can play certain tape dump formats like TAP, CAS, CASS, TZX, SNA, T64 and sometimes pure WAV files, but they tend to be specific for certain computers (TZX is a Spectrum format) and they often lack functions like the ability to record which makes them a bit less interesting since they can't save in that case.
ArduiTape uses WAV files (so it works with ZX Spectrum, MSX, Family BASIC and about almost anything), but I'm not sure if it can record.

I did indeed have one and sorry I saw this so late.  Loved my old Spectrum, it was the first computer / games machine I had, and I have a lot of fond memories of it.  I actually picked up another one recently, even managed to find a brand new and unused one which I NEVER thought would be the case in nearly 20 years of collecting video games.

If you didn't already find an answer - in this day and age you don't even need a tape deck, you can use almost anything with a wired phono out transmitting the sound.  People have loaded games using just a PC windows media player, and there are some other Everdrive-like add-ons you can get too that have the full library on right there.

Hope you were able to find the solution you were looking for - mine had a tape deck built in (the +2) so I'm not sure I would have necessarily been help had I seen it earlier all the same.

Something I read in P's post - the Spectrum had no cartridge port of FDD - it's not quite true, there was a Spectrum released with a FDD built in (the +3 model) and there were some ROM cartridges created way back for the first model.  This was news to me, but I've learned a few things I didn't know about before since I jumped back in to the Spectrum.

[P]

There is a problem with using stereo output audio devices however since if you connect a mono phone plug into a stereo phone jack you short the right channel to ground. A normal stereo cable is also problematic on the Speccy according to this wiki entry.


Yeah I've heard about the ZX Interface 2 which adds joystick ports (though not Atari-type sadly enough) and cartridge port. Only 10 ROM cartridge games were released according to Wikipedia, and none of them were exclusive, so it never became a standard media for distributing software. It would still be cool to have though, especially with a programmable flashcartridge.
External FDD solutions also existed, but it seems like it didn't exactly replace tapes like it did on C64 and MSX, not until Amstrad bought out Sinclair anyway.
It seems us Europeans really loved our tapes (the compact cassette tape is a European invention). MSX is the same, European versions of games were commonly released on tape even when the original Japanese versions only came on ROM or disk.

[L___E___T]

Yeah I never even saw or heard of Spectrum FDDs or ROM cartridges back in the day.  Everyone had tapes, so when my cousin got a NES and the games loaded instantly off this VHS looking thing, I was pretty amazed. 

My Spectrum was actually one of the Amstrad versions (the +2) which had a built in tape drive, and it had two joystick ports plus a reset button.  So other than the tapes taking a while to load, it was pretty similar in experience to something like a Master System or Spectrum given how you set it up and everything was RF.  D-pads were not exactly new (we'd played Game & Watch etc.) but we used joysticks and keyboard.  I have always Much preferred a d-pad controller.

[P]

The +2 has the ZX Interface 2 joystick ports according to the internet, which means it uses its own type of joysticks instead of the much more common Atari-style ones like the Kempston interface uses.
Software may also only be compatible with one or the other joystick interface, so it's not like you always have a choice either. Most games are probably compatible with the keyboard though since all Spectrums should have that.

I have the same problem with MSX, some games just requires using the keyboard instead of the joysticks, despite all MSX systems has at least once joystick port since that's part of the standard. Especially ZX Spectrum ports which even often uses the same keys as on the Speccy (which lacks arrow keys) because of lazy porters.

[L___E___T]

Yeah Spectrum consistency and support was so spotty back in the day - every game you got you basically had to run through a ritual to find what worked and what didn't before you played.  It was a different time.  It's one of the reasons actually why I was more drawn to console after that - because you put the game in, you press the power on and lo and behold the game is playable right away, no issues.  That just wasn't the case with home computers, but I had a +2 back in the day and never had any issues with joysticks either.  I don't really like joysticks, but I might test this out more as I recently picked up a James Bond +2 (I think it's +2A?) and will try one of those 'new' NES style pads.

[P]

Yeah cassette tapes typically have the instructions written on the label as each one may require a slightly different LOAD statement.

But loading aside, home computers like the VIC-20, C64 and ZX Spectrum was kinda console-like in that every 48K Speccy would have the exact same hardware and work with all games made for it. Amstrad broke compatibility when they took over from Sinclair and introduced the ZX Spectrum +2 as they changed the ROM for a new one with the Amstrad logo, and as games often expects that the hardware is always exactly the same, some games may not work correctly.

MSX has a lot of compatibility problems because it is a computer standard rather than a computer model and programmers tends to not follow the rules and instead program their games assuming various pieces of hardware are always found in the same places like it was a ZX Spectrum or Famicom, which they are not as there are tons of different MSX computers from different manufacturers all placing things differently while still following the rules of the MSX standard.

When the highly modular IBM PC clones became popular in the '90s, games would have even more incompatibility problems as there are so many assumptions programmers can make that doesn't work with a certain hardware combination.



Computer joysticks of the time were cheaply made compared to arcade joysticks, so they are seldom that good. I guess that's one reason why joypads became the norm after Nintendo invented them.

Some of the more popular Atari-style single-button joysticks are:
Suncom Slik Stik (uses leaf-switches)
Suncom TAC-2
Wico Command Joystick (should come with 3 shafts: ball-top, bat-top and flightstick)
Zipstick (uses microswitches)
Suzo Competition Pro (also uses microswitches)

Sega 2-button joysticks and joypads should also work fine though as they are Atari-style and fully passive (no turbo or anything which requires power). They are also cheap and the early joysticks are supposedly pretty bad, but the SJ-300 (or SJ-300M which has a switch for MSX-compatibility) is a pretty decent joystick for a plastic home video game joystick with contact pads though. At least it's the best 2-button one from Sega that I've tried.

Atari-style joysticks only works with the Kempston interface for the Speccy of course, not with the ZX Interface 2 used with the +2.

Some people prefer to build their own joysticks. The electronics in these joysticks is very simple (no components, just wires) but it requires some handiwork.