Is This Alternative To Loading From Tape TOO Nostalgic?
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- čas přidán 27. 05. 2024
- Is loading from tape too nostalgic? This ZXuiTape gives you all the feels without having to risk your old tapes - note: ZXuiTape and NOT ZXTapeUI as I continuously seem to refer to it - even now that just seems to roll off the tongue easier! :)
So, Is loading from tape too nostalgic? Or is it a sensible alternative to the convenience of modern storage and the feels of watching a game loading from tape (kind of...)
In any case, if you're interested in one of these, this one was from:
www.youmakerobots.com
Just remember to get the name right, and tell 'em we sent ya!
Let me know in the comments if you like the feeling of loading from tape, or whether you prefer the instant solutions.
Thanks for watching! - Věda a technologie
That distinctive sound of a ZX Spectrum loading and the colour bars on-screen - plus the loading screen graphics slowly being drawn as a kind of reward for your patience, while the game loaded is priceless nostalgia. I personally had the original 'rubber keyed' Spectrum and looking forward to the Spectrum Next, but I still want to try out some old cassettes from time to time on the Next when it arrives, as well as the newer games on SD Card. I think it's fantastic the merging of old retro systems and modern tech.
I’m right there with you. If you load Technician Ted as a snapshot you miss all the little Teds walking back and forth while the game loads :)
It's all in the detail. And if you have more than one screen/computer you can continue to work and appreciate through multi-tasking, pausing or glancing across at the old system as it loads - a nice atmosphere of nostalgia and modern computers...Another thing to note is the artwork on the old cassettes. In a world of digital download, having the original cassettes with the impressive art and a physical form is something I really appreciate. Walking into WH Smiths back in the day there was a wall of these little cassettes with their own unique artwork.
Hearing that load sound was like time travel for me. Even though my first machine was a specy, I was always an Atarian. I have a 48k spectrum and most of the Atari range, for ease of use, it's the C64 Maxi. Great video!
Thanks! And welcome to the channel!
The TI-99/4A also used cassette tapes for saving and loading programs or data used with cartridge based programs. Although a floppy drive system or even a 5Mb hard drive was available, they were way out of my price range. The Classic99 emulator fully recreates the experience of loading from tape using .WAV files created from audio tapes. In addition to having the same prompts, sounds and the time it takes load from the "tape" interface, you also get to experience the uncertainty your data/programs will actually be read. "NO DATA FOUND" after waiting while it beeped noisily. I did that a few times and my needs for a nostalgic experience were met well enough that I don't have a strong urge to repeat it.
Got to say I'm with you there - I like the 'instant' access, which is why I always try to find some modern solid state storage solution for all my machines - however, there are a few games that I do like to watch load purely for the marvel at how clever folks were to do things like animated screens - Technician Ted for example. As a child just getting into programming, my mind boggled at how that was even possible :)
The Mark 2 version of that tape emulator needs a larger screen, so it can show an animated graphic of the tape reels turning during transfer!
I’ll pass that suggestion on - I like it! :)
I don't have any Spectrums anymore, each one got sold to buy the next one up.. from 48k > + > 128 > +3 before selling that to get an Amstrad 6128.. but i have such fond memories of tape loading and that anticipation of a game.. we really are spoilt these days.
Couldn’t agree more :) I think Manic Miner may have been the first ever game to have an ‘animated’ loading screen - just flashing attributes but it wowed me back in the day :)
C64 was the only tape based micro I had access to as a kid, my friend also had a C64 and another friend a disk only based Atari 800. Was interesting to go from a 25 minute blank light blue screen silent loading session of the first release of Manic Miner C64, then we had flashing borders and turbo loading, then flashing borders plus loading screen and/or music, then all of those and finally to games in the mid 80s that let you play games while the main game loaded (Lunar Lander or Space Invaders etc). The fact you could write software loaders for the C64 made it quite interesting, Crazy Comets loads in under 3 minutes which today is just the right amount of time to make a cup of tea :)
Don’t you also find that you invested more time in a game because you couldn’t just flit from one to the next?
@@TheRetroShack I really had no choice back then, like most kids funding our gaming habit with pound coins of pocket money lol For 3 weeks I only had 2 games for my brand new C64....and one of those was really horrible so I just played Punchy or my old VCS games. I just don't have the patience for 4 colour or badly coded C64 games today loading them from SD cards as tiny program files or a full tape image makes little difference now, I am on the hunt for those charming 8 bit games I never got to play on VIC/ZX/CPC/C64 or Atari etc. I think kids with disk drives in the USA did miss out though as most of the early disk games just had a blank screen!
I recently bought a refurbed composite modded 48k rubber key Spectrum, just to experience some nostalgia of when I was a school kid and playing on my friend's Spectrums (I was too poor to afford a Spectrum, so I had to make do with a ZX81 until I later got a C64).
Part of the nostalgia for me is the whole experience. Emulation is cool and convenient, but then you don't have the physical presence and the feel of the original hardware (especially important on a rubber key speccy which has a very special look and feel.)
So when I bought the speccy I also got a DivMMC for quick and easy game loading, but also bought a ZXuiTape specifically so I could experience Spectrum tape loading again, which is a massive part of the original Spectrum experience and holds immense nostalgia for me.
I suppose I lose points by using my Spectrum on my 38 year old Commodore 1702 CRT monitor (Sinclair purists will be spitting feathers by now), but using an original 1980's CRT gives a much more authentic experience than using an LCD.
Anyway I thorougly recommend the ZXuiTape, as it provides a rock solid tape loading experience, without the hassle of having to fiddle with the azimuth screw, and of course without R Tape loading error. Though you can always pull the ear jack out just before the game finishes loading if you want the proper Spectrum tape loading experience!
Perfectly put!
The whole loading routine is part of the nostalgia for me, on the C64 especially as there are all of those wonderful loading tunes 😁
Same here! :)
yeah I agree although the speed of disk image loading is fantastic I do miss some of those epic C64 load tunes
I've used tape with my 64 again, both to get back with the past and also as tape is way easier to get than disk. I use it to boot essentials like TAPSERV, as the serial is wired to the PC for data transfer in that event. I enjoyed grabbing various games from disk images to keep the best in one place and it's just nice having racks and boxes of 'the real thing' to look at and feel. I wouldn't go back to only that but it completes the experience to use it.
@@MrDustpile Couldn’t agree more :)
absolutely great gizmo! 10x for taking your time to expose it to us!
Great gizmo indeed! (using it as I write this in fact! )
I used to have a Philips MSX , not exactly the same ,but i get what u mean with the nostalgia ,mine had a "datarecorder" . My Grandma had 2 sisters who lived in Rotterdam , and every time she went to visit them , she bought me a new cassette . I can still remember getting "Circus Charlie , Track & Field , Frogger , Kings Valley , Konami Soccer " and the list goes on and on....
It sucks to level up ... i mean to grow older 😂🤣
There’s been a few messages across the different videos about MSX - got me hankering after doing a series on them :)
ZX Spectrum Next is most definitely the nicest neo-retro device around right now; is a shame that devices like that can't be ordered off of retail sites like Amazon - or even ebay
It's an awesome piece of kit :) Although I am salivating slightly in anticipation of The 8 Bit Guy's Commander X16 :) :)
@@TheRetroShack same here - the Cmdr X16 is looking awesome too
having some expansion slots should lead to interesting add-ons (e.g., fully expect the community to try and address giving Cmdr X16 full C64 and/or C128 compatibility - just because it's something to do)
I'd like to see something like a second display card so could run a development IDE on one screen while targeting the primary screen for the game being written
would be slick if could do actual realistic development of X16 software directly on the X16 - instead of having to do cross-development, and the community would have lots of fun devising the development tools for all that
@@TheSulross Fingers crossed for ALL of that!
Tapduino and the like have the advantage that you have one low cost input device that works across multiple retro systems, vs SD card interfaces that are fast and feature-rich but often are quite expensive.
You're right there! It does add up to get solid state storage across all the machines - but I *am* quite impatient :) :)
Nice video. The only comment I'd make is they are under £40 if you don't want the extras or have them yourself and DivMMC are more like £80 so technically they are 1/2 the cost. I suppose it is oranges and apples.
Thanks for the comment - prices do seem to fluctuate on the DIVMMC units (they’re currently £59.99 as of posting this) but the point is exactly that they are oranges and apples - money permitting I’d recommend getting both as they do offer very different experiences :)
We've come full circle: the current iterations of our beloved old machines are so unimaginably faster that we strive to make them slower.
Lol - you’re right! :)
@@squirlmy Whao! Falling into the ever decreasing circles :)
Great review of this smashing tape emulator! 😀👍
Cheers!
While I never got to experience tape loading back in the day (my first computer was a C64 with a disk drive), I have experienced audio loading using a cheap MP3 player with a Supercharger for the Atari VCS/2600. It has always interested me, I always loved how the screen of the spectrum changed when loading be cassette.
It can be quite hypnotic :)
@@TheRetroShack oh indeed, Just watching the video of the visuals while loading on a spectrum is pretty wild. always loved that sound as well. Loved listening to the dialup modem connecting to the internet back in the day, many find the sound annoying.
I'm glad this exists though I never had any nostalgia for the load. I started on a ZX81 (TS1000) then a 2068 before moving to Atari. I always eagerly upgraded as soon as I could afford it. We've finally hit stagnation where more speed, more whatever is no longer getting me excited because it doesn't enable anything new. Until it does, I've gone back to my roots and also am in the queue for a Next KS2. Gobbling up all things Sinclair, even though we never got most of them here in the US including a TS1500 which was (to me) the pinnacle of the ZX81, a new looking speccy with IF1 and micro drive and a QL in the post!
Still yet to land a QL of my own :( Refurbished a few for other people but I've lucked out as far as my own goes :)
Tape loading is the future, especially when I get my KS2 Next!
Don't forget the Raspberry Pi upgrade! You need it to load tape images :)
I've been using Spectrum emulators since the late 90s, but they never felt authentic until I tried turning off all the functions that speed up loading.
Having normal loading times finally made everything click into place and feel just like a real Spectrum.
In fact I rarely use my original Spectrums any more, preferring to spare them from wear and tear.
The waiting and anticipation is an important part of the process. It makes you more inclined to have 'one more go' instead of flitting from game to game.
Couldn't agree more! Thanks for watching, from another tape lover ;)
This. Instant loading leads to instant reset at the first frustrating death. Having to wait for the game to load encourages investment in the game.
Yeah, i feel the same way about emulators; it just doesn't feel right without the tape loading noise lol. Spectaculator even emulates the sounds of microdrives too :D
The wait is part of the nostalgia. You are less likely to continue with a game once you hit a tough spot if you can just load a different game instantly. And as you say you would miss out on the music / graphics or even mini games during the loading sequence. I still use cassettes on my C64 even though I do have an instant load cartridge.
Absolutely agree!
You might find this hard to believe, but when the ZX Spectrum was copied and cloned behind the former Iron Curtain, many Soviet/Russian users actually preferred floppy disk drives (they also cloned the Beta disk drive interface, both 48K and 128K models, for use with their versions of the Spectrum, called the Pentagon and ZS Scorpion). The satellite states still relied on cassette tape from what I understand - even Yugoslavia (even though it was nonaligned) got in on the fun. Hungary, however, was more into the C64 - the only Communist country that I know of to do so.
I'd just like to point out that the Spectrum Next does have tape loading simulation mode for .TAP files (and for .TZX files if you have the Raspberry Pi Zero added) to give the same function as the ZXuiTape. When you select an image file on a Next you can press T to toggle tape loading simulation before selecting the machine mode to start the loading. There is one issue with the Spectrum Next for using this mode, there is no pause/play control. .TAP files do auto pause/play in some cases but not .TZX files which use the Pi Zero to decode them.
Thanks for clarifying that - very useful info!
I have a gorgeous ZX Spectrum Next and a +2, +2a, 3 Speccy +'s and 3 48K's
Another addict :) Welcome to the channel! :)
I too have a Next, I also have the second version on order through the second Kickstarter campaign they had last year. I also have one of my original 48K Spectrums and my toaster rack 128K+ Speccy. I went to Atari ST after the 128K+ skipping all the Amstrad models of Speccy.
Can you achieve the same experience If you use a laptop for example to play a WAV file with connecting the speaker output to the Speccy's INput socket?
Can't see why not - as long as the output levels are within range of what the Spectrum's expecting - have a go and let me know how you get on :)
@@TheRetroShack I will later today!
nice vid :)
Cheers :)
Are warranty seals legal/enforceable in Europe? In the US, they mean nothing. If you open a device because/and it stops working, the manufacturer has to prove that you caused the damage to refuse a warranty repair.
In the UK at least (and unless it’s changed very recently) they are still enforceable. Found this:
www.justanswer.co.uk/law/am8wz-will-warranty-void-remove-warranty-void.html
@@TheRetroShack I would surmise that rule also applies to the EU, of which the UK was a recent member. I'm pretty certain that it is the rule here in Denmark at least. As you say "unless it's changed very recently", i very much doubt the UK government has made it a top priority to change minor things like that in the face of the current import/export problems, eh?
And now even with our ultra fast powerful modern game consoles and computers, we still have to wait, because Gigabytes!
Darn tootin!!
or you could just use your phone instead of forking out £50. Although Adrian in his digital basement seemed to have a lot of trouble with that, not sure if that's normal or a problem with his machine - i'll have to wait to get my recently bought speccy up and running to test that.
That’s the magic of the tech world - so many modern solutions and cool things being done to support these old machines. The agony of choice :)
You can use a phone with TAPdancer installed but this kind of device with the Maxduino firmware offers more compatibility. For example, TAP dancer doesn't support multliload games whereas Maxduino does. Also it's closer to £40, not £50.
I have seen several people comment, both here on youtube, and on the WOS and SC forums, that the output from their phones isn't quite high enough to fully drive the Spectrum's ear input for a reliable loading experience, but generally a small audio amplifier in the order of 1 to 2 watts solves the problem.
Those with sufficient soldering skills can build one themselves, but for the rest, something like www.ebay.com/itm/LM386-DC-5V-12V-Mini-Micro-Audio-Amplifier-Module-Board-Mono-AMP-ModuleEP-LH/154266595616 will do the trick.
Was trying to figure out what a yooey was throughout xD
Lol :)
You know, people with a C64 could listen to music while loading games... 😂🎶🤣
You needed to... It took so long ;) (Just kidding Mr Internet!)
@@TheRetroShack gotta keep the feud alive... 😂😁
Pew pew pew.
“Cassette nostalgia fix”. Pretty sure that’s not a thing.
Oh come on, you know you love the waaaaaaaaaait :)