Allow me to share with you 2 items.
One has Arduitape written across is, the other Commodore, but both these devices serve the
same purpose.
They can be used instead of a tape deck to load data into your home micro.
When I say tape deck, I mean something like this.
This is a Commodore Datasette 1530.
It's a common tape drive variant used to load software into your Commodore 64.
There were different models, encompassing various Commodore machines, but this is probably
the most common.
It's operation is simple.
You plug it into an edge connector on your C64, you insert a tape, you press the Commodore
& Run/Stop keys in unison, then you press PLAY on the drive.
Your piece of software will then load over the course of several minutes.
For ZX Spectrum owners, the process was a little different.
Rather than bespoke devices, any old cassette recorder with mic and ear sockets could be
used, and although it meant fiddling with the volume controls to get the optimum signal
strength, the outcome was pretty much the same.
During the 80s and early 90s, tape drives hooked up to 8 bit micros was as common as
muck.
Well, in Europe at least.
Over in North America, the disk drive was dominant, allowing a speed and finesse of
loading us European's could only dream of.
You see Price was very much a large factor over here, and thankfully tapes and their
associated hardware were cheap, dirt cheap.
Your mate Ronnie who lived in the nearby manor house, might have a shiny disk drive, but
really tape software was so abundant over here, having a disk drive was almost a disadvantage,
even if it was impressive and quick.
Of course now-days, we don't really have that issue.
Disk ROMs are readily available online, or you can simply convert your own disks to digital
images.
Then you can grab an SD2IEC for 30-40 pounds and emulate a disk drive with ease.
It's so easy and quick in fact, that having an digital tape drive makes no sense does
it?
Well, there are numerous reasons why it might make sense.
The first is that not all software is available on disk, with many European only releases
only making it to cassette.
But then you can always convert digital images to disk.
The main reason therefore - for me at least - is that, I BLOODY LOVE the tape drive experience.
It's not just because I find cassettes a magical wonder of creation either, even though they
clearly are.
So, allow me to share my other reasons with you...
Now this Commodore 64 model, I picked up from eBay for about £60.
It's got Retro Fun branding on the SD card at least, and I can assure you that the Commodore
logo is not officially licenced.
To connect this beauty up, we simply plug it into the tape drive edge connector as normal,
and power the 64 up.
The drive will then display it's firmware number, before presenting a menu.
The main gist of this menu is that you can either PLAY, RECORD or change OPTIONS.
We'll dive straight into the good stuff for now and see what's on this SD card.
Turns out there's quite a selection.
All I need to do is navigate the folders using these back to front arrow buttons, select
a game I like the look of, tell the C64 to load and then press PLAY on the tape deck.
It's as simple as it ever was.
Data will then begin streaming from the .TAP files into the machine as normal.
The automatic motor controls from the 64 even still work.
Once a program has been found, its name will appear on screen and the drive will pause
just like a real tape deck.
It will then continue and your program will be loaded.
In this instance it's the video game adaptation of RISK.
Marvellous stuff.
So here's why tape games are so great.
The first is the multitude of loading screens which are often missed out from disk loaded
games.
I used to love staring at this artwork, becoming infused with a feeling of wonder for the game
being loaded.
It was this artwork which used to fire my imagination and put me into the game world.
Because, let's face it, the in game graphics often failed to do that by themselves.
Loading screens were great, but often, accompanying this artwork, there would also be music.
This was the ultimate pairing.
Well, in most cases anyway.....
Games like Batman the Movie and Deliverance simply wouldn't feel the same, without this
pre-spectacle warm up.
Sure, it might take 5 minutes to be able to play the game, but this anticipation was part
of the package.
It meant that you'd bloody well enjoy the game, whether it was utter detritus or not.
If we take a look into the options, we'll find things like INVERT, allowing you to invert
the waveform of the image to be loaded, if required.
Options to speed up the ticker counter speed & pause time.
The ability to change video region from PAL to NTSC - which will affect the time granularity
of the data - and even swap between C64, C16 and VIC-20 mode, because, yes, you can use
this drive across all 3 Commodore models.
We also have the ability to record data directly to the SD card, and you can choose to enter
your own file name, or let the drive automatically assign one.
The record function then works the same as a normal tape drive would.
So then, this is a nice little unit, and serves my needs well.
But how about that most British of machines, the ZX Spectrum?
Well for that, we have this Arduitape TZXDuino.
Again, a splendid looking device, which has little trouble invoking tape drive nostalgia.
Now, things for the Speccy are a little different.
For starters, we don't have a bespoke interface.
We've just got these standard 3.5mm audio jacks, to carry the audio data.
That means, the Arduitape also needs its own power source.
This can be via a 6v jack, or a USB Mini B connection.
We also have a motor control jack - although the Spectrum isn't endowed with that feature,
that's for platforms such as the Amstrad CPC or MSX and a Mini SD slot.
From there, everything is pretty similar to the other device.
After all, they're built on very similar hardware.
The SD card can be navigated using the forward and reverse buttons, and ROMs can be played
at a click of a button.
There are far less options than the previous drive it should be noted.
Absent are options such as recording, or inversion, and instead we just get pure navigation and
play, but frankly you don't really need anything else, do you?
And if you do, I believe the latest firmware has some other bells and whistles to play
with.
So yes, the Spectrum is a different beast when it comes to loading.
Everything feels much more raw, and bare to the bones.
We don't get loading music like some C64 titles.
Nor do we get silence in the absence of music.
Instead we get the sound of binary pulses streaming straight from the tape.
Many may find this sound irritating, but personally, I love it.
Nostalgia leaps from every pulse, every screech, and the sound of a loading screen being formed
is almost unmistakable.
Just like the C64, these loading screens added so much potency to our gaming experiences,
and often served as a showcase for talented digital artists of the time.
I mean check out Daley Thompson's decathalon this time.
It looks bloody glorious.
Now you may note that both these devices somewhat resemble a tape drive, and that's intentional
on my part.
You can buy these devices in varying form; often in a more functional aesthetic.
But I wanted devices which look at least, a little like tape decks.
This one I picked up from eBay, again for about £60, although this particular model
seems to be a little hard to come by.
But you could make your own, or buy a bare bones version and slip it into a 3D printed
case, if you wanted something similar.
They're often sold under different names, although some variation on Arduino is common,
mainly because they're built around an Arduino Nano board, or a clone at least.
Peter Edwards was one of the first people to come up with the solution the C64 model
is based on, known as the Tapuino, back in 2014, and it's really a follow up to the simpler
ucassette device.
Duncan Edwards & Andrew Beer are really responsible for crossing over with the Arduitape, otherwise
known as CASDuino in its MSX form, or the more recent TZXDuino, which can also be used
with the Amstrad CPC and even Acorn machines, as long as it's loaded with up to date firmware.
The TZXDuino can load TAP files as well as TZX images, but the principles is the same
regardless.
By reading a block of data at the time, the Duino then converts that block into audio
for the Spectrum's needs.
As we have heard, each block is made up of a pilot pulse and a mixture of long and short
pulses to make up the binary instructions.
You'll see both the Tapuino and TZXDuino sold in various cases, made by anyone who has decided
to take the hardware and make their own shell.
But aside from these incarnations, there are various other projects and goings on, such
as the DC2N by Luigi Di Fraia, or build it yourself projects by people such as Charcole
on Github.
You can even get models such as the Sio2sd for the Atari 8 bit range of computers, including
rather pleasing cases, like this one.
You're really best to have a look round and see what suits you both aesthetically and
technically.
I've popped some links in the video description if you want to obtain models similar to what
I've shown in this video.
One more thing.... you might think that with this modern technology, Tape Loading errors
would be a thing of the past, but apparently, that's something the Spectrum is seemingly
unable to ever shake.
I guess, that's why we love it so much.
That brings this little digital tape adventure to a close.
I'll leave you with some further boxes to click.
Thanks for watching, have a great evening.