The built in cassette deck worked fine back then and does now, I haven''t had to twiddle the Azymuth screw as yet like I did back in the day but I think that was more down to recording methods rather than any fault of the tape head.
Sinclair zx spectrum interface 2 minidisc plus#
I own a reasonably mint +2(grey) same as the one I owned back in 1986 I have all my old games plus many more I got cheaper in the 90''s and will continue to use it I got a lovely scart lead and a refurbed Quickshot 1 joystick plus the joystick converters for both ports(a must) I do have an SJS1 joystick but keeping that intact as they snap easily as most of you will remember. Please consider donating your old computer / videogame system to or one of our partners from anywhere in the world (Europe, America, Asia, etc.). They also removed the keypad scanning routines of the Spectrum 128 and +2 (remember the keypad sold with the Spanish Spectrum 128k ?). When Amstrad conceived the +2A/B and the +3 they redesigned the motherboard and made some internal changes on the bus. Note that the first ROMs developed by Amstrad for the +2 model caused compatibility problems with the old Spectrum software, so they changed a few things in later ROMs. The difference between the +2A and +2B was mainly due to a move in production from Hong Kong to Taiwan. It means that their motherboards were quite similar to that of the +3. There were several models of the Spectrum +2 : the Spectrum +2 (grey case) which had a motherboard nearly identical to that of the 128, and the Spectrum +2A and +2B (black case) which were simply Spectrum +3 computers with a tape-recorder instead of the disk drive. There was still a calculator mode in the start-menu but the « Tape tester » option of the 128 had been removed since the tape-recorder was built-in.Īs with the other 128k models, and due to the limitations of the Z80 CPU which can only address 65536 bytes, the 128kb RAM was not directly usable (unless with bank-switching routines), but could be used as a RAM disk. It was the most popular sound chip at the time.Īs on the Spectrum 128, two BASIC versions were implemented : the 48k BASIC to remain compatible with the original Sinclair Spectrum, and the 128k BASIC which was already introduced with the Spectrum 128. Thus, the sound chip used is still the well-known Yamaha AY-3-8912 which is the sound chip of the MSX computers, Oric computers, Atari ST series) and many other computers of the 80’s. It was a kind of mix between the Spectrum 128 and the CPC-464 !Įven though it used several features of the CPC-464, such as the built-in tape recorder and a good full-stroke keyboard (at last!), it is above all an improved Spectrum 128. Thus, it is not suprising that the Spectrum +2 is very similar in shape and functionality to the Amstrad CPC-464. This section presents a variety of utilities that run from ROM.The Sinclair Spectrum +2 was the first Sinclair computer made by Amstrad after they bought the rights of the Sinclair computers products. This section presents a variety of customisations and alternatives to the standard Spectrum ROM. This section presents a variety of emulators for making the Spectrum mimic other computers and peripherals.
This section documents a variety of games that can be run directly from a ROM cartridge. This section documents a collection of ROM cartridges to help fault find and verify correct operation of Spectrum systems. This section describes a variety of methods for creating custom ROM cartridges, and provides details on the range of PCBs I have produced that use some of these techniques. These were followed a couple of months later by Chess, and then the remaining six titles in December 1983. The first titles were released around September/October 1983 and were the Psion games Planetoids, Backgammon and Space Raiders. This section describes the ten retail ROM cartridge titles released by Sinclair. Most of the ROMs presented can be programmed into the ZXC3 and ZXC4 using its built-in FLASH programming mechanism,Īlthough some are only supported on the ZXC3 when fitted with an EPROM.Ĭlick on the thumbnail images to see more detail about the corresponding ROM cartridge program. This page presents details on the range of original retail ROM cartridges, along with my custom ROM cartridge board designs (ZXC1, ZXC2, ZXC3 and ZXC4) and new ROM programs that can be run using them.Įach new ROM is represented by a thumbnail of the lowest specification custom board that it will run on.