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Silly Question

speccyfan1945speccyfan1945
edited August 2009 in Sinclair Miscellaneous
Hi all,

... Is it possible to run any sort of Commodore tapes on a ZX Spectrum +2 (a or b)? It would be interesting to know why you can or cannot i.e. info on the building of programs and loaders for commodore etc

I know this is probably blasphemy against the WoS site but I really want to know because I resently aquired some C64/128 tapes
Post edited by speccyfan1945 on

Comments

  • hypostomushypostomus
    edited August 2009
    Somebody (I forget who, sorry whoever you are!) wrote a Vic 20 emulator for last years Crap Game competition. I'm not sure if it can load real Vic 20 tapes though.
    Chris
  • bobsbobs
    edited August 2009
    I don't see any reason why you couldn't use a customised loader to actually load the data from the types, but aside from any text, which should be ASCII, everything else would just be data. The underlying processor, and everything else for that matter, is fundamentally different between the two machines.
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  • FikeeFikee
    edited August 2009
    bobs wrote: »
    but aside from any text, which should be ASCII
    no ASCII but PETSCII
  • RalfRalf
    edited August 2009
    You guys are giving over-ambitious answers :)

    The simplest answer is no. You can't type LOAD "" and load Commodore game into Spectrum, run it and play it.

    It is because:

    - Spectrum Basic won't recognize Commodore sounds and all. It won't be able to convert it into data.

    - Even if it loaded the data, it would be unable to run it. Computer program is just a long serie of numbers. These numbers can be intterpreted either as data or as commands telling computer what it should do. But these numbers have different meaning for Spectrum and Commodore (our computers have different processors and the same number, let's say 61 means different assembler instructions -> different actions for each computer).

    - Spectrum and Commodore have different graphics display modes.

    But as others said, very theoretically, one could write a program that would load Commodore data into Spectrum even if it was unable to run it. Such a program doesn't exist now.

    And even more theoretically somebody could write Commodore 64 emulator for ZxSpectrum (I believe it is the model, which you are interested in). It would be a VERY hard task, however, probably practically impossible.
  • HerculesHercules
    edited August 2009
    Not possible; It would need to be an emulator, and as with most emulators, it would be required to convert a cpu instruction into another 'on the fly'. In this instance, 6502 to Z80. All that takes huge amounts of processing time because an emulator needs to find the equivalent instruction, and that can take multiple machine code instructions. The Z80 is incapabable of the task, it just isn't fast enough.

    We then come to the C64's 6581 sid microprocessor which is a very complex beast, and more versatile than the AY38910 in the Speccy. Forget it !!
  • FikeeFikee
    edited August 2009
    Ralf wrote: »
    And even more theoretically somebody could write Commodore 64 emulator for ZxSpectrum (I believe it is the model, which you are interested in). It would be a VERY hard task, however, probably practically impossible.

    but VIC-20 with basic 5KB ram would be possible. but slow as hell. good idea for crap compo. ( a bit geeky idea :)
  • mermanmerman
    edited August 2009
    There were multi-format 5.25" disks, with C64 and Atari versions on either side. Don't know if the same was ever done with tapes.

    About the only cross-format tape I can think of are the question tapes for Trivial Pursuit that can be loaded on Spectrum, Amstrad or C64...
  • rich_chandlerrich_chandler
    edited August 2009
    hypostomus wrote: »
    Somebody (I forget who, sorry whoever you are!) wrote a Vic 20 emulator for last years Crap Game competition. I'm not sure if it can load real Vic 20 tapes though.
    Chris
    IIRC that was Jimmy.
    I wanna tell you a story 'bout a woman I know...
  • RalfRalf
    edited August 2009
    And what is the status of Vic-20 emulator by Jimmy?

    I remember that I have seen it, but I lost the track of it later.

    Is it completed job or work in progress? Is it downloadable from WOS? Does it have a batch of VIC-20 games included? Does it have instructions attached?

    Do I remember correctly that it appeared at Crap Games Compo?:-o Was it a joke?
  • SpeccymanSpeccyman
    edited August 2009
    About 15 years ago I saw in Italy (I was there on holiday) was an C-64 emulator announed for Spectrum (maybe it was also a Spectrum emulator for C-64, I never understood italian language, but I read the advertisements of computer mags). I never bought it, never saw it and although I have several contacts to Italy, I never heard again about it. But who knows, maybe some kind of software was really in plan...or maybe hardware.
  • BiNMaNBiNMaN
    edited August 2009
    Wasn't there something to do with a spectrum basic interpreter on the 64? I'm sure I remember reading that somewhere
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