A little bit of help.
Good Evening, I am new to the ZX Spectrum so please do not grill me!
I recently picked one up (being interested in Vintage/Retro Video Gaming)
I have came to put cassettes into the deck on my ZX Spectrum +2A, rewind them and load them via the "loader". It beeps and flashes between red/blue for ages until it winds through the whole tape and stops.
My video game software does not come up afterwards. I have not entered any basic commands as I don't know if you can do that via the "LOADER"!!
I would like to know how to load this, so I am wondering if there is any tutorials to help get me going and enjoying my Spectrum.
I recently picked one up (being interested in Vintage/Retro Video Gaming)
I have came to put cassettes into the deck on my ZX Spectrum +2A, rewind them and load them via the "loader". It beeps and flashes between red/blue for ages until it winds through the whole tape and stops.
My video game software does not come up afterwards. I have not entered any basic commands as I don't know if you can do that via the "LOADER"!!
I would like to know how to load this, so I am wondering if there is any tutorials to help get me going and enjoying my Spectrum.
Post edited by tag274 on
Comments
Are you seeing the colour bands in the borders like this?
http://youtu.be/OJ01EDhL0VM
No, but I haven't pressed "program" - loader or anything...
Just hit play and gone onto the loader section, then get the backdrop changing between red/blue etc.
Cheers
If that fails sorry man you'll have to wait for one of the clever lads to wander past....or try it in the 48k mode, press J then put in "" (appears as LOAD "") and hit enter then press play on the tape
Good luck - oh and welcome to the forums
You are seeing those, which is a good start. It means you worked out how to press enter in the main menu on the Loader option, managed to get the cassette in the right way, and deciphered the play button icon that my parents still can't fathom after 30 years.
It should then turn into a burst of pitches, and you should see blue/yellow crazy border action for about 1/4 of a second. This is the header portion of the program, and it contains information about how long the program is, whether it is basic or code, stuff like that.
At this point, it would say "Program: Something" to let you know it's found a program called Something on the tape. Then you'd see the same red/blue leader bars again, and then a much longer blue/yellow section after which the program is loaded and will usually run (or you'll get an R Tape Loading Error which means it loaded but is corrupt).
The fact you don't even get "Program: Blah" coming up on your screen means one of a few things:
1) The tape head is dirty, you can clean it with alcohol (like meths) and a cotton bud, often worth cleaning the pinch wheel at the same time.
2) The tape head is out of alignment. Insert a cross head jewelers screwdriver into the little hole near the play button when the tape is running, turn it clockwise until you meet resistance, then slowly turn it the other way listening to the screeches coming through your TV. They should become clearer (with the highest level of treble) at some point after which they'll get duller. Turn the screwdriver back clockwise again until its most clear.
3) The tape you are trying has deteriorated to the point where it is unplayable. If it's a rare copy that isn't in the World of Spectrum archives and is listed as Missing in Action, get it to an expert who can recover it. But most likely it's not. ;)
4) The tape head is worn (very rare I'd say), or if there is obvious wow and flutter the tape transport might be too worn. Not much you can do about that really, other than open up the +2A and modify it to use an external tape deck (requires basic soldering skills).
btw, I'd try volume and alignment first.
This is a completely new one on me. How exactly does an alcohol like meths dry out a rubber pinch wheel?
I'm sure there is a special spray for it, there is a special spray for everything. Someone will always try and sell you one, and someone else will always buy it.
How is he going to adjust the volume on a +2A? :/
@karingal
shhh.. he might find another use for methanol.. :-o
Okay, that was officially funny. :)
After almost 30 years of cleaning heads and pinch rollers with a cotton swab dipped with a few drops of alcohol, without experiencing any trouble whatever, this is the first time I hear such a thing as well. Agree on the alignment though, since the Datacorder has no volume control.
and I think alcohol somehow removes water from it.
So your assertion relies on water being in rubber? :/
Rubber does go hard over time and crack, however it isn't drying out, and it doesn't contain water. It crystallises as a result of oxidisation (exposure to the air) which is something you can't do much about. Rapid changes in heat also cause it as well.
Unless you operate your tape deck in a vacuum, time will always be its enemy.
From googling, Platenclene seems to help restore the grip of rubber rollers, presumably it contains silicone (or a similar substance). I couldn't find anywhere that said you should use it to clean pinch wheels, and that using meths or another alcohol based cleaning liquid would cause crystallisation. :/
I'd be interested to read any links that state this.
This might be a case of "lost in translation" ... Orange's initial comment (before his edit) made more sense as he used the word "dehydration" ... he is trying to describe loss of essential chemical oils* in the rubber rather than loss of water (such as one can get from the tap in the kitchen).
*BTW I know nothing about the chemistry of (synthetic) rubber ... just that it comes potentially from the same source as gasoline and petroleum jelly ;-P
nevermind the science....did that bloke Tag get his Speccy fix in the end? :lol:
there are some forums with such advices, like this one:
http://www.recordingwebsite.com/forum/index.php?topic=3272.0;wap2
Either way that's not what is happening, the rubber isn't losing any chemical. :) It's crystallising, the elasticity being lost in the process. Cheap rubber bands undergo the same (and more obvious) process, I'm sure we've all come across them going hard.
I'm pretty sure that the poster of that advice is completely wrong on alcohol "cracking" rubber. Alas advice on forums when left unchallenged can become "fact" in some peoples minds. :/
Much like Alessandro, I've cleaned rubber pinch wheels since the 80s, and mixed with a few enthusiasts and broadcast engineers, all of which cleaned them with alcohol and never reported any problems.
Looking at the science, I can't see how it could happen. So I'd put that idea down to myth!
(Sorry if this argument scared off Tag! I'd be interested to know how he got on too!)
Alcohol is a serious problem with certain types of rubber. The addition of alcohol to fuel has been a serious problem in the (piston powered) aviation world, where you aren't allowed to replace rubber seals that are incompatible with alcohol to ones that are (because everything in the fuel system has to be certified and have a ream or two of paperwork, and it's just too expensive to get a fuel system re-certified with seals made out of different types of rubber). It's also been a problem for boat owners, since the original rubber parts in their fuel systems are incompatible with alcohol and boat owners have often discovered this the hard way - but at least the boat owner doesn't have a huge legal impediment to changing out the seals in the fuel system.
Whether tape pinch rollers are alcohol compatible or not, I don't know - but there is rubber out there which is incompatible with alcohol. It tends to swell and/or break down. It also depends what kind of alcohol we're talking about, since there are several kinds (is it ethanol? is it isopropyl alcohol?)
Is this comparing like with like though? Alcohol in constant contact (or combined with fuel) with seals (under pressure perhaps) or hoses could well possibly have a long term impact on certain types of rubber. I couldn't determine from google (remember when it used to be useful? :/) whether short term contact had a direct effect.
I did find a rather detailed thesis on rubber, which (if I read it right) spoke about alcohol oxidising the rubber (same thing oxygen does over time). If I read it right.
Here we are talking about (in my case, ethanol based meths) which is in contact for at most a few seconds before it evaporates.
Interesting information on the subject.
I think we need some kind of experiment to determine if the sort of rubber used in pinch wheels reacts with Methylated Spirit. :) Does anyone have a broken +2 cassette deck they fancy donating a part to the cause?
It's the datacorder connector on the +2A motherboard: just connect a simple cd rca connector and plug it directly to an audio source ( cdplayer? pc? ) and play tap, tzx with utilities :D I do this and it woooorks
this is the cable
I entered "The Empire Strikes Back" just, it went from red to blue, the lines came on, this repeated several times and it made some noises for 5 minutes or so before the tape ended with no software...
My only guess - and it would be a guess - is that since you've done all the usual things then there is a deeper fundamental problem at hand than dirty heads. The normal way to solve a problem like this is of course to swap things around i.e. try loading a tape you can't load onto another machine that you know can load tapes or get a tape that someone else has successfully loaded onto their machine and try and load it onto yours. I don't know where you are based, perhaps if you let us know there might be someone on here living nearby who could help you out with the loan of a tape or the use of their Spectrum to carry out these tests. You'll then have a better idea where the problem lies.
I don't know how prone a +2A would be to the plastic shell warping over time so I wonder if it's possible that tape in the cassette is not being presented to the head at the correct angle. Normally this is a minor problem easily fixed with an azimuth adjustment but if the cassette is not laying flat then the tolerances may be more than the head can accept. Try using a tape that you are not afraid to lose and pressing down slightly on it while it's loading or, if that doesn't work, raising it up slightly by pulling on it or wedging a piece of paper underneath it. You're only talking millimetres here so don't be too heavy handed and be prepared to scratch\crease the tape in the worst case.
Make sure that tapes and the Spectrum are well away from anything with a strong magnetic influence - for example don't place it on top of or directly underneath a TV or monitor that uses a CRT.
Finally have you tried Saving out something of your own to a blank cassette and then seeing if that will load back in? The old 3.5 floppy system on a PC was notorious for this, you could load and save to and from them all day even with a misaligned head but give one of your floppies to somebody else and they couldn't load it. If you can Save off a SCREEN$ to cassette yourself for example and then Load it back in then this would be a pretty good indicator that the head was misaligned.
I don't get the border that Outrun either...
It could be me doing something wrong, but considering ive tried 4 or 5 different tapes :|
you should try saving a simple basic program on good, blank tape and loading that.
It may also be worth loading a game in an emulator to see what should happen, failing that watch this - Outrun loading:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlsDmALohQQ
I suspect that is the problem.
It's probably just the azimuth though....!