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DivIDE: Should I get rid of it?

TechnicianSiTechnicianSi
edited January 2012 in Chit chat
I've had it for a couple of days now, and it's something i've always wanted for my Spectrum, but tbh, i'm starting to wonder why I got it.

I have a decent(ish) collection of originals (approaching 650 now) that i'm proud of and will continue to add to, but why bother if I have this device that allows me to fill a 1gb SD card with everything and still have games to spare? Don't get me wrong, it's a brilliant brilliant device but I feel it could seriously hamper my collecting habit.

The only benefit is being able to play recent games on it (the excellent Severin Sewers being among them) but since it's easy to stick these on blank cassettes i'm tempted even more to get rid of it.

It's the whole downloading argument - if you have access to all these games for free, why buy them?

Opinions?
Post edited by TechnicianSi on
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Comments

  • guesserguesser
    edited January 2012
    TechnicianSi wrote: »
    Opinions?

    Opinion? Ok...

    Anyone who uses physical cassette tapes in 2012 is crazy.

    People who fill their house with giant piles of plastic cuboids containing rolled up rust covered plastic are also bonkers :p


    ;);););)
    My rubbish website including the redrawn Amstrad schematics and the Sinclair Wiki.
  • guesserguesser
    edited January 2012
    On the flip side, yes you should get rid of your DivIDE...







    replace it with a spectranet! :D
    My rubbish website including the redrawn Amstrad schematics and the Sinclair Wiki.
  • Alien 8Alien 8
    edited January 2012
    I got shot of my DivIDE+. I prefer tapes. With the DivIDE+ I didn't know which game to play first. At least if I wait for a tape game to load I play it for a bit before I reset the machine.
  • TechnicianSiTechnicianSi
    edited January 2012
    Well, believe it or not I actually like using tapes. Well, the ones that work anyway. :p

    I just don't wanna fall into the trap of having a real machine that gives me access to everything. That's what PC's with Internet are for. If I limit myself to playing only stuff I own, then it gives me impetus to add to the collection.
    And i've tried limiting the card to just what I own, and it doesn't work, cos when I started adding to it I just kept going "oooh, that's a good game... I don't have it but i'll get a copy eventually... i'll put it on."

    eBay it is :p

    As for Spectranet, i've never used it, and know little about it... Info?

    Edit: Alien 8 has now utterly convinced me flogging it is the right thing to do!
  • rich_chandlerrich_chandler
    edited January 2012
    TechnicianSi wrote: »
    Well, believe it or not I actually like using tapes. Well, the ones that work anyway. :p

    I just don't wanna fall into the trap of having a real machine that gives me access to everything. That's what PC's with Internet are for. If I limit myself to playing only stuff I own, then it gives me impetus to add to the collection.
    And i've tried limiting the card to just what I own, and it doesn't work, cos when I started adding to it I just kept going "oooh, that's a good game... I don't have it but i'll get a copy eventually... i'll put it on."

    eBay it is :p

    As for Spectranet, i've never used it, and know little about it... Info?

    Edit: Alien 8 has now utterly convinced me flogging it is the right thing to do!
    Is it a DivIDE or a DivIDE+?

    I ask purely for selfish reasons...
    I wanna tell you a story 'bout a woman I know...
  • TechnicianSiTechnicianSi
    edited January 2012
    karingal wrote: »
    Is it a DivIDE or a DivIDE+?

    I ask purely for selfish reasons...

    DivIDE, not the plus i'm afraid.
  • rich_chandlerrich_chandler
    edited January 2012
    TechnicianSi wrote: »
    DivIDE, not the plus i'm afraid.
    I've suddenly lost interest...
    I wanna tell you a story 'bout a woman I know...
  • TechnicianSiTechnicianSi
    edited January 2012
    karingal wrote: »
    I've suddenly lost interest...

    If I got a marker pen and drew a big + on it?
  • rich_chandlerrich_chandler
    edited January 2012
    TechnicianSi wrote: »
    If I got a marker pen and drew a big + on it?
    LOL!!!
    I wanna tell you a story 'bout a woman I know...
  • Lee FogartyLee Fogarty
    edited January 2012
    TechnicianSi wrote: »
    If I got a marker pen and drew a big + on it?

    Put it on ebay with very very very small text saying the '+' is marker pen....
    My test signature
  • TechnicianSiTechnicianSi
    edited January 2012
    fogartylee wrote: »
    Put it on ebay with very very very small text saying the '+' is marker pen....

    Hmmm... Yeah, it could be a limited edition ;)
    Signed by the Author of some really crap Jet Set Willy clones

    Should add at least 7p to the value...
  • Lee FogartyLee Fogarty
    edited January 2012
    Ebay newbie alert!!!

    It's R@RE!
    My test signature
  • TechnicianSiTechnicianSi
    edited January 2012
    I only use that phrase when I have spares of Make-a-Chip or Survival :p
  • fogfog
    edited January 2012
    TechnicianSi wrote: »
    I only use that phrase when I have spares of Make-a-Chip or Survival :p

    my spidey senses are tingling :lol:

    .. as someone who sells games, I say yer buy tapes.. none tapes are evil YER :p

    .. as someone who owns a divide+ and uses emulators.. I simply don't have time to be loading off tapes

    and it also saves wear on the tapes hehe , only you can answer that question.

    I would like a divide to go with the + though,

    how many M-A-C's was that part-ex ? :D
  • TechnicianSiTechnicianSi
    edited January 2012
    fog wrote: »
    my spidey senses are tingling :lol:

    .. as someone who sells games, I say yer buy tapes.. none tapes are evil YER :p

    .. as someone who owns a divide+ and uses emulators.. I simply don't have time to be loading off tapes

    and it also saves wear on the tapes hehe , only you can answer that question.

    I would like a divide to go with the + though,

    how many M-A-C's was that part-ex ? :D

    At least 14,792... Or one Shadow of the Unicorn :p
  • Lee FogartyLee Fogarty
    edited January 2012
    TechnicianSi wrote: »
    At least 14,792... Or one Shadow of the Unicorn :p


    eh? SOTU was worse than Mire Mare!
    My test signature
  • TechnicianSiTechnicianSi
    edited January 2012
    fogartylee wrote: »
    eh? SOTU was worse than Mire Mare!

    I know it's crap, but since 7/8ths of my collection is also crap I figured it'd fit right in... It could keep Knight Lore company...
  • Alien 8Alien 8
    edited January 2012
    TechnicianSi wrote: »
    Well, believe it or not I actually like using tapes. Well, the ones that work anyway. :p

    I just don't wanna fall into the trap of having a real machine that gives me access to everything. That's what PC's with Internet are for. If I limit myself to playing only stuff I own, then it gives me impetus to add to the collection.
    And i've tried limiting the card to just what I own, and it doesn't work, cos when I started adding to it I just kept going "oooh, that's a good game... I don't have it but i'll get a copy eventually... i'll put it on."

    eBay it is :p

    As for Spectranet, i've never used it, and know little about it... Info?

    Edit: Alien 8 has now utterly convinced me flogging it is the right thing to do!

    Glad I could help with the decision making process. To me it utterly destroyed the whole "Spectrum Experience". It is also why I haven't bothered with similar devices for my Commodore machines. The Mega Cart, on the other hand, well that is amazing.
  • Alien 8Alien 8
    edited January 2012
    karingal wrote: »
    I've suddenly lost interest...

    Quite a few people seem to prefer the regular DivIDE to the + version from what I've read on here.....

    I've never used a regular divide to compare though.
  • Alessandro GrussuAlessandro Grussu
    edited January 2012
    My position is somewhat in the middle: while I would never actually use my precious tapes for fear of damaging them due to wear and aging, I prefer to get the old experience of waiting for software to load by feeding the Spectrum with data streaming from a PC (TZX files) or a multimedia reader (MP3s made from the aforementioned TZXs). This way, while sparing my tapes from a potential danger and avoiding all the fuss of chuntey, tape wobble, head alignment etc. - which I found annoying back in the day, let alone these days -, I can still taste the nostalgic sensation of sitting down, selecting what I want to load, waiting for the loading screen, if any, to appear, stopping the tape at crucial times - especially for multi-load games. I believe that should I be offered the chance to load software into my real hardware instantly, there would be almost no difference from emulation. Just my two cents :)
    Spectrumpedia, the most comprehensive book ever written about the Spectrum - Zankle Soft - Corrections for games incompatible with the +2A/+3 - TAP files for DivIDE/DivMMC - SetoLOAD fast tape loading scheme
  • Alien 8Alien 8
    edited January 2012
    Alessandro Grussu wrote: »
    My position is somewhat in the middle: while I would never actually use my precious tapes for fear of damaging them due to wear and aging, I prefer to get the old experience of waiting for software to load by feeding the Spectrum with data streaming from a PC (TZX files) or a multimedia reader (MP3s made from the aforementioned TZXs). This way, while sparing my tapes from a potential danger and avoiding all the fuss of chuntey, tape wobble, head alignment etc. - which I found annoying back in the day, let alone these days -, I can still taste the nostalgic sensation of sitting down, selecting what I want to load, waiting for the loading screen, if any, to appear, stopping the tape at crucial times - especially for multi-load games. I believe that should I be offered the chance to load software into my real hardware instantly, there would be almost no difference from emulation. Just my two cents :)

    That's a good compromise. I must admit, having the DivIDE+ hooked up did feel a bit like I was using an emulator. Some of the file programs use much more memory than 48K, so presumably the DivIDE+ runs those programs. In the end the spectrum feels like the add on.
  • guesserguesser
    edited January 2012
    The divide doesn't run anything, it's only a memory expansion at heart...
    My rubbish website including the redrawn Amstrad schematics and the Sinclair Wiki.
  • rich_chandlerrich_chandler
    edited January 2012
    Alien 8 wrote: »
    Quite a few people seem to prefer the regular DivIDE to the + version from what I've read on here.....

    I've never used a regular divide to compare though.
    I only lost interest because I already have a regular DivIDE.
    I wanna tell you a story 'bout a woman I know...
  • murtcepsmurtceps
    edited January 2012
    TechnicianSi wrote: »
    At least 14,792... Or one Shadow of the Unicorn :p

    You shouldn't have said that - he probably has that many.
  • zx1zx1
    edited January 2012
    guesser wrote: »
    Opinion? Ok...

    Anyone who uses physical cassette tapes in 2012 is crazy.

    People who fill their house with giant piles of plastic cuboids containing rolled up rust covered plastic are also bonkers :p


    ;);););)


    I still dig out my speccy tape collection from time to time but i know this won't last forever as they will eventually degrade. Thank god for emulation.
    The trouble with tribbles is.......
  • Alien 8Alien 8
    edited January 2012
    Thing is though, if they still work after 30 years, just when will they degrade? In my limited experience the most common problem is that the tape itself doesn't freely move inside the housing. Other than that most things load no problems on Spectrum, C64, and VIC 20 that I own.
  • mel the bellmel the bell
    edited January 2012
    ill give ya a tenner for it :D

    errrrrrrm how much do they normally cost?
    Professional Mel-the-Bell Simulator................"So realistic, I found myself reaching for the Kleenex King-Size!" - Richard Darling
  • rich_chandlerrich_chandler
    edited January 2012
    mel the bell wrote: »
    ill give ya a tenner for it :D

    errrrrrrm how much do they normally cost?
    Mine cost ?25 about 4 years ago.
    I wanna tell you a story 'bout a woman I know...
  • TechnicianSiTechnicianSi
    edited January 2012
    Well I paid ?46 for mine (with the SD Card adaptor) and it's just sold for ?34.99 + P&P.

    :smile:
  • rich_chandlerrich_chandler
    edited January 2012
    TechnicianSi wrote: »
    Well I paid ?46 for mine (with the SD Card adaptor) and it's just sold for ?34.99 + P&P.

    :smile:
    I didn't get an SD card adaptor with mine, that'll add another ?20 to the price.
    I wanna tell you a story 'bout a woman I know...
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