A hello and a question
First of all I'd like to introduce myself (it would be rude not to :D !). My name is Ben and I am the proud owner of a rubber keyed 48K and a 128k+2.
I got my first Speccy (the 128k) about 19 years ago with a bucket load of games. Back then I was lazy and didn't really want to wait to load up my games, so I hardly ever used it and played on a NES instead. As time went on I bought more and more consoles and my 128k eventually ended up in a box in the loft where it remained for many years.
A couple of years back I went in the loft and found it sitting there looking all sorry for itself, so I dug it out to have a look at it. Somehow I had managed to lose the joystick, but I still had the power supply, the manual, a light gun and all my games (about 70ish). I plugged it in and was pleased to see it power up, but I had no graphics on the screen. It was like someone had stolen my menu options. disappointed, I put it back in it's box and forgot about it.
Whilst searching for other games for my other retro systems, I stumbled across an AV modded 48k and so, to re-live the past, I bought it and have been having great fun with it ever since. After a few internet searches the WoS came up and so I signed up to chat to some like minded people.
Now, to my problem. I am currently working my way through all the games I have, but I am finding that approx. 1 in 4 does not work. I expect some to have got tired over the years, but out of the 1 in 4 that do not work, the majority of those load up fine, but crash during the first seconds of gameplay either going to just a blank screen, or back to the very first Sinclair screen. Has anyone got any ideas as to why this is happening? Is this something I just need to put up with, or is there some way of sorting this?
I look forward to hearing from, and chatting to you all :-).
Ben
I got my first Speccy (the 128k) about 19 years ago with a bucket load of games. Back then I was lazy and didn't really want to wait to load up my games, so I hardly ever used it and played on a NES instead. As time went on I bought more and more consoles and my 128k eventually ended up in a box in the loft where it remained for many years.
A couple of years back I went in the loft and found it sitting there looking all sorry for itself, so I dug it out to have a look at it. Somehow I had managed to lose the joystick, but I still had the power supply, the manual, a light gun and all my games (about 70ish). I plugged it in and was pleased to see it power up, but I had no graphics on the screen. It was like someone had stolen my menu options. disappointed, I put it back in it's box and forgot about it.
Whilst searching for other games for my other retro systems, I stumbled across an AV modded 48k and so, to re-live the past, I bought it and have been having great fun with it ever since. After a few internet searches the WoS came up and so I signed up to chat to some like minded people.
Now, to my problem. I am currently working my way through all the games I have, but I am finding that approx. 1 in 4 does not work. I expect some to have got tired over the years, but out of the 1 in 4 that do not work, the majority of those load up fine, but crash during the first seconds of gameplay either going to just a blank screen, or back to the very first Sinclair screen. Has anyone got any ideas as to why this is happening? Is this something I just need to put up with, or is there some way of sorting this?
I look forward to hearing from, and chatting to you all :-).
Ben
Post edited by Ben48k on
Comments
Tapes deteriorate over time (tape stretch etc)
also you could be trying to load a 128k game into a 48k machine
you could have a faulty machine...
but most probably it is the cassette player azimuth
you need a little screwdriver to adjust the head so the signal is as clear as can be. (something that was second nature back in the day)
if you really want to play a game and can't get it to load then download an emulator and the game (both can be got from the wos archive's) and have some fun.
One item I found very helpful back in the 1980s was a tape head demagnetizer. Over time the frequency of loading errors would increase, and giving the player a blast with that every few months always sorted it out. Another thing to consider is cleaning the tape heads. Some tapes were difficult to load even when they were new, so tapes of good quality would succeed but those of rubbish quality would fail unless the player was at peak performance.
Having said all that, given that you can load a lot of them, where you can't the problem is most likely to be with the tapes. Being up in the loft wouldn't help.