Allow me to share with you 2 items. One has Arduitape written across is, the other
Commodore, but both these devices serve the same purpose. They can be used instead of a tape deck to
load data into your home micro. When I say tape deck, I mean something like
this. This is a Commodore Datasette 1530. It's a common tape drive variant used to load
software into your Commodore 64. There were different models, encompassing
various Commodore machines, but this is probably the most common. It's operation is simple. You plug it into an edge connector on your
C64, you insert a tape, you press the Commodore & Run/Stop keys in unison, then you press
PLAY on the drive. Your piece of software will then load over
the course of several minutes. For ZX Spectrum owners, the process was a
little different. Rather than bespoke devices, any old cassette
recorder with mic and ear sockets could be used, and although it meant fiddling with
the volume controls to get the optimum signal strength, the outcome was pretty much the
same. During the 80s and early 90s, tape drives
hooked up to 8 bit micros was as common as muck. Well, in Europe at least. Over in North America, the disk drive was
dominant, allowing a speed and finesse of loading us European's could only dream of. You see Price was very much a large factor
over here, and thankfully tapes and their associated hardware were cheap, dirt cheap. Your mate Ronnie who lived in the nearby manor
house, might have a shiny disk drive, but really tape software was so abundant over
here, having a disk drive was almost a disadvantage, even if it was impressive and quick. Of course now-days, we don't really have that
issue. Disk ROMs are readily available online, or
you can simply convert your own disks to digital images. Then you can grab an SD2IEC for 30-40 pounds
and emulate a disk drive with ease. It's so easy and quick in fact, that having
an digital tape drive makes no sense does it? Well, there are numerous reasons why it might
make sense. The first is that not all software is available
on disk, with many European only releases only making it to cassette. But then you can always convert digital images
to disk. The main reason therefore - for me at least
- is that, I BLOODY LOVE the tape drive experience. It's not just because I find cassettes a magical
wonder of creation either, even though they clearly are. So, allow me to share my other reasons with
you... Now this Commodore 64 model, I picked up from
eBay for about £60. It's got Retro Fun branding on the SD card
at least, and I can assure you that the Commodore logo is not officially licenced. To connect this beauty up, we simply plug
it into the tape drive edge connector as normal, and power the 64 up. The drive will then display it's firmware
number, before presenting a menu. The main gist of this menu is that you can
either PLAY, RECORD or change OPTIONS. We'll dive straight into the good stuff for
now and see what's on this SD card. Turns out there's quite a selection. All I need to do is navigate the folders using
these back to front arrow buttons, select a game I like the look of, tell the C64 to
load and then press PLAY on the tape deck. It's as simple as it ever was. Data will then begin streaming from the .TAP
files into the machine as normal. The automatic motor controls from the 64 even
still work. Once a program has been found, its name will
appear on screen and the drive will pause just like a real tape deck. It will then continue and your program will
be loaded. In this instance it's the video game adaptation
of RISK. Marvellous stuff. So here's why tape games are so great. The first is the multitude of loading screens
which are often missed out from disk loaded games. I used to love staring at this artwork, becoming
infused with a feeling of wonder for the game being loaded. It was this artwork which used to fire my
imagination and put me into the game world. Because, let's face it, the in game graphics
often failed to do that by themselves. Loading screens were great, but often, accompanying
this artwork, there would also be music. This was the ultimate pairing. Well, in most cases anyway..... Games like Batman the Movie and Deliverance
simply wouldn't feel the same, without this pre-spectacle warm up. Sure, it might take 5 minutes to be able to
play the game, but this anticipation was part of the package. It meant that you'd bloody well enjoy the
game, whether it was utter detritus or not. If we take a look into the options, we'll
find things like INVERT, allowing you to invert the waveform of the image to be loaded, if
required. Options to speed up the ticker counter speed
& pause time. The ability to change video region from PAL
to NTSC - which will affect the time granularity of the data - and even swap between C64, C16
and VIC-20 mode, because, yes, you can use this drive across all 3 Commodore models. We also have the ability to record data directly
to the SD card, and you can choose to enter your own file name, or let the drive automatically
assign one. The record function then works the same as
a normal tape drive would. So then, this is a nice little unit, and serves
my needs well. But how about that most British of machines,
the ZX Spectrum? Well for that, we have this Arduitape TZXDuino. Again, a splendid looking device, which has
little trouble invoking tape drive nostalgia. Now, things for the Speccy are a little different. For starters, we don't have a bespoke interface. We've just got these standard 3.5mm audio
jacks, to carry the audio data. That means, the Arduitape also needs its own
power source. This can be via a 6v jack, or a USB Mini B
connection. We also have a motor control jack - although
the Spectrum isn't endowed with that feature, that's for platforms such as the Amstrad CPC
or MSX and a Mini SD slot. From there, everything is pretty similar to
the other device. After all, they're built on very similar hardware. The SD card can be navigated using the forward
and reverse buttons, and ROMs can be played at a click of a button. There are far less options than the previous
drive it should be noted. Absent are options such as recording, or inversion,
and instead we just get pure navigation and play, but frankly you don't really need anything
else, do you? And if you do, I believe the latest firmware
has some other bells and whistles to play with. So yes, the Spectrum is a different beast
when it comes to loading. Everything feels much more raw, and bare to
the bones. We don't get loading music like some C64 titles. Nor do we get silence in the absence of music. Instead we get the sound of binary pulses
streaming straight from the tape. Many may find this sound irritating, but personally,
I love it. Nostalgia leaps from every pulse, every screech,
and the sound of a loading screen being formed is almost unmistakable. Just like the C64, these loading screens added
so much potency to our gaming experiences, and often served as a showcase for talented
digital artists of the time. I mean check out Daley Thompson's decathalon
this time. It looks bloody glorious. Now you may note that both these devices somewhat
resemble a tape drive, and that's intentional on my part. You can buy these devices in varying form;
often in a more functional aesthetic. But I wanted devices which look at least,
a little like tape decks. This one I picked up from eBay, again for
about £60, although this particular model seems to be a little hard to come by. But you could make your own, or buy a bare
bones version and slip it into a 3D printed case, if you wanted something similar. They're often sold under different names,
although some variation on Arduino is common, mainly because they're built around an Arduino
Nano board, or a clone at least. Peter Edwards was one of the first people
to come up with the solution the C64 model is based on, known as the Tapuino, back in
2014, and it's really a follow up to the simpler ucassette device. Duncan Edwards & Andrew Beer are really responsible
for crossing over with the Arduitape, otherwise known as CASDuino in its MSX form, or the
more recent TZXDuino, which can also be used with the Amstrad CPC and even Acorn machines,
as long as it's loaded with up to date firmware. The TZXDuino can load TAP files as well as
TZX images, but the principles is the same regardless. By reading a block of data at the time, the
Duino then converts that block into audio for the Spectrum's needs. As we have heard, each block is made up of
a pilot pulse and a mixture of long and short pulses to make up the binary instructions. You'll see both the Tapuino and TZXDuino sold
in various cases, made by anyone who has decided to take the hardware and make their own shell. But aside from these incarnations, there are
various other projects and goings on, such as the DC2N by Luigi Di Fraia, or build it
yourself projects by people such as Charcole on Github. You can even get models such as the Sio2sd
for the Atari 8 bit range of computers, including rather pleasing cases, like this one. You're really best to have a look round and
see what suits you both aesthetically and technically. I've popped some links in the video description
if you want to obtain models similar to what I've shown in this video. One more thing.... you might think that with
this modern technology, Tape Loading errors would be a thing of the past, but apparently,
that's something the Spectrum is seemingly unable to ever shake. I guess, that's why we love it so much. That brings this little digital tape adventure
to a close. I'll leave you with some further boxes to
click. Thanks for watching, have a great evening.
