ScuzzBlog: Diaries February 2022
Entry 21st February 2022: Post 1: Sinclair Spectrum - ZX Interface 1.
Sinclair Spectrum - ZX Interface 1.
For those that did not live through the dawn of the home computer
and were unable to joy at the magic of machines like the Spectrum
I do feel sorry for you. Down deep inside the lost depths of my
mind lurks magical memories that when sparked, no matter what is
current to my status, will wash over my conscious self and fill
me with pure joy. Today on the bench I was consumed again by those
memories as I tapped my fingers on those coloured rubber keys. It
matters not what critics may say of the Spectrum keyboard for I
only ever reflect on the endless possibilities of the new frontier
that was home computing. And even today they tugged at my brains
data map and caused no end of truly wonderful memories to wash
over me. Sir Clive may have got a lot wrong but the curves and
colours of the Spectrum are still a joy to behold.
And so today I struggled with MSX machines, Commodore SX-64 and
a plethora of hand held whatsits to uncover the Interface 1. I
have long been wanting to reunite the interface with the Microdrive
and all those wonderful little 'tape-lets'.
I could never afford the Interface 1 when it were launched back
in 1983. At forty nine quid it was a real luxury. It wasn't a big
deal to start with as the thing appeared to be aimed at schools.
And then they upgraded the spec to include the Microdrive interface.
You 'bugga' Sir Clive.. I hate you. I drooooooled over the articles
in Home Computing Weekly as I travelled on the 394 to Walsall and
let my mind dream of one day owning such a gem.
The Interface 1 slots in underneath the Spectrum and gives it a
real chunky feel. Inside there is the 8KB ROM control software to
power that train of drives. Sexy or what ? It also had an RS-232
and network port. But who cares... I wanted a Microdrive. My mind
tripped over how to obtain the money, and short of robbing a bank
I was stuffed...... Bumma.
The only crumb of comfort in later life was the incompatibility
with my Spectrum +2 and +3. Well that is what I kept telling myself.
Anyhoo... I finally got my Interface 1 and 2 and the Microdrive
and I can say without fear of being struck down by the ghost of
Sir Clive that they were truly crap. And on that the magical rosy
red tinted glasses that were the Spectrum fizzle and die. In truth
Sir Clive was preoccupied with getting things smaller. From TV's,
radios, cars and drives. Everyone else was providing kit that was
ergonomically suited to our finger sizes. These drives look cool
but they were never popular or without problems.
Amazingly this device had two network ports and permitted the daisy
chaining of up to 64 ZX Spectrums. Bonkers or what. It was called
ZX Net using a bio directional wire. It wasn't that the ideas were
poor it was the implementation on less than usable kit. The thing
was crying out for a real keyboard and a foolproof means of saving
data. The Spectrum really did need to move forward following its
early success and a better interface would have been something
that allowed a more robust keyboard to be attached.
The Microdrive was a double 'whammy' cus on top of the forty nine
quid for the drive itself you needed the Interface 1. They did cut
the costs of a combined purchase, but it still was a high price.
Worse was the reported issues of unreliability. I only wanted an
easy way to save data and if it couldn't do that what was the point.
Inside the Microdrive is a 5m length of looped taped. A stringy
floppy as it were. The speed of this thing was around 750mm/second
and could run the full track or circuit in 8 seconds flat. They
held 85KB of storage which wasn't bad in truth. Retrieval was in the
15 KB/sec region, though the tape as I say was prone to problems.
The main issue was with tapes stretching and becoming unreadable.
An interesting concept with the Microdrive was daisy chaining letting
you daisy chain up to 8 Microdrives... costing four hundred quid. It
sadly didn't get better with the QL. In the end I think the only real
legacy of this period of development was the relatively large and
better keyboard [ just ] on the ZX Spectrum+.
OK I went up the hill and down the other on that one. Truth is I
have never risked using the Microdrive or tapes cus of fear of
destroying the little tape cartridges. I did buy some new belts
but sadly the folk at Spectrum liked to use glue to stick down the
face plates on stuff and you will bend the plate. Not gonna happen.
And so the Interface and Microdrive are confined to Room 101 with
so much of Clive's good ideas. Sitting next to his miniature TV.
That's that for today. I spent most of it struggling with the weight
of the bloody Commodore SX-64. Kinda ironic that I have tiny kit of
the same era stored below this beast of a 'supposed' portable. I
guess the 5" TV classes as 'miniature', kinda, maybe. Who cares. Both
of these things are classic follies for companies that sometimes
just didn't get it right.
I'm going now. The wind has stopped a blowing, me thinks.
Sinclair Spectrum - ZX Interface 1.
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