8bit Computer modding into the 21st (and one quarter) Century?

CiDeRmAn

I would love to mod my Speccy into the 21st century, perfectly working keyboard, invest in a new Kempston joystick adapter, an SD drive, AV mod and so on.

But what sort of cost am I looking at?

And how simple a procedure is it with the other 8 bit systems of the time?

I've a C64 and a Atari 800 XE there, getting little use, though the Atari at least is already working via composite (boo hiss) and with carts quite happily.

The Last Bandit

Not sure about the Spectrum side of things, I guess you could go the whole hog and get a Spectrum Next but man they're expensive.

As for the other 8 bits...

I've ordered a M4 board for my Amstrad so, adds Wifi, sdcard, ROM & RAM banks so lots of good stuff. Already has RGB out so can play all those lousy Spectrum ports just without the colour clash.

I use SD2SIO adapter with the Atari's, basically emulates a disk drive. Ya its only composite but looks ok on a 14" monitor.

With the C64 is a similar disk emulation thingy, IEC2SD I think its called. The Ultimate64 is really nice but again very expensive and probably not worth it for me given how much use the C64 gets. There is a new motherboard (or maybe 2) available with HDMI and all that other jazz but again its overkill unless C64 is really your thing.

For me its all about the crappy Spectrum ports on a green screen

CathalDublin

I bought my commodore 64 SD2IEC on ebay for £21
There is a dude who makes the spectrum ones pretty cheap, I'll look up his email address now as they are always out of stock on the websites

KeRbDoG

Could just throw caution/money to the wind and get a ZX Spectrum Next board The keyboard would still need some TLC

dazberry

A DivMMC will cover the SD and Joystick bit - Byte Delight

A new keyboard membrane will set you back between €10 and €20 depending on what type of Spectrum you have.

The composite mod should be easy to do yourself, unless you're looking for HDMI which puts you back to Byte Delight and their zx hd interface.

All in you're talking well over uk£100, the ZX Spectrum Next board only was uk£99 + carriage.

D.

Firefox11

There have been big developments in the spectrum community within the last year or two and you can get replacements for just about every part now. With the eagerly anticipated Spectrum Next at the top of list.

Replacement cases, faceplates, keyboard membranes etc can be got at: http://www.zxrenew.co.uk/

I also have Ben Versteeg's excellent DivMMC SD mass storage but it can be a bit pricey: http://www.bytedelight.com/

Lots of more peripherals and stuff can be got at: http://www.sellmyretro.com/ or ebay of course.

Plenty of helpful frendly technical advice can be got at (plug:p) : https://spectrumforeveryone.com/ and from all great folks on the facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/spectrumforeveryone/

Tom Mann Centuria

If you don't mind the old school wait to load you could put your game files on a tzxduino, around the 23 pound mark.

https://www.etsy.com/ie/listing/539346169/tzxduino-cassette-player-replacement-for?ref=shop_home_active_2wsw2

It works on ZX81 too and CPC. If you do the rest, I have a spare Kempston interface you can have.

Plus one for Spectrum for Everyone faceache group.

Also Sinclair for sale faceache group is good way to spend money.

Firefox11

Tom Mann Centuria wrote: »

If you don't mind the old school wait to load you could put your game files on a tzxduino, around the 23 pound mark.

https://www.etsy.com/ie/listing/539346169/tzxduino-cassette-player-replacement-for?ref=shop_home_active_2wsw2

It works on ZX81 too and CPC. If you do the rest, I have a spare Kempston interface you can have.

Plus one for Spectrum for Everyone faceache group.

Also Sinclair for sale faceache group is good way to spend money.

Sellers are usually offering at cheaper prices prices than Ebay on the Sinclair for Sale Group too.

If want to go further back and just use tapes https://theretrocavern.com/ is a great place for Spectrum Games. Just got a copy of R Type.

moonlighting

best mod of all
The cinco midi organizer

Tom Mann Centuria

Retroleum Smart Card v2 is in production, 26 pounds and you can load sna and tap files, as well as having a joystick interface and diagnostic tools included.

https://www.retroleum.co.uk/spectrum-peripherals

Absolute bargain imo.

magentis

Tom Mann Centuria wrote: »

Retroleum Smart Card v2 is in production, 26 pounds and you can load sna and tap files, as well as having a joystick interface and diagnostic tools included.

https://www.retroleum.co.uk/spectrum-peripherals

Absolute bargain imo.

And Phil is one of the nicest guys in the business to deal with.

CiDeRmAn

Passed on my 48k to Kerbdog, he has a goo on him to do a bit of Speccy modding...

Tom Mann Centuria

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Passed on my 48k to Kerbdog, he has a goo on him to do a bit of Speccy modding...

Gone to a good home then. Hope he gets some fun out of it.

CiDeRmAn

Tom Mann Centuria wrote: »

Gone to a good home then. Hope he gets some fun out of it.

Within two years he'll give it back to me, having become bored.... the circle of retro goodness complete

KeRbDoG

Tom Mann Centuria wrote: »

Retroleum Smart Card v2 is in production, 26 pounds and you can load sna and tap files, as well as having a joystick interface and diagnostic tools included.

https://www.retroleum.co.uk/spectrum-peripherals

Absolute bargain imo.

Interface ordered! Was waiting for him to make a few more and let me know, sound lad. Also a cap kit and other parts

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Within two years he'll give it back to me, having become bored.... the circle of retro goodness complete

Heh - well, the keyboard is now fully working with a new keyboard membrane and a new metal cover - this might end up on my work desk

Tom Mann Centuria

KeRbDoG wrote: »

Interface ordered! Was waiting for him to make a few more and let me know, sound lad. Also a cap kit and other parts

I ordered an interface off him yesterday as well. He had 7 I think, and were gone in under two hours. Very cheap compared to other divmmc type devices. Post to Ireland was cheap enough too, 3 quid something.

Doge

moonlighting wrote: »

best mod of all
The cinco midi organizer

Haha I only posted that video in a facebook group recently!
Love Minivan Highway also.

moonlighting

the minivan highway song is legendary

also the internet cd rom

sorry for spamming this thread lol

Doge

moonlighting wrote: »

sorry for spamming this thread lol

Its kind of relevant as its a homage back to the Amiga Tracker Days!
Sounds authentic and if you look closely the PC's are running a fictional tracker called Musikmayker ZX, which I have no doubt was created just for the video!

Maybe the ZX is even a reference to the Speccie. I'd love to know more about who was behind the video!

KeRbDoG

Tom Mann Centuria wrote: »

I ordered an interface off him yesterday as well. He had 7 I think, and were gone in under two hours. Very cheap compared to other divmmc type devices. Post to Ireland was cheap enough too, 3 quid something.

Just got the SMART card interface V2 today - its awesome! Thrown back to when I was 5ish(?) in a few seconds. Now to get a case for it and continue to replace bits in the 48k great fun altogether

Tom Mann Centuria

KeRbDoG wrote: »

Just got the SMART card interface V2 today - its awesome! Thrown back to when I was 5ish(?) in a few seconds. Now to get a case for it and continue to replace bits in the 48k great fun altogether

Got mine this morning, brilliant value for money. It'll be added to all the other assorted crap I've bought to plug into my Speccys. Tide me over until the Next at least! He charged less for postage than it actually cost him too as well.


Edit: Just a quick fyi, he's hoping to release new software for it this weekend too.

KeRbDoG

Wonder what the update will be - long filename support maybe?

Tom Mann Centuria

KeRbDoG wrote: »

Wonder what the update will be - long filename support maybe?

Just going by a snippet on Facebook group, it looks like faster loading times and if I've read it right, a save snapshot feature which would be great.

Edit:
Here's a quote from his website:

On the software side, I’ve rewritten the game loader ROM – it now allows snapshots to be saved to the SD Card, Pokes to be entered (in all games not just those loaded from .taps as was the case before) and is generally neater looking. The new software should work fine on the V1 SMART Card too, so if you have one of those you can update it by installing the latest ROM from the project archive

KeRbDoG

There are more of those SMART Card Interfaces in stock for the Spectrum on Retroleum

BGOllie

that the same as the DivIDE 2k14 from lotharek ? http://lotharek.pl/product.php?pid=128
was going to get a few bits from there as I just got an old 128k 2+ running again (& I also have a 48k and 48k+ to fix now )

KeRbDoG

BGOllie wrote: »

that the same as the DivIDE 2k14 from lotharek ? http://lotharek.pl/product.php?pid=128
was going to get a few bits from there as I just got an old 128k 2+ running again (& I also have a 48k and 48k+ to fix now )

Its something like it but uses SD/MicroSD cards depending on unit/adapters. Not sure if it has 100% the same features, the main one I cared about was loading SNA files which it does also has a diagnostic software too. Looks like you should get the V2 model if your thinking of getting one from the site I linked to, the previous one doesn't fit around the cases of the 128k models

Tom Mann Centuria

BGOllie wrote: »

that the same as the DivIDE 2k14 from lotharek ? http://lotharek.pl/product.php?pid=128
was going to get a few bits from there as I just got an old 128k 2+ running again (& I also have a 48k and 48k+ to fix now )

Divmmc is the more up to date standard for those cards now, they use micro sd or sd. Byte delight from holland does a bare bones version of divmmc, or you can get fancy versions from him or other sellers. Worth looking on sellmyretro for bits and pieces, membranes etc.

I think the smart card v2 does more than enough for me. It's what I use now rather than my divmmc, smaller form factor and prettier ui