The Spectrum Show EP142

Welcome to episode 142.
I get my hands on an Opus Discovery 1.
I play the Tengen Trilogy - Cyberball, Klax and Escape from the Planet of the Robot Monsters.
I look at Area 51 a new game and also Eddie Edwards Super Ski.
I also chat to Geoff and end with a type-in.
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/ @geoffneil5073 Geoff's KZbin channel

[@adamweishaupt2846]

Excellent suggestion to add improvements to the type in games. And I also enjoyed seeing the many copyright infringements that the Area 51 game somehow managed to get away with 😁

[@javelinXH992]

Upgrading the Type-ins has become one of my favourite things to see.

[@tubz99]

@@javelinXH992 Agree as well. Although I will say, whenever I try to design UDGs ... they look like they were designed by 12 year old in 1982 🙂, it's pretty telling how those simple(ish) improvements can make a game seem 100x better ...

[@theceruleandolphin2829]

Oh man, I always lusted after the Discovery back in the day, the holy grail of drives that I would never be able to afford but would often day-dream about owning. Learning that it's slower than a damn Microdrive though is a real shocker. Just glad I never spent 200 quid to find that out the hard way.

[@OverDriveOnline7921]

I remember saving up for the discovery back in the day with my 128K toast rack speccy, but by the time I got the money together, the Atari ST had dropped to £299 and had better MIDI implementation, which was what I wanted at the time. The ST was in, the opus was out and within a few years I was making some money with the ST in music.

[@tailzer42]

The Opus Definitely works with multiface interface as that was my setup back in the day, but I always used between the Speccy and opus rather than thru port. Would load tape games and save a snap, then create menus to choose games.

[@johnbriggs9223]

Yep that’s how I used mine with both my 48 and 128. You needed the ram chip to use the system with a 128. I also had the printer lead which worked well, although trying to do screen copy never worked. Still have my unit, will have to dig it out again and try the upgrades. You can also read the disks on a PC with a real floppy interface (not USB) via Omniflop, with the images usable in a number of emulators

[@marcoedelrolandi4936]

Yes, same here. I believe the problem is the pass through port. If you place it between the speccy and the opus it did work for me (back in the day at least, that’s a loooong time ago)

[@TheClassicsCoder]

Love your videos. Simply the best for Speccy

[@mdwellington]

From the Multiface 1 manual: "OPUS MULTIFACE sits between Spectrum and Discovery. The through connector on the side of Discovery cannot be used, it is non-standard. Discovery is housed in two different cases - go for the higher one, if you can. "

[@BuckingTheTrend2008]

Good point. If I ever get it working again, it's something to try.

[@TimelordUK]

Id love to see some videos of machine code games. Back in the day I used to spend hours typing in the BASIC commands, but I never understood how I was supposed to input machine code, and to this day I do not know what those self type machine code games looked like

[@markclerk6876]

Surely no one ever succeeded in typing in all the hex codes and got a game working? At least you had a chance with fixing the basic listings 😂

[@OverDriveOnline7921]

The number of times that the next issue would have corrections to the previous issues data listings cannot be underestimated! Trouble was, by then people had given up on that program in frustration and couldn’t be bothered going back to it! Once I’m sure there were corrections to the corrections in data statements!

[@TimelordUK]

@@OverDriveOnline7921 I stopped inputting the BASIC type ins because like you say, a week later corrections would be printed, so I stopped trusting the listings. What I never understood was how was the program even printed out for us to copy (in the Spectrum font) if it had errors and was unplayable?

[@OverDriveOnline7921]

@@TimelordUK things were different back then, I suspect it all had to be re-typed and as a result, errors occurred. Would have been a lot easier if they had split the data statements into smaller data lines, which would still have worked, but no one thought to do that. Also had the speccy had better graphic commands, we may have had better accuracy, but that’s just conjecture. I’m sure the commodore mags of the time had similar issues, but the speccy mags were certainly plagued with typos

[@nellyfish9692]

Klax and Escape from the Planet were some of the few games I had on the Sam Coupe.

[@LOTPOR0402]

Expensive , more than the original computer

[@ClassicRetroByte]

Nice Video. always had a soft spot for anything Speccy 👍

[@KevReillyUK]

You definitely got unlucky with that Discovery and its quirks. I bought a twin-drive unit from a friend around 1990ish and it worked flawlessly, breathing a couple of years of extra life into my venerable 48K before the lure of the Amiga took over. I can't remember if it was an upgraded Discovery 1 or a Discovery 2, but it was definitely compatible with Multiface 3 because it came with one hanging off the side port and I spent the first couple of weeks of ownership transferring all my games from tape. I wrote, as I suspect did a lot of users at the time, a custom loader for selecting one of up to four games from each disk (more if they were 16K). I was at least as impressed by the physical space saving over cassettes as I was by the increase in loading speed and reliability. It was also a boon for development (or "programming" as we called it back then). No more spooling back and forth through a collection of increasingly dense and badly labelled C-15s looking for the latest version of a work-in-progress. I had no use for the mono composite output so I removed the socket and routed the Spectrum's RF cable through the case and out at the back. I may have had to cut a matching hole in the front, but I can't remember clearly. I think it's still in the loft. Now you've got me wondering whether it's worth trying to resurrect it and get it on eBay.

[@TomMannCenturia]

'murican football is 10 yards in 4 downs (or plays). The Canadian version is 3 downs. I quite liked Cyberball bitd but your criticisms are all valid. I had the Tengen collection from the same place, and got a lot of hours of fun out of it.

[@gregoryoakman8639]

Enjoyed the show Paul, keep up the good work.

[@hazy33]

Definitely Jane Badler from the original V at 25:03

[@minixtvbox]

Ace show, could you do some features on magazine's software for machine code games programming

[@jaysmith2858]

Klax on the Atari ST used to cause me to have migraines. The version I and my friend played was part of that same collection.

[@anatolykosychenko8038]

Hi Ya & best wishes. Thanks for work. Be Happy. Sevastopol/Crimea.

[@Kenneth-cn8dx]

I was a spectrum kid late 80s, I was late to the show and didn't fully understand everything and I received a hand me down +2 when my cousin moved on to the amiga. I love watching your videos mate, alot of the time I haven't a clue what you are talking about sometimes especially with coding and interfaces and stuff but I still enjoy watching. Amazing content

[@MrAoldham]

With my opus, I replaced the left original drive with a Double density drive and on the right I fitted a gotek, which makes it much more lexible as you can get the software on via usb!

[@stevenice8320]

Great as always, thank you.

[@Dev_olution]

Another great show, really enjoyed the update to the type in game

[@pebbleschan6085]

You might need access to an oscilloscope to see what’s up with your Opus Discovery. The Opus is a very simple device and is easy to debug.

[@frankowalker4662]

Another great Speccy show. 👍

[@mcloudegaming]

Last vid I saw from you was 10 years ago. Welcome back dude ❤

[@BuckingTheTrend2008]

Been uploading every month for years😂

[@mcloudegaming]

@@BuckingTheTrend2008 lol, I know, I checked. Did I mention i wear glasses 😜

[@robm8809]

Thanks for another great show, Paul. Cheers!

[@saintuk70]

Awesome as always.

[@LoftBits]

I'm pretty sure I could save more than 3 files on my Opus, years ago...

[@geoffneil5073]

Great show as always Paul, pity that Opus drive wasn't quite working. Although I'm tempted to ask if we cleaned the edge connector? The compilation was interesting, Klax looks good but I don't like the idea of directional controls for the last game. I love what you did to Froggy Junior :).

[@BuckingTheTrend2008]

The connector was clean, although slightly damaged. You can see it in vid.

[@AmbersKnight]

Fantastic episode as always Paul.

[@sambagogo777]

Interesting. I'm guessing it's a bit of a minefield to be using 3.5" disks nowadays. Older disks are presumably prone to failing and the type of company's now making disks probably aren't manufacturing them to the same high quality standards as they used to be.

[@richardmattocks]

I had the original Opus Discovery Drive back in the day, but always found it very unreliable (which was really upsetting as it was my “big present” that Christmas… I was only 13) and so scared me that I’d lose my data so I switched back to my trusty WH Smith Tape Drive.

[@DaveMoorland-zv3tn]

Have you played/seen the 2600 version of Boulder Dash 2? It truly has to be seen to be believed. You'd think it was on any system other than the 2600 if you didn't know better.

[@illusions2142]

This nis when you know youve finished work and the end of the month is 80a

[@chrishill7797]

Oh yes! A Saturday bonus!

[@damionyates4946]

Did you check if more than 2 files could be saved after running the `format` command that enabled the joystick? It seemed to make jetpac work so maybe tweaked/fixed something.

[@BuckingTheTrend2008]

Yes. Multiple times. Sadly no joy.

[@damionyates4946]

@@BuckingTheTrend2008 fair enough. I wonder if you needed a lower density disc. This used to be an issue decades ago using 720k or 1.44m discs on older drives designed for 360k or lower

[@bryanbridgwood6923]

Thank you

[@TimelordUK]

I love the updated type in, not because of the game, but the fact it is possible to improve with just a bit of time, and you really did improve it. I would have been very happy as a teenager to type this in from a magazine and get this game. What I really would have liked to see though, and please consider this for future videos, is to see the comparison between the original program list, to the updated program list, so we can see how many extra lines of program you've needed to add to make the improvements. Can I also add how relaxing your voice is to listen to. 🕹️

[@BuckingTheTrend2008]

Maybe I can show code changes if I do another one.

[@TimelordUK]

@@BuckingTheTrend2008 excellent. It's just nice to see how much extra work was needed to improve the game

[@retrorobbins]

Great video but I think you missed a trick you should have perhaps plugged the multiface into the spectrum use the pass through Port on the multiface 128 to put in the opus disc drive system into the multiface 128 pass through Port , also would have been interesting to see if it would have worked with an SD card solution on the side not just the ZX HD .. see you at crash live this year buddy keep up the great videos❤

[@chronixchaos7081]

Excellent idea on making a type in game better. How many lines of code did you add?

[@Setteegang]

awesome

[@kendo5862]

Way too expensive at the time … hell even for now, even not accounting for inflation. Interesting though the Jerry-rigging increased tech

[@paulphillips546]

another great episode, shame your Opus was a bit flakey but looks like a great bit of kit. I was wondering if the composite out was meant to be black and white or was this an issue with your unit?

[@BuckingTheTrend2008]

Yes, it's mono only by design.

[@Tranquitronquista]

Nice rewrite.

[@adw147]

great show as always pal , id just typed that in from the max headroom edition as well , just noticed my patreon isnt on though , has it stopped ? Andy - ive just checked and for some reason id changed it , back to normal now , sorry pal

[@BuckingTheTrend2008]

No probs. Be up to see you soon.

[@lilacfloyd]

First.

[@saintuk70]

and you're not a bot either lol