sd games
Considering buying an SD tape emulator for your retro computer? Well here is a nice checklist to help you choose:
- Make sure the device has an AMP circuit to boost the volume. Time and time again low powered devices have proven to fail while loading games. You might get away with loading some games but essentially you need an AMP.
- In one scenario an AMP by itself might not be enough if you have a deaf computer. Deaf computers need more than volume on the characteristics of the audio. The Deaf computer issue is not limited to ZX Spectrum. You could experience this with other computers. Make sure the device can accommodate this issue.
- If you are planning to use a device as a wave player running Arduitape or Digiwavuino make sure the audio circuit contains a low-pass filter.
- If you need the device for MSX, Dragon, Acorn/BBC, or Oric make sure the sd device has a remote socket. Without it, it is useless. A lot of games on these computers like to control how the games are loaded by pausing the tape from the game automatically.
- If you need a device for multiple computers at the same time be careful on buying a device based on an Arduino Nano. The Arduino Nano is limited on memory. This is ok when you have a few retro computers. Check out the Maxduino Ultimate which is based on the Atmega 4808 chip and has double the memory and can support 2-3 times computers in one device.
- Check to see if the vendor offers an easy way to update the device. Most of these devices are programmed using the Arduino IDE. If you don’t know what you are doing it can be a bit daunting. That is why we developed an easy flash tool called TZX_Tools which runs on Windows that allows you to flash TZXduino, CASduino, Arduitape, Digiwavuino, and Maxduino without knowing how to code.
- Some TZX player apps claim to be multi-load compatible. Multi-load is where the game loads in stages and if you were loading it from cassette you’d be expected to manually pause the tape. Now the only software that truly supports Multiload TZX files is Maxduino. Maxduino monitors for a “stop tape” block and automatically stops the game load. Nothing on the market can do this in the same way.
I hope you found these tips useful..
Another new offering. Its called the Oricuitape and its based on the Maxduino firmware (Thank you Rafaefl) . It’s for sale now in the online store. I hope you love it.
Nice video from Wayne Robbins who is a big-time ZX Spectrum vlogger in which he shows off multiple ZXuitape models which allow you to load games on ZX Spectrums from SD card. He had an issue with one which I later identified as a problem with the SD card Wayne was using. Also Wayne referred to them as a TZXduino which is not technically true. ZXuitape uses the MaxDuino firmware which is far superior. Wayne is awesome in the community so I’ll let him off this once 😉 If you want to buy one for yourself CLICK HERE
Nice detailed video by Chris over at Retro Corner showing how to use the Acorn Electron version of the Beebuitape. If you would like to buy one of these bad boys head over to the shop CLICK HERE
This is a nice video by Phil Kruman reviewing the MZuitape device to load MZ700 games stored in WAV file format from a microSD card on to an MZ700. f you want to buy one head over to our online store CLICK HERE
In this video, I demonstrate how to use the MZuitape device to load up games on a Sharp MZ800 . In the back, you get a glimpse of a Mz700 and that works in exactly the same way. If you are interested in owning one of these then head over to our online store CLICK HERE
In this video, I demonstrate how to use the ZXuitape device to load up games on a ZX Spectrum 48K+ . In the back you get a glimpse of a toastrack 128K+ and that works in exactly the same way. If you are interested in owning one of these then head over to our online store CLICK HERE