You Know You're Getting Old When: The Copyright On Your First Book Expires

re: You Know You're Getting Old When: The Copyright On Your First Book Expires

Ian Shepherd — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 13:21:15 GMT

For what it's worth, if you'd like to read the cassettes it's probably possible - I managed to read some old copies of Ultimate games using an Amiga with a makeshift lead connected to the serial port several years ago, for use in an emluator. Something similar for PC almost certainly exists !

re: You Know You're Getting Old When: The Copyright On Your First Book Expires

Tim — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 21:45:16 GMT

I still remembering seeing the cover artwork on your wall at your 'Leaving the UK' party.

I asked why it had pyramids and sphinxes etc on the cover, and you explained that your book was the 8th Wonder of the World :-)

re: You Know You're Getting Old When: The Copyright On Your First Book Expires

Stef Robb — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 22:19:19 GMT

I have my original copy of this very book in front of me right now, it's still one of only two or three texts worth their salt when it comes to decent in-depth analysis of the (in)famous Microdrive.

I can't believe that you typed it up in Tasword though—that's a major feat in itself!

re: You Know You're Getting Old When: The Copyright On Your First Book Expires

Kevin J Walters — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 00:51:19 GMT

I thought I had a copy but it turns out I own Richard Hurley's Making the Most of your Spectrum Micro Drives. I'm not sure how the two tomes compare and I suspect this one may have ended up in my collection due to a dubious decision to join one of those book clubs that were common at the time. The cover is still looking very familiar so I should do some more digging through my library.

I don't think i ever used it but Interface 1 did have an RS232 on it.

And tasword does bring back some memories - 64 column mode, anyone?!

re: You Know You're Getting Old When: The Copyright On Your First Book Expires

Sean — Thu, 14 May 2009 14:07:21 GMT

Hi Andy -

When you say you have no way to read the cassettes - do you mean you have no cassette playback hardware?

Dolby-ingly,

Sean.

re: You Know You're Getting Old When: The Copyright On Your First Book Expires

andypennell — Thu, 14 May 2009 16:52:06 GMT

Sean: I should have said no *easy* way. I still have the cassette player I used in 83 and a Spectrum somewhere, though both are 240V of course. I probably still have Tasword too. Getting the text onto the PC would be a non-trivial challenge...

re: You Know You're Getting Old When: The Copyright On Your First Book Expires

Sean — Thu, 14 May 2009 17:43:47 GMT

If you've got a cassette deck, can't you just plug that into the audio in on a PC and use one of these fine utils?

http://retroisle.com/sinclair/zxspectrum/utilities.php

re: You Know You're Getting Old When: The Copyright On Your First Book Expires

andypennell — Thu, 14 May 2009 20:50:30 GMT

Sean: not really as the tapes are Tasword data tapes. I'd need to run Tasword in an emulator that can read real cassettes just like the hardware did. Assuming I could load the data into Tasword, then I still have the remaining problem of getting it out of there in a usable form e.g. ASCII, though a memory dump might be sufficient.