icaBlog

It took a while to get around to sorting it out, but I’ve finally converted one of my ZX Spectrum +3′s into a +3e, a system developed by Garry Lancaster. When I say “converted” I actually mean that I acquired some EPROMs and blew the software onto them, then stuck them into my ZX. I think the reason I took so long to do it was because it’s only the latest version which supports the DivIDE as an IDE device. This meant that I didn’t have to do any soldering, which is great. I didn’t really see the point of using the +3e ROMs without having a HDD attached, tho’ it can be done and the +3e works if I don’t have my DivIDE attached. I didn’t see any personal advantage to the ROM fixes, being more interested in a way to have greater storage capacity on the machine.
Now that I have it set up, with a CF card set aside for it (low capacity at the moment due to some issues with my DivIDE – which I’ll hopefully get sorted when I get some replacement chips), I can easily copy my old 3″ disc software onto the new media. Which means I can get at, and preserve, all of my old utilities and source code. This is great for me as I had a bundle of stuff that’s never been used. Looking back there’s nothing overly exciting, but I have a few nice screen$ and fonts, and a couple nice routines that I can hack up.

The tricky bit of course is getting the data from the CF card onto the PC. Images are creatable thanks to a utility by Piters, but currently I’m looking at ways to extract the files from the PLUSIDEDOS format (basically the same format as a stupidly large +3DOS disc).

I realise this isn’t of interest to most people, but you can probably compare it to having a load of old reel-to-reel movies in your loft for years, and then finding a simple and cheap way to transfer them onto DVD. It’s a kind of “personal exciting”, that only a handful of people would share. Me… I’m quite pleased. Hoorah!