05-05-2022, 10:42 AM
(05-05-2022, 12:15 AM)mjelic Wrote: Not sure if this was covered in Points 1 and 2 above, but take a look at this video of a device designed locally for the VZ300, which is another Z80 machine designed in Aus for Dick Smith.
The little device is basically a Gotek but without all the hassle of having a full floppy disk controller etc etc.
https://youtu.be/3EvRcHnhG9k?t=630
This of course would not be for the Premium models (since they have disks and you can change them out to Goteks), but the ROM based ones to enable people to save to "disk" rather than mucking around with tapes.
There is something similarly designed for the Amstrad.
https://www.sellmyretro.com/offer/detail...-464-11223
Hi Mark.
Thanks for the links.
While it would be possible to do something like the ones you've pointed to, there are so few ROM based bees
out there [unlike the VZx00 / Amstrad etc] that Microbee Technology would never recover any costs in developing the hardware.
It seems to me that you are trying to get the Tape based Microbee to do something it was never intended to do - support disks.
If you really want the convenience of disks and easy loading, just use the Disk based coreboard that you have.
While it's nice having a lot of ROMs onboard for quick access, having the same programs on disk means 2 seconds of loading
time instead of instant, but much more flexible. A disk can hold many more games / applications than the rom space in a PC85 as well.
Alternatively, you could upgrade your machine to be a Premium Plus and then have the SDcard to load all the floppy disk images from
with no need for an external floppy drive or gotek.