Sinclair Microdrive Cartridges

Rabu, 24 Februari 2021

These Sinclair Microdrive cartridges appear to have originally been the property of Psion andor Sinclair. The Microdrive cartridge was the standard and only mass-storage medium for the original unexpanded Sinclair QL computer which all came equipped with two internal Microdrives to the right of the keyboard the devices that read from and write to the actual cartridge very often the cartridges themselves are incorrectly called microdrives.

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4 x Sinclair QL Microdrive Cartridges Quill Abac Original QL software suite in 4 microdrives in sinclair ql microdrive cartridges set quill abacus archive easel copy.

Sinclair microdrive cartridges. I bought an Interface 1 and ZX Microdrive each cartridge a squiggly loop of magnetic tape in a small case able to hold a massive 85K or so and loading and saving much faster than cassette tape. If the spongefelt in the. So the Microdrive was born.

The Drive Set utility allows the drive number assigned to the emulated Microdrive to be changed. Sinclair quill abacus archive easel incl original software suite case. As a baseline a normal cartridge in good condition requires 0012 amps of current at 90 volts to run.

This section describes the ten retail ROM cartridge titles released by Sinclair. Sinclair launched the ZX Microdrive in July 1983. True to Sinclairs philosophy of miniaturisation and low-cost it promised a cheap high-speed storage system using miniature tape cartridges.

Sinclair Microdrive Cartridges. I learned how to disassemble and hack games like. Adding to your basket.

The felt pad crumbles falls apart and debris gets scattered in the cartridge. These Sinclair Microdrive cartridges appear to have originally been the property of Psion andor Sinclair. This section of the site is not yet populated - please check back regularly.

Psion v10 software Quill Abacus Archive and Easel was on all of them that Ive checked so far about 80 out of. These were followed a couple of months later by Chess and then the remaining six titles in December 1983. Following the Sinclair ZX Spectrum - 30th Birthday Anniversary 2012 - The Movie and the series of Sinclair ZX Spectrum 1983 System Test ROM Cartridge vid.

Unfortunately the Microdrive didnt take off as well as Sinclair hoped dogged by unreliability and also the high cost of the tape cartridges. The first titles were released around SeptemberOctober 1983 and were the Psion games Planetoids Backgammon and Space Raiders. One sinclair microdrive cartridge i think condition unknown.

Details about Sinclair QL Sinclair ZX microdrive 50 cartridges. Microdrives were small mass-storage devices using tiny cartridges capable of holding 85k - 90K of data - a brief technical discussion follows below. They were however just the tip of an iceberg.

All cartridges offered are used but are tested re-formatted and re-labelled if necessary. If this happens nothing can be done the cartridge is dead. Needing an Interface 1 to work with the Spectrum the two together cost 7995 at launch.

Up to 85K of data could be stored on a cartridge and retrieved at the rate of 15K per second. In this time Sinclair decided to set on a mini tape drive unlike the other producers who favorised the floppy disk. It often disintegrates when used these days and can cause the cartridge to jam up if the bits of old sponge get inside the cartridge.

For parts or not working no time to test may need refelting Price. The ZX Microdrive is a magnetic tape data storage system launched in July 1983 by Sinclair Research for its ZX Spectrum home computer. Sinclair QL Sinclair ZX microdrive 50 cartridges.

Its highly recommended that you re-felt ZX Microdrive cartridges before use. Possibly the most innovative add-on from Sinclair themselves was the Sinclair ZX Microdrive. They were only ever written to once and then stored since 1986.

Finally the message 1982 Sinclair Research Ltd stared back at me with a faint shimmer and I understood what was meant by dot crawl. For the Microdrive cartridges I offer a free responging to those who will lend them to us as well as a digital copyimage of the preserved data. The cartridges and Sinclair wallets are physically in excellent as-new condition - as good as youll find.

The reason for this is that the spongefelt that sits behind the tape is VERY fragile. They were only ever written to once and then stored since 1986. The Microdrive Copier utility allows files to be transferred between real Microdrives the emulated Microdrive and cassette.

Old labels which were not removable may be present on the disks or beneath the new labels. It relies on the stringy floppy principle - 6m of 19mm tape forms an endless loop inside each tiny cartridge right shown at actual size running past the Microdive heads at 76cm per second. Sign in for checkout Check out as guest.

Contraption was sheer bloody-mindedness or anticipation of the money Sinclair stood to make as the sole sellers of Microdrive media if they could ever just get the punters to start buying the things. These questionable decisions alone would have been enough to torpedo the QL. Sinclair QL Sinclair ZX microdrive 50 cartridges.

In December of 1984 Sir Clive Sinclair and. The emulated Microdrive cartridge is pre-formatted with the following utilities. Due to its price it was attractive at the start but soon users got disappointed because the cartridges are no safe medium for the data storage.

The motor on a microdrive runs within a very narrow range of speeds anywhere from 7 to 13 volts. Sinclair Microdrive Cartridges. It was proposed as a cheaper alternative to the floppy disk but it suffered from poor reliability and lower speed.

Ditto regarding floppy that often must be cleaned inside to be read after 30 years. The item youve selected wasnt added to your. Oh what an iceberg.

Here is my current collection of Sinclair material in continuous evolutionrestoration. The cartridges are physically in excellent as-new condition - as good as youll find. Microdrive cartridge with case Opened microdrive cartridge with a cassette tape for comparison.

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