Codemasters CD Games Pack (ZX Spectrum) - games on CD for a Spectrum! :O

laffer · 06 June 2007, 09:46

I just stumbled over this video on Youtube and I found it very interesting.
Codemasters released a game collection on CD for the Spectrum and I believe the C64 and one other system as well back in '89.. called the Codemasters CD Games Pack.

If you're curious how it worked, here is the video showing it in action -

[ Show youtube player ]

Shoonay · 06 June 2007, 10:07

Cool, tho wouldn't want to mess around with all this stuff to play just one game I can get a better version on easier-loading platforms anyways

seuden · 06 June 2007, 10:17

Yeah thats definately cool, i have one of those cables and have never known wtf it could be used for, i mean audio to joystick? Now i do know, lol. Nice one laffer. I had an Amstrad CPC 464 btw, not one of those shitty speccy things, lol.

Shoonay · 06 June 2007, 10:41

I currently have a friend's CPC 464, never used it, wonder what'll happen when i'll play some amiga mods into it's joyport?

musashi5150 · 06 June 2007, 11:15

Interesting video - liked it. Although I hope I never get stuck in a lift with that guy, he freaks me out a little

Shoonay · 06 June 2007, 11:23

Come on mushi, we can't all be Leo's DiCaprio's

alexh · 06 June 2007, 12:17

Very strange interface....

I've only ever seen people connect Audio CD players to the TAPE-IN interface.

I had heard that the quality of the sound can be made good enough to be recorded and played back at 2x speed, but never seen it in action.

This loader was working at much higher than 2x speed.

musashi5150 · 06 June 2007, 13:12

Is it possible the gamedata is compressed as well? Something simple with a high decrunch speed, like RLE. (Or possibly LZ77). It could then unpack while loading... but maybe the Speccy couldn't handle that... ?

alexh · 06 June 2007, 13:44

Looking at the screen in the video it's just accelerated regular loading.

ElectroBlaster · 12 June 2007, 22:41

I had the C64 Version of this cd game collection and it came with a little dongle you plugged into the tape interface port. Im kicking myself for selling it years ago because I couldve tried loading games direct from the pc's soundcard.

Zetr0 · 13 June 2007, 01:22

if i am not mistaken, the baud rate of the kepston interface is better than the analouge of the tape in something like 2300 compaired to 900? its been a while i may need to revise those specs lol.

I also believe that theres a smidge of circuitry in there two, mainly because, as alexh suggests it was going a little quicker than a hyper loader.

strange how the dude didn`t know the difference between a sinclair SJS joystick port and Kempston. but hey... it was cute to see... now where did i put them plans to mod an IDE hard drive to an interface 1 port...

heres a somewhat quicker way using my old buddy CF

http://www.rwapsoftware.co.uk/spectr...m_storage.html

tomcat666 · 15 June 2007, 07:31

I just found the cracked loader of the CD loader from a few years back (done by RamSoft) to load from normal audio source instead of the joystick ports and created a TZX file from a few games on the CD (it uses standard loading scheme (the speed is around 7x faster than normal) with 4 sync pulses instead of two, for those interested). It works fine in emulators, but the baud rate is really high and I wasn't succesfull loading it from the PC's soundcard into the normal ZX spectrum with any setting

Works like a charm in the emulator though.

Here are two screenshots of it loading BMX Simulator 2.

tomcat666 · 15 June 2007, 07:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by musashi5150

Is it possible the gamedata is compressed as well? Something simple with a high decrunch speed, like RLE. (Or possibly LZ77). It could then unpack while loading... but maybe the Speccy couldn't handle that... ?

Oh the speccy can handle that without any problems. I have a few loaders that do RLE and I have one that does LZW too. Also there are a few copiers out there that do real-time COMPRESSION while loading in the block (and ofcourse realtime decompression when saving it back to tape) - so you can copy games that have blocks bigger than 48k.

Tomaz

ElectroBlaster · 15 June 2007, 14:32

smart stuff

I bought that spectaculator, excellent program

That joystick cable looks like it could have electronics combined with the plug. I wonder if it can be opened and cloned?

Also does anyone know how I could get *.tzx and *.sna games onto plus3 disk?

tomcat666 · 15 June 2007, 16:07

I am not a Plus/3 user unfortunetly, so I can't help you there. But I am sure there are some converters for snapshots to plus/3 format on WOS.

MethodGit · 07 April 2010, 04:58

Pardon for the random bump, but I was always intrigued by this for years and always wanted to see how exactly it worked. The video certainly helped! But I wonder if anybody still had a copy, and if so would it be possible for a CD image to be made and shared around?

I've read that RealSpectrum can supposedly emulate the CD, which is a good start.

Coagulus · 07 April 2010, 19:23

I doubt it as it's Codemasters, they are against any form of imaging and distribution. They wont let World of Spectrum host their games even after this many years.

seuden · 08 April 2010, 16:03

Codemasters CD Games Pack [Compilation/1989] for the Sinclair is now on UG. Dunno if it was upped by one of you guys or not?

fitzsteve · 08 April 2010, 16:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by seuden

Codemasters CD Games Pack [Compilation/1989] for the Sinclair is now on UG. Dunno if it was upped by one of you guys or not?

Sweet - I hope its still there when I get home from work

MethodGit · 08 April 2010, 17:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by seuden

Codemasters CD Games Pack [Compilation/1989] for the Sinclair is now on UG. Dunno if it was upped by one of you guys or not?

Looks like someone responded pretty quickly to my request on there then.

06 June 2007, 09:46	#1
laffer Zone Friend Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Norway Age: 43 Posts: 1,335	Codemasters CD Games Pack (ZX Spectrum) - games on CD for a Spectrum! :O I just stumbled over this video on Youtube and I found it very interesting. Codemasters released a game collection on CD for the Spectrum and I believe the C64 and one other system as well back in '89.. called the Codemasters CD Games Pack. If you're curious how it worked, here is the video showing it in action - [ Show youtube player ]

15 June 2007, 07:31	#12
tomcat666 Retro Freak Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Slovenia Age: 51 Posts: 1,647	I just found the cracked loader of the CD loader from a few years back (done by RamSoft) to load from normal audio source instead of the joystick ports and created a TZX file from a few games on the CD (it uses standard loading scheme (the speed is around 7x faster than normal) with 4 sync pulses instead of two, for those interested). It works fine in emulators, but the baud rate is really high and I wasn't succesfull loading it from the PC's soundcard into the normal ZX spectrum with any setting Works like a charm in the emulator though. Here are two screenshots of it loading BMX Simulator 2. Attached Thumbnails Last edited by tomcat666; 15 June 2007 at 07:37.

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06 June 2007, 10:07	#2
Shoonay Global Caturator Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Porando Age: 43 Posts: 6,105	Cool, tho wouldn't want to mess around with all this stuff to play just one game I can get a better version on easier-loading platforms anyways

06 June 2007, 10:17	#3
seuden uber cool demi god Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Kent/England Posts: 2,073	Yeah thats definately cool, i have one of those cables and have never known wtf it could be used for, i mean audio to joystick? Now i do know, lol. Nice one laffer. I had an Amstrad CPC 464 btw, not one of those shitty speccy things, lol.

06 June 2007, 10:41	#4
Shoonay Global Caturator Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Porando Age: 43 Posts: 6,105	I currently have a friend's CPC 464, never used it, wonder what'll happen when i'll play some amiga mods into it's joyport?

06 June 2007, 11:15	#5
musashi5150 move.w #$4489,$dff07e Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Norfolk, UK Age: 42 Posts: 2,351	Interesting video - liked it. Although I hope I never get stuck in a lift with that guy, he freaks me out a little

06 June 2007, 11:23	#6
Shoonay Global Caturator Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Porando Age: 43 Posts: 6,105	Come on mushi, we can't all be Leo's DiCaprio's

06 June 2007, 12:17	#7
alexh Thalion Webshrine Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Oxford Posts: 14,337	Very strange interface.... I've only ever seen people connect Audio CD players to the TAPE-IN interface. I had heard that the quality of the sound can be made good enough to be recorded and played back at 2x speed, but never seen it in action. This loader was working at much higher than 2x speed.

06 June 2007, 13:12	#8
musashi5150 move.w #$4489,$dff07e Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Norfolk, UK Age: 42 Posts: 2,351	Is it possible the gamedata is compressed as well? Something simple with a high decrunch speed, like RLE. (Or possibly LZ77). It could then unpack while loading... but maybe the Speccy couldn't handle that... ?

06 June 2007, 13:44	#9
alexh Thalion Webshrine Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Oxford Posts: 14,337	Looking at the screen in the video it's just accelerated regular loading.

12 June 2007, 22:41	#10
ElectroBlaster Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Exeter, Devon, UK Age: 49 Posts: 1,705	I had the C64 Version of this cd game collection and it came with a little dongle you plugged into the tape interface port. Im kicking myself for selling it years ago because I couldve tried loading games direct from the pc's soundcard.

13 June 2007, 01:22	#11
Zetr0 Ya' like it Retr0? Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: United Kingdom Age: 49 Posts: 9,768	if i am not mistaken, the baud rate of the kepston interface is better than the analouge of the tape in something like 2300 compaired to 900? its been a while i may need to revise those specs lol. I also believe that theres a smidge of circuitry in there two, mainly because, as alexh suggests it was going a little quicker than a hyper loader. strange how the dude didn`t know the difference between a sinclair SJS joystick port and Kempston. but hey... it was cute to see... now where did i put them plans to mod an IDE hard drive to an interface 1 port... heres a somewhat quicker way using my old buddy CF http://www.rwapsoftware.co.uk/spectr...m_storage.html

15 June 2007, 14:32	#14
ElectroBlaster Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Exeter, Devon, UK Age: 49 Posts: 1,705	smart stuff I bought that spectaculator, excellent program That joystick cable looks like it could have electronics combined with the plug. I wonder if it can be opened and cloned? Also does anyone know how I could get .tzx and .sna games onto plus3 disk?

15 June 2007, 16:07	#15
tomcat666 Retro Freak Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Slovenia Age: 51 Posts: 1,647	I am not a Plus/3 user unfortunetly, so I can't help you there. But I am sure there are some converters for snapshots to plus/3 format on WOS.

07 April 2010, 04:58	#16
MethodGit Junior Member Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: The Streets Age: 39 Posts: 2,731	Pardon for the random bump, but I was always intrigued by this for years and always wanted to see how exactly it worked. The video certainly helped! But I wonder if anybody still had a copy, and if so would it be possible for a CD image to be made and shared around? I've read that RealSpectrum can supposedly emulate the CD, which is a good start.

07 April 2010, 19:23	#17
Coagulus Gets there in the end... Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Wales Posts: 862	I doubt it as it's Codemasters, they are against any form of imaging and distribution. They wont let World of Spectrum host their games even after this many years.

08 April 2010, 16:03	#18
seuden uber cool demi god Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Kent/England Posts: 2,073	Codemasters CD Games Pack [Compilation/1989] for the Sinclair is now on UG. Dunno if it was upped by one of you guys or not?

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