IF I HAD A DISC DRIVE.... ========================= A Spectrum with a disc drive? We asked the industry what they would do with it...... @5 Andrew Hewson @2 ( Hewson ) @1 It would save a lot of problems! The possibilities are enormous. We wouldn't have to worry so much about compressing data. One thing it would certainly do is improve the quality of the backdrops and other graphics detail in a game - it would be possible to load screens as necessary from disc without having to hold all that information in the computer memory. It would certainly make things more fun. It might mean that the Spectrum would stop being just a games machine and people would start to do other kinds of software. I'd be very supportive of a Spectrum with discs - I think the market is crying out for it, the Spectrum has never had a really standard system - the equivalent of what Kempston is to joysticks. Price would obviously be a key but it would have to be under £200. @5 Tim Langdell @2 (The Edge ) @1 A disc drive would be right up our street. It would remove so many constraints on what we could do. With Fairlight II we had to squeeze and cram it into 128K or have two loads on the 48K machine. We wouldn't have to spend so much time cramming stuff in. It's things like graphic detail that really use up Ram, with a disc drive we'd be able to keep graphic data on disc until it was needed. It should be possible to find a way of using the disc for multi- tasking as well, so that more data is loaded whilst you are playing. Under the Softtechnics label we already do a lot of material that has been designed to be used with virtually all the disc drives available. With a standard disc drive it would be possible to have very sophisticated graphics programs, even things like page make-up with the disc holding alternative fonts and even having different point sizes. The key thing for such a machine is price. It has to be under £200 and if the rumours of an Atari ST for under £200 are true it will have to be closer to £150. @5 John Heap @2 ( Denton Designs ) @1 I am working on arcade adventures at the moment, doing something in 128K for the +2. With a disc drive you stop having to put a limit on what you can do. 128K games will take absolutely ages to load in from tape, especially with the problems of over using hyperloads on the +2, so a disc drive is becoming almost vital. Aside from the sheer extra data room, the other thing you could do with a disc drive is storing inputs to customise the game and do things like instant action replays of events in the game. I am definitely keen on the idea of the machine, it just depends on there being a decent amount of support for it. @5 David Ward @2 ( Ocean ) @1 Well, a disc drive on a Spectrum is less of an innovation that it might have been. It would have been more significant if it had happened in the 48K days, with 128K I doubt that there is a big advantage from increased data space. I think it will have some effect on software, though the real point is that you can interact with the program, an action in the game may actually change the information on the disc. This is where the idea of interactive fiction comes in - for example, adventure games can be designed to respond in a considerably more personalised way - keeping track of your previous actions. The other point is random access, which lets you structure the program in more interesting ways. A Spectrum with a disc drive could be significant, Commodore sales over christmas had caught up with Sinclair ones and I think a disc machine could develop a new market distinct from the existing one - it largely depends on whether the +2 would continue to be sold alongside any new machine. Certainly we would support such a machine, probably beginning with conversions some of the Commodore disc only software we already have. @5 Geoffrey Heath @2 ( Mastertronic ) @1 I don't think we would be able to support disc software for a Spectrum at the existing price bands - £1.99 or £2.99, but it would be the sort of thing we might put out under the Melbourne House banner. We would have to wait and see any new machine and a lot would depend on it but I think one way or another we would produce software for it. It'll be excellent for loading speed, access time and for multi-load products. @5 Mike Singleton @2 ( Programmer ) @1 Obviously a disc drive effectively gives you extra Ram. It means that you can switch things in and out as they are needed, it will be particularly good, for example, for things like digitised speech and graphics or digital music tracks. With a disc drive you can have as much of the disc will hold which should be plenty. For my personal interest, a disc would make it a lot easier to do things like play by mail. More generally it could lead to such things as customised programs, both in the sense where adventures respond more closely to your exact inputs and offering arcade games you can alter yourself. One area I've been interested in is the idea of 'recording' live action into Ram i.e. Using Ram like a laserdisc to store sections of animated action. Obviously with a disc that idea could become so much more effective, you could save a much longer sequence of actions and have them introduced at particular points in the game. @5 Greg Follis @2 ( Gargoyle ) @1 We hear news of a Spectrum +3, and built in disc drive, with some emotion, if not to say, mild hysteria. You see, at Gargoyle, 99% of all game development is done on Amstrad PCW8512's, with the object code ported to the target machine via an RS232 or Centronics interface. All development, that is, except for the images for the poor old Spectrum - no matter how much we try to emulate the Spectrum's visual 'capabilities' on other machines, we can't quite capture the unique feel of the original. Therefore, all Spectrum artwork is executed directly onto an old 48K Speccy (we like our rubber keys) and stored on a microdrive. Yes, complex games can be presented on a machine with built in disc drive but to think of developing a game without the strain imposed by the ever-imminent demise of a Microdrive, brings a tear to the eye, a hoarse cry to the lips.