SlingNET
The Spectrum-Amiga Network
Please note this content is from the original WoS site, and may no longer be relevant. If you have any queries, please contact us.
SlingNET originally started out as a means to get a mass storage device for the ZX-Spectrum. It connects to the parallel port of an OPUS Discovery. Soon after it, it became the means to get games and other software available for use with the Spectrum Emulator for the Amiga. This made a lot of sense, as the author, Jeroen J Kwast was my roommate by that time. Later on, I used it to create TAP files to be used by the PC emulator Z80. I was able to upload all my software that way. I wrote several tools to create and maintain these TAP files, which you can download below. Later on, I moved entire floppy images from the Spectrum to the Amiga, which I decoded there. This way, it would take only about 3 minutes to upload an entire 800Kb floppy.
That’s right, I managed to push 800Kb on 1 OPUS floppy. I had to buy a decent floppy drive and rewrite the OPUS ROM, but it worked perfectly.
For the curious people, I also have The Complete Opus Discovery ShadowROM v2.2 Disassembly available here (or in WordPerfect 6.0/6.1 format here )
Nothing special is needed for the Amiga side. As for the Spectrum, you will need the following:
And of course a parallel cable with the following (straight) pinout:
Amiga Spectrum Does D0 -------- D0 --\ D1 -------- D1 | D2 -------- D2 +-- Nibble to handle D3 -------- D3 --/ D4 -------- D4 ----- Spectrum toggle-bit D5 -------- D5 ----- Amiga toggle-bit D6 -------- D6 ----- Spectrum error-bit D7 -------- D7 ----- Amiga error-bit BUSY -------- ACK ----- Server-wait-bit
You also need the SlingNET network operating system. This consists of the server side (Amiga) and client side (Spectrum). It can be downloaded below.
FORMAT "n";1
LOAD *"n";1;"[name]" [paramaters]
SAVE *"n";1;"[name]" [parameters]
VERIFY *"n";1;"[name]" [parameters]
MERGE *"n";1;"[name]" [parameters]
The part from [name] on is the same as with tapes, so you can use LINE
, CODE
, SCREEN$
or DATA
.ERASE "n";1;"[name]"
Note that there is no asterisk after the command and no parameters after the filename.CAT
command, as it is not implemented and it will reset your Spectrum!DH0:ZXNet/
. In order to use them in Jeroen’s emulator you will have to either copy them to the Progs subdirectory of the emulator or recompile the source after changing it in there.