About the MGT/Datel Plus D

The Plus D is Miles Gordon Technology's successor to the DISCiPLE interface. It comprises a small interface which allows connection of two 3½" floppy disk drives and a parallel printer. After the collapse of MGT, Datel bought the rights and continued its distribution.

Disk emulation

As well as being able to access real Plus D 3½" disks, Spectaculator can also use virtual disks (files with .img or .mgt extension). These are often more convenient to use than real disks but can be transferred to a real floppy disk for use with a real Plus D when necessary.

As far as the emulated Plus D is concerned, disk images behave just like real 3½" disks - they can be formatted, read from and written to by G+DOS commands and other Plus D software.

Printer emulation

Spectaculator can capture output sent to the Plus D's printer port and redirect it to a file, the clipboard or a real printer attached to your computer. Since the Plus D generates control codes for the Epson FX-80 and compatible printers, Spectaculator can filter these out when necessary.

Using the Plus D with a Spectrum +2A/+3

On page 2 of the Plus D manual, instructions are given on how to get the Plus D working from +3 BASIC on a Spectrum +2A or Spectrum +3. What the manual fails to mention is that the Spectrum +2A/+3 needs to be fitted with the 4.1 ROMs.

Spectaculator ships with the original 4.0 ROMs (since these are the most common) but the 4.1 ROMs can be downloaded here. Install these as a custom ROM in order to use the Plus D with the Spectrum +2A. Using the Plus D in Spectrum +3 mode is not supported by Spectaculator.