As some of you may know, I have been unemployed for quite some time, so don't have a lot of spare cash to throw about and can well understand any reservations you may have about expense: New disk systems from Pres or Slogger cost in the region of £150 - a lot of money by anyone's standards!
But have you considered second hand equipment? I'll come back to this in a moment. Those of you who feel you don't need a disk drive are probably quite right! Nobody really needs anything, apart from water, food and shelter from the elements...but you'd be surprised at how quickly you can get used to a little luxury like a disk drive. No more waiting minutes on end for tapes to load (commercial games can be transferred to disk with a Tape-2-Disk ROM Cartridge and you can get as many as ten games on one 60p disc!), no more loading error messages, and of course access to the vast amount of PD software available.
As far as having to learn anything new goes, there is surprisingly little. In fact, disks are less trouble than tapes. Coming back to the subject of second hand equipment, Electron (and most other 8bit) enthusiasts are now in the perfect position to buy equipment at give-away prices. The world and his wife are falling over themselves to dispose of their old, unwanted gear, having upgraded to 16 or 32bit machines, and items like the Acorn Plus 3 are being sold for as little as £35. For those who already own a Plus 1 (which itself can now be picked up for about £10 - £15), there is the Pres AP3, AP4 or Slogger DFS system, which again can be bought for less than £50.
If anyone feels they are ready to upgrade to disk, please drop me a line and I will be happy to help you find the equipment you require. Please note that I am not offering to do this for personal gain!!
Will Watts, EUG #10