A number of backup interfaces work on the principle of saving a "snapshot" of RAM when you press the button. Romantic Robot's Multiface One, one of the newest, is simple to use, for the software is on EPROM (no wearisome cassette-loading). It will save directly to microdrive, to newer versions of Betadisc (with an easy, documented hardware modification), to Opus Discovery, to tape, to Wafadrive or to Kempston disc, although in this case the software is optional instead of that for Betadisc. Saved programs run in the absence of the Interface.

Apart from the red button, the Interface consists of the usual upright black box (neat, strong) has a through port, an on-off switch to avoid interference with peripherals and a Kempston joystick port. The EPROM contains several useful toolkit commands, a COPY command (but only for a limited range of interfaces) and the facility to page in the additional RAM for a variety of purposes. All are well documented, with examples where necessary.

I converted The Flying Formula to my Discovery. Multiface must fit between Spectrum and Discovery; users with Spectrum and Discovery firmly connected will have to take them apart (messy!). My battered Dk'Tronics keyboard needed a ribbon cable to join it to Discovery; just as well, as Multiface One would not fit it. Next to the Discovery, it fouled the disc slot of drive 2 almost completely, and drive 1 is accessed only with difficulty. I have an early disc drive and I see why the Multiface Instructions recommend the later (taller) unit.

However, this was the only real problem I had. I took only five minutes to convert from tape to disc (including loading time) the instructions (printed on thin shiny card) were easy to follow, and the on-screen prompts made it a doddle. All I had to do was load the game, then when the title screen changed to the joystick menu I pressed the red button and followed the prompts.

I have a 5.25" unit as drive 2 which I keep games on. Converting the basic loader took a long time as this is just one huge and most peculiar statement; they must have got it in by devious means! When you try and EDIT, you end up with *two* cursors. Cursor movement is snail-like and accompanied by the interesting buzz mentioned in chapter 24 of the old manual; you have to delete the first line or so before you can EDIT the hidden lines, and then re-insert the important bits afterwards. In contrast, the code on disc 1, saved in three sections, transferred easily with the MOVE command.

Whilst Multiface One will work with the 128K Spectrum, it will do so only in 48K mode. Nevertheless, it has several advantages over comparable interaces. It is compatible with a large number of devices to which it will load immediately, instead of having to load to tape and then fiddle with a header-reader before saving to disc. It is quick (other devices can take an hour or more). And, best of all, even I found it simple to use. With the additional features (port, switch, toolkit and accessible RAM) it cannot but represent good value at £39.95 and I therefore recommend it.