Fast Loaders
Beating the bottleneck
Fast loaders accelerated tape and disk loading on 8-bit computers, reducing frustrating wait times through optimised data transfer routines.
Overview
Standard loading routines on 8-bit computers were painfully slow—the C64’s 1541 disk drive was notoriously sluggish. Fast loaders replaced ROM routines with optimised code that transferred data more quickly. Some came on cartridges; others loaded from tape or disk. The difference was dramatic: minutes reduced to seconds.
Fast facts
- Problem: stock loading routines extremely slow.
- Solution: replacement routines with better timing.
- C64 1541: stock speed ~300 bytes/sec; fast loaders achieved 4KB+/sec.
- Tape loaders: specialised audio encoding for speed.
- Commercial use: many games included custom loaders.
C64 disk fast loaders
Accelerating the 1541:
- Epyx FastLoad: popular cartridge solution.
- JiffyDOS: ROM replacement, widely used.
- Custom loaders: games often included their own.
- Parallel cables: hardware modification for speed.
Tape fast loaders
Speeding cassette loading:
- Novaload: common commercial loader.
- Turbo loaders: custom encoding schemes.
- Spectrum loaders: various speedloader schemes.
- Loading screens: entertainment during wait.