In general, all supported file formats can also be directly loaded as zip, gzip, or 7z compressed archives. The file extension needs to indicate the used archive format.

Z80 and SNA

OqtaDrive can directly load Spectrum .z80 and .sna snapshot files. Snapshots can be loaded as if they were cartridge files. OqtaDrive automatically converts them on the fly to MDR images, using a Golang port of Tom Dalby’s Z80onMDR_Lite. This is an integral part of OqtaDrive, so no additional software needs to be installed.

TAP Files

You can also load TAP files directly, and similar to snapshots, they are converted to a cartridge on the fly. This is also using a port of one of Tom’s tools. Note however that TAP files require some manual post-processing before the program can be loaded from the created cartridge.

QDOS Zip Archives

For the QL, you can load zip archives containing QDOS files directly into a drive, provided the content fits onto a single cartridge. The archive gets converted to an MDV image on the fly.