Tape Images!

[Adam Huemer]

I want to type in listings from a book. In which emulator can I save one file in a tape image?!

 

I do not want to use an .atr disk image for a 10KB game.

 

Does Atari800WIN support tape files somehow?

And no 'executables', they are not tape files.

[Jetboot Jack]

A SSSD atr image would only be 88K - not exactly a waste of space on a several GB Hard Disc.......

 

You can put multiple basic flies into an ATR image - just like a regular real disk.

 

Tape image support would be novel, but pratically useless.

 

Plus it would need to load a serial IO speed - yuk!

 

sTeVE

[Nukey Shay]

I agree...just boot up the dos .atr and save it on that, or create a new .atr if you want to create more files later.

BTW I have not looked into it, but I am certian that there is a way to simply scan in a page (if you have access to a scanner) and have your PC convert it to ATASCII for you. Then you would simply save the text and ENTER "H:" it using the emulator's HD path.

Where was it printed? If it's Antic, you can download any published program at http://www.atarimagazines.com/software/software.html and execute it by pointing the emulator to the HD directory it's saved at.

 

Just for the record...most of the pages you are reading on this board throw more than 10k of data PER PAGE into your temporary internet files folder. Clean it out, and you've got space a'plenty

 

[ 12-07-2001: Message edited by: Nukey Shay ]

[mos6507]

>>

Tape image support would be novel, but pratically useless.

<<

 

Tape images would allow emulators to play the educational tables that had the analog audio track embedded.

 

There were also some tape programs that didn't have a disk equivalent. I don't know if these have been converted to BINs somehow or not.

[Nukey Shay]

Yeah, but he is referring to writing a type-in program to tape...so it's moot in this case.

Would be nice to have the entire language series in some sort of interactive .wav's though. Maybe by storing the entire cassette side as a .wav and rigging the emulator to pause/unpause it when the cassette motor is tripped by the program. The only other program I had on tape (that included audio) was States and Capitals, but I can do without the funky disco music

 

BTW C.O.S. by Alpha Systems can convert just about any cassette program to disk format (except the audio track, 'natch)...including multiloaders .

 

Duh! I just forgot the whole point!

If you only want to save the file itself without the .atr overhead, the hard drive function will do just that. Just enter the directory you want your atari files saved to in the HD path, and just SAVE "H1:MYFILE.BAS"

 

[ 12-09-2001: Message edited by: Nukey Shay ]

[Nukey Shay]

Oh...the other reason to use a cassette-based system would be to increase RAM available to Basic. This also would be useless to an emulator since you could simply save the state...but could be the only way to run some programs from Atari400's or 600XL's. Atari NoDos can read/write/format disks without Dos actually being present (destructively, since it won't be using Dos rules). This was a 24-line routine published in the June '87 issue of Compute! magazine, and by LISTing it to cassette, you could ENTER "C:" the portions needed. Saved my butt a couple times when Dos got corrupted. Don't type the › character at the beginning & end of each line if you are typing this on an actual machine...these are Atari carriage returns needed by notepad (chr$155). Emu. users can simply cut and paste, and use the hard drive function to load it up This is a handy way to get posted programs into the emu. without having to resort to any typing (Simply have notepad's find replace carriage returns with that character instead). If you have a scanner, you can do this with printed material as well (that'll save Gunstar some time, anyway!). The PC carriage returns will generate errors on the Atari as you ENTER"H1:" the program, but it will still work. I left them here for readability's sake.

 

›32741 GRAPHICS 0:CLR : DIM A$(1) :? "NoDOS/RELOADER:":? "Insert disk in drive 1";:TRAP 32741›

›32742 INPUT A$:BUF=1536:SEC=719:I=128:POKE 82,0:POKE 83,39›

›32743 POKE 842,12:L=0:? "{CLEAR}{TAB}HIT ANY KEY TO ABORT{DOWN}":POKE 766,1›

›32744 GOSUB 32749:? CHR$(D);:L=L+1:IF D=155 THEN 32747›

›32745 IF PEEK(764)=255 THEN 32744›

›32746 POKE 82,0:POKE 766,0:POKE 764,255:END›

›32747 POKE 766,0:IF L=1 THEN POKE 82,2:END›

›32748 ? "{DOWN}G.32743":POKE 842,13:POSITION 0,0:STOP›

›32749 IF I=128 THEN GOSUB 32751›

›32750 D=PEEK(BUF+I):I=I+1:RETURN›

›32751 POKE 768,49:POKE 769,1:POKE 770,82:POKE 771,64:POKE 772,ASC(CHR$(BUF)):POKE 773,INT(BUF/256):POKE 776,128›

›32752 POKE 777,0:POKE 778,ASC(CHR$(SEC)):POKE 779,INT(SEC/256) : D=USR(ADR("hLY{INVERSE d}")):SEC=SEC-1:I=0:RETURN›

›32755 ? "NoDOS/FORMAT: drive #1.":? "Enter 'Y' when ready ";:CLR : DIM A$(1):INPUT A$›

›32756 IF A$<>"Y" THEN 32760›

›32757 POKE 768,49:POKE 769,1:POKE 770,33:POKE 771,0:POKE 774,255 : D=USR(ADR("hLY{INVERSE d}"))›

›32760 ? "NoDOS/SAVER: Hit RETURN to start ";:CLR : DIM B$(255),A$(127):INPUT A$:TRAP 40000:CLOSE #1:POKE 82,0›

›32761 POKE 83,39:BUF=ADR(B$):I=1:SEC=719:OPEN #1,13,0,"E:":POKE 752,1:POKE 559,0:A=PEEK(136)+256*PEEK(137)›

›32762 ? "{CLEAR}";:L=PEEK(A)+256*PEEK(A+1):LIST L:POSITION 0,1:INPUT #1,A$:A$(LEN(A$)+1)=CHR$(155)›

›32763 B$(I)=A$:I=LEN(B$)+1:A=A+PEEK(A+2):IF L<32739 AND I<=128 THEN 32762›

›32764 IF I>128 THEN GOSUB 32766:B$(I)="#":B$=B$(129):I=LEN(B$):B$(I)="":IF PEEK(771)=1 AND L<32739 THEN 32762›

›32765 B$(129)="#":B$(I)=CHR$(155):B$(I+1)=B$(I):GOSUB 32766:POKE 82,2:GRAPHICS 0:? "{BELL}STATUS - ";PEEK(771):END›

›32766 POKE 768,49:POKE 769,1:POKE 770,87:POKE 771,128:POKE 772,ASC(CHR$(BUF)):POKE 773,INT(BUF/256)›

›32767 POKE 766,128:POKE 777,0:POKE 778,ASC(CHR$(SEC)):POKE 779,INT(SEC/256) : D=USR(ADR("hLY{INVERSE d}")):SEC=SEC-1:RETURN›

 

Be warned...this is a very destructive program. Use with caution. Enter the {bracketed} commands by using the ESC key, or the LOGO key (to make those inverse d's in the USR commands).

 

Notes from the author Emmanuel Gendrano:

If you wish to save your program to a formatted disk, you only need to type or ENTER lines 32760-32767. If you also need to format before saving, you must type or ENTER lines 32755-32767. Type GOTO 32760 or GOTO 32755 to start. The routine will blank out the screen to gain a little speed as it saves, and tries to be non-destructive by writing downward from sector 719 (in case the disk contains Dos files)...but it's best to use a blank disk since it will not check if there is data already present on the sectors that it overwrites. If the save was successful, turn off the computer and reboot with Dos. You will not see the file in the Dos directory, since it is not written in Dos format. To convert it into a file that Dos can see, type or ENTER the reloader routine (lines 32741-32752). GOTO 32741 to start, and you will see each line on-screen as they are restored to memory. When it's done, you should erase the reloader lines and immediately save it using the Dos SAVE command.

If you get consistant errors during the save routine, the drive head may be misaligned. There is a possible fix for this by editing the routines to write upward from sector 1. Note that this MUST be done with an expendable disk...since it's certian to wipe out the boot sectors and first files on the disk. Simply change the SEC=719 statements to SEC=1 at lines 32742 and 32761, and the SEC=SEC-1 statements to SEC=SEC+1 at lines 32752 and 32767.

The program can also be modified to work with double-density disks. Change the last and first POKE statements at line 32751-32752 to POKE 776,0 and POKE 777,1. Depending on your drive, you may also need to change the same POKE statements at the reloading routine's line 32767.

 

[ 12-09-2001: Message edited by: Nukey Shay ]

[Adam Huemer]

So am I right to say that there is simply no Atari emulator supporting tape images?

 

And, yes, of course 20K files wont really eat space on my 15GB HD, but I am a perfectionist in these cases.

 

The type-ins arent from Antics mag but from a German book 'Spiele für den Atari' (Games for the Atari) by Markt&Technik/Happy Computer.

[Jetboot Jack]

I guess not....

 

Glenn - if ya really wanted to play those games with audio tracks (like Moonbase Io) your best bet is a real Atari!!!

 

I would guess the best solution would be for an emulator to be able to load a WAV of a tape...

 

sTeVE

[Nukey Shay]

Hope you have a scanner if they are long programs (how come nobody seemed to suffer from corpal tunnel back in the eighties???).

Maybe it was all that Tab.

[liquid_sky]

whatever happned to tab anyway?

[Adam Huemer]

They are not that long.

 

Now final questions: How can I make a 88KB ATR?

 

and how do I save the typed-in file in Atari Basic? (never owned an Atari)

[Nukey Shay]

I just make a copy of the dos .atr...if I need a completely blank one I just erase the system files or reformat it (in the dos menu within the emulator). To do this, boot dos and select the .atr by pressing alt-d. In Atari Basic, type DOS to bring up the menu. The options you select in this menu will affect the .atr you have selected, so make sure that the file is not read-only. Keep in mind that typing DOS in Basic will wipe out any program in memory, unless you boot with MEM.SAV active (again, this is selected in the DOS menu).

To save a program in Basic, type :

SAVE"D:FILENAME.BAS"

Substitute FILENAME.BAS for the program name you want (alphanumaric characters only).

D: or D1: will write the program to the .atr mounted in drive 1, D2: will write to drive 2, etc. This is exactly how actual hardware functions.

You can also use LIST"D:FILENAME.TXT" to save the program as a text file. One of the advantages of doing this is that it allows you to merge two programs together when you ENTER"D:FILENAME.TXT" later. If you frequently use the same subroutines in many of the programs you create (like setting up redefined characters, etc.), you can LIST those lines to a disk and simply ENTER them when working on another project. Keep in mind that the lines LISTed to disk will replace lines in the second program if the line numbers are the same...so number them very high and edit them after ENTERing.

You can also use H1: - H4: to save the file itself to a folder on your hard drive, if you want...these devices treat the contents of the folder as a single disk.

[liveinabin]

Right, please excuse my ignorance (many try ). I dont have an Atari computer (yet) but I plan to get one, am I right in thinking that an emulator will be able to save roms in a sound format (wav file or whatever) that I can load into the real machine, or am I just a fool to myself?

 

By the way, nice to see some basic listing again - I miss basic

[Jetboot Jack]

You mean kinda like the way Stella lives and the cuttle cart work for 2600?

 

I've never seen such a system - I guess the 2600 stuff went that way because of the Supercharger.

 

8bit ROMS are binary dumps of the data - .bin or .rom files you load in.

 

sTeVE

 

[ 12-14-2001: Message edited by: Jet Boot Jack ]

[Nukey Shay]

No "sound format"...but you could use an SIO2PC cable to port the files/disk images between systems. By using such a cable, you could also load files directly from your PC's hard drive to your Atari computer (no need to hunt down 5-1/4" floppy disks...which seem to be getting scarce). Gunstar's posted the addy of a guy who does custom 1050 drives that plug directly into the PC's comm ports...but I've got no response when I emailed him (see the "got my sio2pc cable & a lot more" thread).

If you had both an AtariST and 8-bit computers, you could use a null modem cable to do the same thing (since the ST can read PC floppies). VERY specific (I gather) PC floppy drives are rumored to be able to read Atari 1050 double-density disks...but I've never seen it happen.

 

[ 12-14-2001: Message edited by: Nukey Shay ]

[Jetboot Jack]

If you want to connect yer PC to yer 8bit and use it as a HD I would recommend APE by Steve Tucker - and its associated cabling. Its totally awesome, really easy to use and reliable...

 

sTeVE

[Nukey Shay]

Getting back to the tape thing, I suppose someone could do some tinkering with Atari800Win's source code...which can be downloaded here.

 

BTW if you have trouble creating an "enhanced density" blank disk, you can grab it here.

[Nukey Shay]

All formats here.

[Adam Huemer]

Okay, I have an empty disk now, but when I type in Basic the emu Atari 800 WIN (the polish one) crashes always although I restart it completely. Also when I want to load/save from basic i get error 131.

[Nukey Shay]

If the "memo pad" message appears when you boot the emulator...Basic is disabled. Uncheck that option. The Basic prompt will be "READY"...dunno what that would be in Polish.

 

Are you sure it's error 131? That would be unusual, since it means that a "read" is being attempted from a "write"-only device...like if you tried to type LOAD"P:". More likely it is error 130...which usually means that the Dos disk image didn't boot properly. Check that a .atr file that contains Dos files is selected by using alt-D, and try to reboot. If all goes well, you should be able to bring up the menu by typing DOS.

BTW error codes here.

 

Do other disk images/roms have the same effect? If so, I'd say that the emulator itself is having probs. with your system (a known problem). Try using "Atari800win plus" instead, or try using only the default settings for the current one.