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[carmel_andrews]

I recently made some .cas imges with xex2cas pc util

I have no problem in loading and running the resultant .cas image by itself

However when i try and use the .cas image with tape-disk ATr's like trandisk or howfendos tape to disk, it either doesn't know that a .cas image exists or error's 3/4's of the way thru the cassette load


Is there an issue between .cas images and these 'hacked' tape-disk utilities or is it a 'timing' issue, or does the xex2cas utility produce files with error's in them (i can't run zybex 3)

[CharlieChaplin]

Well,
afaik Transdisk and Howfen-DOS accept only tape data from real Atari (where standard is 128 bytes). Emulators seem to accept both CAS files created with real Atari and images created with the CAS2WAV program. Afaik the CAS2WAV program does not save/sample with 128 Bytes, is uses the full 131 bytes (including start and stop bits of the tape drive!) as well as some info header (about the baud rate, the total length of the program, etc.).

So, there is a compatibility issue with CAS programs generated on the Atari (with 128 bytes data length) and CAS programs generated with CAS2WAV (with approx. 131 bytes data length and a header). The Atari CAS programs can be easily converted to bootdisks and single-stage CAS files can even be loaded with some gamedos (like Micro DOS or MyPicoDOS) from disk. But CAS files produced with CAS2WAV will not load on the Atari... (you have to convert these files back to tape again and then use Transdisk or Howfen to convert to disk)... -Andreas.

P.S.: Otherwise said: a standard boottape contains data with more than 128 byte per block, but it only sends 128 bytes to the Atari; alas the WAV2CAS program samples the complete data, incl. the data that is not sent to the Atari computer!