possible to make cassette copies with SIO2PC?

[AlecRob]

is there a way to take a .CAS cassette image and write it to an actual physical cassette using an Atari 410 with the SIO2PC?

I'd like to collect cassette images and make physical copies to play on my system. Cassettes take a long time to load, but they're just cool as hell!

[BassGuitari]

I probably can't help with your question too much since I'm not an avid Atari user, but I want to say I enjoy tapes as well. (It gets annoying when I ask or talk about using cassettes and people say, "just get a [insert flash/SD device here]." No, motherf@#$er, that's not the point! )

If you have a standard tape recorder (not a 410 or 1010 or compatible) and can find a PlayCAS-type utility that will play the tape audio or create a sound file, you should be able to record it straight to tape. I've made VIC-20, Apple II, and TRS-80 tapes this way. Sometimes there's a little trial and error with the volume and record settings, but it should work as long as the .CAS dump is good.

[+DrVenkman]

Yeah, there's a Windows utility called something like CAS2WAV or something that will create an audio tape using any tape recorder connected to your computer's headphone jack. I've never used it though. I have three 410's and a 1010 and all of them have ruined belts (including one of the 410's that was NIB!)

[AlecRob]

So I guess the best way to do this is to convert CAS files to WAV and feed them to a cassette recorder?

 

I was hoping there was some kind of cassette copy utility out there for A8, where I could load a cassette, insert a different cassette and write to it.

[Rybags]

In theory with many Cas images you could just use the emulator to turn them into a flat data file then use a copy program on the real machine to transfer to tape.

But it's more work and no good for stuff like multi stage loads or anything that uses nonstandard record sizes or other copy protection tricks (although such cases are rare).

[AlecRob]

I'm just thinking how cool it would be to put together a collection of homemade bootleg tapes.

[+DrVenkman]

I'm just thinking how cool it would be to put together a collection of homemade bootleg tapes.

Well, you know, we DID do that back in the 80's but all you needed was a dual cassette deck, which most any teenager had or had access to his stereo.

[baktra]

Some SIO2PC software can emulate a data recorder (APE, AspeQT/RespeQT, and also old ATART) with limitations.

It should work with tape images (.cas) that do not contain FSK chunks.

 

The workflow could be outlined as follows:

1. Connect SIO2PC and configure the PC utility to emulate a data recorder
2. Load a cassette to cassette copy utility, such as CASDUP from the emulated data recorder
3. Load the desired software to the cassette copy utility from the emulated data recorder
4. Disconnect SIO2PC, connect a real data recorder
5. Save a copy to the real data recorder

I believe that it is not possible to have two data recorders (dummy SIO devices) connected. Or is It?

 

If you try the CAS2WAV approach with a regular cassette recorder - the first rule is ... Do not use CAS2WAV, because it is outdated!

Use either a8cas (modern, command line), or Turgen System (modern, GUI).

[ACML]

Just use the Nudmehi cassette boot maker. It turns your XEX into a cassette direct to 410. Makes new analog audio copies whenever you want.

 

Nudmehi cass boot maker.xex

[AlecRob]

So I can use that to make cassettes from XEX games? Awesome now I can satisfy my need for physical media (even if it's just made from a ROM)

Edited March 29, 2017 by AlecRob

[ijor]

I believe that it is not possible to have two data recorders (dummy SIO devices) connected. Or is It?

 

You certainly can record on multiple recorders at the same time. Precisely because they are dummy they just listen when recording, they don't reply.

[baktra]

So I can use that to make cassettes from XEX games? Awesome now I can satisfy my need for physical media (even if it's just made from a ROM)

 

Yes, you can, of course. And you save a lot of time, because you will be only writing to cassette, not reading from it (your SIO2PC will emulate a floppy disk drive).

 

• You can lose some of the cassette loading screens, because lot of .XEX files does not contain them (but some of them have disk loading screens instead)
• A few XEX files will not work, because they overwrite the binary loader used by the boot cassette maker.
• If you have XL/XE, the boot cassette maker will glitch a bit - It will place an exclamation mark on the screen when the loading process begins. This glitch is famous and has given the binary loader a name (Exclamation mark loader)

The boot cassette maker works as follows:

1. Read binary load file (.XEX) from floppy disk to memory
2. Write a binary loader to cassette as a cassette boot file (this is the "Exclamation mark loader")
3. Write the binary load file to cassette

[baktra]

Well, you know, we DID do that back in the 80's but all you needed was a dual cassette deck, which most any teenager had or had access to his stereo.

 

Sometimes, when I am feeling lucky, I create and sell a cassette with games for a reasonable price (~ 5 USD) like this one:

 

Too many games for a cassette, of course. I sell these in a country when almost everyone has his data recorder upgraded to allow transfer speed of 2270 bps, instead of standard 600 bps.