system11

If anyone has a cassette version of the Silicon Dreams trilogy I'd like to buy it.

Not immediately due to the mess the house is in, but I'll put it on the list.

Oh yes, please feel free to add/share/post them anywhere - it's the whole reason I bought them! And sorry yes, Superman is Prism.

I just recorded the tapes for Superman (UK Ariolasoft) and Galactic Cresta (STV) which don't seem to be on the Atarimania database. Last time I tried to use wav2tap tools basically nothing worked and someone here did it for me. If anyone can help, they're here: http://www.system11.org/temp/ROMs/galactic_cresta_superman_atari.zip Superman side B looked generally worse, the tape won't load in my XC12 at all, can't turn it - the hifi deck upstairs was able to. Same story with Galactic Cresta, I did make a tape to tape of that up there which loaded so I'm more hopeful for that one.

Going back to the CAS conversion of those WAV files I uploaded - I'm using a8cas-tools-1.3.1-lib8cas-1.5.0 distribution - is this the wrong thing to be using? Were my tape levels in the right sort of ballpark?

I'll try asking the Atarimania people then - the initial question really is "what's the best way to dump these tapes?", I don't mind buying / modifying equipment and doing all the legwork if someone can just tell me the best approach. At least they'll have Hard Hat Mack for now

They can just tell me what I need to do. I quite regularly ROM dump arcade hardware & cartridges. With C64 tapes it's been dead easy since TAP files (reading tapes and indeed rewriting them) appear to be a perfected art and I have an inline device which dumps the data to SDcard, but nothing similar appears to exist for the Atari. Who should I talk to about it - are there any good open archiving projects who make all the dumps available? I don't like to directly help closed-door efforts, anything I dump gets public release.

Thanks!!! - I'd tried a8cas-convert too and again got nonworking cas files, I've tried again with that header flag and I still generate nonworking CAS files, is there a problem with 64 bit machines? Which wav did you use? Yes, feel free to archive the wavs - is there a list of wavs required? I have 150-ish original tapes for the Atari which are known to work.

I have Hard Hat Mack on cassette, unfortunately my 1010 decided to chew it up (yes I know, I was a fool to use a 1010 at all) and it's a very rare game with no dumped tape image that I can find. I've managed to make wav files of sides A and B, and I tried replacing some damaged sections in Audacity to create a single intact wav for conversion - but wav2cas just creates a broken cas file. I tried Altirra which has wav input support and that can load and run any of the wav files successfully, and even export wav or CAS files, but again the CAS doesn't work. Is there anyone who can help fix this one? I was hoping to end up with a good CAS to 1) make available to ROM sites and 2) create a good WAV from so I can write it to a new blank tape and swap the reels in the cases. I've uploaded a zip with side A & B (best versions of multiple attempts) and two 'fixed' files where I started replacing audio sections to try to eliminate signal drops. The tape doesn't work on a real Atari anymore. http://www.system11.org/temp/ROMs/hard_hat_mack.zip

I've worked it out now more or less, unfortunately there's a problem in that the tape won't play - too stiff, the lubricant in the tape has dried up / worn away. I've got a whole stack of games with this problem and every single one is made by Databyte or US Gold. It would be fair to say over 80% of my tapes by those companies have the same problem, while over a hundred others are fine. Must have used the same tape stock :/

I think I fixed it... Basic ROM is soldered in but reseating the CPU seems to have done the trick. Probably poor quality signal which was borderline on some components - the Miner 2049er cart which kept crashing and I'd assumed broken is working too now. The CPU legs look a little worse for wear - will any C014806 do? I've got a -12 at the end, I see several types listed as 6502C sally on ebay.

I think it's definitely a bad basic rom! I just tried to enter a 2 line program to print the rom version using a peek. First time it wouldnt let me type the line and syntax errored, second run it hung the machine when running, third worked.

I have a really strrange problem - I bought 5-6 copies of two games which you need to CLOAD to run, and they all fail. Tried a 1010 and a XC12, no difference Tried both sides of all tapes, no difference Tried a different 800XL, all the tapes work. The strange thing is the 800XL with problems will happily load & run anything which boots with START&OPTION keys to load, over 100 cassettes work this way just fine - but anything using CLOAD fails. For example European Countries & Capitals will throw various errors, occasionally it will try to draw the Atari logo and hang after a few lines or crash to a prompt on all copies of the game on both tape decks, while this works fine on the other 800XL. Can anyone suggest why that might be the case? Only difference between them is one has a UAV fitted. I've run ram/rom tests - all pass, but could it be something like a buggy basic rom causing this?

Looking for a good condition XC12, does anyone have one? I'm based in the UK.

Should have mentioned, I'm a PAL user. Happy with how the upgrade looks, people watching my stream noticed the improvement.