ranger_lennier

I recently archived a collection of cassette tapes which primarily had BASIC programs for the Astrocade console from about 1982. However, there were also three tapes with data that doesn't sound like Astrocade programs. The tapes aren't labeled, but two of them are branded for the TRS-80 computer. I tried processing them as that with no luck, but that's not something I have any experience with, and I also read that can be a tricky system to get recordings for, so it's still possible it's TRS-80, or maybe some other contemporary US system from Atari, Commodore, etc. Is anyone able to help with identifying the system these are for and maybe getting them to load? Here is the whole collection: https://archive.org/details/fred-feusse-astrocade-tapes Here are two recordings of each tape: https://archive.org/download/fred-feusse-astrocade-tapes/raw recordings/Radio Shack TRS-80 C-20 Tape 1 (raw).wav https://archive.org/download/fred-feusse-astrocade-tapes/raw recordings/Radio Shack TRS-80 C-20 Tape 1 (raw)(recording 2).wav https://archive.org/download/fred-feusse-astrocade-tapes/raw recordings/Radio Shack TRS-80 C-20 Tape 2 (raw).wav https://archive.org/download/fred-feusse-astrocade-tapes/raw recordings/Radio Shack TRS-80 C-20 Tape 2 (raw)(recording 2).wav https://archive.org/download/fred-feusse-astrocade-tapes/raw recordings/Realistic C-30 (raw).wav https://archive.org/download/fred-feusse-astrocade-tapes/raw recordings/Realistic C-30 (raw)(recording 2).wav

Thanks for the quick work with that! It's definitely a version of Hamurabi from BASIC Computer Games: https://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/showpage.php?page=79 While the Astrocade version required quite a few alterations to get running, this seems to follow the published version more closely.

I recently borrowed a collection of cassette tapes which were primarily for the Astrocade console. The collection originally belonged to Paul Zibits, a subscriber to The Arcadian newsletter. I found quite a bit of interesting programs in there, with a lot of Bally BASIC programs from 1979 to 1980. Mixed in with the collection was a tape labeled "Hamurabi - Atari". It's definitely data, and definitely not for the Astrocade. Beyond that my certainty ends, but I suspect it's for an Atari 8-bit computer. On a different tape, I actually found an original adaptation of Hamurabi for the Astrocade by Paul Zibits himself (inspired by BASIC Computer Games edited by David Ahl). Perhaps this is another version of that, or maybe it's identical to one of the known versions of Hamurabi. I'd like to get it running, but I haven't had much luck so far. I tried A8CAS from http://a8cas.sourceforge.net/ There wasn't much in the way of instructions, but trying a simple conversion I get a lot of errors. I end up with a 47KB file, but of course it won't actually load. I tried applying a highpass or bandpass filter first, but this didn't seem to help either. I'm not sure if there's anything else I should try. Does anyone have tips for processing tapes like this? Are there other utilities to try? I uploaded a raw recording of the tape to the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/paul-zibits-astrocade-collection/Non-Astrocade+data/Hamurabi+-+Atari+(raw).wav And finally, here's my output trying to process the tape: a8cas-convert.exe Hamurabi.wav Hamurabi.cas new block... Attempting to recognize data block... succeeded: bit_length=0.000884 Ambiguous bit at byte 0, signal 2 new block... Attempting to recognize data block... succeeded: bit_length=0.000887 Ambiguous bit at byte 0, signal 2 new block... Attempting to recognize data block... succeeded: bit_length=0.000896 Ambiguous bit at byte 0, signal 2 new block... Attempting to recognize data block... succeeded: bit_length=0.000890 Ambiguous bit at byte 0, signal 2 new block... Attempting to recognize data block... succeeded: bit_length=0.000884 Ambiguous bit at byte 0, signal 2 new block... Attempting to recognize data block... succeeded: bit_length=0.000882 Ambiguous bit at byte 0, signal 3 new block... Attempting to recognize data block... succeeded: bit_length=0.000886 Ambiguous bit at byte 0, signal 2 new block... Attempting to recognize data block... succeeded: bit_length=0.000594 Ambiguous bit at byte 0, signal 0 new block... Attempting to recognize data block... failed new block... Attempting to recognize data block... failed new block... Attempting to recognize data block... succeeded: bit_length=0.000884 Ambiguous bit at byte 0, signal 2 new block... Attempting to recognize data block... failed new block... Attempting to recognize data block... succeeded: bit_length=0.000292 Framing error at byte 1 Attempting to recognize data block... failed new block... Attempting to recognize data block... succeeded: bit_length=0.000884 Ambiguous bit at byte 0, signal 1 new block... Attempting to recognize data block... succeeded: bit_length=0.000296 Ambiguous bit at byte 3, signal 0 Attempting to recognize data block... failed new block... Attempting to recognize data block... succeeded: bit_length=0.000890 Ambiguous bit at byte 0, signal 2 new block... Attempting to recognize data block... succeeded: bit_length=0.000887 Ambiguous bit at byte 0, signal 2 new block... Attempting to recognize data block... succeeded: bit_length=0.000883 Ambiguous bit at byte 0, signal 2 new block... Attempting to recognize data block... succeeded: bit_length=0.000295 Ambiguous bit at byte 1, signal 0 Attempting to recognize data block... failed new block... Attempting to recognize data block... succeeded: bit_length=0.001175 Ambiguous bit at byte 0, signal 0 new block... Attempting to recognize data block... succeeded: bit_length=0.000295 End of data block at byte 2, found IRG=0.000099 new block... Attempting to recognize data block... failed new block... Attempting to recognize data block... succeeded: bit_length=0.000870 Ambiguous bit at byte 0, signal 0 new block... Attempting to recognize data block... succeeded: bit_length=0.000883 Ambiguous bit at byte 0, signal 3 new block... Attempting to recognize data block... succeeded: bit_length=0.000296 Ambiguous bit at byte 1, signal 1 Attempting to recognize data block... failed new block... Attempting to recognize data block... succeeded: bit_length=0.000881 Ambiguous bit at byte 0, signal 2 new block... Attempting to recognize data block... succeeded: bit_length=0.000887 Ambiguous bit at byte 0, signal 2 new block... Attempting to recognize data block... succeeded: bit_length=0.000891 Ambiguous bit at byte 0, signal 2 new block... Attempting to recognize data block... succeeded: bit_length=0.000887 Ambiguous bit at byte 0, signal 2 new block... Attempting to recognize data block... succeeded: bit_length=0.000885 Ambiguous bit at byte 0, signal 2 new block... Attempting to recognize data block... succeeded: bit_length=0.000893 Ambiguous bit at byte 0, signal 2 new block... Attempting to recognize data block... succeeded: bit_length=0.000884 Ambiguous bit at byte 0, signal 2 new block... Attempting to recognize data block... failed new block... Attempting to recognize data block... succeeded: bit_length=0.000892 Ambiguous bit at byte 0, signal 2 new block... Attempting to recognize data block... failed

I was really glad to hear this. I also immediately thought about Ms. Gorf and the fabled better version of Robby Roto that didn't try to eat your quarters quite so much. There are three versions of Robby Roto source code on-line now, dated 11-20-1981, 12-7-1981, and 12-9-1981. I don't know when those changes were made, but that seems promising. What's the status of archiving Jamie Fenton's disks? I believe there was some trouble with these before. I'm not quite sure if it was actually a problem reading the disks, or if all the binary data was captured and it was merely a question of how to interpret it. In the latter case, I imagine the development system would help quite a lot.

That's an interesting contrast to The Internet Archive, which seems to be much more of the "better to ask forgiveness than ask permission" persuasion. While I can to a certain extent understand the concern, realistically this is probably the best way to look at it. Can anyone think of an instance where someone has shared information about old, no longer commercially available software, and suffered anything worse than a cease and desist letter? I hope they at least have such papers privately digitized and backed up off-site.

When it comes to cartridges released on both Studio II and Studio III, I believe that every one that's been dumped has been identical. Obviously that doesn't guarantee that any that haven't been dumped from multiple regions are the same.

Thanks again to everyone working to get these programs archived. It's always neat to see how games evolved during the development process, and between the tapes and source code, we'll definitely see a lot of this from the Studio II family.

Is the original recording for "Secret Number" available anywhere? Do we know what it's supposed to be? I found a couple of candidates in the Cosmac VIP manual. https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_rcacosmacCManual1978_6956559 Hi-Lo on page 56: "This program uses the CHIP-8 IN- TERPRETER at 0000-01 FF. You have 10 chances to guess the value of a random number between 00 and 99 selected by the program. The number at the right of the screen shows the number of the guess you are using. Enter a two digit number and the computer tells you if you are high or low. Press any key to erase this number and then, try again. If you have failed after ten guesses, press any key and the number will be shown. If you are good you will never need more than seven guesses. If you are not so good, alter the program to allow more guesses by changing location 0292 from 4E0A to 4E99." Deduce on page 62: "This program uses the CHIP-8 IN- TERPRETER at 0000-01FF. This game is an old favorite, described as BAGELS in David Ahl's "101 Computer Games"; "What to Do After You Hit Return", p. 10 and 11 (People's Computer Com- pany); and many other places. The computer is thinking of a secret three-digit number. You should determine this secret number in a minimum of turns, indicated in lower right corner. Enter your guess - using any number 0-9. Each digit will be examined in the same way. For example, the digit in the first location is checked to see if it is the same as in the secret number. If it is, it receives a score of 2; if not, but does occur elsewhere in number, it receives a score of 1; and if not at all, a score of 0. The computer then gives you the total score below your guess as a clue. A score of 6 indicates that you have determined the secret number."

That's exciting news! I look forward to trying these out. Did you ever find an arcade version of Bowling? Do we know of any arcade games other than Swords, Chase, Mines, and Bowling? Which tapes wouldn't process correctly? Do you know the cause of the issues?

"I tried to find these CSV files elsewhere (I thought that I would have them on my hard drive), but I had no success finding them." I'm not sure if they're on your hard drive, but they are on your website. http://www.ballyalley.com/faqs/arcadian_mailing_lists_faq.zip

I read through the history. That's quite a few versions of the hardware! Studio II Point-of-Purchase Demo says "code lost". I assume that's the demo cart dumped about a year ago. Or did you mean some sort of source code document, not just the ROM dump? http://atariage.com/forums/topic/209519-rca-studio-ii-gold-mine-an-interview-with-the-studio-2-production-manager/page-42?do=findComment&comment=3677379 How does the Toshiba Visicom fit in? My assumption has been that Toshiba licensed the Studio II, then made their own modifications and some unique games.

Great work! This is really bringing back a lost chapter from the dawn of arcade games. I see that there's a Tag-Bowling .arc file as well. Is that data good?

If the tape is actually stereo, then the left and right tracks could definitely be useful. Have you tried any audio filters? One issue I see occasionally is that the waveform drops below the center line, even though the high frequency pattern is still there. See around 2m06.23s, for an example. A high pass filter can help with that. I used Audacity to apply a 2400Hz high-pass filter with 6db rolloff, then amplified it 6.631db. Maybe something like that will process better. The file's too big to attach here, but it's easy to replicate. You might have to play around with the settings a little to see what works best for these recordings.

What process was used to create the file AUD_2464_09_B41_ID01_01_01.rom? Was it done manually by looking at the waveform? Using a program to decode it? A combination of both?

It's good that there tend to be multiple recordings of the same file on a tape. That makes it much more likely that there's a good copy of each byte. Has anyone found any source code and/or hex or binary printouts in the documents at Hagley?

Wow, I need to keep up with this thread better. (I blame a combination of work and the Nintendo Switch.) Anyway, great to see dumps for most of the Visicom carts! I have seen CAS-190 for sale at least once. I lost an auction for it a few years ago. They don't appear often, for sure, but I'm still looking. The collection of tapes is definitely interesting. Hard to say what's on them, but finding something like an arcade prototype would be amazing. They could be a mix of Studio II ROM files, files intended to load into an RCA computer like the Cosmac, and files intended to load into a more powerful computer or mainframe used for development. I actually have quite a bit of experience with cassette tape digitization from archiving Astrocade programs. Tapes, like any magnetic media, degrade with time, so it's important to get a a good digital copy. But since the digital data is encoded into an analog audio signal, some amount of signal degradation is surmountable. Here is some general advice on tape archiving. Definitely save in a uncompressed format like WAV or a lossless format like FLAC. Audio compression tends to remove sounds that humans can't easily hear, but those sounds may be essential to a computer. Also, I've found that the quality of equipment used in digitization is important. Use a gold-plated audio cable. They're not very expensive, and it can make a big difference. A dedicated sound card is also useful, as is a high-quality tape deck. Tapes breaking is a potential risk that I don't really know of a good way to counter. They can be repaired, but there will be data loss if it breaks at an inopportune location. I don't know that they would want to loan out a tape, but I'd be glad to try recording them if they wanted. Once you have the recordings, you need to figure out how the data is formatted. It might use a standard format that already has processing programs available. For example, we figured out that the Astrocade's original interface used the Kansas City Standard, and there were already tools for it written with some Casio systems in mind. Some audio processing filters might also be helpful. I've had good results applying a high-pass filter to Astrocade recordings, but that's just something you have to play around with. I'm looking forward to hearing more about these, as well as the documents. Are there any plans to make high-quality scans of the paper documents? Even if they're kept in a good archive, there's always a risk of losing unique documents from fire, theft, etc. And of course only the most dedicated will actually travel to Delaware to see them.

billnewsome and I also played 10 Pins. I think I might prefer it to the cartridge game. It definitely looks more interesting, and there's a bit of timing involved in when you hook the ball. I won 122 to 113.

billnewsome and I played a few Bowling games tonight. It's different than most versions I've played, since there's no timing elements involved. We couldn't find a consistent way to throw a strike, though. I'm not sure if that's because there's some randomization, or we just weren't lining it up exactly the same way. Our best game, I won 115 to 112. We did figure out how Flash Bowling works. You play and score points just like in regular bowling, but can also get bonus points for strikes and spares based on where the moving light stops. The light stops as soon as your ball hits the first pin during the first throw. You score more bonus points the closer the light is to the center. At the very center, you can get 700 for a strike and 350 for a spare. At the edge, you can get as little as 50 points for a spare. If you don't get a strike or spare, the position doesn't matter, as you don't get any bonus points. Bill had more success than I did this time, including one 700 point bonus. He won 1829 to 307. We didn't run into any severe bugs. There was some graphical glitching where the ball's top and bottom halves wouldn't line up quite right during animations. I also didn't like that the position of the aiming tick mark wasn't saved during a two player game. So I'd start out aiming wherever Bill had aimed last.

Bowling was quite a popular genre for tape games--almost as popular as slots, perhaps. My personal favorite is Ten Pins by Esoterica.

Demolition Derby is a cool idea, but it seems kind of finicky what exactly qualifies as hitting the front of a car to damage it. Maybe with more practice I'd get a better feel for it. I did manage to beat the computer players, at least.

Sideswipe ended up on several WaveMakers tapes, IIRC. It's a pretty good game, though frustrating when it generates a gap you can't seem to fit through. I'm not sure if it's ever literally impossible to avoid a sideswipe/collision, but there were definitely some I had trouble with. I was scoring in the 50s for awhile, but then the stars aligned and I got a 97. Not sure if I'd ever manage to repeat it.

billnewsome and I played a few multiplayer races. I also won a two-human game of demolition derby. We mostly did single-player races to go for the high scores, though. Of course that's probably easier, since there's one less thing to run into and slow you down. Here are our best scores. billnewsome: Track 1: 32s Track 2: 43s Track 3: 25s ranger_lennier: Track 1: 29s Track 2: 36s Track 3: 21s

billnewsome got 4,860. Mission 4 Rank: Space Cadet

And I suppose I should post a score for the main game. Gorf (arcade) 12,140 Mission 9 Rank: Space Captain

Nuke the #%@$*&!: Highest property destruction--86%: Bonus for hitting the nuclear power plant: Lost my nerve: Take that, hill!