Difficult Commodore 64 question

[Chris++]

In all my years of coding for this great box, I've never encountered this dilemma before.

 

This is the only forum on which I believe this question really fits, since it's not quite a programming scenario, and it deals with a classic 8-bit game.

 

My friend Adam was able to download a few C-64 games from a website for me, then transferring them to an actual 1541 floppy. One of these is Zeppelin, a Synapse game that I haven't played in YEARS. It was always one of my favorites, so I'm manic to get this file running.

 

However, rather than being a .PRG file (on the actual Commodore floppy) like the rest, it's a .SEQ file. As we know, these can't be loaded like regular program files -- they have to be read. The version he downloaded for me is a cassette file, so I guess it was automatically read onto the floppy as a sequential file.

 

Simply doing a GET# of every bit in the sequential file, and then poking the values into an available chunk of memory and performing the matching SYS, isn't working. Does anyone have any knowledge of how sequential ex-cassette files can be read and executed from a disk?

 

Thanks for any help!

 

 

CF

[Nimtene]

Not much of a Commodore person myself, so I'm not sure if you

already know the following, or if this can be any help to you:

 

You can treat SEQ files as PRG files by adding ,S to the end

of the filename. For example, SAVE"PRG1,S",8 will save a

SEQ file which is laid out like a PRG file: with the address at

the beginning of the program. Likewise, LOAD"PRG1,S",8,1

will load the saved data back into its place in memory. Take

care not to load SEQ files that do not have an address header,

or the data will load in an unexpected location, probably

crashing your computer.

[Chris++]

Thanks very much -- I'll try that tonight! I never knew about the ",S" feature. I guess it just never came up before in my C-64 usage. I sure appreciate the help!

 

 

CF again

[Paul Slocum]

But how do you know where to put the program in memory? Is there an address at the start of the SEQ file? Maybe programs from cassette are always loaded into a specific location.

 

-Paul

[Chris++]

Hmmm! Good point! I figured I only had to look for an "End of File" marker, so that the little disk-reading program I wrote would know when to stop. But perhaps cassette programs do need to be loaded into a specific starting memory location, rather than something arbitrary that can just be SYSed. So now I'm wondering about how to look for the intended starting address. Perhaps an INPUT#.

 

I'll experiment after work today, and report my results. Thanks for the assistance, fellas!

[Chris++]

Nimtene,

Thanks for the help! You were right! I never came across that before. Comma S. I'll be damned.

 

Me and my 3-hour game of Zeppelin last night thank you.

 

 

CF

[Ze_ro]

My guess is that someone screwed up the extension, and that it's probably supposed to be a PRG file. Try using a disk editor to change the extension, and you probably won't have to deal with all this sequential pizkwat.

 

(Of course, make sure you have a backup, or can copy the .d64 again in case I'm wrong)

 

--Zero

[Chris++]

You're probably right. Worth a shot... (Looking for disk editors in the back of my floppy collection) I'll letcha know what happens.

 

 

CF

[Nimtene]

Nimtene,

Thanks for the help! You were right! I never came across that before. Comma S. I'll be damned.

 

Me and my 3-hour game of Zeppelin last night thank you.

 

 

CF

 

No problem at all.

Glad to know you

got it working alright.