Astrocade Video Reviews

[ballyalley]

44 minutes ago, adamchevy said:

do you need the 300 baud basic cassette interface to load the games specific to that baud rate?

 

 

 

Yes... and no.

Yes, you need the 300-baud interface to load 300-baud games into Bally BASIC, Blue Ram BASIC (if you have the Blue Ram expansion) or the Machine Language Manager cartridge.  This is how pretty-much how everyone loads 300-baud programs-- and you'll get the best (and easiest) results using this method.

or...

No, you don't you need the 300-baud interface to load 300-baud games into AstroBASIC if you use the "300 Baud to 2000 Baud Tape Conversion Program" by Jay Fenton that is in the "AstroBASIC" User Manual, on pages 104-107, here:

https://ballyalley.com/program_downloads/2000_baud_programs/basic_manuals/programs_a-m/programs_a-m.html#Bally300Baudto2000BaudTapeConversionProgramAB

This conversion program just loads the program into "AstroBASIC," but the program is still written in Bally BASIC which has a few differences.  The program will probably run okay, but the sounds may be screwed up a little bit and you may run into a few issues if the Bally BASIC program is using one of the few features that were dropped from "AstroBASIC."  Oh, and "AstroBASIC" runs about 20% faster than Bally BASIC, which speeds up most programs for the better.

If you want to mess around with 300-baud programs, then then I recommend getting the 300-baud interface: it's a cool piece of hardware.

Also, keep in mind that many of the commercial Bally BASIC programs that were originally released in the 300-baud format were usually slightly re-written to take advantage of "AstroBASIC" and released on 2000-baud tapes.  When in doubt, use the "AstroBASIC" version of a game as it's usually a bit more polished.

Adam

[adamchevy]

 
Yes... and no.

Yes, you need the 300-baud interface to load 300-baud games into Bally BASIC, Blue Ram BASIC (if you have the Blue Ram expansion) or the Machine Language Manager cartridge.  This is how pretty-much how everyone loads 300-baud programs-- and you'll get the best (and easiest) results using this method.

or...

No, you don't you need the 300-baud interface to load 300-baud games into AstroBASIC if you use the "300 Baud to 2000 Baud Tape Conversion Program" by Jay Fenton that is in the "AstroBASIC" User Manual, on pages 104-107, here:

https://ballyalley.com/program_downloads/2000_baud_programs/basic_manuals/programs_a-m/programs_a-m.html#Bally300Baudto2000BaudTapeConversionProgramAB

This conversion program just loads the program into "AstroBASIC," but the program is still written in Bally BASIC which has a few differences.  The program will probably run okay, but the sounds may be screwed up a little bit and you may run into a few issues if the Bally BASIC program is using one of the few features that were dropped from "AstroBASIC."  Oh, and "AstroBASIC" runs about 20% faster than Bally BASIC, which speeds up most programs for the better.

If you want to mess around with 300-baud programs, then then I recommend getting the 300-baud interface: it's a cool piece of hardware.

Also, keep in mind that many of the commercial Bally BASIC programs that were originally released in the 300-baud format were usually slightly re-written to take advantage of "AstroBASIC" and released on 2000-baud tapes.  When in doubt, use the "AstroBASIC" version of a game as it's usually a bit more polished.

Adam

Are many of the exclusive 300 baud programs worth getting the hardware for?

[ballyalley]

5 minutes ago, adamchevy said:

Are many of the exclusive 300 baud programs worth getting the hardware for?

 

 

I don't know about exclusive commercial Astrocade games in 300-baud format, but there are many games that were released in both formats that have only ever been archived in the 300-baud format.  For instance, here are some L&M games that mostly are not available in 2000-baud, even though (for most of them, a re-release was made of each game):

 

https://ballyalley.com/program_downloads/300_baud_programs/l&m_software/l&m_software.html

 

Many of the early programs from the newsletters have only been digitally archived in 300-baud format.  I can't give you an example of a 300-baud programs that stands out right now, but I'm sure there are a few of them.  Also, some programs, like "The Pits," run okay in "AstroBASIC," but that game just plays better at the original slower speed of Bally BASIC.

 

On last thing, to make this thread easier to read, when you quote me (or anyone, I guess) could you please trim down the quote to exactly what your talking about rather than just quoting everything I wrote-- this makes a posting not just longer, but a bit harder to read sometimes.  I'm not a stickler, you can post any way that you like to do it, but it just makes me smile when I'm going through older threads and I don't have to wade my way through quotes and re-quotes and on and on...

 

Adam

 

[adamchevy]

 
 
Many of the early programs from the newsletters have only been digitally archived in 300-baud format.  I can't give you an example of a 300-baud programs that stands out right now, but I'm sure there are a few of them.  Also, some programs, like "The Pits," run okay in "AstroBASIC," but that game just plays better at the original slower speed of Bally BASIC.
 
 

Can you use your iphone/android phone with the 300 baud interface as well?

[ballyalley]

38 minutes ago, adamchevy said:

Can you use your iphone/android phone with the 300 baud interface as well?

 

 

I've used my iPhone with the 300-baud interface.  Remember to put the WAV files onto the phone without having them getting converted into some lossy format, which is usually what happens automatically with iTunes unless you turn that "feature" off-- and every version of iTunes changes how to do that in, it seems, every version of the software.

 

Adam