sparkdrummer Posted March 10, 2019 Share Posted March 10, 2019 I thought I'd start a thread on the power of cassettes discussing utilities, games, hardware,etc. I'll start it out with a dsk of utilites by Tonny Brouwer. The most interesting program on the disk is Tape Streamer. It will copy a ss/sd disk to tape and back again. I tried it a couple of times and it seemed a bit fickle, but did work. I compared the "streamed" disk from tape to the original disk and it was exactly the same. I think this program runs at about 1200 baud as does other software on the dsk. Source files are on the disk as well. T_BROUWER.DSK TAPEPOWER1.pdf 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted March 10, 2019 Share Posted March 10, 2019 Now that's pretty damned interesting.... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted March 10, 2019 Share Posted March 10, 2019 Wow. The original tape backup! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+videofx Posted March 10, 2019 Share Posted March 10, 2019 sounds like it could be very useful Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sparkdrummer Posted March 10, 2019 Author Share Posted March 10, 2019 I thought it would be interesting if a programmer changed the code a bit so it could back up 180k and 360k disks. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted March 10, 2019 Share Posted March 10, 2019 I thought it would be interesting if a programmer changed the code a bit so it could back up 180k and 360k disks. ... or a TIPI sub directory? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted March 11, 2019 Share Posted March 11, 2019 How much tape does it take to copy a 90k disk? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted March 11, 2019 Share Posted March 11, 2019 Honestly, I'm amazed you can still buy << cassettes >>. After looking that up, I was curious... and I'll be danged... you can even buy new blank << 8 Track Tapes >>. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sparkdrummer Posted March 11, 2019 Author Share Posted March 11, 2019 It does not take up too much tape. I think it runs at a higher baud rate than a normal cassette save. The audio signal is much different than a normal cassette save and the signal replayed is louder. I think thats why its finicky on the tape to disk save. Ill have to play with it a bit more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOME AUTOMATION Posted March 11, 2019 Share Posted March 11, 2019 Honestly, I'm amazed you can still buy << cassettes >>. After looking that up, I was curious... and I'll be danged... you can even buy new blank << 8 Track Tapes >>. I have an eight-track tape recorder. VERY DUSTY. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sparkdrummer Posted March 13, 2019 Author Share Posted March 13, 2019 A neat way for the cassette user to find programs on tapes. CS1_FINDEX.DSK CS1_FINDEX.pdf TAPEPOWER2.pdf 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonB Posted September 4, 2019 Share Posted September 4, 2019 Ha! I remember writing this code. It is al based on the basicode standard, an attempt of a group of people to create a cross-platform basic. With it came a digital format to stream programs from/to tape, and I figured out how to read/write (actually, I created the reader while a friend of mine, also called Ton, created the initial version of the writer). Then I started modifying the timings to create turbo loaders/savers, utilities to stream program files to tape, and this full disk backup program. I remember also reverse engineering the ZX-Spectrum tape protocol, so ZX-Spectrum bitmaps pictures (which could be saved separately) could be loaded on TI. One key improvement was that I use the leader tone to calibrate the algorithm, so timing constants could be removed and the program would work when I increased the tape pitch (had a player with a speed wheel). I also built in a second crystal with a switch in my console to clock it to 3MHz. The VDP got confused by this speed at times, but the tape loader actually worked better. So you could set the computer to turbo, and crank up the speed of the tape... Funny enough, this was like 30 years ago, and today I'm working on reverse engineering a variant of SPDIF. Same box of tricks, only kHz have become MHz... 5 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ti99iuc Posted September 4, 2019 Share Posted September 4, 2019 (edited) wow! nice story Tonny Brouwer! thanks! because you mentioned ZX Spectrum jumped in my mind that i have a cassette tape with this label. I Still not found how to load these but it is for TI-99/4A I still not deciphered all the meanings of the letters in the brackets on the right I am pretty sure that (B) = Basic, (BE) = Extended Basic, (SP) = Spectrum (i guess) remaining (C) and (P) that i still not sure... anyway at least with (C) should be an assembler program, maybe also an MM program often. (P) i still haven't an idea. Now, because Atic Atac is a ZX spectrum game, I have the impression that in this tape there is a sort of loader to load it but still not understand how to do it :p maybe you can have some suggestion? Edited September 4, 2019 by ti99iuc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrhodes Posted September 4, 2019 Share Posted September 4, 2019 May be slightly off topic, but i was just at my local Walmart & they actually had a 2-pack of 90 minute tapes for $2.99 by Onn. Too bad, i hardly use my tape player since upgrading to TIPI. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted September 4, 2019 Share Posted September 4, 2019 ... after reading this thread, I have to ask. Is there a program or a template (for the PC) that will enable someone to make a 'really nice' insert for their cassette case? I've not tried it yet, but << THIS >> is all I found (so far). Anything better? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sparkdrummer Posted September 5, 2019 Author Share Posted September 5, 2019 (edited) Here is CASSETTE TAPE LABELER put out by Asgard back in the day. Makes a decent J-card for cassettes. SSSD.dsk CASS_POWER.pdf Edited September 5, 2019 by sparkdrummer 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted September 5, 2019 Share Posted September 5, 2019 I'll check this out when I get home from work. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonB Posted September 5, 2019 Share Posted September 5, 2019 20 hours ago, ti99iuc said: wow! nice story Tonny Brouwer! thanks! because you mentioned ZX Spectrum jumped in my mind that i have a cassette tape with this label. I Still not found how to load these but it is for TI-99/4A I still not deciphered all the meanings of the letters in the brackets on the right I am pretty sure that (B) = Basic, (BE) = Extended Basic, (SP) = Spectrum (i guess) remaining (C) and (P) that i still not sure... anyway at least with (C) should be an assembler program, maybe also an MM program often. (P) i still haven't an idea. Now, because Atic Atac is a ZX spectrum game, I have the impression that in this tape there is a sort of loader to load it but still not understand how to do it ? maybe you can have some suggestion? The loader I'm talking about can only load spectrum bitmaps from tape. They're like a separate tape format. I'm pretty sure my program presents a menu with options to load/save from tape/disk. I remember mailing this to Ray Kazmer when I first finished it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted September 5, 2019 Share Posted September 5, 2019 10 hours ago, sparkdrummer said: Here is CASSETTE TAPE LABELER put out by Asgard back in the day. Makes a decent J-card for cassettes. SSSD.dsk 90 kB · 6 downloads CASS_POWER.pdf 18.97 kB · 6 downloads Looks pretty good, but sadly I still have no way to print from the TI. ? Maybe someday, there will be a "print to PDF" option for the TI so those of us without legacy printers can still use the printing options in many of the old programs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Vorticon Posted September 9, 2019 Share Posted September 9, 2019 On 9/5/2019 at 6:06 PM, --- Ω --- said: Looks pretty good, but sadly I still have no way to print from the TI. ? Maybe someday, there will be a "print to PDF" option for the TI so those of us without legacy printers can still use the printing options in many of the old programs. I thought you had an HDX setup. You can print to a PC with it using Fred Kaal's TI99 Print program... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted September 9, 2019 Share Posted September 9, 2019 49 minutes ago, Vorticon said: I thought you had an HDX setup. You can print to a PC with it using Fred Kaal's TI99 Print program... I used to have an HDX setup, but after getting the P-Box TIPI I figured it was a little redundant The TIPI also enabled me to get rid of the "rats nest" of cables. Now only one cable from a wall-wart replaces all of this... ... but yeah, the inability to print was the only drawback, on everything else it is a MAJOR improvement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Vorticon Posted September 10, 2019 Share Posted September 10, 2019 16 hours ago, --- Ω --- said: I used to have an HDX setup, but after getting the P-Box TIPI I figured it was a little redundant The TIPI also enabled me to get rid of the "rats nest" of cables. Now only one cable from a wall-wart replaces all of this... ... but yeah, the inability to print was the only drawback, on everything else it is a MAJOR improvement. I wonder if that's a feature which could be added to the TIPI functionality. Seems pretty important... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xabin Posted September 10, 2019 Share Posted September 10, 2019 I need to get a blank tape to record the file of Peter Cottontail's Egg Hunt we have, instead of using the tablet for running it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted September 10, 2019 Share Posted September 10, 2019 4 hours ago, Vorticon said: I wonder if that's a feature which could be added to the TIPI functionality. Seems pretty important... I agree even if its just a small routine that sends it over WiFi to the PC, similar to the way the HDX version works. TIPI.PIO? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+arcadeshopper Posted September 10, 2019 Share Posted September 10, 2019 5 hours ago, Vorticon said: I wonder if that's a feature which could be added to the TIPI functionality. Seems pretty important... Pretty easy to do actually.. I started working on this before life got too interesting .. you can easily set up a cron on the PI to output printed info, text only works pretty well but i was trying to get epson graphics to convert to something the PI could ouput to a modern printer. little tougher. Anyone's welcome to try this themselves $ sudo apt-get install cups $ sudo cupsctl --remote-any $ sudo /etc/init.d/cups restart that should get printer capability.. plug in a usb printer and go, if you have a networked printer you will have to set it up with the web interface.. http://tipi:631 should get you the cups screen.. https://opensource.com/article/18/3/print-server-raspberry-pi ymmv print a file from the pi: http://www.raspberry-pi-geek.com/Archive/2016/20/Print-with-shell-commands-courtesy-of-CUPS (this will only do TEXT likely, unless you output code for your particular printer from the TI) so I'd make a cron job on the pi that checks if there's a file like /home/tipi/tipi_disk/printme and if there is, print it.. then remove it or rename it so it isnt there the next time the print check comes around then print on the TI to TIPI.printme and away you go Greg 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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