Top 5 TI-BASIC & Top 5 XB programs for cassette!

[Omega-TI]

Thanks to @save2600 I'm now the proud owner of a high quality metal cassette that I can use with my TI program recorder.  The thing is, I want to put some really cool stuff on it.  But what?  So, I figured the best people to ask... are right here!  So, what in your opinion are the top 10 programs for cassette users?   Maybe 5 for TI-BASIC and 5 for Extended BASIC. 

 

Also, with the talk lately about the playground loader, I began wondering was there was ever a way to load E/A 5 programs off cassette, assuming one had 32K on board?  I don't recall there ever being a way to do that, but that means nothing!

 

 

[Omega-TI]

... oh, and they do NOT have to be games!  ?

 

** EDIT **

 

... and this got me thinking as well.  How many NON-GAME programs have survived from the early 80's for TI in TI-BASIC or Extended BASIC?  Back then people were writing all kinds of useful programs for things, yet I've seen very few that seem to have survived, or at least never get posted now days.  I think a dedicated thread with application programs would be interesting.  Not only would some of them probably be quite useful, but many of us could learn from the code as well.  

 

Now days with the F18A on board, some of them might even be fun to 'update' with T80XB.

Edited June 14, 2020 by Omega-TI
... Additional thoughts.

[Omega-TI]

@sparkdrummer If I'm not mistaken, you are in possession/control of a huge library of old software.  Does it contain any useful application type programs?  Would you be able to post a list of available non-game programs?  Or simply a disk or two for us to weed through?  Maybe we could rediscover a lost treasure?

[ti99iuc]

If you like here:
http://www.ti99iuc.it/web/index.php?pageid=homepage&artid=195

 

you can find an article/tutorial on how to convert TI BASIC games in Cartridge .BIN file image also for use with FG99.

at the bottom of the tutorial there are more than 100 games already converted in .BIN
http://www.ti99iuc.it/web/_upload/image/TIBasic2BIN/Software/TIBASIC_to_SSS_(112_Games)_MEGA_Pack_V1.0.1.zip

 

these are among the best we found around our own TI BASIC Library  
 

Edited June 14, 2020 by ti99iuc

[blackbox]

 

 

 

 

On 13th June Omega-TI said

Also, with the talk lately about the playground loader, I began wondering was there was ever a way to load E/A 5 programs off cassette, assuming one had 32K on board?  I don't recall there ever being a way to do that, but that means nothing!   

--------

I remember loading modules from cassette- using Mini Memory or Extended Basic plus 32k ram. Origin was probably EA5 memory image files.  First you had to load from tape a loader (LOAD-LOADER) which in turn would read the cassette and hey presto - the larger modules of course required more than one cassette file.

I don't recall how the modules were converted- some form of memory dump.

 

There is an ebay trader based in England - I don't know his account name but his real name is David Caine or cainehd. He has -on cassette for XB plus 32k ram- Atarisoft Moon Patrol, Sega Star Trek, EB TI Runner, TI Paddleball- I have seen prices around thirty five pounds which seems a  little high.

So yes, it was done and there are still files out there.   The how it was done does not seem to be in the public domain although it may have been known in days long long  gone.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 15, 2020 by blackbox

[Tursi]

On 6/15/2020 at 11:58 AM, blackbox said:

On 13th June Omega-TI said

Also, with the talk lately about the playground loader, I began wondering was there was ever a way to load E/A 5 programs off cassette, assuming one had 32K on board?  I don't recall there ever being a way to do that, but that means nothing!   

--------

I remember loading modules from cassette- using Mini Memory or Extended Basic plus 32k ram. Origin was probably EA5 memory image files.  First you had to load from tape a loader (LOAD-LOADER) which in turn would read the cassette and hey presto - the larger modules of course required more than one cassette file.

I don't recall how the modules were converted- some form of memory dump.

 

There is an ebay trader based in England - I don't know his account name but his real name is David Caine or cainehd. He has -on cassette for XB plus 32k ram- Atarisoft Moon Patrol, Sega Star Trek, EB TI Runner, TI Paddleball- I have seen prices around thirty five pounds which seems a  little high.

So yes, it was done and there are still files out there.   The how it was done does not seem to be in the public domain although it may have been known in days long long  gone.

Well, program load is a program load... it should work just as well to load an EA#5 off CS1 (in fact... it's supposed to work from Editor/Assembler, though you need to cue up each separate 8k block). I never did it though, I got my disk system about a year before I finally got memory expansion.

 

[DavidC]

The only commercial software I ever bought on cassette was Wizards Dominion.   I saw it advertised in one of the magazines way back in the early eighties and I HAD TO HAVE IT. Saved up and sent away for it. I was huge into D&D back then.  I still have the cassette. I wonder if it still works...

[Omega-TI]

32 minutes ago, DavidC said:

The only commercial software I ever bought on cassette was Wizards Dominion.   I saw it advertised in one of the magazines way back in the early eighties and I HAD TO HAVE IT. Saved up and sent away for it. I was huge into D&D back then.  I still have the cassette. I wonder if it still works...

Check it out and let us know!

[DavidC]

Yep.  Still works!  

[tmop69]

On 6/15/2020 at 8:58 PM, blackbox said:

 

 

 

 

On 13th June Omega-TI said

Also, with the talk lately about the playground loader, I began wondering was there was ever a way to load E/A 5 programs off cassette, assuming one had 32K on board?  I don't recall there ever being a way to do that, but that means nothing!   

--------

I remember loading modules from cassette- using Mini Memory or Extended Basic plus 32k ram. Origin was probably EA5 memory image files.  First you had to load from tape a loader (LOAD-LOADER) which in turn would read the cassette and hey presto - the larger modules of course required more than one cassette file.

I don't recall how the modules were converted- some form of memory dump.

 

There is an ebay trader based in England - I don't know his account name but his real name is David Caine or cainehd. He has -on cassette for XB plus 32k ram- Atarisoft Moon Patrol, Sega Star Trek, EB TI Runner, TI Paddleball- I have seen prices around thirty five pounds which seems a  little high.

So yes, it was done and there are still files out there.   The how it was done does not seem to be in the public domain although it may have been known in days long long  gone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've created some tapes with EA5 games to run with XB+32K in mid '80. There was a tool to save the EA5 blocks to tape (from EA+PEB with disk), but I cannot remember the name. However, not all of these processed files are working (e.g. Pole Position). For Popeye you cannot see the initial request of pressing 1 or 2 for the number of players, by it's working fine. Miner requires to change some VDP stuff (I cannot remenber exactly what) to be run. So, the procedure was to run first an XB+32K monitor from tape, change the VDP, run the loader.

Donkey Kong, Tennis, Dig Dug, Defender, Nibbler and Moonsweeper are running fine. I do not remember if also Microsurgeon and Fathom are working. I still have some of these tapes... ? I'll try to recover this loader, since it's not the usual BLOADER used in some of these tapes.

On whtech, in the tapes folder there are some of these files (note that I'm not the uploader of any of these). I've checked Ambulance on MAME and it's working fine from EA5. Others are not working, so maybe the correct loader is needed.

 

[Omega-TI]

Oh wow, I'm having a nostalgia attack!  A C-12 cassette, type written text, a legacy hand written box label showing the contents... and those contents WOW!  Also, I might add, the backdrop for those items is pretty cool too!

[MikeV]

On 6/13/2020 at 6:16 PM, Omega-TI said:

Thanks to @save2600 I'm now the proud owner of a high quality metal cassette that I can use with my TI program recorder.  The thing is, I want to put some really cool stuff on it.  But what?  So, I figured the best people to ask... are right here!  So, what in your opinion are the top 10 programs for cassette users?   Maybe 5 for TI-BASIC and 5 for Extended BASIC. 

 

Also, with the talk lately about the playground loader, I began wondering was there was ever a way to load E/A 5 programs off cassette, assuming one had 32K on board?  I don't recall there ever being a way to do that, but that means nothing!

 

 

TI Basic is a short list: Star Ship Pegasus (not-Poly), TI-Trek (if you can live without the speech file) and certainly - and most recently - Markus of Marinus (here somewhere)  I admit to never getting past level 14 with the latter, but it's still a blast from the past.

 

To this list I would add the Scott Adams games (or the like). When I first got my TI the wife and I spent a full year solving some of them using a cassette recorder and old TV. (Yeah, she's better at them than I). This would now be easier with a portable side port device, but would still work with cassette.

 

For non-gaming I did get some use with Household Budget Manager... (good discipline).

[sparkdrummer]

Cassette E/A 5 loader software (with 32k on board)

Spin it.

TAPEIT.dsk

[+Ksarul]

One could also load a version of Wycove Forth from cassette. . .