2-sides long Blue Max on cassette for XL computers

[lbaeza]

Hi team

 

Long, long time ago I got my hands on this copied cassette that had Blue Max on it, no other games were available on that cassette. I pressume this was a C-46 (not C-64 mind you! ?) cassette. I rememeber that this was a special version of Blue Max modified to run on XL computers. While loading, it showed a LOADING... message on screen (I think it was displayed using graphics mode 2), and just before ending side A, it showed another message saying to flip over the cassette and press PLAY to continue loading. It continued loading the game on side B for a long time, until the game finally started. I was used to load games from cassette, and I had an idea of how long should it take for a game to load. None of the games on cassette I had at the time took both sides to load, and this Blue Max version had by far the longest loading time of all the games I had on cassette. I never saw that cassette again, this was lent to me and had to return it to the original owner.

 

I recently started thinking on why it took so long to load, and there's only one reason I can think of: The first part of the cassette had a copy of the OS-B operating system, and after loading it in RAM, Blue Max was loaded on top of it.

 

Do you know any other games distributed on cassette that took both sides to load?
Do you know any utilities that made a copy of OS-B on cassette in order to be able to load OS-B specific games on XL computers?

This would be the cassette equivalent of The Translator...
 

Regards,

 

Luis

[Rybags]

I remember getting Blue Max probably in 1984 and for my XL (pirated) but can't recall having compatibility issues with it.

 

Though Synapse games pre XL were notorious for mostly not working or having issues.

 

I can't see why an official release would have an OS-B image on it - for starters there's the copyright thing and secondly it'd be no use to stock 600XL owners.

The manual from AtariMania mentions the tape having a copy of the game on both sides.

 

Strange - it also mentions only the cartridge working on 16K and the disk/tape needing 32K.  I'm almost sure I played it on my 600XL though only had that machine for about a year so maybe I got it after I got my 800XL.

[+MrFish]

Having a look at some software preservation disk images here, it looks like the initial release by Synapse in 1983 was OS-B only. Then there's a Synsoft euro release from 1984 with no XL/XE issues.

 

Edit: There are also tape releases of both of these versions -- coinciding with the disk releases.

 

 

Edited March 15, 2021 by MrFish

[+CharlieChaplin]

10 hours ago, lbaeza said:

Hi team

 

Do you know any other games distributed on cassette that took both sides to load?

Regards,

 

Luis

 

Well,

there were some commercial programs on tape that used both sides, e.g.

 

- Phantom by Tynesoft

- Winter Olympics by Tynesoft

- Winter Olympiad 1988 by Tynesoft (two tapes, each used both sides)

- Gauntlet by US-Gold and later by Kixx

  (also Gauntlet Deeper Dungeons by US-Gold and Kixx, but these were only new levels)

- Basil tgmd by Gremlin

and several others.

 

 

[Wrathchild]

4 hours ago, CharlieChaplin said:

and several others.

Trivial Pursuit would be in there too

[+CharlieChaplin]

5 hours ago, CharlieChaplin said:

 

Well,

there were some commercial programs on tape that used both sides, e.g.

 

- Phantom by Tynesoft

- Winter Olympics by Tynesoft

- Winter Olympiad 1988 by Tynesoft (two tapes, each used both sides)

- Gauntlet by US-Gold and later by Kixx

  (also Gauntlet Deeper Dungeons by US-Gold and Kixx, but these were only new levels)

- Basil tgmd by Gremlin

and several others.

 

 

 

"Nightmares" tape version by Red Rat and later by Byte Back also used both sides.

 

[Kr0tki]

But all of these titles are multi-part, i.e. with levels loaded during play. Blue Max does not need multi-load - the tape version only takes 22 KB. Even with the whole 10 KB OS-B appended, and some additional Translator-like routines to handle the OS swapping, the game would not take longer than 12 minutes to load.

 

10 hours ago, Rybags said:

I can't see why an official release would have an OS-B image on it

I know of several commercial disk releases that contain a copy of DOS 2.0, which didn't raise anyone's eyebrow BITD. Why would it be different in the case of OS-B hidden inside an otherwise obviously original game? I doubt Atari were looking inside each and every tape release of other companies in search of copyright infringements. Anyway, lbaeza hasn't said his cassette was an original release.

 

The longest single-load cassette release I know of is Codemasters' "Red Max" (tied with Tynesoft's "Mirax Force"), which takes over 60 KB and loads for over 22 mins. And, wouldn't you believe it, it displays a Graphics 0/Graphics 2 "REDMAX LOADING" screen ? (though it all takes one side of the tape, the other side being a second copy, as usual).  lbaeza, aren't you confusing the colours Blue and Red by chance?

 

EDIT: Actually, the largest "single-load" game I know of is LK Avalon's "Barahir", at 70,75 KB/21 mins loading time (loads shorter than "Red Max" though, because it's recorded at higher baudrate, ca. 720 baud). But this release is skirting the limit of "single-load" - while the game takes a single tape side and does not require any additional loading during gameplay, it also contains a loading screen that plays digitized music before commencing loading. So it's not really as "single-load" as "Red Max" is.

 

... Which leads me to a funny story. LK Avalon mastered all their releases by recording the data on both tracks of the stereo tape, and saturating the signal (i.e. volume) to the brim. The end result was, I had to lower the TV's volume during loading any of their releases, otherwise the screeching and beeping would wake even the deafest dogs up in all the neighbourhood. Because of that I was not actually aware that the digitized music was in there at all, until years later I converted my tapes for emulation. I wonder if any owner of that cassette knew about the music BITD...

Edited March 15, 2021 by Kr0tki
Typos, the Barahir story.

[ggn]

Ace of aces also used both sides of the tape.... and what a pain in the butt it was when you loaded the intro, then the selection menu, then when you flipped the tape and tried to load the main game it'd give a load error.... which means almost 1 hour gone to waste.