CAS files of interesting loaders

[jindroush]

Hi,
as mentioned in this thread:

are there verified cas dumps somewhere which have:
a) loaders with countdown counters
b) very long blocks and few IRG pauses - I remember Fort Apocalypse having that
Somehow I'd like to "hear" them again. In fact, CAS would be best, but simple video would help too.

[+CharlieChaplin]

Something like this ? (CAS = full version, MP3 = cut after one minute)

 

Dimension_X_CAS.zip

DIMX_cut_MP3.zip

 

Uses (mostly) long blocks (approx. 2048 Bytes per block).

There is also a nice Aackosoft version of BC's Quest for Tires, after the loader it has one long block 16k in size (the whole 16k game = 1 block).

 

[Wrathchild]

If I recall right, didn't the Mercenary tape have large blocks? 

[+CharlieChaplin]

1 minute ago, Wrathchild said:

If I recall right, didn't the Mercenary tape have large blocks? 

 

Yes, like all Novagen tapes.

 

[manterola]

I have copied some "weird" .CAS into this tnfs server:

fujinet.us.to

[Rybags]

News to me - although I did a short loader + 8K block (at higher bitrate) of the AsmEd cart that would load in about half the time, I had no idea that commercial games ever bothered to use such a technique.

At the least, it's a really good copy protection method since there's no easy way to know what length is being used if it's not the default (and additional to that you could probably use a different timing sequence method which would make SIO based copying next to impossible)

[jindroush]

9 hours ago, CharlieChaplin said:

Something like this ? (CAS = full version, MP3 = cut after one minute)

 

Dimension_X_CAS.zip 13.99 kB · 1 download

DIMX_cut_MP3.zip 1.61 MB · 0 downloads

 

Uses (mostly) long blocks (approx. 2048 Bytes per block).

There is also a nice Aackosoft version of BC's Quest for Tires, after the loader it has one long block 16k in size (the whole 16k game = 1 block).

 

Charlie, thanks, this is exactly what I had in mind. And it actually works in Altirra. Great (will look at its guts later, just for fun).

[jindroush]

I also downloaded Fort Apocalypse from fujinet.us.to (goddamit, the only way I found out is tnfs_client.py but it works only from Linux), and althought it is not the one I had in mind, it's very funny - playing music and Pong while loading is amusing.

[Mclaneinc]

Long time no see, were you frozen in Carbonite and just released by the Princess?

[jindroush]

Hi Paul,
pfff, mere 17 years of time spent in interrupt and people start to ask questions!
It's just some people around here are trying to salvage some old stuff and I currently have some time to play with such a stuff. Just virtually, no Atari hw in my house anymore (or, again).

[Mclaneinc]

Nice to see you back, whatever the future brings you just keep safe..

[Heaven/TQA]

6 hours ago, Rybags said:

News to me - although I did a short loader + 8K block (at higher bitrate) of the AsmEd cart that would load in about half the time, I had no idea that commercial games ever bothered to use such a technique.

At the least, it's a really good copy protection method since there's no easy way to know what length is being used if it's not the default (and additional to that you could probably use a different timing sequence method which would make SIO based copying next to impossible)

Copy protection? Did we not used Stereo double tape for dubbing ???  

Edited June 6, 2021 by Heaven/TQA

[www.atarimania.com]

Nice to see you back, even temporarily