29-07-2021, 11:13 PM
Thanks to kimjohn for providing 9 original System 80 cassette tapes from Dick Smith to be recorded a few months ago. All were recorded at 44.1khz and saved as 16bit stereo WAV files. Both of the stereo channels were then stripped out and saved as individual left & right mono files.
Of the tapes, one only I have not been able to recover and of the remaining 8, only one would initially load and run error free into MAME and TRS32 emulators. All were BASIC programs also, not System files. The tapes are 500baud and have little resemblance to the Microbee tape structure, like this from one of the original recordings -
No audio filters I could find would improve their loading into an emulators. What to do! The 2 emulators can also load tapes in CAS format and an internet search soon found me a program called WAV2CAS. So when the WAV files loaded into it, it said they were okay and actually lists the BASIC program. Saved out a CAS file and now these all loaded into the 2 emulators. But it was soon discovered some still had errors in the file. The CAS files were converted to a TXT files using ACAS and it listed where most of the problems were. So the CAS file was edited to fix the BASIC Syntax and now loads and runs error free in the emulators. But I really wanted WAV files so members can actually write the files to a real cassette for loading into a real System 80 or TRS-80. Thanks to Robert for guiding me through the process on how to load a CAS file into MAME and then save it out as a WAV 44.1khz 16bit mono file. These files were then down sampled to 11khz and were also able to load and run error free in the 2 emulators. The file structure changed a bit and now looks like
It was also found, simply inverting the WAV would allow some of the files to load initially (thanks Robert) and this was done on a couple of the files. Also WAV2CAS could also save out as a WAV file, but directly to a 11khz 8bit mono file. These I could not get to load in either emulator but up-scaling to 16bit files and they then load okay.
I had also receiver back in January an original TRS-80 tape of HOPPY from g67wjjk, thanks. It was a System file and again its recording would not load into the emulators, however, the actual tape would load into my System 80 with no problems. So I applied the same process as above and now have a working CAS & WAV file of Hoppy. But you cant save a System file out of MAME as a WAV file, only BASIC files, so I used the output of WAV2CAS for this one.
Also, recently found on the net was another Dick Smith game for the System 80, Death Trap, that was in CAS format. So that was also converted to a WAV file as above.
So, all-in-all a long-winded process to recover the tapes, but all worth the effort in the long run.
All the Dick Smith Electronics tapes from kimjohn have not been recovered before with most being Educational in nature. CONCENTRATION & HANGMAN were on either side of one tape and SPEED READING 1 & 2 were on one tape and 3 & 4 on another. AUSTAX 1982 and STOCK MARKET were in individual tapes. It would be interesting to put in some of todays figures into AUSTAX and see what you would have paid in tax at 1982 rates. I will eventually put all these programs on a single disk image when I'm able to convert each to a BASIC listing.
Cassette artwork/label were also scanned and their inserts as well, if present.
So in the Vintage Repository in the System-80/Software/Tapes folder we placed the following -
dse_austax_1982.zip <--- all zip files contain both WAV and CAS files
dse_concentration.zip
dse_deathtrap.zip
dse_hangman.zip
dse_speed_reading1.zip
dse_speed_reading2.zip
dse_speed_reading3.zip
dse_speed_reading4.zip
dse_stockmarket.zip
hoppy.zip
dse_austax_1982.jpg <--- in the System-80\Documentation\Pictures\Tapes folder
dse_concentration.jpg
dse_hangman.jpg
dse_sound_off.jpg
dse_speed_reading_1.jpg
dse_speed_reading_2.jpg
dse_speed_reading_3.jpg
dse_speed_reading_4.jpg
dse_stockmarket.jpg
hoppy.jpg
Of the tapes, one only I have not been able to recover and of the remaining 8, only one would initially load and run error free into MAME and TRS32 emulators. All were BASIC programs also, not System files. The tapes are 500baud and have little resemblance to the Microbee tape structure, like this from one of the original recordings -
No audio filters I could find would improve their loading into an emulators. What to do! The 2 emulators can also load tapes in CAS format and an internet search soon found me a program called WAV2CAS. So when the WAV files loaded into it, it said they were okay and actually lists the BASIC program. Saved out a CAS file and now these all loaded into the 2 emulators. But it was soon discovered some still had errors in the file. The CAS files were converted to a TXT files using ACAS and it listed where most of the problems were. So the CAS file was edited to fix the BASIC Syntax and now loads and runs error free in the emulators. But I really wanted WAV files so members can actually write the files to a real cassette for loading into a real System 80 or TRS-80. Thanks to Robert for guiding me through the process on how to load a CAS file into MAME and then save it out as a WAV 44.1khz 16bit mono file. These files were then down sampled to 11khz and were also able to load and run error free in the 2 emulators. The file structure changed a bit and now looks like
It was also found, simply inverting the WAV would allow some of the files to load initially (thanks Robert) and this was done on a couple of the files. Also WAV2CAS could also save out as a WAV file, but directly to a 11khz 8bit mono file. These I could not get to load in either emulator but up-scaling to 16bit files and they then load okay.
I had also receiver back in January an original TRS-80 tape of HOPPY from g67wjjk, thanks. It was a System file and again its recording would not load into the emulators, however, the actual tape would load into my System 80 with no problems. So I applied the same process as above and now have a working CAS & WAV file of Hoppy. But you cant save a System file out of MAME as a WAV file, only BASIC files, so I used the output of WAV2CAS for this one.
Also, recently found on the net was another Dick Smith game for the System 80, Death Trap, that was in CAS format. So that was also converted to a WAV file as above.
So, all-in-all a long-winded process to recover the tapes, but all worth the effort in the long run.
All the Dick Smith Electronics tapes from kimjohn have not been recovered before with most being Educational in nature. CONCENTRATION & HANGMAN were on either side of one tape and SPEED READING 1 & 2 were on one tape and 3 & 4 on another. AUSTAX 1982 and STOCK MARKET were in individual tapes. It would be interesting to put in some of todays figures into AUSTAX and see what you would have paid in tax at 1982 rates. I will eventually put all these programs on a single disk image when I'm able to convert each to a BASIC listing.
Cassette artwork/label were also scanned and their inserts as well, if present.
So in the Vintage Repository in the System-80/Software/Tapes folder we placed the following -
dse_austax_1982.zip <--- all zip files contain both WAV and CAS files
dse_concentration.zip
dse_deathtrap.zip
dse_hangman.zip
dse_speed_reading1.zip
dse_speed_reading2.zip
dse_speed_reading3.zip
dse_speed_reading4.zip
dse_stockmarket.zip
hoppy.zip
dse_austax_1982.jpg <--- in the System-80\Documentation\Pictures\Tapes folder
dse_concentration.jpg
dse_hangman.jpg
dse_sound_off.jpg
dse_speed_reading_1.jpg
dse_speed_reading_2.jpg
dse_speed_reading_3.jpg
dse_speed_reading_4.jpg
dse_stockmarket.jpg
hoppy.jpg
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ChickenMan
ChickenMan