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Commodore 64!
https://www.beexcellenttoeachother.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=7444		 Page 4 of 4
Author:  romanista [ Mon Aug 01, 2011 9:47 ]
Post subject:  Re: Commodore 64!
romanista wrote:
i'll play twins tonight (if i still have power 64 on my macbook, and it's a universal binary..)


apparently MacVice works under lion.. but can remember i didn't really like vice
Author:  MrD [ Sat Aug 06, 2011 4:05 ]
Post subject:  Re: Commodore 64!
I'm still trying to get anything to stick on a real tape. I couldn't remember whether tape recorders were supposed to obliterate the current contents of the tape or record on top or what. My incredibly old cheap hi-fi didn't erase the tape as it went. I listened to the tape back and I could hear all the different screeches from all my taping attempts. So I ditched it and got myself a shiny Sony TCM-939 for a fiver. Hurrah!

Still can't figure out a good method for realising tapes. I've tried simply plugging my computer's output into the cassette recorder's input, but I'm getting a buzzing noise. I can't tape-to-tape from the magic tape because I haven't got a second cassette player to play from.

I copied the wav file to my cheapo mp3/wav player and recorded from that. There wasn't any noise and the loading seemed to work (from looking at the coloured bars), but the C64 said LOAD ERROR and crashed every time.

I've found a piece of software that I thought had to exist: PTAP and Tapserv. PTAP is a PC program for sending tap files to the C64, which runs Tapserv to writing to tape using the datasette. Will it work? Stay tuned!

My first problem is figuring out how to get files onto the the only computer I have that runs DOS and works with 64HDD. I don't know how to get the CD drive working in FreeDOS and I have a suspicion that the laptop is old enough to not like CD-RWs. As far as I know, FreeDOS can't access USB drives, and there isn't enough hard drive space for me to put Windows Me on it as well. None of my towers have floppy drives any more. S'pose I could use a Linux live CD, but it's really old. I think I've got a many year old version of Slax that works on it.
Author:  zaphod79 [ Sat Aug 06, 2011 9:44 ]
Post subject:  Re: Commodore 64!
MrD wrote:
I couldn't remember whether tape recorders were supposed to obliterate the current contents of the tape or record on top or what.


Yes they are

MrD wrote:
Still can't figure out a good method for realising tapes. I've tried simply plugging my computer's output into the cassette recorder's input, but I'm getting a buzzing noise.


That could just be volume (which you'd need to get right) or interference.

Tapes on the C64 could also be very temperamental for head alignment - on a 64 tape drive when you press play there is a little tiny hole slightly above the play button where you can put a screwdriver in to adjust the head alignment.
I had 2 basic settings for that - one loaded most of my original games , one loaded most of my copied games.

MrD wrote:
I copied the wav file to my cheapo mp3/wav player and recorded from that. There wasn't any noise and the loading seemed to work (from looking at the coloured bars), but the C64 said LOAD ERROR and crashed every time.


In theory that should have worked.

MrD wrote:
My first problem is figuring out how to get files onto the the only computer I have that runs DOS and works with 64HDD. I don't know how to get the CD drive working in FreeDOS


No idea about freedos , however there are 2 ways around this - one is search for the dos cd driver (atapi.sys is something that sticks in my mind for it) , have that in the config.sys and you need MSCDEX in the autoexec *or* create a windows 98 floppy from another machine (or download one) as it had a generic cd rom driver which worked in dos - so you boot with that floppy and you should be able to access your CD
Author:  lasermink [ Sat Aug 06, 2011 11:43 ]
Post subject:  Re: Commodore 64!
I am not sure I understand what you are doing. One thing I remember about C64 "Datasettes" is that they had a tape head alignment that was intentionally way off from normal tape recorders. This made it impossible to copy commercial tapes with normal tape recorders, you needed a two Datasettes and a special adapter in the tape port. I don't know if this is in any way relevant to what you are trying to achieve...
Author:  zaphod79 [ Sat Aug 06, 2011 12:41 ]
Post subject:  Re: Commodore 64!
lasermink wrote:
This made it impossible to copy commercial tapes with normal tape recorders


Nah - you just copied with a twin tape deck and changed the head alignment (or hit the freeze button on your cart and dumped it out to cassette)
Author:  lasermink [ Sat Aug 06, 2011 14:42 ]
Post subject:  Re: Commodore 64!
OK, impossible was obviously too strong a word. :) I meant not readily possible for your average person at the beginning of the life of the C64 when it all ran on magic anyway...

Messing about with tape head alignment was a major pain anyway, was very hit and miss and would eventually fuck your Datasette. What an incredible relief when Commodore finally reduced the price of the 1541 to something reasonable and my parents yielded and got us a drive. Ah the memories of that magical device after all the tape hassles...
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