CS1 Rollin'!

[Opry99er]

So today while I was looking for a cable for my HDX at a second hand store, I came across a cool little idea. I saw an old answering machine with a tape in it. Looked at the thing and discovered that it would be perfect for a CS1!!! It had the proper jacks, multiple switches for speed and recording quality, a nice volume slider, and it was cool looking on top of all that.

 

Not being able to use my DSK1 at the moment had me searching rabidly for a db9 F to F null modem cable in order to utilize my HDX and transfer some stuff from TI to PC and back again. In my disappointment, I had to spend the money ($3) on the answering machine so that I could at least play Tunnels of Doom and maybe save a few XB demos I have been working on while I develop them.

 

In all it was a score... Device works perfectly and no errors on old tapes or new tapes. I saved a little demo I was saving on my Minimem cart to tape, as I was out of room on the cart.

 

As an aside, my 3.5 drives are working beautifully, I just started messing around with my CS1 tonight because I bought the tape deck and wanted a little retro fun. Quest for the King loaded off tape... Hard to get any better than that, man....

[+save2600]

I hear you! Old portable cassette decks or answering machines can be fun to play around with. Still have and use my original TI-99 branded CS1 deck myself.

[Opry99er]

Mine is in KY. This will work fine for now, though. very glad to have it working on my system.

[Opry99er]

I wonder... If one we're to make a new ToD game using the Asgard editor, load it up from disk and save to CS1 if it would be distributable in that medium.... OR does the game save only variables and such to tape/diskette when you do a "save game" from the module's SAVE function...

 

Worth a quick test tonight.

[RobertLM78]

I wonder... If one we're to make a new ToD game using the Asgard editor, load it up from disk and save to CS1 if it would be distributable in that medium.... OR does the game save only variables and such to tape/diskette when you do a "save game" from the module's SAVE function...

 

Worth a quick test tonight.

An interesting thought - supposedly ToD module can be used to copy Adventure games by loading the data in ToD and then saving again to whatever medium you want.

[Opry99er]

I know that to load the Pennies and Prizes game from tape takes over 3 minutes. Would seem that it is significantly more than simply "variables" in there...

 

If you look at a hex dump of a ToD game, it's quite an interesting pattern!! I am curious how it is translated into CS1 data.

[Fritz442]

Opry99er, on Tue Jun 25, 2013 12:45 PM, said:
I wonder... If one we're to make a new ToD game using the Asgard editor, load it up from disk and save to CS1 if it would be distributable in that medium....

 

Yes you can, the TOD files are all the same size(13184 bytes)

all the data is saved to the new file when you save it, so you can save

it to disk or tape. And restore from either.

 

All monster and armor images, weapons, magic items, quests, hallway colors, player and

monster data, etc... is saved in the file. The entire file is hex data of all items.

Remember to make a new game, you edit an old one.

Edited July 9, 2013 by Fritz442

[Opry99er]

I have used the ToD editor quite often... First to build the first Beryl Reichardt game, and since for a couple other games I started developing.

 

Good to know about the uniform file size.... Now I just need to find a supply of "5 minutes per side" cassette tapes.

 

Thanks for the info!

Edited July 10, 2013 by Opry99er

[Opry99er]

Http://www.tapes.com

 

Yes...... 5 minute tapes with soft poly boxes for .50 a piece...

 

Haven't looked at pre-printed labels, but I imagine they could be had for a dime a piece.... Finish the Beryl ToD game, do it up with solid packaging, take em to the Faire!!!

Edited July 10, 2013 by Opry99er

[Opry99er]

Here's an interesting idea... Can XB programs with embedded assembly language (systex or compressed data from XB256) be saved to and loaded from tape?

[RXB]

Sure if you use a bunch of CALL LOADs to load the Assembly like I do.

My Assembly program resides at >D000 right next to the XB program.

That way the SAMS memory is not corrupted by using a CALL INIT or create problem of switching the SAMS.

 

That is the entire problem with memory is the bank that needs to swap pages is being used in the lower 8K, badly thought out.

Every memory like the SAMS should have a Byte you can Peek or Poke that changes the page, much like the XB cart changes from Odd to Even banks by a Poke or Peek.