Wilheim Posted December 19, 2017 Share Posted December 19, 2017 Dear Atarians, I am proud to announce that the Chilean Atari Community had finally restored the Turbo Software tape copier that was used in my country to distribute many atari 8-bit games. For those who want to know, Turbo Software was an small company that distributed atari games in the whole country, even using retail stores in that time. The innovation they implemented, due that the tape drives were widely spread in Chile and they were not very reliable in the loading process, is that they incorpored an small game prior the main game loading, so we can spare some time playing it before it completes the load. Also, it incorporated an error recovery routine, so in case it fails the loading, you can resume by rewinding an small amount of tape and continue, instead to load all over again. It also contains some protection routines, for example: it uses FSK signals to code some verification routines. In case they are inexistent, the game doesn't load. Once the load is completed, you just have to press start to play the main game. We also took the chance to add some improvements, in this case: - Added PAL support in the saving and loading process. also, the initial music score it was fixed for PAL timing. - Improved the start routine. The topic regarding this announcement is in the following link: http://www.retrogames.cl/foro/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=12931 It's in spanish, but you can google translate it. It also contains a link with the ATR files with the copier and sources, programmed in MAC/65. I hope you like it. Here's also a WAV file with an example. You can use a real hardware configuration with this wav, and also can be executed on Altirra and Atari800 with a8cas support. Best regards!! GHFM Draconus4.rar 16 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baktra Posted December 19, 2017 Share Posted December 19, 2017 It is good to see such piece of software revived and enhanced. Impressive. Out of curiosity, I copied few binary load files with this copier (tried with atari800-a8cas). Files without INIT vectors load fine, files with INIT vectors crash. But I take it binary load files with INIT vectors were not meant to be (fully) supported by this copier. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilheim Posted December 20, 2017 Author Share Posted December 20, 2017 Hi, Baktra! Youre right. The copier doesnt fully supports INIT vectors. That is because the IRGs are fixed to 100 miliseconds (atari standard is 250), so the load could be faster. In fact, the copier has an option to disable that if necessary (mentioned as con subrutina in spanish). To be honest, the copier has other limitations, such as: - It only loads binary files below $C000. That is because it copies the OS into RAM - occupies bytes between $3F0-$401 as buffer and block counter for resuming loading routines. As a matter of fact, the example I posted its a patched cruncher 5.0 file that loads specially on the $b00-$bcff area, and waits until the end to copy the data in the right place. It was the only way to make It work with this loader. Nevertheless, I personally find it cool that it has a pong-like game to play while its loading the game. Best regards! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baktra Posted December 20, 2017 Share Posted December 20, 2017 (edited) Yes, the Pong-like game is a cool concept. To be reasonable, a cassette is by no means a natural environment for binary load files. The binary load files were specifically designed to be used with media that allow random access. Therefore one can expect limitations. Anyway, it is either playing Pong or INIT vectors. A binary loader that fully supports INIT vectors by design must stop the motor when needed and keep a very low profile during the loading process. That means the E: device open, no custom loading screen, no sector counter etc. Edited December 20, 2017 by baktra 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilheim Posted December 20, 2017 Author Share Posted December 20, 2017 Totally agree. In fact, many games distributed by Turbo Software were specifically adapted to support the Pong game, as well as many European "newer" games (like Draconus), were never distributed by them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baktra Posted December 20, 2017 Share Posted December 20, 2017 An archive of monolithic binary load files (just one DATA segment and one RUN segment) is available here: http://baktra.webowna.cz/t2k/atari_games_monolithic.7z These provide the best compatibility with this loader. The archive combines monolithic binary load files from Fandal's archive and from Atarionline.pl. A courtesy of the DOS 2 Binary File Checker executed on both archives. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilheim Posted December 20, 2017 Author Share Posted December 20, 2017 Thank you!. I will look into it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manterola Posted December 20, 2017 Share Posted December 20, 2017 Thanks for this amazing job. Yesterday I tried it and it worked great. I got a 1010 which is giving me problems to load programs. Maybe it is the belt and my cassette drive needs a new one or it is the low quality cassettes you can get nowadays (generic brand from Wal-Mart). But yesterday I was able to create and then load a Montezuma revenge turbo soft cassette. I totally forgot there were a musical intro, so that was pretty surprising. Then I enjoyed a little play time with 1 player pong. The error recovery feature saved the day twice. And finally I played Montezuma aka preliminary monty just like the good old days. Thank you again for the great job. Mauricio 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ijor Posted December 21, 2017 Share Posted December 21, 2017 Si alguno tiene contacto con Pedro, por favor mandenle saludos mios Translation: If somebody still is in touch with Pedro, please send him greetings. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baktra Posted December 21, 2017 Share Posted December 21, 2017 An archive of monolithic binary load files (just one DATA segment and one RUN segment) is available here: http://baktra.webowna.cz/t2k/atari_games_monolithic.7z These provide the best compatibility with this loader. The archive combines monolithic binary load files from Fandal's archive and from Atarionline.pl. A courtesy of the DOS 2 Binary File Checker executed on both archives. If you have no idea how to use this DOS 2 Binary File Checker, but you would like to do so. 1. Download and install Java for your computer https://www.java.com/en/download/ 2. Let Google translate this page to English. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilheim Posted December 30, 2017 Author Share Posted December 30, 2017 New 2.0. version released. This time it operates at 800 bps starting at the 2nd block. Link: http://www.retrogames.cl/foro/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=12963 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilheim Posted December 30, 2017 Author Share Posted December 30, 2017 Si alguno tiene contacto con Pedro, por favor mandenle saludos mios Translation: If somebody still is in touch with Pedro, please send him greetings. Hola, lamentablemente, sólo tuve la oportunidad de conocerlo el 2005, cuando nos entregó el impreso de la versión alpha del Turbo Software. Pero si tengo la oportunidad de verlo nuevamente, lo mandaré tus saludos. Translation: Hi, unfortunately, I just had a chance to meet him once on 2005, when he brought us an alpha version source code from Turbo Software. But if I had a chance to see him again, I will send your greetings. Regards! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari_Force Posted December 31, 2017 Share Posted December 31, 2017 Still not working with Altirra? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilheim Posted January 1, 2018 Author Share Posted January 1, 2018 Still not working with Altirra? Not completely. Altirra cannot make FSK signals to CAS or WAV files yet, but it can load them. So, you can load a CAS or WAV file (like in POST #1 on this topic), but cannot create it. I use the A8CAS Atari800 patched version to do it. I asked Avery if he can add support of creating FSK signals to Altirra. As I understood, he has it on his agenda, but doesn't know when it's going to implement it. Regards! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogdark Posted April 4, 2018 Share Posted April 4, 2018 (edited) Copier source codes, originals not modified Corrector de errores Grabación injektor limpio Grabación Injektor Injektor Turbo soft 1(Limpio) Turbo soft 1 Turbo Soft 2 Edited April 4, 2018 by dogdark 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari_Force Posted August 27, 2018 Share Posted August 27, 2018 Still not working with Altirra? I really like Altirra. Any news about compatibility with this copier? (FSK signals) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manterola Posted June 5, 2020 Share Posted June 5, 2020 I have not found any CAS file which use this loader. I tried to create one with a8cas, but it did not work (I am very inexperienced regarding a8cas). I want to try the cassette emulation in AVGCart with a Turbosoft cassette.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmp Posted June 5, 2020 Share Posted June 5, 2020 here's Timeslip cas with that pong loader unfortunately it doesn't seem to currently load via avgcart, i thought i had it working so i either broke it at some point or i remembered wrong i'll put it on my todo list ts1992.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manterola Posted June 5, 2020 Share Posted June 5, 2020 (edited) I'll tested with respeqt cassette drive emulation... to have some idea of the problem. Thanks! Edited June 5, 2020 by manterola Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilheim Posted June 6, 2020 Author Share Posted June 6, 2020 I'm not sure if RespeQT supports FSK signals yet. Maybe @ebiguy can give us some light about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmp Posted June 6, 2020 Share Posted June 6, 2020 i got it almost working, i can play the pong, just right at the end it tells me to rewind the tape 3 rotations back so there's still something not exactly right in my emulation i need some shorter cas for testing, this one takes too long to load Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manterola Posted June 6, 2020 Share Posted June 6, 2020 39 minutes ago, Wilheim said: I'm not sure if RespeQT supports FSK signals yet. Maybe @ebiguy can give us some light about it. You are right.. respeqt does not work. I converted to WAV and loaded thru my XC11 real program recorder and it worked..so the CAS itself is working. What is interesting is that I have not been able to get a .cas starting from a WAV.. Maybe wave quality is not great as it is coming from and old cassette from the early 90s. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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