Coco - Making tape images

[Mark_G]

Hello,

I live in Europe, and for almost 40 years, I’m the owner of a coco.

Tandy sold some games on tape which differ from the US version.
Because in PAL countries, pmode 4 don’t give artificial red/blue colours, an extra option was added to chose between different pmode 3 colours. (Just like the Dragon).
I didn’t find an image of those particular games on the net.

Now my questions:
Is there an “very” easy way to transfer those games, and make an image to a modern pc.

When I succeed in making an image of those games, how can I load those images on a real coco?
Preferably, with the use of an CoCoSDC. However this is a ‘disk oriented device’.

 

Mark

[MrDave]

You can use your coco to load cassette files then save them to cocosdc as disk files..then the sd card can be uploaded to pc..

Or patch them yourself..like i do...check out my videos on how to convert them..

[Mark_G]

Hello,

Thanks for the reply.

However, how can I load cassette files (which start automaticity) and save those on the cocosdc.

I tried some tape to disk software, as I found in the archive, but I didn't succeed.

When the file is stored on the cocosdc, how can I load those files?

 

 

Edited August 1, 2023 by Mark_G

[MrDave]

Most games can be fixed with 1 poke and then the new version saved... what games are giving you trouble ?

[Mark_G]

Hello,

 

Thanks for the explanation.

I've already gone through your 'youtube' video's and found them very informative. I will try your solution soon.

 

However, I like also to copy the European Tandy cassettes.

I've almost all the original cassettes sold by Tandy with the adapted games.

All those cassette games start automatically after "CLOADM", and they have a nice intro/opening.

The main goal is to archive them, and secondary to play those games on a real coco with preferable the help of a cocosdc.

Yesterday I tried some "tape to disk" programs I found, however without success.

 

Mark

[MrDave]

Ok.. seems more like the zx spectrum style of cassette loading.. there are quite a few disk games for coco that autostart .but i haven't seen cass games like that in canada.. for sure they will be hard to convert or save in diffrent format..but can be done i am sure.

[jwse30]

I have archived computer cassettes (including a few for the CoCo) using Audacity and my computer (in this case a mac mini). I hooked a cable between the microphone input on the mini to the headphone jack on a tape player, played the tape, and had Audacity process it. Then I saved it as .wav file. You may have to adjust the recording levels within Audacity to get it to be able to playback and load back into the CoCo.

 

Then you can take your CoCo's cassette cable and hook it into your PC's headphone jack and CLOADM them into the CoCo just like they were a cassette. Or take an old cell phone or MP3 player and load all those .wav files into it and then use that with the CoCo and your cassette cable if your CoCo isn't near that PC.

 

I don't know if this is the info you were looking for, but I hope it's a solution for you.

 

J White

 

[.mad.]

i am sure Sixxie (creator of xroar) and the people over on World of Dragon forum can help you.

XROAR has options to make a CAS from WAV.

it can also be used to save snapshots of games in memory.

for single load games this could be used to make a BIN to load from a disk.

there is a nice collection of coco games on an SDC image to download as well.

 

http://worldofdragon.org/index.php?title=Tape\Disk_Preservation

[Mark_G]

Hello,

 

At first glance, this is indeed what I'm looking for.

Many thanks for the reply. I was not aware of this, and I go read this in depth.

 

Mark