cassettes conversions, Atari tape drives and the SDrive Max

[newTIboyRob]

I have several tapes I would like soon to convert for use on my impending SDrive Max. I'm aware that the prior way of using tape called for a dedicated, specific-for-Atari tape recorder required to be used with the 600 XL, such as the 410, the 1010 or the more obscure GE models.  For some reason or other, I was under the impression that for the use I need, that I could use any tape player, per chance my venerable Radio Shack CCR-81, which has fought many battles.

 

But then a rush shot through me, similar to that panic feeling when you think you've lost your wallet:

 

1) Will I be able to use that recorder to play back tapes, bringing them into the PC for conversion to a file readable by the Max when you select TAPE (I believe that is still the C) ???

2) Just wanted confirmation of that and also am curious what file extension they become when stored and read from the SD card?  .ATR or .CAS or .TAP?

[Wrathchild]

If you capture the tape in audio format, e.g. wav or mp3, then that wpuld be converted to a cas tape image.

 

However I more suspect you'd want to load files, e.g. basic programs, which you'd simply save to a mounted ATR as bas or lst.

 

I wouldn't worry about thinking about doing commercial games as 1) these need reworking as loading from disk is different from cassette and 2) most have been done and available in atr or xex format. 

[TGB1718]

12 hours ago, newTIboyRob said:

Just wanted confirmation of that and also am curious what file extension they become when stored and read from the SD card?  .ATR or .CAS or .TAP?

 

It can be any extension you want, you name the files when creating/saving them.

But by convention Cassette files use the .CAS extension

Disk images use generally .ATR , there is an .ATX format, but these are created differently usually for protected games/software.

Executables use the .XEX format.

Rom files .ROM or .BIN.

There are others, but I think that's the most common ones.

12 hours ago, newTIboyRob said:

1) Will I be able to use that recorder to play back tapes, bringing them into the PC for conversion to a file readable by the Max when you select TAPE (I believe that is still the C) ???

Yes, save them as .WAV on your PC and use something like a8cas-convert.exe to convert them to .CAS files which can be loaded from the S-Drive

[newTIboyRob]

 @TGB1718  comes through yet again...      So I am relieved to see that I can use any tape recorder here, that was worrysome!  And when I type in or create a new program in basic, do I save it as a .BAS file on the SDrive Max or which extension is best to use?  (.BAS is one file extension not mentioned above.)

[TGB1718]

When saving from BASIC using SAVE "D:FILENAME.BAS", it's best to use a .BAS extension (this is the BASIC tokenized format)

 

When listing from BASIC using LIST "D:FILENAME.LST" use the .LST extension, this is saved in ASCII format and can

be loaded into text editors or even listed to the screen.