Atari 1010 Recorder...

[RetroGamer2003]

Hey guys. I have an Atari 800, and I am thinking about getting the 1010 recorder. Now, I know it's pretty slow, and that it may just not be worth it, but tapes are easier to get a hold of (like at Wal-Mart) and it seems pretty cool that you can record on to cassettes. I saw a new one for say at MyAtari, so I imagine it would be all be working and stuff. Okay, now, I'm not completely sure about it all sure I have a few questions.

 

1. How do I save a BASIC program to it?

2. How do I load a BASIC program from it?

3. Is it possible to get cassette data from the internet in audio form, and then record it to a tape via audio cassette recorder?

4. Any other cons than the ones I just mentioned?

 

Thanks, nice board btw.

[Nukey Shay]

1) CSAVE or LIST"C:"

The first instruction writes data to the cassette in a "tokenized" format...i.e. Basic keywords are reduced to two bytes...speeding up the time it takes. The latter writes data to the cassette in untokenized format...i.e. as plain text - 1 byte per character. This increases the amount of time it takes, but increases your chances of data recovery if the cassette fails at any point. New or used cassettes can be used, since the recorder has it's own erase head...but using used cassettes will drastically reduce the cassette's lifespan (which is already short enough).

 

2) CLOAD or ENTER"C:"

These are to complimentory "reading" instructions to the above...and must be done using the same format that the cassette program is written in. If a CSAVE was used, a CLOAD must be used to retrieve it (under normal operation...but I won't go into that). If the cassette fails during CLOAD, no part of the program will appear in memory (and it may crash your machine). A glitch during ENTER"C:" will at least retain the amount of the program loaded thus far. Therefore, it's to your advantage to always use the LIST/ENTER combo...even though it means a longer wait.

 

3) Yes. There are even programs that transfer cassette images back to .wav files (which can then be recorded to standard cassettes).

 

4) I believe that the instructions SAVE"C:" and LOAD"C:" operate the same way as CSAVE/CLOAD. If you are loading a commercial program from a cassette, many of these are written in machine language (intended to be used WITHOUT Basic). To load those programs, you must hold down the start key while powering on the computer. There are also commands that allow you to access files which are read from the Basic program. Those are OPEN, PUT, GET, PRINT, INPUT, and CLOSE. Note: these commands can also be used in other functions...not just pertaining to files.

[+DamonicFury]

As someone who actually used a 1010 recorder back when it came out, I wouldn't recommend it. It is seriously slow, so you'll have to be VERY patient! I don't recall having much problems saving my own programs, but loading pre-recorded programs could be a real pain. And the buttons were easily broken through normal use... I broke my PLAY button twice (and I didn't even bother to fix it the second time.) One of the happiest moments of my young life was finally getting a 1050 disk drive so I never had to use the 1010 again!

 

I hate to be a downer, but I have lots of unhappy 1010 memories. Really, a disk drive or a SIO2PC cable are much better choices.

[kenfused]

I remember promoting my Pause button to be a Play button.

[+davidcalgary29]

MyAtari is currently auctioning off XC12 cassette players on eBay. It's a good unit (and probably a better choice than the 1010, as it takes power from the computer), but you'll have some problems "daisy chaining" peripherals for it.

[awace]

MyAtari is currently auctioning off XC12 cassette players on eBay. It's a good unit (and probably a better choice than the 1010, as it takes power from the computer), but you'll have some problems "daisy chaining" peripherals for it.

I took the 1010 out today and decided to goto target and get some rubber binders but that only fixed the drive mech not the tape head alignment and since i cant find my boombox i dont have time to screw around w it although i did think of using a FAKE MP3 player type tape to see if that would work w mp3 recorder!!???? I doubt it but who knows I did get the stelladaptor(supercharger) mod to work once and used sblaster to load files into 2600 once but the 1010 is a super pain in the butt I almost got it to work but who knows weather the head is still aligned or needs cleaned or the binder is the right size.

[UNIXcoffee928]

That's a cool idea, with the tape mp3 player!

[dwhyte]

Yeah, the mp3 cas player would be kind of cool. I've actually been going through all my Multiboot disks and making .cas files of the games (some of which aren't in the cas archive), then converted them with cas2wav, then run through a flac compressor for archiving. I then play it through the stereo and record onto a cassette, put it in the 1010 and re-read with a boot-tape copier and write back out with the 1010. A lot of time to do it all, but I've had about a 99% success rate with this method. There's just something about the squelch from an Atari tape drive that brings back them warm fuzzy memories. And because of the flac files, I know exactly how much time I can be away from the Atari to do other things before I have to press the START/FIRE button.

 

"Why?" you ask. "Just for the hell of it," I say...

[awace]

Yeah, the mp3 cas player would be kind of cool. I've actually been going through all my Multiboot disks and making .cas files of the games (some of which aren't in the cas archive), then converted them with cas2wav, then run through a flac compressor for archiving. I then play it through the stereo and record onto a cassette, put it in the 1010 and re-read with a boot-tape copier and write back out with the 1010. A lot of time to do it all, but I've had about a 99% success rate with this method. There's just something about the squelch from an Atari tape drive that brings back them warm fuzzy memories. And because of the flac files, I know exactly how much time I can be away from the Atari to do other things before I have to press the START/FIRE button.

 

"Why?" you ask. "Just for the hell of it," I say...

i have a atari file that loads then lets you copy files called ultra copy witch i boot to then remove then i copy file from original to blank disk

pushing a makes destination autoformat before writning out dest then i take copy and leave it in and copy again but this time i have ape emulating d2 as virtual drive cloning drive 1 then once ultra copy copies it once or twice its in ape cue then i can make a .atr file from REAL atari or vise versa Its long but certianly not as long as a .cas file would be I cant even get tape to load its own tapes..

anyway sounds cool by the way if you want to eliminate fake tape dont forget to steal the surface mounted resistors from the fake tape head you will need those to hardwire to hardwire to eliminate both heads I did this on a car stereo so i could use walkman w broken tape I finnaly just bought a real stereo for the car.

I havent tried fake tape although you wouuld have to cue mp3 player up for record or playback.