StanJr Posted March 2, 2002 Share Posted March 2, 2002 Since Starpath games are on cassette, could I record Fireball over my old Milli Vanilli tape and have two copies? Would the information transfer the same way? I can't imagine Starpath would allow something like that. Fast buck Stan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted March 2, 2002 Share Posted March 2, 2002 I can't imagine why this wouldn't work, since you can also use a computer or audio CD as the source for the Starpath games. I guess Starpath wasn't too worried about this since you had to first purchase the Supercharger. I don't know how much they were selling their games for, but I remember reading something about selling them for less than a cartridge-based game, since the cassette tapes were cheaper. If this was the case, then Starpath was probably hoping that the reduced cost of the games would encourage people to buy them instead of pirate them. Also, back then there wasn't the Big Bad Internet to promote piracy, so to copy Starpath games back then you had to know someone with a Supercharger. They weren't too common, so I don't think this was too much of a problem. But then, they're no longer in business, eh? ..Al PS: As for that Milli Vanilli tape, I think you should just burn it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Night Phantom Posted March 2, 2002 Share Posted March 2, 2002 quote: Originally posted by StanJr: Since Starpath games are on cassette, could I record Fireball over my old Milli Vanilli tape and have two copies? Would the information transfer the same way? I can't imagine Starpath would allow something like that. Why not? Milli Vanilli did! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanJr Posted March 2, 2002 Author Share Posted March 2, 2002 Sounds like I'm in bidness!!!!!! Nah, I'd never do something weasely like that. How lame. But I wonder if Hozer could do that and sell Starpath games dirt cheap????? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mos6507 Posted March 2, 2002 Share Posted March 2, 2002 There is no reason for Hozer to merely dub tapes because I shipped hundreds of remaining Cyberpunks Starpath CDs (and booklet materials) to him to offer to the public at cost. It would be silly to offer anything less to people until the CDs are completely depleted. As for piracy, analog cassettes feature dropout, which causes problems with loading binary data. Anyone dubbing tape to tape compounds hiss and raises the probability of dropouts. I doubt you could get more than one generation of dups from a starpath tape befor rendering it useless. [ 03-02-2002: Message edited by: Glenn Saunders ] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Player Posted March 2, 2002 Share Posted March 2, 2002 Just to see what would happen, I loaded a Milli Vanilli tape into my 2600 using the Supercharger. My 2600 won a Grammy on Wednesday night. On Thursday, the press found out that my 2600 didn't do it alone--that it had the help of the uncredited Supercharger. On Friday, my 2600 returned the Grammy in shame. I just found my 2600 dead of an drug overdose this morning. Look for the whole story on an upcomming "Behind the Music" on VH1. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ATARIPITBULL Posted March 2, 2002 Share Posted March 2, 2002 Yeah!!I think there going to show that one next week at 8:00. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jahfish Posted March 2, 2002 Share Posted March 2, 2002 quote: Originally posted by Glenn Saunders: As for piracy, analog cassettes feature dropout, which causes problems with loading binary data. [ 03-02-2002: Message edited by: Glenn Saunders ] that sounds more like marketing than like a fact .... i've had so many games on audio tapes in the eighties and i rarely had problems ... mostly rather with original datasettes that had bad tape quality. and even a weak milli vanilli tape seems to do the job ... i don't think the CD is anything special .... there's plenty different CDs with audio files or Roms around .... and tons of roms online and bin-to-wav-players. so that's another reason making copies of tapes more or less useless .... you can really do it yourself within a few minutes, you just need to connect a tape player to your computer. or just directly connect your supercharger or cuttlecart Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanJr Posted March 2, 2002 Author Share Posted March 2, 2002 Big Player, have the people from E! True Hollywood Story contacted you yet about that! You cracked me up dude! So, let me ask a dumb question. Does that Starpath CD run through the Starpath itself? You just use a CD player instead of a tape player? Stanpath Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jahfish Posted March 3, 2002 Share Posted March 3, 2002 yes, right ... you can just connect a CD player or even a laptop .... i have a CD with something like 350 games on it, including the starpath games .... i'll send you a copy, stan! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inky Posted March 3, 2002 Share Posted March 3, 2002 Where can one even get a supercharger these days? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted March 3, 2002 Share Posted March 3, 2002 Cuttle Cart...basically the same thing. BTW I've backed up many cassettes in my early years of computer programming (Apple II, Vic20, and Atari)...some second and possibly third generations with no problems as well. Since playing the tape degrades the quality over time, I would use the original copy as little as possible. Don't see why the same thing can't be done with SC games (try using chrome or metal tape if standard won't work). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Night Phantom Posted March 3, 2002 Share Posted March 3, 2002 quote: Originally posted by Nukey Shay: Cuttle Cart It might be easier to obtain an actual Supercharger. Here's why, from Chad Schell's Cuttle Cart page: quoteThe Cuttle Carts are sold out and no longer in production. They were a limited run item, with a total of 204 carts produced at a price of $100.00 each. I currently have no plans of producing any more, especially not as I work to finish up my thesis. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanJr Posted March 3, 2002 Author Share Posted March 3, 2002 So when the Charger says "press play" you select which track the game is and play that? What about multi-load games? Confusion Stan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Night Phantom Posted March 3, 2002 Share Posted March 3, 2002 quote: Originally posted by StanJr: So when the Charger says "press play" you select which track the game is and play that? What about multi-load games? That's how it works for all of them. Multiload games ought to be encoded over multiple tracks; so, choose the appropriate track and play it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mos6507 Posted March 4, 2002 Share Posted March 4, 2002 >> that sounds more like marketing than like a fact .... i've had so many games on audio tapes in the eighties and i rarely had problems ... mostly rather with original datasettes that had bad tape quality. << Magnetic media of all types, including things like diskettes, are fragile. Anecdotes like these don't change that. It just means you are lucky. There are countless counter-anecdotes of people who have tapes that won't load anymore, or disks with bad sectors. The Starpath tape format is very robust compared to others (the Astrocade's was pretty weak), but no tape format can hold up to old worn out tapes beyond a certain point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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