Re: TAP/mulator
Posted: Tue Nov 05, 2013 12:20 pm
If I grasped the idea correctly this emulator is like a digital tape player. The problem is how to choose the file on the SD to reproduce. Once this is done, then it would be loaded as if it were a real tape player, but it is digital, so nearly zero loading errors. That alone would make such a device an incredible add-on for our orics. Imagine you can select if the emulator uses a normal speed wav or a fast wav (using tap2cd). You'll load most games reliably and in a few seconds!
Problem is how to select the file to reproduce. It could have an LCD display with some buttons, such as an mp3 player does, so you choose the file inside the SD and press a PLAY button. For recording something similar, just press the RECORD button and it would create a new empty wav (or tap) file with the name passed from the Oric CSAVE or a default one.
But that would require quite a lot of hardware, and will make it more expensive. The smart idea here is manipulating the selection of the file from the Oric side, and using the relay output (which starts the tape on some tape players) to indicate the emulator that reproducing should start. Problem I see is that there is no way to indicate that you want to CSAVE a file and not to CLOAD one, unless some other command is sent to the player from the Oric, but that would be incompatible with programs which save data. So maybe in the end a kind of button or selector is needed to do this.
Anyway this should be compatible 100% with the old hardware. Granted I'd prefer something for disk emulation, but this is a different project completely. Though they could be merged
Problem is how to select the file to reproduce. It could have an LCD display with some buttons, such as an mp3 player does, so you choose the file inside the SD and press a PLAY button. For recording something similar, just press the RECORD button and it would create a new empty wav (or tap) file with the name passed from the Oric CSAVE or a default one.
But that would require quite a lot of hardware, and will make it more expensive. The smart idea here is manipulating the selection of the file from the Oric side, and using the relay output (which starts the tape on some tape players) to indicate the emulator that reproducing should start. Problem I see is that there is no way to indicate that you want to CSAVE a file and not to CLOAD one, unless some other command is sent to the player from the Oric, but that would be incompatible with programs which save data. So maybe in the end a kind of button or selector is needed to do this.
Anyway this should be compatible 100% with the old hardware. Granted I'd prefer something for disk emulation, but this is a different project completely. Though they could be merged