Tap files To files for Cumulus

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coolman66
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Tap files To files for Cumulus

Post by coolman66 »

How easy is it to change Tap files to files that Cumulus uses for a non expert to do .
P.S
The is for when i get mine ?
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Dbug
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Re: Tap files To files for Cumulas

Post by Dbug »

Well, technically that has nothing to do with Cumulus in general but all to do with DSK files in particular :)
So if you can get a tap file to be transfered to a floppy (for example with Tap2DSK) then you can try it in Oricutron or Euphoric.

If it works in the emulator, then it will work with Cumulus.
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coco.oric
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Re: Tap files To files for Cumulas

Post by coco.oric »

Hello,

I'll update oric.org with dsk files to share the conversions which have been done
So if you're doing some, don't hesitate to send mails.

I'll do the same for hxc files.
coco.oric as DidierV, CEO Member
Historic owner of Oric, Apple II, Atari ST, Amiga
Godzil
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Re: Tap files To files for Cumulas

Post by Godzil »

I wonder if it is possible to reroute the ROM tap loading with floppy file loading? (won't work of course with custom loader)
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Steve M
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Re: Tap files To files for Cumulas

Post by Steve M »

Couldn't Cumulus have software to allow Tap files to load? There seems to be a lot of tape images about and I know how tricky it can be to get some on to disk.
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Re: Tap files To files for Cumulas

Post by jorodr »

On my SD card device (not shown yet) I just start the emulator (Emul8D), boot the disc image, CLOAD the game and then have saved it on the disc. Next is copy the *.dsk to SD card and it's done. if the game is autorun then I use "load" function on emulator control panel and load the game in memory without CLOAD it.
Or just wait Fabrice to finish his SD card tape emulator. He is working on it.
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Steve M
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Re: Tap files To files for Cumulas

Post by Steve M »

Tapes were often made up of two or three files which may have been BASIC or machine code. Sometimes the 'controller' program was BASIC with the case being defined characters etc whereas other times the BASIC part was just a loader for the main program in machine code.

When we used to convert tapes to disk you had to save the parts to disk and then figure out which parts needed autoload or not.
With a BASIC loader it was fairly easy to convert CLOAD instructions to disk commands. Some programs will need a QUIT command which then means your disk commands will need a shriek (!)

With tape images the 2 or 3 parts were joined together to form a single file. I'm not sure how best to separate these back into the component parts you'd need for use on a disk image(?)
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Re: Tap files To files for Cumulas

Post by StarshipUK »

coco.oric wrote:Hello,

I'll update oric.org with dsk files to share the conversions which have been done
So if you're doing some, don't hesitate to send mails.

I'll do the same for hxc files.
Do you have a link please with all the DSK files you have available?

I downloaded some games from your site, but some appear to be DSK and some TAP without any way of knowing what it is until after you have downloaded and unzipped it.
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Re: Tap files To files for Cumulas

Post by Symoon »

True it could be clearer, but the disk or tape icon give a hint (see "platform" line)

EDIT: BTW Dominique's page is still there. It holds programs on disk, and even better, they were modified to work with the PASE joystick interface.
http://dominique.pessan.pagesperso-oran ... /baton.htm
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Re: Tap files To files for Cumulas

Post by StarshipUK »

Symoon wrote:True it could be clearer, but the disk or tape icon give a hint (see "platform" line)

EDIT: BTW Dominique's page is still there. It holds programs on disk, and even better, they were modified to work with the PASE joystick interface.
http://dominique.pessan.pagesperso-oran ... /baton.htm
Thanks for the quick reply and link to other site, although it would be easier (for me at least) to show on the search pages if a game is available on disk rather than having to go into 654 separate pages to find out. With the Cumulus out now I am guessing more people will be looking specifically for games on DSK rather than TAP.

Also does anyone on here still make Oric Joystick interfaces, or can these be purchased anywhere?
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Re: Tap files To files for Cumulas

Post by StarshipUK »

coco.oric wrote:Hello,

I'll update oric.org with dsk files to share the conversions which have been done
So if you're doing some, don't hesitate to send mails.

I'll do the same for hxc files.
Please can someone let me know if many conversions have been done yet and whether there is a page there where they are all available to download on one page?
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Steve M
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Re: Tap files To files for Cumulas

Post by Steve M »

They aren't generally available. CEO has produced disks for years but you'll have to buy the disks. They are still going.

People wanted the games in the original form so the uploads online were mostly tape images.
I have boxes and boxes of 3" disks there's too many for me to convert - but it shows a lot of tings have been converted.
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Re: Tap files To files for Cumulas

Post by StarshipUK »

Steve M wrote:They aren't generally available. CEO has produced disks for years but you'll have to buy the disks. They are still going.

People wanted the games in the original form so the uploads online were mostly tape images.
I have boxes and boxes of 3" disks there's too many for me to convert - but it shows a lot of tings have been converted.
As far as I can tell CEO is a French Only magazine for Oric Users: http://www.oric.org/magazine/ceomag-378.html
I also can't see any disk images associated with the magazines which include converted games in disk images, usable on the Cumulus. There are links to a 2007 subscription form (http://www.oric.org/ftp/ceo/abonnement/CEO%202007.pdf) but this only mentions getting copies of the magazine on disk. A link to information of games disks you are talking about would be useful.

Would transferring 3" disks just be a direct transfer using a PC and software like CPCDiskXP? http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/CPCDiskXP or would those disks need further modification and work done which would need time? I have previously used this software to write images back to Einstein disks and it did not take long at all.

If a lot of things have already been converted, it would be nice to get hold of those in some way, somehow please. With the release of the Cumulus (and no other similar device for Tape images) I am surprised no one has converted the majority of original games yet and made them available to use with the Cumulus. I have been waiting a while silently with the hope that it would just need some time for someone to do this.

For example when the C4CPC was released for the Amstrad GX4000 the community started (and still is) converting CPC464 games to work on the console with the C4CPC, making the games playable without a keyboard on the console.
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Re: Tap files To files for Cumulas

Post by Dbug »

There is no such thing as "converting for cumulus".

Cumulus is a Microdisc emulator, so basically what you are looking for is "games compilations for Microdisc" available as DSK files.

Regarding the CEO, they have many floppies, but they contain CEO published games, not commercial ones.

I was planning to make it easy to build bootable FloppyBuilder images that could be use to run tap files compressed to floppy, but I did not manage to correctly initialize the system as if it was just booted from ROM, so the games would crash on startup.

Basically the idea was:
- boot on the FloppyBuilder disk
- run the system inits and go back to the FloppyBuilder loader
- a menu appear
- select the game you want
- the game is loaded in memory at the final address it is supposed to be
- enable the ROM
- call the game

for some reason that horribly failed.
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Re: Tap files To files for Cumulus

Post by StarshipUK »

According to Steve M in his post he is saying that a lot of things have been already converted. If items have already been converted I am still wondering if it would just be a case of getting disks transferred and made available.

Regarding the CEO disks and floppies is there a list of what is available anywhere and what the games are like and where they cab be purchased please?

I have seen the CEO disks mentioned in a few places such as: http://oric30years.defence-force.org/in ... &ref=ART12 (hundreds of CEO discs compilations) but cannot find a list of how many discs are available or the games which are on them and their quality.
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