Tapuino, the $20 C64 Tape Emulator

[sweetlilmre]

Thanks, same this side. I'll debug and fix asap, but will be a few days. Can you send me the tap that has the long pauses in it?

-(e)

[Quagliarulo]

Here you go.

[Half-Saint]

While this is cheap and cute as hell, is there a way to speed up loading?

[demolition]

While this is cheap and cute as hell, is there a way to speed up loading?

Use Turbo Tape or similar if you're not already? CBM ROM loader is sloow.. Or are we talking original tapes with their own loader? In that case, there is probably not much you can do about the speed when using a tape loader like this. If you need higher speed, get something which loads through the IEC port (e.g. SD2IEC) or as a cartridge (1541U-II or EasyFlash). A cheap-ish and fast solution could be an SD2IEC combined with a Final Cartridge 3.

[sweetlilmre]

@Quagliarulo I just checked in some code that fixes the menu and may fix the long pause issue you were having.
Let me know if this works for you.

-(e)

[Quagliarulo]

Here are the results of my tests: [link]. I think the behaviour is correct now.

The resulting TAP files don't seem to work when read back in Play mode (the game won't start) but this might be due to the nature of Freeload, as it was designed to be difficult to copy. I remember trying to copy this very game with a tape duplicator (the gizmo that allowed you to connect 2 datassettes to the 64) multiple times without success, when I was young. It's worth mentioning that they all work fine with HOXS64, whereas in Vice, some work straight away and some need cleaning with tapclean. When tapcleaned, they also work on Tapuino itself in Play mode.

You'll also notice a TAP file missing the bootloader. I don't know how this happened. I had just tried to master a TAP file as usual but had forgot to set "Auto finalize" to 0, so I ended up with a file containing only the bootloader (which is correct). I set the option and tried again from start (that is, by turning the system on and doing all the procedure), but the resulting TAP file had no bootloader.

I also discovered a minor cosmetic quirk: the message "Completato" appears as "Completat" in Play mode. You may want to use "Finito" or "Completo" if that's a matter of string length.

[sweetlilmre]

Here are the results of my tests: [link]. I think the behaviour is correct now.

The resulting TAP files don't seem to work when read back in Play mode (the game won't start) but this might be due to the nature of Freeload, as it was designed to be difficult to copy. I remember trying to copy this very game with a tape duplicator (the gizmo that allowed you to connect 2 datassettes to the 64) multiple times without success, when I was young. It's worth mentioning that they all work fine with HOXS64, whereas in Vice, some work straight away and some need cleaning with tapclean. When tapcleaned, they also work on Tapuino itself in Play mode.

You'll also notice a TAP file missing the bootloader. I don't know how this happened. I had just tried to master a TAP file as usual but had forgot to set "Auto finalize" to 0, so I ended up with a file containing only the bootloader (which is correct). I set the option and tried again from start (that is, by turning the system on and doing all the procedure), but the resulting TAP file had no bootloader.

I also discovered a minor cosmetic quirk: the message "Completato" appears as "Completat" in Play mode. You may want to use "Finito" or "Completo" if that's a matter of string length.

Excellent work!
So to confirm / questions:

1. Pauses with the new code are now an acceptable length?
2. Recorded games do not work until cleaned (although amazingly they work in HOXS64, I wonder how that is possible?)
3. When the test report says that it crashes in Vice, does the same happen when loading from the Tapuino?
4. What is real_cassette.tap? Where did you get this from? I guess I mean: can you tell me the process you are using to generate the recorded tap files? Is it the same as before or are you copying from real datasette to Tapuino?
5. In the archive you linked to there are 3 files created under the 2.4.3. version, only the last one works, what is the difference in these files?

Sorry for so many questions! I need to get a very clear idea

I'll look at the translation string and either fix it or change to your suggestion.
Many thanks for your help in this, your testing and suggestions have been awesome!

-(e)

[Quagliarulo]

1. Yes, they're perfect.
2. Yes, at least with this particular turbo scheme. To be played with Tapuino, they need cleaning. With Vice, some need cleaning, some not. Those that don't work with Vice seem to lock up at the same point and in the same way, that is, when the main game should decrunch and start, Vice detects a CPU jam at a certain memory location. With real C64 and Tapuino, some lock up at that spot, while some will crash at the screen with the scrolling text, but before the text appears.
3. Yes but not necessarily in the same way. See #2.
4. The process to generate TAP files has always been the same: run the mastering tool from IEC, then set Tapuino in record mode and start mastering. real_cassette.tap was an attempt at mastering a real tape, that is, having a Datassette connected to the 64 instead of a Tapuino and writing to real tape; to obtain this particular TAP file, I connected the same Datassette to my PC with a parallel port adapter and dumped tha tape's contents.
5. Sorry, I don't know. They were generated in exactly the same way. It's probably some subtlety that wouldn't affect the majority of turbos but prevents Freeload from working. Freeload author Paul Hughes explicitly said he put considerable effort in making Freeload difficult to copy. That's probably the reason, IMHO.

If you need any more info, I'll be happy to answer. It's a pleasure to be able to give my small contribution.
Thank you for sharing and supporting your fantastic project! Way to go!

[ozayturay]

I have added Turkish memstrings file and created a PR at github.

[sweetlilmre]

I have added Turkish memstrings file and created a PR at github.

Merged. Thanks
-(e)