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Re: New tape cleaner tool

Posted: 24 Jan 2019 18:49
by Bill B
Another one loads :D
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Again, it needs somebody to test it and make sure it is all working. Also, I think instructions will be required, Paul do you have any?

The audio file contains four programs: "SCREEN", "PANEL64", "SCREEN" (Again), "MANU64". The two copies of "SCREEN" are just loaders for the programs that follow (screen shot 1). I have separated the second pair into a separate MTX file.

Re: New tape cleaner tool

Posted: 25 Jan 2019 20:57
by Bill B
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One more success. This is a program in Basic.

The remaining files are proving more challenging.

Re: New tape cleaner tool

Posted: 25 Jan 2019 21:05
by Bill B
If is anybody else wants to have a play with TapeView, source code and compiled (Linux x86) version attached.

It should be possible to compile for RPi (easy) or Windows (more work required), although I have not done so.

Some cautions:
  • The code is not well structured, it just grew.
  • It is not commented.
  • There is no manual.
  • The UI is not polished.

Re: New tape cleaner tool

Posted: 01 Feb 2019 10:26
by Bill B
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A last one from me. I never managed to fully read the audio files for Patience. They have relatively large system variables blocks, in which I invariably drop bits. However I think I managed to read the Basic block (with some manual editing of the pulse train). I then turned this into an auto-type file for loading into MEMU.

The game is played by entering one or two character commands. The single letter commands are:

N - Start a new game.
R - Restart the current game.
D - Deal a new card from the pack.

The two character commands are for moving cards from one location to another, the first character specifies the source and the second the destination. The location codes are:

1-7 - The seven columns of partially revealed cards.
P - The pack of cards.
A - The "Aces" piles where cards a played out.

In my quick testing I have found that the program is not well protected against invalid entries, and can be crashed by (for example) specifying a source without a destination.

Also, on occasions it has rejected what I think are valid moves, so it is likely that although the program looks correct and runs there are a few incorrect characters. The program is best spaghetti Basic so I leave the debugging to somebody else.

Re: New tape cleaner tool

Posted: 01 Feb 2019 10:40
by Bill B
At this point I retire from tape cleaning and move on to something else.

Attached is the latest version of my program. It has some additional scanning modes.

It also the ability to manually edit the pulses. To do so:
  • Choose a scanning mode and parameters to do the best you can in interpreting the file.
  • Lock the detected pulses ("Manual" menu) so that re-scanning does not change them.
  • Zoom the graph in so that the detected pulse edges are shown as grey lines.
  • Left click on the graph to add new edges, or right click to remove edges. You probably want to add or remove two edges at a time.
  • Click the "Scan" button to update the interpretation of the pulses.

Re: New tape cleaner tool

Posted: 01 Feb 2019 11:47
by Martin A
A well deserved retirement too! you've done an amazing job. :D

Re: New tape cleaner tool

Posted: 06 Feb 2019 15:11
by thewiz
Wow Bill, thats an amazing piece of work.

That is at least one commercial MIA that I know of recovered.

As for Interrupt, unfortunately these wavs are just files I accumulated from various places so I don't know what they are meant to be.

Re: New tape cleaner tool

Posted: 13 Oct 2019 15:51
by Bill B
Attempting to scan a tape audio file for Claus at MemoFest yesterday uncovered a couple of limitations in my TapeView program:
  • The BASIC listing was missing a space before some keywords when they appear in the middle of a statement. This has now been fixed.
  • The listing was failing to recognise NODDY pages, which are stored immediately above the BASIC source. The end of the BASIC code is now correctly recognised, and the NODDY pages are (for now) listed as Hex & ASCII.
I have also made a small user interface enhancement. If the "Go To Byte" feature is used, a yellow highlight is put behind the relevant pulses to confirm the action.

I still need to do some more work on the displaying of assembler and the NODDY pages, based upon the information in Paul's mtx2bas program.
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Re: New tape cleaner tool

Posted: 13 Oct 2019 15:59
by stephen_usher
It's impressive stuff.

Re: New tape cleaner tool

Posted: 15 Oct 2019 13:48
by Crazyboss
Cool need to see if I can find a CPP compiler for windows :)

Happy to see, I am not the only one, dont flood my code with commentaries :)