Date   : Wed, 18 Apr 2001 10:28:26 +0100
From   : "Gray, David" <David.Gray@...>
Subject: Copying BBC games naughty naughty

For backup prepossess only of course!!

Can anyone supply me with the commands for making master copies of games (on
tape) on a BBC ( i.e. avoid the tape to tape degradation)  there was a
solution that  worked well for all un- locked basic and Machine code games
but I can't remember it 

i.e. I want to  load up the first part of the program from old master tape
then save at 1200 baud to another tape

all I can remember is 

*opt1,2
*load"chuckie"

chuckie then loads something like this   chuckie ab000000   ff0000000
baaa00000

and you had to do *opt ?,? 

*save "chuckie" ab0000000+baaa000000 or something like that.

the reason being that during the Easter holiday I went exploring in my mum
and dads loft and dug out a beeb an acorn tape deck and about 20  tapes and
I would like to backup these  relics of my childhood to new tape or PC hard
disk

I would also find very handy the pinouts or URL to the information for
making up a new tape lead with motor control 

I can then try out some less fragile alternative storage ideas like MP3 or
CD

I have been thinking that  it can't be that hard to trigger on old PC CD-ROM
drive to pause and resume  on command from the BBC using the motor control
on the tape interface a relay and the pause button on the drive  it could be
powered from the external power outlet underneath 
a CD can have 99 tracks  which should be ample for my software collection 

PS

I also managed to turn up a complete still sealed solution to KINGDOM OF
HAMIL 

and two oddities
Mr T's measuring game 
and the Dating Game.

any interest in any of the above and I dare say I can sort you out


PPS  to answer a question from a few days ago

many people had problems with non acorn tape decks because they all used
some circuitry that would normalise the sound level for recording to a level
that the tape deck manufacturer thought would cause the least tape
saturation/distortion from a multitude of sources such as microphones and
line input . The acorn deck did not need this because it was designed to
take input from a BBC that always produced its sound at a set volume. The
tape decks tone controls also had no affect on the output via the standard
BBC lead (only on speaker and ear phone output) all other decks had un-
defeatable tone controls that acted on all outputs.

Hence using high quality tape recorded direct from a BBC often produced a
higher quality recording of the program data than the mass produced cheap as
you like cassettes produced by the software distributors.  programmes on
poor quality cassettes could often be persuaded to load by adjusting the
azimuth of the tape head on the acorn deck, access to the screw to do this
could be gained by drilling out the tiny hole above the tape head and using
a standard Phillips electricians screw driver. 



Dave

 


David Gray
New Media Application Support Specialist
British Sky Broadcasting Ltd
West Cross House
West Cross Way
Brentford
TW8 9DG
020 7941 5661
07710 063549
david.gray@...



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