hi all, I just noticed that there is no way to attach a floppy drive into a MSX1 machine, ("expert11", "expert13"...)
Is there a way to do it ? I can't find any floppy devices in -listxml output or by using -listslots or -listmedia commands.
I used to have a "MSX 5,25" DISK DRIVE + INTERFACE DDX" unit connected to the cart1 slot in my old MSX1 machine (no floppy drive in that computer).
Thank you for any info.
Also, attaching a cassette device into the Atari800 machine (a800) still does not allow to load a cassette image (.cas) mame.exe a800 -sio cassette -cass "filename_fullpath.cas" or using the game name from a800_cass.xml list mame.exe a800 -sio cassette -cass zaxxon
It returns a "Fatal error: Device Cassette load failed: Invalid image" error, even though the file has the correct checksum based on "hash\a800_cass.xml" What am I missing ?
Maybe somebody with more info can come along and answer this better but...
It seems only certain MSX1 machines have floppy drives enabled in MAME. I have no idea which ones work well but at a glance try cf3300 or svi738. Unfortunately I don't have any of the MSX floppy software lists so I can't confirm this works.
For the Atari 8-bit, sadly it looks like nobody has given us cassette emulation yet. The driver looks to have a skeleton in place—hence the software list with only three items. (We also need ATX support for floppies. There's a mountain of software that could be added with ATX and cassette emulation.)
> Also, attaching a cassette device into the Atari800 machine (a800) still does not > allow to load a cassette image (.cas) > mame.exe a800 -sio cassette -cass "filename_fullpath.cas" > or using the game name from a800_cass.xml list > mame.exe a800 -sio cassette -cass zaxxon > > It returns a "Fatal error: Device Cassette load failed: Invalid image" error, even > though the file has the correct checksum based on "hash\a800_cass.xml" > What am I missing ?
If you look at the -listmedia when the -sio cassette is activated, you only get one extension available (.wav) format. All the softlist items, AFAIK, will not function due to being (.cas) format. Even if converted to (.wav), in my testing, cassette for Atari 400/800 family computers has never been fully implemented into MAME. Someday, maybe.
> If you look at the -listmedia when the -sio cassette is activated, you only get one > extension available (.wav) format. All the softlist items, AFAIK, will not function > due to being (.cas) format.
In case that anyone is wondering if dumping Atari 8-bit cassettes in ".CAS" format is enough for preserving them properly, the answer for many of them would be a clear no:
If the actual audio in these cassettes isn't being saved somewhere before the tapes self-destruct over the years, these games and programs will never end up being truly preserved.
Additionally, if you have any knowledge on how to achieve a universal cassette format that's more reliable than plain audio recordings and which hopefully allows to stack different recordings of the same tape, please join the conversation over at the #audio-cassettes channel in the Domesday Duplicator Discord server.
On my MSX1 days with games in cassette tapes, I moved all of them into floppy disks directly in the MSX computer. (a Brazilian MSX 1.1 Gradiente).
First, the game had to be loaded into the MSX's RAM with RUN"CAS:" but without the ,R parameter to actually run the game. Then I would simply type another command to save the data from RAM as a file, directly into a floppy disk (I don't remember the commands). It was the only way to convert the cassette game into a file. It was a BSAVE command with start/end memory addresses, I think. I don't remember exactly what it was (it was the late 80's).
I don't know how these .cas files in MAME we have today were converted.
> On my MSX1 days with games in cassette tapes, I moved all of them into floppy disks > directly in the MSX computer. (a Brazilian MSX 1.1 Gradiente). > > First, the game had to be loaded into the MSX's RAM with RUN"CAS:" but without the ,R > parameter to actually run the game. Then I would simply type another command to save > the data from RAM as a file, directly into a floppy disk (I don't remember the > commands). It was the only way to convert the cassette game into a file. > It was a BSAVE command with start/end memory addresses, I think. I don't remember > exactly what it was (it was the late 80's). > > I don't know how these .cas files in MAME we have today were converted.
CAS files for MSX don't support any non-standard loading schemes so, for the most part, they're just hacked releases which don't represent the real media where the originals came from. They don't even store the time between blocks and thus can't be used for preservation, as happened with the old Spectrum TAPs which were made obsolete by the TZX format.
There's a group of people that's redumping every MSX cassette they can get ahold of in TZX format (here renamed "TSX") which, even if it's not the ultimate preservation format, it's been proven to work for (almost?) all known cases in other systems, with no need for hacks.
There's someone currently working on adding this format to MAME's MSX core, by the way. Once it's done, someone from that team may be able to add all those dumps to the softlist (and hopefully replace any obsolete CAS dump with matching data).
> > different recordings of the same tape, please join the conversation over at the > > #audio-cassettes channel in the Domesday Duplicator Discord server. > > I've spent quite a while getting cassette interfaces working on various systems, > documenting in a spreadsheet how to save & load tapes, etc - and nobody's ever cared. > This would have to be the first time anyone's ever expressed concern.
Where have you posted this spreadsheet? To what lengths have you gone to promote it? Is this spreadsheet even meaningful if it comes down to just being able to load the old, hacky, crap dumps that other people made 20+ years ago?
You seem to be confusing the concept of "I can load these old, shitty dumps, good for me" with "perhaps there should be accurate, not-shitty dumps, good for everyone (and history)".
> There's someone currently working on adding this format to MAME's MSX core, by the > way. Once it's done, someone from that team may be able to add all those dumps to the > softlist (and hopefully replace any obsolete CAS dump with matching data).
TZX is just another cooked format that assumes tapes were always mastered with on-spec square waves. It’s going to discourage people from actually keeping good raw dumps (e.g. high-quality WAV dumps or any possible future flux dump format), and hence is bad for preservation.
> Why would you rather only keep CAS, which doesn't even support non-hacked games?
No, CAS is a worse format, but everyone knows that. No-one’s pretending CAS is a good format. If the alternatives are CAS and WAV, no-one is going to argue in favour of CAS with a straight face.
The problem with TSX is people are pretending it’s a perfect format for preservation when it isn’t. The even more insidious thing we’re likely to see is people presenting TSX-to-WAV conversions as legitimate.
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