Atarimania Forum

Quite a few game dumps have been appearing on the site as cassette images recently (.cas files).

Does anyone have any comments about using this type of file?

deathtrappomegranate wrote:Quite a few game dumps have been appearing on the site as cassette images recently (.cas files).

Does anyone have any comments about using this type of file?

Yeah, the format is a nice idea but too nastalgic for me. Loading CAS files to an A8 is just as slow as using a genuine tape player. Perhaps the CAS format is far more reliable but waiting 20 minutes for a game to load now seems ridiculous 26 years after I loaded my first game with my Atari 800.


On the other hand, using CAS files with Atari800Win plus is a dream. They load reliably and instantly.

I was really disappointed the CAS Archive, a huge repository, shutdown before I could try out many games I have never seen (mostly from europe).

Fortunately, Atarimania's collection gets larger daily.

Phsstpok

phsstpok, I agree with everything that you said.

I don't think that many people want to use .cas files on real A8 hardware because they take sooooo long. Having recently acquired a large batch of cassette software, I know exactly where you're coming from!

Many cassette games are available elsewhere as executable files, but we have been trying to produce original cassette images wherever possible. The executables are often just RAM-dumps, missing loading screens and sometimes other portions of code, and we want to keep as close to the originals as possible.

Personally, I really like the .cas format, but I'm curious to know what others think.

Don't get me wrong. Ernest Shreurs did a great job with the CAS format and like I said the CAS format is quite enjoyable when used with an emulator.

When it comes to converting tape, well I was glad to recover anything at all of my own material. It was a pretty low percentage due to my using cheap, cheap tapes but I enjoyed seeing some of my old stuff.

I never owned many commercial games, 6 tapes I think. I managed to convert Galactic Chase and uploaded it here. I failed with Epyx's Crush, Crumble, and Chomp. Seems the BASIC program starts and stops the tape, something it can't do with CAS files. I also failed with Analog Software's Shooting Gallery. Don't know why I couldn't get that one to work . One problem is I don't own an Atari tape player any longer. I was recording the tapes to my PC and using WAV2CAS to convert. I couldn't test the original tapes so I don't know if they are good or not.

I spent hours and hours with just those two tapes. I can't imagine trying to convert a large collection. Good luck to you with your newly acquired collection!


Phsstpok

I've found that wav2cas is very sensitive to volume variations. I know what you mean about spending hours on a single tape. I've done that many times now.

Since cassettes were relatively unusual in the US, it's probably not surprising that you had so few. In the UK and Europe, cassettes were the de facto software format. That's partly because disk drives (and cartridges) were so much more expensive east of the Altantic, and partly because the most popular machines (Spectrum, C64, Amstrad CPC, etc) all had large user bases with cassette decks.

The primary use for the format will undoubtedly be with emulation. The complex instructions that accompany several of the dumps on the Atarimania site reflect that.

wav2cas still seems like a great resource to me, and it's very useful for the site.. We want to bring the old cassette software to places like the US, where much of this stuff wasn't readily available. Of course, very little of it is very readily available anywhere nowadays.

I don't mind spending hours trying to convert a single tape, if it's going to mean the preservation of a title that might otherwise be lost forever. Cassettes weren't designed to hold their data for 25+ years.

Hmmm, perhaps I should look at some of those instructions for certain CAS files. Might give me some pointers on recovering a couple more tapes.

Is anyone doing memory dumps of CAS loaded games?

That would be one way to see some of the tape content on real A8 hardware without the loading pains.

phsstpok wrote:Seems the BASIC program starts and stops the tape, something it can't do with CAS files.

In fact, that does happen with .cas files. It's one of the really nice aspects of the format that it allows you to use the file in just the same way that you would a cassette. OK, block numbers (in the emulator) rather than tape counter digits, but still with an authentic feel, IMO.