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Re: Many questions about cassette tapes



On Fri, 12 Aug 2011, Eric Rucker wrote:

On Thursday, August 11, 2011 8:37:51 PM UTC-4, D Finnigan wrote:
Not sure what you're asking here. The Apple either loads data into RAM from
a tape, or dumps a range of its memory back to tape.

Interestingly, there are ways to do more stupid computer tricks, just by loading into the right range of memory, and those tricks were used for various things, ranging from executing the program without having to do xxxxG in the monitor, all the way up to primitive copy protection schemes: http://www.fadden.com/techmisc/cassette-protect.htm


I created the tape image for INTLODR under Linux. With direct control of the file I used one of these dirty tricks: the "protect" bit is set, so it autoruns. (It's a binary program in a BASIC wrapper. This is rare on the Apple but common as hell on the C64, which is what the compression tool I used was intended for.)

-uso.