Re: Cassette port / CD-Rs

[Holger Picker <pickerh@uni-muenster.de>]

On 26 Feb 2003, Dosius wrote:

> Date: 26 Feb 2003 14:06:26 -0800
> From: Dosius <steve@dosius.zzn.com>
> Newsgroups: comp.emulators.apple2, comp.sys.apple2
> Subject: Re: Cassette port / CD-Rs
>
> Grape_Soda <notgonn@do.it> wrote in message news:<a95q5v4i8hb5mqmrd6ah413fk84qm7n2at@4ax.com>...
> > Is it possible to save the output from the cassette out jack onto a PC
> > and then burn it onto a CD so you can have perfect loads each time?
> > Better yet, are there any Apple emulators that can emulate the
> > cassette port, so a person could get absolutely perfect audio saves?
> > This would be good for backing up a good deal of file-based games onto
> > one CD... If anyone has had experience with this, let us all know!
> > When I get my new Apple, I plan on testing this out. If anyone can
> > contribute any information on specific nuances about the cassette
> > ports, I'd appreciate it as well.
> >
> > -Grape_Soda
>
> AOL.  If I knew how to operate the cassette port, Dapple would've had
> cassette I/O a long time ago.  I've forwarded this to csa2 in the
> hopes that we both may get some info.

Excuse me, please, for interrupting here. May I ask you, whether you plan to
save the files on the CD as a .WAV file (i.e. make it an audio-CD) or as
some binary file (make it a Joliet CD-Rom). If it's an audio-CD, the problem
would be to convert the binary stream to a .WAV file. If it's a CD-Rom how
would you read the binary file with an AppleII?
Converting the speaker/cassette output to a .WAV file is rather difficult.
In case you've ever listened to the sound emulators produce, you will have
noticed the flaws. The same would apply to the cassette port. IMO, Kegs32
has the best sound output; the algorithm found here uses quite a lot of
floating point calculations, IIRC. (I've only taken a short glance at the
source code.) IOW, even if the author(s) of Kegs would allow his/her/their
code to be used with other emulators, it might be difficult to transfer it
(e.g. to Dapple). Recording the binary stream sent out by the cassette port,
however, should not be that difficult, but then the question is how to send
it back to the AppleII and which recording format should be used.
IOW: AOL. If anyone has got some information about the cassette port, I'd
appreciate that, too.

> There is an alternative: Dapple 1.x should have a program called
> bin2pg2.  Extract a file from a disk image with some other utility and
> use bin2pg2 to re-add the header.  Dapple 1.x and Appler, however, are
> the only emulators I know which recognize that file format.
>
> -uso.
Why has the new Dapple][ no option to load binary files anymore? Might be an
idea for an improvement. ;-) (AFAIK, the emulator Apple2000 on the Amiga also
had a feature to load binary files directly into ram. Well, why not? :-) )

Holger