Tape Audio: CFCH Haul

[Diminished]

So I went to this event at CFCH, for one reason specifically. Didn't even need to pay to get in, as the yearly pass I bought during the pandemic hasn't quite expired yet.

Exactly as I predicted, the museum themselves were flogging a huge cardboard box full of loose microcomputer tapes. I rummaged around in this box for five minutes and extracted 45 Acorn tapes.

I bought the lot for twenty quid. All of the audio is now on my google drive as lossless FLAC files (EDIT: a few files that were encoded using 32-bit floating point format remain for now as WAV files). I have also thrown in the other cassettes that I have previously digitised up to this point.

The intent behind this upload is to assist anyone else who is trying to develop software for transcribing recordings of Acorn cassettes. If you are trying to build such a tool, what you really need is sample audio. You need as much sample audio as you can possibly get, because when you make a change to your algorithm, you need to know how that change affects the widest possible range of inputs. This upload should provide a useful complement to the existing vanekp repository.

I have split the collection into two folders (EDIT: three folders): _easyFLAC, and _hardFLAC (EDIT: and _floatWAV). _easyFLAC contains about 100 files, which is everything that I was able to transcribe easily using Quadbike. _hardFLAC, meanwhile, contains a handful of files which proved much more stubborn. (EDIT: _floatWAV contains some WAV files in 32-bit floating point format, since these cannot be transcoded to FLAC without converting them to an integer format.)

There are probably a few interesting things here even if you're not trying to write transcription software. Manic Miner is of course uncracked, and so requires the colour coded chart in order to play (which I also have). Ultron (that's the Viper Software one, not the Audiogenic one), has an interesting copy protection system that keeps flipping between 300 and 1200 baud.

One other thing I found interesting was the existence of two different versions of Level 9's Snowball for MOSes 0.1 and 1.2.

Some tapes are sampled at 44100 Hz, others at 48000 Hz. They are all Beeb tapes unless explicitly marked as Electron. Most are stereo.

_easyFLAC:

• 10_Computer_Hits_2_[TapeA]_[Frenzy,_Smash_N_Grab,_Jet_Power_Jack,_Circus,_Videos_Revenge]_(Beau_Jolly)_SideLabel_[48K].flac
• 10_Computer_Hits_2_[TapeA]_[Frenzy,_Smash_N_Grab,_Jet_Power_Jack,_Circus,_Videos_Revenge]_(Beau_Jolly)_SideNoLabel_[48K].flac
• 747_[Colour_Inlay]_(Doctor_Soft)_Side1Keyboard_[48K].flac
• 747_[Colour_Inlay]_(Doctor_Soft)_Side2Joystick_[48K].flac
• 747_Flight_Simulator+Briefing_Programme_[Photocopied_Inlay]_(Doctor_Soft)_SideLabel_[48K].flac
• Airline_(Cases_Computer_Simulations)_SideModelA_[48K].flac
• Airline_(Cases_Computer_Simulations)_SideModelB_[48K].flac
• Animal_Vegetable_Mineral_(Bourne_Educational_Software)_SideLabel.flac
• Arcadians_(Acornsoft)_SideLabel.flac
• Aviator_(Acornsoft)_SideCornerRivets_[48K].flac
• Aviator_(Acornsoft)_SideNoCornerRivets_[48K].flac
• Bandits_At_3_O_Clock_(Program_Power)_SideLabel.flac
• BBC_Micro_User_1-3_SideLabel.flac
• Beeb-Art_(Quicksilva)_Side1Program.flac
• Beeb-Art_(Quicksilva)_Side2Examples.flac
• Beebug_4-9_March1986_Side1_[48K].flac
• Beebug_4-9_March1986_Side2_[48K].flac
• Beebug_6-2_June1987_Side1_[48K].flac
• Beebug_6-2_June1987_Side2_[48K].flac
• Beebug_7-1_May1988_Side1_[48K].flac
• Beebug_7-4_AugSept1988_Side1_[48K].flac
• Beebug_7-4_AugSept1988_Side2_[48K].flac
• Beebug_7-5_Oct1988_Side1_[48K].flac
• Beebug_7-5_Oct1988_Side2_[48K].flac
• Beebug_7-7_Dec1988_Side1_[48K].flac
• Beebug_7-7_Dec1988_Side2_[48K].flac
• Beebug_7-8_JanFeb1989_Side1_[48K].flac
• Beebug_7-9_March1989_Side1.flac
• Beebug_8-2_June1989_Side1_[48K].flac
• Beebug_8-2_June1989_Side2_[48K].flac
• Beebug_8-4_AugSept1989_Side1_[48K].flac
• Beebug_8-4_AugSept1989_Side2_[48K].flac
• Beebug_8-5_Oct1989_Side2_[48K].flac
• Beebug_8-6_Nov1989_Side1_[48K].flac
• Beebug_9-2_June90_Side1_[48K].flac
• Beebug_9-2_June90_Side2_[48K].flac
• Boxer_[Electron]_(Acornsoft)_SideA.flac
• Carousel_(Acornsoft)_SideLabel.flac
• Centipede_(Superior_Software)_SideCornerRivets.flac
• Centipede_(Superior_Software)_SideNoCornerRivets.flac
• Chuckie_Egg_(A+F)_SideLabel.flac
• Computer_Scrabble_(Leisure_Genius)_SideCutout.flac
• Computer_Scrabble_(Leisure_Genius)_SideNoCutout.flac
• Darts_(Blue_Ribbon)_SideBBC.flac
• Darts_(Blue_Ribbon)_SideElectron.flac
• Draughts_and_Reversi_(Acornsoft)_SideLabel.flac
• Drogna_(Acornsoft)_SideCornerRivets.flac
• Drogna_(Acornsoft)_SideNoCornerRivets.flac
• Duck_(Firebird)_SideCornerRivets.flac
• Duck_(Firebird)_SideNoCornerRivets.flac
• Escape_From_Moonbase_Alpha_(Program_Power)_SideLabel.flac
• Felix_in_the_Factory_(Program_Power)_SideLabel_[48K].flac
• Five_Star_Games_Tape_1_[BBC]_[Geoff_Capes,_Death_Star]_(Beau_Jolly)_SideLabel.flac
• Five_Star_Games_Tape_1_[BBC]_[Geoff_Capes,_Death_Star]_(Beau_Jolly)_SideNoLabel.flac
• Five_Star_Games_Tape_1_[Electron]_[Geoff_Capes,_Death_Star]_(Beau_Jolly)_SideLabel.flac
• Five_Star_Games_Tape_1_[Electron]_[Geoff_Capes,_Death_Star]_(Beau_Jolly)_SideNoLabel.flac
• Five_Star_Games_Tape_2_[BBC]_[Twin_Kingdom_Valley,_Repton,_Combat_Lynx]_(Beau_Jolly)_SideLabel.flac
• Five_Star_Games_Tape_2_[BBC]_[Twin_Kingdom_Valley,_Repton,_Combat_Lynx]_(Beau_Jolly)_SideNoLabel.flac
• Gisburnes_Castle_(Martech)_SideBBC.flac
• Gisburnes_Castle_(Martech)_SideElectron.flac
• Graphics_(Acorn_User)_SideBBC.flac
• Graphics_(Acorn_User)_SideElectron.flac
• Great_Britain_Limited_(Simon_W_Hessel_Software)_SideLabel_[48K].flac
• Happy_Numbers_(Bourne_Educational_Software)_SideLabel_[48K].flac
• Hopper_(Acornsoft)_SideCutout.flac
• Hopper_(Acornsoft)_SideNoCutout.flac
• Hunchback_(Superior_Software)_SideCornerRivets.flac
• Hunchback_(Superior_Software)_SideNoCornerRivets.flac
• JCB_Digger_(Acornsoft)_SideLabel.flac
• JCB_Digger_(Acornsoft)_SideNoLabel.flac
• Manic_Miner_(Software_Projects)_SideCutout.flac
• Manic_Miner_(Software_Projects)_SideNoCutout.flac
• Missile_Base_(Acornsoft)_SideLabel.flac
• Moonraider_(Program_Power)_SideLabel_[48K].flac
• Mr._Wiz_(Superior_Software)_SideLabel.flac
• Mr._Wiz_(Superior_Software)_SideNoLabel.flac
• Munchyman_(Program_Power)_SideScrews.flac
• MusicProcessor_(Quicksilva)_SideExamples_[48K].flac
• MusicProcessor_(Quicksilva)_SideProgram.flac
• Neanderthal_Man_(Alligata)_SideLabel.flac
• Nightmare_Maze_(Blue_Ribbon)_SideCutout.flac
• Nightmare_Maze_(Blue_Ribbon)_SideNoCutout.flac
• Night_Strike_[Electron]_(Alternative_Software)_SideLabel.flac
• Play_It_Again_Sam_(Superior_Software)_[Ravenskull,_Strykers_Run].flac
• Pro_Golf_(Atlantis)_SideLabel.flac
• Pro_Golf_(Atlantis)_SideNoLabel.flac
• Snowball_(Level_9)_SideMOS0-1.flac
• Snowball_(Level_9)_SideMOS1-2.flac
• Spacemaze_(Program_Power)_SideScrews.flac
• Starmaze_2_(Mastertronic)_SideCutout.flac
• Starmaze_2_(Mastertronic)_SideNoCutout.flac
• Starship_Command_(Acornsoft)_SideLabel_[48K].flac
• The_Hacker_(Firebird)_SideCornerRivets.flac
• The_Hacker_(Firebird)_SideNoCornerRivets.flac
• Ultron_(Viper)_SidePrinted_[48K].flac
• Unlabelled_[Repton_3]_SideB.flac
• Unlabelled_[Savage_Pond,_Citadel,_Exile]_SideA.flac

_hardFLAC:

• Beebug_7-1_May1988_Side2_[48K].flac
• Beebug_7-8_JanFeb1989_Side2_[48K].flac
• Beebug_7-9_March1989_Side1_[48K].flac
• Beebug_7-9_March1989_Side2_[48K].flac
• Beebug_8-5_Oct1989_Side1_[48K].flac
• Beebug_8-6_Nov1989_Side2_[48K].flac
• Spacemaze_(Program_Power)_SideNoScrews_[48K].flac

EDIT: _floatWAV:

• Beebug_5-5_Oct1986_Side1_[float].wav
• Beebug_5-5_Oct1986_Side2_[float].wav
• Boxer_[Electron]_(Acornsoft)_SideB_[float].wav
• Desk_Diary_[Electron]_(Acornsoft)_SideA_[float].wav
• Desk_Diary_[Electron]_(Acornsoft)_SideB_[float].wav
• Introductory_Cassette_[Electron]_(Acornsoft)_SideA_[float].wav
• Introductory_Cassette_[Electron]_(Acornsoft)_SideB_[float].wav
• mystery_tape_[Agfa_LNX_60]_SideA_[48K_float].wav
• mystery_tape_[Agfa_LNX_60]_SideB_[48K_float].wav
• Snapper_[Electron]_(Acornsoft)_SideA_[float].wav
• Snapper_[Electron]_(Acornsoft)_SideB_[float].wav
• Sphinx_Adventure_[Electron]_(Acornsoft)_SideA_[float].wav
• Sphinx_Adventure_[Electron]_(Acornsoft)_SideB_[float].wav

[BigEd]

A great resource, thanks for doing all the work!

[vanekp]

Thanks for sharing the raw sound files for these, much appreciated.

[Diminished]

Further to the above, I noticed today that a few of the recordings I had made did not actually get converted to FLAC, and so they were missed out of the upload.

It turns out that FLAC will not transcode WAVs in 32-bit floating-point format, which was used on a handful of files. Fascinatingly, nearly all of the WAVs that I saved in 32-bit floating point format are very well-behaved ones. I have had absolutely no trouble transcribing these at any stage of Quadbike's development, even with the nasty v1 codebase. This makes me wonder whether libsndfile (which I am using for audio decoding) is actually decoding 16-bit integer WAVs correctly. Either way, there is a possible lesson here that sampling in 24-bit rather than 16 and exporting as 32-bit float might be a good idea. That is a timely piece of information given that I am currently trying to write QB's documentation. (QB is all 32-bit float internally. Up until I added SIMD support, it was all 64-bit float internally!)

Anyway, I just uploaded these WAVs as they are, rather than messing about trying to downgrade them, so there's now a third folder: _floatWAV.

I will update the first post with the contents of this folder.

[Diminished]

I just had a very brief look at that Ultron protection ...

It seems four of the main program tape blocks are at 300 baud, with the rest at 1200 baud. Speculatively decoding one of the 300 baud blocks yields what looks like standard 8N1.

Decoding it to bytes gives me something like

Code: Select all

00000000  2a 55 4c 54 52 4f 4e 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |*ULTRON.........|
00000010  27 00 00 01 01 28 43 29  53 e2 4d 46 5b 5c 5a 5d  |'....(C)S?MF[\Z]|
00000020  4b 5c 41 47 46 5b 12 08  7d 5b 4d 08 43 4d 51 5b  |K\AGF[..}[M.CMQ[|
00000030  08 72 05 44 4d 4e 5c 08  70 05 5a 41 4f 40 5c 08  |.r.DMN\.p.ZAO@\.|
00000040  7a 6d 7c 7d 7a 66 05 4e  41 5a 4d 08 08 08 08 6c  |zm|}zf.NAZM....l|
00000050  4d 5b 5c 5a 47 51 08 49  44 44 08 5f 49 5e 4d 5b  |M[\ZGQ.IDD._I^M[|
00000060  08 47 4e 08 49 44 41 4d  46 5b 08 49 46 4c 08 49  |.GN.IDAMF[.IFL.I|
00000070  5e 47 41 4c 08 47 5a 08  4c 4d 5b 5c 5a 47 51 08  |^GAL.GZ.LM[\ZGQ.|
00000080  5c 40 4d 08 49 5b 5c 4d  5a 47 41 4c 5b 04 08 5c  |\@M.I[\MZGAL[..\|
00000090  40 4d 46 08 4c 47 4b 43  08 5f 41 5c 40 08 5c 40  |@MF.LGKC._A\@.\@|
000000a0  4d 08 45 47 5c 40 4d 5a  5b 40 41 58 06 08 08 08  |M.EG\@MZ[@AX....|
000000b0  08 08 08 08 08 08 08 08  08 08 08 08 08 08 08 08  |................|
000000c0  08 08 08 08 08 08 08 08  08 08 08 08 08 08 08 7e  |...............~|
000000d0  41 58 4d 5a 08 7d 64 7c  7a 67 66 08 08 08 08 08  |AXMZ.}d|zgf.....|
000000e0  08 08 08 08 08 08 08 08  08 08 08 08 08 08 08 08  |................|
000000f0  08 08 08 08 08 08 08 08  08 08 08 08 08 25 2e 2a  |.............%.*|
00000100  2b 2d 29 2d 2b 2a 2e 2f  28 28 28 28 28 28 28 28  |+-)-+*./((((((((|
00000110  28 28 34 28 35 3b 28 24  32 3c d7 7a              |((4(5;($2<?z|

The header of the block kind of resembles a standard MOS CFS header, but the body of the block looks encoded somehow. Well, there are a lot of &08 bytes in there. What happens if we XOR it with &8?

Code: Select all

00000000  22 5d 44 5c 5a 47 46 08  08 08 08 08 08 08 08 08  |"]D\ZGF.........|
00000010  2f 08 08 09 09 20 4b 21  5b ea 45 4e 53 54 52 55  |/.... K![?ENSTRU|
00000020  43 54 49 4f 4e 53 1a 00  75 53 45 00 4b 45 59 53  |CTIONS..uSE.KEYS|
00000030  00 7a 0d 4c 45 46 54 00  78 0d 52 49 47 48 54 00  |.z.LEFT.x.RIGHT.|
00000040  72 65 74 75 72 6e 0d 46  49 52 45 00 00 00 00 64  |return.FIRE....d|
00000050  45 53 54 52 4f 59 00 41  4c 4c 00 57 41 56 45 53  |ESTROY.ALL.WAVES|
00000060  00 4f 46 00 41 4c 49 45  4e 53 00 41 4e 44 00 41  |.OF.ALIENS.AND.A|
00000070  56 4f 49 44 00 4f 52 00  44 45 53 54 52 4f 59 00  |VOID.OR.DESTROY.|
00000080  54 48 45 00 41 53 54 45  52 4f 49 44 53 0c 00 54  |THE.ASTEROIDS..T|
00000090  48 45 4e 00 44 4f 43 4b  00 57 49 54 48 00 54 48  |HEN.DOCK.WITH.TH|
000000a0  45 00 4d 4f 54 48 45 52  53 48 49 50 0e 00 00 00  |E.MOTHERSHIP....|
000000b0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
000000c0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 76  |...............v|
000000d0  49 50 45 52 00 75 6c 74  72 6f 6e 00 00 00 00 00  |IPER.ultron.....|
000000e0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
000000f0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 2d 26 22  |.............-&"|
00000100  23 25 21 25 23 22 26 27  20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20  |#%!%#"&'        |
00000110  20 20 3c 20 3d 33 20 2c  3a 34 df 72              |  < =3 ,:4?r|

Yeah, that looks better. The capitalisation looks inverted, though. How about XOR &28?

Code: Select all

00000000  02 7d 64 7c 7a 67 66 28  28 28 28 28 28 28 28 28  |.}d|zgf(((((((((|
00000010  0f 28 28 29 29 00 6b 01  7b ca 65 6e 73 74 72 75  |.(()).k.{?enstru|
00000020  63 74 69 6f 6e 73 3a 20  55 73 65 20 6b 65 79 73  |ctions: Use keys|
00000030  20 5a 2d 6c 65 66 74 20  58 2d 72 69 67 68 74 20  | Z-left X-right |
00000040  52 45 54 55 52 4e 2d 66  69 72 65 20 20 20 20 44  |RETURN-fire    D|
00000050  65 73 74 72 6f 79 20 61  6c 6c 20 77 61 76 65 73  |estroy all waves|
00000060  20 6f 66 20 61 6c 69 65  6e 73 20 61 6e 64 20 61  | of aliens and a|
00000070  76 6f 69 64 20 6f 72 20  64 65 73 74 72 6f 79 20  |void or destroy |
00000080  74 68 65 20 61 73 74 65  72 6f 69 64 73 2c 20 74  |the asteroids, t|
00000090  68 65 6e 20 64 6f 63 6b  20 77 69 74 68 20 74 68  |hen dock with th|
000000a0  65 20 6d 6f 74 68 65 72  73 68 69 70 2e 20 20 20  |e mothership.   |
000000b0  20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20  20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20  |                |
000000c0  20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20  20 20 20 20 20 20 20 56  |               V|
000000d0  69 70 65 72 20 55 4c 54  52 4f 4e 20 20 20 20 20  |iper ULTRON     |
000000e0  20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20  20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20  |                |
000000f0  20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20  20 20 20 20 20 0d 06 02  |             ...|
00000100  03 05 01 05 03 02 06 07  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000110  00 00 1c 00 1d 13 00 0c  1a 14 ff 52              |..........?R|

Close enough. Doesn't look like it's a Kevin Edwards protection masterpiece or anything.

Still, I don't know of another title that does 300/1200 switching on-the-fly.

[vanekp]

The only other game I know of that does baud rate switching is Doctor who and the mines of terror.
in data blocks just before each main file.

[fuzzel]

One other thing I found interesting was the existence of two different versions of Level 9's Snowball for MOSes 0.1 and 1.2.

[*]Snowball_(Level_9)_SideMOS0-1.flac
[*]Snowball_(Level_9)_SideMOS1-2.flac

Could someone create uef files from these two versions of Snowball please? I'm interested to see the differences in the code.

[Diminished]

Could someone create uef files from these two versions of Snowball please? I'm interested to see the differences in the code.

Sure, I'll see what I can do.

[Diminished]

Here you go.

I am a tiny bit suspicious, because the MOS 1.2 version seems to start up OK in b-em configured for MOS 0.1 mode. Having said that, I do think I see some differences between the versions, but then I don't entirely trust my tools or my process. I'll keep quiet for now, so as not to spoil the fun.

I haven't put up TIBET files, because the format's now been updated to v0.3, and the old tibetuef.php script I posted on stardot won't load them right now, so there's not much point.

See what you think.

[fuzzel]

Excellent thanks, will take a look. I'm not familiar with OS 0.1, the precursor to 1.2. Does anyone know when Acorn made the switch?

[fuzzel]

Hmm, I've tried loading the UEF in Beebem but it's failing to load one of the files. And when I try to load it in B-Em it loads successfully but when I try to save each file onto a newly created disc after about four of the files have saved I get a disc error (this has happened twice with different newly minted discs). I'll try to create a disc in Beebem and load it into B-Em and see if that works.

[Diminished]

Hmm, I've tried loading the UEF in Beebem but it's failing to load one of the files.

BeebEm was the one emulator I didn't test in.

May be a problem with tibetuef.php. More work for me, I guess. You could try feeding the CSWs to MakeUEF, and seeing if that produces better UEFs.

Tape is such a mess at the moment.

[fuzzel]

I've managed to save the main program file SNOBAL2 for both OS's and DUMPed them to text files then imported them into excel side by side for comparison. They look identical to me.

[TobyLobster]

Excellent thanks, will take a look. I'm not familiar with OS 0.1, the precursor to 1.2. Does anyone know when Acorn made the switch?

I don't have official dates, but as far as I can tell from various magazine reporting etc, MOS 1.2 came out circa March 1983, as a swift update to MOS 1.00 (~December 1982) with MOS 0.1 being December 1981.

See the side menu here for more details: https://tobylobster.github.io/mos/index.html

[Diminished]

Six files on the tape (this from B-em):

Code: Select all

SNOWBALL      Size 00FF Load 00002000 Run 00002000
SNOWBAL       Size 04FF Load 00002000 Run 00002000
SNOW1         Size 007F Load 00002000 Run 00000900
SNOBAL1       Size 0A0F Load 00002970 Run 00002970
SNOBAL2       Size 65FF Load 00001600 Run 00007320
SNOBAL3       Size 07FF Load 00001180 Run 00007320

I see a couple of differences in the first two files SNOWBALL and SNOWBAL, but I don't think they have any significance.

SNOWBALL looks to be a three-line BASIC program. It only seems to be about 32 bytes long, but the size of the file on tape is one entire block, which is 256 bytes. As a result, there seem to be about 224 bytes of junk in the file after the end of the BASIC program. That junk differs between the two versions.

The OS 0.1 version has

Code: Select all

00000020  ff 02 39 02 93 08 11 03  b9 03 11 04 b9 04 14 0d  |..9.............|
00000030  ba 0d 14 0e ba 0e 13 0a  11 07 37 07 b9 07 14 10  |..........7.....|
00000040  ba 10 17 0c 14 11 ba 11  93 10 11 0b b9 0b 14 14  |................|
00000050  ba 14 14 15 ba 15 11 0e  b9 0e 93 12 97 12 14 16  |................|
00000060  ba 16 14 1a aa 1a aa 18  aa 19 aa 20 89 26 09 26  |........... .&.&|
00000070  9b a1 89 26 09 26 11 9c  bb 9c 99 26 09 26 9b 27  |...&.&.....&.&.'|
00000080  89 26 09 26 db 24 aa ff  af 22 a1 21 f1 2e 99 25  |.&.&.$...".!...%|
00000090  9a 28 9a 2d 92 2a 95 2c  98 29 96 2b 11 2a 13 2c  |.(.-.*.,.).+.*.,|
000000a0  14 2b 97 29 dc 25 bc 1c  99 2f ec 24 9c 31 1a 3a  |.+.).%.../.$.1.:|
000000b0  91 34 0a 37 91 35 91 33  93 37 44 3f 6b 3f 93 38  |.4.7.5.3.7D?k?.8|
000000c0  93 39 93 3a 93 3b 93 36  c9 33 99 3c 99 3d b9 3e  |.9.:.;.6.3.<.=.>|
000000d0  b9 3f 99 40 03 45 07 46  54 3f fb 3f 94 42 93 45  |.?.@.E.FT?.?.B.E|
000000e0  93 46 93 44 51 46 fc 46  54 45 fc 45 11 47 99 49  |.F.DQF.FTE.E.G.I|
000000f0  14 48 99 4a 33 4b 54 98  91 4d 33 4c 51 99 94     |.H.J3KT..M3LQ..|

The OS 1.2 version has

Code: Select all

00000020  ff 29 3d 21 28 90 2b 26  31 30 30 2b 49 25 29 3a  |.)=!(.+&100+I%):|
00000030  ed 0d 00 0c 13 ef 32 38  2c 31 35 2c 31 35 2c 33  |......28,15,15,3|
00000040  34 2c 31 33 0d 00 14 26  e2 20 31 2c 31 2c 30 2c  |4,13...&. 1,1,0,|
00000050  30 2c 30 2c 30 2c 30 2c  30 2c 31 30 2c 2d 32 2c  |0,0,0,0,0,10,-2,|
00000060  30 2c 2d 31 2c 37 30 2c  34 30 0d 00 19 29 20 e2  |0,-1,70,40...) .|
00000070  20 32 2c 31 2c 30 2c 30  2c 30 2c 30 2c 30 2c 30  | 2,1,0,0,0,0,0,0|
00000080  2c 32 30 2c 2d 33 2c 2d  33 2c 2d 33 2c 31 30 30  |,20,-3,-3,-3,100|
00000090  2c 36 30 0d 00 1e 13 2a  4c 4f 41 44 20 53 4e 4f  |,60....*LOAD SNO|
000000a0  57 31 20 39 30 30 0d 00  23 15 2a 4c 4f 41 44 20  |W1 900..#.*LOAD |
000000b0  53 4e 4f 42 41 4c 31 20  39 37 30 0d 00 24 09 d6  |SNOBAL1 970..$..|
000000c0  26 39 37 30 0d 00 25 09  d6 26 39 37 46 0d 00 28  |&970..%..&97F..(|
000000d0  09 d6 26 39 30 30 0d ff  20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20  |..&900..        |
000000e0  20 20 20 20 20 31 32 29  3b 22 45 6e 64 69 22 6f  |     12);"Endi"o|
000000f0  64 61 79 73 5f 64 61 74  65 24 00 ff 20 10 0a     |days_date$.. ..|

It's a similar state of affairs with the second file SNOWBAL. This also starts with a BASIC program. They seem to have allocated 256 bytes for the BASIC, and then there is some data after this which is copied into video RAM to display the "Level9" Teletext banner. However, the BASIC does not quite fill up the whole 256 bytes that have been reserved for it. This means that again there is some junk after the BASIC, but before the data.

OS 0.1:

Code: Select all

-000000d0  09 d6 26 39 30 30 0d ff  54 3f fb 3f 94 42 93 45  |..&900..T?.?.B.E|
-000000e0  93 46 93 44 51 46 fc 46  54 45 fc 45 11 47 99 49  |.F.DQF.FTE.E.G.I|
-000000f0  14 48 99 4a 33 4b 54 98  91 4d 33 4c 51 99 94 50  |.H.J3KT..M3LQ..P|

OS 1.2:

Code: Select all

+000000d0  09 d6 26 39 30 30 0d ff  20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20  |..&900..        |
+000000e0  20 20 20 20 20 31 32 29  3b 22 45 6e 64 69 22 6f  |     12);"Endi"o|
+000000f0  64 61 79 73 5f 64 61 74  65 24 00 ff 20 10 0a 31  |days_date$.. ..1|

Apart from junk data that doesn't matter, I think that these two versions are actually identical.

How disappointing!

[Coeus]

Apart from junk data that doesn't matter, I think that these two versions are actually identical.

Wasn't there a tape bug in OS 0.1? Or was it a work-around for a hardware issue that was introduced in a later version of the OS than 0.1? If this is the difference it may be that it doesn't show when the files have been extracted. I'll do a search and see what I can find.

EDIT: Looks like I may be teaching a grandmother to suck eggs. The bug is mentioned in viewtopic.php?f=12&t=22846&p=369253&hil ... ug#p369253

[Diminished]

Apart from junk data that doesn't matter, I think that these two versions are actually identical.

Wasn't there a tape bug in OS 0.1? Or was it a work-around for a hardware issue that was introduced in a later version of the OS than 0.1? If this is the difference it may be that it doesn't show when the files have been extracted. I'll do a search and see what I can find.

EDIT: Looks like I may be teaching a grandmother to suck eggs. The bug is mentioned in viewtopic.php?f=12&t=22846&p=369253&hil ... ug#p369253

Well, yes, and no. I think the information I gave in that post is wrong -- I've been learning as I go. I don't know where the "squawks" (or "security cycles" as UEF calls them) on tapes actually come from, but it doesn't matter.

I lived through the 0.1 CFS bug -- it only affects files when saved. Something to do with having to flush out the ACIA when its divider value is changed, otherwise the first byte that it emits is rubbish? I'm pretty sure it wouldn't make any difference here. Nevertheless, perhaps you're right and there was some paranoia-fuelled change to how the two copies were written. It wouldn't be too difficult to compare the two tapes at the tone cycle level by generating TIBET files from both of them and then doing some light text processing and diffing on the TIBET files. I'm pretty busy right now though. I desperately want to get Quadbike 2 finished, and the documentation is taking ages.

There was a little bit more on the CFS bug in this thread, particularly TobyLobster's post here.

[vanekp]

these wav files may be of interest to you, they are online from Acorn User tapes some of them are borderline so maybe a good test case for quidbike

[Diminished]

these wav files may be of interest to you, they are online from Acorn User tapes some of them are borderline so maybe a good test case for quidbike :wink:

Excellent -- I'll add them to my testing repository.

Thanks.

[Fraser]

What set up do folk use for recording a cassette? Recently I have used a cable from my Acorn ANF03 DIN to both left and right on the blue socket on my PC. Using GoldWave this works but when I had it on only the left channel there was some strange results.

MakeUEF V2.4 is not far from done now. Does anyone use waveInGetDevCaps? The blue socket typically seems be given id 0 by Windows but choosing the correct id is not easy.

[vanekp]

What set up do folk use for recording a cassette? Recently I have used a cable from my Acorn ANF03 DIN to both left and right on the blue socket on my PC. Using GoldWave this works but when I had it on only the left channel there was some strange results.

MakeUEF V2.4 is not far from done now. Does anyone use waveInGetDevCaps? The blue socket typically seems be given id 0 by Windows but choosing the correct id is not easy.

I only ever use the mic input to capture audio from BBC tapes, and good new that ver 2.4 is almost done, looking forward to it.

[Diminished]

MakeUEF V2.4 is not far from done now.

Hi Fraser,

I think I'm seeing a bug in MakeUEF 2.3, which might be worth looking at before 2.4 arrives. I've attached a ZIP with some goodies. I wasn't sure where else to post this, so I hope you see it.

Starting from the wav 10ch-48K.wav, I created the CSW file 10ch-48K.csw, then UEFed it to 10ch-48K.uef using MakeUEF 2.3.

The problem is that the first block in this UEF is invisible to many emulators and other tools that deal with UEF, even though there is a valid chunk for that block.

In the log, there is this:

Code: Select all

Carrier tone with standard dummy byte written.
Length before dummy byte is 14261 waves.
Length after dummy byte is 12153 waves.

Gunzipping the UEF to uefbug/10ch-48K-unzipped.uef and examining it, the dummy byte chunk appears at offset &69 in the file:

Code: Select all

11 01 04 00 00 00 b5 37 00 00

Chunk type is &111, length &4. The "pre-dummy-byte" length &37b5 matches what is written in the log -- 14261 cycles. However, the "post-dummy-byte" length is zero for some reason, rather than the 12153 bytes mentioned in the log. In terms of the bytestream that the UEF represents, this zero-length gap seems to be causing the &AA dummy byte to nestle in immediately before the &2A sync byte, causing MOS to miss the start of the block.

Perhaps you're aware of this bug already, but I wanted to mention it to give you a chance to fix it in 2.4.

[vanekp]

This is a bug that I have reported in makeuef it messes up on the 0111 chunk it drops 2 bits so the dummy bites end up pushed up against the data block messing up the 1st block and I think he is aware of it and has fixed it in the next release of makeuef.
viewtopic.php?p=251150#p251150
viewtopic.php?p=238958#p238958
up until now I have been manually patching every uef file that uses the 0111 chunk in it

[Fraser]

A new version is ready. A few bugs appeared while doing final testing. I've updated the Atom format description at BeebWiki and added a bit to the BBC one. I haven't seen Thomas Harte who maintains the UEF format on this forum for a year or so.

[Fraser]

Does anyone ever hear any beeps from MakeUEF? I don't seem to be able to get anything from the motherboard speaker while using Windows.

[vanekp]

Does anyone ever hear any beeps from MakeUEF? I don't seem to be able to get anything from the motherboard speaker while using Windows.

Yes it does beep and it comes through my sound card like when you get "POSSIBLE DROPOUT" error messages and you normally get the message at the end "Note possibly hiss were written as readable waves.".

[Fraser]

I have made a download link for MakeUEF 2.4. I am planning to get it hosted somewhere permanently.

https://we.tl/t-EaHLs9OLuI

[vanekp]

Thanks Fraser, I will have a look at it A.S.A.P..

I have made a download link for MakeUEF 2.4. I am planning to get it hosted somewhere permanently.

https://we.tl/t-EaHLs9OLuI

[vanekp]

if I run makeUEF (32 or 64 bit) from a command prompt it throws up a error complaining about CC64270MT.dll

I have made a download link for MakeUEF 2.4. I am planning to get it hosted somewhere permanently.

https://we.tl/t-EaHLs9OLuI

[Fraser]

Have you followed the installation instructions on page 1 of the manual?