3 ms·

How about a tape adapter? The ones we used in car stereos for audio input

s_gourichon 7y ago
TL;DR: Yes, good idea. I do that. I write software for Amstrad CPC in C using SDCC compiler (wow that even claims to supports C11 see http://sdcc.sourceforge.net/ http://sdcc.sourceforge.net/ ). I made a framework, available on https://github.com/cpcitor/ https://github.com/cpcitor/ , that was forked into https://github.com/lronaldo/cpctelera/ https://github.com/lronaldo/cpctelera/ used for a number of recent CPC games. When transferring from the jack output of my PC to a CPC-464, I use a "cassette jack adapter" that I bought second-hand for 1€. Faster and more reliable that going through a cassette. Even when transferring to a machine fitted with a disk drive (e.g. a CPC-6128) the audio cable option has the benefit of no moving part (no swapping disks, etc) and is thus faster than using a PC to write to a floppy disk to be read by the CPC. I use this cable: https://coolnovelties.co.uk/coolnovelties/amstrad-cpc-pcw/278-amstrad-cpc-6128-cassette-tape-recorder-cable.html https://coolnovelties.co.uk/coolnovelties/amstrad-cpc-pcw/27... . SD card readers exist for the CPC, and other ways to inject data from the PC, but nothing beats a 1-10€ adapter/cable, simplicity and cost-wise. Similar things exist for the Commodore 64, e.g. http://www.indieretronews.com/2014/09/ucassette-best-tape-loader-for-c64.html http://www.indieretronews.com/2014/09/ucassette-best-tape-lo... If you want to try my CPC software, it's on https://github.com/cpcitor/ https://github.com/cpcitor/ with a very easy "getting started" method (git clone, a few extremely common dependencies, scripts fetch and compile specific tools for you, up to an emulator if your compilator can compile a SDL program). Details on https://github.com/cpcitor/cpc-dev-tool-chain/blob/master/documentation/how_to_install.md https://github.com/cpcitor/cpc-dev-tool-chain/blob/master/do...
hunter2_ 7y ago
If the C64 playback head is stereo (or reads one of the L/R tracks and ignores the other), that would likely work. But in this video he mentioned how he suspected that his audio tape deck failed him (it definitely records in stereo) while the data recorder that ultimately worked might be mono (in which case it might record a single track, twice as wide). Magnetic tape doesn't inherently have tracks until you lay some down with a record head.

TL;DR: Yes, good idea. I do that. I write software for Amstrad CPC in C using SDCC compiler (wow that even claims to supports C11 see http://sdcc.sourceforge.net/ http://sdcc.sourceforge.net/ ). I made a framework, available on https://github.com/cpcitor/ https://github.com/cpcitor/ , that was forked into https://github.com/lronaldo/cpctelera/ https://github.com/lronaldo/cpctelera/ used for a number of recent CPC games. When transferring from the jack output of my PC to a CPC-464, I use a "cassette jack adapter" that I bought second-hand for 1€. Faster and more reliable that going through a cassette. Even when transferring to a machine fitted with a disk drive (e.g. a CPC-6128) the audio cable option has the benefit of no moving part (no swapping disks, etc) and is thus faster than using a PC to write to a floppy disk to be read by the CPC. I use this cable: https://coolnovelties.co.uk/coolnovelties/amstrad-cpc-pcw/278-amstrad-cpc-6128-cassette-tape-recorder-cable.html https://coolnovelties.co.uk/coolnovelties/amstrad-cpc-pcw/27... . SD card readers exist for the CPC, and other ways to inject data from the PC, but nothing beats a 1-10€ adapter/cable, simplicity and cost-wise. Similar things exist for the Commodore 64, e.g. http://www.indieretronews.com/2014/09/ucassette-best-tape-loader-for-c64.html http://www.indieretronews.com/2014/09/ucassette-best-tape-lo... If you want to try my CPC software, it's on https://github.com/cpcitor/ https://github.com/cpcitor/ with a very easy "getting started" method (git clone, a few extremely common dependencies, scripts fetch and compile specific tools for you, up to an emulator if your compilator can compile a SDL program). Details on https://github.com/cpcitor/cpc-dev-tool-chain/blob/master/documentation/how_to_install.md https://github.com/cpcitor/cpc-dev-tool-chain/blob/master/do...

hunter2_ 7y ago

If the C64 playback head is stereo (or reads one of the L/R tracks and ignores the other), that would likely work. But in this video he mentioned how he suspected that his audio tape deck failed him (it definitely records in stereo) while the data recorder that ultimately worked might be mono (in which case it might record a single track, twice as wide). Magnetic tape doesn't inherently have tracks until you lay some down with a record head.