Gridrunner(Vic-20) - Need help converting and running .tap

mojofltr · Post by **mojofltr** » Sun Jan 02, 2005 6:36 am 0

I recently bought a Commodore Vic-20 so that I might be able to play some of the Yak's earlier Llamasoft titles. I have never owned or even used a Vic-20 before, so I'm a bit confused how I should go about getting the tape games running.

I downloaded the Gridrunner .tap file and converted it to .wav using audiotap v1.2 (Default settings 44100Hz, volume 254). The wavefile ended up being 3:35. Using Winamp and a cable, I copied the .wav to an audiocassette. I put the audiocassette into my Vic-20's cassette drive, and typed in: Load"*",1 . This gave me the press play on tape message. I pushed play; it returned Searching for *. I waited for the audio to play in its entirety, but nothing else happened.

Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong? I have checked the audio cassette and it recorded nice and loud. Does audiotap not work with Vic-20 .tap files? I do have a 32k memory cart, but I read here that Gridrunner doesn't need the extra memory(?), so I haven't had it plugged in while playing the tape.

A couple of ideas that were offered in another forum:
Clean the tapeheads.
Use shorter tapes (I'm currently using a 90 minute cassette).
Yak's games were probably written for a PAL Vic-20 and might not work with an NTSC system.

I'm so lost. I wanted to check here before I messed with it any further. Thanks in advance for any help.

moobaa · Post by **moobaa** » Sun Jan 02, 2005 7:31 am 0

Knowing nothing about the VIC-20, all I can do is offer a fluffy greeting:

So Welcome to the Furom, mojofltr

psychorob · Post by **psychorob** » Sun Jan 02, 2005 7:46 am 0

Welcome mojofltr

Have a fluffy time

You don't need to put in an asterix to make it look for anything and everything on the tape just typing in

Code: Select all

Load ""

is enough, at the moment it's searching the tape for a program called * which i don't think it will find.

Hope this helpful to you.

Cheers

Rob

mojofltr · Post by **mojofltr** » Sun Jan 02, 2005 9:21 am 0

Thanks for the warm fluffy welcomes!

I've lurked around these forums a bit and even registered once before, but my account was closed due to inactivity.

I'm a classic video game fanatic. In the last few years I have become quite fond of the Yak's work. When I learned about Unity, I started to consider purchasing a Gamecube. It's a real bummer that it got canned, but I'm optimistic and look forward to following Yak's work in the future.

@Psychorob: I tried your suggestion. The audio played through and afterwards I got a new message:

Searching
Found /some random garble/
?out of memory
error
ready.

This doesn't look good.

I'm hoping that the error will shed some more light on my problem. Is it possible that Gridrunner needs my memory cart after all?

Thanks again for your help!

Lester M Fong · Post by **Lester M Fong** » Sun Jan 02, 2005 11:40 am 0

Gridrunner definitely works on an unexpanded VIC, and a PAL game should at least load okay...

It might be worth picking up any old real VIC tape to see whether it's the tape deck or your transfer attempt... does your model of datasette have a small hole somewhere just above the row of buttons?

moobaa · Post by **moobaa** » Sun Jan 02, 2005 1:28 pm 0

mojofltr wrote:Found [/color]/some random garble/
?out of memory
error
ready.

Ah. That seems to me to be an indication of a bad audio transfer...

...OR of a dud datasette. You could try tweaking the azimuth thingy, I guess...

Mayhem · Post by **Mayhem** » Sun Jan 02, 2005 1:42 pm 0

Exactly what Moobaa said. In fact I'd bet money on it being a bad audio transfer. Doing it the route you mentioned is notorious for being prone to bad noise, pickup and the such like. You really need a setup that operates on Markus Brenner's MTAP format...

http://markus.brenner.de/

I have that here and I can make TAPs at will from my tapes (well apart from the ones which are too weak to even load on a real Vic20 now sadly). Can't see why I wouldn't be able to run PTAP to transfer them back to a proper tape.

But if you fancy doing it yourself, you can search out and order the parts you need. It's a much better way than WAV. Or I could have a go if (and that's a big IF given I'm supremely busy a lot of the time) so desired (I use the X1531 connector btw, picked up a cheap C16 tape deck from eBay off Stephen Ruddy of all people [he did the C64 conversions of Bubble Bubble, Bionic Commandoes etc for Software Creations].).

Lloyd Mangram · Post by **Lloyd Mangram** » Sun Jan 02, 2005 7:05 pm 0

Slightly off-topic, but does anyone know what has happened to the Vic-20 'Denial' forums? From the appearance, it looks like that virus has hit it?

Mayhem · Post by **Mayhem** » Sun Jan 02, 2005 7:40 pm 0

You mean @ http://sleepingelephant.com/denial/ ?

Just been there... seems fine to me.

Lloyd Mangram · Post by **Lloyd Mangram** » Sun Jan 02, 2005 8:48 pm 0

Mayhem wrote:You mean @ http://sleepingelephant.com/denial/ ?

Just been there... seems fine to me.

Hmm - When I look at the forum main page, there are no sections?

PVB · Post by **PVB** » Sun Jan 02, 2005 9:11 pm 0

Lloyd Mangram wrote:
Mayhem wrote:You mean @ http://sleepingelephant.com/denial/ ?

Just been there... seems fine to me.
Hmm - When I look at the forum main page, there are no sections?

I get that too.

Mayhem · Post by **Mayhem** » Sun Jan 02, 2005 11:12 pm 0

Ah... do you have a login there? I think you get nothing if you aren't registered and logged in (I use a cookie for the site).

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Mon Jan 03, 2005 12:21 pm 0

Hi.

The "?Out of memory" error indicates your read head alignment (azimuth) on the Datassette doesn't match the one on the tape recorder you recorded it on, or that the signal is bad. I don't know if Audiotap works 100% with VIC-20, since it was developed for the C64 and the internal timings are a little different. Also, I don't know if you're supposed to record in stereo or mono, but the default settings should be reasonable one would assume.

To test your Datassette, write your own small program - something like 10 PRINT"HELLO WORLD":GOTO 10 and save onto a fresh tape. Then recycle the power and try to load it back. If that works, at least your VIC-20 and the Datassette should be able to load a tape. If that fails, you have some nice troubleshooting to do.

On the subject of PAL/NTSC, I'm not sure if Jeff Minter's games were raster intensive so it would make a difference, but maybe the screen would be out of position due to different ranges in screen positioning (why, oh why, Commodore?).

Re. Denial: Before all the subsections were guest browseable. I dunno if Jeff on purpose or accident has closed the forum for anonymous viewing, but it is still possible to post and read messages if you login. Not sure if you still can register though.

moobaa · Post by **moobaa** » Mon Jan 03, 2005 12:35 pm 0

Great info, carlsson. Especially the bit about checking whether the datasette is OK, which we all.. ah... overlooked

And Welcome to the Furoms

PVB · Post by **PVB** » Mon Jan 03, 2005 1:01 pm 0

Mayhem wrote:Ah... do you have a login there? I think you get nothing if you aren't registered and logged in (I use a cookie for the site).

Nope, no login.

Seems stupid that lurkers can't read the forums though.

Maybe if they could then there'd be more than 87 members.