Reading PET tapes (was Re: Apple disk -> MSDOS)

From: Sellam Ismail <foo_at_siconic.com>
Date: Thu Jan 10 11:40:18 2002

On Wed, 9 Jan 2002, Ethan Dicks wrote:

> Not audio (though there is an app that will decode .WAV files of PET
> tapes). Someone wrote a DOS app that reads the parallel port bits and
> converts them into a .T64 file directly. For alignment/phase, there's
> a graphical mode that scrolls the data up the screen along with "guard
> bands" that show where the app thinks a 0 and a 1 are. You use the
> cursor keys to align the data from the tape drive and the guard bands
> for optimal data parsing. Once you have an offset from this process,
> you can use it as a command-line parameter for bulk reading.

COOL! Where can I get this app?

> It works well enough, but I really wish the source were available (it
> never seems to be for DOS programs, unlike Unix and Amiga software).

Is the author listed in the program? Have you tried contacting them?

> I have a small pile of PET Rabbit-format tapes that I want to extract
> from. My BASIC 2.0 PET needs repair (keyboard problems), so I can't
> just read the data and save it to disk. I have plenty of 8032s, but
> only one 2001 (got the 80-col PETs from university surplus for $10 a
> few years ago; we got the 40-col, 32K PET when I was grade-school for
> $1175).

I have tons of software on tape for the PET and other platforms and will
want to digitize all the images at some point.

Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
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Received on Thu Jan 10 2002 - 11:40:18 GMT

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