Emulator that allows loading from real tape?

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KenD
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Emulator that allows loading from real tape?

Post by KenD »

Does anyone know of an emulator (preferably Mac) that allows loading via audio - i.e. from a real tape, via a MIC in lead, just like in the good old days? Spectaculator (or at least the Windows version) allows "loading from audio source", but it's not working very well for me. Fuse, ZEsarUX etc don't seem to have the option. Am I missing something obvious in those emulators, or is there something else out there that would do the job?
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Ast A. Moore
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Re: Emulator that allows loading from real tape?

Post by Ast A. Moore »

Try zxsp. Günter hasn’t updated it in a long while, but the functionality is there.

If you wish to convert old tapes, however, I suggest using fuseutils for that, however.
Every man should plant a tree, build a house, and write a ZX Spectrum game.

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Alessandro
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Re: Emulator that allows loading from real tape?

Post by Alessandro »

I'd rather use Tapir for that purpose. I have been doing it for years, the last time a couple of days ago, testing the 48K files (ROM loader and SetoLOAD turbo speed) for Apulija-13 V2.0.

Just plug one MIC jack into your Spectrum, the other one in the earphone socket of your PC's audio circuit, disable all effects and set sound output to 16 bit, 44100 Hz and maximum volume, open your file in Tapir and select Play, and there you go.
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Ast A. Moore
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Re: Emulator that allows loading from real tape?

Post by Ast A. Moore »

Alessandro wrote: Sun Jan 28, 2018 2:04 pm Just plug one MIC jack into your Spectrum, the other one in the earphone socket of your PC's audio circuit, disable all effects and set sound output to 16 bit, 44100 Hz and maximum volume, open your file in Tapir and select Play, and there you go.
I think he’s trying to accomplish the opposite of what you’re suggesting—i.e., not to produce audio files from TAP/TZX, but to use an audio source to load data into an emulator.
Every man should plant a tree, build a house, and write a ZX Spectrum game.

Author of A Yankee in Iraq, a 50 fps shoot-’em-up—the first game to utilize the floating bus on the +2A/+3,
and zasm Z80 Assembler syntax highlighter.
Ralf
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Re: Emulator that allows loading from real tape?

Post by Ralf »

Loading from tape directly to emulator never worked very well for me.

You should remember that in most case you are using ancient, 30 years old cassettes on modern tape recorders and with modern sound cards, You are doing it in stereo while in was intended to run in mono. The sound quality after all these years is much worse too.

So I was just happy when I succeeded after using different filters and fiddling with settings to make a .tap/.tzx image from a cassette in MakeTzx.
hikoki
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Re: Emulator that allows loading from real tape?

Post by hikoki »

How to load real cassettes with ZXSP (MAC) : http://foro.speccy.org/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=4725#p49648

How to load real cassettes (Win) : http://foro.speccy.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=4900#p51085
- ZXSpin, menu Recording > Tape Recording > Real Tape Mode.
- Spectaculator, menu Tools > Load from Audio Source.

I'd like to know how to do it with Fuse and SpecEmu :)
hikoki
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Re: Emulator that allows loading from real tape?

Post by hikoki »

^^^
Specemu seems to have an option to load from audio source too, according to weiv (see post on the zx-pk.ru forums)
Привет всем! :)
Подскажите, плиииз, эмулятор, который умеет загружать файлы из звуковой карты, и одновременно чтобы умел при записи программ выводить на звуковую карту? Ну ооочень надо :)

Spectaculator, похоже, умеет только загружать - меню Tools - Load From Audio Source.

SpecEmu умеет и то, и то: загрузка: меню Options - Tapes - Real Tape Mode, выгрузка: меню Options - Options - вкладка Tape , опция Boost Saving Tone (с этой опцией все остальные звуки отключаются).
What about Fuse and other emulators?
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Pegaz
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Re: Emulator that allows loading from real tape?

Post by Pegaz »

The only emulator I have successfully loaded games from the cassette is RealSpec from Ramsoft.
That was a long time ago, on the P1 computer, under the DOS environment, but it worked perfectly.
I think for windows, the best solution is some of the specialized programs, but I know that SpecEmu, Spin and Spectaculator have this option.
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