WANTED: Any VIC commodore computer educator cassette books

History and Preservation Issues

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Mayhem
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Post by Mayhem »

I've got all 20 games as TAPs in GB20. Having tried them out, Ice and Convention don't load properly in Vice 2.3, but Rotate and Frogs are fine. I guess the TAPs for Ice and Convention need to be transferred again. With Vice 2.x, the error allowance on TAPs was tightened up and you need better transfers. Ice and Convention work fine in Vice 1.22. Now to find my set... sadly I only have four of the six tapes in the set, so I don't know if I have the tapes with Ice and Convention on.

Do you have the set Eslapion? Maybe you can do it...
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Post by Perseus »

Mayhem, how did you load Rotate and Frogs? Did you apply some special parameters at the command line? Thanks for your assistance.
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Post by Mayhem »

I suspect I made Rotate and Frogs myself from my tapes, and I got Ice and Convention from online as I didn't have the tapes. Seems the most likely situation. Where did you get the TAPs from? Not sure it was Gamebase20. I just tried some Cymbal games in GB20 with Vice 2.3 and only the aforementioned two appear to not load properly for me. Didn't do anything special.
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Post by Perseus »

No, I didn't get the images from Gamebase20: I'll try those. Thanks.
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Post by Mayhem »

No worries. If anyone can clean or reproduce Ice and Convention and get them working in Vice 2.x please let me know. I try to keep track of the games that people discover don't function properly in Vice 2.x, and then correct them if possible. I tested them all originally with Vice 1.22, but never had the time to go back through them all to retest today.
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Post by eslapion »

Mayhem wrote:Do you have the set Eslapion? Maybe you can do it...
I transfer the CES series using a 1581 as none of them carry any copy protection. This is not true of the Games 20 series. Not all of the software in there is copy protected but I do know for a fact that ICE, one of the best games in that tape collection, is as it places ML code in the tape buffer area.

Also, the CES series was from the canadian branch of Commodore while the Games 20 was from Cymbal software so I was a bit surprised that this specific software pack ended up being discussed here.

Still, I do have the series and would gladly send it to you if you feel you have the time to take care of it and have the resources to archive copy protected VIC-20 tapes.

On another note:
To all! Please note new CES tape collections have been placed online by Bo Zimmerman.

See:
http://www.zimmers.net/anonftp/pub/cbm/ ... index.html
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Mayhem
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Post by Mayhem »

Ah... Ice and Convention need redumping as neither load in Vice 2.x currently. Can anyone assist? It would cost a bit to send the entire set over to me...
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Post by eslapion »

I don't know if many of you have downloaded the CES series album I gave to Bo Zimmerman for posting on his public archive but if you did, I have to say I hit a snag.

It was my experience most programs in there was simple unprotected "load and run" basic programs which would work wether you have an expansion or not.

I just created a folder with the tape's name and if there was a different program on either side then I'd just put both programs in the same folder.

Then after archiving English Book I, I hit my first snag. Some of the programs are sized for VIC-20 with 8k expansions. I have yet to send this archive to Zimmer's but it is not such a big deal as the filenames used indicate if you need an expansion. The people at Commodore added either exp or 8k at the end of the name.

English Book II, however, I don't know what to make of. That's because on top of having expanded and unexpanded versions of the same programs, the collection includes software that are specifically designed to load one after the other and only from tape.

This, I truly don't know how I would distribute so it works more or less like the real thing.

Advice is welcome.
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Re: WANTED: Any VIC commodore computer educator cassette boo

Post by eslapion »

Still no suggestion more than a year later?
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Re: WANTED: Any VIC commodore computer educator cassette boo

Post by ral-clan »

Eslapion,

Why not include the separate programs as .prg files with a note that they won't load separately due to needing to be loaded sequentially from tape (these would be for the benefit of historical authenticity - they would be getting the true binary whether or not it actually can work in an emulator).

But ALSO include a .tap image of the whole side of the cassette. This can be used just like a datasette from an emulator.
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Re: WANTED: Any VIC commodore computer educator cassette boo

Post by eslapion »

ral-clan wrote:Eslapion,

Why not include the separate programs as .prg files with a note that they won't load separately due to needing to be loaded sequentially from tape (these would be for the benefit of historical authenticity - they would be getting the true binary whether or not it actually can work in an emulator).

But ALSO include a .tap image of the whole side of the cassette. This can be used just like a datasette from an emulator.
Hi ral-clan,
The albums I have published come with .prg files sorted by folders representing the actual cassette numbers.

I am not familiar with managing .tap files but I think DirMaster will help me do that.

Today I managed to obtain 2 more albums. These are CES-114F and CES-117F

The collection now stands as follows:

VT-106 Recreation Program Pack (french docs VT-106-FM in BW photocopies)
VT-107-E Home Calculation Program Pack
VT-108 Math Book I
VT-108F Math Livre I (software + BW photocopies)
CES-109 Math Book II
CES-109F Math Livre II (2x)
CES-110 Math Book III
CES-110F Math Livre III (software + BW photocopies)
CES-111 English Book I
CES-112 English Book II
CES-113 French Book I
CES-114 Chemistry Book I
CES-114F Chimie Livre I
CES-115 Physics Book I
CES-115F Physique Livre I (software only)
CES-116 Elementary Science
CES-116F Science Élémentaire
CES-117 History Book I
CES-117F Histoire Livre I
CES-118 Geography Book I
CES-118F Géographie Livre I
CES-119 Social Studies
CES-119F Sciences Sociales
CES-120F Français Livre I
CES-122F Anglais Livre I (software + BW photocopies)

And thanks to Ral-Clan, I have in digital format
CES-121F Français Livre II
Last edited by eslapion on Mon Apr 13, 2015 12:13 am, edited 2 times in total.
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ral-clan
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Re: WANTED: Any VIC commodore computer educator cassette boo

Post by ral-clan »

Is there a list anywhere that indicates all the educational cassette books that were published by Commodore Canada (i.e. a dealer's catalogue)?
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Re: WANTED: Any VIC commodore computer educator cassette boo

Post by eslapion »

ral-clan wrote:Is there a list anywhere that indicates all the educational cassette books that were published by Commodore Canada (i.e. a dealer's catalogue)?
Here:
http://sleepingelephant.com/denial/wiki ... english.29

However, VT-107 and VT-106 aren't mentioned but they exist and I have them both in english.
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Re: WANTED: Any VIC commodore computer educator cassette boo

Post by eslapion »

CES-111 and CES-112 (English Books I and II) are now ready to send to Zimmers. I sent him an e-mail and await his answer.
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Re: WANTED: Any VIC commodore computer educator cassette boo

Post by AntiPontifex »

eslapion: I don's know if this is proper, but could you possibly archive
French Book I next? My childhood self thanks you: thanks for all of
your efforts regardless. :)
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