Struggling to load tapes on Philips VG-8235

Resident (53)

02-09-2022, 15:30

This is driving me crazy. Can anyone help?

Back in the 90s I had an MSX 1 - Toshiba HX10 - and used to run cassette tape games on it without issue.

These days I'm using the same cassette deck and the same cable that came with the HX10, but I'm using an MSX 2 - a Philips VG-8235 - and I've never once managed to load a tape successfully.

Now, it's been literal decades since I last used the HX10, so maybe there's something crucial I can't remember but I'm totally stumped.

I'm using the correct command lines and I believe all the cables are plugged in correctly. Is it just that the MSX2 isn't compatible with the other kit?

By mars2000you

Enlighted (6437)

02-09-2022, 15:48

You need probaby to use the Philips poke (it must generally be added in the loader):

poke -1,170

By CASDuino

Champion (330)

02-09-2022, 17:48

If the load command is BLOAD"CAS:",R then it should work without the poke. If the load command is RUN"CAS:" then you will need the POKE -1,170 beforehand. Are you getting anything when you try loading?

By AndreV

Master (219)

02-09-2022, 19:59

With the philips nms 8250 when starting up holt the shift pressed down you go to msx basic, Maybe for this computer the same otherwise i can't load cas neither.

By kaladron

Resident (53)

02-09-2022, 20:05

I'll try the poke method thank you. Out of interest, why is that required? Is it unique to this MSX or Philips models?

By Wierzbowsky

Guardian (3571)

02-09-2022, 20:15

Your cassette deck could have been degraded with the time (caps lost their "juice", connectors could have been oxidized, volume control resistors could die, etc.). So, try to play around with volume, set bass and treble controls to middle positions, if you have an equalizer, disable all sound alterations for the output. Use headphone output jack rather than line-out.

MSX machines with disk drives have less available RAM in Basic than diskless machines. Some games may need more RAM, so booting with CTRL key down may give you a little bit more RAM.

By mars2000you

Enlighted (6437)

02-09-2022, 20:46

kaladron wrote:

I'll try the poke method thank you. Out of interest, why is that required? Is it unique to this MSX or Philips models?

No, it's the Philips version of a so-called 'Universal poke', which is required for many MSX1 games on any MSX with expanded slots (note: there are also a few MSX1 computers in this case - for example: the Philips VG-8020/20)

Some commercial MSX1 games were developed while ignoring what would be the MSX evolution. Expanded slots were a step before implementing Memory Mapper (your MSX2 has this improvement)

By kaladron

Resident (53)

02-09-2022, 20:48

Thanks!

By kaladron

Resident (53)

02-09-2022, 20:49

Wierzbowsky wrote:

MSX machines with disk drives have less available RAM in Basic than diskless machines. Some games may need more RAM, so booting with CTRL key down may give you a little bit more RAM.

Thanks, I'll try those and see.

Don't think there's anything wrong with the cassette deck itself as it plays music tapes just fine.

By sdsnatcher73

Prophet (3851)

02-09-2022, 21:55

Small imperfections in playback won’t matter too your ears but too a computer having to decode the signal those imperfections can be disastrous (well that’s a bit dramatic, you just won’t load all the bits correctly)

By Manuel

Ascended (19310)

02-09-2022, 22:50

Can you tell us what is going wrong exactly?
Is no file found on the tape?
Or is the file found on the tape, but the computer crashes/resets after loading?
Something else?