[RELEASE] MSX Taper v1.0 - Food for your MSX

Champion (454)

21-01-2008, 18:13

Ok... here it is, my very first attempt at making an universal MSX Tape editor

www.cesco.it/immagini/msx_taper.gif

I finally opted for the name "TAPER" because many years ago (actually this happened in the previous millennium) I used to work with a similar utility made for the ZX Spectrum that had the same name. I only had the prefix "MSX" at the beginning of the name :)

Keep in mind that this is the very first release, and the utility may still contain bugs.

What you can actually do with MSX Taper:

* Open any .CAS file

* Move any Binary, ASCII, Custom Block or Basic files inside the tape. All you have to do is to select one or more rows from the grid and drag them

* Rename any Binary, ASCII or Basic file. All you have to do is to click on the name of the file and change it with your keyboard

* Delete any file from the tape

* Append other tape files to an existing tape. Would you like to create a single tape with Side A and Side B of your favourite game? You can do it.

* Import MSX Basic Programs written in ANSI. You can also open the notepad, write a small basic program and import it direcly in a tape.

* Import any 8Kb ROM image. The application will append to it a custom loader created by NYYRIKKI that will make it work.

* Import a selection of 16Kb ROM images ( that's a polite way to say that only few 16Kb ROMs are currently supported :D ). The application will try to load a 16Kb ROM image from RAM address &h8000, and execute it from the same address.

* Create wave files of your tapes, at the speed of 1200baud, 2400baud or (if your computer supports it) 3200baud.

* Play the .CAS files directly, via your EARPHONE jack to your MSX homecomputer.

I have to thanks Vincent Van Dam and NYYRIKKI for their excellent source codes, that helped me a lot while making this utility. Without their support I would have never been able to create this application.

DOWNLOADS:

Windows version
(It should work with Windows 2000, XP and Vista)

Mac OS X version
(It should work with Mac OS X 10.3 and above. Universal Binary, of course)

Linux version
(Any linux distribution that supports GTK2 should work... Ubuntu 7.10 is OK!)

Have fun and remember that MSX Taper means FOOD FOR YOUR MSX ( hey, it's a cheap slogan but I like it ;) )

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Van Manuel

Ascended (19465)

21-01-2008, 19:50

Works well on Debian. Some small problem: I have a high resolution monitor and use 11pt fonts. Many texts are getting truncated with this in your application.

Feature request: support gzipped .cas files

Van SLotman

Paragon (1242)

21-01-2008, 21:28

The little I tested, seems to work on Win98 too... but there's no way to export the files to HD? Just export as wav?

Van SLotman

Paragon (1242)

21-01-2008, 22:07

Also there's an error on your tool... I just opened a .cas from "Batman the Movie" and with MSX Taper it only reports 1 .RAW file on the first .cas.

According to BlueMSX (and another cassette tool I have) there are 14 raw files on that .cas and not a single one.

Van cesco

Champion (454)

21-01-2008, 23:49

The little I tested, seems to work on Win98 too... but there's no way to export the files to HD? Just export as wav?

I'll include the feature of exporting files in the next major release, I promise.

Also there's an error on your tool... I just opened a .cas from "Batman the Movie" and with MSX Taper it only reports 1 .RAW file on the first .cas.

Are you talking about Side A or Side B? Because Side A gives me three files:

BATMAN (A Basic program in ASCII)
MASTER (A Binary file)
A custom loader

If you are talking about Side B I know that my application only recognise one big custom block... it's not a bug... it's a wanted behaviour, since I didn't exactly know how to handle the custom blocks and how to divide them into sub-blocks; and so, I manage it as a single block of data. I'm not going to have have a lot of time for making improvements for the next two weeks, so I wanted to put out an application that at least could allow anyone to make some basic editings on the tape and to create WAV files. As soon as I'll understand how some datablocks are made and how I can recognise the ending of a sub-block, I'll add the support for them.

Van cesco

Champion (454)

21-01-2008, 23:51

Works well on Debian. Some small problem: I have a high resolution monitor and use 11pt fonts. Many texts are getting truncated with this in your application.

I'll try to fix that issue ASAP.

Feature request: support gzipped .cas files

I think that I should be able to add support for it...

Van cesco

Champion (454)

28-01-2008, 21:31

Today I managed to work a little bit on this utility, so I'm glad to announce that I have fix some bugs (and that now the utility recognise correctly all the custom blocks in a .CAS file). Unfortunately I haven't fix the issue of high resolution monitors yet (Sorry Manuel)

You can download the new release 1.01 from these links:

Windows version
(It should work with Windows 2000, XP and Vista)

Mac OS X version
(It should work with Mac OS X 10.3 and above. Universal Binary, of course)

Linux version
(Any linux distribution that supports GTK2 should work... Ubuntu 7.10 is OK!)

Van cesco

Champion (454)

20-02-2008, 22:49

What's new in this new release (1.10) :

Import Binary, ASCII and Basic files from any folder into a tape
Export Binary, ASCII and Basic files, as well as custom blocks of data from your tape to any folder
Create MP3 Files of your games (via Lame Encoder binaries, that have to be installed on the same computer)
The estimated run time length is now calculated with a more accurate method
Some bugs are fixed, some new bugs are probably being introduced, and I have reworked the GUI and the graphics a little bit (and that includes a brand new icon for the application)

Known bugs:

When you export a tape to an MP3 file, the application will create a temporary file to store the audio file and then it will create the MP3 file. On Windows, at the end of the creation process, the temporary file is not deleted from the hard drive (don't know why yet...)

Download links:

Windows version
(It should work with Windows 2000, XP and Vista)

Mac OS X version
(It should work with Mac OS X 10.3 and above. Universal Binary, of course)

Linux version
(Any linux distribution that supports GTK2 should work... Ubuntu 7.10 is OK!)

Van ro

Scribe (4963)

21-02-2008, 10:18

nice work Cesco!

Van manolito74

Paragon (1293)

10-11-2020, 01:30

Hello,

I know that this is a very very old thread... but I see that more people has reported a bug with "MSX-TAPER" and I'd like to report it again..

Sometimes there are differences with the same CAS file when you open it with MSX-TAPER or with BlueMSX: in BlueMSX you see the CAS correctly but not with the MSX-TAPER: you see less Programs... :-(

I'm using the MSX-TAPER 1.10 version. I don't really know it this happen with older versions (it's impossible for me to find older versions...) :-(

Anyone else has suffered this bug with the MSX-TAPER?

Gracias & Saludetes. ;-)