oricutron & bas2tap

[MintSpider]

Discovered that the Oric emulator Oricutron saves emulated tape files with an extra Hex digit of 16 (4 instead of 3) at the start of the file.
The bas2tap.exe utility for converting tape files to text does not like this at all.
So installed the Hex editor jeex in my Linux system, deleted the first digit of the file, and then all worked great!

[MintSpider]

Questions to all:
What if the author of Oricutron (Peter Gordon?) programmed the tape sequence correctly?
Who has the answer?
Should the tape start 16|16|16|24 or 16|16|16|16|24 ?
bas2txt expects the former.

[MintSpider]

Have my own answer:
Hex edit tested Zorgons.tap, hopper_a.tap, & CENTI.TAP from orig.org. Each of them started with 16|16|16|24
Looks like Oricutron is in fault for saving tapes with an extra 16 at the start.

[Simon]

Le 26/02/2017 03:56, MintSpider a écrit :
> Have my own answer:
> Hex edit tested Zorgons.tap, hopper_a.tap, & CENTI.TAP from orig.org. Each of them started with 16|16|16|24
> Looks like Oricutron is in fault for saving tapes with an extra 16 at the start.

Not exactly.
The Oric ROM requires *four* $16 values: one byte to technically
synchronise its decoding process with the signal, and then 3 bytes at
$16 to be sure it's the synchro sequence.

Euphoric accpets any amount of $16 for historical reasons: a single one
for retrocompatibility with Amoric, or three or more.
But this lead to problems as a few TAP file hold the sequence $16$24 in
their code, not only in synchro signals.

So for a few years now Euphoric automatically works in both ways:
- if the TAP file starts with 16161624 (or less 16), it works in the
"old way"
- but if the TAP file starts with 1616161624 (or more 16) it will work
as the Oric ROM and require at least 1616161624 for the next parts
within the TAP file.

I would add that for human reading purposes in Hex editors, having five
16 is even better: 1616 1616 1624 so the following 16 bits addresses
remain displayed together.

Conclusion: for about 15 years Euphoric (being then the only Oric
emulator on PC) and its tools worked with three $16, so that's why so
many tools still are working with this. But thechnically Oricutron is
not wrong when it saves four $16 ;)

Simon

[MintSpider]

Excellent information Simon.
This is all new news to me and expertly explained.
It is not hardship at all for me to chop off the first 16 from an Oricutron saved tape file to use with bas2tap.
Much appreciated.
Peter