RUNNING TAPE PROGRAMS ON DISK -----------------------------
By Mick Needham In the last few issues of 8BS several
members have expressed difficulty
running tape programs or transfering
them to disk, many will not transfer to
disk easily and some not at all.
Many tape games were never issued on
disk and as most BBC users now have
disk drives, transferring from tape to
disk is desirable if not essential, for
this reason tape programs have become
less in demand, so can be obtained very
cheaply. I have bought quite a few at
car boot sales, and have only had a
couple that did not work.
Of those programs that will transfer to
disk, many will not run without
alteration to parts of the program,
this is made harder if the program
or part of the program is in machine
code, so for those, like me, who do not
have the skill or time to alter
programs. Using one of the tape to disk
utilities is an alternative. By tape to
disk utility I mean a program that will
transfer a ape program to disk then
attempt to run it at the correct memory
location.
Having used most of these utilities, I
thought that perhaps a short
description of those I have used may be
of help to someone having problems, of
course none of them are available now
but you may be able to pick one up
second hand.
Replica - Clares
Loads programs of up to 3 parts, has
eight ways to run the program,
can handle programs up to 59 blocks in
length, cannot handle locked
programs or programs loading as files.
Replica 2 - Clares
Loads programs with up to nine parts,
two program running positions,
can handle locked programs, that load
as files and long programs.
Replica 3 - Clares
Loads programs of up to 15 parts, you
can set the program running
position yourself, will use sideways
RAM if present. Uses seperate
disk to store the programs, needs the
original disk to run the
programs.
Vector 1 - Chalis Software
Loads programs of up to 9 parts, has 9
program running positions,
can handle programs that are locked,
load as files, have changing
filenames and long programs. Does not
need the original disk to run
the programs.
Disc Executor - Vision Software
Loads programs of up to 9 parts, has 8
program running positions, will
load programs up to 6E blocks long,
will handle locked programs or
that load as files, needs the original
disk to run the programs.
TransferROM - Watford Electronics
Loads programs of up to 9 parts, has 9
program running positions, will
handle locked programs, that load as
files and long programs.
TD ROM - Vine Micros
Loads programs with any number of
parts, has only one program
running position, will handle locked
programs, that load as files and
long programs, can use sideways RAM to
store loading program.
Both Replica, Replica 2 and Disc
Executor load the programs on to the
program disk so when the disk is full
you have to buy a new one or
delete programs. All can CHAIN, *RUN,
*LOAD programs,
None of these utilities can load
programs with continuous data
streams, and only Vector 1 can load and
run programs with changing
file names.
If there is any interest I could
perhaps produce a list of
programs I have successfully
transfered, which utility will run them
and the running parameters, as it is
time consuming to load the
program, try all the parameters, only
to find it does not run.