PC -> Amstrad

[Satchman2000]

Hi all

Does anybody out there know of a method (other than buying a serial interface for my beloved Arnold) to transfer disk images from a PC to the Amstrad?

any ideas would be greatfully received!

cheers

Dave

[Shane]

I have made up the parallel cable to do what you mention. This is explained on the CPC Oxygen website.
www.cpcoxygen.net/
Go to the online magazines and checkout issues 7 & 10.

[Shane]

Me Again.... ;D
If you have a 664 or 6128 with the external connector for a tape recorder, then it is also very easy to convert .DSK images to .WAV files and transfer CPC software that way.
I use this method more than the parallel cable.
I have Locksmith running on the CPC and write the incoming (from PC) .WAV to the CPC's disc.
Just for fun I also burnt a CD full of CPC software converted to .WAV format.
I can then plug the cable (I made up) into the headphone socket on my PC's cd drive to the DIN tape connector on the CPC, emulating a tape but with the reliability of CD (using media player or any other software that plays .WAVs on your PC). There is info on the net on how to do all of the above, but if anybody asks I could write something up....

[8bitten]

Hi Shane.

Sounds interesting about converting DSK-images into WAV-files. I have done a search on the net, but it turned up empty or in some language I didn't understand.

If you don't have time to type something up, could you please print a link or two that explains how to do this.

Look forward to reading from you again!

/Michael

[Shane]

OK here goes.... ???

genesis8.free.fr/

This site is in French or English.
After selecting a language go to the 'files' section.
In the files section select 'Utilities for emulators'.
There is a lot of interesting utilities, but the ones
I am using for .DSK to .WAV are 'cpc2tape.zip' and
'cpcfs090.zip'.
If you have ever used dos ftp then 'cpcxfs.exe' works
in the same manner.
The above files are run from DOS, so open a DOS window.

If your .DSK file is zipped, unzip it...'harrier.zip'
extracted to 'harriera.dsk' in the example below.

It also makes it easier if the .DSK file is in the same
directory as the cpcxfs.exe files, so I find it easy
to make a temp directory while I'm playing around...

Below is an example of .DSK to .WAV conversion,


D:\temp7>dir
Volume in drive D is DATA
Volume Serial Number is 2CE4-348D

Directory of D:\temp7

11/11/03 07:11a <DIR> .
11/11/03 07:11a <DIR> ..
12/01/99 09:21p 74,752 cpc2tape.exe
12/01/99 09:13p 4,210 cpc2tape.txt
28/10/00 11:21a 22,104 cpcfs.doc
28/10/00 11:25a 17,323 cpcfs.hlp
28/10/00 11:24a 165,888 cpcxfs.exe
01/05/03 02:15p 7,988 harrier.zip
11/11/03 07:11a 194,816 HARRIERA.DSK
9 File(s) 487,081 bytes
9,130,233,856 bytes free

D:\temp7>cpcxfs
cpcfs> dir
No image loaded!
cpcfs> open harriera.dsk
Found format "DATA" matching disk image format
cpcfs> dir
Directory of Image: HARRIERA.DSK , User 0

Used Users:
0 with 2 files


U Name Size Attr Ent | U Name Size Attr Ent
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
0 HARRIER.BIN 896 1 | 0 HARRIER1.BIN 8576 1


2 files in 9472 Bytes
(171008 Bytes free, 12288 Bytes allocated, 2 entries of 64)
cpcfs> mget *.*
Getting "0:HARRIER.BIN": 896 Bytes
Getting "0:HARRIER1.BIN": 8576 Bytes
Total: 9472 Bytes, 2 files
cpcfs> close
cpcfs> exit

D:\temp7>dir
Volume in drive D is DATA
Volume Serial Number is 2CE4-348D

Directory of D:\temp7

11/11/03 07:15a <DIR> .
11/11/03 07:15a <DIR> ..
12/01/99 09:21p 74,752 cpc2tape.exe
12/01/99 09:13p 4,210 cpc2tape.txt
28/10/00 11:21a 22,104 cpcfs.doc
28/10/00 11:25a 17,323 cpcfs.hlp
28/10/00 11:24a 165,888 cpcxfs.exe
11/11/03 07:15a 896 HARRIER.BIN
01/05/03 02:15p 7,988 harrier.zip
11/11/03 07:15a 8,576 HARRIER1.BIN
11/11/03 07:15a 194,816 HARRIERA.DSK
11 File(s) 496,553 bytes
9,130,217,472 bytes free

D:\temp7>

D:\temp7>cpc2tape
CPC2TAPE version 1.1 1999 Pierre Thevenet
Cannot run without a file to convert !
Usage: d:/temp7/cpc2tape.exe FILE [-evp][-r rate][-w prog][-o file][-s length]
FILE : CPC file to be converted. -e : Don't create file extension.
-v : Verbose mode.
-p : Don't play file out.wav at end.
-r <rate>: Specify output rate (Hz).
-w <program>: Specify WAV player.
-o <file>: Specify output file.
-s <length>: Specify silence duration.

D:\temp7>

D:\temp7>cpc2tape harrier.bin -r 8400
CPC2TAPE version 1.1 1999 Pierre Thevenet
Using rate: 8400d
Actual rate:971 bits /sec

D:\temp7>

D:\temp7>dir
Volume in drive D is DATA
Volume Serial Number is 2CE4-348D

Directory of D:\temp7

11/11/03 07:25a <DIR> .
11/11/03 07:25a <DIR> ..
12/01/99 09:21p 74,752 cpc2tape.exe
12/01/99 09:13p 4,210 cpc2tape.txt
28/10/00 11:21a 22,104 cpcfs.doc
28/10/00 11:25a 17,323 cpcfs.hlp
28/10/00 11:24a 165,888 cpcxfs.exe
11/11/03 07:15a 896 HARRIER.BIN
01/05/03 02:15p 7,988 harrier.zip
11/11/03 07:15a 8,576 HARRIER1.BIN
11/11/03 07:15a 194,816 HARRIERA.DSK
11/11/03 07:26a 36,488 OUT.WAV
12 File(s) 533,041 bytes
9,130,180,608 bytes free

D:\temp7>

The OUT.WAV file is your converted file...rename it
before converting the next file so you dont overwrite
it, and thats it....basically.

A few things to keep in mind....there is no control
over the playing of the files (no motor control like
on the CPC464's cassette drive). So during loading
the cassette drive (relay) may be turned off momentarily
but the PC will keep playing the .WAV file.
When I burnt my .WAVs to a CD I first tested each game
from the PC and noted any games that had pauses during
loading. I then used NERO cd burning software to increase
the delay between these tracks on the CD and it then
works perfectly.
Alternately if I am copying the software onto the CPC's
disc drive I use Locksmith on the CPC (copying program
that does tape to disc).
After each block is played Locksmith will pause to write
to disc, I simply pause the media player during each
block (during the silence) until I hear the tape relay
click again and then I resume the media player.
It may sound tedious but you only have to do it until
your program is copied across to the CPC and then your
done.

You will of course also need a cable to connect from your
PC to CPC. I could explain how to make this also If
required, but it is very simple.

Very sorry if this has been long winded...things seem to
grow very quickly when your trying to explain them. :-/

[8bitten]

Hi Shane.

First of all let me thank you for the very detailed explanation of how to get file-transfer to work.

It works for the most part for me and I have the cable to connect an external taperecorder to my CPC6128.

Now I have one question. I have searched and searched the net but haven't been able to find any help to my next question. Perhaps, that is because there isn't any, but here goes:

Sometimes when I try to open a DSK-image CPCfs tells me that this image is not a DSK-image and that it has been 'abandoned' (whatever that means!). I have noticed that it is on the DSK-images containing some sort of protection from reading all the files in the directory, all you can see when you make a 'cat' on the disk in an emulator is

"File .*"

Is there anyway around this?

Yet again, thanks for the advice on filetransfers. Keep it up. In a week or so I will attempt to build the parallel cable you mentioned earlier. I have downloaded and read the article from CPCoxygen.

Regards,

Michael

[8bitten]

Hello,

Me again.

I have run into some more difficulties. When I have converted (using CPC2TAPE) the files into WAV-format, I have trouble getting the CPC to understand some of them. Others, like *.dat (and others) can't even be correctly formatted into WAV-files.

Maybe it is me who is not using the software properly, but if someone had some experience with this I would gladly hear their input.

The games I have been trying to transfer are Super Robin Hood and Cybernoid.

Regards,

Michael


PS: could it have any influence to the conversion process that I am running the programs from a dos-prompt under XP?

[Shane]

Yes I have also noticed that some files fail during the
'cpc2tape' conversion (not a large percentage of the games I have tried...but a few).
This is on both my XP machine and my 98SE machine.
I had another quick look using the cpc2tape verbose mode,

C:\_temp_cpc>cpc2tape cyber.dat -r 8200 -v
CPC2TAPE version 1.1 1999 Pierre Thevenet
Using rate: 8200d
CPC file size (cyber.dat):33791 bytes
Need 17 blocks.
Total size : 7474
Entry point: 6e65
Origin : 7257
Processing file .id block 1 Size of block:2048
Fatal error: EOF met on input file.
Maybe a non-CPC or ASCII file ?

Even though the actual file size is 848 bytes, 'cpc2tape' is reading a higher value and then failing with End Of File because it is expecting 33791 bytes....not really sure why....may be some form of copy protection ??
I also forced cpcxfs to 'get' in ASCII/text mode but with the same result.
I will keep playing and see what I find.

I dont think you would have this problem with the parallel cable method....I dont remember If I transferred a .DSK image with one of the above type files in it when I was playing around last. I have not done any transfers for a while now, may have to get out the parallel cable again.