Dragon Composer - Missing file?

[zephyr]

By the way, can anyone please try the attached composer file? It loads flawlessly on XRoar, but on a real Dragon64, it just don't load the menu part. I've tried converting the cas file to wav with Sarah's program and with DC.exe, with both programs together and separated with no success.

Any help is appreciated!

Does it get to the point where the demo tune plays on your real D64?

[robcfg]

Yep, plays the tune right (the counter reaches 320) and then tries to load the second file on tape, but the tape ends and the program doesn't start.

I tried to separete the files into two different cas files, with the same result.

[zephyr]

OK, Please try the attached experimental version on your real D64 and let me know if it loads the menu.

[robcfg]

Negative, the tape ends without changing the loading screen.

[zephyr]

If the demo tune plays then it means that the main BASIC program (menu) has loaded and is running. The first three lines of the BASIC program are as follows:

Code: Select all

10 IF PEEK(&H700)<>&H20 THEN 100   ' If demo tune has played, go to 100 
20 EXEC&H700  ' Play demo tune
30 POKE&H700,&HFF  ' Disable playing of the demo tune if BASIC program is run again from the start

EDIT: The problem seems to be that PLAYWAVC is not being loaded from your real cassette copy.

Code: Select all

210 IF PEEK(PL)=&H20 ANDPEEK(PL+1)=&H1D THEN 230
220 IF MX$="16K" THEN CLOADM"PLAYWAVC" ELSE CLOADM"PLAYWAVC",&H3000

[robcfg]

I think I've found what's going on.

As I'm playing the wav file from my PC, it has no 'remote'. The program is loading and, in the middle of the sequence of blocks, it stops to play the music, which I cannot do fast enough. So when it continues loading, it doesn't find the data it needs.

Also, checking my original wav dump, I've found that the jukebox and all the tunes are there, and they load an play well on my Dragon.

I'll try to make a good cas file now that I know what was failing.

Thanks for your help!

[Sarah]

By the way, can anyone please try the attached composer file? It loads flawlessly on XRoar, but on a real Dragon64, it just don't load the menu part. I've tried converting the cas file to wav with Sarah's program and with DC.exe, with both programs together and separated with no success.

It works fine in T3 and also converts both to and from WAV successfully with dcwin/dc; so your file appears to be fine although I don't have a real machine to use for testing. Verbose analysis: http://pastebin.com/WGcV4pcr

Edit: Oops, too late; but yes you'll need to play out PLAYWAVC after the demo tune has finished, so you could do this by splitting it out to a separate WAV file.

[robcfg]

Sarah, thank you very much for also taking a look at it!

The thing is a bit more complex. Suppose that the file COMPOSER has 50 blocks (just an example). What happens is that after block 30, it stops the loading process, plays the music, then loads the remaining blocks and then , I guess, the file PLAYWAVC.

So, if you have no remote control, it's difficult to stop the wav file and return it to the position where it should be. That's why I'm struggling to load it in my Dragon.

Obviously, emulators do take the remote signal into account and thus, the tape loads ok.

As soon as I have the final cas file working, I'll put it in the Uploads section. I'll create the wiki entry for it and upload the scans of the tape and cover. The manual will also follow soon.

Thank you Sarah and Zephyr for your help!

[Sarah]

You're welcome. I'm not sure why you're experiencing that behaviour; if you "eject" the first tape (or CAS/WAV file) whilst the music is playing, you should find that you only need to have PLAYWAVC ready (as attached) for afterwards.