XEX2CAS 2.0

1. Text from original version of XEX2CAS
========================================

Why did I build this?

The other day, when I was surfing the net, I found the new version (3.1) of
Atari800Win Plus.  This emulator can read cas files.  But the problem is that
writing to this file is not implemented yet.  In the help file there is a note
what a cas file is and of course a link to the wav2cas page. When I saw the
wav2cas program I did not believe that it would work.  So I got my old Atari
and I connected my XC12 and tried it.
First, I wrote a simple program in Basic :) and ... It Works !!!

So, next I decided to convert some old application on my very old cassette to
cas file.  A few errors, but I sampled my program three times, and I compared
the hex file, next I corrected it.  (I wrote my own simple application to
change a hex file to cas).  It Works too !!!

I decided to test cas2wav.  I thought, on the net are more old games for Atari,
so why can't I use it to test on my real Atari?  Now this is the problem.
All games or almost all games are in DOS format, and additionally the emulator
can't write them to cas files.  Another problem is that for all DOS files we
must add some cassette boot loader (you know !-file).
Hmm...  I found that amongst my old cassettes some game had it.  I sampled
this and changed it to cas.  On the emulator I converted it to a clear file. 

At the end of my crazy work I wrote a program in C++ which converts xex files
to cas and adds a boot loader.

How it works?

Let us assume I have a file "seawolf2.xex". :)

I write:
xex2cas seawolf2.xex seawolf2.cas

And now in my directory I have seawolf as a cas file. Next of course use
cas2wav and write the file to tape. 

Finally, Start + Option and I have my new (old) game on my Atari.

I know that is crazy but I love Atari :)

I think my program is a nice supplement to the cassette utilities. 

For all questions my e-mail is always ready,

Regards, Gienek.
plug@poczta.fm

2. Addendum for version 2.0
===========================

Dear users,

It would appear that the data recorders are not dead enough...

Being encouraged by reading one of the threads at Forum Atarum (atarionline.pl),
I have decided to fix the biggest defect of the original version of this
good old utility - no support for partial tape records (those that begin
with the 0x55,0x55,0xFA sequence).

I have added some "bonus" options:

/f - Faster transfer speed (720 bd) for those who want to get maximum from
     their data recorders.

/g - Longer IRGs (350 ms) that can sometimes help when the binary file has
     some INIT segments.

/s - Shorter leader (12 seconds instead of 20).

And here are few random thoughts and tips:

- For your own sake, do use a8cas instead of the above-mentioned utility cas2wav.

- Do you use a cassette adapter instead of a compact cassette? If so, think
  what might happen when your binary file executes code from an INIT segment,
  and that code waits for any key. A clue: MOTOR CTRL.

- This program is likely to be compilable also under GNU/Linux.

- There can still be some licensing concerns. Is the Exclamation mark loader
  a freely available software? 

- I cannot belive that I actually helped to improve a program that competes
  with my Turgen System.

Michael Kalou (BAKTRA Software)
