Ira Goldklang's TRS-80 Revived Site

TRS-80 Virtual Cassette Utilities

Reading/Writing TRS-80 Cassette Media on an IBM

Platform         Utility Name     Version   Date         Author       Home Site DOS CAS to WAV Utility N/A November 7, 2004 Knut Roll-Lund Home Site Will convert a CAS file into a WAV for making a real TRS-80 cassette. CAS2WAV Platform         Utility Name     Version   Date         Author       Home Site DOS WAV to CAS Utility v2.0.0.2 (Bug Fix 2) February 4, 2008 Knut Roll-Lund Home Site Wav2cas is a Windows program, run in a DOS window (or you can use drag’n'drop, dropping the wav file onto the wav2cas desktop shortcut icon), which takes an uncompressed Windows wav file (made from a Model I Level II (500 Baud), Model I Level 1 (250 baud), or Model III (1500 Baud) cassette tapes) and generates a cas file for use by TRS-80 emulators. Silent bits doesn’t matter, so an entire tape can be converted (but header synchronization is only done once, so this is risky). WAV2CAS Platform         Utility Name     Version   Date         Author       Home Site DOS High/Low Cassette Converter None April 28, 2005 Knut Roll-Lund Home Site Highlow is a small utility for converting CAS files between Highspeed (1500 Baud) and Lowspeed (500 Baud). Since 1500 Baud includes a startbit, making the file contents unreadbale, it is useful for viewing the contents of a highspeed CAS file after a wav2cas_h conversion, to do a preliminary check for success or to get the name from a system tape. It can convert both ways and does so automatically. It can’t handle multiple files in a CAS file so only single content CAS files may be used, and it must detect the header so it can’t deal with fragments. HighLow Platform         Utility Name     Version   Date         Author       Home Site DOS ACAS CAS Analyzer None Knut Roll-Lund Home Site ACAS is another small utility, this time for checking the cas files. Actually it is a beta as it will be incorporated in another program but I decided that I would release this standalone version anyway. As it is now it will scan through a cas file and find out what it can about it and output what it thinks to a txt file with the same path and name. ACAS will read model I and III type of CAS files, it will attempt to decode the first program it finds, if there are data after what it perceives as a program these will be listed as hexcodes. For highspeed it will check that the startbit is ok. It does SYSTEM tapes, reporting the blocks, does the checksum, looks for gaps. It does BASIC, listing the program detokenizing all except what is in quotes or behind a REM, checks the embedded addresses, reports any codes in quotes or behind REM. ACAS Platform         Utility Name     Version   Date         Author       Home Site Windows CMD2CAS N/A March 3, 2005 Attila Grósz Home Site Will convert a /CMD file into a WAV for making a real TRS-80 cassette. CMD2CAS

Outputting CAS Files

Platform         Utility Name     Version   Date         Author       Home Site Windows Play CAS Utility 1.0 March 25, 2008 Knut Roll-Lund Home Site Use your PC as a cassette player for your TRS-80 Model I/III/4 Level I and II by connecting your TRS-80 cassette input (“Ear” Output) into the PC’s headphones output. Supports Level 1 (250 Baud), Level II (500 Baud), and Highspeed (1500 Baud) and SYSTEM, BASIC, EDTASM, LEVEL 1 SYSTEM, and LEVEL 1 BASIC files. It does NOT support Scripsit, or ASCII files. PLAYCAS

One Response to “TRS-80 Disk and Tape Conversion Utilities”

1. Charles E. Higgins says:

   November 25, 2011 at 7:04 pm

   One issue in modern PC’s is the use of USB for disk interfaces. There are NO 5 1/4″ disk drives with USB interfaces! I have one PC with a 5 1/4″ drive. It is an old XT class machine with a 4.77MHz 8088 and 8087 coprocessor so the emulator is not recommended for it. Last I heard it required a 100MHz pentium class machine. What is needed for those of us with working TRS-80′s is for Tandy to waive its copyrights and allow us to get what we need for these machines that we have loyally used. If you followed me (HigginsCharles) on twitter you’d know my brother bet me my TRS-80 would not work after it spent 9 years in non climate controlled storage. This afternoon I got bored and hooked up my TRS-80 W/4 180 KB drives, stereo sound system and monophonic sound system up and saw if it would work. It did. Amazing reliability. I even played music (Orch90) through its stereo amp and speakers. And yes the old disks are still readable.