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 Post subject: How do I use an Image?
PostPosted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 11:14 pm 
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Hi, please excuse my ignorance, but if I download an image for a game, how do I get it from the PC onto 5.25 for use in the Beeb? I experimented with making sound recordings onto the pc of my Beeb tapes in .wav form and then using the pc speaker output to the Beeb. This means I have an accoustic backup of some games, that were on tape, for the time when tapes are history.... it involves a lot of fiddling with record an playback levels but is simple in principle. Thanks.


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PostPosted: Tue Jan 26, 2010 1:24 pm 
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Hi,

There are various ways to do it depending on how much time and money you're prepared to spend.

It's possible to do the transfer using a PC as a 'tape' player. You could use BeebEm to transfer the contents of a disk image to a tape image (UEF file). There may also be PC tools available to do this conversion. The resulting UEF image can be converted to WAV which can then be played through the PC to load it onto the real beeb. Once on the beeb, the files can be saved to a floppy. As you can imagine, this would be a very time consuming process. But you already have the necessary cable so it would be free.

An alternative, if your PC supports it, would be to use a serial cable and a program such as DFS Explorer to transfer an entire disk image. It's slow but it does work. The serial cables aren't that common. If you want to go this route it may be worth asking on here or on the STH forum if anyone has a cable (or could make one up).

The most convenient of the 'cheap' solutions is to use a 3.5" drive rather than a 5.25". If your beeb is a Master or a B with 1770 DFS you're good to go, it will work with any common PC floppy drive. Providing your PC has a built-in floppy drive, you can use OmniFlop to write the image to disk on the PC side. Strictly speaking, OmniFlop will write to 5.25" drives too, but getting one to work in a modern PC can be a nightmare!

These days, a better way to transfer stuff is to use one of the various SD/MMC card devices available. At the lower end of the scale is the MMBeeb. The schematics are available to build one up yourself, or there is a seller on eBay that offers a similar device pre-built.

The current top-end (and most expensive) devices are the GoMMC and DataCentre. GoMMC uses (unsurprisingly) MMC cards for transfer and offers a whole load of extra features. DataCentre uses standard USB memory sticks/hard drives etc. and is currently the easiest way to get files from PC to beeb with the minimum of fuss.

Lots to think about there! As a starting point I would recommend trying to get a 3.5" drive working on your beeb. They are cheap and transfer from PC is relatively quick and easy.


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