Date   : Mon, 08 Aug 2005 13:03:32 +0000 (GMT)
From   : "Thomas Harte" <thomasharte@...>
Subject: Re: GoMMC supports tapes

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> The OS patch ensures that the BBC's tape filing system
> gets its input from a (selectable) tape image on the MMC
> (via GoMMC) instead of an actual cassette tape (via the
> cassette interface). There are no further differences.
> The same old procedures to load the 'tape' are used
> (*TAPE, then CHAIN"" or *RUN).

Can I ask how you've hooked this in? I have for a long time wanted to 
dramatically improve the 'fast tape hack' loading in ElectrEm and have 
been looking for the absolute slightest internal piece of ROM code that 
can be modified. At the minute a blitz approach of replacing OSFILE, etc,
is used and I seem to have never ending problems fooling some of the more
sophisticated copy protection schemes.

> This introduces a way to quickly and easily run fully
> original tapes on the BBC, without the need for feeding
> audio to the machine.
> 
> Tapes load quicker too (for example, Firetrack loads in
> about 40 seconds total via GoMMC, against 5+ minutes via
> the regular way).

Some games seem simply not to function if loaded 'quickly', presumably
a copy protection mechanism that counts time is incorporated. So if possible,
an option to load at normal speed might be desirable.

-Thomas

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