Versaload uses the accumulated tricks from reliable fast tape loaders of the past, adding modern techniques and a modern mastering system to achieve much improved loading times on retro machines using original tape equipment. To achieve this new speed, it uses several innovations:
- Countdown timer to load completion, in minutes and seconds.
- Pretty loading of the loading screen.
- Messages can be displayed during loading.
- Block based loading with graceful error handling. Tape loading error? Just rewind a few seconds and hit play to retry!
- Uses Biphase Mark Coding modulation (as used in SMPTE/EBU Linear Time Codes), which gives a 50% speed improvement over ROM style modulation for the same timing.
- Easy to use data compression with state of the art packers - Exomiser 2 and ZX7.
- Python based scriptable tape mastering environment, compatible with standard emulator file formats and audio output.
Speeds of 3000-4500 bit∙s⁻¹ are achievable. Depending on content, compression can double that speed.
More information on this is in the wiki.
- Make
- Python
- Pasmo
- Fuse
- Fuse-utils (tzxlist, tap2wav)
- Python Bitstring
Uses Ian Chapman's Python TZX library. Uses Einar Saukas's ZX7 compression library. Uses Magnus Lind's Exomizer 2 with Metalbrain's Z80 unpacker.
Files in the zx7 directory are provided under a BSD-3 license. See zx7.txt for details. Files in the Exomizer207 directory are provided under a seperate license. See zx7.txt for details. Files in the modules directory are provided under a GPL-2 license. See directory contents for details.
Other files are provided under the MIT license described below.
The MIT License (MIT)
Copyright (c) 2013 Peter Knight aka GoingDigital
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.