RetroIO (rio)

A command-line utility written in the Go programming language for working with disk and cassette tape files used by emulators of home computers from the 1980s.

One example would be tzx tapes from the ZX Spectrum 8-bit home computer.

Supported Media and Commands

Directory Command

• Amstrad: DSK
• Commodore 64: D64, D71, D81

The dir command reads a disk and prints the directory listing to the terminal. Any hidden/scratch files will also be displayed.

$ rio c64 dir super-mario-bros64.d64

LOAD"$",8
SEARCHING FOR $
LOADING
READY.
LIST

0 "SUPER MARIO BROS" .  4 
192  "SUPER M. BROS.64" PRG
59   "SMB.64 DOCS"      PRG
0    "                " DEL
0    "     ¦¦¦¦¦      " DEL
0    "    ¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦   " DEL
0    "    ---vv-v     " DEL
0    "   -v-vvv-vvv   " DEL
0    "   -v--vvv-vvv  " DEL
0    "   --vvvv----   " DEL
0    "     vvvvvvv    " DEL
0    "    --¦---      " DEL
0    "   ---¦--¦---   " DEL
0    "  ----¦¦¦¦----  " DEL
0    "  vv-¦v¦¦v¦-vv  " DEL
0    "  vvv¦¦¦¦¦¦vvv  " DEL
0    "  vv¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦vv  " DEL
0    "    ¦¦¦  ¦¦¦    " DEL
0    "   ---    ---   " DEL
0    "  ----    ----  " DEL
0    "                " DEL
428 BLOCKS FREE.

Geometry Command

• Amstrad: DSK, CDT
• Commodore 64: D64, D71, D81, T64, TAP
• ZX Spectrum: TZX, TAP, TRD

The geometry command will read and display core metadata about the layout of the media. This can be disk track and sector details, or the header and block information from a cassette tape.

$ rio spectrum geometry skool-daze.tzx

TZX processing complete!

ARCHIVE INFORMATION:
  Title     : Skool Daze
  Publisher : Microsphere
  Authors   : David S. Reidy, Keith Warrington
  Year      : 1984
  Loader    : Microsphere
  Comment   : Timing corrected by Mikie.

DATA BLOCKS:
#1 Standard Speed Data : 19 bytes, pause for 970 ms.
   - Header       : BASIC Program
   - Filename     : skooldaze
   - AutoStartLine: 0
#2 Standard Speed Data : 333 bytes, pause for 5981 ms.
   - Standard Data: 331 bytes
#3 Turbo Speed Data    : 82109 bytes, pause for 0 ms.

TZX revision: 1.10

Read Command

• ZX Spectrum: TZX and TAP

The read command will read data contained on the media.

At present only printing of BASIC programs is supported. Simply add the --bas flag when reading the media image.

Please note that decoding is currently experimental and the output may not be considered valid BASIC, and may even be garbled or missing completely.

$ rio spectrum read --bas manic-miner.tzx

BASIC PROGRAMS:

BLK#02: ManicMiner
  10  CLEAR 30000
  20  PAPER 0: BORDER 0: INK 0: CLS : LOAD ""CODE : LOAD ""CODE 
  30  RANDOMIZE USR 33792

Installation

$ go get -u -v github.com/mrcook/retroio/...

To install the app after manually cloning the repository you must first change to the rio directory:

$ cd retroio/rio
$ go install

Usage

$ rio help

To display a list of commands

Note: the correct media type will be set for the requested system based on the file extension, however this can be overridden with the --media flag.

LICENSE

Copyright (c) 2018-2020 Michael R. Cook. All rights reserved.

This work is licensed under the terms of the MIT license. For a copy, see https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT.