Creating disk images for Spectrum / CPC
category: general [glöplog]
How do people go about creating disk images for these machines? Are there any good (free) tools for Windows?
For example, I've got a binary I want to run from &4000 in WinAPE. So I used WinAPE's built in disk tools to create an empty disk in drive A and added my .bin to the disk. Then I ran:
MEMORY &3FFF
LOAD"test.bin",&4000
The LOAD command processes for a while, then it says "syntax error" (this is ParaDOS). So I press F7 to open up the debugger and scroll down to &4000... nothing. I continued to scroll down and found my binary (partially) loaded at &A7E4, and again at &A9B0. So something seems to be wrong with the disk I created.
On a side note, does anyone have a document specifying the .ay file format (ZXAYEMUL)? I've got some Delphi source code for an AY Maker program, but I have no desire to RE the file format from that.
For example, I've got a binary I want to run from &4000 in WinAPE. So I used WinAPE's built in disk tools to create an empty disk in drive A and added my .bin to the disk. Then I ran:
MEMORY &3FFF
LOAD"test.bin",&4000
The LOAD command processes for a while, then it says "syntax error" (this is ParaDOS). So I press F7 to open up the debugger and scroll down to &4000... nothing. I continued to scroll down and found my binary (partially) loaded at &A7E4, and again at &A9B0. So something seems to be wrong with the disk I created.
On a side note, does anyone have a document specifying the .ay file format (ZXAYEMUL)? I've got some Delphi source code for an AY Maker program, but I have no desire to RE the file format from that.
not read it myself.. but try here for the ay format:
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/projectay/tech.htm
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/projectay/tech.htm
In the case of the Spectrum you possibly need to define your question a bit more precisely, because there has never been a universally accepted disk standard on the Speccy. (Well, in Russia TR-DOS is the standard, so someone from there might give you a different answer...)
However, if you just have a binary that you want to convert to an emulator file that will load at a particular address, the easiest way is to create a .TAP tape image. The util I use for this is BINTAP by Lee Tonks aka Blood - I *think* you can get a windows port and portable C source from ftp.worldofspectrum.org, but I can't check right now (the Assembly wifi network blocks FTP :-( ) Failing that, bin2tap by Zeroteam looks like it should do the job.
In fact, most of the time I don't need to use BINTAP, because Pasmo (which I use as my assembler) and zmakebas (which I use for BASIC stubs) both have the option to output .tap files directly.
...And, the really handy thing about .tap files is that you can just concatenate them together to get one image containing multiple files.
However, if you just have a binary that you want to convert to an emulator file that will load at a particular address, the easiest way is to create a .TAP tape image. The util I use for this is BINTAP by Lee Tonks aka Blood - I *think* you can get a windows port and portable C source from ftp.worldofspectrum.org, but I can't check right now (the Assembly wifi network blocks FTP :-( ) Failing that, bin2tap by Zeroteam looks like it should do the job.
In fact, most of the time I don't need to use BINTAP, because Pasmo (which I use as my assembler) and zmakebas (which I use for BASIC stubs) both have the option to output .tap files directly.
...And, the really handy thing about .tap files is that you can just concatenate them together to get one image containing multiple files.
@gasman: I use WLA-DX, which doesn't have any .tap output option. I'll check out bin2tap.