LERM Tape Copier & Others

Hairy · November 2011

I see from reading a few old threads that there is a bit of confusion with some LERM titles.

I've got Tape Copier, which comes with all documentation, hopefully it will help in solving something, or add to the confusion.

I first thought it would come under Tape copier 6.0 but it has 2 more programs on it, M Mode 2 and Minitape 6
Minitape 6 is currently MIA, Tape Coper 6 and M Mode 2 are STP.
I'm not sure where the complete tape fits in though.

I'll TZX the whole tape in a few minutes. EDIT: Or maybe an hour........

Here are a few scans:

I also have the manuals for Tape Copier 6, Minitape 6.0 and M Mode Ver 2.

Hairy · November 2011

Having some trouble converting this to TZX. I've managed to get a WAV of each program on the tape, and they all load into zxspin. I've uploaded them if anyone else wants to have a go.

Links:
Program 1: Tape Copier 6.0
Program 2: M Mode 2
Program 3: Minitape 6.0 << Requires Interface 1

Andrew Barker · November 2011

Hi Hairy,

Many thanks for this. Indeed the Lerm tapes need resolving, probably using scans and WAV/TZX images. For some reason I sometimes have trouble making a TZX, maybe similar to what you are experiencing. I will download these samples and see if I can compare against some of mine. We've done loads over time. I was hoping to use the PZX technique to make a working TZX, but I'm still too lame ;-).

I've got a WIP folder just for lerm tapes. It gives me a good reason to revisit once more.

I mentioned something either on the forums or the MIA list about M Mode 2, but I'll have to dig about what I found. Some are listed as MIA, but I think they might be STP, being on another tape but not classified as a compilation.

I've got Tape Copier 6 (134), not sure what the number in brackets represents ? I noticed on your scan the actual cassette reads (141). Would it be a serial number or version release ? I've got a WAV of TC7 which reads (171) so they count up.

I've got TZXs of TC6 but haven't released it because the final block on MM2 (48 bytes) doesn't have a good checksum, so I need to find more WAV examples to check.

Thanks for bumping this tape, I'll revisit.

Andrew Barker · November 2011

Yep, same problem with M-Mode2, though using samp2tzx it gives me a 49 byte block with a good checksum. Not sure what it's supposed to be ?
A number of other LERM titles give dodgy checksums at the end of a group of blocks.

The timings for the blocks seem to be:
Pilot 2165:239
Sync 667:714 (not a bug in MakeTZX may give you 714:714
BIT 855:1710

Ah, when I change the 49 byte block to the above timings it appears to work, though I'm not sure what to do next. If anyone want's to play with the TZX it's here:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/15363623/M-Mode2.zip

The Manual for M-Mode 2 would be welcome, just so I can actually test that it's loaded correctly. I just get a yellow screen, not sure what to do next or whether it's barfed ?
Ah, pressing L and S seem to do something.

Hairy · November 2011

M Mode 2 should have a black screen and yellow border when loaded up.

Scanning manual now......

Andrew Barker · November 2011

BTW, WAV2TZX is very useful, but I found it was unstable using the -filter option, with the EXE inside the ZIP.
You can download WAV2TZX+Source from here:
http://www.atc.us.es/~rodriguj/wav2tzx.zip

To make the -filter more stable I had to recompile the source. I used LCC-Win:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LCC_(compiler)
http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~lcc-win32/

I can use WAV2TZX :
wav2tzx M-Mode2.wav mm2.tzx -end 40 -filter

Amazingly this will create a TZX with good checksums :-), so I can revisit the others I was having trouble with.

 P:LERM MM2   P-2154,8063 S- 714/ 714 0- 850,1-1700 F-00 B8 L-   19 CY P-0.000
 ------------ P-2156,3221 S- 714/ 794 0- 853,1-1705 F-FF B8 L-  371 CY P-0.000
 B:LERM       P-2156,8061 S- 714/ 714 0- 849,1-1697 F-00 B8 L-   19 CY P-0.000
 ------------ P-2157,3221 S- 714/ 794 0- 852,1-1704 F-FF B8 L-  725 CY P-0.000
 ------------ P-2155,8061 S- 635/ 714 0- 852,1-1703 F-00 B8 L-   19 CY P-0.000
*------------ P-2156, 247 S- 794/ 635 0- 857,1-1714 F-07 B8 L-   32 CY P-0.000
*------------ P-2155, 247 S- 714/ 714 0- 857,1-1714 F-07 B8 L-   12 CY P-0.000
*------------ P-2154, 247 S- 714/ 714 0- 857,1-1712 F-07 B8 L-  722 CY P-0.000
*------------ P-2158, 247 S- 714/ 635 0- 858,1-1715 F-07 B8 L-   48 CY

I need to alter the code for Samp2TZX as it creates a read only TZX so if you re-issue the command to convert a WAV, it cannot overwrite the already existing TZX. It's just in the file attributes section of the code.

Note that the short blocks need to use ID.11 Turbo Loading blocks as we don't want to loose the pilot length.

gorski · November 2011

Hi all

http://forest.no-ip.org/wos/tapecopier6test.tzx

here is tzx maked from sample for tape copier, seems to be same like this in wos.

Greets,
Gorski
to be continue :)
thanks LFaria for tool :)

Andrew Barker · November 2011

Nice which tool ? Like the polish one but modified ?

I've done all 3 programs within the tape, using the method above, but for my own samples
I had to alter my settings. I've got 3 samples of this, but two seem the same, and another lacks MM2 which I believe you could buy with or without. Making either 1~3 versions of this 'package' ? Or at least 2 ?

I've done two of mine so far, and should be able to do TC7, TC8 & TC9 for comparison of what maybe already one WoS. Along with others I have from the team (Steve, Tony, Paul etc).

What I have noticed is that on some they have pure tones either before or after a block, probably to fool a tape copier, but not used as decryption. We could omit, of chose to include them if we wanted more faithful representation of the source tape.

Will post URL's once I've checked them.

Andrew Barker · November 2011

Okay here's the tones that appear before and after some programs:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/15363623/TC6Tones.zip

The PreTones.wav has 5 tones, the EndTone is one longer tone.
If anyone fancies making a TZX of a sequence of pulses to represent this, I can
add it to the TZX for release.

It's a shame we don't have a tool to convert such things, like a Pure Tone generator or convertor ?

Beta TZXs will appear soon.....

lfaria · November 2011

Andrew Barker wrote: »

What I have noticed is that on some they have pure tones either before or after a block, probably to fool a tape copier, but not used as decryption. We could omit, of chose to include them if we wanted more faithful representation of the source tape.

In the WAVs posted by the OP, these appear ~18ms before the initial leader of MM2 and MT6
(~30ms of pulses with average ~4900t
~30ms silence
~30ms of pulses with average ~3700t
~30ms silence
~30ms of pulses with ~2800t
~30ms silence
~30ms of pulses with ~2050t
~30ms silence
~30ms of pulses with ~1550t)

and ~20ms after the end of MT6
(~1s of pulses with ~6500t)

Definitely, they are not used. Should we include them or not...hmmm.

Andrew Barker · November 2011

And without further ado... here's two TZXs:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/15363623/Lerm%20Tape%20Copier%206.zip

The ZIP contains:
Lerm Tape Copier 6 (134).tzx
Lerm Tape Copier 6 (141).tzx

The first TZX contains Lerm Tape Copier 6, followed by Lerm MM2.
The second contains Lerm Tape Copier 6, Lerm MM2 AND MT6.0

I'm not sure how we represent all this info infoseek, perhaps a comment will do.
The following mag scan elaborates that for ?5 you get the two programs and
for ?6 you get all three:
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/showmag.cgi?mag=YourSpectrum/Issue14/Pages/YourSpectrum1400070.jpg

Again you'll note the numbers in brackets, I'm not sure if this is significant or not ?
Or whether it's like a serial number, or count of how many they had sold to date, incremental per customer ?

Andrew Barker · November 2011

I think Lerm M Mode 2 is a false positive and not STP. I don't think it was released on its own, it comes at least on Lerm Tape Copier 6:
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0008345

Also Minitape 6 like the ones before it came on other Lerm tapes:
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0024005

So it should also be Italic.

One block in Lerm Wafa-Drive 1, block 21 on Side A has a checksum error but still loads.
I noticed the checksum byte on the others like TC6, does that mean we just forced the TZX to load and the block is faulted, or just wasn't fully complete anyway ?

I should also be able to resolve WD1b - Tape to Drive, as I have WAV/TZXs on my HD.

gorski · November 2011

good work :)
share wavs with this lerm wafa to get try Andrew :)
for lerm tape copier i want to say from wav file counting 246 pilot tones before all turbo blocks.

Greets,
Gorski

Hairy · November 2011

Andrew Barker wrote: »

And without further ado... here's two TZXs:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/15363623/Lerm%20Tape%20Copier%206.zip

The ZIP contains:
Lerm Tape Copier 6 (134).tzx
Lerm Tape Copier 6 (141).tzx

The first TZX contains Lerm Tape Copier 6, followed by Lerm MM2.
The second contains Lerm Tape Copier 6, Lerm MM2 AND MT6.0

I'm not sure how we represent all this info infoseek, perhaps a comment will do.
The following mag scan elaborates that for ?5 you get the two programs and
for ?6 you get all three:
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/showmag.cgi?mag=YourSpectrum/Issue14/Pages/YourSpectrum1400070.jpg

Again you'll note the numbers in brackets, I'm not sure if this is significant or not ?
Or whether it's like a serial number, or count of how many they had sold to date, incremental per customer ?

Excellent work, thanks guys, it was giving me a headache :)

Andrew Barker wrote: »

I think Lerm M Mode 2 is a false positive and not STP. I don't think it was released on its own, it comes at least on Lerm Tape Copier 6:
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0008345

Also Minitape 6 like the ones before it came on other Lerm tapes:
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0024005

So it should also be Italic.

One block in Lerm Wafa-Drive 1, block 21 on Side A has a checksum error but still loads.
I noticed the checksum byte on the others like TC6, does that mean we just forced the TZX to load and the block is faulted, or just wasn't fully complete anyway ?

I should also be able to resolve WD1b - Tape to Drive, as I have WAV/TZXs on my HD.

MT6 was also available on it's own for ?2, according to the Introductory Sheet (in 1st post) under General comments.

gorski · November 2011

Andrew Barker wrote: »

I should also be able to resolve WD1b - Tape to Drive, as I have WAV/TZXs on my HD.

here is tzx for side a
http://forest.no-ip.org/wos/SpectrumTapeUtility(WD1B)-SideA.tzx
with correct timings

Greets,
Gorski

gorski · November 2011

here is tzx for side b
http://forest.no-ip.org/wos/SpectrumTapeUtility(WD1B)-SideB.tzx
with correct timings 99.8% :)

Greets,
Gorski

Andrew Barker · November 2011

Many thanks Gorski,

I had used 239 for the pilot, but if most of the LERM tapes seem to differ then I'm happy to change it before final release. I did notice they different, so did the other timings.

I wonder if any of the Lerm tapes have and load/save routine saved inside them ? So we can be 100% what the correct timings should be.

Mine are estimates of course and I set the rest to match. The BIT values often came out as 856:1712 which adheres to the standard rule, though I assumed the timings were normal and that only the pilot was different ?

If we can find a routine I can add it to the schemes page.

Did you count the pilot waves manually :-o ?

BTW I made a mistake ealier with the SYNC, it should have been 667:735 not 667:714.
MakeTZX had a bug that made the SYNC 714:714. I can't remember if it was <v2.33 or <v2.34 versions that did this. I think v2.35-B1 fixed that. Ramsoft kindly released the source so perhaps someone may recompile or look at the source.

Nice work.

Andrew Barker · November 2011

@Hairy

MT6 was also available on it's own for ?2, according to the Introductory Sheet (in 1st post) under General comments.

I happily stand corrected. I wonder about the others, or maybe only MT6 due to demand ?

gorski · November 2011

Andrew Barker wrote: »

Did you count the pilot waves manually :-o ?

no lfaria tool count pilot lenght :)
I will share wavs with lfaria to confirm timings if he want to take a look :)

Greets,
Gorski

p.s. loader is interesting especially what do with last turbo block :)
last block is 52 bytes for example but program loading only 42 bytes and after this reading at different address 2 bytes and expecting 07 :) i not know what exactly do .. :)

lfaria · November 2011

I got them, but have no time to check today, will try tomorrow.

But I did check the loader for MM2 and can confirm that the pilot for the special blocks is not counted(so, it can be standard length) and the last block is loaded differently: the last 7 bytes (the 0x07s and final 0x00) are not read along with the others, therefore, the checksum is the one before that (0xD7).
Then, 4 more bytes are read.
The 1st is dropped, the next 2 are stored into memory and the 4th is the checksum of the 2 stored. This micro-block is ok if the 2nd stored byte is 0x07. The checksum (wrong, because it's 0x07 and should be 0x00, so, in reality, this micro-block gives a silent loading error) is ignored, and the remaining 3 bytes in the tape are never read...weird, no? ;-)

Not sure if TC6 is the same, but it sure looks like it.

gorski wrote: »

no lfaria tool count pilot lenght :)
I will share wavs with lfaria to confirm timings if he want to take a look :)

Greets,
Gorski

p.s. loader is interesting especially what do with last turbo block :)
last block is 52 bytes for example but program loading only 42 bytes and after this reading at different address 2 bytes and expecting 07 :) i not know what exactly do .. :)

Hairy · November 2011

I've just found another LERM title, has the same cover as the one in my first post, different tape.

Copyright 1984(11), I want to know what these numbers in brackets mean.
Anyone else got a copy of this, and can check the numbers?

I see this is already in the archive, it is listed as a differnt version of Lerm Tape Copier 7
Maybe it should have another entry made instead. Lerm Software is confusing (from a database point of view).

I'll copy it and tzx it, even though I don't think I need to, but I need to learn :)
and then they can be compared.

gorski · November 2011

give us wav file of this tape Hairy :)
Please :)

Greets,
Gorski

Hairy · November 2011

LERM Tape Copier 7 & 6 << WAV File.

Hairy · December 2011

Andrew Barker wrote: »

I've got Tape Copier 6 (134), not sure what the number in brackets represents ? I noticed on your scan the actual cassette reads (141). Would it be a serial number or version release ? I've got a WAV of TC7 which reads (171) so they count up.

There is a Tape Copier 6 with M Mode 2 on ebay, and the tape also has (134)

Andrew Barker · December 2011

There's also a TC9 on ebay which has a (2) in brackets:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?VISuperSize&item=390325831855

In some ways it's a shame we don't have cassette scans/pictures stored on WoS,
like below the inlay place holder ?

Problem as with any release is that WoS only handles the parent release(one ID per title), and you can't easily link alternate releases to inlays/screens etc. I image it would be a lot of work. That said, I probably overlooked something.

lfaria · December 2011

Hairy wrote: »

LERM Tape Copier 7 & 6 << WAV File.

Can't load (normally) the 1st one (in Fuse 1.0.0.1 win32). :sad: the first header is not correctly grabbed by the ROM loader.

This time, again, both the 5 runs of dummy tones (just before TC6) and the long run (at the end of it) are present.

Eidt:
After another download attempt of the WAV file (Surely, I got it truncated the 1st time) and another analysis and loading attempt, let me rephrase this post...:oops:

Hairy · December 2011

lfaria wrote: »

Can't load (normally) any of those two (in Fuse). :sad:
The WAV's header announces more samples than available in the file, did you cut the file manually (i.e. without a WAV editor)?

This time, only the 5 runs of dummy tones are present, just before TC6. The long run at the end is absent.

I just recorded it with Soundforge (44k 8bit mono.), and trimmed off the beginning and end silent parts, and saved it.

Did nothing else to it.

It loads fine for me in ZXspin 0.666

Andrew Barker · May 2013

Hi folks,

Sorry to bump his thread again. We're back at looking at these Lerm tapes.
Could I ask fellow WoSsers to take photos of they inlay and cassette tape.
It's just for the purpose of seeing what the number in brackets is all about ?

We have have WD1a and WD1b, as well as MD1a and MD1b, I'm not sure where the breakpoint is in the numbering between versions.

The upgrade server appears to only require the TAPE itself, so I'm assuming we have a situation where an inlay refers to W/MD1 (a may not always be listed), but the actual upgraded tape wouldn't really differ.

To be honest, we need more dumps from these too, as well as Kobrahsoft tapes/disks, Romantic Robot. All those copier utilities. I imagine we have a number of variations that we've not preserved due to the limited knowledge and availability of these titles.

So for example we have (134) and (141) for Lerm Tape Copier 6.
(134) doesn't include MiniTape6, but (141) does.

There's another up on eBay which lists number (132), though I'm unsure whether that includes MT6 ?:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sinclair-ZX-Spectrum-Tape-Copier-6-by-Lerm-Software-/170827692317?pt=UK_PC_Video_Games_Video_Games_JS&hash=item27c61fb91d
I know the buyer had various options to include the likes of MT6 etc, so the number may still be true for which every extras you got on the tape ?

Cheers

jamorski · May 2013

Theres one in my box I've put a picture of in the Sales thread, I should have a look at in more detail I suppose.

Also Kopy Kat seems to be there too, though the inlay looks to be written by hand?

Jonb_uk · May 2013

Hi,

Can I add to this thread - has any of the documentation which used to come with some of the Lerm programs been archived anywhere?

I had/still have TC5, TC6 and WD1 which I seem to remember came with some very detailed instructions (especially WD1)

Cheers :smile:

LERM Tape Copier & Others

Comments