• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

5150 Cassette questions

gkavner

Member
Joined
Aug 21, 2006
Messages
13
Location
Albury New South Wales, Australia.
1. Was there ever any commercially released cassette software for the 5150?

2. I know the device was referred to as CAS1: but is there any way to access it under DOS? That is, is the ONLY way to use it being out of Cassette Basic itself?

3. Was the Cassette port on the PCjr the same as the DIN plug on the 5150?

4. [not cassette related] I read somewhere that early DOS had support for 250k 8" disk drives built in but no manufacturer ever supported the feature. Is this true?

Thanks.
 
1. Was there ever any commercially released cassette software for the 5150?

If there ever was I never saw any. The closest I ever did see was a cassette used for testing a tape drive with diagnostics.

2. I know the device was referred to as CAS1: but is there any way to access it under DOS? That is, is the ONLY way to use it being out of Cassette Basic itself?

You could access the cassette port via BASIC, even if booted from DOS. I spent a bit of time trying to emulate an Atari 800 language course that would play the tutor recorded on the tape. I could start and stop the motor, load and save data but never get the damn audio out of the cassette, so I gave up. That was in '82.

3. Was the Cassette port on the PCjr the same as the DIN plug on the 5150?

Mike? :D

4. [not cassette related] I read somewhere that early DOS had support for 250k 8" disk drives built in but no manufacturer ever supported the feature. Is this true?

I don't recall seeing anything about that in any of the DOS manuals.
 
1. Was there ever any commercially released cassette software for the 5150?

2. I know the device was referred to as CAS1: but is there any way to access it under DOS? That is, is the ONLY way to use it being out of Cassette Basic itself?

3. Was the Cassette port on the PCjr the same as the DIN plug on the 5150?

4. [not cassette related] I read somewhere that early DOS had support for 250k 8" disk drives built in but no manufacturer ever supported the feature. Is this true?

Thanks.

1. I've not seen any commerical cassette software. I have Diagnostics on Cassette from IBM, which is the only cassette for any IBM I've ever seen.

2. I've not tried accessing CAS1: from DOS. I suspect it would puke. Only BASIC knows what to do with it. However, the routines for reading and writing out the cassette port are in the BIOS of the machine, so you could write programs to use the port if you wanted to. It's really a slow speed serial interface, somewhere around 1200 bps.

3. Nope. Damned PCjr ports are all square BERG connectors, except for the composite video and audio jacks which are familiar RCA plugs.

4. I've heard rumors, but not ever seen it. The PC floppy controller uses fairly standard off the shelf parts. If you have an 8" floppy drive using a Shugart derived interface, you should be able to run it from a PC. You'll need custom cabling, but the electronics should be fine.
 
I have seen MS-DOS on 8" disks, for machines like the Zenith Z-100 and Xerox 8/16, but not for the IBM-PC.

The pinout of the cassette is the same as the TRS-80 cable. You might be able to get one from RadioShack.

--T
 
Many years ago, before I was old enough to know better, I saw a 8" floppy disk drive cabinet with two 8" floppy drives in it, 37-pin connector, connected to an old IBM PC/XT/AT (don't remember anymore).

It was at a thrift store and not commanding a spectacular price, so I probably could have snagged the whole setup. Tragically I did not.

I think I thought it was too big or something.
 
An 8" floppy drive is something you expect to encounter in a thrift store that day you took the bicycle for a roundtrip and made a short stop in the store.. If the store has a no-reserve policy, you'd better hurry home to get your car or perhaps take the bus home, carrying the drive in your hands.
 
Many years ago, before I was old enough to know better, I saw a 8" floppy disk drive cabinet with two 8" floppy drives in it, 37-pin connector, connected to an old IBM PC/XT/AT (don't remember anymore).

It was at a thrift store and not commanding a spectacular price, so I probably could have snagged the whole setup. Tragically I did not.

I think I thought it was too big or something.

That beats pretty much all of my tragic collecting stories. That is tragic. A tragic would view that as a serious tragedy.

I wonder if that 8" unit was a commercial product or a homebrew? And it was definitely connected to a badged IBM computer?
 
Yup, a regular IBM. I knew the difference even then. The setup seemed commercial (or at least professional) to me.

I actually haven't been to the thrift stores much at all since I started doing the recycled computer biz.

The last time I went, though, I ran across a fairly early 16K CoCo 1 for $3 (at first I thought it was a 4K).
 
Many years ago, before I was old enough to know better, I saw a 8" floppy disk drive cabinet with two 8" floppy drives in it, 37-pin connector, connected to an old IBM PC/XT/AT (don't remember anymore).

It was at a thrift store and not commanding a spectacular price, so I probably could have snagged the whole setup. Tragically I did not.

I think I thought it was too big or something.
I know how that’s like, you see something at the thrift store that isn’t useful, then after a couple of years you regret not getting it, its a bitch.

That reminds me when I saw an old Odyssey 2 computer at a thrift store. It was in it’s original box and had all of its cables but no cartridges. When I saw it I thought about getting it, but I really didn’t have any use for it (mainly since it didn’t have any cartridges), so I left it. That was one year ago.

I actually haven't been to the thrift stores much at all since I started doing the recycled computer biz.
You must see a lot of neat things.
 
My biggest regret is not grabbing-up the (portable) reel-to-reel VCR I saw at daSally a few years back for eight bucks. Of course, when I did go back for it, it was gone...

--T
 
CAS1: news

CAS1: news

Yep, it's happenning, finally after 25 years. I'm converting the source of "Football Manager" (a soccer management game) to exclusive IBM Cassette format. It will cost u production (cassette, inlay printing and postage) + 1 cent. From Australia maybe $3 roughly. Probably less. I might even do a VC ad campaign with some nice commercial style advert (*only 1cent*) to compliment the release.

Therefore I plan to market the one and only IBM PC Cassette based game commercially in history!! (Just to prove that it occurred).

I still have to clear it with the original author but I'm in good contact with him and he's pretty cool about copyright on his old stuff these days (it was released originally in 1981).

Give me a month or 2 and then fire up your 5150's baby! Get down to radio shack now for your cables and steal that mono cassette deck from church or the local school... cassette commercial software is here!!

I'll make sure it has a groovy inlay and tape label. The game isn't anything to write home about but in basic who cares? It'll all be text based but if u like soccer it IS a great game. I promise, it's not crap. read reviews of it from UK sites "Kevin Toms Football Manager". Mine is based on the Vic20 source.

Greg.

PS. How dare u think of pirating the source and marketing it for yourself;)

PPS. Well pirate it if u want (i dont care) but that defeats the point... It will be the first (only?) software ever marketed exclusively for IBM PC cassette.

PPPS. Makes ya feel good to own a 5150 don't it!!!!!!
 
Your enthusiasm is contagious.

I still need to make the diagnostics available on casette for you .. I have not forgotten.
 
Yep, it's happenning, finally after 25 years. I'm converting the source of "Football Manager" (a soccer management game) to exclusive IBM Cassette format. It will cost u production (cassette, inlay printing and postage) + 1 cent. From Australia maybe $3 roughly. Probably less. I might even do a VC ad campaign with some nice commercial style advert (*only 1cent*) to compliment the release.

Therefore I plan to market the one and only IBM PC Cassette based game commercially in history!! (Just to prove that it occurred).

I still have to clear it with the original author but I'm in good contact with him and he's pretty cool about copyright on his old stuff these days (it was released originally in 1981).

Give me a month or 2 and then fire up your 5150's baby! Get down to radio shack now for your cables and steal that mono cassette deck from church or the local school... cassette commercial software is here!!

I'll make sure it has a groovy inlay and tape label. The game isn't anything to write home about but in basic who cares? It'll all be text based but if u like soccer it IS a great game. I promise, it's not crap. read reviews of it from UK sites "Kevin Toms Football Manager". Mine is based on the Vic20 source.

Greg.

PS. How dare u think of pirating the source and marketing it for yourself;)

PPS. Well pirate it if u want (i dont care) but that defeats the point... It will be the first (only?) software ever marketed exclusively for IBM PC cassette.

PPPS. Makes ya feel good to own a 5150 don't it!!!!!!

If you are going to make this, would you be so good as to make sure it works in the only other PC known to sport a cassette interface, an IBM PCjr. Also, the software would not exclusively be marketed for the cassette if it had previously been released in disk form in 1981. I wish someone actually had the drive to make a unique IBM PC cassette game some day that works with the minimum 16KB configuration.
 
If you are going to make this, would you be so good as to make sure it works in the only other PC known to sport a cassette interface, an IBM PCjr. Also, the software would not exclusively be marketed for the cassette if it had previously been released in disk form in 1981. I wish someone actually had the drive to make a unique IBM PC cassette game some day that works with the minimum 16KB configuration.

Open up a BASIC manual and get going!

Programming a simple game in BASIC isn't hard. The problem is making it entertaining for more than 5 minutes. BASIC is slow so almost any shooting game is out of the question.

Cassette BASIC on the PC and the PCjr are about equivalent, so there is not compatibility issue. PCjr users with the BASIC cartridge can get better graphics and sound, even on a casette program.
 
cassette port

cassette port

At this late date you probably don't care, but...

In the 80's I wrote an assembler program for the pc that could read text files off a cassette written by a TRS80. There are Bios routines to control the port. My program worked well at reading tapes but I could never write a tape that the TRS-80 would understand.
 
cassette tape

cassette tape

how do i post a question on this forum?

1. Was there ever any commercially released cassette software for the 5150?

2. I know the device was referred to as CAS1: but is there any way to access it under DOS? That is, is the ONLY way to use it being out of Cassette Basic itself?

3. Was the Cassette port on the PCjr the same as the DIN plug on the 5150?

4. [not cassette related] I read somewhere that early DOS had support for 250k 8" disk drives built in but no manufacturer ever supported the feature. Is this true?

Thanks.
 
ebay has casette cables for sale every day. Just look in the trs-80 section of vintage. Think I ended up with like 5 of them. Case of all my attempts at getting a cable working at once.
 
Back
Top