Hi, All.
I have an original Dancing Demon cassette (the one published by Radio Shack). It is a Level II BASIC program, and states that it requires a 16K system.
I can successfully CLOAD and RUN it on my Level II 16K system, and on the same system with a my 32K Expansion Interface attached (booted into Level II BASIC using the BREAK key, not booted into TRSDOS). The tape is in extremely good shape and the signal on the tape is very strong. I have a 100% CLOAD success rate of this tape with these two system configurations.
However, whenever I boot to TRSDOS 2.3, enter Disk BASIC 2.2, and attempt to CLOAD this tape, either the CLOAD never completes or it completes but the program is apparently corrupted. I get various errors when I attempt to run it, usually an "undefined line number" error that changes from one attempt to another, sometimes a syntax error in line 1, etc.
I thought perhaps there was some sort of interference creeping into the cassette cable from the floppy drive, floppy cable, or from activity in the floppy controller. I physically positioned the cassette cable and cassette player as far away from the Expansion Interface and floppy drive as possible. I also considered that this particular BASIC program might make some assumptions about specific memory areas available to it (which would not likely be valid assumptions in Disk BASIC), but the fact that the CLOAD often doesn't even complete when performed under Disk BASIC (I get some asterisk flashing, but it never seems to detect the end of the tape file), and the variability of errors when I attempt to run it (when the CLOAD does complete) seem to favor a poor CLOAD process under Disk BASIC, rather than an incompatible memory map issue.
I suspect I might be missing something simple, but after spending a few hours on the problem, I thought it might be time to ask.
Do you know if it's feasible to get the Dancing Demon cassette loaded and running under Disk BASIC 2.2, and if so, do you have any advice for what I might try to get there?
Thanks.
I have an original Dancing Demon cassette (the one published by Radio Shack). It is a Level II BASIC program, and states that it requires a 16K system.
I can successfully CLOAD and RUN it on my Level II 16K system, and on the same system with a my 32K Expansion Interface attached (booted into Level II BASIC using the BREAK key, not booted into TRSDOS). The tape is in extremely good shape and the signal on the tape is very strong. I have a 100% CLOAD success rate of this tape with these two system configurations.
However, whenever I boot to TRSDOS 2.3, enter Disk BASIC 2.2, and attempt to CLOAD this tape, either the CLOAD never completes or it completes but the program is apparently corrupted. I get various errors when I attempt to run it, usually an "undefined line number" error that changes from one attempt to another, sometimes a syntax error in line 1, etc.
I thought perhaps there was some sort of interference creeping into the cassette cable from the floppy drive, floppy cable, or from activity in the floppy controller. I physically positioned the cassette cable and cassette player as far away from the Expansion Interface and floppy drive as possible. I also considered that this particular BASIC program might make some assumptions about specific memory areas available to it (which would not likely be valid assumptions in Disk BASIC), but the fact that the CLOAD often doesn't even complete when performed under Disk BASIC (I get some asterisk flashing, but it never seems to detect the end of the tape file), and the variability of errors when I attempt to run it (when the CLOAD does complete) seem to favor a poor CLOAD process under Disk BASIC, rather than an incompatible memory map issue.
I suspect I might be missing something simple, but after spending a few hours on the problem, I thought it might be time to ask.
Do you know if it's feasible to get the Dancing Demon cassette loaded and running under Disk BASIC 2.2, and if so, do you have any advice for what I might try to get there?
Thanks.