bsittler
bsittler.bsky.social
bsittler
@bsittler.bsky.social
interested in many things, including computers both new and old; find some of my other stuff at https://www.google.com/search?q=bsittler
Also, I always fully fast forward then fully rewind tapes before playing them, it seems to greatly reduce the number of jams
October 28, 2025 at 2:48 AM
I recently fished out a tape that separated from a cracked spindle and got tangled within the mechanism. Smooth coated wooden chopsticks worked well for gently untangling it. I reinserted it and taped the spindle and was able to read the tape and recover all the data. Sometimes it's salvageable!
October 28, 2025 at 2:47 AM
Aware I typed Acornsoft not Acomsoft but somehow it ended up a typo 🤦‍♂️
October 28, 2025 at 2:41 AM
So far on the Acorn side the only tapes I've finished converting are:
- Chuckie Egg (A&F Software) (UK) (BBC Model B)
- Hopper (Acomsoft) (UK) (BBC Model B)
- Castle Quest (Micro Power) (UK) (BBC Model B)
October 28, 2025 at 2:40 AM
not quite? i captured audio of some BBC Model B tapes as FLAC, and also made UEF. BBC-oriented tools I found seemed bad at audio-to-UEF so I used MSX tools to convert to MSX CAS format (more or less a "just the bits" solid image format) and then went from there to UEF using github.com/f-fix/cas2uef
GitHub - f-fix/cas2uef: convert MSX-style CAS from DumpListEditor to UEF for BBC Model B
convert MSX-style CAS from DumpListEditor to UEF for BBC Model B - f-fix/cas2uef
github.com
October 27, 2025 at 6:42 AM
it's good to see the pc-6001 looking so graphical for once! are you going to try animating on it?
June 24, 2025 at 10:16 PM
Wow! Is there any way these improved graphics could be patched into the game?
June 13, 2025 at 5:29 PM
New owner got a nice discount relative to crowdfunding price, this one is sold now!
March 21, 2025 at 6:33 PM
One hour to go, looks like it might sell cheaper than what I paid for it. A bargain for someone, I guess? www.ebay.com/itm/20535341...
ZX Spectrum Next Accelerated Issue 2 KS Edition, new & unopened | eBay
This is a ZX Spectrum Next Accelerated computer, Issue 2 KS crowdfunded edition.
www.ebay.com
March 21, 2025 at 4:51 PM
One day remaining and the price is still 8bit in USD! Well, only if you ignore the shipping though...
March 20, 2025 at 4:58 PM
thank you! just now i removed "make an offer" but also dropped the starting price to 1 USD - though buyer pays shipping (i ship worldwide* from California using eBay's global shipping)
* except to countries eBay's global shipping excludes
March 14, 2025 at 6:51 PM
that makes sense. the major differences start here, and for all i know may be where the data recovery went awry
March 2, 2025 at 8:29 PM
The first two files (the loader and the loading screen) are bit-for-bit identical to the name-your-price version on tonsomo.itch.io/jurl-sinclai..., it's the third file (the game itself) where the differences pop up
March 2, 2025 at 8:16 PM
possibly there is some audio dropout here?
March 2, 2025 at 8:02 PM
Those have succeeded with both higher recording volume levels for the tape audio, and variants of the Kansas City Standard, which is a lot more tolerant of perceptual audio codecs and works fine even passed through fairly strict band-pass filters. The ZX ROM codec is a fair bit pickier
March 2, 2025 at 7:53 PM
I have yet to get past the R Tape Loading error, 10:8
March 2, 2025 at 7:48 PM
This one is sold now
February 5, 2025 at 7:04 PM
12 hours to go on this auction, and it looks like it will sell! hopefully its new owner will get a lot of enjoyment from it
Blue MSXVR Virtualizer Computer w/box, manual, Leicke power supply & cables; MSX | eBay
This computer works well but I find I don't use it often enough to justify keeping it. I believe this blue case is a "special" color which is not currently available from the manufacturer. There are a...
www.ebay.com
February 4, 2025 at 6:14 PM
This one has a whole GB2312 bitmap font in it stored in columns ("sideways") as one would expect for e.g. LED signs
January 22, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Always good to see a better keybord breathe life into an old machine. Are there affordable Japanese keycap sets that could improve the symbol pairing situation?
January 7, 2025 at 7:56 PM