From: Adam Trionfo ballyalley@hotmail.com
Sent: Saturday, February 23, 2019 10:42 AM
To: ballyalley@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Used 300-Baud Tools to Archive "Unusual Sounds" 

I have digitally archived "Unusual Sounds" by Bill Loos with the 300-baud tools for Windows. This program has not been archived before in any format. "Unusual Sounds" was published in ARCADIAN 3, no. 7 (May 08, 1981): 79., here:

http://www.ballyalley.com/newsletters/arcadian/arcadian_vol_3/arcadian_vol_03_issue_07.pdf#Page=9

The 300-baud tools can be downloaded here:

http://www.ballyalley.com/program_downloads/tape_archive_tools/tape_archive_tools.html

Here is how I went about archiving this short program:
1) I used "txt2prg" to turn my plain ASCII text file into a PRG program that could then be converted into a 300-baud WAV file. My text file (attached) looks like this:

. UNUSUAL SOUNDS
. BY BILL LOOS
. ARCADIAN 3, NO. 7 (MAY 08, 1981): 79.
10input X;input Y; &(21)=15
20for A=Xto Y
30&(19)=A;&(18)=A
40&(20)=ABS(2mul A);next A
50for B=0to 500;next B
60&(18)=0;&(19)=0;&(20)=0
70goto 10

I used the following command line to convert the ASCII file into a file suitable for KCS:

txt2prg Unusual.txt Unusual.prg

2) I used the following KCS command to convert the PRG file into a 300-baud WAV file:

KCSWIN -M -L5 -P50 Unusual.prg

After the conversion, I was able to load "Unusual Sounds" with the 300-baud interface on a real Astrocade and run it without any problems. I've attached screenshots of the program running. I also made a video of the program loading and running (but I haven't uploaded it anyplace-- I'm not sure that I will do that unless someone is interested it it-- it's not too exciting).

I typed in this short program just to test the 300-baud tools. I've used them before, but it has been quite a while. They work fine. The next step would be to convert this file into "AstroBASIC." However, since this Bally BASIC port accesses the astrocade's sound ports directly, the program would require slight changes to work properly with "AstroBASIC." I think that the only change necessary would be to add an NT=-1 at the beginning of the program, but I'm not sure. Also, the first three comment lines (which take up no program memory) would be lost after the conversion to "AstroBASIC."

For those interested in the eight sounds that this program produces, I cut them out of the video file and made an mp3 file which is attached.

This was a fun exercise. Now another program is archived for BallyAlley.com-- I guess I'll add it sometime soon.

Adam
