Setting up the Tapecart SD

[Remzi]

You need to format a micro SD card with FAT32 file system and unzip the file below,

http://www.load64.com/up/sd.zip

Copy the contents inside the folder called sd to your SD card.Make sure browser.prg is at the root,otherwise you will get "Press Play on Tape" message.

You can use any micro SD card upto 32GB in capacity.Try to use 8 or 16GB even smaller if possible.Few users had problems with the 32GB ones.If you are using a Mac,it might create duplicate files on the SD card.

You can change any folder and file on the micro SD card but you need to keep the browser.prg at the root folder.You can find tons of games,demos,apps etc in PRG format at the following link,

http://www.planetemu.net/machine/commodore-64

You can load the browser by pressing the SHIFT and RUN/STOP keys or by typing LOAD command and pressing the RETURN key.

How to create TCRT files:

1.Download Tapecart Bundler.rar and open it to your desktop.
2.Copy your PRG files to the folder called PRG.You need minimum 2 PRG files.You can't convert a single PRG file to TCRT.
3.Double click Runme.bat. It wil create game-Vol#1.tcrt Rename it before moving to your SD card.

[Remzi]

Upgrading the firmware and the browser:

Developer Kim Jorgensen released a new update few days ago.


  Tapecart SD v1.4

    Support P00 files
    Treat extensionless files as PRG
    Convert filenames to PETSCII
    Add TCRT write support

https://github.com/KimJorgensen/tapecart/releases/tag/v1.4

If you'd like to go ahead and do this upgrade,you will need a USB to TTL serial adaptor.Search ebay for FT232RL

Make the connections as shown in the photo below,push gently so it makes a good connection.






You can use the software called Xloader to upload hex file to the Arduino.
Download Xloader

Use the settings

Duemilanove/Nano(Atmega328)
Baud rate: 57600
You can find the COM port number from Device manager/Ports Com-LPT

Other firmwares supporting the TAP file format:

https://github.com/kasbert/tapecart/releases/tag/1.3-kasbert
https://github.com/rainisto/tapecart/releases/tag/v1.4-TAP

[bclx99]

I am sorry for digging into an old topic, but I have just noticed I use an old firmware and would like to figure out if it's worth upgrading.

If I run p00 file which represents side A of some two-sided game, will tapecart replace if with p01 automatically when needed? I guess not, right?

[Remzi]

It's not that easy I'm afraid.Game has to be disassembled and loading routines changed.
Check out this link for some examples.