When the idler is going back and forth, it means that it read a block with errors so is rewinding the tape slightly and trying to read that block again. Since the data is stored as audio, any kind of electromagnetic interference (such as a light turning off) could cause noise in the signal, so the system is programmed to try again like this. But if the checksum on that block fails several times in a row, it will stop and pop up the cassette error message.

@jacklick

4 ай бұрын

Good info. Thanks for sharing.

Wonderful

Very nice

Super video 🤣🤣📸📸😂😀📸📸

For the idler tires, you can just use a regular cassette pinch roller, you just have to slice it in half and sand it down as they are just barely too big. It's easier to only use one half, sand it down and then sand the remains of one original tire and keep that for rewind. Right now I'm trying to dump DECO cassette tapes, I hope I can find a program to decode FM to binary (the DECO cassette data format is FM - the same as on a Floppy Disk... I expected it to use Manhattan or FSK or something... otherwise I have to write one myself, which is probably gonna take an entire day, I'm a bit rusty) Worst case we'll end up with nothing but a Wave file dump of The Tower, but we'll get there... I don't know how to dump the dongle. But I bet it's simple enough to bruteforce on a modern machine in no time.

@jacklick

2 жыл бұрын

I thought FSK was "digital FM"? Are you trying to dump a previously non-dumped game? I am definitely interested in recording new tapes :) good luck.

@senilyDeluxe

2 жыл бұрын

@@jacklick In short news: I have a dump of The Tower. Now: How do I get it (and the Test Tape) on that ROM on the Multikit? TL;DR (Note: My dump is far from playable, I haven't dumped the dongle yet and the binary still contains the raw data including block headers, trailers and checksums and I'm pretty sure that MAME wants just the block data and nothing else) OK so I have written a program to decode FM myself. And from the four dumps of the The Tower tape that I made, three produced the same exact binary and the fourth one has a few bad blocks and quite a bunch of bit errors littered throughout but still is mostly identical. But... I recorded the tape with my finger pushing the tape against the read head, then I recorded again with my finger on the supply idler wheel mechanism pushing it for hopefully better transport. Then I just pushed the mechanism. And then I just let the tape run without touching it. I think the one with just pushing the tape head was the bad dump. Unfortunately, in the machine, the tape stutters wildly and fails to even load the header. In case you want that program, it's on arcade-projects dot com in Project Showcase - but someone else just made a replacement for the bubble memory modules of the Konami Bubble System which is way more awesome than dumping The Tower. And while we're here... I'm struggling to fix a DECO Cassette System boardset. The BIO board is fixed, just bad RAM (you can use 6116 plugs right in), but the DSP board crashes some games, most games run in slow motion, some run too fast. And the sound/VRAM module just renders the first garbage screen in the boot sequence and hangs. It works fine with the original Cassette BIOS though - although I can't load anything off that tape drive no matter what boardset I use and it's clearly the drive's fault (as I said - the transport is stuttering wildly and it's not the motor).

@jacklick

2 жыл бұрын

@@senilyDeluxe after verifying 4118ram pin19 (a10 on 6116) was tied high I had recently swapped my 4118 for 6116 as well. I had purchased some 4118 that were giving were causing issues. I read your post on arcade projects and will follow that thread. Super interesting!

It will only get worst 🤣 with tape stretching and wearing, plus magnetic data merging... 👍

@jacklick

2 жыл бұрын

Thankfully, I have the multi-kit so won't have to use them. It would be nice to have an easy replacement but too bad they used such an odd ball cassette .

Xoxo

I have 2 deco cocktail games, installed the multi kit on both, work great but im missing a monitor tube for one of them. Any ideas? they are strange size 17-18 inch

@jacklick

2 жыл бұрын

I saw your post on klov. Post the tube id number of the working/complete one. If they are 18 inch, it is going to be difficult to find a replacement; especially if you don't have the yoke.

The first video of our (Arcademuseum Seligenstadt) Deco cassette system is out: kzread.info/dash/bejne/momcpJdshJSrc5s.html

@jacklick

2 жыл бұрын

awesome! thanks for sharing and congrats on getting it up and running.

The Idler is suppose to ONLY go clockwise when reading the tape? Once the Tape has been read, where does it dump the game code off of the tape, because there should be some registers or RAM chips I think the tape game code gets dumped onto and after its dumped the tape is no longer being read. What does the Dongles have loaded on them? because I don't know what the purpose of what the dongles are doing unless its some type of security code that if you don't have the dongles the tape game code can't be dumped onto the RAM chips and the dongle reads the game code from the RAM chips.

@jacklick

2 жыл бұрын

Not sure if it is clockwise or counter-clockwise, but the idler is one way going fwd and the way going rev. Correct, the game code is loaded from tape into ram and then the tape is not used again. The dongles hold a key that must match or is needed for key calculation based on the key code at the beginning of tape provided game code. I haven't opened one but it is likely just a buffer and some rom. The boot roms probably have some instruction "do not proceed" if the keys don't match.

Nc

May I have the link to the right idler to buy a pair? And I replaced the sponge inside the cassette for better that the head has a better connection to the tape

@jacklick

Жыл бұрын

I have it in the video description. Idler Tire Size = J : 8-1.5-1.5mm Vendor/Item= www.ebay.com/itm/203291315930