| Home | David | Projects | T2Tools |
|---|---|---|---|
| Updated: 2003-04-23 |
The basic Acorn Electron was supplied with only a cassette interface for data storage but, thanks to the expansion interface at the back of the machine, a number of peripherals were available to provide disc-based storage.
To facilitate the transfer of users' data from cassette to disc, Slogger, a peripheral manufacturer, produced a number of ROMs for a variety of disc interfaces. Each program, instead of transferring files individually, places them all together in a tape image not unlike those used for games on ROM cartridge.
I have written various utilities to convert between the tape images produced by the various ROMs and other file formats used by emulators. Currently, images produced by T2Peg400 and T2P3 have been read and files successfully extracted.
In addition, I have written some utilities for converting between other popular file formats, such as ADFS disc images, the "standard archiving format" (INF) and UEF tape files.
The latest versions of some of these utilities now use my CMDSyntax library to provide an optional graphical form interface for users who wish to avoid using the command line. The library is included in the archive, so you do not need to download it separately.
The latest versions of ADF2INF, INF2UEF, T2INF, T2UEF, UEF2INF and UEFtrans are to be found in the following archive: t2tools-enhanced-0.1.tar.gz (44435 bytes).
Older versions of the following utilities are available in an archive: T2Tools.zip
For RISC OS users, there is a GUI-based version of T2INF called Tape2Disc.
See also:
This script is for users of all machines with a Python interpreter, allowing you to unpack T2* files on your favourite operating system. It also generates .inf files, which are used by some emulators to discover the attributes of the unpacked files. Version 0.14 (Wed 22nd November 2000)
This is another Python script allowing you to unpack T2* files on your favourite operating system and store them in UEF format for ElectrEm. Version 0.14 (Mon 23rd July 2001)
This script will convert a directory containing files, with their associated .inf files, to a UEF format file. You supply a file called Index containing a filename on each line. Version 0.15 (Mon 23rd July 2001)
This script will convert a UEF file to a directory containing files, with their associated .inf files. Note that it is incomplete and will only work with some files. Version 0.12 (Fri 10th August 2001)
This experimental Python script will attempt to decode 160K, 320K (F format), 640K (L format), 800K (D and E format) and 1600K (E format) ADFS disc images, and extract any files contained, providing the necessary .inf files for use with emulators. It has been tested on various disc images with mixed results. Version 0.20 (Fri 15th March 2002)
Converts a set of files on a RISC OS machine to INF format for use with emulators on other systems. Version 0.12 (Mon 23rd July 2001)
Converts files with associated .inf description files to old-style RISC OS files with load, execution and length information, ready to use with emulators on RISC OS. Version 0.10 (Sat 21st October 2000)
The program requires a machine running RISC OS 2 or higher with 64 kB of free memory to run, plus another 32 kB to extract files. If the use of a taskwindow is specified then there is, of course, the overhead of the text editor used to display the taskwindow.
A Spark archive is available, but this also readable by ArcFS. The archived size is about 33 kB. The unarchived size is about 62 kB. Tape2Disc
A self-extracting version of SparkPlug is available from this site, but a later version may be available from archive sites, such as ftp://ftp.uni-stuttgart.de/ and http://www.mirror.ac.uk/. You should change the file type of the program, "splug/ffb" to BASIC (&FFB) before attempting running it. Alternatively, your browser may automatically run it - beware. SparkPlug
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