Using the IBM PC's cassette port in DOS
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Why?
Because you may have some old gw-basic programs saved on tape you may wish to use in qbasic... (Basically I wanted to write a program to use the port in DOS, and came up with reason why later :-).
Instructions
First download and unzip this file onto a floppy. Second, you are going to have to resave the basic programs in ASCII format. You do this by first loading cassette basic (this can be done by loading debug, and typing 'G=F600:0000'), then loading the basic file from tape in the normal way. Next, resave the file in ASCII format by typing:
SAVE "anything", A
When its finished saving, reboot back into DOS. The file saved onto tape seems to be split into two parts, a header and the actual data, separated by a second or so of silence. Position the tape just after this 'header' and run ReadTape.Bat. It will ask you to start the tape; so push any key then start the tape. You should hear relay click inside the computer. If all goes well, after the tape has finished, you should see the message "Tape stopped" followed by "Initialising...".
Eventually, you should see a listing a the gwbasic program on screen (the program is saved in tape.bas). If you have any comments on this, then please email or pm me.
At some point in the future, I will probably combine the two programs in the zip file, removing the need for a messy .bat file. I know at the moment this page isn't about programming, but when if anyone's interested I will describe how to program this port soon.
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