Amstrad CPC CD Fast Load. Convert Cassette games into CD Fast Loading Games 464 6128 664

How to convert your audio cassettes into fast loading CD's. This method should work with all cassette based computers providing a gap is inserted between all data blocks.
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Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• amstrad
• cpc
• 464
• 6128
• 664
• plus
• cassette
• game
• games
• cd
• fast
• load
• speed
• 2x
• Star
• Sabre
• tape
• to
• computer

[ScrewAttackEurope]

Have you also tried it with an MP3 player? Might be easier/cheaper than burning to a CD each time!

[retrozoneorg]

@ScrewAttackEurope I have tried it and it worked. I was worried that the MP3 compression would damage the data - but it worked fine...

[SonOfFurzehatt]

Is it just me that finds the whole idea of games on cassette a little bit amazing?

Presumably there's nothing to stop you from putting games on your iPod too.

[retrozoneorg]

@SonOfFurzehatt That should work... I have tested with MP3 and it worked so AAC should be fine also.

[MsChingchongchang]

Interesting stuff. I recently replaced my BBC Micro Cassette recorder with a cheap DVD player which has worked flawlessly with the games at their original speed, but once I try to speed them up using this method it doesn't seem to 'hear' any data at all. In your opinion, should this method work with the ol' BBC B?

[retrozoneorg]

@MsChingchongchang Hi there, Sorry it took so long to respond. It should work with all tape loading machines to one degree or another. Is there a leader sound on a BBC cassette (a long single tone of about 3-4 seconds) in front of each loading block?

If that is the case I would try to keep those long tones intact and only speed up the other parts of the recording. The volume also has to be set to a higher level when loading at high speed - does the DVD player have a volume control?

[upyourarse1]

there was a very old game copier on the amastrad called cyclone copier, it did exactly the same thing without all this faf. all you've done is changed the baud speed from 8 to 64

[ninjazhu]

what if you put a custom loader at the start, then make the rest of it headerless, that should remove the need for all the gaps/blocks.

[JaemzStar]

lol keeping a library of amstrad games on the ipod xDDD how convenient

[shabs1985]

is it only limited to 200%?

[dlfrsilver]

This method is not working with games using pauses length (Narc from Ocean Software, and all the games using a Bleepload with music, and games with Direct Recording blocks (Franck bruno's Boxing, Spiky Harold, Nodes of Yesod, Runestone, etc.....)

But works great with speedlock, alkatraz and spectrum schemes :)

[ScrewAttackEurope]

@retrozoneorg I suppose you could also save it as a WAV file if you're really worried about quality control.

But this a great tutorial.

[ScrewAttackEurope]

@retrozoneorg Really? Thanks for letting me know.

Did you record the MP3's at a high quality in order for them to work?

[ChrisLody]

@retrozoneorg Ah, perhaps if the file were recorded and played back on a device capable of higher sample rates than 44.1khz it could load even faster. maybe 48khz or 96khz. you could probably do it with one of those little voice recorders that write to sd card for example. I might have to buy some 2nd hand hardware to experiment with. Thanks for the reply by the way.