[Coco] Orchestra90cc files from Da Barn Studios web

[Pere]

Hi Bill,
thanks a lot for answering so fast!
The loading problem was ... my own fault.
I didn't add at the and of the filename the parameter A for ascii, now I can 
load most of the files.
R AAODDS A (no need for the extension)

I have the real Orchestra90CC cartridge that runs perfect on my CoCo3 but I 
was trying to get something
more from it on my Dragon64.
By now we can load/save scores from/to tape because the disk operations are 
very low level and so
too related to the CoCo-DOS and do nothing on a Dragon DOS.

The converter keeps doing nothing at all, but this doesn't worry me because 
as you said, most of the
scores exist in CoCo format on the net.

By the way we have roughly 2500 scores in CAS format that load and run fine 
in the real cartridge and
in XRoar (which emulates the Orchestra too)

Thanks for the web references, I will give a peek at them, too

cheers
pere

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Previous Message
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 2015 10:06:55 -0400
From: Bill Pierce <ooogalapasooo at aol.com>
To: coco at maltedmedia.com
Subject: Re: [Coco] Orchestra90cc files from Da Barn Studios web
Message-ID: <1503d79f820-549d-29f5c at webprd-a60.mail.aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8

Pere, a lot of those Orch90 files were created on other systems (non-coco - 
orch80, orch85 ect) and were never converted to the Coco Orch90 format. I 
had intended to convert them but never got back to that project.
On the other hand, Guillaume Major over at The Color Computer Archives has 
basically the same file list and I'm pretty sure he told me he had converted 
them.

http://www.colorcomputerarchive.com/coco/Orchestra-90/!orc/

The other files in the upper dirs of the Orchestra90 folder are the 
"unconverted" versions.

I never used the converter program, so I really don't know how well it 
worked (apparently Guillaume got it to work), but the "Orch.bin" program ran 
fine for me when I was using it. I seem to remember it being a little 
flakey, but it worked. I also used it on my real Coco as well as XRoar and 
VCC. In XRoar, once you get the files loading properly, you may need to play 
around with XRoar's sound settings to get them to sound right as it get's 
picky about sound on different machines and OS's.
I ended up with a real Orch90, plus, VCC comes with an emulation of the 
Orch90, so I never went back to those files much.
As a note, I'm pretty sure that none of those files will play on the real 
Orch90 as they need to be converted further. I know the filename extension 
would have to be removed as (real) Orch90 does not have extensions and it 
seems that there's something else that has to be done to get them into an 
Orch90 (CR stripped?)... not sure. It's been a while since I played with 
those files.
Also, in the wimgtool, make sure you transfer the files as "ASCII" even 
though they seem to be bin files. Orch90 files are plain ascii text with the 
first char of each line have $80 added to it (no CR)... the orch90.bin (i.e. 
xxx.orc) files are straight ascii with carriage returns at the end of the 
lines (if I remember right)... orch.bin may load both types... been a long 
time :-)

But the files I linked above "should" work with the "orch.bin" program. 
Maybe it's time I updated mine :-)
The documentation is in "man" format which has embedded printer codes and 
was actually meant to be printed. I don't think I ever cleaned up a copy for 
regular text. The files on my site are basically copies of what was on the 
RTSI site which originated from Delphi downloads.

I also remember "D" is for directory... to load a file try:
R XXX.ORC :X
The before playing you must "score" the file by entering "S" alone, the "P" 
to play. Once a file is "scored" it can be played multiple times without 
scoring again unless you edit the file. Then it must be scored again.


Another good site for Orch90 info is:
http://www.trs-80.com/wordpress/orch80/

Personally, I prefer the Orch90 cart in VCC to using XRoar (the sound is 
better)



Bill Pierce
"Charlie stole the handle, and the train it won't stop going, no way to slow 
down!" - Ian Anderson - Jethro Tull



My Music from the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3
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