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Tape to hard disc wrapper ACE allows you to share a directory from your hard disc with the emulated CPC through the tape interface. With this feature you can read and write files of a directory of your choice . Loading operations are in full speed (from the CPC point of view the files are loaded/saved with no delay), you can use long file names up to 16 characters (firmware maximum limit), and you have access to subdirectories. Configuring the wrapper: Once the option "Tape to hard disk wrapper" activated from the ACE configuration menu, you then have access to the shared directory through the tape interface. You can also use the tooltype TAPE2HD to activate the wrapper by default. If a disk ROM is installed (which is generally the case) you have to use the command "|TAPE" to use the tape interface (the "|DISC" command switches back to the disc interface). Once done, all the file operation commands (CAT, LOAD, SAVE, OPENIN, OPENOUT...) will grant you access to the shared directory of you hard disc. This directory defaults to "PROGDIR:Share/" but you can change it by using the TAPE2HDPATH tooltype. For security reasons it is not possible to access to files outside this directory (except the ones from subdirectories). Moreover only files compatibles with the 16 characters file name limit are visible (the others are hidden and a message inform you about their existence). Using the wrapper: The CAT command which lists the files might display a lot of entries if your directory is full of stuff. The scrolling could then prevent you from reading the first files of the list. To solve this issue, you can use the [CONTROL] key to hold the catalog display. Also, you can press [ESC] to simply cancel the catalog listing at any time. Moreover, the catalog is displayed in a detailed way much more useful than the AMSDOS defaults. Here is an example: [HOME] Favorite Games/ [DIR] | Favorite Demos/ [DIR] | Menu.bas 11938 B$0170 0000 2E22| Music.bin 4055 B&6380 4000 0480| Music.wav 4MB*Data | Readme.txt 3456 B*ASCII | And how to understand it: * The first line displays under brackets the name of the current directory; HOME indicates the root of the shared directory. * The keyword [DIR] indicated a directory entry. * The size of the files is displayed in bytes (B), kilobytes (KB), megabytes (MB) and even gigabytes (GB) depending on their size. * The type of the files is displayed using the common firmware flags: $ For a BASIC file. & For a binary file. % For a protected file. * For a non-system file (ASCII or raw data). Finally, you have to know that the CPC operating system does not allow directory browsing ; no command exists for such operation. To access to the directories using the hard disc wrapper, you simply have to use the "OPENIN" command with the name of the directory to enter followed by a "/" sign (anyway, directories are always displayed with this trailing slash in the catalog). Please note that the directory names are then limited to 15 characters instead of 16. To go back to the parent directory, you just have to use OPENIN"/", while OPENIN":" will put you directly into the root shared directory (jut like in AmigaShell through the CD command). During file opening in reading mode, in order to be more compliant with existing programs, the file extensions management defaults in the same way the AMSDOS does. If a file name is less than 8 characters long, reading attempts will be done with pending ".", ".bas" then ".bin" extensions. During file opening in write mode, no default extension management is done. (like for the original tape interface). Technical details: From a technical point of view, this wrapper is implemented with the help of a modified firmware ROM and an Z80 illegal instruction. When the tape to hard disc wrapper is disabled, the emulation is not altered at all. Once activated, he firmware ROM is patched on the fly to make use of the special illegal instruction. Then, every time the Z80 emulation encounters this instruction during the firmware ROM code execution, the wrapper specific functions are engaged. Warning: the wrapper will not work if you do not use of the official Amstrad firmware ROM version (all of them are compatibles).