TURGEN / Blog: Recent posts

Enhancements

• TSFX: New option to include the "_tsfx" suffix in the output file names
• TSFX: Added support for the RAMBIT Turbo Tape system
• Tape Image Extractor: Heuristic extraction for Czechoslovak Super Turbo
• Super Turbo plugin newly allows conversion of a "loose block".

GUI Refinements

• Structure of the main menu has changed. The "Generator" menu is replaced with "Output"
• New toolbar button for creating TSFX for faster access
• Refined controls in the TSFX dialog
• Tape image extractor, the Checksum calculator UI layout has been fixed
• Default Silence List Specification is now 2.0 seconds.... read more

Enhancements

• The Tape Self Extractors (TSFXes) now fully honor silence lists and silence generated before each turbo block.
• Silence generated after blocks that hold INIT segments. Now, the minimum silence duration is 1.8 seconds for turbo blocks and 2.4 seconds for standard blocks.
• Turbo 2000 Plugin allows conversion of a "loose block".
• Tape image extractor can optionally display chunk data without the offset indicator and textual representation.
• Initial implementation of the heuristic tape image extraction, currently only Turbo 2000 is supported. Support for more systems will be available with future releases.... read more

General

Version 9.4.0 brings significant update of the Wizard for files, Batch processing, and GENCAS components.

All three components were using the concept of "binary file convertors" and "tape image convertors", which limited the processing to binary files and tape images.

The concept was generalized into "file convertors". Now, each plugin can provide "file convertors". Some of the convertors can convert binary files, some can convert plain data, some can convert the tape images. This allows using the three components with all types of files.... read more

This release is a small incremental update.

Enhancements

• TSFX: Maximum supported recording speed for Super Turbo is 5190 bps
• Turbo D: Maximum selectable transfer speed is 16000 bps
• Tape image extractor: Added a simple tool to calculate SIO checksum

User Experience

• Tape image extractor: Items in the File menu have been renamed, so it is clear what they do.

Bug fixes

• Tape image output: Do not allow selecting sampling rate of 96000 Hz, which is not supported by the .CAS format.

The project web is now much faster.
I've switched from WordPress to the MkDocs static site generator. The SF hosting has limitations that result in suboptimal Wordpress performance. Neither SF nor Wordpress is at fault. Since the project web is simple, a static site generator is a good solution.

User Experience

• Many error messages were refined to provide more digestible information
• Turbo 2000: Further refinements of the GUI

Enhancements

• TSFX for standard tape records now support any transfer speed, not just 600 bps. The inter-record-gaps (IRGs) are generated with increased precision. FSK signals are skipped (with a message), but processing for given project item continues.
• The tape image generator: Improved silence processing. Leading and trailing silence is supported, baud and pwms chunks no longer "swallow" silence.
• TSFX: Standard and turbo blocks can be freely mixed in composite TSFXes.
• Wave and Audio output: A few milliseconds of silence is always guaranteed at the end of the generated signal.
• Tape image output: Turbo data blocks can be split in multiple pwmd tape image chunks, if their size exceeds 64 KB. This is useful for the Unerring Master Atari Turbo System.... read more

Foreword
Please note that this is a release candidate, representing a bleeding edge of the development. Install this release candidate only when you believe you can benefit from the fixes and enhancements listed below. Otherwise keep using the previous stable version. If you find bugs, please refer to the Support page for instructions.

User Experience

• Turbo 2000: Further refinements of the GUI... read more

Foreword

Please note that this is a release candidate, representing a bleeding edge of the development. Install this release candidate only when you believe you can benefit from the fixes and enhancements listed below. Otherwise keep using the previous stable version. If you find bugs, please refer to the Support page for instructions.

Download: https://sourceforge.net/projects/turgen/files/turgen/turgen_9.3.0.rc1/... read more

This version focuses mostly on the Turbo 6000 plugin.

Enhancements

• TSFX can be created for the Turbo 6000 turbo system
• New option for TSFX title creation. The titles can be created from input file names or program titles specified in the project items. This gives you more control over the titles.
• Turbo 6000. The user interface has been refined.

Bug Fixes

• Turbo 6000. Program titles generated automatically by the Wizard for files erroneously included a full path to the input files.... read more

Enhancements

• TSFX can be created for the SITRE and NHP 3.6 loading systems supported by the Standard Plus plugin, although with transfer speed limited to 600 bps

• The Turbo 2000 plugin has a new conversion named Multipart Loading. This conversion converts a segmented binary file to a chain of Turbo 2000 files and
  prepends a binary loader to load the chain. Such chain can be easily copied using the common Turbo 2000 copiers or processed by utilities that support only the natural Turbo 2000 file format.... read more

The DOS 2 Binary File Checker (D2BFC) utility that is associated with TURGEN was updated to version 1.5.
D2BFC allows you to inspect and analyze whole directory trees containing Atari DOS 2 binary load files.

What are the innovations?

• Now there are two output formats. The original output format is now called "Quick Report" and displays basic information on each file. The basic information now includes file size, and number of segments. The new output format is CSV which includes a lot of details on each file. The CSV can be easily imported in spreadsheets, where you can filter and sort the data to your liking. E.g. give me binary files with more than X segments etc.
• More options for displaying segments listing
• Succinct error messages for alien and corrupt files
• Succinct notation of hexadecimal numbers. [X] became $X
• The GUI was slightly refined for consistency
• Readme.md is included

Enhancements

• TSFXes now support configurable silence for tape stretching. You can set a minimum duration of a silence that is recorded after the motor is turned on. Setting this silence gives the data recorder time to stabilize and stretch the tape. This prevents spoiling of the recording.

• The tool for creating tape sides now allows "tape side with no duration". This allows you to use the tool to easily create one WAVE or CAS file from multiple project items.

Release 9.2.25 has been repackaged and reuploaded to include important hotfix

Hotfix for Turbo ROM TSFX

• Block termination signal (4 pulses) was not generated

• TSFXes are now supported for the Turbo ROM.
• From one project item, you can now create one composite TSFX that holds both standard and turbo records. This allows creating TSFXes that record a loader as a standard tape boot file followed by turbo records.
• The "Create TSFX" tool displays better messages.

This is a small update release.

Bug Fixes

• Create tape sides: Messages display "WAV" or "Wave", even though output to tape images was selected
• Regression: Code that requires JDK 15 was accidentally included.

Updates

• UI: TURGEN now ships with FlatLaf 3.4
• System requirements change. As minimum, TURGEN requires JRE or JDK 11. JRE or JDK 17 and above is recommended.

Enhancements

• Turbo Blizzard: New configuration entries that allow to set silence durations between significant blocks.

• Turbo Blizzard: TSFXs honor the configuration entries above. Also, a longer silence is added automatically after blocks that hold INIT segments. Corrected
  duration of the pilot tone for sync block.

• TSFX: The "Gaps between files" option was renamed to "Silence between files". The option is now only applicable to composite TSFXs, and the silence is inserted only after 2nd and further files.... read more

New TSFX Creation Style

TURGEN now supports three TSFX creation styles:

• Standalone TSFX
• One TSFX per Project Item (standalone, or composite if needed)
• Composite TSFX

Composite TSFX - Removing FF FF Header from the Last DATA Segment

The segment with code that displays the final screen no longer has the FF FF header. Although the header is within binary load file specification, removing the header will increase compatibility with available binary loaders.... read more

Tape Self-Extractors, initial support for the Standard tape records
* You can now create TSFX from project items of the Standard plugin
* The transfer speed always defaults to 600 bd
* The IRG durations can be slightly off

Other Enhancement
* The LBE binary loader is now compatible with the AltirraOS alternative firmware.

Severe Bug in the Create Tape Sides Tool

For each project item, the tool was skipping the last signal generator instruction. This resulted in missing parts of the signal.
This bug was introduced in release 9.2.4. All user of the Create Tape Sides tool are advised to upgrade to 9.2.20.

UI Refinements

The GUI for Turbo 2000 and Super Turbo 2000 was refined and streamlined.

TSFX Enhancements

• For composite TSFXes, new values for gap durations can be used (0.1 s and 0.5 s). This helps to record more files on tape.
• Turbo 2000 and Super Turbo TSFXes use standardized durations of the pilot tones. The standardized durations come from copiers provided by JRC.
• The system of block flags was streamlined and simplified (this is a change under the covers)... read more

Bug fixes

• The TSFXes for Atari Super Turbo and Turbo Blizzard had a bogus RUN address. The bogus address had rendered them not loadable by the SIDE3 binary loader, and possibly other loaders. All affected users are advised to update to 9.2.18.

There is a bug in TSFX creation.
For Turbo Blizzard and Atari Super Turbo family, all TSFXes have a bogus RUN address.

A hotfix turgen.jar is available here:
https://sourceforge.net/p/turgen/turgen-code/ci/master/tree/dist/turgen.jar?format=raw

Enhancements

• Tape Self-Extractors: Support for the Polish Atari Super Turbo (AST) family of turbo systems: Atari Super Turbo, Atari Turbo Tape (ATT), Unerring Master (UM)

Enhancements

• Tape Self-Extractors: Support for KSO Turbo 2000. Note that you must set the newly introduced Hardware type configuration entry for the plugin, to ensure the created TSFXs work with you data recorder. For more details, refer to the product documentation, section Creating Tape Self-Extractors.

Fixes

• Turbo D: Refined transfer speed and pulse duration calculations.
• Turbo D: Maximum speed capped to 9000 bd also for the Wizard for files.

This is a hotfix release.
Release 9.2.14 introduced a regression: The tape self-extractors generated oversaturated output, resulting in unusable recordings. Release 9.2.15 is fixing the regression. All users of 9.2.14 are advised to update to 9.2.15.

Fixes
* Tape Self-Extractors: The POKEY-based beeps resulted in oversaturation of the recordings.