geerlingguy / geerlingguy/retro-computers

Catalog all Apple II cassettes / disks

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Description

In this issue, I'd like to catalog all the cassettes and disks we have for the Apple II. It would be useful to see if we have any software that's not already uploaded to [Antoine's collection of Apple cassettes](https://www.brutaldeluxe.fr/projects/cassettes/).

Instructions on archiving a cassette from that site:

> I connect my cassette deck player to a Mac through a 3.5" stereo jack connector. All Dolby noise reductions must be turned off on the cassette deck player. I use Audacity to acquire in 22kHz stereo
>
> Then, I save the Audacity project and play with the channels:
>
> 1. the volume must be high, close to the limits before saturation. The more red is displayed, the lowest the quality.
> 2. I first merge the two channels in one, export as WAV unsigned 8-bit and import with Ciderpress. If that is OK, then... it is OK. I zip the wav and upload to the site, if not...
> 3. I unmerge the two channels, I separate both and try with the left channel, redo the process, if not... I retry with the right channel.
> If none work, then I'm good for another acquisition.
>
> If the foam inside the cassette is missing, add some (or put some paper), it is important that the tape touches the head of the player.
>
> Note that Ciderpress allows a couple of options while importing a wav file, try those!
>
> Note also that even if the wav file is imported by Ciderpress, it does not mean the program will run on an Apple II. Protections were already existing at that time. Consider that Basic (either Integer or Applesoft) programs will run fine, binary programs loaded at a zero page address, or in the keyboard buffer range, or multi-file images may not run fine.

Some handy resources:

- [Apple Game Server](http://asciiexpress.net/gameserver/)
- [Ciderpress II](https://ciderpress2.com)
- [Cassettes are cool](https://www.apple2history.org/2011/12/15/cassettes-are-cool/)

Contributor guide

No contributing guide indexed for this repository

Research direction

Start by reviewing Antoine's Apple cassette collection and the listed Apple II resources, then compare them with the project's available cassettes and disks. Done means producing a complete catalog and identifying software that is not already uploaded; archival instructions mention Audacity and CiderPress II for items that also need acquisition.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Domain
content, documentation
Issue type
Documentation
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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