Tapeout(1)

📦 version 0.94a, in debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💖 NAME 💖

okay so bestie, this is the manual page for tapeout — it outputs tapefiles to real tape. yes, like, actual physical cassette tape energy. retro slay. 🎀

It lives in section 1 of the General Commands Manual, so you know it's a command you just run in your shell. 🫶

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

tapeout sample_rate tapefile [start_block [output_file]]

that's the whole vibe. two required things, two optional things, and then the tape goes brrr. 🔥

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so basically this program lets you copy a tapefile (that's a .tap or a .tzx) onto real tape via your soundcard. it's giving "digital to analog, but make it nostalgic." 💜

before you run it, you have to wire things up:

  • connect the soundcard's line out socket with the tape recorder's mic socket

then you just start this program. that's it. that's the setup. no cap. ✨

🎀 OPERANDS 🎀

  • sample_rate — the sampling rate for the output. the higher this is, the better quality the result will be. it should be at least 16000. lower than that and, like, why. 🙈
  • tapefile — the name of the tape file to interpret, and output to the soundcard. it should have either a .tap or a .tzx extension. those are the only two looks it serves. 💅
  • start_block — specifies where to start playing the tapefile. default is 0. so if you don't say anything, it starts from the very beginning like a main character. 👑
  • output_file — if given, the program writes the sound output into this file instead of the soundcard. yes bestie, it can just write to a file. no tape recorder required for that mode. 🦋

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

  • xspect (1)
  • vgaspect (1)

and also, the lore:

💀 BUGS 💀

  • Many parameters are not changeable (like pause between tape blocks). yeah. not me wanting to tweak the pause between tape blocks and just... not being able to. 😭
  • Not interactive (except for Ctrl-c). so don't expect it to chat back. the only conversation you're having is Ctrl-c, and that's you leaving. 💀

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Miklos Szeredi (EMAIL: mszeredi@inf.bme.hu)

Tapeout is copyright (C) 1998 Miklos Szeredi

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. See the file COPYING.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.

fr fr, that warranty disclaimer is not a joke — no warranty, periodt. read the license bestie. 🫶

and that's the whole page, babes ✨ this was Version 0.94, dated 17 March 1998, and it's the Tapeout(1) page from the General Commands Manual. obsessed. go make some tapes. 💖 🎀 🦋

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