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Kim-Venture was a program for the Kim-1 computer.

The author requested that his vintage program be archived. I uploaded the manual and cassette to archive.org.

It is not added to the software list because I couldn't get it to load in MAME. Robert Leedom provided 2 dumps using audacity but neither worked. I don't know if it is a bad dump or a problem with MAME but it is noted here for archival purposes.

KIM-1 cassettes have a file number, which must be specified before the tape will load.

The official numbers for this program are A1,A2 and A3 (the program consists of 3 parts), but if this tape is a copy the numbers might be different.

I loaded the kimventure wav and compared it with the micro chess wav and it doesn't look anywhere near as "clean" as the microchess wav.

One thing that could be done is to manually enter the program from the manual (looks like it's all there) and save it out to cassette inside mame.

(You could use the debugger to enter it in faster than doing it from the kim keyboard or even a load command from a file)

I typed in microchess and used MAME to create the cassette as an exercise in creating a software list. That is why it is more “clean”

I don’t want to do that with kim-venture until I rule out an emulation problem.

At some point i’ll use the debugger to se what if anything is loading.

It looks like the wav is possibly too "quiet". I tried to amplify it in audacity but it didn't seem to help.

Zooming in looks very very nondescript in the quietest areas.

I would think that the peaks would stay relatively constant along the whole track instead of getting progressively quieter.

(course I know very little about kim and cassettes so take it with a grain of salt)

One thing you might try is a kim conversion utility:


http://retro.hansotten.nl/category/kim-1/page/5/

http://dxforth.mirrors.minimaltype.com/#kimtape


KIMTAPE v0.5 - tape conversion utility for KIM-1 and SYM-1 (2004-05-17)

Similar to the KCS utility for Kansas City Standard tapes, KIMTAPE allows programs stored on cassette tape to be
decoded to a program file. It handles both MOS Technology KIM-1 and Synertek SYM-1 tape formats including
HYPERTAPE. The reverse process - converting a program file to an audio wavefile is also possible, allowing one to
produce perfectly regenerated cassettes. KIMTAPE works with 8-bit mono WAV, VOC or RAW audio files recorded
at 22050 samples per second.

Download: kimtap05.zip (MS-DOS)

Does playback of that wav work on the real thing? If so, we should make it work in the emulation as well.

Do you know if the kim has some hardware filtering of the input signal?

Schematic showing the audio input:

http://www.zimmers.net/anonftp/pub/cbm/schematics/kim-1/kim.gif



Cool video on the KIM-1 and its capabilities, loading from cassette demo and serial demo with loading from papertape format:

Oh wow, a pll and a comparator. That's serious quality filtering you're having there.