6.6 - THE TAPE TURBO

A  programmers  Tape  Turbo  is  built  into  Fastload.  This  is
quite  different  from  the  Tape Turbo used on backups. All tape
backups  load  completely  independently  of  the  cartridge.  An
important   point   to   note  about  Tape  Turbos  is  that  all
different  Tape  Turbos  use  their own special format for saving
programs  to  tape.  This  means  that  this  Tape Turbo can only
load  programs  which  have  been  saved  by itself. Normal speed
programs  and  those  recorded  by  other  Tape  Turbos CANNOT be
loaded  by  the  Fastload  Tape  Turbo. When you enable Fastload,
the  Tape  Turbo  is  OFF.  It  can  be  switched  in  and out as
required  by  the  following  command: @1 (press RETURN). You get
the message: TAPE TURBO ON.

To  switch  the  Turbo  out enter @1 again: TAPE TURBO OFF. So it
is easy to convert your existing, slow load programs to Turbo:

1) Switch the Tape Turbo OFF with @1 (RETURN).
2) Load your slow load program.
3) Switch the Tape Turbo ON with @1 (RETURN).
4) Insert a new tape and save the program with SAVE "PROGNAME".

The  Turbo  works  exactly  like  the  standard,  slow  routines,
except  that  speed  is  increased by 5-6 times - a very reliable
speed  which  will  never  give  loading  problems, provided that
you take simple precautions:

a)  Keep your heads clean.
b)  Keep  the  tape  deck  away  from  sources of electromagnetic
    interference such as the computer or TV set.
c)  Leave  a  gap  between  programs  and keep a note of the tape
    counter  reading  for  each  program,  so that you can easily
    locate it on the tape.

This   Tape   Turbo  also  works  with  sequential  files.  Speed
increase  is  not  quite  as  great,  because  time  needs  to be
allowed  for  the  tape  motor to pick up speed as each buffer is
loaded.  An  alternative  method  of  switching  between Slow and
Turbo  Tape  Speed  is  by  means  of the device number. Normally
the  device  number  is  1  for tape. Device 7 switches the Turbo
ON and device 6 switches OFF again.

LOAD "PROGNAME",7  Turbo ON  for that load and subsequent loads.
LOAD "PROGNAME",8  Turbo OFF for that load and subsequent loads.

Remember,  you  can  only  load  a  program  with Fastload's Tape
Turbo  if  it  was previously saved by Fastload. Turbo Commercial
tape  programs  should  be loaded with the cartridge switched out
(see Section 2).