TAP files are usually exact copy images of original tapes.
If you are a collector and have some non loading tapes,you can download the TAP file and record it over to have fully working tape again.
Recording a TAP file on to a tape is straight forward.Start the AudioTap.Choose the TAP file,click OK and Press Record and Play on the Datasette.
T64,PRG,P00 Images are usually cracked games take less space on the tape and loads much quicker than original tapes.
It is possible to fit 50 medium size games on a 60 minute tape.
Download some T64 files and unzip them to a new folder.Start the program WAV-PRG and drag-drop the T64's on it.
Press Record and Play on the datasette.It will record the games one by one.
Datasette Health Check:
You can test your tape deck by recording a 3Khz tone,play it back monitoring with a Wow and flutter program.
It should fluctuate between 2990 and 3010hz.If it fails this test,you might need to change the drive belt.
Listen to tapes:
No,I don't mean music tapes.They sound horrible as the datasette is not designed for that.
Some users claim,they can adjust the tape head azimuth by listening.I don't know how they do it as I tried many times and failed.Hats off to them.
Go to microphone settings,click on the listen tab and check the box says listen to this device.
Go to playback settings and set your speakers as default.
Don't forget to undo this if you want to record something to tape.It will mess things up badly.
Backup (Real) Floppy Disks to .D64,Create Floppy disk from .D64 Files:
I don't recommend this if you have tons of floppy disks.What you need is XUM1541.
But if you want to backup or create a few floppy disks,it might be useful.
Use Mcopy disk to tape backup software to copy disk to tape on real C64.
https://csdb.dk/release/?id=107392
Backup the tape to pc,create a TAP file,load Fcopy Tape to disk software on Winvice,attach the TAP file,create a D64 image and mount it.Run the software.
https://csdb.dk/release/?id=107393
Reverse this process if you want to create real floppy disks from .D64 images.
You can find the step by step instructions at the LOAD64 Support Forum.
If you'd like to see it in action,follow the link below;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5P7QAGbBFg