-1-

Free Fanzine Magazine

For Commodore machines mainly the c64 ☺
 -2-

Editorial In This FREE! Issue

Because no one decided to subscribe Editorial Page 2
to Commodore Scene magazine Alan 64HDD updated Page 3
has ceased production! I don’t blame
him.
Prophet 64 news Page 4
Postscript from GEOS Page 6
I have decided to write my own magazine, News Page 11
basically for just something to do while DVD’s from America Page 17
looking after my 4 month old son. Also as Website Lookout Page 21
something to read; while having a good
soak in the bath, and now realise
Music Mods Page 22
producing a magazine isn’t easy. When a Commodore Page 24
Reference Guide Page 25
I missed having the Commodore Scene
magazine to read because it was so well
produces and covered such a large rage
of items for Commodore Machines. Don’t
think I can do justice to Alan with this Free
effort but lets hope someone enjoys the
read. Do you have any news you would like to
share or an article you have written tat you
So here you are a FREE version! feel the Commodore readers would
Admittedly its rough around the edges and appreciate if so then please let me know,
in the centre but it gave me something to feedback is always welcome good or bad
read. I couldn’t see the magazine just die, anything is better than silence.
why wont people pay for hard work.
It would be nice to offer a prize for the best
If you enjoy the magazine then please article but as this if a FREE publication
send me a donation. Alan has done that will never happen. You will see your
marvellous work for our machines keeping name in print though and have a healthy
a U.k. Presence and pushing new glow from knowing you have informed
technologies please don’t sit around doing users of some activity, application or
nothing, this is how machines and groups hardware they would otherwise be
die a death. Do something, anything! unaware of.

You can contact me via email at

Thanks Nigelp2k AT yahoo.co.uk

I also collect Commodore music

applications and hardware if you have
something interesting you would like to sell
or even better donate, rest assured it will
be fully documented in the magazine and
Free Commodore Magazine 2006 put to good use.

If you use any material from the magazine

please send me an email and
Visit Commodore scene acknowledge where the information came
www.commodorescene.org.uk from

Thanks
 -3-

New update for 64HDD a system allowing the Commodore to connect to a P.C.
utilising the P.C. as a hard disk system capable of emulating Commodore drives
1541, 1581, can read D64 and D81 images and load files for more information visit
http://www.64hdd.com/64hdd/professional.html

64HDD Professional has some special features for everyone, regardless of the type
of Commodore user you are.

For the Gamer...

• Faster file loads using your X1541 or XE1541 cable

• Special partition naming and multi-disk handling features to make finding and
starting that favourite game in your collection easier
• Easier set-up of the Short-Cut tables using 64GUI
• Device-Swap and built-in Disk-Transfer routines so you can either boot more
multi-part apps or copy any games which don't to 1541 format

For the Application User or Programmer...

• Improved 1541 emulation within the MSD/LFN file system lets you run many
more programs without the limitations of a real 1541 disk drive
• Special GEOS64 features such as larger disk sizes, Pwr-Loader compatibility,
faster disk writes, and powerful ShortCut+ and PreConfig utilities
• Improved CMD emulation mode lets you use more of those applications and
tools
• Greater flexibility in assigning device numbers and switching these on/off on-
the-fly
• User interface with detailed run-time statistics such as track, sector and error
information
• Keyboard actions to toggle LFN and CMD modes, reset 64HDD or the C64
• Time and date stamping on disk images to keep track of changes
• New command-channel features, including file locking and unlocking
commands

For the CMD User...

• Use FCOPY, FCOPY+, MENUETTE64 and your other CMD software

• Even GEOS tools like CMD_MOVER will work
• Use 64HDD to back-up your CMD devices

For the C128 User...

Yes, there's even a version of 64HDD Professional which gives C128 users all the
above features, plus these exclusive features:
• Z-Loader - a serial fastloader for the native C128 mode
• Pwr-Loader Support - the fastest 64HDD loading system is now available for
the C128
• GEOS128 Kernal - including the new Xtra Performance (XP) features
• Native mode BOOTing - use the C128 BOOT feature to automatically
LOAD/RUN applications
 -4-

Aug 18: Prophet64 Cartridge sold out!

New ones expected to arrive in mid September.

Modern music applications for your 80s computer!

Prophet64 is a suite of very user friendly music applications for the Commodore 64 platform.
Designed to hook up to modern MIDI equipment with either DIN-sync or third party MIDI
interfaces, it makes your old computer become a highly useful music tool.

The software is distributed on a hardware cartridge that

plugs right into the back of your C64.
No disk or tape loading, just plug and play!

The Cartridge contains the whole suite of applications.

You can read more about them in the links on the right
side bar.

With an array of music software that mimics modern and classic sequencing devices through
versatile user interfaces, Prophet64 opens the door for everyone who wishes to explore the
world of the legendary audio circuit (the "SID") in the Commodore computers.

Instead of collecting dust in the closet, you can put your C64 at work right beside the
synthesizer rig in your studio today! Add some in-fashion bleeps and blops to your latest track,
an extra bass flavor, an additional lead sound or why not an 8-bar break with Rob Hubbard
drums?

The possibilities are endless.

The cartridge is only 39 EUR

(worldwide shipping and handling fees included!)

http://www.prophet64.com/

Other good news is that the item has gained good press and appeared in
various Music related magazines, one in the U.K. Future-music that had a full
page article about the device.

Also it seems Fire starter is well on the way to make a Commodore midi
interface for the system, read more here http://www.firestarter-music.de/ also
planned is a ps2 mouse converter allowing ps2 (P.c.) mice to connect to the
joystick port
 -5-

PROPHET64-Midi-Interface V1.0
I take no responsibility for any bugs or damage caused by building or
using the PROPHET64-Midi-Interface.

(c) 2005 Thomas Margolf aka firestARTer

http://www.firestarter-music.de/prophet

Introduction

The PROPHET64-Midi-Interface is a simple Midi-Interface that makes it

possible to syncronize your
Prophet64 software on your Commodore64 with every Midi-Clock-Capable
device such as a sequencer or a drum-machine.

Do It Yourself

It's very easy to built your own PROPHET64-Midi-Interface with the

provided schematics from the
project-page (http://www.firestarter-music.de/prophet/).
You don't need any power-supply as the circuit uses your Commodore64
as power-source.

********* Take care that you check your circuit twice and also *****
********* that your connection to the userport is 100% ok, as ******
********* the internal fuse of the Commodore64 could get ***********
********* damaged if there's something wrong!!! ********************

The view of the userport-connector in the provided schematics is to

the
soldering side of the userport-connector (looking at the C64).

Function

When turning your C64 on, the LED should flash twice and turns off.
After Receiving a Midi-Start or Midi-Continue commando
the LED should turn on and your interface should syncronize the
PROPHET64 software to your Midi-Source.
After receiving a Midi-Stop, it should stop syncronizing and the LED
should also turn off.
All other Midi-Data is filtered.

For information about how to set-up your commodore with prophet,

check the official Prophet64 Page:
http://www.prophet64.com

You can get the Part-list, circuit and needed software at the project
page: http://www.firestarter-music.de/prophet/

Feel free to send any comments and critics to

firestarter*at*sidsyn*dot*com or use the official Group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/prophet64
 -6-

Postscript output from GEOS

Clear professional printed output is a requirement for any computer systems; especially one
supporting a word processor. There is a way using just the standard version 2 of the
Commodore Geos operating system to print to any Postscript laser printers, the process has
been available for some time, but the cost of a postscript printer may have deterred some
from trying.

Quickly looking on ebay, many of these postscript printers are being disposed of very cheaply
by there owners, eager to upgrade to the latest standard, or better models. If you are looking
for a printer ensure its not a winprinter and works from dos and linux
Expect to pay anything from a few pounds to £50 I managed to save an old laserjet 4v ps and
all it cost me was a car drive to collect. (this must be the only stroke of luck I ever had)

POSTSCRIPT PRINTERS
Of course if you don’t want to go to the expense of buying a postscript printer we can use the
one connected to your P.C. any printer will work with this method. True the process is a little
more complicated and needs a copy of the geos postscript file (created in the DISK section)
copying to a “foreign” computer platform. Once copied to the foreign platform we can then
print the file using whatever printer we have, postscript or none postscript, inkjet, laser almost
anything..

GEOS
If you don’t have a copy of Geos already you need to buy or even download the free Geos
version files from www.cmdrkey.com, this version cant use any of the commercial add on
software but does allow the use of public domain applications and has a built in
wordprocessor. At the time of writing the full download link was
http://cmdrkey.com/cbm/geos/geos1.html select the version best for you, both the 128 and 64
versions can be downloaded as individual parts or disk images in d64 or d81 disk formats. For
the tutorial I have downloaded the full version as a 1581 disk image.

Once the files are downloaded use whatever method you are comfortable with to extract the
D64 or d81 image to floppy disk or disks (depending on the version selected).
While we are in the download mode I suggest you should also head over to
http://members.shaw.ca/cue64/ and download “Jim Collette GEOS software” this has been
given out as Public Domain, and again at the time of writing the direct link was
http://members.shaw.ca/cue64/collutil.html you should find two disk images, while the
software is free I suggest downloading both files, again they will need extracting from d64
images to real disks. Of course you can use these on an emulator if required but nothing is as
good as real hardware.

SETTING UP
Using Geos is quite painful with 1 disk drive so my system has 2 drives connected, although
its possible to run from 1 disk I would suggest a minimum specification be 2 disks.
If you are out shopping a mouse would also be an advantage, although Geos will work with a
joystick, but you may find most of the time you will be pulling out your hair out trying to
navigate with a joystick.

So here is my suggested minimum setup

Drive 1 1581 Drive
Drive 2 1541 Drive
Mouse 1 commodore mouse

First thing is to load Geos and set the relevant preferences, so tell the system you have a
mouse and what size and number of disk drives you will be working with. This isn’t a Geos
tutorial but C= + I (commodore key and I ) will bring up the input preferences use the cursors
to move around and return to OK. You also need to look in the Configure and select the
number and type of drive, ensure you save the settings.
.
 -7-

You can purchase a geo cable from www.cmdrkey.com directly.

On the Geos disks are some fonts named LW_fontname these need to be used in place of
the standard GEOS fonts as they are apple laserwriter fonts (scalable fonts built into all
postscript printers, these will produce the crisp output we need)
The other (none LW) fonts are bitmaps see the diagrams below the fonts supplies with Geos
are

LW_roma
LW_cal
LW_greek
LW_Barrows.

The BSW font below is a bitmap notice how blocky this is compared to the other postscript
fonts .

The Lw fonts are substituted for the printers own internal scalable postscript fonts.
Some more LW fonts are downloadable from
http://www.zimmers.net/anonftp/pub/cbm/geos/graphics/fonts/postscript/index.html
Also I found some from here
http://cmdrkey.com/cbm/genie/GEOSFontsListing.html find the files named 13369 and 13368
Geos also contains some LW fonts, but remember only the first 8 fonts are available so you
will need to rearrange or delete some of the bitmap fonts for Geos to be able to use the LW
fonts.

Most magazines just use 4 fonts for the entire publication so I will go out on a limb and
suggest 4 fonts is enough for anyone, remember you can use bold, italic, outlined and
underline sub and superscript to enhance the document as well as font sizes. Using too many
font variations make a publication look tired and amateurish.

PATCHING
This procedure will outline how to patch GEOS so you can create postscript file to transfer
them to another system and print files from the “foreign” system. Also how to Patch geos to
print directly using a Geo cable.

Are we sitting comfortably, good then we can begin!

 -8-

Start Geos, now from the disk B of our collete utilities you need to run the file “ps.patch (disk)”
as shown below, If using the Geocable you need to run the PS_PATCH (GC) the process is
more or less identical for both of the versions.

The application will then start to run and display a splash screen

Once the utility has initialised itself (here we are using the print to disk PS.Patch (disk) )you
need to go to the patch menu and click to drag down the menu.

This gives 2 options one is to patch Geo publisher printer output and the other is for Geo-
laser, as we are using the Free download of Geos we cant use Geo-publish so we must use
the Geo-laser option, this will allow printing to a postscript file from the standard Geos
applications, the postscript file will be saved on the disk from where the original document is
loaded, so ensure you have a disk with enough room.

Select the Disk where the Geos system files are to patch

The system will run and after a few seconds, you should see the complete diaglogue box
appear . Now we just need to test the patch to ensure everything worked ok.

One thing for the disk version is that we need to download a copy of Ghostscript (or similar) to
allow viewing of postscript files check out the link. Versions of Ghostscript are available for a
variety of machines Apple-mac, Amiga ,linux, os2 and Windows pc amongst others. Ensure
you download a copy of Ghost View this is needed to view the files on screen, and makes the
process easier http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/ once downloaded read the Documentation and
get to know the programme.
 -9-

I am working on a Windows PC so I would do the following after the installation of ghostscript

and ghostview

Testing Geolaser patch disk output

Start the geo write application and write something inspirational to print out

Save the text and close GEOwrite we don’t print from this we have to use Geolaser, Run
GEOlaser application it will initialise and provide us with an options box

Don’t change the settings as we are printing to a file and not a Serial printer so they don’t
make any difference. Then click ok

Work begins formatting the original document to a postscript file, this is quite a lengthy
process even for a few lines of text, if your working on something a page in length I suggest
making a good cup of strong tea.
 - 10 -

The postscript printed files now need Extracting from commodore disks to a pc compatible
format so use whatever process you are comfortable with to do this procedure.

Start the Ghostview application and drag the geos postscript file onto the ghostview screen as
shown below a preview will appear of the text

From the File menu you can even convert the file to a PDF for distribution on the internet. Of
course clicking File and print will print the Text to your PC`s attached printer, whatever make
or model you have, that is of course assuming you have installed the required printer driver
for the model.

Geo cable users

GEO CABLE
Of course you will need a special cable for this option called a Geo cable they are available
from Maurice Randel www.cmdrkey.com , the cable connects the Commodore 64 to any
standard Centronics printer interface.

The process is simpler as your file will be sent directly to the printer as a postscript document.
The printers processor will interpret the commands and format the page, then print out a
sharp quality document direct to your postscript connected printer that could have been
produced from any machine.

Another other useful website

Foreign characters output from Geos

http://web.mit.edu/randy/www/antigrav/laserpatch.html

Reviewer Nigel Parker

Written originally for Commodore Scene magazine © 2006
 - 11 -

1581 Disk Reader VST instrument

fdrawcmd.sys Another Commodore 64 VST instrument!
VST instruments are virtual instruments used
on PC and Apple computers, they are for a
Introduction better description emulation of music hardware
recreated entirely in software and used in
fdrawcmd.sys is floppy filter driver for music applications such as Cubase.
Windows 2000/XP/2003.
One such VST instruments that I recently found
The driver exposes command-level access is available from here
to the uPD765a floppy disk controller,
making it possible to read/write many non- http://hometown.aol.de/rekcat/vsti2.htm
standard and copy-protected disk formats.
The website is in German but if you cant speak
the language (like me) you can easily make out
The driver is free for use by any non- the DOWNLOAD button and the TESTDEMO
commercial project, as long as the original that downloads an MP3 Prievew of the
driver installer is used. Please contact me instrument in use ☺
for further details.
Features Although I can play manually by clicking on the
keys I cant play the instrument from Cubase
Traditionally DOS-only features although I am not fully conversant with Cubase
so this could be my lack of Knowledge
include:

• Custom track formatting

• Mixed-sector sizes
• Zero-based sector numbers
• Non-standard ID header values
• Track layout scanning ordered
from index hole

Advanced features unique to this

driver:

• Writing CRC errors with specific

sector contents
• Writing sectors with missing data
fields
• Writing truncated sectors (e.g. 8K
sectors on double-density tracks)
Music Blog
Blog sites become ever popular one such
• Weak or partially weak sectors site I recently stumbled on while looking
• Duplicate sector numbers on the for VST instruments was this
same track http://c64music.blogspot.com/
• Mixed-mode track formatting
• Multi-pass track formatting for

•
tighter formats
2-drive raw track reading of Amiga
The C64 Take-away
disks (Disk2FDI method) podcast
Commodore 64 remixes and original SID
For more information and to download the sounds to go!
file visit http://simonowen.com/fdrawcmd/
Your regular fix of Commodore 64 tunes,
remixes, news and whatever takes our
Editor Notes: fancy.
Produced and presented by Jan Lund
Thomsen of Remix.Kwed.Org fame
I have to confess this is untested
by me mainly due to lack of time. http://c64takeaway.com/
 - 12 -

Consoles, PSP Console

Playstation Commodore 64 Emulator
handheld & home
c64psp v0.3 · 270 days ago by urchin
computers 1972- Team c64psp would like to wish PSP
users a Merry Christmas with a new
2005 version of c64psp! .

33 years of onscreen fun and interaction: New features

This book presents almost every game
computer and console ever created, from • Multiple screen modes (with vsync
Japan, USA and Europe, along with on firmware v1.5)
classic software in its authentic, pixellated • Full speed, stable C64 emulation
glory, and background information as well (no need for PSP overclocking)
as key technical facts. • Excellent SID emulation
• Quit key combination for firmware
More than 400 dream machines and v2.0 user
million sellers, bizarre slip-ups and exotic • Memory snapshot quickload and
variants are celebrated in full colour save
chapters with extensive appendixes. From • Increased game compatibility
Atari to Xbox, from the C64 to Nintendo • Credits
DS: Game.Machines is the reference point
• urchin: code, graphics, blood,
for members of the PlayStation
sweat, tears
generation; whether they’re gamers or
• MagicRuss: v1.5 testing, graphics,
collectors.
inspiration, enthusiasm
Originally published in Germany, • grasstust: v2.0 testing, patience
Game.Machines has been recognized as
a `suitable reference´ and `recommended And of course, ps2dev.org for the PSP dev
reading´ (by Germany's premier micro kit and Christian Bauer for creating Frodo.
monthly C’t), as `very entertaining´
(Gamestar) and `compulsory reading´ History
(PlayZone) or simply as `Ace´ 20/12/2005: v0.3 :- Video overhaul with
(ComputerBILD). Two years in the making, multiple screen modes. Better SID
this greatly enhanced and revised edition emulation. More stable emulation core
invites you to a time journey across the with better game support. Snapshot
video game era: From the 4-bit beginnings quickload and save.
to the broadband future.
09/10/2005: v0.2 :- Added support for
The first Game.Machines samples have analog stick, virtual keyboard, joystick
been shipped to the UK press. That's what swapping and ability to load T64 and D64
the editors had to say, after taking a look: image files. Video is now centred. USB
disabled for this version.
http://www.gameplan-
books.com/gameplan_01.5_NA/index.php 26/09/2005: Initial version, v0.1 :- It boots!
It displays stuff! It makes noises!

$32.00 U.S.
$39.80 Canada
ISBN: 3-00-015359-4 http://urch.in/c64psp
Feedback: lit@gameplan-books.com
 - 13 -

USB Keyboard Obsolete computer

http://symlink.dk/electro/c64key/ hampers kidnap
how to build a USB-keyboard in the form- probe
factor of an old C64 breadbox. Actually,
with little modification it can be used for
any kind of keyboard, since the source
code is available, and all that needs to be
done is to modify the key-to-scancode
mapping.

The c64key is based on Objective

Development's AVR-USB firmware only
USB stack for Atmel AVR microcontrollers,
and the simple HIDkeys example they
provide. The implementation presented
here has a more elaborate keyboard
scanning routine, and allows multiple keys
to be pressed (and detected) September 5, 2006 3:50 PM PD Efforts by
simlutaneously. police in Austria to learn more about a
communications technician who held a girl
captive for more than eight years are
being complicated by his choice to use an
obsolete computer.

Wolfgang Priklopil, who committed suicide

the same day the girl escaped in August,
relied exclusively on a Commodore 64--a
computer that was popular some 20 years
ago but now largely considered an
antique.

VICE updated Maj. Gen. Gerhard Lang of the Federal

Criminal Investigations Bureau told the
(2 Sep 2006) Version 1.20 Associated Press that the outdated
computer would hamper the investigation
by making it difficult ''to transmit the data
to a modern computer without loss.''

The Commodore 64, one of the best-

selling computers ever, was launched in
the early 1980s. Today the brand is kept
alive by some 6 million enthusiasts in a
vibrant online community.
The Commodore 64, Pet, Vic, Plus 4 and
128 Emulator for operating systems
including Microsoft Windows, Unix, Apple, Yeahronimo Media Ventures, a Dutch
Be-os, Amiga O.S Microsoft D.O.S and company with office in Los Angeles,
others has received another update, taking acquired the rights to the Commodore
the application to a very stable version name in 2004 in a deal worth just more
1.20 than $32.7 million. In 1995, it took on
Commodore as its own corporate moniker.
For more information visit the home page
Taken from the website
http://www.viceteam.org/#vice
http://news.com.com/2061-10786_3-
6112505.html
 - 14 -

IDE64 V4
The development of the new IDE64 card DOOM 64?
V4 is still in progress, but we decided to Well the project may be finished but one
uncover the picture of the new card developer is still hard at work!
prototype board together with some
technical information. So what to expect Commodore Scene has ended the Doom
from the IDE64 V4? challenge due to lack of interest, strange
then that someone has brought out an
Because of surface mount technology, the update, the very good MOOD
shape of the card has changed and the Below a section from WWW.c64.sk
length has shorten to 11 cm. The website
ShortBUS connector for external
peripherals has remain, but also "Amiga 19. SEPTEMBER 2006
Clock" port has appear, so RR-Net users
could connect their Ethernet cards directly M.O.O.D. preview 2.5 dev 21:11
onto the IDE64. Not only the mount
technology, but also whole architecture
has changed which enables us to increase
the access speed performance so the card
should be up to 20% faster when
accessing the HDD or Compact Flash than
IDE64 V3.4+. The IDE64 contain two IDE
controllers for plugging up to three IDE
peripherals (Compact Flash and two other
on IDE flat cable). USB device (in the The fast playable MOOD preview of a Doom clone
picture without the connector) will enable is now available for download at CSDb. Credits
users to interconnect IDE64 with PC host go to Perff of No Name, who is also one of the
and make file transfer between C64 and founders of CSDb.
You may also have a look at an older entry of
PC even more easy without building MOOD at pouet.net.
PCLink cable. The IDE64 will contain
IDEDOS V.90 which offer great The file can be downloaded from here
performance (e.g. 80KB/sec loading http://noname.c64.org/mood/
speed), very reasonable compatibility and
many advanced features including support
of partitions, relative files or large capacity well you could have knocked me over with
media. a feather when I saw this, due to the age
of the program (last update was August
IDE64 V4 technical parameters: 1998
Press key o to bring up the options
• Size 7x11cm
• RAM 28KB The main keys (configurable)
• PEROM 128KB (flash EPROM)
• RTC (Real time static clock with 31 bytes forward @
RAM) back ;
• Full speed USB 1.1 / USB 2.0 device turn left :
• ShortBUS
turn right =
• Amiga Clock Port
fire space
move left a
move right s
gun1 1
gun2 2
gun3 3
gun4 4
run l.shift
force sidestep c=
look back d
map m
options o
 - 15 -

WWW.YOUTUBE.com
History of
You will either love them or hate them but
Commodore youtube is full of home made videos –
and looks set to remain so.
Computers Poster
Some are great others are not so great.
I have finally finished! Search for “Commodore Animals” reveals
these 2 entries
I have for sale "The History of Commodore Searching for Commodore 64 reveals
Computers" poster which is the hundreds of remixed videos tutorials
culmination of three years of work and
research. The Commodore systems have
been professionally photographed C128 Animals 2005 User Group Video
specifically for this poster and the photos 35:40
appear nowhere else. Former Commodore engineers Bil Herd
and Dave Haynie (two of the original
This poster is ideal for any vintage "C128 Animals") give an informal chat for
computer fan, Commodore Computer user groups and other Commodore fans.
collector, classic or vintage memorabilia Includes are shots of rare hardware and
display. This is a limited edition poster and stories to go with.
will not be re-printed! Tags:
Commodore
Poster includes hi-resolution images of Amiga Haynie
rare and hard-to-find systems including the Herd C128
KIM 1, PET 2001, PET 4016, PET 8032, C64
VIC-20, C-64, C-64C, SX-64, C-128, C-
128D, B-128, CBM 256-80, P-500, Plus/4,
C-16, C-116, VC-20, Amiga 500, and
selected diskette drives.
Retrocomputing
$19.99 USA Ship $3.00 Added: 1 month ago in Category:
Science & Technology
$19.99 Canada Ship $5.99 From: hazydave
Views: 499
$19.99 International Ship $7.99

C128 Animals 2006 User Group Video

18:44
Former Commodore engineers Bil Herd
and Dave Haynie (two of the original
"C128 Animals") are joined by VIC-20 era
engineer Bob Russell to give the 2006
installment of their video chat for
Commodore fans.
Tags:
Commodore
Haynie Herd
Russell C64
VIC-20

Retrocomputing
"Vintagecomputer.net" watermark does not Added: 1 month ago in Category:
appear on actual poster. Science & Technology
From: hazydave
http://www.vintagecomputer.net/ Views: 236
 - 16 -

C-One Computer What happened to

News
Geos
september-25-2006:
C64 PAL core leaves alpha state, first Read the Full story from this link at the
1541 emulation time of writing I couldn’t obtain permission
to print the article, its an interesting read
Peter Wendrich has published the first from the initial Idea through to the
C64 PAL core that is not considered to be Commodore 64 version then the sale of
alpha any more. The CPU registers $0000 the software.
and $0001 are fixed now, CIA timers are
fixed (including TOD registers), the http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=15223
IRQ/NMI timing was too fast under certain
circumstances (fixed), and the VIC<->CPU Amazingly GEOS is still being sold ☺
timing has been improved so even the
sideborders can be opened now. Peter is The P.C. Version is now named Breadbox
now accepting bugreports under the eMail Ensamble
address mentioned in the readme file.
http://www.breadbox.com/
Tobias Gubener has released a new
system flash that can now emulate a 1541 Whether you use our Industry Standard UI , or
drive. The 1k30 FPGA can be fed with a our multi-tasking Motif UI, all of the essential
programs are combined into one easy to use
new rom file containing the drive emulation package. Breadbox Ensemble contains a
code. Every core that uses the IEC port complete suite of integrated software
can make use of the emulation, including applications, designed to make you and your
Jeri's NTSC core, Peter's PAL/NTSC core students productive.......fast! Breadbox
and Tobias' VIC-20 core. Just hit F8 to get provides all the Productivity and Internet
to choose the D64/PRG file, change the applications you'll need in one easy to use
device address (default: 9), or deactivate package.
the emulation. Many thanks must to
Tobias, the recent updates are giving Add Breadbox educational software
another demonstration of the true power of applications to Ensemble and your school, or
re-configurable computing. entire school district, will have a powerful and
low-cost alternative to anything else on the
market today. All Breadbox software runs well
The new core and system flash can be
even on a 386! Don't snub those donated
downloaded from the download page of computers because they won't run the
this website. The sourcecode to the C64 expensive software any longer. Put a computer
core as a full Quartus project is included. on every desk with Breadbox Ensemble!

C-One With simple point and click interfaces, laser

We know this is now the Configurable one and not
quality output (even on dot matrix printers), and
the Commodore one, so new mailing lists have been
setup to reflect this. clear video modes up to 1280 x 1024 x 16.7
million colors Breadbox is the easy way to
Try subscribing to transform a 386, 486, or Pentium PC into a
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cone_cores/ very powerful graphical, state-of-the-art
package. Breadbox Ensemble even runs on
This group covers all cores produced for the computers with as little as 640K RAM and 20
configurable on not just Commodore ones MB of free Hard Disk space!
Information taken from: http://c64upgra.de/c-one/
 - 17 -

she had various solder points on the

DVD`s From boards for keyboards and serial ports, she
said hackers could make a full machine by
America connecting these points.

Next I moved to Lucky expo disk set and

Arriving through the post from a very busy watched a demo about Mule, Jim Brain
Robert Barnado were 2 x Commvex 2005 gave a demo on connecting to BBs
Dvd`s, 3 x Dvd`s Containing the lucky systems via the Commodore 64.
expo 2005 and 1 final disk contained Jeris
Ellsworhts talk at Stansford University Next I was treated to a connectivity how to
on connecting the Commodore 64 to the
Inserting disk 1 from the from the internet. Rolf gave his talk again on
Commvex set, hands quivering with transferring text to and from the
excitement and anticipation, also from Commodore with Star commander and the
wondering if the money I had spent would write stuff. Bruce then explained about
be wasted as these disks are DVD-R and connecting removable optical disks to
in NTSC format. commodore and CMD devices.

I don’t want to list every last item on these Jim Butterfield amused the crowd with
disk because that would mean you wont some old footage of him and various
buy them, so I will quickly sketch out some electronic contraptions, then it seemed all
of the highlights. over to quickly with the remaining user
talking about setting up Steering
Commvex seemed to be a big event with committees for the Commodore, talks to
around 50 people the disk contained talks Maurice Randel of CMD about why its
about Where we were with hardware today taking so long for him to produce
for the commodore and the vast amounts hardware.
of new software that is currently being
created. The disk moved on to talks about Jeri goes all technical about the DTV and
hyperlink and the internet, then moved on C- one with various drawings and starts to
to a look at the demo scene. loose me on the system.

Disk 2 contained some more demos and Jim Brain shows of some of his projects,
information about what the demo coders like the ps2 adaptor to use playstation
used, then a talk about disk transference controllers on the Commodore, he even
between various systems, then came the has something that makes the vibration
prize raffle. Rolf gave a demo on work on the newer controllers. Then
transferring text to and from the shows of a compact flash card adaptor
Commodore with star commander and the that works on the Commodore 64 without
write stuff. Rolf said the write stuff was the need of drivers its true plug and play.
best word processor ever, then a look at
metal dust. Jeri was named Commodian of the year
and went very embarrassed about the
Now moving on to Jeris talk at Stanford whole thing. Jeri was asked about the C-
University, the camera moves across the one and confirmed it was still ongoing but
street we ender the building and finally find other projects had held back her
our seat. There is a quick hand count on development of the system.
the number of people who remember the
64 and then another on the number of Dale asked if others were interested in
people still using the machine. Jeri is voice control for the commodore, others
introduced, she goes into great depth seemed less enthusiastic about such a
about her lif and upbringing and her system.
fascination with electronics and old
computers. Maurice finds a pirate jiffy dos chip in one
of Jim Brains SX64`s and Jim explains he
Jeri then talks about the dtv64 the 30 in 1 only just bought the system from someone
games machine that plugs into the T.v and didn’t know it had jiffy dos in!
about its history and how she came to
work for mammoth toys. Jeri then says Excellent I fully enjoyed them and sent of for
some disks for 2006 – More next time.
 - 18 -

01.07.2006: New products, RoHS compliance, vacation until july 26th

New products
The Catweasel design will be ten years old this year. At the moment, only a version for the
PCI slot of modern computers and the ISA version are available. During the past few months,
a lot of requests for a Catweasel controller for classic Amiga computers came in. This
demand is now met with the Catweasel MK2 "anniversary edition": We have revised the
design from 1997, and made another production run. The Catweasel MK2 works on the
clockport fo the Amiga 1200, the IDE-port of the Amiga 4000, and on the clockports of our
Zorro-cards. It even works on the clockport of the Amiga 600 memory expansion that starts
shipping next week, so the controller covers the complete line of classic Amigas.

Production of Amiga 600 accelerator completed

It took more than two years, but waiting
was worthwhile: Our accelerator for the
Amiga 600 is completed. The technical
details:

• 68030-33 processor clocked at

40MHz
• 128MByte RAM option,
selectable speed
• 512K flash-memory
• PCMCIA-friendly
• low-heat design

Since heat is the main problem in the

small case of the Amiga 600, we have
skipped on an FPU, and designed large
parts of the logic in 3.3V technology.
The 68030 processor is in a socket not
just on this picture - every card has a
socket, so the user can increase the
performance with a faster processor and
crystal oscillator. Such a modification
might need active cooling parts!
As opposed to other Amiga 600
accelerators, we have found a good
solution for mounting the card in the
computer: Two screws hold the board
safely in place. A distance sleeve keeps the card from bending.

Even with the mass-production already completed,

the delivery cannot start before august of this year.
The main cause for this is of course our vacation
until july 26th, but we also have to adapt the
Kickflash software to the flash memory of the card,
and ensure proper operation with all versions of the
Amiga 600 mainboard. After that, the quality control
of the mass-production can start. Please understand
 - 19 -

that we will first supply the customers who have signed up for the card by eMail. We want to
prevent an artificial monopoly of someone buying out the complete production run of only 110
units. This is the only way to ensure that every customer gets his card for 129,- EUR incl.
VAT, and not more due to artificial reduction of supply. We have seen too much overpriced
Amiga-hardware in internet auctions lately! Please request the shipping cost to your country
when you place your order.

RoHS-compliance ensured
Starting today, the RoHS-directive of the
European Union is in effect. The
abbreviation stands for "Restriction of
Hazardous Substances". This directive
restricts the use of dangerous
substances in electronics production.
During the transition period, many
articles were only talking about lead-free
electronics production, but lead is only
one out of six substances that are
banned by the EU directive. Two of
them are substances used for fire
protection in many plastic parts. This
makes development of new production
processes and the search for new plastics extremely difficult, because the use of pure tin
instead of a tin-lead alloy requires soldering at higher temperatures.
Individual Computers, E3B and an assembly service
house have already started collecting experience
with the new production processes in 2004.
According to these experiences, we can already say
that the new EU-directive will not affect the prices of
our hardware, although it takes more energy and
higher investments. The new soldering processes
(phase conversion soldering for SMD, wave
soldering under nitrogen atmosphere) increase
production quality so much that manual re-work is
almost eliminated. Our estimate is that the reduced cost of manual re-work will compensate
the increased cost of the new production processes.

Since our target market, the retro-computing and Amiga-market, requires special electro-
mechanical parts, even more investments had to be made, mainly into die-casting tooling for
plastic parts of computer connectors (insulating bodies, often just called insulators). These
were necessary because the new kinds of plastic can only be processed at higher
temperatures and with higher pressure. We're happy to be able to deliver brand new RoHS-
compliant connectors fort he userport of the Commodore 64, Commodore 128 and plus/4
computers. The die-casting tool can be adapted to any other numper of pins, so we can
deliver any other edge card connector in 3.96mm raster. We're looking forward to your
request!

In the Amiga-market, attention has been drawn to the CPU-slot connector of the Amiga 1200
already a few months ago, because the vendor of the PowerPC-accelerator "PowerVixxen"
has asked for help in a public message. At that time, the development of our new connector
had already begun. The new connector shall solve all problems that the previously available
connectors had. Our connector has a much stronger insulator that allows much higher spring
forces. Contact problems between the A1200 mainboard and an expansion board (such as an
accelerator or a PCI bus board) are eliminated, increasing the overall stability of the system.
During development, we have done measurements with the x-ray fluorescence (XRF)
method, and it turned out that the black dye of the plastic is not RoHS compliant. The mass-
production will therefore be done without any dye, so the connectors will be white.

With availability of the new connectors in september of this year, individual Computers
 - 20 -

ensures the legal availability of Amiga 1200 hardware. Special thanks goes to ACK software
controls Inc. from Canada, who have ordered a large quantity of these connectors for the first
production run of the PowerVixxen accelerator. We also deliver small quantities at very
competitive prices, because having our own tools means that we do not have to pay any
dealers in between.

08.06.2006: Memory expansion for Amiga 600 available soon

To a special order from our trade partner AmigaKit, we have developed a memory expansion
for the Amiga 600. The technical data in detail:

• 1MB memory for expansioin to 2MB chipmem total

• battery-backed up realtime clock
• leak proof lithium battery made in Germany
• clockport for A1200 expansions like Silversurfer, Delfina or Subway
• extremely small design

The expansions will be shipped to

AmigaKit starting July 3rd, all other
trade partners will have the product
starting july 17th, 2006. Contrary to
announcements of other trade partners,
there will be no expansions without a
realtime clock. The recommended sales
price is 39,90 EUR incl. 16% German
VAT.

For more information

http://www.jschoenfeld.com
 - 21 -

Website Highlight
Thought I would share this website for anyone who hasn’t seen it http://noname.c64.org/csdb/

CSDb:
CSDb (the Commodore 64
Scene Database) is an
attempt to gather
information about the
Commodore 64 (C64)
scene throughout time and
store it in an easily
accessible and heavily
cross referenced database.
Here you can find
information about the
sceners, groups, releases
(demos, intros, tools etc.)
and events (parties) that
have a connection to the
C64 scene.

The Information:
All the information in CSDb is submitted and maintained by the registered users of the
database.

The CSDb staff cannot manually check all the information coming into the database, so
please report any form of abuse to us.

The Goal:
To gather as much information as possible about the C64 scene. The sceners, the groups,
the releases and events, and as much information about these as possible.

What can you do?:

If you have any knowledge about the C64 scene which you want to share with the world, that
would be information about yourself and what you have done on the Commodore 64, or
information about others, you are welcome to sign up for an account and add the information
to the database.
You can also support this site by making a donation to help pay for the costs of running this
site.

Link to CSDb:
If you like CSDb and wish to link to us, you are of course more than welcome to do so. We
have a few link-buttons you can use when linking to us, which are free to use.

Site credits:
Concept Perff Code Perff Kilroy Database Perff Kilroy Design Kilroy
Ideas & Support KBS CyberBrain Ghostrider Betatesting KBS CyberBrain Ghostrider
Celtic

Contact CSDb:
If you have any questions about the usage of CSDb, bug reports or suggestions for
improvements you should in general post it in the forum.
If you have something on your mind that you think is not of public interest you can also
contact one of the administrators of CSDb at: admin@c64scene.net

PLEASE DO NOT send us mails regarding incorrect or missing information in CSDb and
expect us to update the information. We expect you, the user of CSDb, to do this. We only
maintain the workings of CSDb - not checking and adding every bit of information in it.
For more information read Usage of CSDb and/or the FAQ.
 - 22 -

Musical Mods of the Commodore 64, from

Traktor DJing to Knobs for Prophet64

By Peter Kirn

Hard-core musical applications of antique Commodore 64 computers continue to spread.

There are plenty of pristine C64s out there, so there’s something beautiful about seeing these
heavily modified computers get a second life.

First up, the superb DIY and circuit bending blog Get LoFi has gotten their hands on the new
Prophet64 music cartridge for the C64. “Circuitmaster” set out to review the cartridge and
wound up building modified hardware to make it easier to control, affixing knobs to the top of
the computer. If that sounds appealing to you, you’ll find resources for how to duplicate the
effort:

Knob Mod for Prophet64

(Check out his Radio Shack finds, too — affordable electronics supplies from Radio Shack,
that aren’t wildly overpriced? Who knew?)

Make gets the scoop (via flickr) on a fantastic controller for Native Instruments’ Traktor DJ
software. Honestly, not only is it cool that this fellow stuck this in a C64 case, but I have to say
this is one of the most logical looking DJ controllers I’ve seen. I miss the presence of some
 - 23 -

kind of scratch controller, but otherwise, Native Instruments, M-Audio, Roland, et al, take a
good look at this one.

NI Traktor MIDI Controller, Via a C64 Case

Both of
these
projects are
based on
the classic
MIDIbox
SID, which
converts the
C64’s
beloved SID
synth chip
into a
usable MIDI
interface,
complete
with
interface,
friendly
knobs, and
lots of
flashing
lights.
(Thanks to
Wisefire for
pointing this
out. And, incidentally, MIDIbox is especially cool as it’s an entire community, not just a single
project.)

MIDIbox SID

These are not projects for the feint-of-heart, but they’re fun to look at even for the weak-
hearted. I’ll be back with a report on the Prophet64 cartridge; I heard my cart has shipped. I’m
anxious to use it with a 1351 mouse, but I’m having trouble tracking one down; if any of you
are selling used C64 stuff or know good sources, let me know. In the meantime, back to
scouring eBay.

EDITOR NOTES
Link to Midibox sid
http://www.ucapps.de/midibox_sid.html

Here you will find all manner of remanufactured Commodore 64`s Hackked beyond
recognition

Source of information taken directly from http://createdigitalmusic.com/tag/c64/

 - 24 -

When Is a Commodore not a Commodore

So you own a nice Commodore 64
You purchased a copy of GEOS and added a mouse
Later on you finally managed to find a CMD FD 200 disk drive and moved GEOS from using
1541 disks to 3.5 floppy disks.
Moving on you added a CMD Hard drive, so disk swapping wasn’t needed and created virtual
disks with all your software installed on 1 single device.
Next you installed a SCPU accelerator with 16mb of memory and upgraded to wheels O.S.
You added a CMD Ram-link with 16mb of battery backed up memory

QUESTION
Is this still a Commodore 64? or have you just turned your Commodore into another machine?
Upgrading is what all computer users do; I don’t want to say that I see anything wrong with
upgrading we all have specific uses for our machines. I just have to as the question again is
this still a Commodore 64?

Some users are still maxing out the 1mhz machine, finding new and exciting ways to program
and push the hardware further than ever, these users have added noting other than a disk
drive and joystick. Some users also add some form of memory upgrade the machine and the
machine is mainly used for games writing Documents and learning programming.

This I guess is about the limit commodore thought the machine would be used; I suppose we
can safely say this is still a Commodore 64. But when you add a faster processor and 16mb
of memory hasn’t the machine now changed beyond all recognition, maybe we could call this
an enhanced Commodore 64?

The P.C (IBM compatible) machine was designed as an upgradeable machine, there are slots
for adding extra cards and users are encouraged to open up there prize and install the latest
graphics card or sound card, lets face it the newer versions of Windows and Office need such
updates to run. In fact anyone who hasn’t upgraded there P.C. is often looked upon as
strange; why purchase an upgradeable machine and then not upgrade it?

Commodore engineers would never have envisioned there designs being used years later so
the machines were designed to fulfil a purpose needed at the time. Maybe if something faster
was required the user would upgrade, the Vic 20 was replaced by the Commodore 64 then
the 64 was later replaced by the 128 the Amiga replaced the Commodore 128.

Still I come back to the question of when is a Commodore not a Commodore, you could say
my laptop with no more software on it than Dos and a copy of Vice for Dos is a Commodore
64 that I can set into warp mode at the press of a button, or is it just a P.C Running a specific
piece of software.

Lets look at another setup

Commodore 64 and an IDE 64 interface a 4mb memory card a large hard disk drive and a CD
rom drive, Is this still a commodore 64? If the IDE accelerator card becomes available and is
taken up by coders, and if you added this to your setup is this still a commodore 64?

If someone designed an add-on card using lets say an ATI graphics card for extra resolution
and thousands of colours on screen would this still be a commodore 64?

I welcome your thoughts on this.

 - 25 -

Commodore 64 Reference Guide

COMMODORE FILE TYPES AND USES
DEL Deleted file
PRG Program file
SEQ Sequence file (usually a text file)
REL Relative file (data file)

COMMODORE 64 BASIC DISK COMMANDS

Format a new disk OPEN1,8,15,”N0:”DISKNAME,ID”:CLOSE 1
Load a file LOAD “FILENAME”,8
Load 1st disk file LOAD “*”,8
Load and run file LOAD “FILENAME”,8,1
Save a file SAVE “FILENAME”,8
Save and replace SAVE “@0:”FILENAME”,8
Verify disk file VERIFY “FILENAME”,8
Directory listing LOAD “$”,8
LIST
Redirection CMD
EXAMPLE: Redirect directory listing to a serial printer
OPEN 1,4:CMD 1:LIST:CLOSE 1

COMMODORE 128 BASIC DISK COMMANDS

Formatting a disk HEADER “diskname”,LID,Ddrivenumber,ON,Udevicenumber
Load a file DLOAD “filename”,8
Saving a file DSAVE “filename”,8
Verifying a file DVERIFY “filename”,8
Disk Directory DIRECTORY

COMMODORE DOS WEDGE DISK COMMANDS

Wildcards ? Match any character E.G DO? could match DOG or DOC
* Match the rest of the name E.G D* could match DOG or DUG

Format a new disk @NEW0:”diskname”,ID

Save a file ←“filename”
Load a file /”filename”

Load and run a file ↑”filename”

Load MC %”filename”
Scratch file @S:”filename”
Rename @R:”newname=oldname”
Check disk @
Validate @V
Directory @$

DATEL ACTION REPLAY DISK COMMANDS

Load a file F1
Load and run file F2
Load Directory F3
List Directory F5
Run F7
Load a file /filename
Load and run a file ↑filename
Verify file &filename
Save a file &Filename
Save File in warp &Filename,w
Read Disk error @ or @8 or @9
Initialize disk @I
Validate disk @V
Rename a file @R:NEWNAME=OLDNAME
Clear directory @N:NAME
Format a disk @N:NAME,ID
Display disk directory @$ or $
Delete (Scratch) a file @S:filename
Change disk id + name @H:NAME,ID
 - 26 -

JIFFY DOS DISK COMMANDS

FUNCTION KEYS:
F1 = @$:* Display the directory of the currently selected device
F2 = @D List a BASIC program
F3 = / Load a BASIC Program
F4 = @T List an ASCII text file
F5 = ↑ Load a BASIC program
F6 = ←Save a BASIC program
F7 = % Load a Machine Language program
F8 = @ “S: Scratch a file

STANDARD JiffyDOS COMMANDS:

Set device @#8 Selects current drive as device #8

Display directory: @$ Display directory in BASIC
@$:name Display all files with “name” in their filename
@$:N* Display all files with “N” in their filename
Read error channel: @ Returns error code from currently selected device
RAMLink @CP”number” Temporarily change the default partition number
Load file: @?? Load and run first file on disk
Load and run first file on disk Runstop + SHIFT
/ “filename” Loads “file”
← “filename” Load and run “file”
% “filename” Load a machine language file
£ “filename” Load and run machine language file
Saving BASIC file: ← “filename”
List program on disk: @D:filename)
List ASCII file: @T:filename
Un-New program: @O
Initializing drive: @I
Reset Disk Drive: @UJ
Validate Disk: @V
Format Disk: @N:name,ID
Fast format disk @N0:
Format 2 sided disk @N2:name,i
Copy file on same disk @C:newfile=file
Disable head bump @B
Copy file: @C:n=o Copy file “o” to new file “n”, will only work on same disk
Combine text file @C:n=o,p Create new file “n” by combining files “o” & “p”
Rename file @R:n=o Rename file “o” with filename “n” on current drive
Scratch files @S:file Deletes “file” on currently selected drive
Lock Files @L:file Locks “file” so that it cannot be “scratched”
~ Repeat the command to “unlock” a file
Output to printer @P Repeat command to return output to screen
@P,d,a Send to printer at “d” device,and “a” secondary address)
a=0 (uppercase/ graphics printing)
a=7 (uppercase / lowercase printing)
Print text screen CONTROL & P
Change default drive CONTROL & D Toggles available drives

Toggle all files for copy CONTROL A

Default drive toggle CONTROL D
single file for copy CONTROL W
st
Load and run 1 prog on disk SHIFT RUN/STOP
Re-enable JiffyDOS SYS58451
Re-enable function keys SYS58551
Re-enable (128 mode) SYS65137
Short new @N:diskname
Disable Jiffydos @Q
Rename a file @R:newname=oldname
Display disk Directory @$
Enable Function Keys @F
Set Interleave gap size @G
Lock / Unlock @L:filename
Set Destination Device @X
Verify Filename 'filename
 - 27 -

IDE64 DISK COMMANDS

FILE MANAGER
File manager MAN
Directory 1
View file 3
Copy file 5
Rename a file 6
Make directory 7
Delete file 8
Swap windows CONTROL
Page up F1 or CRSR ←
Home F2 or HOME
Page down F7 or CRSR V
End F8 or CLR

Move Cursor CRSR up or down

Select all +
Unselect all -
Select some files INS/DEL
Load and run file RETURN
Change directory
View a file with plugin

Load a program SHIFT+RETURN

LOAD volume root /
Open or close CD ↑
Quit application ←

IDE64 COMMODORE BASIC COMMAND EXTENSIONS

Initialize one device INIT
Initialize two devices INIT2
Change directory CD “directorypath”,DN
Directory Unix style LL “path”,DN
Directory c64 style DIR””,DN
Make directory MKDIR “pathname”,DN
Delete file RM “name”,DN
Delete empty directory
Print out time and date DATE
Swap device numbers CHANGE (floppy now device 10 ide64 device now 8)
Open cd tray CDOPEN
Close Cd tray CDCLOSE
Deactivate IDE 64 KILL
 - 28 -

THE END

st
That’s all, for the 1 issue; of course I welcome all feedback, and have already started issue 2 yes Maybe you found
one or two spelling mistakes ☺

Thanks
COMMODORE FREE