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Atari 1010 Program Recorder (Tape drive) Boxed

July 11th, 2010 No comments
Atari 1010 Program Recorder Boxed

Autopsy:

from atarimuseum Homepage:

The Atari 1010 Program Recorder was the replacement to the Atari 400/800 lines Atari 410 Program recorder. The new 1010 was stylish and simplistic to use. Although no faster then any other standard tape recorder/Program Recorder, the Atari 1010 was a reliable little unit and was very popular in European markets where money was tight and the majority of software was available on Tape Cassettes.

What made the Atari Data/Program recorders unique from all other cassette decks used on other home computers was its ability to tie into the Atari Audio Summation Circuitry. The Atari 410, 1010 and the Atari XC11 & XC12 Data/Program recorders all worked through the Atari SIO (Serial I/O) bus, a data communications bus very similar to today’s USB (Universal Serial Bus). The Data/Program recorders could all be controlled by the Atari computer and also channeled their audio into the SIO bus and into the Atari computer where it would be heard through a connected Television or Computer Monitor.

The Data/Program recorders also were Dual Track systems and could load data while also playing audio/music tracks simultaneously. This meant that while another section of a program was loading, the recorder could give the user instructions, information or play a soundtrack to occupy the users time while the program loaded. This system was used extensively in Atari’s unique and unparalleled line of educational software.

source: atarimuseum.com

Atari Pro Line Joystick Boxed

July 11th, 2010 1 comment
Atari Pro Line Joystick Boxed

Autopsy:

Standard 7800 joysticks, compatible with the 2600 and 8 Bit Computer series. Marketed as advanced controllers, featuring independently functioning buttons (7800 only). Long, narrow design.

source: atariage.com

Atari 130 XE (Keyboard Fixed)

July 11th, 2010 No comments

The functions keys (Start / Option / Select / Reset..) of my Atari 130 XE not making good contact, i have fixed this problem with a good clean-up and graphite of a pencil.

Atari 130 XE Boxed + Cartridges Games

July 11th, 2010 No comments
ATARI 130 XE

Autopsy:

from old-computers Homepage:

The Atari 130-XE was first shown at the Winter Las Vegas Consumer Electronic Show in 1985 (with the Atari 130 ST), it has the same characteristics as the Atari 800 XL except its added memory (128 KB instead of 64 KB for the 800 XL).

The extended memory can be used as a RAM disk, or can be accessed by bank switching routines. It was an attempt to extend the life of the old XL series, but Atari abandoned it pretty quickly to concentrate on promoting the ST series, which uses the same case style.

source: old-computers.com

C64 Memories: A new Commodore 64 Front-End for Windows

July 10th, 2010 No comments

The developer, IlTimido released a new C64 frontend for Windows called C64 Memories. This frontend focusses on manageability of the big TOSEC  collections.

C64 Memories features:

  • Full support for Tosec naming convention: displayed data about games are taken directly from the filename.
  • Supports nearly all C64 images: .D64 .T64 .TAP .PRG .P00 .D71 .D80 .D81 .D82 .G64 .G41 .X64
  • Comes with a C64 emulator: C64 Memories uses a slighlty modified version of Vice2.2 emulator.
  • Directories display: the list of the content of a .D64 or .T64 file is displayed in automatic by C64 Memories.
  • Favorites folder: you can add your favorite games in the favorites folder (and every disk/tape of a sequence is added in automatic).
  • Search filters: you can filter results for the first letters, substrings and you can show only the first disk/tape of a sequence.
  • Snapshots galleries: your can take screenshots from inside the games and the pictures will be displayed in automatic in C64 Memories.
  • Notes: you can add custom notes for every single game.
  • Ratings: you can rate every single game.
  • Search providers: you can easily find additional informations (review, screenshots, remake, music) over the Internet for every single game just by pressing a button!

source: c64scene.com c64memories

CBM-Command v1.0.2 Beta

July 9th, 2010 No comments

CBM-Command is a disk manager for the Commodore 64 / Commodore 128 / Commodore VIC20 / Commodore C16 computers. It is written like Norton Commander or Midnight Commander, but is much simpler due to the target platforms. Both the C128/C64/VIC20/C16 have their own native version of the application.

Release Notes – 2010-07-09 – Version 1.0.1/1.0.2

New Features:

  • Added support for Commodore Plus 4 computer.
  • 32K Expanded VIC-20 now supported.

Changes:

  • (VIC20) Refactored many of the screens to better fit the 22×23 layout.
  • (VIC20) Filename shortening removed and the file type moved to the left of the directory display.
  • (PLUS4) Created color scheme to match the environment.
  • (VIC20) Panels are not displayed side by side, only one panel is displayed at a time.
  • (VIC20) D64 support is removed, the RAM was needed elsewhere.
  • (ALL) The screen has been made more scalable.

Known Issues:

  • (VIC20) Many of the keyboard shortcuts on the left side of the keyboard do not work under VICE. After speaking with members of the VICE team they are pretty sure this is a problem in the GETIN kernel routine which is used by cc65. I would greatly appreciate it if someone with a real VIC can verify that the keys do not work on real hardware before I bring the problem up in the cc65 forums.
  • (VIC20) I still haven’t figured out why saving the configuration doesn’t work. :(
  • (VIC20) CTRL-D and CTRL-E don’t work.
  • (VIC20) The launcher doesn’t yet know about the VIC, so it loads the wrong version of CBM-Command.
  • (VIC20) The configuration tool cannot save.

source: cbmcommand.codeplex.com

Atari 800/130 Software cassette

July 6th, 2010 No comments

Today i picked up some software cassette for Atari 800/130.

Unboxing SIO2SD interface by Pigula

July 6th, 2010 1 comment
SIO2SD interface by Pigula

Autopsy:

Testing the SIO2SD interface for Atari

The SIO2SD  is a device that allows you to load games/applications into any 8-bit Atari XL/XE computers via SIO interface from SD/MMC cards.

Device abilities:

  • Works with SD (not SDHC) and MMC(FAT12,FAT16 and FAT32 formats)
  • Handles ATR (rw), XFD (ro) and COM/XEX (ro) file types.
  • 16×2 LCD display allows to “walk” catalog tree and choose files to load.
  • Handles SIO with turbo (allows to set speed index from 1 to 16, default is 6 (69kb/s), in versions 1.x speed index was always 10 (51kb/s))
  • All densities with 128B and 256B sectors, including 16MB disks.
  • Handles drives D1 to D8.
  • Can be configured using ATARI (it’s possible to load configuration tool directly from MCU flash memory, so no SD card is needed)

SIO2SD in Action:

source: sio2sd.gucio.pl marcinprusisz.pl

Some new Games for Commodore 64 (Basic game compo 2010)

July 4th, 2010 No comments

New 8 Bit Software – Scavenger, Penultimate Fantasy and DungeonExplorer for Commodore 64.

source: noname.c64.org

Commodore Free Magazine Issue #41

July 4th, 2010 No comments

Commodore Free Magazine Issue #41

In this issue you can find:

  • Editorial.
  • Readers Comments.
  • News.
  • Interview With Jim Brain.
  • Review Of Knight ‘N’ Grail.
  • How The C64 Changed My Life.
  • Equinoxe – Evolution (8-Bit Girl)
  • Interview With 8-Bit Girl.
  • Adventures In Time Review.

source: commodorefree.com

Categories: Magazine, News & Rumors, Today

SD2Iec Firmware v0.9.2 Released

July 1st, 2010 No comments

SD2IEC is a hardware mass storage device using an SD/MMC card and interfacing with the IEC bus. It is based on the ATmega644 microcontroller from the Atmel AVR microcontroller family.

The most prominent use of SD2IEC is emulation/replacement of a Commodore-1541 disk drive for a C64. Hardware and the microcontroller’s firmware is available as open source (GPL).

Changelog:

2010-06-21 – release 0.9.2

  • Bugfix: Rename was broken on FAT.
  • Turbodisk is now disabled when running on internal RC clock.
  • Button debounce timeout increased.

source: sd2iec.de gitweb forum thread c64-wiki

Categories: Firmware, News & Rumors, Today

(Italian) Jurassic News numero #30

July 1st, 2010 No comments

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italian.

Categories: Magazine, News & Rumors, Today

Some new Games & Utility for Commodore VIC-20

July 1st, 2010 No comments

Some new Games & Utility for Commodore VIC-20.

  • FCBPaint-0.5. This is a preview of an editor for a new graphics mode I’ve been working on for a while.
  • FIFA WORLD CUP 2010. FIFA’s unofficial VIC 20 football/soccer game.
  • Odi Est Amo. You will hate this game.
  • Q*LOAD V0.1/U. Q*LOAD is a tape loader / mastering tool for the Vic-20.

source: Denial (The Commodore VIC-20 forum)

Retrocommodore second meeting

June 27th, 2010 No comments

The new meeting will be held on July 3rd, 2010 at Orvieto.

We will be guests of the beautiful event CRACK AT THE TREASURE CAT 2010 (www.wardriving.it) with our retrocomputers.

source: retrocommodore.com

Categories: Event(s), News & Rumors, Today

High Voltage SID Collection Update #53

June 26th, 2010 No comments

After this update, the collection should contain 37,714 SID files!

Thanks to all the people who have helped to make HVSC the collection that it is today, without your help it would be a much tougher task.

This update features (all approximates):

  • 1045 new SIDs.
  • 897 fixed/better rips.
  • 20 PlaySID/Sidplay1 specific SIDs eliminated.
  • 133 repeats/bad rips eliminated.
  • 1076 SID credit fixes.
  • 81 SID model/clock infos.
  • 23 tunes from /DEMOS/UNKNOWN/ identified.
  • 10 tunes from /GAMES/ identified.
  • 81 tunes moved out of /DEMOS/ to their composers’ directories.
  • 11 tunes moved out of /GAMES/ to their composers’ directories.

source: hvsc.de

Categories: C64/SX64, News & Rumors, Today