Archive

Archive for the ‘Today’ Category

Commodore 4064 (PAL) & Commodore Educator 64 (NTSC)

July 27th, 2019 1 comment
Commodore 4064 (PAL) & Commodore Educator 64 (NTSC)

This is a very old article from 2016 that i never published on my blog.

Summarizes the purchase, shipping, cleaning and simple repair of a Commodore 4064 with a very low serial number.

Since i had not talked about the repair, i begin to tell that only the VIC-II 6569 Video Chip in Ceramic format was broken.

In the photos there is also a comparison between the Commodore 4064 (PAL) and the Commodore Educator 64 (NTSC)

Below the old article.

The title of this post is: I want it at all costs.

But what? a computer! which model? an old one that I missed to complete a part of my collection.

This computer is really unusable, as are all of them, but this one beats them all.

It’s a Commodore 64 in a PET case produced in 1982, with a green phosphor monitor, stripped of the sound chip (SID 6581) and colour RAM (2114), with a modified kernel that doesn’t use any colour, and a keyboard with different 1..8 keycaps (no colour code on the front).

What’s left? An useless computer with no sound and no green-scale colours; it just uses black and green, while the Commodore Educator 64 has sound and can show colours in shades of green.

After getting the Educator 64 I wanted to complete the pair with a Commodore 4064, and I started to look for it.

I saw a few 4064s that sold for bizarre prices – I can’t say that they were high, because if you want something you are willing to buy it whatever the price, but anyway…

Commodore 4064 (PAL)

Here begins my adventure :-D

At one time a 4064 pops up in a well known auction site – take note that I don’t use artificial intelligence search engines to look for items, I don’t give a shit… if I find something when I look for it, that’s fine, otherwise it’s not a big deal.

That one was located in Germany, the price was low (at least for me – someone considered it very high), but was the seller willing ship? No he wasn’t.

I wrote to him, no reply, I sent the same message translated in German (thanks google), he responded in German telling me that the item was too big and he didn’t know how to deal with it.

I wrote him again in google German, telling him that I could send him some shipping and packaging instructions – I have them ready in many languages. His reply: I don’t ship.

I was sad and discouraged, because even if the unit wasn’t working, it was in an excellent aesthetic condition and with no missing parts.

I asked for help to my friend Andrea, who asked Ciro, who told me that I could ask his German contact Ralf Schmitz if he could lend me a hand.

Meanwhile the auction was getting near the end… still at a low price.

I wrote to Ralf – a very kind person – and he explained to me that he lives 530Km far from the place where the computer was located. Things got complicated.

I asked Ralf to contact the seller, who maybe preferred to talk with a compatriot :-D

The seller didn’t reply, the auction was ending, what should I have done? I love to risk, and while in chat with Ralf I told him the maximum amount to bid.

I won the item at the right price, in the right moment.

Then what? The seller didn’t have many feedbacks but Ralf suggested to pay right away with Paypal which offers buyer’s protection without the risk of losing the money.

I sent the money to Ralf with Paypal, and he paid the seller.

Ralf wrote him. No reply. The Easter weekend went by, still no reply.

And then one day… the guy replied! Ralf could contact him by phone and they chatted for more than one hour. The man seemed good; old but fair.

The seller told Ralf that he didn’t want to ship because he didn’t know how to properly package, he didn’t have packaging material and he didn’t want to look for it… then he told that he should have to buy some tape, and petrol for the post office, and so on…

I talked with Ralf, and one of the ideas we ditched was to ask someone to go to the seller’s place to help him to pack the 4064 and have it sent to Ralf with some kind of hitch-hiking.

I was suffering.

New solution: simplify the shipping.

I explained Ralf how to separate the monitor from the base: it’s a matter of unscrewing 5 screws, detaching a connector from the motherboard, and cutting two wires (I didn’t even think about explaining how to unsolder them).

The seller was was fine with the idea.

Ralf had to send a huge package containing the packaging material – boxes, foam and bubblewrap – and written instructions from me and Ralf.

The seller shipped the packages with DHL, which in Italy delivers using SDA (one of the cheapest and lower quality couriers). Panic.

The seller is old so he shipped one box at a time: the monitor first, that arrived in 5 days, then the base, that took much longer and made my anxiety skyrocket – Ralf told me that DHL had a few problems in Germany but the package should have crossed the border.

While he was writing to me, the second package arrived at destination.

The computer is now complete and in excellent condition, and with a slightly low serial number :-D

Commodore 4064 (PAL)

My thanks to Ralf Schmitz because without him this wouldn’t have been possible, and to Andrea for putting up with my anxiety during the last 20 days.

And my thanks to Giacomo Vernoni for translating this report, otherwise I would have written just a paragraph of text – and that would have been a pity :-D

Gallery:

Amiga 4000 with varta/caps acid leak & IRQs serious problem Repair

July 27th, 2019 1 comment
Amiga 4000 Battery/Capacitors acid leak & serious problems with IRQs Repair

First of all, a premise: All the repairs i do are for hobby purpose ONLY. It is NOT a job, and i fix stuff for a selected people group that i consider needs my help. All other people please ask somewhere else to get your items repaired back.

A guy contacted me 3+ months ago (April 2019) asking help to fix his Amiga 4000D (Yellow screen at boot for a couple of seconds, and then black). I agreeded to help him.

This Amiga 4000 was tested with A3640 and a Phase5 Cyberstorm MK3 CPU cards, with which the A4000 does not work with the same issue descripted above.

I immediately noticed a fairly important damage caused by battery and caps acid leakage (especially in the audio area, see photo).

Amiga 4000 Battery/Capacitors acid leak & serious problems with IRQs Repair

After cleaned everything, i rebuild some interrupted pcb tracks on the motherboard (audio / ram / status led section) and replaced capacitors on both motherboard and 3640 (the fault persisted, of course).

Next, i used the Chucky DIAGROM: the DIAGROM is useful to understand what might be that doesn’t work, and the output via RS232 is also very useful if nothing is displayed on the screen.

DIAGROM reported some issue with all IRQs and CIA Timings, but everything else was working (video output, images, sound, mouse, joystick ..ect..).

The IRQ problem is well known in the Amiga 4000 repair circle, because it could be caused by IRQ _CIPL or _IPL interrupted lines, the pcb tracks start from PAULA and goes to the GAL U701, and from the GAL to the CPU connector.

Well, I checked all the IRQ lines, and they were good. I checked again, everything was ok (the checks must be done from PAULA to the GAL and from the GAL to the CPU connector, amiga pcb solder side and CPU card pcb solder side) at this point i thought that GAL U701 was dead, so i programmed a new GAL and replaced it. Unfortunately nothing changed.

Amiga 4000 Battery/Capacitors acid leak & serious problems with IRQs Repair

Thinking about what it would cause the GAL not working properly, i pointed the finger to the GAL CLOCK, exactly to the pin 1 of the GAL U701.

The Clock was there but something was not clear to me: the signal i see on the oscilloscope was corrupt, fixed at 5V. At this point i said to myself, what is that supplies clock signal to the GAL? Clock on the pin 1 of GAL U701 is supplied by the IC 74F86 U711, pin 6, via the resistor R702 (obviously resistor was good).

Amiga 4000 Battery/Capacitors acid leak & serious problems with IRQs Repair

I called my friend Andrea (Andry) and asking him to check on his A4000 the value of that pin (6) of the IC U711 (i could have done that myself on my Amiga 4000, but disassemble it’s a nightmare). My friend does not have an oscilloscope, so i asked him to check the power using a digital or analogue DC tester. On his A4000 the value of U711 pin 6 was was completely different than my value.

Bingo, it is! i run to the local electronics store to buy a SMD 74F86 IC, but obviously they didn’t have it.. so, i purchased it on Ebay, replaced it, and yes, it was dead.

Amiga 4000 Battery/Capacitors acid leak & serious problems with IRQs Repair

It was not the only faulty component, because replacing the new GAL U701 with the original GAL U701 did not work. So, the original GAL was dead, too.

New IC U711, new GAL U701 and the A4000 is back to life.

Other minor fixes i have been done on this Amiga 4000 are: useless replacement of an 8520 (U300), installation of cooling fan on the CPU 68060 – 50MHZ on Cyberstorm MK3, rebuild of a broken resistor damaged by the caps leak.

No more other to say, except that i am happy i succeeded to repaired this Amiga 4000 for a person that needed my help.

Gallery of the repair:

Video:

Grundy Newbrain Repair (2 of 2)

July 26th, 2019 No comments
Grundy Newbrain Repair (2 of 2)

I will never stop repeating; please you must repleace all capacitors of the newbrain before turning it on.

I have replaced all capacitors some with acid leaks and this time everything has worked very well.

I left the computer running for a couple of hours and no other problems have been manifest yet … but it won’t last forever.

Gallery of the repair:

Useful link to visit: 8bit-homecomputermuseum.at

Grundy Newbrain Repair (1 of 2)

July 26th, 2019 No comments
Grundy Newbrain Repair (1 of 2)

The first thing to do with this home computer before turning it on after many years that it was off is replacing all capacitors, which i did (some capacitors with acid leaks) and the computer worked well for about 15 minutes.

After the first 15 minutes while running a “for next” cycle, the computer started to show signs of slowing down and then freezed.

The problem was a RAM (4116) on BANK 2 [POSITION 416] (see photo), replaced the RAM the computer has started working again for another 15 minutes then it was freezed again.

I turned it off and on again and in this time a single line was repeated for X times, only with the composite video output, the VFD Display worked well (see photo)

Looking at the wiring diagram i found the area that manages the composite video output and i started to making measurements with the oscilloscope and after quite some time i have found the IC 74LS157 [POSITION 449] with a strange measurements that did not convince me for example the output pin 7 (OUTPUT Y2), in fact was broken, replaced the component the computer has started to work again.

Hopefully nothing will happen again: D

Gallery of the repair:

Useful link to visit: 8bit-homecomputermuseum.at

Grundy Newbrain writing Floppy Disk with 22Disk & TeleDisk

July 26th, 2019 No comments
Grundy Newbrain writing Floppy Disk with 22Disk & TeleDisk

I used the 22Disk & TeleDisk software for writing the Floppy Disks for the Grundy Newbrain.

The Floppy disk writing software & the Grundy Newbrain software can be downloaded here: newbrainemu.eu

Gallery:

Grundy Newbrain – Battery Expansion Unit Repair

July 26th, 2019 2 comments
Grundy Newbrain - Riparazione Battery Expansion Unit

This is the Battery Pack for the Newbrain, very comfortable and very light :-D useful for taking the computer to the beach during the summer holidays.

Obviously the Battery Expansion Unit after many years of inactivity has presented some problems of the 20 x 1.2V 600mA NiCd batteries.

The batteries besides being completely exhausted i had leaked acid. (see photo)

Fortunately, there are no major damages with the leakage of acid and it was enough to clean well, unsolder the 20 batteries and replace them with new ones of 1000mA.

Last update: I noticed a malfunction of the Battery Expansion Unit, when i set the switch to OFF the “discharge” LED remained on.

Looking at the schematic, the switch suspend the charge and the use of batteries, the problem was caused by a pcb pad (see photo) that at first sight seemed to be connected together with another, immediately close, but in truth it was not so, it was enough isolate the connection and now everything works correctly.

Gallery:

Grundy Newbrain PSU Repair & Cleaning Cables

July 26th, 2019 No comments
Grundy Newbrain PSU Repair & Cleaning Cables

I have removed the blown filter capacitor of both PSU and cleaned the dirty cables.

Gallery:

U64 Streamer v1.2

July 22nd, 2019 No comments

What can I do with this?

With the new Ultimate 64 firmware (>=1.1c) there is an option to receive video frames & audio over a network connection at 50fps.

You can use this tool to capture those frames into an image, audio or video file.

Changelog v1.1a (21/07/2019):

  • Added audio capture

Download: U64 Streamer v1.2 (695)

source: u64streamer

DirMaster v3.1.3 / Style

July 19th, 2019 No comments

DirMaster is a Windows-based GUI application designed to help Commodore enthusiasts explore and manage their disk image collections.

DirMaster supports common (and uncommon) emulator disk image formats (such as .d64, .d81, .d2m, etc), almost every native Commodore archival format (such as .arc, .sda, .lnx, etc), and many native graphic formats (such as koala, doodle, amica, etc).

DirMaster was designed to give users a perfect blend of familiar appearance (e.g. natural looking disk image contents using the PETSCII character set) and modern GUI functionality (e.g. drag and drop, opening multiple disk images at once). The first version of DirMaster was released in 2006

Issues reported by users that were resolved in v3.1.3:

  • Windows XP compatibility restored in 3.1.3 [0182] (Luca/FIRE + others)
  • Extending a d64 from 35 to 40 tracks, track 35 is destroyed [0172] (stephan-andres)
  • cvt file copy would result in failure to validate the disk in GEOS [0178] (scott.hutter)

Thanks to all who made an effort to submit bug reports. If you sent a bug report and don’t see it addressed here, don’t worry, it’s in the queue.

Other issues resolved in v3.1.3:

  • “Mark disk for GEOS” incorrectly writes the border sector [0181]
  • New d64 images are more accurately matching the 1541 formatted content (open1,8,15,”n0:” style) [0179]
  • BAM view could cause a crash when viewing truncated disk images, this should be less likely now [0168]
  • An error message would sometimes be shown when quitting DirMaster after launching a disk image in an emulator [0159]

Belated thanks to Bacchus/FLT who sent most of the issues that were addressed in 3.1.2.

Download: DirMaster v3.1.3 (646)

source: style64.org/dirmaster

C64 Big Game Pack: Dandy +7D / Ice Cold Beer / Rogue Trooper +3DG

July 18th, 2019 No comments

NEW TAG: C64 BIG GAME PACK

Some new games or tools (Cracked / Trained or Unrealeased) for Commodore 64 have been released from your favorites groups.

Titles:

  • Stercore XD +3D
  • Stercore XD +2
  • Stercore XD
  • Stercore XD +
  • For Speed We Need V2 +2
  • Race Through Space +2HDF
  • Agent USA +4DG
  • Adventure +1D
  • Sidelines V1.1
  • Haunted House +2D
  • Commodore Kung Fu
  • Neutralizor +3DG
  • Sidelines V1.1 +2
  • Pocket Rockets +H
  • Minimike Preview 3 +
  • Looter Preview +
  • Diamond Bucket +2
  • Hexenküche +
  • Valentino +3DMI
  • Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego? +1D
  • Forgotten Worlds +13DI
  • MW Ultra Framework Example Preview +2
  • Blastopia DX
  • RetroGameDev Space Shooter Preview 2 +2
  • Blastopia DX +6HD
  • Exodus +6DH
  • RetroGameDev Space Shooter Preview 2 +3H
  • Neutron V1.3 +2D
  • Neutron V1.3 +6HD
  • Take Down +2DF
  • Pocket Dungeon +
  • Dice Skater +2D
  • Pocket Dungeon V1.1 +
  • Vegetables V2.0 +1D
  • Crystal Caverns
  • Dice Skater [16kb cartridge]
  • Dice Skater +2D
  • Irmen’s Teh Triz
  • Ninja Invasion Simulator Preview 2 +
  • Crystal Caverns +2
  • Cruiser-X 79 Preview
  • Cruiser-X 79 Preview +2
  • The Royal Hunt +1D
  • Space Orbs Preview +D
  • Dice Skater +3HD
  • Ice Cold Beer
  • Death Weapon
  • Swarm 16k
  • Death Weapon +2D
  • Out of INK +
  • Death Weapon +
  • Death Weapon +1D
  • Super Goatron +2
  • Ice Cold Beer +1HD
  • Terminal Fighter Preview +
  • Ice Cold Beer +1D
  • Relentless 64 [16kb cartridge]
  • Death Weapon +3HD
  • Relentless 64 +
  • Rogue Trooper +3DG
  • Swarm 16k +D
  • Swarm 16k V1.0.2
  • Swarm 16k V1.0.2 +D
  • Out of INK +D
  • Mashed Turtles 64 V2 +F
  • The Search for the Nether Regions +DPS
  • Space Orbs Preview 2 &D
  • Space Orbs Preview 2 +D
  • The Rocky Horror Show +7SDF [us version]
  • Mike the Cave-Man +5T
  • Soccer War +2F [seuck]
  • Crystal Caverns +1D
  • Hanoi Tower +DF
  • Grubs Preview
  • Relentless 64 +3H
  • Dandy +7D
  • Minor Jumper [german]

Download: All Games in One Archive (5935)

source: csdb.dk

Some retro-things received from my friend Gerben

July 17th, 2019 No comments
Some retro-things received from my friend Gerben.

Some retro-things received from my friend Gerben.

  • 2 x Commodore 64 Manual
  • 1 x Commodore 64 Programmer’s Reference Guide
  • 1 x Sony HITBIT MSX-Basic Manual
  • 1 x Sony HITBIT MSX-Disk Basic Manual
  • 1 x Sony HITBIT Manual
  • 1 x Jack Nicklaus Accolade game for Macintosh
  • 1 x Commodore 64 Tune-up Book
  • 1 x Getting More from your Commodore 64 Book
  • 1 x Commodore VIC-1541 Manual
  • 2 x Commodore Mouse 1351 Manual
  • 3 x Spare Manuals of Coleco Vision Cartridge (Mouse Trap / Turbo / Time Pilot)
  • 1 x 16k Memory Module for ATARI 800 (Boxed)
  • 1 x Radio Shack TRS-80 Ribbon Daisy Wheel Printer II (Boxed)
  • 1 x Donkey Kong Junior Coleco Vision Cartridge (Boxed)
  • 1 x Narco Police C64 & C64GS Game Cartridge
  • 1 x Simons’ Basic C64 Cartridge
  • 1 x Power Cartridge for Commodore 64
  • 1 x 16K Expansion Memory for Commodore VIC-20 (RED CASE)
  • 1 x Homemade Joystick Interface for ZX-80/81
  • 1 x Commodore 64 RS-232 Interface
  • 1 x Multi Cartridge for VIC-20
  • 1 x Protek Joystick Interface
  • 1 x Philips MSX Mouse
  • 1 x S.C.N. Modem for Commodore 64
  • 1 x Modem House Spectrum VTX 711 for ZX Sepctrum (Boxed)
  • 1 x Intel 8087
  • 9 x IBM 2164-20 (RAM)
  • 1 x Sony HITBIT HB-75P (MSX)
  • 1 x Philips 8245 (MSX2)
  • 1 x Frankenstein ZX-81 (Homemade wood case for ZX-81 with a ACORN Electron Keyboard) + Expansion Memory Inside. The worst thing i’ve ever seen.

Some RS-232 Gender Changer, Null Modem, RS-232 Tester and unknown cables.

The Frankenstein ZX-81 it works! the keyboard not but is not a problem of the keyboard but of the missing connections of the matrix, maybe an unfinished project ?

Gallery:

U64 Streamer v1.1a

July 8th, 2019 No comments

What can I do with this?

With the new Ultimate 64 firmware (>=1.1c) there is an option to receive video frames & audio over a network connection at 50fps.

You can use this tool to capture those frames into an image or video file.

Changelog v1.1a (07/07/2019):

  • Fixed settings window issue’s
  • Check on valid IP address, and issue with remote start checks.
  • GUI changes.
  • Added visuals to start stream and video recorder button.
  • Fixed window position for about and settings window.
  • Added button icons.
  • Stream statistics.
  • Optimized code.

Download: U64 Streamer v1.1a (667)

source: u64streamer

RGCD C64 16KB Cartridge Game Competition 2019

July 4th, 2019 No comments

Results and Downloads of the RGCD C64 16KB Cartridge Game Development Competition started on December 22nd 2018 and ended a few days ago, on July 1st 2019.

Results:

  • Ice Cold Beer by Megastyle
  • Dice Skater [16kb cartridge] by Geir Straume
  • Doc Cosmos by Simon Jameson        
  • Blastopia DX by The New Dimension
  • Death Weapon by C64CD
  • Swarm 16k by Commocore
  • Lala Prologue [16kb cartridge] by Digital Monastery, Hokuto Force
  • Let’s Invade 2 by The New Dimension
  • Vegetables V2.0 by Mike Richmond
  • Pocket Dungeon by Endurion
  • Super Goatron by Misfit
  • Out of INK by Hokuto Force
  • Robots Rumble [16kb cartridge] by Digital Monastery, Hokuto Force
  • Stercore XD by C64CD
  • Tenebra Macabre V1.1 [16kb cartridge] by Digital Monastery, Hokuto Force
  • Relentless 64 by Bitplane Technomantes

Download: RGCD C64 16KB Cartridge Game Competition 2019 (799)

source: csdb.dk

Categories: C128/128D/128DCR, C64/SX64, DTV

U64 Streamer v1.1

July 2nd, 2019 No comments

What can I do with this?

With the new Ultimate 64 firmware (>=1.1c) there is an option to receive video frames & audio over a network connection at 50fps.

You can use this tool to capture those frames into an image or video file.

Changelog v1.1 (02/07/2019):

  • First official release.
  • Various fixes, bug reports i received from users.
  • Video capture: release of file handle.
  • Focus / minimize window / restore window problems.
  • Optimized stream start/stop functions.
  • Embeded menu: removed.
  • Floating menu, so menu is always visible but not in video output window.
  • Video capture window background set to black, there was a small grey line visible (not nice in OBS).
  • Option to start U64 streams remotely.

Download: U64 Streamer v1.1 (580)

source: u64streamer

High Voltage SID Collection Update #71

July 1st, 2019 No comments

The High Voltage SID Collection (HVSC) is a freeware hobby project which organises Commodore 64 music (also known as SID music) into an archive for both musicians and fans alike.

The work on the collection is done completely in the Team and contributors’ spare time and is proudly one of the largest and most accurate computer music collections known.

This update features (all approximates):

  • 464 new SIDs
  • 20 fixed/better rips
  • 1 repeats/bad rips eliminated
  • 49 SID credit fixes
  • 94 SID model/clock infos
  • 4 tunes from /DEMOS/UNKNOWN/ identified
  • 2 tunes from /GAMES/ identified
  • 17 tunes moved out of /DEMOS/ to their composers’ directories
  • 6 tunes moved out of /GAMES/ to their composers’ directories

Download:

source: www.hvsc.c64.org