This is a new game for Atari 2600 console. This game was written by Philsan a user of Atariage forum.

source: atariage forum

Orion Prime is the best adventure game ever made on the Amstrad CPC.

The game is available in 3″ and 3.5″ discs and Free Download.

The Story:

Engine failure… A hyperspace voyage that ends in an asteroid field… Forced to eject, you wander aimlessly in space, until you detect a signal from the Orion Prime.

However, you quickly realise that this gigantic vessel is no longer the jewel of the scientific research fleet that it once was, as you discover that the crew has been decimated by a strange illness…

You must escape as quickly as possible, but to do this, you will have to explore the Orion Prime, understand what has happened on board the vessel, and perhaps even confront it…

source: orion.cpcscene.com

This is the last notice for the Ultimate 1541 version 2.

from 1541 Ultimate homepage:

• 184 Ultimate-II units shipped.
• The last few (5) will be shipped out tomorrow….
• If you paid after June 1, you will need to wait until the new production batch is finished.  (Refund possible..)
• New production startup in progress!
• Unprocessed payments will be processed before the end of the week (week 27). Please hold your payments until further notice!
• Question of redistributing the Free Xilinx tools within a virtual machine is under review by the legal department of Xilinx. If they approve, I can provide the planned virtual machine; if not, I will need to write instructions on how you can instal the tools separately.
• Last firmware version: 2.0RC4. Downloadable update available by end of week 28.

source: 1541ultimate.net

Luigi Di Fraia is working on version 3 of his DC2N. The DC2N is a digital replacement for the C2N datassette. With the DC2N you can read cassettes and transfer the data to a memory-card.

It is also possible to save data from a memory-card to a datassette. The DC2N is a stand alone system, what means you can do the transfers without a computer.

The newest version has USB support and uses a graphical screen to show the signal that is recorded. You can watch various videos of the DC2N on youtube.

source: commodore-gg.hobby.nl

Autopsy:

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from atarimuseum Homepage:

The Atari 1050 disk drive was Atari’s replacement to the Atari 810 disk drive. The new Atari 1050 disk drive matched the new high-tech, low profile line of Atari XL home computer systems. The original Atari 810 could hold single density data (88K out of 100K diskettes) which was standard.

The new Atari 1050 disk drives were DUAL-DENSITY disk drives and could use the older Atari 810 diskettes, but could also hold data in a new Enhanced Density mode of 127K. Although the standard for disk drives was 180K, this additional storage was welcomed by Atari users who bought the disk drives.

The only downside to the disk drives were their new version of Atari DOS: 3.0 which had compatibility problems with its earlier version: 2.0s Atari would later fix this problem with a very well designed and accepted and one of the most popular Atari versions of DOS:  2.5.

Up to 4 Atari disk drives could be “daisy-chained” together. Using Atari’s unique SIO bus (Serial I/O), each drive would connect to the next, forming a chain in which data was transferred. Although slower then other I/O buses used on other computers, Atari’s SIO bus was a simple and convenient way for the non-computer literate to more easily add components onto their Atari computer systems (other brands of computers required internal cards, ribbon cables, complicated jumper block settings which were geared more towards the computer hobbyist crowd instead of the common individual with little computer knowledge).

The disk drive electronics and its mechanism were done by Tandon, the case design was done by Tom Palecki, formerly of Atari’s Industrial Design group. Tom was also responsible for the design of the Atari 1055 3.5″ disk drive which was never released by Atari, Inc. due to its sales in 1984.

source: atarimuseum.com

Autopsy:

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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

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

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.

Autopsy:

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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

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 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

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

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

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

source: noname.c64.org

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