Very nice adapter designed by Rolo that allows you to use the Rolo Multi-Cartridge also on the Interton VC 4000 console.

Gallery:

This is a very simple composite video and audio mod for the Interton VC4000 console.

You need to remove the RF modulator (recommend to removing it completely) by removing all pins and then connect the video (V) Audio (A) and ground (G) signals like the photo and then use the same hole of the RF cable for the new video and audio cable.

Gallery:

The Interton VC 4000 is originally a rebranded and reshaped Radofin 1292 Advanced Programmable Video System, released in 1976 (making it the second, if not the first, CPU and interchangeable ROM based console).

The machine is powered by a CPU and a GPU, both made by Signetics, an American chip maker bough by Philips in 1975. The APVS/VC4000 seems to be conceived by Philips to promote their Signetics chips, and was probably sold to various little electronics companies.

Claims are that Interton conceived the VC4000 before the APVS, but the release date is still 1978.

Various threads on Internet show different specs for the APVS and the VC4000, but it’s probably a confusion between the CPU speed and RAM and the GPU speed and RAM.

The specs seems to be as is:

• CPU : Signetics 2650AI : 0,887 Mhtz
• GPU : Signetics 2636 : 3.58 Mhtz
• CPU RAM : odd numbers, but as low as 87, 65 or 32 octets
• GPU RAM : 32ko

The GPU is able to offer a display of 218*200 pixels, with 8 colors, and monochrome sprite(s?).

It’s also in charge of the sound. It seems more able than your regular beeper, but not on par with the Atari 2600 or Videopac. (or, maybe it is but never shows, at the sound is exactly the same on the Arcadia 2001, and it sounds much better, tho still weak compared to other systems).

The input consist of 3 keys : Reset, Select and Start.

Plus two joysticks; they have an analog joystick (free on the APVS family, auto-centered on the VC4000 family) 2 action/fire buttons (which seems to be one button, so they might be internall wired together) and a 12 buttons keypad-like keyboard.

About 50 games have been programmed for the various systems release. Although Interton (or Interton fans?) claim that the Interton VC4000 is superior to the APVS, back in 1980, cart adapters were sold to play APVS carts on Interton VC4000 and vice-versa; furthermore, dump of games showed no difference between most games, the main difference being for some in-gam words changed to English to German, and the mention “Interton VC 4000″ added in few games.

Also, Interton claimed all games to have been programmed in Germany, but looking at the code in the game “Shoot out” bring up this text :

“CHOI ANDREW, HONG KONG, MARCH 31 1981. PROGRAMS BY THE SAME AUTHOR: INVADER, BREAKOUT”

The system was sold from 1976 to 1984; tho there isn’t any definitive date, as those date covers all licenced clones; I have seen the Interton VC4000 in a French video game magazine dated from December 1982; and I own a ITMC MPT-05 clone with a receipt from 1984 inside (tho it might just be some old stock; but the IMTC MPT series of clones seems all to started to sell in 1983).

From what I have found, there are 50 different games released for the system, tho some are available only on one family.

The families are :

1292/1392 APVS (6 uniques games + Hobby Module)
Interton VC4000 (a great winner with 10 unique games plus the biggest list of games overall)
ITMC MPT05 (not enough data)
Voltmace (5 unique games)
Rowtron (2 unique games)

There might be another family two French systems (Karvan Computer and Occitel OC-2000) but there is nothing but pictures to be found about them.

There is also the Hobby Module add-on (for the APVS only), that added the possibility to program games in Signetics BASIC? and more importantly, to record and load programs from a cassette tape.

Specs are even harder to find than for the main system, but this cart seems to add some RAM (tho, it might just be dedicaced to the tape data and not available for the program itself) and some mention an AY 3-8910 sound chip (a classic sound arcade chip found in so many computers of the 80′s and into some consoles like the Vectrex)

One notable feature of the console, aside from the analog joystick, is how to boot any game.

When powering the system, the screen will display raodom stuff; Reset mush be pressed to get a normal screen.

This is due to the weak amount of CPU RAM. Why so few RAM? Back in 1976, only some types of RAM could be adressed directly by the CPU;this RAM was obviously more expensive than other RAM; (it’s one reason why the Fairchild channel F got only 64 octets and the 2600 128 octets).

To get more RAM, one workaround (that got used also in the Colecovision) is to use few RAM to boot up the system, and load one instruction for the CPU to look in the GPU RAM to load data. The GPU RAM being obviously cheaper, allowing to get more of it.

Tho, probably from bad programming, later games carts not only have more ROM, but also up to 256 octets of RAM.

Most games are pretty typical of the era; Videopac/Odyssey² offer about the same kind of games, with a likely evolution from “basic” games to licenced-like games later in the life of the system, with clones of arcade such as Invaders.

Gallery:

source: atariage.com

Fixing RGB LED Solar Garden Light

Defect:

• Dead.

Replaced parts:

• YX8018 Solar Led Driver.

Gallery:

A lot of joysticks have been produced between the 80′s and 90′s years, this model made by Commodore was missing in my collection.

Gallery:

Olivetti Prodest 128S (Acorn BBC Master Compact) Modding

I found in the box of the rubbish dump two Olivetti Prodest 128S that was given to me long time ago by a dear friend: Andrea Pierdomenico.

Both computers are without the Floppy Drive and Power Supply external module.

I chose one of two in a better conditions and i did a modding to use it with a VGA Monitor and SDCARD instead of Floppy Disk plus some extras.

Work that has been done:

• Replaced the lame Olivetti ROMS (EPROM 27C512) with the original one from Acorn BBC Master Compact (release MOS 5510)
• GBS8200 v4.0 for VGA Output installed inside the case.
• Removed the Input Video signal connector (YPbPr) of the GBS8200 because they cause problems to closing the case.
• Capacitor FIX for GBS8200
• Installed a Power Switch.
• Cutted two pcb track for the Power Switch.
• Installed a VGA Connector.
• Replaced the Power LED (RED) with a GREEN LED.
• External power supply (5v / 2.5A).
• Installed a potentiometer (10K) to adjust the speaker volume.
• Cutted one pcb track for the potentiometer, otherwise the external volume adjust don’t work.
• TurboMMC installed (see the pinout for the internal installation).
• Installed TurboMMC Eprom.

TurboMMC pinout for the internal installation:

Gallery of work that was done:

123►

Download:

• Acorn BBC Master Compact ROM (941)
• TurboMMC ROM (894)
• TurboMMC 128MB MMC Image (Win32DiskImager format) (1021)

Commodore 64C Replacement Case (SX-64 Style)

The Commodore C64C replacement case is very nice like the original one.

There are some imperfections in the plastic and in the painting phase, anyway i don’t look for the perfection. who is perfect ? :D

… so if you are not looking for the absolute perfection, i would recommend it to everyone.

Gallery:

12►

source: return-magazin.de

Hoxs64 written by David Horrocks is a Commodore 64 emulator for Microsoft Windows 2K/XP/Vista/Seven (DirectX 9+)

The emulator substantially reproduces this legacy machine in minute detail.

Changelog:

• CIA serial and CNT timing improvements thanks to test programs written by Mariusz.
• Added VIC-II colour palette user configuration dialog box.
• Added command line options (see hoxs64.txt) to support the VICE 64 testbench.
• Changed the colour RAM reset pattern to use bytes $0C and $03 as per the same C64C whose RAM reset pattern is already used.

Download:

• Hoxs64 32/64 bit v1.0.9.4 (847)

source: hoxs64.net

CBM prg Studio Version 3.11.0 is released. There are a lot of new features in this version. I’d really appreciate it if you report any bugs you find or have any suggestions/comments.

CBM prg Studio allows you to type a BASIC or Machine Code program in using a nice Windows environment and convert it to a ‘.prg’ file which you can run on an emulator, or even a real C64 / VIC20 or PET if you’re feeling brave and have the right kit.

CBM prg Studio is the result of merging C64PrgGen and VIC20PrgGen. Adding new features and fixing bugs in two apps which were 95% similar was a bit of a nightmare so merging them made sense.

It was also a good opportunity for a face lift and to add some new features, such as:

• Programs are project based, meaning all related source files, sprite files etc. are kept in one place and multiple source files can be linked more easily.
• Tabbed MDI.
• Syntax highlighting.

What CBM prg Studio isn’t is a front-end for tok64, cbmcnvrt, bastext or any other tokeniser / detokeniser / assembler. It’s all been written completely from scratch.

New features in v3.11.0:

• Assembler:
  • CTRL+Double click on label or variable will take you to its definition.
  • Mouse over a directive to get a tooltip of its usage.
  • Control/screen codes can be embedded in text strings.

• Debugger:
  • Default watch list.

• Sprite Editor:
  • Number keys for quick colour change.

• Screen Editor:
  • Quick colour change.
  • Screen editor can generate data to basic string array.

• BASIC:
  • Super Expander basic extension for VIC 20 projects.

Bugs Fixed:

• Assembler:
  • Having ‘*=’ in a comment causes an error
  • Macros weren’t appearing in the macro viewer
  • Multiple macro parameters in the same line were being ignored.

• BASIC:
  • Incorrect line warning length for VIC20 projects.

• Screen designer:
  • Crash when exporting C128 screens.

• Sprite Editor:
  • Fail when importing from listing when the target line number was also in another part of the listing.

• Character Editor:
  • Fail when importing from listing when the target line number was also in another part of the listing.

See the help for a complete list of new features and fixed bugs.

Note In this version, each target machine can have its own default project directory. If you are upgrading from a previous version (before version 2.5.1) of CBM prg Studio you may be asked to set up your project directories again. Your current projects will not be affected.

Download: CBM prg Studio v3.11.0 (756)

source: ajordison.co.uk

This is the official demo party results from Datastorm 2017. See also the CSDB Datastorm 2017 Summer section for more informations.

C64 Demo:

• 1 – K9 V Orange Main Sequence by Fairlight
• 2 – Beats by Atlantis
• 3 – Pandemoniac Part 2 of 5 Swirler by Panoramic Designs, Prosonix
• 4 – Witchcraft by Logicoma, Pegboard Nerds

C64 4K Intro:

• 1 – Datafresh by Darklite, Loonies

C64 Music:

• 1 – Solskyddstraktor by Fegolhuzz
• 2 – File Deleted by Magnar Harestad
• 3 – The Final Toke by Radiant
• 4 – Force Of Habit by Stinsen
• 5 – Glyptodont by Lft
• 6 – Pale Blue Dot by ZZAP69

C64 Graphics:

• 1 – Redback Razorcrabs by Razorback/redcrab
• 2 – Darkness by Hobbit

Mixed Graphics:

• 1 – Gimmie Affisch by Genesis Project

Productions released outside compos:

• C=Rex Offline by Genesis Project (Game)
• C=Rex Offline by Atlantis (Crack)
• C=Rex Offline +H by Onslaught (Crack)
• Mega Demo 2 by Hack n’ Trade (Demo)
• The Sentinel by Artstate (Music Collection)
• Tribute 2 TRIAD 2 (4K Intro)

Download: Datastorm 2017 Summer Full Party Stuff (1027)

source: datastorm.party

The Multi-cart by Rolo was designed to to hold a variety of Dragon 32-64/CoCo 2 rom cartridge based programs, which are running directly from the eprom at address range $c000 to $ff00.

The cart holds up to 64 8k-roms. It can play roms with a size of 1k to 16k. You simply select a memory slot from 00 to 63, press RESET on your Dragon, and the program launches.

This enables you, to use your Dragon simply without further hardware setup: no cables, no drives, no extra PSUs, no controller-carts.

The Dragon/CoCo 2 Multi-cartridge now can also be used for other systems.

Currently there are three Extension Cartridges (adapters) available:

• VECTREX.
• Odyssey 2/PHILIPS G7000/G7200/G7400.
• INTERTON ELECTRONIC VC 4000.

A compilation of rom-files for all four systems can be burned on a single eprom (27C4001), adding versatility to the device.

Gallery:

source: archive.worldofdragon.org atariage.com

Commodore Amiga 500+ Replace Keyboard Membrane

Defect:

• 50% of the keyboard keys are totally dead.

Replaced parts:

• 1 x Keyboard Membrane.

Gallery of work that was done:

Conversion Amiga 500 REV 8A (512k Chip RAM) to 500+ (1MB CHIP Ram)

Some Amiga 500 sold at the end of 1991/beginning of 1992 have a motherboard of an Amiga 500+ but limited to the capabilities of a regular Amiga 500 with 512k of Chip RAM.

These motherboards can be converted to 500+ simply installing the missing pieces; RAM section and REALTIME CLOCK.

What i did is add a 512K to have 1MB of Chip RAM like the amiga 500+.

Gallery of work that was done:

Chinon FB-354 ReCAP (Amiga Floppy Drive)

Defect:

• Don’t read anything – Dead.

Replaced parts:

• 3 x Electrolytic Capacitors of 22uF.
• 1 x Electrolytic Capacitor of 1uF.

Gallery of work that was done:

Panasonic JU-253-043P ReCAP (Amiga Floppy Drive) #1

Defect:

• Don’t read anything – Dead.

Replaced parts:

• 1 x Electrolytic Capacitor of 10uF.

Gallery of work that was done:

—————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Panasonic JU-253-043P Replace Micro Switch (Amiga Floppy Drive) #2

Defect:

• The Floppy Disk is not recognized.

Replaced parts:

• 1 x Micro Switch.

Gallery of work that was done: