Manosoft has released a new version of his C64SD.

The Italian developer Damiano Colombari based the C64SD design on the already existing SD2IEC solution.

The major differences from the previous one are the aluminum box and a female IEC connector for connect external Floppy Drive or other devices.

Click here for the Video Demostration.

source: c64sd.roxer.com c64wiki sd2iec c64wiki sd2iec firmware

The Pocket 1541 is a emulator for the 1541 disk drive. Pocket 1541 uses a SD card to store your data, supported formats are: D64, M2I, PRG, D71, D81 and P00.

The firmware is based on the open source SD2IEC firmware. The device has four buttons and a LCD screen that can be used to navigate to the required files on the SD card.

source: commodore-gg.hobby.nl pocket 1541 homepage

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:

For a new review see the italian version of this article.

from C64Scene Homepage: This project is interesting not only because it’s another mass-storage solution but because it combines already existing solutions to a new and fresh product. Damiano has always followed all the Commdore related websites and forums especially concerning the MMC and SD2IEC projects.

That’s when he got the idea to build a solution for which one doesn’t need soldering, wire cutting or the IEC cable. C64SD utilizes the Datasette connector to power the SD2IEC circuit. An IEC connector connects right into the IEC port.

The whole module stand vertical along the back of the C64 (or VIC20). The module is fitted with two rather large buttons, one reset and one diskswap/multi-function button.

SD-CARD Tested:

SANDISK SD-CARD 2GB = 100% WORKING.
CORSAIR SD-CARD 512MB = 100% WORKING.

source: c64sd.roxer.com c64wiki sd2iec c64wiki sd2iec firmware

from 1541 Ultimate homepage:

Finally, the software for the 1541 Ultimate II is finished. In the last two weeks, an enormous amount of work has been done:

• USB is now working stable, including insertion and removal.  (My external 500 GB harddisk was detected flawlessly!)
• Support for USB devices with multiple LUNs (like card readers)
• GCR (G64) supported added, including write (the Ultimate-I couldn’t do this)
• T64 file support re-integrated.
• Tape support, using TAP files (I needed to test the hardware anyway!)
• Comprehensible menus.
• Real time clock functional  (still need a clock widget…)
• I made a wooden mould, to simplify closing the plastic cases without damaging them.

The plan is, to ship the first 40~50 units this coming Wednesday! The remaining units will follow as soon as possible!  Thank you for your patience!

source: 1541ultimate.net

Introduction: The idea behind Cassadapt was to give Commodore computer enthusiasts yet another choice for interfacing their beloved old computers to modern PC’s to either record a .tap/,prg file to a Datassette or playback a Datassette to the PC to capture as a .wav file to then convert to a .tap file.

Cassadapt converts audio signals from your PC’s sound card to digital 0-5V data that can be recorded to a real C2N / 1531 Datassette or played directly in to the C64, C16 etc., even without the need for a real Datassette connected.

With the use of fantastic programs like TapWav, TAPClean and WAV-PRG, Cassadapt is the play-record loop tape enthusiasts are looking for.

Click here for the Instructions Manual.

source: lemon64.com

from c64scene.com Homepage:

Manosoft reached a version 2 milestone with his new mass-storage project, C64SD. The Italian developer Damiano Colombari based the C64SD design on the already existing SD2IEC solution.

This project is interesting not only because it’s another mass-storage solution but because it combines already existing solutions to a new and fresh product.

Damiano has always followed all the Commdore related websites and forums especially concerning the MMC and SD2IEC projects. That’s when he got the idea to build a solution for which one doesn’t need soldering, wire cutting or the IEC cable.

Read more…

from the homepage:

• C2NPower: Powering CBM products can prove harder than initially thought. Many manufacturers choose the safe (and professional) route of including a power jack on the product and a plug-in power supply (wall wart). It’s a safe choice, but it carries a double cost. Power supplies tend to be $5.00 or so, and are often bulky and heavy, adding to shipping costs. On the consumer side, there’s a cost in finding another open outlet for the power supply and cable management. [continue here]

• X-Pander 3: In my continuing effort to sell more products for your Commodore computer, I determined users would buy more cartridge-based solutions if they could plug more into their machine at one time :-) Thus, given the lack of cartridge expansion options on the market at present, I am producing the X-Pander. Modeled off the CMD EX-3, CMD EX2+1, and the FB-3XP. [continue here]

source: jbrain.com

With this USB Joystick adapter you can use your favorite joystick on the PC. Joystick from Amiga/C64/Atari… can be used!

source: retro-donald.de

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italian.

PONG is one of the earliest arcade video games, released by Atari way back in 1972. (It was not the first video game, but it’s venerable indeed.)

We’re certainly not the first to build a real-world analog of a video game or even of PONG itself.

source: evilmadscientist.com

The SIDstick is a pocket-sized chiptunes player. Chiptunes are songs written to be synthesized in real-time. A lot of chiptunes are ripped from classic videogames, and some are new works. The SIDstick plays the most common variety of chiptunes, music written for playback on a SID chip. Main features:

• Removable Storage supporting microSD cards, 1 card can hold 20,000 songs.
• 20+ hour battery life.
• Super Hi-Quality hardware-based playback at 31kHz sample rate, >16 bit resolution.
• Completely Open, hardware and software are available under the MIT license.
• Upgradable with connections on the board.

source: gadgetgangster.com wikipedia hvsc.c64.org

This site is about recreating gaming hardware from the past in modern programmable devices, known as FPGAs.

source: fpgaarcade.com

The PLA chip (906114-01) used in the Commodore C64 is a generic 82S100 gate array with custom programming. Its logic functions were dumped and reverse engineered by the community and are available from a variety of sources. They’re reused for this particular PLA replacement in the FPGA Arcade 28 pin DIL CPLD board.

Two approaches exist to build such a PLA replacement:

1. Implementation based on a truth table with 216 entries, each entry consiting of 8 bits and programmed into an EPROM chip.
2. Reverse engineered logic equations programmed into a PLD.

Both approaches result in the same logic functionality when implemented in a CPLD. Since equations are more common for CPLDs, I chose this implementation style for the final design. However, there’s a variant for the truth table available which has been verified in simulation but not in real C64 hardware. Following are descriptions for both of them.

We have run simulations proving that the equations perfectly match the truth table, so both compiled outputs are effectively identical in the C64 implementation discussed here.

source: fpgaarcade.com