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Archive for the ‘News & Rumors’ Category

Elektrosmog Game released by ZeHa

February 12th, 2009 No comments

Pretty nice labyrinth clone.

download prg+source here: noname.c64.org

Categories: C64/SX64, DTV, News & Rumors, Today

uIEC/SD v3.0 Now available!

February 9th, 2009 No comments

from: Petscii Forums “PETSCII.COM”

I held off on announcing uIEC/SD availability until I had some stock (impatient folks, you know who you are , but I do now have some stock 90 units).

Since uIEC shares the same firmware (kudos to Ingo Korb, who does not get enough recognition for this fine piece of code) as the recently announced SD2IEC, I’ll spare everyone rehashing the similarities and just note the differences:

Features:

  • uIEC/SD is currently the smallest known CBM drive (1.5″ x 1.5″ by 0.3″). Perfect for embedding in your favorite machine, drive, or calculator (shout out to Tone007, who stuffed one in a CBM pocket calculator)
  • uIEC/SD shares the same 128kB Atmel AVR 8-bit microcontroller as the rest of the uIEC line. With 51kB used for firmware, there’s plenty of room left for the future.
  • uIEC/SD comes complete for use with IEC connector and power supply cassette port connector. VIC/64/C128 users can simply plug the wires in and use. (SX64/+4/C116/C16 users need to source 5V elsewhere, let me know before purchasing if you’d like an alternate connector)
  • Although not yet defined for use, uIEC/SD offers an additional switch line and programmatic LED for future use.
  • uIEC/SD not only supports SD and SDHC cards, but either SD or SDHC cards can also be used for updating the firmware (new feature, older firmware update software only supports SD cards)

source: petscii forums uIEC gallery

SHO-FLI Converter Update 2 – (C) 2009 Algorithm / Algotech

February 8th, 2009 No comments

SHO-FLI (Sprite Hires OVerlay FLI/Sprite OVerlay Hires FLI) is a custom c64 graphic mode which features a hiresolution spriteoverlay in one color over a FLI image.

It works in exactly the same way as the SHFLI mode but the image data is wider due to using 1 sprite overlay (rather than two in SHFLI) – This GFX mode is also known as SHF-XL originally invented by Crossbow/Crest. I created this Application because this gfx mode is rather awkward to paint in.  Plus there does not seem to be any converters released.

HISTORY:

UPDATE 2 – 07/02/09

  • YUV perceptual conversion now nearly 5x as fast.
  • Displays pixel error percentage of final rendered image in comparison to attributeless 16col c64 conversion.
  • Correct extension now automatically appended to filename.

download: noname.c64.org

WhackE for Commodore VIC-20

February 7th, 2009 No comments

Find your way through the dungeon levels and bring the Amulet back to the surface. Watch out for fierce guardian Demons and other creatures living in the dungeons.

Use the cursor keys to move. Move towards a monster to attack it. Any items are picked up when you walk on them.

Based on Whack by Aleksi Eeben

download: here

FPGA – C64 PLA Replacement

February 7th, 2009 2 comments

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

durexForth (Forth for Commodore 64)

February 7th, 2009 No comments

Forth, the Language.

Forth is a different language. It’s aged and a little weird.
What’s cool about it? It’s a very low-level and minimal language without any automatic memory management. At the same time, it easily scales to become a very high-level and domain-specific language, much like Lisp. Compared to C64 Basic, Forth is more attractive in almost every way.

It is a lot more fast, memory effective and powerful. Compared to C, specifically cc65, the story is a little different. It’s hard to make a fair comparison. Theoretically Forth code can be very memory efficient, and it’s possible to make Forth code that is leaner than C code. But it is also true that cc65 code is generally much faster than Forth code.

download: noname.c64.org
wikipedia: forth

1541 Ultimate is Open Source!

February 4th, 2009 No comments

1541 UltimateThe software part of the 1541 Ultimate is from now on Open Source! Although the hardware still needs to be documented, people can already check out the source code, edit it and build new applications for the 1541 Ultimate! The source is released under GPL 3.0, which in short means that every addition to the source code will also need to be open sourced and the code or parts thereof may not be sold. The full license agreement can be found in the ‘root’ (trunk) of the SVN archive.

In order to build the software, you need to do the following:

  • Install Cygwin, or run under Linux. Make sure you have:
    • GNU make in order to run the makefiles.
    • GCC compiler, in order to build the conversion tools.
  • Install CC65 (http://www.cc65.org), and make sure you have the required environment variables and path set.
  • Install a SVN client package (either command line in Cygwin) or a graphical client such as Tortoise SVN.
  • Check out the repository from http://svn.xp-dev.com/svn/gideonz_1541Ultimate/
  • Go to the trunk directory and type ‘make’.

At this point, the archive is read-only. If you are a developer and want to make a significant contribution to the 1541 Ultimate, please contact me and we can discuss being a write-user on the archive. Bug fixes from others can be E-mailed as patches, which I’d happily merge with the archive.

Happy programming!

source: 1541ultimate.net

Categories: C64/SX64, News & Rumors, Today

SHO-FLI Converter Update 1 – (C) 2009 Algorithm / Algotech

February 4th, 2009 No comments

SHO-FLI (Sprite Hires OVerlay FLI/Sprite OVerlay Hires FLI) is a custom c64 graphic mode which features a hiresolution spriteoverlay in one color over a FLI image.

It works in exactly the same way as the SHFLI mode but the image data is wider due to using 1 sprite overlay (rather than two in SHFLI) – This GFX mode is also known as SHF-XL originally invented by Crossbow/Crest. I created this Application because this gfx mode is rather awkward to paint in.  Plus there does not seem to be any converters released.

HISTORY:

UPDATE 1 – 04/02/09

  • Implemented R,G,B,Brightness/Contrast Sliders.
  • YUV Color Reduction/Compare Option.
  • Quick Preview option.
  • Two additional Ordered Dither.

download: noname.c64.org

Java Ice Team Tracker 64 (JITT64) v1.0.1

February 2nd, 2009 No comments

Java Ice Team Tracker 64Java Ice Team Tracker 64 is a java based music tracker (editor) for creating music for SID chip of Commodore 64. Instruments are totally based onto tables for full control of sound generation.
The new version comes with some bugs fixed and new features:

  • Option: temp directory is automatically given by the systemOption: activate the disable real time compilation option.
  • Option: add Nimbus theme.
  • Patterns: add cut functions and shortcut to cut/copy/paste/clear/select.
  • Patterns: add mute/unmute playing of the voice.
  • Tracks: fix semaphore red bug when press play and no compilation in background done.
  • Tracks: Report when there is a sound problem (sometimes the sound core library is not able to have a free sound line to use) when playing the tune.
  • Player: fix track repetition command errors.
  • Player: fix note transpose for instrument.

download: sourceforge.net

DirMaster v2.1 from Style

February 1st, 2009 No comments

 

DirMaster is a Windows-based GUI tool useful for the management of common (and uncommon) emulator formats (such as .d64, .d81, .t64, etc) as well as native archival formats (such as .arc, .sda, .lnx, etc).

New in this version:

  • .t64 *write* support.
  • .t64 “Run In” support.
  • disk/archive content preview on file open dialog.
  • remembers window location/size between launches.
  • cross linked sector check.
  • “Run In” can now operate from a transient disk or tape image; this creates a temporary image which is passed to the chosen emulator; temp images are deleted when DirMaster exits.
  • configurable character replacements for exported file names.
  • and various other user interface tweaks and bug fixes.

source: style64.org

DLH’s Commodore Archive Updated

January 31st, 2009 1 comment

DLH's Commodore Archive

David Haynes DLH’s Commodore Archive has updated his page.

  • Hardware – JiffyDOS Installation Guides.  Missing are 64, 64c and 128D.  Originals provided by  Chris Ryan
    If anyone has these please contact me.  Also a good copy of the User Manual is needed.
    SX-64, C128, 1541, 1541-II, 1571, 1581, BlueChip BCD, Enchancer 2000, FSD-2, MSD SD-1 & SD-2
  • Magazines – Added torrent for Family Computing (67 Issues)
  • Books – The Official GEOS Programmer’s Reference Guide (BANTAM, 484 pages). This replaces the old scan that did not have OCR.  I included the CMD Addendum at the front (17 pages)

source: DLH Commodore Archive

1541 Ultimate Homebrew case with built-in Speaker from fuckutube64

January 30th, 2009 No comments

Playing 1541 Sing Song Serenade Drive Music.

Categories: C64/SX64, News & Rumors, Today

DiskMagazine – Vandalism News #50

January 29th, 2009 No comments

After many months and a lot of work. Onslaught & Wrath Designs bring you the 50th Vandalism News called The Gold Edition. Four disk sides, 12 exclusive SIDs, a bonus disk and two disk covers.

download magazine: noname.c64.org
download disk cover: noname.c64.org
website: onslaught.c64.org

SHO-FLI Converter – (C) 2009 Algorithm / Algotech

January 29th, 2009 No comments

SHO-FLI (Sprite Hires OVerlay FLI/Sprite OVerlay Hires FLI) is a custom c64 graphic mode which features a hiresolution spriteoverlay in one color over a FLI image.

It works in exactly the same way as the SHFLI mode but the image data is wider due to using 1 sprite overlay (rather than two in SHFLI) – This GFX mode is also known as SHF-XL originally invented by Crossbow/Crest. I created this Application because this gfx mode is rather awkward to paint in.  Plus there does not seem to be any converters released.

download: noname.c64.org

1541 Ultimate Firmware v1.6 released

January 28th, 2009 No comments

1541 UltimateThe annoying bug in the firmware that had rendered the Ethernet interface almost useless has finally been fixed.

In comparison to 1.5, the following has been fixed:

  • Reads from the Ethernet chip have been fixed. The unit now correctly receives packets.

download: 1541U Homepage

Categories: Firmware, News & Rumors, Today