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(Italian) Jurassic News numero #47

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italian.

Categories: Magazine, News & Rumors, Today

Goodbye Commodore USA and Commodore OS support forum

Commodore USA and official Commodore OS support forum is now defunct with no support and no communication.

Links to the company website, including their re-branded google homepage ceased working on April 22, 2013.

…but who is Commodore USA?

Commodore USA, LLC is a computer company based in Pompano Beach, Florida, with additional facilities in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Commodore USA, LLC was founded in April 2010.

The company’s goal is to sell a new line of PCs using the classic Commodore and Amiga name brands of personal computers, having licensed the Commodore brand from Commodore Licensing BV on August 25, 2010 and the Amiga brand from Amiga, Inc. on August 31, 2010.

source: wikipedia commodoreusa.net

Categories: Event(s), News & Rumors, Today

ASAP v3.1.4 – Another Slight Atari Player

April 30th, 2013 No comments

ASAP is a player of 8-bit Atari music for modern computers and mobile devices. It emulates the POKEY sound chip and the 6502 processor.

The project was initially based on the routines from the Atari800 emulator, but the current version has a completely new original emulation core.

Changelog ASAP 3.1.4 (2013-04-29):

  • Android: plays in background, can switch to next/previous/random file, opens M3U playlists, file selector can display metadata, “back” returns to parent directory.
  • WASAP fixed to avoid occasional deadlock when opening files during playback.
  • VLC plugin compiled for OS X.
  • 64-bit RPMs.
  • Fixed time detection for CMS.
  • Windows Explorer displays titles for RMT, TMC, TM2.
  • “Show information about the currently playing file” restored after Winamp/XMPlay restart.
  • TortoiseSVN and TortoiseGit plugins don’t depend on libz-1.dll.
  • asapscan calculates SAP fingerprints (contributed by Jakub Husak).
  • Experimental ASAP2WAV in Perl.

Download: ASAP v3.1.4 (1428)

source: asap.sourceforge.net

FM Radio for Commodore 64

April 29th, 2013 No comments

Listen to your favourite radio stations on your Commodore 64.

The Software is written in C and compiled using CC65 compiler. Check the readme in the zip file for more information.

Download: C64 FM Radio v0.1 (945)

source: fm-radio-for-c64

CBM prg Studio v2.6.0 released

April 29th, 2013 No comments

CBM prg Studio Version 2.6.0 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:

  • Assembler overhaul resulting in 30% reduction in assembly time.
  • Added multi-depth file inclusion (Incasm).
  • Batch mode for generating multiple files.
  • GenerateTo directive extended for disk images (d64, d71, d81).
  • BASIC import from D64, D71 and D81 images.
  • The ‘@’ can be used to specify the start address/program counter.
  • Case conversion for quoted BASIC strings.
  • Bookmarks.
  • Greater control over the data generation when including screen data in assembly source.
  • The BASIC keyword PI has been changed to {PI}.
  • Genesis assembler file format added to file conversion tool.
  • The character editor’s scratchpad has been merged with the main edit form.
  • The grid on the screen editor is now ‘behind’ the characters.
  • Keystroke Macro recording/playback.

Bugs fixed:

  • Some cheap label issues.
  • Some projects not being built as the build order was incorrect due to ‘* =’ used when specifying the start address.
  • Spaces around values in a WORD sequence were invalid.
  • Assembly code reformatting issues.
  • Reformatting assembly code which contained breakpoints.
  • Reformatting assembly code which contains spaces.
  • Breakpoints not being retained.
  • Adding existing files to a project occasionally failed.
  • Some assembler expressions not evaluated properly.
  • Some assembler invalid variable names not detected.
  • The BIT instruction in the debugger was not setting the overflow flag.
  • Some memory overwrites not detected.
  • Palette issues with C128 target machine.
  • Some invalid byte sequences not reported.
  • Emulator could start even after an invalid prg generation.
  • Problems with global variables.
  • Improved validation on options pages.

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

Download: CBM prg Studio v2.6.0 (805)

source: ajordison.co.uk

Commodore 65 Schematics (rev 2b / rev 5)

April 25th, 2013 1 comment

Carlo Pastore collector of Commodore things and webmaster of the site retrocommodore.com has released the schematics of two Revisions of the Commodore 65.

Download: Commodore 65 Schematics (1621)

source: retrocommodore.com

Categories: C65/C64DX, News & Rumors, Today

FAIL (First Atari Image Library) v2.0.1

April 25th, 2013 1 comment

FAIL is a viewer of pictures in native formats of Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, Atari Falcon and Atari Portfolio computers.

Currently the project includes:

  • Fail2png – portable command-line converter to PNG files.
  • FAILWin – viewer for Windows.
  • Thumbnail providers for Windows Explorer and GNOME (Linux)
  • Plugin for XnView.
  • (de)coder for ImageMagick.
  • Plugin for Imagine.
  • HTML 5 based viewer.

Changelog:

  • Added Atari 8-bit formats: IP2, IMN, ICN, DIN, IRG, IR2, VZI. Added “DEGAS Elite” icon (ICN). Fixed decoding of IPC. Thumbnail provider implemented for Windows 2000/XP. Fullscreen mode in HTML 5.

Download: FAIL (First Atari Image Library) v2.0.1 (1475)

source: fail.sourceforge.net

C64 Game: Guns ‘n’ Ghosts + / Sheepoid DX Preview +5 …

April 24th, 2013 No comments

A8CAS new Tools & Libs – Software for reading/writing Atari 8-bit tape

April 22nd, 2013 No comments

The aim of the A8CAS project is to create software to read, save and archive tapes for Atari 8-bit computers.

Early Atari computers could store their programs on Compact Cassettes. Lots of commercial software was also sold on tapes. Some of the tapes employed different tricks to prevent creating illegal copies. A8CAS aims to correctly read and write all such tapes.

A8CAS is inspired by existing utilities, Ernest R. Schreurs’ WAV2CAS and CAS2WAV. Schreurs’ tools however did not support tapes with non-standard data (copy prevention mechanisms), and reading tapes from audio files was very unreliable. A8CAS addresses both of those issues. A8CAS now provides a superset of WAV2CAS’ features.

A8CAS consists of:

A shared library, liba8cas, that contains all routines needed to read and write cassettes (support for CAS, HEX, FSK and sound files WAV, OGG, FLAC etc. is implemented). The library can be used in emulators and drivers for SIO interfaces such as SIO2PC; a set of command-line tools, a8cas-tools, that contains a8cas-convert, a utility similar to WAV2CAS/CAS2WAV. The tools use the A8CAS library; a patch for the Atari800 emulator, that allows to load and save tape files (CAS, HEX, WAV, OGG, …) using liba8cas.

Changelog:

Liba8cas:

  • Added the A8CAS_flush() function to API, which ends any chunk being written and writes data from buffers to disk.
  • Fixed the inability to adjust stop bit length tolerance during recognition of data blocks. It was hardcoded at 0.25, now it uses the value of the A8CAS_PARAM_BLOCK_HEADER_DEVIATION parameter.
  • Fixed crashes when setting A8CAS_PARAM_BLOCK_HEADER_LENGTH lower than 20.

A8cas-tools:

  • Fixed a bug in a8cas-convert. When user provided an invalid value to a command-line parameter, the program silently ignored the parameter instead of warning the user

Download: A8CAS new Tools & Libs (1643)

source: a8cas.sourceforge.net

Commodore Free Magazine Issue #68 and #69

April 21st, 2013 No comments

Commodore Free Magazine Issue #68 and #69

Free to download Commodore magazine dedicated to Commodore Computers.

In the issue #68 you can find:
Editorial
Commodore Free E-Cover Tape #4
NEWS
Commodore 64 Asteriods Emulator
TrackmoLinker V1.2 Released
Bongo Cruncher Released
Revenge of the Tomato
Picture Ripper
Hoxs64 v1.0.8.1 Released
Blok Copy – PETSCII Edition
Sheep vs. Fox
Retro Asylum – Top Ten C64 Games
Plus/4 Hires Pictures
Fluffy Amiga Boing Ball Available
VideoClipper v1.1 for the Amiga
Stefan Egger’s “Edition 30″
Street Battle for the VIC
Forest Glider for the VIC
Olympic Dash Released for the VIC
VIC Game Dont Blow It Released
magiTOOL Released for the VIC
Retron Phase On
Digital Talk Issue 96 Released
S-Blox V1.0 Released
Diesel Duel Released
RGCD Newsletter February 2013
IndieGO! Open Video Game Console
Dickinson on the C128, GEOS,
Altman, and the SX-64
TAPClean Front End
Cinemaware is Back on AmigaOS!

 

SuperPet .D80 Images
Amazon Selling Deathbed Vigil
Revival Studios News
Barry Altman Dies
C64List
C64 File Browser
Floppy Disk Table
Vintage Computer Festival SE
Retro Related
THYX Album “Below The City”
64 Commercial (Amateur)
TND New Game SUECK Compo Game
Review: Assembloids RGCD Cartridge
Review: Spike/Minestorm Cartridge
Review: The Last Amazon Trilogy -
Affectionately Called The LA Trilogy
In the issue #69 you can find:
Editorial
NEWS
VCF E Was Cancelled This Year
Retro Innovations: New Products
QuadPortIEC
MUIbase v3.0 Released
AmiWest 2013 Announced
UNP64 2.28 Released
VIC20 C16 Game/Compilation
Amigula v1.6.1 Available
ffmpeg 1.1.3 Ported To AmigaOS4
C128 Mentioned in History of
Computers (Croation)
Asteroids Emulator for SuperCPU
New Articles on Obligement
Revival Studios Press Update
Revival Studios News
Turbo Chameleon Minimig Joysticks
Vampire A600 FPGA Accelerator Project

 

Review: Down! for the PET
Review: The Hype Game
The Hype Game Reflected
Review: Little Sara Sister

Download:

source: commodorefree.com

Categories: Magazine, News & Rumors, Today

The “Colour PET” Project

April 21st, 2013 No comments

Steve Gray started a new project. He uses an 80 column (monochrome) CBM/PET to display a 40 column screen with colour.

A normal 80 column CBM/PET uses two RAM banks for the text. Steve now uses one RAM bank for the text (40 columns) and the other RAM bank for the colour information.

source: 6502.org awesome.commodore.me

Categories: CBM/PET, News & Rumors, Today

CBM-Command v2.2 RC2

April 17th, 2013 No comments

CBM-Command is a disk manager for the Commodore 64 / Commodore 128 / Commodore VIC20 / PET and 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/PET have their own native version of the application.

Release Notes – Version 2.2 – 2013-04-16 – RC2

New Features:

  • Provides Side-By-Side panels or Top-And-Bottom panels on 40-column systems.
  • Batch disk image creation.
  • User can select drive or partition number.
  • The disks have a little BASIC-language program that can update your configuration files.

Updates from RC1:

  • The help file explains how to use a new feature of the configuration utility.
  • The configuration-file updater adds another configurable key to your personal configurations.
  • The D80 image was rebuilt, in order to work around a VICE bug.

Known Issues:

  • It can trigger the write-and-replace bug.
  • It can’t create or write back D80 and D82 images.
  • The REL-file copier doesn’t truncate old target files that have the same record size as the new file.
  • It will try to copy DEL files if they are selected.
  • Errors don’t stop batch operations; the file is skipped.

Download: CBM-Command v2.2 RC2 (D64/D80) (1602)

source: cbmcommand.codeplex.com

Commodore 64 Gold Edition on Ebay.fr (Buy it Now – € 6.400,00)

April 16th, 2013 No comments

Commodore 64 Gold Edition on Ebay.fr.

from Richard Lagendijk Homepage:

This a special edition of the Commodore C64, celebrating the 1.000.000th sale of the C64 in Germany. This is one of the most desirable Commodore items. There are about 300 golden Commodore C64 produced. The numbers from 1.000.000 until 1.000.100 were for the staff of the Commodore factory Braunschweig.

The rest was given to hard- en software companies, magazine-publishers and distributors. The C64 is a computer system with a keyboard, external power-supply and a motherboard. On the motherboard you will find a MOS 6510 processor, RAM / ROM memory, MOS 6569 VIC-II video chip, MOS 6581 SID sound chip and twice a MOS 6526 CIA. PAL version.

source: ebay.fr richardlagendijk.nl

Categories: Event(s), News & Rumors, Today

Javatari v3.20 (Atari 2600 emulator)

April 16th, 2013 No comments

Javatari is a multiplayer Atari 2600 emulator written in pure Java with no external libs.

Features:

  • Unique Client-Server multiplayer mode. Runs great in low-latency networks such as LANs.
  • Cheat and turn off Collisions. Finally discover the ending of River Raid!
  • Complete Save State/Load State functions.
  • Scanlines and TV screen emulation modes.
  • Real Atari console user interface.

Changelog;

  • Console Panel now shows the inserted Cartridge.
  • Customizable, dynamically rendered Cartridge Labels.
  • Built-in ROM information, based on Rom Hunter’s collection.
  • Better auto-detection of Paddles and CRT modes per ROM.

Download: Javatari JAR v3.20 (Needs Java 6) (867)

source: javatari.org

Bidding ended to €17.827,00 for the Commodore 65 on Ebay.de

April 14th, 2013 No comments

source: ebay.de wikipedia

Categories: Event(s), News & Rumors, Today