Macintosh SE/30

August 29th, 2011 No comments
Macintosh SE/30 + Syquest 44 mb removable disk cartridge

Autopsy:

The Macintosh SE/30 is a personal computer that was designed, manufactured and sold by Apple Computer, Inc. from 1989 until 1991. It was the fastest and most expandable of the original black-and-white compact Macintosh series.

The SE/30 is essentially a Macintosh IIx in the same case as the Macintosh SE, with a black-and-white monitor and a single PDS slot (rather than the NuBus slots of the IIx) which supported third-party accelerators, network cards, or a display adapter. Although officially only able to support 32 MB, the SE/30 could expand up to 128 MB of RAM (a ludicrous amount of RAM at the time), and included a 40 or 80 MB hard drive.

It was also the first compact Mac to include a 1.44 MB high density floppy disk drive as standard (late versions of the SE had one, but earlier versions did not). In keeping with Apple’s practice from the Apple II+ until the Power Macintosh G3 was announced, a logic board upgrade was available to convert a regular SE to a SE/30. The SE would then have exactly the same specs as an SE/30, with the difference only in the floppy drive if the SE had a 800k drive. The set included a new front bezel to replace the original SE bezel with that of an SE/30.

source: wikipedia

Macintosh SE/30 Fixing Motherboard Faults

August 27th, 2011 5 comments

Macintosh SE/30 Fixing Motherboard Faults.

I spent many months (eight) to repair some of these macintosh SE/30 motherboard, like you can see in the gallery.

The flaws that i could find and repair are:

  • Some multiplexers (74F253 or like) burned.
  • Some Video Ram burned.
  • Very Dirty Motherboard.
  • Electrolytic capacitors have to be replaced.
  • Reseat the RAM and ROM SIMM.
  • Some track of the PCB broken or corroded by the acid.
  • Replaced the lithium battery with a new one.
  • Cold solder joint on chip: RP4/RP5/RP6 – UI2/UI3/UI4 – UJ2/UJ3/UJ4

The flaw that you see in the first picture and that should be the “Jail Bar Pattern” or “Smile Mac in Jail”, in this case is not been so. For this reason i spent a long time to find the fault.

However, i recovered 3 motherboards and I consider myself quite satisfied.

source: Repair Macintosh SE/30 68kmla.org #1 68kmla.org #2

VIC20 Game: Realms of Quest I – Anniversary Edition

August 27th, 2011 No comments

Welcome to the 20th anniversary edition of the original Realms of Quest I.

Nearly 20 years to the day that the original was completed, here is a very special edition of the inaugural game of the CRPG franchise for the Commodore VIC-20.

There are vast improvements:

  • User-friendly instructions.
  • A unique name for each of the 36 magic spells.
  • Much better interface, display and text.
  • Instructions and a “Book of Beasts” (bestiary) can be read from the main game menu.

Download: Realms of Quest I - Anniversary Edition (975)

source: sleepingelephant.com

Yape Plus/4 Emulator v1.0.2 updated

August 27th, 2011 No comments

A new version of YAPE is available. YAPE is a Windows emulator for the Commodore Plus/4.

The changes in this version are:

  • Printer job window (for now #4 only)
  • Turn off variable length buffering properly when recording media (fixes occasional clicks)
  • Not scanning joysticks when unavailable (Message Queue driver slowdown)
  • Column width and line feed bug for MPS803 emulation fixed.
  • Regression bug in the printer cycle counter ironed out.
  • Awkward TED drawing bug patched.

Download: Yape Plus/4 Emulator v1.0.2 (Win32) (1237)

Download: Yape Plus/4 Emulator v1.0.2 (Win64) (1176)

source: yape.homeserver.hu

Sidplay64 v0.7 (SP64) by Grg/Shape

August 25th, 2011 No comments

GRG/Shape has released a new version of the SidPlay64 for Commodore 64.

This version include many new features and bug fixes.

SIDPLAY 64 v.07 (25/08/2011):

  • Added: Real PAL/NTSC detector.
  • Added: “D64″ detector for long filenames (1541u + netdrive.)
  • Added: “DIR” sorter for directory displayer.
  • Added: Native dir browser and disk image browser (d64,d71 etc.) for netdrive, 1541u, iec, cmd and ide64.
  • Added: Long filenames support (Vice and Windows file system)
  • BugFixed: RunStop key doesnt stop loading. (Jiffydos will stop)
  • Updated: Keyboard scanner – key delays works much better now.
  • Added: Keyboard scanner – “Instdel key” goes back a dir level.
  • Added: Device selector – device #6 up to #30
  • Updated: Alot of things in background code was optimized to save memory.
  • Updated: Timer IRQ updated, more available cpu time, its now possible to play Jeff’s 12 speed song.
  • Updated: TOD Clock + Shuffle modes moved out of timer irq and into keyboard scanner subroutine.
  • BugFixed: RunStop+Restore will not crash when hardware IRQ interrupt is running (0314-0315).
  • Updated: “Memory Error” detection: Fixed a bug where SP64 code was relocated when loading a file with not enough relocation pages.

Download: Sidplay64 v0.7 (1368)

source: CSDb

Commodore Free Magazine Issue #52

August 23rd, 2011 2 comments

Commodore Free Magazine Issue #52

Free to download Commodore magazine dedicated to Commodore Computers.

In this issue you can find:
Editorial.
NEWS.
Regenerator 1.0 Released.
AROS AHCI SATA Driver Bounty.
Ami-Lineapolis Version 2.9.
Snapshoter Updated to v1.5.1.
Commodore 128 VDC-IHFLI.
Club Info #122 Released.
Vandalism News #56 Released!
AmigaOS 4.1 (Update 2).
Amiga Mania #1 Magazine Released.
FFmpeg.
DiscreetFX Project Metropolis.
Digital Audio Concepts.
Landing in the Village.
BioTerror!
HybridSID.
Loadrunner Ported To Plus/4.
Review: Clone – C16/Plus4 Game.
Review: On The Farm.
Review: Chang’s Adventure.
Review: Deff-Ender.
Review: Coins.
Commodore Programming – Charts.

Download:

source: commodorefree.com

Categories: Magazine, News & Rumors, Today

C64 Game: Mutilator + and The Marlo Files

August 21st, 2011 No comments

Some new cracked and trained games from your favorites group’s Binary Legends and Excess; The Marlo Files and Mutilator + for Commodore 64.

Download: Mutilator + (1197)

Download: The Marlo Files (1212)

source: CSDb

XSidplay2 v2.1.1

August 21st, 2011 No comments

XSidplay2 is a QT based music player for SID music.

It is based onto Michael Schwendt’s XSIDPLAY, the historical SID player for Linux, actually no more developed by the author.

Download: XSidplay2 v2.1.1 (790)

source: sourceforge.net/projects/xsidplay2/

EasyFlash 3 Cartridge prototype by Skoe

August 20th, 2011 No comments

The cartridge EasyFlash III by Skoe is slowly taking shape. Like the previous one the VHDL code is open source.

This version introduces several new features, like:

  • Kernal emulation (no need hardware changes).
  • If you choose to use the Kernal emulation the RAM will be available.
  • You can choose 8 Kernal’s.
  • You can choose 7 EasyFlash’s.
  • USB connector for firmware updates.
  • Emulation of FinalCartridge III, ActionReplay…

source: forum64.de

Categories: Hardware, News & Rumors, Today

Pirate’s Portal is back online

August 20th, 2011 No comments

Pirate’s Portal is a website that offers over 3000 files for: Commodore, Amiga, Spectrum, Atari, MSX, Amstrad, Nintendo and Sega computers.

You can also find Demo’s, Magazines, Tools and information about people from the retro computer community.

source: piratesportal.cbm8bit.com

Pet Me true type fonts by Rebecca Bettencourt

August 20th, 2011 No comments

Pet Me is a collection of true type fonts made by Rebecca Bettencourt.

This new collection includes:

  • Commodore PET fonts.
  • VIC-20 fonts.
  • C64 and C128 fonts.
  • Berkelium 64/128 GEOS fonts.
  • Giana (Great Giana Sisters) fonts.

Download: Commodore 64 Pet Fonts (888)

Download: Giana (Great Giana Sisters) fonts (809)

Download: Berkelium 64/128 GEOS fonts (864)

You can find more retro-fonts from Rebecca here.

source: kreativekorp.com

CBM prg Studio v1.4.0 released

August 20th, 2011 No 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 or VIC20 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.

Download: CBM prg Studio v1.4.0 (813)

source: ajordison.co.uk

Exomizer v2.0.2 released

August 20th, 2011 No comments

Exomizer is a program that compresses files in a way that tries to be as efficient as possible but still allows them to be decompressed in environments where CPU speed and RAM are limited. For some popular 8-bit computers using 6502 compatible CPUs it can also generate executable files that decompress themselves in memory when run.

  • 2011-08-19: Exomizer v2.0.2 released

Changes since the 2.0.1 release:

  • Added 6809-decruncher contributed by Edouard Forler.
  • Fix language errors in the documentation. Thanks to Csabo/LOD.
  • Remove bogus printout about the default decrunch effect when using a custom decrunch effect. Bug reported by Csabo/LOD.
  • Fix bug that prevented the correct error message from showing when trying to combine a basic start and a non rom config for the sfx command. Bug reported by iAN CooG.

A complete changelog is included in the zip file.

Download: Exomizer v2.0.2 (908)

source: exomizer

VirtualC64 v0.9.5.2 for Intel Macintosh OSx

August 19th, 2011 No comments

VirtualC64 emulates a Commodore 64 personal computer on your Intel Macintosh OSx > 10.6.

I wrote the software with two major goals in mind. First, I wanted to create an emulator that can be used as a demonstrator program in a first year or second year course on computer engineering.

To achieve this goal, I have integrated various debugging capabilities that let you peek inside the CPU, RAM, ROM, or one of the custom chips. Second, I tried to make the emulator as user friendly as it can get.

In short: VirtualC64 tries to combine the ongoing fascination of the ancient Commodore computers with the great user experience of today’s Macs.

Bug fixes and enhancements:

  • Fixed another bug that caused the emulator to crash on some lion machines.

Download: VirtualC64 v0.9.5.2 (1320)

source: dirkwhoffmann.de

C64 Demo: ECCC 2011 Invitation demo by Arkanix Labs

August 19th, 2011 No comments

ECCC is the world’s top September destination for Commodore enjoyment, including the C64, Vic-20, PET, 16/Plus4, and probably even Amiga stuff.

These are the dates and place of the sixth glorious ECCC event:

Saturday, September 24 and Sunday September 25
Heron Point Building, next to Fairfield Inn and Suites (Marriott)
665 West North Ave
Lombard, Illinois 60148 USA
1-630-629-1500

Download: ECCC 2011 Invitation demo by Arkanix Labs (903)

source: tarbase.globalpc.net/eccc CSDb