Commodore Datasette 1530 In the United States, the 1541 floppy disk drive was widespread. By contrast, in Europe, the C64 was often used with cassette drives (Datasette), which were much cheaper, but also much slower than floppy drives. The Datasette plugged into a proprietary edge connector on the Commodore 64's. Standard blank audio cassettes could be used in this drive. Data tapes could be write-protected in the same way as audio cassettes, by punching out a tab on the cassette's top edge. The Datasette's speed was very slow (about 300 ).
Loading a large program at normal speed could take up to 30 minutes in extreme cases. Many European software developers wrote their own fast tape-loaders which replaced the internal code in the C64 and offered loading times more comparable to disk drive speeds. Novaload was perhaps the most popular tape-loader used by British and American software developers. Early versions of Novaload had the ability to play music while a program loaded into memory, and was easily recognizable by its black border and digital bleeping sounds on loading. Other fast-loaders included, displaying computer artwork while the program loaded.
More advanced fast-loaders included for the user to play while the program loaded from cassette. One such minigame fastloader was.
Users also had to contend with interference from. Also, not too dissimilar to floppy drive users, the Datasette's read head could become dirty or slip out of alignment. A small screwdriver could be used to align the tape heads, and a few companies capitalized by selling various commercial kits for Datasette head-alignment tuning. As the Datasette lacked any random read-write access, users had to either wait while the tape ran its length, while the computer printed messages like 'SEARCHING FOR ALIEN BOXING. FOUND SPACE INVADERS. FOUND PAC-MAN.
FOUND ALIEN BOXING. Or else rely on a tape counter number to find the starting location of programs on cassette.
Tape counter speeds varied over different datasette units making recorded counter numbers unreliable on different hardware. An optional, based upon the format, was available for the hard drive subsystem (see below). They were expensive and few were ever sold.
A similar concept to the (85 kB) was the extremely fast ' Phonemark 8500 Quick Data Drive' which has 16 - 128 kB capacity using a micro-cassette storage unit and used the C2N. The concept eventually succumbed to floppy drives. The Quick Data Drive (QDD) connected to the datassette port of the Commodore 64 and could load data at 1.3 kB/s which is 3 times faster than the C1541 floppy drive.
It needed a small program code to be loaded in the memory at 0xC000-0xCFFF which collided with many other programs. The cost for the drive would have been equivalent to 100 EUR in 2010. It could also be daisy chained and worked with the computer as well. The QDD could hold 255 files per 'disc'.
The used same drive mechanism, manufactured. Backup to tapes were offered by DC Electronics with their cartridge WHIZZARD in 1988. Which could handle 5.8 kB/s and included 'freezer' capabilities. Floppy disk drives. Floppy Drive Although usually not supplied with the machine, drives of the 5¼ inch (, and ) and, later, 3½ inch variety were available from Commodore.
The 1541 was the standard floppy disk drive for the Commodore 64, with nearly all disk-based software programs released for the computer being distributed in the 1541 compatible floppy disk format. The 1541 was very slow in loading programs because of a poorly implemented, a legacy of the. The 1541 disk drive was notorious for not only its slow performance and large physical size compared to the C64 (the drive is almost as deep as the computer is wide), but also for the drive mechanisms installed during early production runs, which quickly gained a bad reputation for their mechanical unreliability.
Perhaps the most common failure involved the drive's read-write head mechanism losing its alignment. Due to lack of hardware support for detecting track zero position, formatting routines and many complex software schemes (which used data stored on nonstandard tracks on floppies) had to rely on moving the head specified number of steps in order to make sure that the desired head position for formatting or reading the data was reached. Since after physically reaching track zero, further movement attempts caused the head drive mechanism to slam (producing the infamous, loud, telltale knocking sound) into a mechanical stop, the repetitive strain often drove the head mechanism out of precise alignment, resulting in read errors and necessitating repairs. As a side note: some demos exploited the sound generated by the head moving stepper motor to force the disk drive to play crude tunes (' was one) by varying the frequency of step requests sent to the motor.
Also, as with the C64, 1541 drives tended to overheat due to a design that did not permit adequate cooling (potentially fixed by mounting a small fan to the case). Many of the 1541's design problems were eventually rectified in Commodore's 1541-II disk drive, which was compatible with the older units. The power supply unit was not housed inside the drive case; hence, the 1541-II size was significantly smaller and did not overheat.
Even aligning a brake pad requires you to remove the crank on these bikes. Trek speed concept review. Now I would have loved to publish this blog with the sole intent of complaining but I promise; I do have a point. Accessibility and serviceability is important to a mechanic. Any simple adjustment requires a full brake removal and re-install.
Because of the drive's initial high cost (about as much as the computer itself) and target market of home computer users, BASIC's file commands defaulted to the tape drive (device 1). In order to load a file from a commercial disk, the following command must be entered: LOAD '.' ,8,1 In this example, '.' designates the last program loaded, or the first program on the disk, ' 8' is the disk drive device number, and the ' 1' signifies that the file is to be loaded not to the standard for BASIC programs, but to the address where its program header tells it to go—the address it was saved from.
This last ' 1' usually signifies a program. Commodore 1541-II Floppy Drive, 3rd model Not long after the 1541's introduction, third-party developers demonstrated that performance could be improved with software that took over control of the serial bus signal lines and implemented a better transfer protocol between the computer and disk. In 1984 released its cartridge for the C64, which replaced some of the 1541's slow routines with its own custom code, thus allowing users to load programs in a fraction of the time. Despite being incompatible with many programs' schemes, the cartridge became so popular among grateful C64 owners (likely the most-widespread third-party enhancement for the C64 of all time) that many Commodore dealers sold the Epyx cartridge as a standard item when selling a new C64 with the 1541. As a free alternative to FastLoad cartridges, numerous pure software turbo-loader programs were also created that were loaded to RAM each time after the computer was reset. The best of these turbo-loaders were able to accelerate the time required for loading a program from the floppy drive by a factor of 20x, demonstrating the default bus implementation's inadequacy.
As turbo-loader programs were relatively small, it was common to place one on almost each floppy disk so that it could be quickly loaded to RAM after restart. The 1541 floppy drive contained a processor acting as the drive controller, along with a built-in disk operating system in and a small amount of, the latter primarily used for space. Since this arrangement was, in effect, a specialized computer, it was possible to write custom controller routines and load them into the drive's RAM, thus making the drive work independently of the C64 machine. For example, certain software allowed users to make multiple disk copies directly between daisy-chained drives without a C64.
Several third party vendors sold general purpose interface bus adapters for the C64, which plugged into the machine's expansion port. Outside of operators, few C64 owners took advantage of this arrangement and the accompanying IEEE devices that Commodore sold (such as the 5¼ inch floppy disk drive, and the peripherals originally made for the IEEE equipped computers, such as the 4040 and 8050 drives and the drives). As an alternative to the feeble performing 1541 or the relatively expensive bus adapter and associated, a number of third-party serial-bus drives such as the and appeared that often offered better reliability, higher performance, quieter operation, or simply a lower price than the 1541, although often at the expense of software compatibility due to the difficulty of the DOS built into the 1541's hardware (Commodore's IEEE-based drives faced the same issue due to the dependence of the DOS on features of the Commodore serial bus).
Like the interface, the offered the ability to hardware together. This led to Commodore producing (via a third party) the Commodore 4015, or VIC-switch.
This device (now rarely seen) allowed up to 8 Commodore 64s to be connected to the device along with a string of peripherals, allowing each computer to share the connected hardware. It was also possible, without requiring a VIC-switch, to connect two Commodore 64s to one 1541 floppy disk drive to an elementary, allowing the two computers to share data on a single disk (if the two computers made simultaneous requests, the 1541 handled one while returning an error to the other, which surprised many people who expected the 1541's less-than-stellar drive controller to or ). This functionality also worked with a mixed combination of, and other selected Commodore computers. In the mid-1980s, a 2.8-inch floppy disk drive, the and Controller, was introduced by Radofin Electronics, Ltd. It was compatible with the Commodore 64 as well as other popular home computers of the time, thanks to an operating system stored on an EPROM on an external controller. It offered a capacity of 144/100 kilobytes non-formatted/formatted, and data transfer rates of up to 100 kilobytes per second. Up to 20 files could be kept on each side of the double-sided floppy disks.
Later in the 1990s, produced several powerful floppy disk drives for the Commodore 64. These included the serial bus compatible 3.5″ floppy drives (FD-2000, FD-4000), which were capable of emulating Commodore's 3.5″ drive as well as implementing a partitioning which allowed typical 3.5″ high-density floppy disks to hold 1.6 MB of data—more than 's 1.44 MB format. The FD-4000 drive had the advantage of being able to read hard-to-find enhanced floppy disks and could be formatted to hold 3.2 MB of data. In addition, the FD series drives could partition floppy disks to emulate the 1541, 1571 and 1581 disk format (although unfortunately, not the emulated drive firmware), and a real time clock module could be mounted inside the drive to time-stamp files. Commercially, very little software was ever released on either 1581 disk format or CMD's native format.
However, enthusiasts could use this drive to transfer data between typical PC MS-DOS and the Commodore with special software, such as 's Big Blue Reader. There was one other 3.5″ floppy drive available for the Commodore 64. The 'TIB 001' was a 3.5″ floppy drive that connected to the Commodore 64 via the expansion port, meaning that these drives were very fast. The floppy disks themselves relied on an MS-DOS disk format, and being based on cartridge allowed the Commodore 64 to boot from them automatically at start-up. These devices appeared from a company in the United Kingdom, but did not become widespread due to non-existent third-party support. In an article in of November 1991, several software houses interviewed believed that the device came to the market too late to be worthy of supporting.
Hard drives. Seagate ST 506 5¼-inch HDD with cover removed.
Late in 1984, Fiscal Information Inc., of Florida, demonstrated the hard drive subsystem for the. Kernal mated a 10 to an intelligent controller, creating a high speed bus interface to the C64's expansion port.
Connection of the bus to the C64 was accomplished with a custom designed. Kernal shipped with a disk operation system that, among other things, allowed execution of a program by simply typing its name and pressing the Return key. The DOS also included a keyed random access feature that made it possible for a skilled programmer to implement style databases. By 1987, the manufacturing and distribution of the Lt. Kernal had been turned over to, Inc., who also introduced compatibility (including support for ).
Standard drive size had been increased to 20, with 40 MB available as an option, and the system bus was now the industry-standard, better known as (the direct descendant of SASI). The was capable of a data transfer rate of over 38 per second (65 kB per second in C128 fast mode). An optional multiplexer allowed one Lt. Kernal drive to be shared by as many as sixteen C64s or C128s (in any combination), using a that took advantage of the SCSI bus protocol's ability to handle multiple and.
Kernal could be conveniently used in a multi-computer setup, something that was not possible with other C64-compatible hard drives. Production of the Lt. Kernal ceased in 1991. Fortunately, most of the components used in the original design were industry standard parts, making it possible to make limited repairs to the units. In 2010, a re-creation of the Lt. Kernal was produced by MyTec Electronics. It was called the Rear Admiral HyperDrive and used an upgraded DOS called RA-DOS.
The Rear Admiral parts could be used to upgrade the older Lt. Chips from the Rear Admiral host adapter could be used to upgrade the chips in the Lt.
Kernal host adapter; or if the Lt. Kernal is missing its host adapter, the Rear Admiral host adapter could be used in its place. Also available for the was the Creative Micro Designs CMD HD-Series.
Much like the Commodore 1541 floppy drive, the CMD HD could connect to the Commodore 64's serial bus, and could operate independently of the computer with the help of its on-board hardware. A CMD HD series drive included its own controller to operate its hard drive mechanism, in addition to hosting a battery powered real-time clock module for the time-stamping of files. The stock operating speeds of the CMD HD-Series units were not very much faster than the stock speeds of a 1541 floppy drive, but the units were fully compatible.
Faster parallel transfers were possible with the addition of another CMD product, the and a special parallel transfer cable. With this arrangement, the performance of the system doubled – that of the Lt. One advantage the CMD products had was software compatibility, especially with GEOS, that prior solutions lacked.
CMD ultimately missed opportunities to develop any features for the drive's auxiliary port (such as a printer spooler feature promised in the CMD HD user manual). Support for external SCSI devices (such as and ) was also noticeably missing. SCSI devices could be connected and chained to the external SCSI port, but could not be used from the HD without workarounds or special software. The ICT DataChief included a 20 MB hard drive, along with an floppy drive, along with a 135-watt power supply in a case designed to house an computer. User operation of these hard drive subsystems was similar to that of Commodore's floppy drives, with the inclusion of special DOS features to make best use of the drive's capabilities and to effectively manage the vast increase in storage capacity (up to a maximum of 4GB).
An unavoidable problem was that total 1541 compatibility could not be achieved, which often prevented the use of copy-protected software, software fastloaders, or any software whose operation depended on exact 1541 emulation. The enthusiast-built ' interface' was designed late in the 1990s, attaching itself in the Commodore 64's expansion port, and allowing users to attach common hard drives, and DVD drives, ZiP and LS-120 floppy drives to their Commodore 64s. Later revisions of the interface board provided an extra socket. The IDE interface's performance is comparable to the in speed, but lacks the intelligence of SCSI. Its main advantage lies in being able to use inexpensive commodity hard drives instead of the more costly SCSI units.
1541 compatibility is not as good as commercially developed hard drive subsystems, but continues to improve with time. In late 2011, MyTec Electronics developed and sold the Rear Admiral Thunderdrive, a clone of the CMD HD. Though using more modern components and a smaller form factor in comparison to the CMD HD, the Thunderdrive maintained full compatibility with the CMD HD.
Input/Output. Commodore MPS 802 Printers A number of printers were released for the Commodore 64, both by Commodore themselves and by third-party manufacturers. Commodore-specific printers were attached to the C64 via the serial port and were capable of being daisy chained to the system with other serial port devices such as floppy drives. By convention, printers were addressed as device #4-5 on the serial bus. Dot-matrix A series of printers were sold by Commodore, including the MPS 801 ( GP 500 VC) and the MPS 803, although many other third-party printers like the and were popular too - some having more advanced printing features than any of Commodore's models. Most Commodore-branded printers were rebranded or models with Commodore serial interface. Daisy wheel Commodore also produced the DPS-1101, which produced letter quality print similar to a, and which typically cost more than the computer and floppy disk drive together.
The MPS-1000 dot matrix printer was introduced along with the C-128. Commodore 1526 is a rebranded MPS 802. Commodore 1520 plotter A mini plotter device, the Commodore 1520, could plot graphics and print text in four colors by using tiny. The 1520 was based upon the DPG1302, a mechanism which also formed the basis of numerous other inexpensive plotters for home computers of the time (e.g. Third-party printer interfaces and buffers Since there were severe shortcomings of early Commodore printers, released the Card Print A (C/?A) printer interface that emulated Commodore printers by converting the Commodore-style IEEE-488 serial interface to a to allow numerous 3rd-party printers to be connected to a Commodore 64, such as,. A second model, a version that supported printer graphics was released called the Card Print +G (C/?+G), supported printing Commodore graphic characters using escape codes.
CARDCO released additional enhancements, including a model with RS-232 output, and shipped a total over 2 million printer interfaces. Also released a series of printer interfaces. With a parallel interface, the QMS KISS laser printer, the most inexpensive available in 1986, at $1995 (equivalent to $4,359 in 2016), could be used. Later, created the which allowed PS2-type ink-jet and laser printers to work under GEOS with a special. Printer buffer with 64 kB RAM for the IEC IEEE-488 derative serial bus existed too, like the 'Brachman Associates Serial Box Print Buffer'. Input devices. C64 Lightpen with its Software of the Company Rex-Datentechnik The Commodore 64 has two.
Commodore produced controllers for the Commodore 64, largely compatible with joysticks, as well as (which were not Atari compatible). Commodore's paddles were originally intended for the, and few C64 games could take advantage of them. The 'Atari CX85 Numerical Keypad' consists of a featuring the 17 keys escape, no, delete, yes, 0-9,., - and +/enter. It connects to the C64 joystick port using the style interface with a DB9F plug. Commodore had two models of, namely the 1350 and the. These were used with as well as software such as and. The earlier 1350 was only capable of emulating a digital joystick, by sending rapid 8 directional signals as it was moved, and thus was not very useful.
The later 1351 used a more traditional proportional mode, sending signals to the computer that indicate amount and direction of movement. The 1351 also supported a mode identical to that of the 1350. CMD's SmartMouse was compatible with 1351-aware and also included a third button and a built in real-time clock module as well.
The NEOS mouse also existed, but it was not compatible with 1351-aware software as it was simply a joystick emulator. Several Companies produced Lightpens with its own drawing software for the Computer, e.g. The Inkwell which was compatible with GEOS. The was also available, came with its own paint software, and was compatible with GEOS as well. Suncom's Animation Station was another for the C64. Car positioning system Test technicians at CGAD Productions operations developed and installed the CarPilot Computerized Automotive Relative Performance Indicator and Location of Transit, one of the first to be tested, circa 1984. It utilized a, 12V DC to 5V DC, video player/recorder, and a TV monitor.
The monitor page 1 displays battery voltage, water temperature, engine oil pressure, fuel level, vehicle speed, engine rotation speed, lock/no-lock condition of the automatic transmission torque converter, and on/off condition of the air conditioning clutch. All except the last two were incorporated with a 'buzzer' alarm system that indicate malfunction. Another feature is the one-second-precision 24-hour clock. Estimated arrival time with 1s precision, distance traveled which is incremented every 80 meters and estimated distance to arrival that is also decremented with same value, 80 meters. Page 2 displayed the vehicle position along the map. Vehicle location indication is calculated from distance traveled. The accuracy of the vehicle location is dependent of the construction and the accuracy of the local map used to construct the digital map.
The best hope for accuracy is 800 m. But accuracy of one car length in 35 km has been realized.
The use of was necessitated to keep up with sensor input. One advantage with the system is the ability to create one's own digital maps and thus eliminate the need to buy such ones for every trip. The software to accomplish this task was written in Basic. Robotics. Computing with a C64 interface With computing, robot trainer, and plotter-scanner, rose as the first manufacturer of modular building blocks into the computer age.
Interfaces for all popular home computers at the time were made, including, and, and later for, and. Programming languages to drive the models included, and in the later kits (1991) an in-house programming tool. The 'Commocoffee 64' is an maker controlled by the C64 in 1985. See also: Relay controller The Handic 'VIC REL' controller provides protected input and output using 6 relay outputs and 2 inputs.
The output relays are capable of 24 V / 10 W and the inputs respond to 5-12 V DC. The device also provides (+5V) and (-5V) at 50 mA to activate inputs. The device is programmed on the VIC-20 with POKE 37138,63 and I/O at 37136.
And on C64 with POKE 56579,63 and I/O at 56577. The intended applications were, etc. Analog to digital converters There are audio (A/D) like the 'A/D Wandler (DELA 87393)' based on 8-bit ADC0809 chip for the C64/128 with a maximum sampling frequency of 10 kHz. And the Sound Ultimate Xpander 6400 (SUX 6400) based on the 8-bit ADC0804 chip with a maximum sampling frequency of 11 kHz.
Plain sound digitizers like 'Sound Digitizer (REX 9614)' that converts analog sound into 2-bit samples. The latter could also be accomplished using the and software tricks. Biofeedback EEG/EMG In 1987 there was a cartridge port device to measure directly for use in exercise programs, called 'BodyLink' produced by the company Bodylog in, USA. Schippers-Medizintechnik in Germany produced a user port attached device to allow a physician to analyze such things as stress level, and assisting in finding a better position for work. Handscanners The 'Scanntronik Handyscanner 64' is a that uses the C64 user port. Frame grabbers like the 'PAL Colour Digitizer' that connect via the user port, will turn an analog composite video frame into a digital picture on the C64. The 'Print Technik Video Digitizer' connects via the user port and uses video signal that has to be still for 4 seconds in order to be sampled and can then be saved either as 320×200 monocolour or 160×200 multicolour (4 colours).
Video generator 80 column mode could be used by installing the 'BI-80' cartridge released 1984 from 'Batteries Included' which is built around the video chip. It includes an expansion ROM that adds BASIC 4.0 commands. One can control which 40/80 column mode is active by software.
On power up, the 40-column mode is active. Another 80 column card using the cartridge port was the 'DATA20 XL80' introduced in 1984 Costing 400 000 in 1985. The 'Z80 Video Pack 80' enabled black and white 80-column screen and using a. Teletext To download pages and software transmitted via the broadcast system.
The UK company 'Microtext' provided their 'Teletext adaptor' and tuner that interfaced with the TV-aerial and the C64/128 user port. Software was provided on a C-10 tape. These were priced at 114.80 GBP inc.
Communication Modems. Commodore 1600 'VICMODEM' As Commodore offered a number of inexpensive for the C64, such as the 1650, 1660, 1670, the machine also helped popularize the use of modems for telecommunications. The 1650 and 1660 were 300 Baud, and the 1670 was 1200 baud. The 1650 could only dial Pulse. The 1660 had no sound chip of its own to generate Touch Tones, so a cable from the monitor /audio out was required to be connected to the 1660 so it could use the C64 sound chip to generate Touch Tones. The 1670 used a modified set of Hayes. This modem is required for Medical Manager for EDI operations.
The Commodore 1650 shipped with a rudimentary piece of terminal software called Common Sense. It provided basic functionality and contained a 700 line scrollback feature. In the United States, Commodore offered the Commodore Information Network, a devoted to its products and users. Later, Quantum Computer Services (which became ) offered an online service called for the C64 that featured chat, downloads, and online games. In the UK, was a very popular online service for C64 users (requiring special Compunet modems) from 1984 to the early 1990s. In Australia, Telecom (now ) ran an online service called and sold modems for the C64 for use with the service.
In the very restrictive rules of the state-owned telephone system prevented widespread use of inexpensive, non-telco licensed modems, prompting the use of inferior instead. Access to, the state-owned telco's own dial-up online service, was possible via special add-on hardware like the Commodore 'BTX Decoder Modul' or the Commodore 'BTX Decoder Modul II'. Radio communication 'Microlog AIR-1 Radio Interface Cartridge' that use the C64 cartridge port with builtin ROM software for and communications. 'RTTY-CW Interface C-64' uses the User port for RTTY communications. 'Auerswald ACC-64' for the transmitter. The receiver uses the user port edge connector on the C64 computer.
RS-232 port Like the, the C64 lacked a real chip such as the and used software emulation. This limited the maximum speed to an error-prone 2400 bit/s.
Third-party cartridges with UART chips offered better performance. Later in the Commodore 64's life, developed two serial communications cartridges for Commodore Computers, the 'Swiftlink' (1990 - 38 400 bit/s) and the 'Turbo 232' (1997 - 230 400 bit/s). The latter was capable of handling a 56k Hayes reliably at full speed on a Commodore 64, enabling reasonable dial-up access speeds. The Retro-Replay expansion cartridge enabled the addition of the Silver Surfer add-on serial board, which also enabled 56k modem connections, and the RR-Net add-on serial board, which allows for broadband internet access, as well as. Also, on November 5, 2005 was launched enabling C64 enthusiasts to experience all the features of the original service in present-day with some enhancements for free. IEEE-488 The Cartridges were made by various companies, but Commodore themselves never made one for the Commodore 64/128 family. One of uses were hard disks like the.
Quicksilver 64/128 by Skyles electric works Computapix IEEE Cartridge Technofor. Commodore 1702 video monitor The Commodore 1701 and 1702 were 13-inch (33 cm) color monitors for the C64 which accepted as input either composite video or separate and signals, similar to the standard, for superior performance with the C64 (or other devices capable of outputting a separated signal). Other monitors available included the 1802 and 1902.
Introduced in 1986, the 1802 featured separate chroma and luma signals, as well as a composite green screen mode suitable for the C-128's 80 column screen. Dot drug test results. The 1902 had a true 80-column mode compatible with. Early in the Commodore 64's life, Commodore released several niche hardware enhancements for sound manipulation. These included the 'Sound Expander', 'Sound Sampler', 'Music Maker' overlay, and External music keyboard. The Sound Expander and Sound Sampler were both expansion cartridges, but had limited use. The Sound Sampler in particular could only record close to two seconds of audio, rendering it largely useless.
The Music Maker was a plastic overlay for the Commodore 64 'breadbox' keyboard, which included plastic piano keys corresponding to keys on the keyboard. The External keyboard was an add-on which plugged into the Sound Expander. These hardware devices did not sell well, perhaps due to their cost, lack of adequate software, marketing as home consumer devices, and an end result that turned many serious musicians off. Possibly the most complex C64 peripheral was the Mimic Systems Spartan, which added an entire new computer architecture to the C64, with its own 6502 CPU and expansion bus, for software and hardware compatibility with the. Announced shortly after the Commodore 64 itself at a time when little software was available for the machine, the Spartan did not begin shipping until 1986, by which time the C64 had acquired an extensive software library of its own.
Essentially an compatible computer that used the 64's keyboard, video output, joysticks, and cassette recorder, the Spartan included 64kB RAM, a motherboard with a 6502 CPU on a card, 8 Apple-compatible expansion slots, an Apple-compatible disk controller card, and a DOS board to add to your 1541 disk drive. The DOS board was optional, but if it was not installed an Apple or compatible drive would be required to load software. The long delay between announcement and availability, along with heavy promotion including full-page ads running monthly in the Commodore press, made the Spartan an infamous example of. Gamesware produced a for the Commodore 64 in 1988, where a target board was attached to the computer using the RS-232 port to enable use of its Gamma Strike suite of games. Produced a symphony cartridge later in the Commodore's life. A reworking of the original Dr. T's SID Symphony cartridge, this cartridge gave the Commodore another SID chip for use to play stereo SID music.
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This saved Commodore 64 users from needing to modify their computer motherboards to enable it with dual SID chips. (CMD) was the longest-running third-party hardware vendor for the Commodore 64 and, hailed by some enthusiasts as being better at supporting the Commodore 64 than Commodore themselves. Their first commercial product for the C64 was a based fast loader and utility chip called. It was not the first KERNAL-based enhancement for the C64 ( and also existed), but was perhaps the best implemented. The benefits of a KERNAL upgrade meant that the cartridge port was free for use (which would have normally been taken up by an cartridge or an ), however the downside meant that one had to manually remove from the C64's and associated floppy drives to install it. Aside from the usual 1541 fast load routines, JiffyDOS contained an easy to use and a few other useful utilities.
RAM expansions Over the years, a number of RAM expansion cartridges were developed for the Commodore 64 and 128. Commodore officially produced several models of expansion cartridges, referred to collectively as the 17xx-series. While these devices came in 128, 256, or 512 sizes, third-party modifications were quickly developed that could extend these devices to 2, although some such modifications could be unstable. Some companies also offered services to professionally upgrade these devices. Typically, most Commodore 64 users did not require a RAM expansion. Very little of the available software was programmed to make use of expansion memory. The cost of the units (and the requirement to add a heavy-duty power supply) also was a factor in the limited usage of RAM expansion cartridges.
The volatility of DRAM was also a factor in the limited usage, as the RAM expansion cartridges were normally used for fast storage, data stored on them would be lost at any power failure. Aside from power-supply problems, the other main downfall of the RAM expansions were their limited usability due to their technical implementation.
The RAM in the expansion cartridges was only accessible via a handful of hardware registers, rather than being CPU-addressable memory. This meant that users could not access this RAM without complicated programming techniques. Furthermore, simply adding the RAM expansion did not provide any kind of on-board RAM disk functionality (though a utility disk was supplied with some REUs, which provided a loadable RAM disk driver). One popular exception to the disuse of the REUs was. As GEOS made heavy use of a primitive, software-controlled form of, it tended to be slow when used exclusively with floppy disks or hard drives. With the addition of an REU, along with a small software driver, GEOS would use the expanded memory in place of its usual swap space, increasing GEOS' operating speed. Due to the lack of available 17xx-series Commodore REUs, and then their later discontinuation, the publishers of GEOS, developed their own 512 kB RAM expansion cartridge - the GeoRAM.
This device was purposely designed for use with GEOS, although some REU-aware programs were later adapted to be able to use it. Some time later, the GeoRAM was cloned by another company to form the BBGRAM device (which also sported a battery backup unit).
The GeoRAM used a banked-memory design where portions of the external were banked into the Commodore 64's CPU address space. This method provided substantially slower transfer speeds than the single-cycle-per-byte transfer speeds of the Commodore REUs.
Prince of egypt ost rar extractor free. A benefit of using SRAMs was lower power consumption which did not require upgrading the Commodore 64's power supply. Eventually the, a third-party clone of Commodore's RAM expansions was developed, designed in such a way as to eliminate the need for a heavy-duty power supply.
PPI devised their own externally powered 1 or 2 MB RAM expansion, marketed as the, which was explicitly designed to be used as a RAM disk. Its primary feature was that the external power supply kept the formatting and contents of the RAM safe and valid while the computer was turned off, in addition to powering the device in any case. A driver was provided on the included utilities disk to allow GEOS to use the RAMdrive as a regular 'disk' drive. CMD later followed up with the. This device operated similar to the RAMDrive, but could address up to 16 MB of RAM in the form of a 17xx-series REU, GeoRAM, and/or an internal memory card, which also provided a battery-backed realtime clock for file time/date stamping of files saved to it. It also features a battery backup, thus preserving the RAM's contents.
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Drivers were provided with the RAMLink to allow GEOS to use its memory as either a replacement for swap space, or as a regular 'disk' drive. CMD's came after this, and could house up to 16 MB of direct, CPU-addressable RAM.
Unfortunately, there was no on-board or disk-based RAM disk functionality offered, nor could any existing software make use of the directly addressable nature of the RAM. The exception is that drivers were included with the unit to explicitly allow GEOS to use that RAM as a replacement for swap space, or as a regular 'disk' drive, as well as to make use of the acceleration offered by the unit. EPROM programmers.
SAN DIEGO (NEWS 8) - As crews gain a handle on the Jennings Fire in Flinn Springs, we’re reminded of one of the lesser-known dangers our cars present to the environment. A car's catalytic converter can heat up to 1,200 degrees in a matter of minutes. If it comes into contact with flammable material, like dry grass, flames can erupt just like they did Tuesday afternoon off Interstate 8 near Old Highway 80. Car's that use catalytic converters run on gas or diesel and are tied into the car's exhaust system to make the car more environmentally friendly. 'As the exhaust gasses travel through it catalytic converter, and it heats up, it burns off the bad gasses and turns it into good gasses out of our tailpipes,' said Bret Richardson, at American Muffler. If a car is not running correctly, the catalytic converter can really heat up - causing trouble. 'These things can get overheated and can cause these biscuits to fracture and they break apart and it can clog the system to where your vehicle will not run at all.
It can go through the system and shoot out of the tailpipe,' said Richardson. Fire investigators said that what happened Tuesday, igniting the Lake Jennings Fire, is the second catalytic converter caused fire in San Diego in less than two weeks. Fire investigator Wayne Witney said the fire along State Route 52 in Tierrasanta on June 29th, was also caused by pieces from a catalytic converter. Catalytic converter pieces from cars year round, but due to the weather in the region, it makes that situation even worse.
The weather conditions and state of vegetation during summer months make that fuel much more readily ignitable so we see fires more during summer months,' said Witney. How can drivers know if their catalytic converter has a problem?
In newer cars the check engine light should come on, and in older cars, drivers can hear when trouble is coming. 'You'll hear rattling and it will sound like rocks under your vehicle.
Or, they will clog up and your car will have tough time making up a hill. You'll experience bad gas mileage,' said Richardson.
Please enable Javascript to watch this video HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) - You may notice a few more lights illuminated on your dashboard right now and you can thank the jarring drop in temperatures. Monday afternoon inside Eddie Posey Garage was a blur of activity with mechanics working on vehicles - many coming in with warning lights.
'We can pretty much guarantee when we have a big drop in temperatures, it is going to be a busy day around here,' garage owner Bryan Crisp says. Crisp recommends you don't ignore those warning lights completely because they could be cold related or may be signaling a more severe problem with your vehicle. When someone brings a car to Crisp and his team, they use specialized computers to run diagnostics on the car and find out what is wrong. Tire Pressure Monitor Light When it comes to our cars, steep temperature drops can trigger a sign of winter that we don’t welcome: a yellow or orange low tire pressure warning light. When your light comes on, your car is simply telling you that you need more air in your tire and this time of year, the warning is usually related to chilly nights.
Here’s what’s happening:. Several vehicles that are 2000 and newer cars and trucks are equipped with a Tire Pressure Monitor System which triggers your dashboard warning light when the air in your tires drops just a few PSI below the recommended tire psi. Your tire pressure will decrease about 1 psi for every 10 degrees Fahrenheit the outside air temperature drops. (Likewise, it increases about 1 psi for every 10 degrees when the temperature rises.) If your tire pressure was last adjusted during the day or after just coming off the road, the air pressure could be related to 90 degrees Fahrenheit. So now, the temperature drops over night overnight temperature hits the low 40s, your tire pressure will drop down by 5 psi, almost certainly turning on the tire pressure warning light. To remedy your low tire pressure light, a simply check or adjustment of the air in your tires is all that is required.
You can do this at a local gas station, or bring it to your local mechanic. Make sure you let your mechanic know that the tire pressure light was on in the morning when it was cold. If you drive your car down to the local shop, the tire pressure will rise from where it was in the morning because the tires will heat up.
Parking the car in the afternoon sun will also boost the tire pressure falsely. In most vehicles, your TPMS light will turn off once the tires are properly inflated, according to the. What does the 'Check Engine' light mean? A glowing ‘Check Engine’ light doesn't mean you have to immediately pull the car over to the side of the road, but it does mean you should get the car checked out as soon as possible.
Ignoring the warning light could severely damage engine components and incur additional repair expenses. If your ‘Check Engine’ light comes on, first check the gas cap to make sure it wasn’t left loose after refueling. Sometimes this can trigger the ‘Check Engine’ light. If the cap was loose, the light should go out after a few short trips. If the gas cap wasn’t the problem and the light remains on steady, have the system checked out as soon as possible.
A light that flashes requires more prompt attention, indicating a more severe condition that must be checked out immediately to prevent damage to the catalytic converter. When you experience a flashing light, minimize driving at high speeds or under heavy loads, according to Crisp. When scheduling service, make sure the automotive shop that diagnoses your car has professional technicians who are properly trained and certified for OBDII diagnosis and repair. The technician will connect your vehicle's computer to a diagnostic computer, which will provide a “trouble” code indicating why the ‘Check Engine’ light was activated. While the diagnostic computer is connected to your car, the technician can check the idle speed, throttle response, engine temperature, fuel system pressure, manifold vacuum, exhaust emission levels and many other key indicators.
Once the problem is diagnosed and fixed, your car's computer makes sure everything is back to normal, and then turns off the ‘Check Engine’ light. The is the source of information for the “Be Car Care Aware” consumer education campaign promoting the benefits of regular vehicle care, maintenance and repair to consumers.
Those of us old enough to remember blowing into cartridges will probably remember the Game Genie – a device that plugs in to an NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, or Game Boy that gives the player extra lives, items, changes the difficulty, or otherwise modifies the gameplay. To someone who doesn’t yet know where the 1-up is in the first level of Super Mario Bros., the Game Genie seems magical. There is, of course, a rhyme and reason behind the Genie and The Mighty Mike Master put together a great walkthrough of. There are two varieties of Game Genie codes – 6-character codes and 8-character codes. Both these types of codes translate into a 15-bit address in the game ROM (from 0x8000 to 0xFFFF for the 6502-based NES) and a data byte.
For the 6-character codes, whenever the address referenced by the Game Genie code is accessed, a specific data byte is returned. Thus, infinite lives become a reality with just a 6-character code. Some games, especially ones made in the late years of their respective systems, use memory mapping to increase the code and data provided on the cartridges. Since areas of data are constantly being taken in and out of the CPU’s address space, merely returning a set value whenever a specific address is accessed would be disastrous. For this bank-switching setup, the Game Genie uses an 8-bit code; it’s just like the 6-bit code, only with the addition of a ‘compare’ byte. Using an 8-bit code, the Game Genie returns a specific byte if the compare bytes are equal.
Otherwise, the Genie lets hands off the original data to the CPU. Of course, all this information could be gleaned from the for the Game Genie. As for the circuitry inside the Game Genie, there’s really not much aside from an un-Googleable (general array logic) and a tiny epoxied microcontroller. It’s an amazingly simple device for all the amazement it imbued in our young impressionable minds.
via Posted in, Tagged, Post navigation. Multiface on the ZX Spectrum (and Amstrad, C64, Atari ST and whatever else) was similar. The later versions had an NMI button, 8K ROM that swapped with the system ROM, and 8K RAM to put your own routines in.
So you could do that same sort of thing, search for values and change them etc. The 8K RAM meant you could load software in specifically tuned to different sorts of cheat-finding, and I’m pretty sure there was a disassembler for it. It’s other use was dumping memory / registers (like an emulator save-state) to storage devices other than the cassette tape. Handy cos there were a few third-party disk drives, and even the Sinclair Microdrives needed it if you wanted to have some actual games to load off them. It would have been fine for piracy, except most Spectrum users stuck with the supply your own cassette player option, and when cheap hifi systems with twin tape decks came out, piracy was everywhere anyway. The Spectrum had the distinction of using a fast baud rate on tape, 48K took 3 1/2 minutes to load.
Compared to the American machines that, for some reason, implemented old mainframe modem protocols for cassette tape, and took half an hour for the same thing. 10 times faster to load, and all done off a line on the ULA entirely bit-banged in software.
I think that defines Sinclair, coming from cheap hobby electronics, and the American companies, from a land fat with dollars and thinking like cut-down mainframe designers.
By now, I've bought at least 3 SD Gecko Memory Card Converters for the Gamecube. They all are advertised as working, with the ability to work with the Wii/Gamecube. Now, they are made for the Wii initially, since the Wii uses memory cards similar to/exactly like the Gamecube, but when I tried the three I bought, all of them would not work. I insert the converter, insert the SD, and it says 'The card could not be read/is corrupted' or something like that. I have a suspicion that the brand of card, which turned out to be all the same, even though from different vendors, is made specifically for the Wii, and does not work with the Gamecube at all (unless, you use gamecube games on the Wii) Unfortonate, as some games on the gamecube have gameboy advanced counterparts, and can connect to them.
I'm not sure if the wii allows gameboy advanced to wii connection. I know it does DS, though.
Has anyone been able to use the following SD Geckos on a gamecube? That's not how the SD Gecko works either. The GameCube will not recognize the SD Gecko at all unless you load homebrew first that can recognize the SD Gecko. You'd have to find a way to load Swiss (a homebrew launcher) either with an action replay specifically configured to do so or launch it from a burned DVD (but that requires a modchip which I assume you don't have). Once Swiss is loaded, you can then launch a homebrew memory card manager (I can't recall what it is at the moment but I think it's GCMM) which you can then use to backup your normal memory cards to SD. It's a bit convoluted, yes, but hopefully you understand the series of steps you actually need to do to get the SD Gecko working. They're not necessarily broken.
And no you don't need to know soldering to do any of this. A minor clarification for STEP 1 though.
You could either get an which makes it super simple to load Swiss, or you could get a normal AR disk (I think almost any version will work, but google around just in case) and to make it work. The latter was what I did to make mine work, though keep in mind that this was 7 years ago. There's probably better ways to do it nowadays. You should check out the gc-forever forums for more advice from people who know much better than I do.
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