One man s slight obsession with obsolete computer hardware.
I ve released a C64 game: Rasterjack, a poker roguelike for the Commodore 64, where you build a scoring machine out of five cards and a rack of jokers. Rasterjack lifts the cycle-exact raster code from my Galactic Rasterbar Power demo and uses it to handle animating the joker rack and a few other things. It s [ ]
Well, this is a nice development. Without this BASIC the Commodore 64 would never have been anything other than a games console with an above-average keyboard. It opened up computer programming, not just entertainment, to millions of kids at super-low cost. It certainly doesn t represent modern coding best practices, but it represents something kind of [ ]
If you are reading this blog, you probably already know that Christian Simpson (known as Peri Fractic on his Youtube channel) is acquiring the Commodore brand. However, it s such huge news that I felt like a blog post was certainly justified, regardless of how well-known this is. Take a look at their first advertisement: You [ ]
Looks like a documentary I would enjoy watching. If this interests you, consider backing the project to help complete it: https://www.iadoremy64film.com/
I took my family for vacation to Branson, MO, and we stopped by the 1984 Arcade there. I had been to the 1984 Arcade in Springfield before, and this is much the same. Admission is a flat $10 per day per person, and you get unlimited video game plays. Pinball games are $0.25 to $0.50 [ ]
It was discovered that a bug in GB Reorganizer was causing the games MoonShadow and Moonshadow to be extracted into the same folder, instead of getting separate folders with game IDs. This has been fixed, bringing the version number up tp 4.0.4.1. Also, I have updated the supported Windows versions to 8, 10, and 11. [ ]
I ve picked up a few more utility cartridges over the last year and finally got around to playing with them. Using CBM Disk Transfer Benchmark, I ve compiled transfer rate comparisons for the Mach 5, Better Working Turbo, KCS Power Cartridge, and Final Cartridge III. I decided it made sense to have a dedicated page for [ ]
Krill has given us Transwarp, a special 1541 loader that is able to push the speed of loading a file from the 1541 drive far beyond the limits that hardware-modified systems reached. And it requires no special hardware. With a little bit of prep, I was able to test it with CBM Disk Transfer Benchmark. [ ]
About a year ago Gideon updated the Ultimate firmware with support for a new C64 Kernal which allows for DMA loading and saving using the standard LOAD and SAVE Kernal routines. I m a bit behind on this as this has been out for a while, but I finally got around to testing the load and save [ ]
Michael Steil gives a great run-through of the 1541, including a short history of Commodore floppy disk drives. In addition to explaining the hardware and firmware, he outlines some fastloader and copy protection techniques. If you like this video, be sure to watch The Ultimate C64 Talk.