Autopsy:

12►

Thanks go to Andrea Pierdomenico for sending these two things in perfect condition and ‘seems’ never used.

from SharpMz.org:

The Quick Disk drive in terms of cost is was a more practical proposition for the home user. The drive is built into the computer for the MZ-700 and MZ-800 in place of the data recorder.

The Quick Disk allows you to load 64K of sequential data in 8 seconds, which is a vast improvement in performance compared to cassette tapes. However, the Quick Disk operates in a very similar way to cassette tapes in that data has to be accessed sequentially, rather than at random as is possible with the floppy drives.

A special Quick BASIC is supplied. However, perhaps the most interesting way of using the Quick Disk would be as a back-up store to the RAM file card, described in the next section, as this configuration would give a very effective system which was rapid in use, at reasonable cost.

source: sharpmz.org

A new version of the firmware for the interface 1541 Ultimate II is released. This version runs only on the 1541 Ultimate II cartridge (new fpga).

Version 2.5 includes some new features:

• File viewer.
• Selectable colors in user interface.

This version also includes some fixes for nasty memory allocation bugs that existed when using USB sticks. Removal of a USB device is now at least a lot safer. Also, some file system bugs were fixed.

Version 2.5+ includes some new features:

The ‘plus’ version of 2.5 including a special 7-voice audio engine. This version is based on the same 2.5 with the bugfixes and a special FPGA build can it only supports ONE floppy drive, in favor of extra audio functionality.

Download:

• 1541 Ultimate II Firmware v2.5 (1274)
• 1541 Ultimate II Firmware v2.5+ (1280)
• Ultimate Audio API Manual v0.2 (1789)

source: 1541ultimate.net

SNDH archive v4.0 released. 121 SNDH-files added or updated!

Ever since the birth of the Atari ST, different chip music formats have had different ways to use them. If you are coding a chip music player for the Atari ST you would have to use dozens and dozens of special ways to replay music.

But in the mid 90′s, BDC of Aura crew became tired of this inelegant system and decided to fix the issue once and for all. He then created the ‘SNDH’ file format. SNDH is actually the original songfile and replaycode with a header bolted on top of the music and replayer. The header has a unified calling interface no matter what type of chip music is hidden beneath it, and it has extended datas about the music.

Download: SNDH Atari ST YM2149 Archive v4.0 (1408)

source: sndh.atari.org

Peter Jørgensen has released a new Beta version of his YM-2149 Tracker for M$ Windows. The sound chip YM-2149 is used in Atari ST/E/Falcon series.

New Function in Beta 14.00:

• Mixer control.
• Stereo.
• Simple reverb.
• Startup directory.

Beta 14.00 – note from the author:

The Ym2149 version 14.0 Beta is probably the most important update that I have released. I have change how the program handle the sound thread and that have improve the stability of the program very much.

Sometime when changing device / export to wav /sampling frequency, etc. the program would hang, but that should be gone now.
I have rewritten the Ym2149 emulations, so it should be closer to that of a real Ym2149 chip. I have also made a mixer window, where you can change stereo/ mono mode, reverb, and output volume of the channels. plus a lot more. I have also remove a numbers of smaller errors.

Download: Ym2149 V14.00 Beta full packed (with Ym files) (1485)

source: bitmania.de

Censor Design has released a new version of their demo Wonderland XI released at the demo party X-2012.

Download: Wonderland XI by Censor (Revision 2) (1065)

source: csdb.dk

Some new games (Cracked / Trained or Unrealeased) for Commodore 64 have been released from your favorites groups: Hokuto Force, Onslaught and Laxity.

Download:

• Back to the Future +3PD +Solution (1149)
• Trance Sector +8HDF 101% [pal/ntsc] (1110)
• Trance Sector +10 HFD 101% [pal/ntsc] (1331)
• All Games in One Archive (2282)

source: csdb.dk

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italian.

Some new games (Cracked / Trained or Unrealeased) for Commodore 64 have been released from your favorites groups: Dinasours, Antarctica and Laxity.

Download:

• Last Mission (Tronic) +3D 101% (987)
• My Grand Piano [ntsc/pal] (1012)
• Meteorite Storm +2ED [english/german] (995)
• Vinnie Voles\'s Existential Nightmare ±0 (992)
• All Games in One Archive (2250)

source: csdb.dk

Autopsy:

1234►

from Old-Computers.com:

The sharp MZ 800 was the successor of the MZ 780. It was partially compatible with the MZ 700 series and the old MZ 80K series as well.

It was sold under three reference numbers:

• MZ-811 without tape drive.
• MZ-821 with built-in 1200-baud tape drive.
• MZ-831 with tape drive and built-in 4-colour printer-plotter.

The Tape drive could be substituted for a Quick-disk drive unit. The Quick-Disc was a small 2.8-inch disk with sequential access.

Like the MZ 700, there was no language in ROM, it had to be loaded from tape, quick disk or floppy disk. The ROM only contained boot code, OS calls and special code to allow the user to use the 64 KB RAM as a virtual disk.

A single or double 5.25″ disk drive could be connected to the MZ 800. It then worked under a special version of CP/M called P-CP/M. Some great products like Wordstar, dBase II and Multiplan were adapted to it. Under CP/M, it was possible to read multiple disk formats from the 360 KB (Sharp format) to the 720 KB (CP/M IBM PC format).

The MZ 800 was sold in Japan under the name SHARP MZ 1500. The MZ 1500 had the same characteristics except its black case, a built-in Quick-Disc drive and a slighty different graphic video management.

source: old-computers.com

This is the official demo party results from X-2012 (Top 3 Entries only). See also the CSDB X2012 section for more informations and downloads.

C64 Demo Competition:

• Coma Light 13 by Oxyron
• Artphosis by Hitmen
• Trick and Treat by Fairlight, Offence, Prosonix

C64 Graphics Competition:

• Cozy Home by Sphinx
• MC God by Archmage
• Koalaman by Pal

C64 Music Competition:

• X2012 by Sad
• The Empire of Norway by Ole Marius Pettersen
• Spasmolytic by Magnar Harestad

Download:

• X-2012 Full Party Stuff (1057)
• X-2012 Results (887)

source: noname.c64.org

The C64-Archiv is an easy to use file manager for C64-files.

C64-Archiv descriptions:

• Scans and stores your C64 – (games) – collection with only a few clicks.
• Easily manages your C64-programs by creating your own categories and selections.
• Starts the C64-programs in different emulators.
• Delivers instructions for the emulators VICE, CCS64, HOXS64 and EMU64.
• Works with tools e.g. 64Copy, D64Lister or DirMaster.
• Stores the C64-programs from files with the extensions: .D64, .D71, .P00, .PRG e. .T64.
• Stores files by name with the extensions: .TAP, .VSF (VICE-snapshot-file) and .C64 (CCS64-session-file).
• Stores text and information files with the extensions: .TXT, .NFO and .DIZ
• Stores PDF files.
• Searches archiv files with the extensions: .ZIP, .7Z and .CAB
• GameBase frontend with the possibility to download games.
• GameBase view with up to 30 columns.
• Supports multi-language (currently: Englisch, French, Italian, Spanish and German)

Version v3.4 – What’s new?

• NEW: Profiles for Mirco64.
• NEW: New view “Main files”
• NEW: Store directories into a text file.
• NEW: MD5 hash.
• NEW: Preview (Directory, pictures, text files)
• NEW: Spanish translation (Thanks to Juan from Lemon64 forum)
• NEW: Improved views “Last started” and “Top 100″
• NEW: Number of downloads of gamebase files are no longer limited.
• FIXED: Criteria for file endings worked incorrect.
• FIXED: Crash during import

Download: C64-Archiv v3.4 (1368)

source: Mikes Pages

A new version of the firmware for the interface 1541 Ultimate II is released. This version runs only on the 1541 Ultimate II cartridge (new fpga).

New features:

The ‘Ultimate Audio’ feature is a new feature for the 1541 Ultimate-II module. It implements multi- channel audio sample playback support from REU memory, and is an exciting addition to the possibilities this cartridge offers.

Download:

• 1541 Ultimate II Firmware v2.5x (1492)
• Ultimate Audio API Manual v0.2 (1789)

source: 1541ultimate.net

Some new games (Cracked / Trained or Unrealeased) for Commodore 64 have been released from your favorites groups: Hokuto Force, Dinasours, Antarctica, TRIAD, Laxity and Really Proud Lamers.

Download:

• School Bus Driver +2 [one-filed] (962)
• School Bus Driver (960)
• Grand Prix (Tronic Verlag) (975)
• Android 2 +4PD (937)
• Pedro +4PD (937)
• Firehouse Rescue +3FD [ntsc/pal] (1007)
• Little People Bowling Alley &D [ntsc/pal] (984)
• Heavy Metal Deluxe Gold +4HF 101% [pal/ntsc] (1017)
• All Games in One Archive (2369)

source: csdb.dk

Ikari want to make a bit of clarity of the future of the SD2Snes interface.

Directly from the SD2Snes Homepage:

Progress update & (rough) road map:

In the past weeks, amongst a number of smaller feature requests, I’ve been getting a lot of questions about SuperFX progress. I’ve even seen rumors spread about SuperFX support being cancelled. This is not the case.

SuperFX is the most complex core to implement to date, and it even took me several months to complete Cx4 support. That was before the public release of sd2snes, however, so less people noticed. Rest assured that SuperFX support is still in progress. It will take at least the rest of this year though.

To me, having existing features working properly takes priority. That’s why I’m addressing reported bugs and also minor feature requests which have been in the queue for quite long in parallel to working on SuperFX. I expect there to be 1-2 more releases before SuperFX support is introduced in v0.2.0, not counting critical bug fixes should need for them arise. Since people seem to get annoyed at my love for the Satellaview I’ll put off further work on that until after SuperFX.

There will be a v0.1.5 release shortly, which supports large SRAM properly, fixes sorting of long directory entries, fixes a glitch in SPC playback with S-APU consoles, works properly with non-standard controllers plugged in (e.g. Super Scope), and has more faithful BS-X memory mapping (<- actually finished a couple of weeks ago).

v0.1.6 will probably introduce proper SuperCIC support (allowing to select 50/60Hz from the menu) and maybe rudimentary cheat code support (ROM patching only). Both might be delayed to v0.2.0.

Keep in mind that while I’m continuing work on SuperFX support it helps do something else now and then.

source: sd2snes.de

Some new games (Cracked / Trained or Unrealeased) for Commodore 64 have been released from your favorites groups: Atlantis, Laxity and Really Proud Lamers.

Download:

• MEM64! +FD 101% [pal/ntsc] (1148)
• MEM64! (1026)
• Diagonal Ball +2 (1043)
• Coins + H (1027)
• All Games in One Archive (2470)

source: csdb.dk