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Unboxing SD2Snes MK II REV E2 by Ikari for Famicom/Super Nintendo

June 29th, 2012 No comments
SD2Snes MK II REV E2 by Ikari

Autopsy:

The SD2Snes cartridge is a SD Card Cartridge for the Super Nintendo / Famicom / Snes.

This cartridge, unlike previous products such as the NeoFlash SNES Myth Cart, has more space inside the Xilinx Spartan FPGA to store code so in the future it is possible to support any special chip as long as it has been firmware updated with the latest code provided that support has been developed and implemented.

Xilinx Spartan FPGA Firmware updates can be done without any special hardware, again, unlike the NeoFlash product. You can put the firmware on an SD card and it will automatically find the file and allow you to flash it right in place.

This cartridge already supports the Capcom CX4 microchip which is used in both the Megaman/Rockman X2 and Megaman/Rockman X3 cartridges. NTSC/U/J and PAL/E ROMs will run without a hitch as well as the Megaman X3 Zero Mission ROM (with the latest firmware update which readdresses some of the memory mapping in code).

It also works with ALL DSP chips including third party vendors (DSP1A/B, DSP2, DSP3, and DSP4). SD Gundam GX and TopGear 3000 run as well as Dungeon Master and Pilotwings. All of these titles load in a fraction of a second and are fully playable. There is no difference between the gameplay of these ROMs using sd2snes than playing them on original cartridge hardware.

Features:

  • SD/SDHC/SDXC support (tested up to 64GB; no exFAT support so SDXC cards must be reformatted using FAT32)
  • High quality push-push memory card slot.
  • Fast ROM loading (~9MB/s)
  • Fast menu navigation.
  • Directories are sorted automatically, no need for FAT sorting tools.
  • High resolution menu (512×224) for adequate display of long file names.
  • Real Time Clock.
  • Supports ROM size up to 128MBit (96Mbit actually implemented)
  • Automatic near-time SRAM saving to SD Card (while the game runs). Some limitations apply:
    • near-time saving is switched to periodic saving when a game is found to use the SRAM as work RAM.
    • Automatic saving is disabled when MSU1 is used. SRAM is saved on reset.
  • Enhancement chip support (see below for implementation status)
    • BS-X memory map / Satellaview base unit registers (clock)
    • DSP1 / 1b
    • DSP2
    • DSP3
    • DSP4
    • ST-010
    • Cx4
    • MSU1 (Each supported enhancement chip can be used in conjunction with MSU1.)
    • S-RTC
  • SuperCIC key (SNES CIC clone):
    •  enables operation on unmodified consoles of all regions.
    •  supports software 50/60Hz switching on SuperCIC enhanced consoles only (to be performed by sd2snes firmware, not yet implemented there)
  • Auto region patching: eliminates “This Game Pak is not designed…” messages regardless of 50/60Hz setting.

A few things that may be added via Firmware updates in the future:

  • GSU-1/2 (SuperFX)
  • Action Replay/Game Genie code support
  • SPC7110
  • and more…

SD2Snes Video Review:

Download: SD2Snes Cartridge Label (1782)

source: sd2snes.de tototek.com

VIC20 Game: Break-Fast II

June 28th, 2012 No comments

A new VIC-20 game by Ghislain is Released.

Short Description: Puzzle action game.

Requirements: Unexpanded VIC-20 + Disk Drive.

Download: Break-Fast II (1194)

source: sleepingelephant.com

Turbo Chameleon 64 beta firmware 7b released

June 28th, 2012 No comments

Turbo Chameleon 64 is an extremely user-friendly cartridge that can be used without opening the computer. It is just plugged to the expansion port of the C64.

The Turbo Chameleon 64 cartridge can also be operated as a stand-alone unit (since it’s basically an FPGA computer like the C-One or the Minimig in a C64 cartridge case), replacing the computer, the floppy drive and the heavy power supply.

When used as a stand-alone unit, a USB power adapter or active USB hub can be used as a power source.

Changelog:

  • fixed REU, transfer length register is 1 after a transfer completes.
  • fixed REU 512K wrap around.
  • fixed cache controller preventing corruption when accessing 0x1FFFF0000 – 0x1FFFFFFFF
  • faster SDRAM controller. More memory bandwidth for turbo.
  • added slowdown modes to the Turbo settings. Offering CPU speeds of 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%.
  • added native updater program (see manual) to update the fpga core without an usb connection.
  • make menu item active when pressing a hotkey, so it is selected when going back to the respective menu.
  • correctly mute/unmute second sid in menu freezer.
  • clockport- and rr-net- items in options menu are correctly disabled if either is not available.
  • if found, load and run update.prg from sd card (chameleon updater)
  • if “boot from sd card” is enabled, load boot.prg from sd card (regular c64 boot program)
  • improved navigation in one panel mode, cursor right enters subdir/image and cursor left goes one level up.
  • improved quickfind, just type a filename quickly to jump to it.
  • mount menu is skipped if there would only be one active item.
  • when returning to the menu from the sid player by pressing left/menu button it will go directly to the filebrowser.
  • added gfx viewer for various multi-color and hires formats.(see manual)
  • added wav player (see manual)
  • added filecopy (F5 in two panel mode, see manual)
  • set $030c-$030e to 0 before starting prgs, increases compatibility with certain packers.
  • .sid files which actually contain a basic program can now be run correctly.
  • re-read destination panel after copying image.

Download: Chameleon Beta-7b release (1733)

source: beta.icomp.de

VirtualC64 v0.9.6.1 for Intel Macintosh OSx

June 27th, 2012 1 comment

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:

  • Lions native fullscreen mode now works as expected (no more ugly borders)
  • Removed old fullscreen mode which frequently crashed on lion machines.

Download: VirtualC64 v0.9.6.1 (1370)

source: dirkwhoffmann.de

C64 Game: Spike C64 Dislike +1MHD / Deflectors +2D …

June 27th, 2012 No comments

Some new games (Cracked / Trained or Unrealeased) for Commodore 64 have been released from your favorites groups: Really Proud LamersGenesis Project and David Eriksson.

Download:

source: csdb.dk

X-2012: Date confirmed (19-21 October 2012)

June 27th, 2012 No comments

The 11th X party will be held from October 19th until October 21rd 2012. The party will be at the new and improved location: De Hoof 18, Someren – the Netherlands. Competitions: C64 Demo, C64 Music and C64 Graphics.

source: x-2012 homepage

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

ASAP v3.1.2 – Another Slight Atari Player

June 26th, 2012 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 3.1.2 (2012-06-25):

  • Created VLC plugin (SAP format only).
  • The JavaScript player now works in Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer 9 and 6, using XAudioJS.
  • Flash Player, Java applet, Silverlight and JavaScript players were put in a single “web” package.
  • UTF-8 encoding is supported for STIL.
  • Author is no longer hidden in the converted XEX files.
  • Winamp plugin opens ATR disk images and plays files inside them.
  • Audacious plugin updated to Audacious 3.2 and compiled for Windows.
  • BASS add-on updated to be compatible with AIMP 3 (SAP format only).
  • Enabled title/author/year in the BASS add-on (only selected BASS-based players use it, for example EncoreBassing).
  • Windows Media Player codec supports subsongs, AUTHOR and NAME (this works at least with Media Player Classic Home Cinema).
  • JavaScript interface of the web players has been extended and now has same functionality.
  • New TortoiseSVN and TortoiseGit plugins show changes in SAP tags.

Download: ASAP v3.1.2 (1034)

source: asap.sourceforge.net

High Voltage SID Collection Update #57

June 25th, 2012 No comments

The High Voltage SID Collection (HVSC) is a freeware hobby project which organises Commodore 64 music (also known as SID music) into an archive for both musicians and fans alike.

The work on the collection is done completely in the Team and contributors’ spare time and is proudly one of the largest and most accurate computer music collections known.

This update features (all approximates):

  • 975 new SIDs
  • 239 fixed/better rips
  • 13 repeats/bad rips eliminated
  • 3136 SID credit fixes
  • 396 SID model/clock infos
  • 38 tunes from /DEMOS/UNKNOWN/ identified
  • 18 tunes from /GAMES/ identified
  • 72 tunes moved out of /DEMOS/ to their composers’ directories
  • 24 tunes moved out of /GAMES/ to their composers’ directories

Download:

source: www.hvsc.c64.org

SID Known v1.04 a SID tune identifier tool

June 25th, 2012 No comments

SID Known is a command line tool (M$ Windows) which you can use to identify SID tunes from SID and PRG files.

This tool can be used if e.g. you want to know which SID tune is used in a specific C64 demo or C64 game, or you have a SID tune found or ripped and you want to know if it is already in your SID collection.

Download: SID Known v1.04 (1047)

source: noname.c64.org

C64 Game: 15 new games released for Commodore 64

June 25th, 2012 No comments

Joystick Albatros MicroSwitch by Alberici (Bologna / Italy)

June 23rd, 2012 5 comments
Joystick Albatros MicroSwitch by Alberici (Bologna / Italy)

Autopsy:

My personal feedback: This is one of the best Joystick ever made for a intensive use.

from Wikipedia:

Albatros is a joystick produced by Alberici S.p.a (Bologna / Italy). It was sold in the 1980s on the Italian market. The joystick had six microswitches, four for the lever and two for the buttons, together with an audible feedback.

A first series was produced with a slim frustum cone lever. The second production featured a sphere on the top of a larger lever.

source: wikipedia

Atari 8-Bit Game: Line Runner by GR8 Software

June 21st, 2012 No comments

Line Runner is 8-bit Atari version of the popular game for Android and iPhone. Copyright’s owner is Rober Szeleney (Djinnworks).

Line Runner is available for Atari 800XL, 65XE, 130XE, 1200XL, both PAL and NTSC and is also available a Cartridge version for a very low price.

Download: Line Runner by GR8 Software (1021)

source: gr8.atari.pl

Categories: Atari, News & Rumors, Today

C64 Game: Wheelin’ Wallie HS / Donkey Kong (Atarisoft) +5H …

June 18th, 2012 No comments

Some new games (Cracked / Trained or Unrealeased) for Commodore 64 have been released from your favorites groups: Really Proud Lamers, Mayday! and The Hidden Farts.

Download:

source: csdb.dk

Commodore Amiga TV-Modulator 520 Boxed

June 17th, 2012 No comments
Commodore Amiga TV-Modulator 520 Boxed

Autopsy:

The Commodore Amiga  520  Video  Adapter  is a device that allows you to connect your  Amiga  500  to  a  TV  set  or a composite video monitor.

It does this by converting  the  RGB  video signal the Amiga produces for RGB monitors to a composite video signal that a TV  or composite monitor can interpret.

Commodore Amiga 500 (A500) REV 6A Expanded 1MB & Boxed

June 17th, 2012 No comments
Commodore Amiga 500 (A500) REV 6A

Autopsy:

from Wikipedia:

The Amiga 500 – also known as the A500 (or its code name ‘Rock Lobster’) – was the first “low-end” Commodore Amiga 16/32-bit multimedia home/personal computer. It was announced at the winter Consumer Electronics Show in January 1987 – at the same time as the high-end Amiga 2000 – and competed directly against the Atari 520ST. Before Amiga 500 was shipped, Commodore suggested that the list price of the Amiga 500 was 595.95 USD without a monitor. At delivery in 1987, Commodore announced that the Amiga 500 would carry a 699 USD list price.

The Amiga 500 represented a return to Commodore’s roots by being sold in the same mass retail outlets as the Commodore 64 – to which it was a spiritual successor – as opposed to the computer-store-only Amiga 1000.

The original Amiga 500 proved to be Commodore’s best-selling Amiga model, enjoying particular success in Europe. Although popular with hobbyists, arguably its most widespread use was as a gaming machine, where its advanced graphics and sound for the time were of significant benefit.

The Amiga 500 series was discontinued in mid-1992 replaced by the similarly specified and priced Amiga 600, although this new machine had originally been intended as a much cheaper budget model, which would have been the A300. In late 1992, Commodore released the “next-generation” Amiga 1200, a machine closer in concept to the original Amiga 500, but featuring significant technical improvements. Despite this, neither the A1200 nor the A600 replicated the commercial success of its predecessor as, by this time, the market was definitively shifting from the home computer platforms of the past to commodity Wintel PCs and the new “low-cost” Macintosh Classic, LC and IIsi models.

source: wikipedia