from Lallafa’s Blog:

Now with ZoomFloppy device hitting the streets and a growing number of Mac users that own this device its about time to give them decent software packages to work with.

I already started the OpenCBM on Mac page quite some time ago when I started to help porting the code for Macs. I reworked the full page and simplified a lot of things. Here it is the shiny new OpenCBM on Mac page with special attention for easy setup of ZoomFloppy users!

The OpenCBM tools are really useful for day-to-day normal disk transfers. But when it comes to copy-protected disks the only tool there is Nibtools from C64Preservation. These tools use the OpenCBM libraries and I soon got them to compile on my machine.

The only thing missing there was writing a Portfile and setting up a page similar to the OpenCBM on Mac one. Here we go: I added a shiny new Portfile for Nibtools and described its installation on the Nibtools on Mac page.

source: lallafa.de

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.

• 2011-01-22: Exomizer v2.0 released

Changes since the 2.0 beta 7 release:

• Fixed a bug in sfx decruncher setup where data was copied unnecessary.
• Added the i_line_number symbol to be able to change the default line number of the basic line of the sfx decruncher.
• Added various improvements and documentation of the desfx command.

A complete changelog is included in the zip file.

source: exomizer

Commodore Free Magazine Issue #47

Free to download Commodore magazine dedicated to Commodore Computers.

source: commodorefree.com

DATASTORM, the ultimate winter party for people operating on machines with SOUL. It’s going down on the the 4:th of February 2011 and keeps going until the 6:th of February 2011.

Partylocation is as usual the city of Gothenburg at the swedish bestcoast – the stronghold of the swedish amigascene. The city is easy to reach through two international airports, ferry and train.

source: datastorm.se

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 a replacement for C64PrgGen and VIC20PrgGen and is designed to be a single development tool which will cover some of the early CBM 8-bit machines.

source: ajordison.co.uk

I continue to upgrade my Amiga 2000 PAL REV 4.5. After the upgrade of the chip Fat Agnus and the Kickstart/4MB, today i have replaced the Denise chip with a new one. The Super Denise chip is capable of still higher resolutions and bit depths.

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:

• New screen geometry. New values reflect width, height, and aspect ratio of a real PAL or NTSC machine.
• Added controls for shifting and zooming screen borders.
• Improved drag’n'drop. Thumbnail images can now be dragged from one emulator window to another.
• Added finder icons for all supported document types.
• D64, T64, PRG, and P00 files can now be opened via the open file dialog (Open menu)
• New background texture and startup animation.

source: dirkwhoffmann.de

The HxC Floppy Drive Emulator is a software and hardware system created by jfdn aka Jeff.

The aim of this project is to replace the floppy disk drive by an electronic device emulating the floppy disk drive (list of supported Computer/Hardware).

There are two differents emulators:

• A USB version which allows to connect the floppy disk drive interface of the computer to a PC via a USB cable.
• A SDCARD version which allows to emulate floppy disks which images are stored in a SDCARD.

Release notes for the HxCFloppyEmulator software v1.5.2.0/v1.5.2.1:

• BUG : Floppy dump tool broken. fixed.
• New files Support : Atari ST DIM image (*.DIM) added.
• New files Support : TI99 V9T9 (*.V9T9 / *.PC99) added.
• IPF File format (http://www.softpres.org/) overlap bug corrected.
• Internal : Tracklen is now the number of bit in the track.
• Internal/HFE generator : Track encoding code now set correctly.
• ISO/IBM track generator : ISO FM track data mark value corrected/changed to 0xFB.

Release notes for the SD HxCFloppyEmulator firmware upgrade v1.5.0.0:

• SDcard : Init frequency corrected.
• SDcard : Multi sector read & Write access added.
• SDCard access time improved (Slow sdcard issues corrected)
• Some important parts of the floppy write support fully rewritten : Important codes improvement (speed & size)
• New MFM/DD  write support bitrate added.
• FM write support added.
• E-mu write support added (E-mu emulator, E-mu emulator II,…)
• Two floppy drive emulation improvement/bug corrected.
• SDCard HxC Floppy emulator settings (sound/blacklight…) are now stored into the eeprom and used at power up. At power up the last known settings are used.
• … full release notes here

source: hxc2001.free.fr

Algodancer 2 is a Commodore 64 demo by Algorithm. I love it because it reminds me a old Amiga Demo; State of the Art by Spaceball.

This a a single file C64 demonstration which demonstrates overlay/underlay vq with realtime in memory decompression and sprite plotting.

source: algotechproductions.com

CBM-Command is a disk manager for the Commodore 64 / Commodore 128 / Commodore VIC20 and Commodore C16 computers. It is written like Norton Commander or Midnight Commander, but is much simpler due to the target platforms. Both the C128/C64/VIC20/C16 have their own native version of the application.

Release Notes – Version 2.0 Release Candidate – 2011-01-14

New Features:

• Whole Disk Copying – Hotkey = “O” – This will copy a whole disk from one like drive to another like drive (ie. 1541 to 1541, 1571 to 1571) and also will copy a 1541 to a 1571.

Changes:

• Bug fixes

Known Issues:

• Deleting batches of files with more than 30 files does not work as expected as only the first 30 files are deleted. This is because of the way that deleting files alters the disk directory which prevents looping over the whole directory and selectively deleting files. Unfortunately I see no way around this as it’s impossible to cache the names of all the files to delete without some kind of temporary storage. This issue will not stop the release of Version 2.0.

source: cbmcommand.codeplex.com

CTetris4 is a very Nice Tetяis clone for Atari 8 Bit Computers. The game is developed by Hayden Doan.

from Wikipedia:

Tetris is a puzzle video game originally designed and programmed by Alexey Pajitnov in the Soviet Union. It was released on June 6, 1984, while he was working for the Dorodnicyn Computing Centre of the Academy of Science of the USSR in Moscow.

He derived its name from the Greek numerical prefix tetra- (all of the game’s pieces, known as Tetrominoes, contain four segments) and tennis, Pajitnov’s favorite sport.

source: atariage.com wikipedia

This is a new Graphics Adventure written in Basic language for Commodore 64. The game is developed by JCB of The Mean Team.

source: noname.c64.org

This is a new game for Commodore 64 developed by The New Dimension.

You are captain Steve Zappa, who has been transported to different star boads. Your mission is to clear all decks on each star ship from the crazy aliens that infest the ship.

Then hurry back to the computer console and teleport out of the star ship, and get back into your little space craft. You will then be taken aboard on to the next star ship, in which you have to complete each mission.

source: tnd64.unikat.sk lemon64.com

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italian.

Micro SwinSID (SwinSID88) is a hardware replacement for legendary SID sound chip which was placed in every Commodore C64 computer and other devices.

On the Photo you can see the AVR ISP homebrew Adapter for programming the firmware.

Firmware update (10012011):

• Much improved ADSR envelope fading based on a real SID counter design.
• More soft filter.

Hardware tip:

To increase audio quality and volume level replace R4 (2k2) resistor with 1K. This will boost volume by about 50%

source: forum64.de