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FPGA Arcade site updated

November 22nd, 2010 No comments

This site is about recreating gaming hardware from the past in modern programmable devices, known as FPGAs.

source: fpgaarcade.com

Categories: Hardware, News & Rumors, Today

C64 Game: Nanako in Classic Japanese Monster Castle

November 20th, 2010 No comments

Wood, the Portuguese developer who ported the Speccie game ‘Uwol: Quest for Money’ to the C64 is almost done with his conversion of the rather obscure title, Nanako in Classic Japanese Monster Castle.

In this game you control Nanako, the game consists of 25 levels, you have to climb one level to another level in the castle and offcourse, there are some baddies.

Let me spare you the details of the background story, but Nanako … looks like a very original platform game.

source: noname.c64.org mojontwins.com

Individual Computers: Amiga 600 /1200 Turbo cards

November 18th, 2010 No comments

Individual computers has been working on a new turbo cards for the Amiga 600 and 1200. If you wish to purchase the turbo cards visit the official resellers Vesalia.

Amiga 1200 features: Amiga 600 features:
  • CPU 68EC030 @ 28 MHz.
  • 64 MB RAM.
  • MapRom function.
  • RTC optional.
  • CPU 68030 @ 25 MHz.
  • 32 MB RAM.
  • MapRom function.
  • Sophisticated mechanical mounting.

source: vesalia.de

Categories: Hardware, News & Rumors, Today

HxC Floppy Emulator: Software updated

November 16th, 2010 No comments

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 v1.5.0.0:

  • New Feature : Floppy disk dump tool : To use this tool you need the fdrawcmd driver (http://simonowen.com/fdrawcmd).
  • E-Mu Emulator I support : E-Mu Emulator I FM track support added (generator & sector extractor)
  • E-Mu Emulator I support : E-Mu Emulator I RAW file image support added (*.emuiifd)

source: hxc2001.free.fr

Categories: Hardware, News & Rumors, Today

Dual Sid Homepage Opened

November 16th, 2010 No comments

DualSID is a device which allows you to plug in two different SID models to your Commodore 64. You can set the second SID‘s address to five different memory locations.

Both SIDs can be set to the same memory area which enables stereo sound to your favourite games. DualSID is compatible with most stereo SID software and demos.

Features:

  • Second SID can be either 8580 or 6581 with any C64 board assembly.
  • Second SID address is selectable from: $D400, $D420, $D500, $DE00, $DF00
  • Small PCB, only 40mm x 50mm
  • Game compatibility.

For more information and price visit the Tomi Malinen homepage

source: dual sid homepage

ZTerm v0.6 for Commodore 64

November 14th, 2010 No comments

ZTerm64 is a color graphics terminal for Commodore 64.

ZTerm 64 Features:

  • FAST! ZTerm64 is written in 100% Assembly Language Approx 40 blocks long
  • Swiftlink/Turbo232/Link232 Support. Auto detects presence of one of these cartridges and selects the proper serial driver. If no cartridge is detected it uses the stock userport function up to 2400 baud.
  • CCGMS Clone I made it look and work very similar to the CCGMS terminal program which is probably one of the most popular terminal programs ever for the C64
  • Punter / Multi-Punter transfer protocols. Yes, these will work across a TCP/IP Connection.
  • XModem / YModem coming soon
  • Source Code is available. It is in 64TASS cross assembler format.

source: zlink64.us

Atari 800XL fix for Expansion Ram 320XL

November 14th, 2010 No comments

I had to make this change to get the Expansion Ram 320XL running on my Atari 800XL:

source: atariage.com

Unboxing expansion Ram 320XL (320kB) for Atari 600/800XL

November 14th, 2010 No comments
Expansion Ram 320XL (320kB)

Autopsy:

The Expansion Ram 320XL is a external plug and play 320kB memory expansion card for Atari 600XL and 800XL machines designed by ctirad a user of AtariAge Forum.

Additionally there is a possibility to disable internal memory and remap it onto card (switchable via jumper), thus one can “fix” many failing XLs without even looking inside. Also, an unexpanded 16kB 600XLs can be upgraded to 320XL without any additional work.

The Expansion Ram 320XL uses banking via bits 2,3,5,6 and 4 of PORTB. As you can see this is compatible with “Atari magazine” expansion rather than a most common RAMBO or Compy shop setup, however I have to say the comaptibility with both old and new software is excellent. There can be only problem with some programs, which does use the separate Antic/CPU banking.

The Installation is very easy. The Atari 600XL users will just plug it into PBI port. For Atari 800XL is a bit more complicated, because Atari decided to remove 5V power from the PBI connector from it. Thus 800XL users will have either to use additional power cable which will fit into joystick port or solder one wire inside atari to make the PBI port powered like on 600XL (look photo).

For more information and price visit the atariage.com.

source: atariage.com

Commodore 64C Family Pack (Boxed)

November 13th, 2010 3 comments
Commodore 64C Family Pack

Autopsy:

Today i picked up a Commodore 64c Family Pack Edition with Powersupply / Datasette & Joystick in good working condition. The plastics of the Commodore 64c and Datasette are little yellowed but does not affect the right use.

C128 System Information v7.3 REV1 by MirkoSoft

November 13th, 2010 No comments

Program that detects type of your hardware in Commodore 128.

Also added recognizing CMD Hardware FD/HD/RAMLink/RAMDrive/JiffyDOS/SuperCPU and a better detection of MMU and RAM size (SuperRAM), not works correctly in VICE.

Optimized for 80 columns mode. Thanks to Christian Johansson.

source: mirkosoft homepage

HxC Floppy Emulator: Firmware & Software updated

November 10th, 2010 No comments

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 v1.4.0.1:

  • GUI : SDCard buzzer sound volume control added.
  • GUI reworked.
  • Double step drive emulation support added.
  • IMD Loader : Default interface mode change to Shugart.
  • RAW Loader : Default interface mode change to Shugart.
  • USB HxC Floppy Emulator : Shugart mode corrected.

Release notes for the SD HxCFloppyEmulator firmware upgrade v1.3.0.4:

  • Amiga : Change disk delay added.
  • Buzzer driving bug corrected.
  • “One button” mode feature added.
  • Double step support added.

source: hxc2001.free.fr

Sound comparison: Micro SwinSID vs SID 8580

November 9th, 2010 No comments

These are some Sid examples which i have recorded from a Commodore 64 with the SwinSID installed. You can Download the original Sid track in .sid file format and the SwinSID in .ogg file format (High Quality), so you can compare the musics.

  • The Alibi by Thomas E. Petersen (Laxity) 1989 Maniacs of Noise- SID (6581)
  • The Alibi by Thomas E. Petersen (Laxity) 1989 Maniacs of Noise- SWINSID
  • Albino Human by Alexander Rotzsch (Fanta) 2006 Fanta – SID (8580)
  • Albino Human by Alexander Rotzsch (Fanta) 2006 Fanta – SWINSID

Some Sid tracks play perfectly others need some emulation fixes.

Quod Init Exit v1.1

November 9th, 2010 No comments

Saimo (Simone Bevilacqua) has updated his game Quod Init Exit, which is Latin for “whatever gets in, gets out”.

In the game you are a little pig, and you need to eat all the food you can find. The game has excellent HIRES graphics and is fun to play.

Changelog:

  • Fixed the flicker of some pixels, which was visible only on real machines and accurate emulators.
  • Added level part to score shown in in-game screen (courtesy of Endurion’s feedback Wink)
  • Compressed the program for faster loading.
  • Made various other minor changes.

source: noname.c64.org

Micro SwinSID KIT – Assembling and Testing

November 8th, 2010 No comments
Testing Micro SwinSID

Micro SwinSID KIT by Peter Sieg:

Certainly you can’t expect perfect emulation, but we are very close, the audio is much more clean than the original SID chip, if the project continues on this road we will arrive very soon on the perfect emulation.

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

This project is based on the microcontroller ATMEGA88PU from Atmel and the emulation code is written by Swinkels. The first version of the pcb (prototype) was made by Crisp.

For more information and price visit the forum64.de.

CodeNet Client v0.3

November 8th, 2010 2 comments

The CodeNet Client it can be used to transfer PRG files directly into the memory of the C64 and also allows some other actions like filling memory and ofcourse starting a program with RUN or a jump to a defined memory address.

The CodeNet protocol is a very simple protocol to send data and executables to a C64 computer via ethernet. A CodeNet server is normally listening on UDP port 6462.

Changelog:

v0.3 (6.11.10):

  • Added: Better network error handling.

source: oxyron.de