Ikari has released a new firmware for the SD2Snes Flash Cartridge (Super Nintendo/Famicom). The upgrade instructions can be found here.

Changelog:

• SuperFX support by RedGuy! This is the duck’s guts. What an accomplishment. Big thanks to RedGuy!
• EXPERIMENTAL brightness patching for S-CPUN based consoles (1CHIP/Jr). The patching is comprised of two parts:
  • 1CHIP transient fix – tries to alleviate some graphical issues with 1CHIP consoles where it reacts unfavorably to sudden changes to the brightness register. This fixes the shadow in Air Strike Patrol, warped scanlines in Rudra’s Treasure, and faded scanlines at the top of the screen on certain Capcom games when the console is equipped with a de-ghosting fix involving the replacement of the C11 capacitor.
  • Brightness limit – can be used to limit brightness on consoles where the stock RGB levels are too high.

• NOTE: There are known problems with games that use DMA to set the brightness register. Notably Star Fox and some MSU1 video players. You should disable it if you intend to play those. For now I’m releasing it as is because I still think it can be useful (and I’ll be gone for two weeks and didn’t want to delay this release any further :-D)
• Added ExLoROM support (LoROM > 32Mbits)
• The In-game hook is now disabled by default.
• Touched up the menu a bit – dependent settings are printed in grey if the higher-level setting is disabled
• Changed the version numbering by eliminating the eternal leading zero. The last digit can now be used for small revisions or fixes.

Some minor fixes are still outstanding which I will address in a couple of weeks after I have returned from vacation.

Download:

• SD2Snes Firmware v1.8.0 (1042)

source: sd2snes.de

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):

• 473 new SIDs
• 811 fixed/better rips
• 8 repeats/bad rips eliminated
• 1176 SID credit fixes
• 36 SID model/clock infos
• 7 tunes from /DEMOS/UNKNOWN/ identified
• 5 tunes from /GAMES/ identified
• 17 tunes moved out of /DEMOS/ to their composers’ directories
• 5 tunes moved out of /GAMES/ to their composers’ directories

Download:

• HVSC Update #69 (995)
• Complete HVSC #69 (1005)

source: www.hvsc.c64.org

This is the official demo party results from Silesia Party 9. See also the Silesia Party homepage for more informations.

C64 Music:

• 1 – Red Herring Caught Red Handed by Jammer
• 2 – Muffin by MotionRide
• 3 – Pañuelos Verdes by Los Pat Moritas
• 4 – This is it by Vaz

C64 Graphics:

• 1 – Vulture by Pardon
• 2 – Pirates Gold by Fabs
• 3 – Herbatka u doktora Paj-Chi-Wo by Bimber
• 4 – Till Death do us Part by Data

Mixed Demo:

• 1 – Central Park (2xSID) by Samar Productions
• 2 – Arok 20 Invitation by Singular

Productions released outside compos:

• C64img 3.1 by Elysium (Other Platform Tool)

Download: Silesia Party 9 full Party stuff (777)

source: csdb.dk silesia-party.pl

Jean-François DEL NERO (who’s behind the HxC SD Floppy Emulator) recently has released a version of the HxC emulator firmware that is compatible with the STM32 chip used in the Gotek floppy emulators.

This means that the great functionality of the HxC SD emulator is now available on cheaper and more widely available hardware.

The bootloader to convert the Gotek floppy drive in HxC compatible must be purchased on the website HXC 2001 by sending an email to Jean-François DEL NERO. The price of the bootloader is one-off 10 Euro per Gotek that you want to update. Future updates of the software are free and can be made from a USB stick

The HXC Usb (Gotek) firmware supports: + many more….

USB Stick STM32 (Gotek) HxC Floppy Emulator Firmware v3.1.22.1a -> v3.1.25.1a cumulative changelog:

• TI99/4A : V9T9/DSK Loader -> Better disk layout detection.
• OLED screen setting sanity check: Do not allow more than 21 characters per line.
• 2 Digits screen Gotek: Fix embedded config menu.
• HFE files: Fix MPC60 MkII formatted images write support regression. May also fix possible write issues on HFE files with some others machines/disk formats. Update recommended.
• 7 segments Gotek: New menu entry : 5 -> Auto select delay setting.
• Floppy Interface initialized before the screen. (Fix Emu Emulator second drive detection issue).
• Amiga ID support enabled by default (HD ADF support).
• Internal improvements.
• “Double steps per increment” rotary support added.
• New menu entries: Head settling time. (7 digits gotek meny entry number 6). Rotary type. (7 digits gotek menu entry number 7 – 0=Single Step, 1=Double Step, 3=Disable.).

This is only a little part of the changelog. The original one is very long and you can read it here. (instruction manual here)

Download: USB Stick STM32 (Gotek) HxC Firmware v3.1.25.1a (1002)

source: hxc2001.com

NEW TAG: C64 BIG GAME PACK

Some new games or tools (Cracked / Trained or Unrealeased) for Commodore 64 have been released from your favorites groups.

Titles:

• Autoturbo 40 Tracks
• Rainbow Island [easyflash]
• Indiana Jones 4 [easyflash]
• Electric Warrior [seuck]
• Flappy Typing +2D
• R-Type +9DMHI
• Indiana Jones 4
• Gauntlet 3 [easyflash]
• Strike Fleet [1581,fd2000,cmd-hd]
• Saint Dragon [easyflash]
• Galaxy Force 2 [easyflash]
• Hibernated 1: This Place is Death +D
• Find Exit Preview +2
• Find Exit Preview
• Hyperzap 2018
• Ninja Spirit +3 [easyflash]
• Hyperzap 2018 +
• Hyperzap 2018 +2
• No Mercy +3 [easyflash]
• Sly Spy Agent [easyflash]
• Hyperzap 2018 +2
• The Last Ninja Quadrilogy [easyflash]
• Moon Madness – Episode II +1H
• Rubicon +4DGHF [easyflash]
• North & South [easyflash]
• Iron Lord [easyflash]
• Centurio +3H
• Iron Lord [easyflash]
• The Great American Cross-Country Road Race +6D
• Labyrinth 100% [1581]
• Turrican +6 & Turrican II +6 [easyflash]
• UN Squadron +2 [easyflash]
• Missile Blasta (Remastered Edition) +
• Con-Quest +1PD
• Master of the Lamps USA +2D
• Laura64 Preview
• Patton vs Rommel [1581]
• PHM Pegasus [1581]
• Zack [easyflash]
• Bintris
• Usagi Yojimbo USA +1PD
• Red Storm Rising [easyflash]
• Usagi Yojimbo USA +1PD
• BinTris +FD
• BinTris +3
• Aquaplane +4DH
• Tinka’s Maze +1D
• Tacky
• Tacky Basic
• Dodge
• Vector Runner
• Spikes
• Vector Runner +1D
• Dodge +1D
• Tacky +2D
• Spikes +1D
• Vector Runner +
• Thunderblade + [easyflash]
• Mazinger Z Preview +2D
• Fred’s Back 2 [1581]
• Red Storm Rising [1581]
• Sky Diving +1H
• Sky Diving
• Fred’s Back 4 [1581]
• Fred’s Back 3 [1581]
• Holiday Games
• Cyborg C*Base +8
• Crossfire Canyon +D
• Fred’s Pentalogy [easyflash]
• The Mask of the Sun [german] [easyflash]
• Rogue Ninja +2
• Beechings Golf & Country Club
• SAFTS – Spin All Four Table Soccer (Compo)
• SAFTS – Spin All Four Table Soccer +D
• Downhill Challenge
• Kung Fu Pixel
• Dangerous Sports Deadly Sports
• BasicBall
• Beechings Golf & Country Club
• Downhill Challenge +2D
• Moon Over Afghanistan [seuck]
• Rogue Ninja V1.1
• Beechings Golf & Country Club +D
• Hellbound Preview
• Schlimeisch Mania II
• Kung Fu Pixel +3D

Download: All Games in One Archive (6163)

source: csdb.dk

Vampire A600 V2 – Video Flickering with Black Screen Fix

According to Gunnar on the Apollo Forum a way to fix the video flickering with black screen that afflicts some installations is soldering two capacitors of 22uf 16v on top of C3 and C6 of the Vampire A600 V2.

Seems to work properly for now.

Gallery:

This software act as the floppy server with the USB HxC Floppy Emulator.

This program also allows you to convert floppy image files for the SDCard based HxC Floppy Emulator.

Supports many input floppy image file formats: List of the supported floppy image formats.

Operating systems supported:

• Windows 98 / 2000 / XP / Vista / Seven / 10
• Mac OS X.
• Linux.

HxCFloppyEmulator software v2.1.9.0 -> v2.1.11.1 cumulative changelog:

• Hard-sectored H8D Heathkit raw file Loader & Writer added !
• Kryoflux Stream Loader (*XX.X.raw) & Stream analyzer : Hard-sectored images support and various fixes !
• Kryoflux Stream Loader (*XX.X.raw) : bmpexport.txt config file to generate the full stream track graph.
• NSI Northstar raw file Loader & Writer added !
• Kryoflux Stream Loader (*XX.X.raw) : Another fix for the index position !
• Kryoflux Stream Loader (*XX.X.raw) : filter.txt config file to adjust the internal bitrate filter.
• Flux Stream Analyzer : Internal filter can now be set.
• ADF Writer : Amiga ADF HD file (22 Sectors/track) support added.
• Kryoflux Stream Loader (*XX.X.raw) : Loader & writer index position fixed.
• Acorn BBC file format loader (*.ADL/ADM/ADF) fixed.
• New XML format definitions :  Acorn ADFS (160K). Acorn ADFM (320K). Acorn ADFL (640K). Dynacord Add-one.
• Stream importer : More debug/error messages, unconventional index period support.

Download: HxCFloppyEmulator software v2.1.11.1 (888)

source: hxc2001.com

I tried the SwinSID Ultimate (SID 6581/8580 Replacement) by CodeKiller & Hermit and the base work by Swinkels with a Commodore 64 and the Ultimate-64 by Gideon and i must say that it works well without any problem.

The sound and the feel is good and knowing many SID tunes i did some comparisons, i can only say that these two Hungarian guys have done a Great job.

Forget immediatly how sounded the old Swinsid.

Some information taken from the SwinSID Ultimate site:

A duo from Hungary, Máté “CodeKiller” Sebők and Mihály “Hermit” Horváth have been working on improving SwinSID, originally developed by Swinkels.

List of improvements:

It has full feature compatibility with the original SID (over the old SwinSID):

• paddle/mouse support.
• readable registers (OSC3/ENV3)
• external audio in.
• bitfade.
• proper ADSR-bug support.
• fast ADSR attack rate (thanks to the self-correcting rate-counter)
• ‘Lazy Jones’ and ‘180’ -like gate and test-bit workaround (no missing note)
• proper 23bit noise-waveform calculation –> better “random” numbers.
• full 3V p-p output range w/o 1KOhm load (same as 8580)
• improved filter quality (16bit) and resonance-table for both SID model.
• improved waveform calculation (full 16 bit)
• high resolution combined waveform-tables.

It has enhancements over the original SID:

• clean anti-aliased bandlimited sound at high pitches.
• undistorted mixed digi tunes and eliminated volume-change click thanks to AC/DC separation of master volume register.
• Softconfig — software configurable options for a number of aspects of the operation.
• LEDs which intensity represents the active channels volume.
• LED displaying the active (classic) digi playback.
• or in case of the new Mahoney-digi, the entire array acts like a VU-meter.

Software configuration options:

• change between 8580/6581 behaviour (filter, ADSR, combined waveforms)
• change between PAL/NTSC pitch.
• enable/disable external audio input (less external noise)
• if enabled, then CAN be enabled to sample trough OSC3 register.
• enable/disable startup “ding”(beep)
• upload 3 banks of 256 bytes custom waveforms.
• “transparent” mute for channels — does not affect the sync, OSC3/ENV3,..

Gallery:

Download:

• SwinSID Ultimate Configurator by Schema (1636)
• SwinSID Ultimate Users Manual (1771)

SwinSID Ultimate Video:

Some retro-Trash things received from a friend. Thanks Gerben.

Below the list.

• Philips Computer Monitor 80 (Amber phosphors).
• Commodore Music Maker.
• Philips MSX Data Recorder
• Easy Bob Model 745 – RS232 Serial Analyzer/Tester.
• Data Switch.
• Taxas Instruments T-83.
• 4-to-1 Parallel Auto Switch.
• Zanussi Ping-O-Tronic (MOD. PP 7)
• Lego USB 4 Ports HUB.
• General Electric IFM Interface Module for C64/Atari.
• Some Serial/Parallel/MSX cables and adapters.
• Joystick.
• External CD-ROM.
• Mouse Pad.
• Some Serial/Parallel/MSX cables and adapters.

I decided to clean and fix my Commodore Amiga 500, it’s him, the one you can see in my old photos.

As you can see the switches and buttons are remained in place while the stickers has been removed many years ago.

The Commodore Amiga 500 has always been kept in a box, in fact it has the original color of the case and the keyboard.

The photos below are before cleaning, after cleaning and vintage photos.

Gallery:

Commodore Amiga 1200 Full Recap & Cleaning Floppy Drive.

Gallery:

Firmware upgrades for THEC64 Mini provide new features and/or correct any technical issues.

We always recommend that you use the latest version of the firmware.

Version 1.0.8 – Changes:

• Includes firmware optimisations and improvements to THEC64 input response times.

Download: TheC64 Mini Firmware v1.0.8 (1201)

source: thec64.com

Pi1541 is a real-time, cycle exact, Commodore 1541 disk drive emulator that can run on a Raspberry Pi 3B (or 3B+). The software is free and I have endeavored to make the hardware as simple and inexpensive as possible.

Pi1541 provides you with an SD card solution for using D64, G64, NIB and NBZ Commodore disk images on real Commodore 8 bit computers such as:

• Commodore 64
• Commodore 128
• Commodore Vic20
• Commodore 16
• Commodore Plus4

source: cbm-pi1541.firebaseapp.com

I start immediately to say; Floppy Drive, Metal base with the Transformer are ended up in the trash, are unrecoverable (see photo).

What i did is carefully clean the external case of the Floppy Drive which i am quite satisfied of the result.

Then i have started to repair and carefully clean the motherboard of the Floppy Drive (REV 1540050) that had the following problems (see photo):

• I had to use the sockets for all the integrated circuits, because the rust had crept under all the integrated circuits, creating many problems.
• Remove the voltage regulators and clean the rust that was under the heatsink.
• Clean and try all integrated circuits after removing them.
• Clean the PCB.
• Replaced 2 x 6522 (VIA) that is not working.
• Replaced 1 x 6502 (CPU) that is not working.
• Replaced 1 x HM6116P (STATIC RAM) that is not working.
• Replaced 2 x Resistors of 9.1k 1% interrupted.
• Replaced for safety also 1 x Resistor of 91ohm 1%.
• Moved the ceramic capacitor (FIX by Commodore) to the solder side, which was fixed above the 74LS86.

What i have used to clean the external Floppy Drive case:

• I have used a plenty of running water by rubbing with a brush to remove everything you could do without using specific products.
• I have used CIF GEL with bleach that i left to act for 30 minutes.
• I have rinse thoroughly with water, always rubbing with the brush and with a stanley plastic spatulas
• I repeated these last two phase for least 3 times.

• I have used CIF Degreaser with Bicarbonate that i left to act for 10 minutes.
• With a Brush / Toothbrush / Toothpicks / Cotton Fioc / Stanley plastic spatulas o have rubbed and cleaned the most dirty and hidden parts.
• I have rinse thoroughly with water, always rubbing with a brush.
• I repeated these last three phases for least 4 times.

• I have completed the cleaning with the Glassex and Alcohol.

I have used a Floppy Drive mechanics and a transformer that i have found in the laboratory that i have installed in the Floppy Drive VC-1541 case.

Restoration and Repair Gallery:

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Differences before and after the restoration Gallery:

The images speak for themselves, there is no need to write anything.

The images could irritate your sensitivity. :-P

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