HermIRES it’s a cross-platform hires bitmap (Art Studio 1 format) editor for the Commodore 64.

The format has some restrictions, here are the rules:

• The maximal resolution of the picture is 320×200
• Only 16 fix C64 colours can be used (no gradient either)
• In a 8×8 pixel-block only 2 colours can used to be displayable by C64 (this is detected in HermIRES, but .hbm files can be saved with clashes too.)
• On a real C64 the PAL will blur the screen-content a bit, should check on CRT, or at least VICE emulator’s CRT simulation.

Changelog:

Added:

• Color swapping fast-button – Tilde “`” button (BitBreaker’s idea)
• Show pen-diameter preview circle if diameter is bigger than the default
• *dense (pixel-scale) grid toggleable (in bigger magnifications too).
• *added ‘Deny painting’,'Reuse existing colour’ and ‘Set block colour’ mode to ClashTest – different settings on/off in case clash would happen…
• *showing zoomed area in the preview, allow going to area in zoomed mode when left-clicking on preview
• Showing ongoing progresses by text/graphics (loading/converting/drawing…)
• Selectable CRT emulation for Preview/Grid only… (for faster operation on slow machines)
• Undo step number displayed (should undo history also be saved?)

Fixed:

• Control/shift/alt stucked in Win7 with allegro devpak 4.2… -> using allegro devpak 4.4.2 version instead!
• Reduced overall CPU usage – refined timed and pixelling/detection events
• iI Windows it was slow (especially in CRT emulation) -> wrote optimized software CRT-emul.pixelling for GridDrawer, not relying on hw-acceleration
• *pressing F1..F4 fucked up (enlightens) toolbar sometimes – solution: timing stabilizer / thread safety check solved it
• Preview-zoom title-text was overwritten by Grid-Zoom-text in the smallest resolution mode with 2-digit magnifications
• *there was ‘allegro error #11′ and ‘segmentation fault’ at lower than required resolution – it was logical mistake in resolution-decider loop
• Made dithered and big-pendiameter filled rectangle/circle drawing faster (set the steps according to pen-diameter)
• *allegro filename-extension detection was wrong – if ‘.’ used in filename and no extension given, only the name before was saved to disk! -> used ustrcmp & strcat instead
• *C64-executable format name-tag (caption) now editable (deleting it disables it)

Download:

• HermIRES v1.25 (Linux) (894)
• HermIRES v1.25 (Windows) (1021)

source: hermit.netne.net

Some new games (Cracked / Trained or Unrealeased) for Commodore 64 have been released from your favorites groups: Avatar, Onslaught, Bad Taste, uppercase Software and Excess.

Download:

• S-Blox v1.0 (880)
• Octron (957)
• KAH - Kill All Humans (917)
• Heng - HiRes Engine (906)
• Sigma Wing Preview (909)
• Helikopter Jagd + (966)
• Super Mario Bros Preview (976)
• All Games in One Archive (2341)

source: csdb.dk

NAV, is a new file browser for the C64. NAV can use a mouse in Port 1, joystick in Port 2, or the keyboard. NAV can work with up to five drives and has been tested with the following drive types:

1541, 1571, 1581, uIEC, IDE64

Browsing through directories and disks is just point and click! Drives like the uIEC that can store gigabytes of software can be tedious and frustrating to navigate. NAV lets you easily work with D64/D71/D81/DNP/M2I disk images as well as “real” Commodore disks and the IDE64. Up to five drives at a time!

Just click a drive to browse it!Pressing the “@” key brings up a command line that acts just like the good ol’ DOS Wedge. In addition, there are a few additional commands that can be entered on the command line. Just type “@HELP” to get the complete list.

Download: NAV (D64) (952)

source: commodoreserver.com

Have been replaced 4 tantalum capacitors short-circuited with 4 electrolytic capacitors. The computer has been tested and works perfectly.

This is a calendar in PDF format made by Marcin Dworaczek (a.k.a. mOOnie / MSB) for the new, 2013 year.

All the graphics were presented on the latest SV2k12 edition, and come from the following authors: Piesiu, Ripek, Rocky, Ooz, Ukko, Templeton, Odyn1ec and Bracket.

Download: SillyVenture 2013 calendar (1340)

source: sillyventure.eu

Altirra is an Atari 8 bit Emulator on the Windows/DOS platform. Altirra emulates several models of the 8-bit Atari computers. This includes the the 800, 800XL, and 130XE versions.

It has a lot of options, and compatibility is decent especially given the emulator’s early stages. It also supports some copy protected games properly in emulation.

Download: Altirra v2.20 (892)

source: virtualdub.org

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

Download:

• Tone-Loco + 100% [pal/ntsc] (1103)
• SRogue v1.0 &D (905)
• Tone-Loco (903)
• Gorf [max machine] +2D (935)
• Blok Copy PETSCII Edition +3H (936)
• Computer TitleBout +D [ntsc/pal] (926)
• S-Blox (Beta 2) (923)
• All Games in One Archive (2291)

source: csdb.dk

After 3+ years of suffering and curses, some days ago i have leave one of the worst (cheap) shared web hosting on the net.

I’m talking about Dreamhost.

The site Nightfallcrew.com / Retrocomputermania.com / Retrothings.org now runs on a dedicated server virtualized with Proxmox (KVM).

HermIRES it’s a cross-platform hires bitmap (Art Studio 1 format) editor for the Commodore 64.

The format has some restrictions, here are the rules:

• The maximal resolution of the picture is 320×200
• Only 16 fix C64 colours can be used (no gradient either)
• In a 8×8 pixel-block only 2 colours can used to be displayable by C64 (this is detected in HermIRES, but .hbm files can be saved with clashes too.)
• On a real C64 the PAL will blur the screen-content a bit, should check on CRT, or at least VICE emulator’s CRT simulation.

Download:

• HermIRES v1.2 (WINDOWS) (885)
• HermIRES v1.2 (LINUX) (824)

source: hermit.netne.net

Commodore Free Magazine Issue #66

Free to download Commodore magazine dedicated to Commodore Computers.

Download:

• Commodore Free Magazine Issue #66 (D64) (958)
• Commodore Free Magazine Issue #66 (PDF) (1207)
• Commodore Free Magazine Issue #66 (TXT) (1286)

source: commodorefree.com

Hoxs64 written by David Horrocks is a Commodore 64 emulator for Microsoft Windows 2K/XP/Vista/Seven (DirectX 9+)

The emulator substantially reproduces this legacy machine in minute detail.

Changelog:

• Bug fix to VIC. Removed faulty VIC ClockNextWakeUpClock runtime (not debugger) mode optimiser code that had caused the Technological Snow demo by Agony Design to fail since v1.0.6.3.
• EasyFlash v2 title screen glitch now fixed by correcting the “hard reset” code to set the sprite Y expansion flip-flops.

Download:

• Hoxs64 64 bit v1.0.8.3 (847)
• Hoxs64 32 bit v1.0.8.3 (799)
• Hoxs64 Ansi Win98/2K v1.0.8.3 (810)

source: hoxs64.net

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 v1.05 (1230)

source: csdb.dk

Scene World is a C64 magazine on disk dedicated to various activities of both C64 scenes.

“Both” means, that we are supplying information and texts of both scenes; NTSC and PAL.

Download: Scene World #20 (D64/D81 + Disk Cover) (847)

source: sceneworld.c64files.com

SpartaDOS X (or SpartaDOS 4.0) is a disk operating system for the Atari 8-bit family of computers, that closely resembles MS-DOS. It was developed and sold by ICD, Inc. in 1987-93.

Ten years later SpartaDOS X considered abandonware has been picked up by its enthusiasts, and developed further. These unofficial revisions, incorporating many of the utilities written since 1992, cleaning many identified problems and including numerous improvements, are:

• v4.31 (2005)
• v4.39RC (2006)
• v4.40 (a leaked-out beta, 2006)
• v4.41 (Feb. 2008)
• v4.42 (Dec. 2008)
• v4.43 (Apr.2011)
• v4.44 (Jun.2011)
• v4.45 (Nov.2011)
• v4.46 (Jan.2013)

The new SpartaDOS X 4.46 runs on the following hardware platforms:

• intSDX128
• intSDX128 “flash”
• Maxflash 1Mb
• Maxflash 8Mb (contains MAN on-line help)
• Altirra and Atari800 emulators
• Turbo Freezer 2005 (contains MAN on-line help, use with Freezer ROM only)
• SIC! Cartridge (256k version contains MAN on-line help)
• IDE Plus 2.0 (contains MAN on-line help)
• Ultimate 1MB (contains MAN on-line help)

SDX Toolkit:

• Set of additional programs, drivers and utilities
• Set of SDX command descriptions for MAN utility (excerpts from the User’s Manual).

SDX images for SIDE:

• Customized SDX images with SIDE driver are available at Jonathan Halliday’s website.

Dowload:

• SpartaDOS X v4.46 (1380)
• SpartaDOS X v4.46 (Toolkit) (1265)
• SpartaDOS X v4.46 (Changelog) (1479)

source: sdx.atari8.info wikipedia

This is the 7th edition of the New Years Disc for Atari. In this issue you can find a lots of interesting things to begin a new year with our beloved Atari.

In this issue you can find:

NYD2013 Disc 1 – multidisc.atr:

• Hello 2k13 by PPs
• Frosty animation (Beware it’s mature ware!) by CharlieChaplin
• Fireworks by CreatureXL, 505 and Flash
• Xmas 2012 animation by CharlieChaplin
• Chicks on Chips by JAC!
• Doomsday demo by Inspiration Soft
• Happy 2013 by Sikor, Miker & his wife

NYD2013 Disc 2 – Blowjobb part.atr:

• A bootable disc with a DOS. When it’s ready loaded type in: N* and press RETURN.

NYD2013 Disc 3 – 320k animation.atr:

• A nice animation from miker. You’ll need at least 320k on your machine!

NYD2013 Disc 4 – multidisc.atr:

• Happy New Year animation (Needs at lease 128k!) by miker
• Sprite multiplexer  by playsoft

NYD2013 Disc 5 – ipc viewer.atr:

• After booting you’ll get into a viewer, where you can load ipc pictures. More about the whole thing can be read in the designated readme file. Synthpopalooza did a great job here. Simply press D and you’ll see, what pictures are on this disc to load them.

NYD2013 Disc 6 – ipc pictures.atr:

• Another disc with ipc files on it. Load them with the viewer of disc 5.

NYD2013 Disc 7 – multidisc.atr:

• Rough Rider by XXL & Irrlichtproject
• Dice 2013 by Sikor & Miker
• Rolling Stars by MaPa & PG

Download: New Years Disc 7th edition (2013) (1214)

source: pouet.net