The Siel Midi interface allows the connection of one or more electronic synthesizers to a C64 or a Spectrum.

The interface communicates with the instruments through a standard communication protocol developed expressly for the interconnection of electronic instruments and called MIDI (Musical Instruments Digital Interface).

Produced by the Italian SIEL, manufacturer of popular electronic keyboards in the 80s, this MIDI interface is equipped with appropriate software application that also allows you to compose music, archive the compositions and listen to them again, save and program instrument timbres and other things.

The device is supplied with a special connector enabling immediate connection to the Commodore 64 and Sinclair ZX Spectrum.

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Download: Siel Midi-CMK49 C64 Software (1089)

source: MCmicrocomputer #39 (March 1985)

The Commodore 1520 is a printer/plotter made by Commodore and the printer mechanism made by Alps. The printer has a IEC interface and is a device that draws computer graphics on paper using fiber pens.

The advantage of this device compared to a printer is the good resolution and especially the precision. The second advantage was that these were the first color printers.The main disadvantage is the very low printing speed and that you could not print areas so well with plotters.

Plotters were primarily intended for technical drawings, as the typeface usually looked very scrawly.

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The Commodore 1581 is a 3½-inch double-sided double-density floppy disk drive that was released by Commodore Business Machines (CBM) in 1987, primarily for its C64 and C128 home/personal computers.

The drive stores 800 kilobytes using an MFM encoding but formats different from the MS-DOS (720 kB), Amiga (880 kB), and Mac Plus (800 kB) formats.

With special software it’s possible to read C1581 disks on an x86 PC system, and likewise, read MS-DOS and other formats of disks in the C1581 (using Big Blue Reader), provided that the PC or other floppy handles the “720 kB” size format.

This capability was most frequently used to read MS-DOS disks. The drive was released in the summer of 1987 and quickly became popular with bulletin board system (BBS) operators and other users.

Specifications:

• Onboard CPU: MOS Technology 6502 @ 2 MHz
• RAM: 8 kB
• ROM: 32 kB
• Disk controller: WD1770 or WD1772
• Communications controller: MOS Technology 8520A
• Transfer protocols: Standard and fast serial; burst mode; and commands for parallel interface (the latter not used)
• Disk type: 3.5″ inch
• Storage format: MFM, double density, double-sided
• Interface: CBM’s proprietary serial IEEE-488
• Power: 5 V @ 1 A (5 VA) – 12 V @ 0.5 A (6 VA)

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The Oceanic OC-118N Floppy Drive is a perfect clone of a Commodore 1541/1541-II Floppy Drive.

The strong point of this Floppy Drive is the compatibility, i would say almost total with all the software available for Commodore 64 including obviously fastLoader/original software.

There are two models of OC-118N.

The model with three dip switches and the model with two dip switches.

The difference between one and the other model is essentially the ROM; JIFFYDOS Licensed (three dip switches) / R-DOS -ROX-DOS? (two dip switches).

Between the two models there are also some differences on the mechanical part (see photo) and also seems that on the three dip switches model the front sticker is missing (not confirmed).

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TFW8b C64 Kung Fu Flash Cartridge by Kim Jørgensen.

The Kung Fu Flash is a multi format C64/C128 Cartridge Developed by Kim Jørgensen and assembled by TFW8b.

The use is very simple, just copy your CRT, PRG or Dxx files onto a FAT formatted Micro SD and you are ready to go and also the firmware is upgradable via SD Card.

Built to the usual TFW8b high standards with the obligatory gold edge connector, served in our own injection molded case.

Kung Fu Flash Supported File Formats:

• Cartridge (CRT)
• Disk image (D64, D71, D81)
• Program (PRG, P00)
• Firmware update (UPD)

Kung Fu Flash Supported Cartridges Formats:

• Standard CBM cartridge (8k, 16k, Ultimax)
• Action Replay v4.x/v5/v6
• KCS Power Cartridge
• Final Cartridge III(+)
• Simons’ BASIC
• Fun Play, Power Play
• Ocean type 1
• Epyx Fastload
• C64 Game System (C64GS), System 3
• Dinamic
• Zaxxon, Super Zaxxon
• Magic Desk, Domark, HES Australia
• Super Snapshot v5
• Comal-80
• EasyFlash

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TFW8b C64 Kung Fu Flash Video:

source: KimJorgensen/KungFuFlash thefuturewas8bit.com

Thanks go to my friend Andrea Pierdomenico.

Some Cartridges for Commodore 64.

• Tele-Data 64 by Handic
• Cherry by Fruit Hardware System
• Isepic (Clone)
• Antiram by S.C.T. 1987 (Freeze Frame Clone)
• Bandit (The Expert Clone)
• Sykline S.A. by KAWA (Industria Argentina)
• Niki II by O.M.Alfred
• Unknown Cartridge (The Final Cartridge I Clone)
• Hypra Disk II by Rex (9615)
• 5531A1 by Koks Gesto BV Computers

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The VIC20 – Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros.

Advice for “not” purchases. Compulsive shopping syndrome without a shred of a brain.

Before leaving you to the usual and boring description of the product which, among other things, was taken from Wikipedia, i add my opinion;

Among the many uneasy things to use that i own, the Commodore A570 is in the top 10 ranking. :-D

The Amiga A570 is a single-speed external CD-ROM drive for the Amiga 500 computer launched by Commodore in 1992. It was designed to be compatible with Commodore CDTV software as well as being able to read ordinary ISO 9660 CD-ROM discs.

The original designation was A690, and pre-production devices under this name were delivered to developers. The A690/A570 used a proprietary Mitsumi CD-ROM interface. It contained a header for an internal 2 Megabyte fast memory expansion, but this proprietary memory module was never put into production and only a few rare developer examples of this exist today.

It is also notable that by the time of the A570′s launch, the A500 computer had already been discontinued. The Amiga 600 (ostensibly the A500′s direct replacement) was, like the later A1200, incompatible with this external drive. Thus, Commodore were in the position of having launched a CD-ROM drive for a discontinued machine, while a similar device was unavailable for their current low-end Amiga. This move by Commodore marketing department could be justified by the fact that millions of A500 systems existed already, along with considerable demand for Commodore to release a more advanced data storage solution.

The device (like the Amiga A590 hard disk drive that was sold by Commodore for the A500) had no through connector, so it was not possible to connect both an A590 and an A570 to the computer at the same time. The A590, despite having an XT IDE hard disk, also carried a SCSI interface that allowed third-party hard disks and CD-ROM drives to be fitted. While these drives did not carry CDTV emulation, the lack of success of the CDTV format made this a null disadvantage for most users.

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CompuThink Disk Drive 800k + Interface (DD DSK CTL P2) + DiskMON ROM seems to be the FIRST EVER disk drive for the Commodore PET Computers ever made in 1979 in the United States, maybe even before the official CBM 2040 drive launched.

I have also a partially working  “clone” or “prototype” (see photo) of this Disk Drive interface that i have posted on the blog some years ago.

As far as i could understand this interface works only with BASIC 1.0 and BASIC 2.0 because the DiskMON ROM has the starting address $B000 (SYS 45056).

My PET 2001-32 have the ROM of BASIC 4.0 and the UD5 socket where the DiskMON ROM is installed is already used by one of the BASIC 4.0 ROMs, to test the i had to program the EPROMs with BASIC 2.0. (see photo)

Also before testing the interface i had to replace almost all the tantalum capacitors because many were short-circuited.

Capacitors replaced:

• 6 x 10uF/25v
• 1 x 1.5uF/50v
• 2 x 1uF/35v

Below a video and some photos documenting the full working operation.

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Download:

• CompuThink Interface Docs & Roms (567)
• CBM PET Basic2 FULL SET (542)
• CompuThink Interface Internet Photo (562)
• Printout Magazine (First Issue 1979) for PET Users (569)
• CompuThink Interface FULL Docs & Roms by DukeFawks (638)

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The VIC-Switch allows up to 8 Commodore computers to connect to a single disk drive, printers, plotters etc.

The VIC-Switch keeps track of who is currently using the device and prevents access to all other computers who might be requesting it at the same time.
Once the first computer is done using it, the VIC-Switch will then give access to the next computer.

The peripheral was made in Sweden by Handic and some models carry the Commodore logo but it doesn’t look very Commodore style
and for that reason i think they were branded by Commodore but not manufactured Commodore .

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Download: Commodore VIC-Switch by Handic Manual (661)

The restoration of the Sorcerer II of the Compudata (Exidy) was very simple, it was enough to replace all the tantalum capacitors with electrolytics one and make a good cleaning.

I tried the Sorcerer with the software downloadable at this link and to do a better understand the idea of the long loading (average 7 minutes) i have recorded the WAV file of the tape format on a Tape Cassette and used an old recorder to load the software, everything worked perfectly on the first try.

from Wikipedia;

The Sorcerer is a home computer system released in 1978 by the video game company Exidy.

It was comparatively advanced when released, especially when compared to the contemporary more commercially successful Commodore PET and TRS-80, but due to company focus on the coin operated video game marketplace resources were restricted for personal computer expansion and a separate division of the company was created.

Exidy Data Systems was headed by Paul Terrell to expand the product line to include small business computing with international distribution and technology license agreements to supplement corporate funding.

Distribution agreements with Dick Smith Electronics in Australia and Liveport in the UK as well as Compudata which included a manufacturing license to build, market and distribute the Tulip line of computers in Europe. Exidy sold the PC division to a Wall Street firm, Biotech, in 1983.

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I’m here with yet another useless purchase (order dating back to 2019).

There is absolutely nothing to say, all the “mini” are practically identical, change the external box, the menu and some chips inside that for the occasion are the latest version (more or less).

Strangely i have tried the “thing” … usually i don’t do that.

I used an HDMI to Composite Video converter to try it with a CRT monitor.

source: konami.com/games/pcemini/gate

First of all i have to thank Ralf Schmitz for this gift. (Grazie Ralf).

The Commodore 1084S-D2, which was originally developed for the Commodore CDTV is a very good colour monitor also for the Commodore 64.

With its many ports it can be used for connecting anything you want (S-Video / RGB / Composite)

The Commodore 1084S-D2 has a good, sharp picture with luscious colours and a also a nice Stereo Sound. All the important settings can be changed over regulators at the front or the back.

For testing i have used the U64 by Gideon with the RGB output.

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Leedex Video 100 is  a 12 inch Monitor in Black & White, produced in the early 80′s was sold at a competitive price.

The monitor is 40 years old and not show any problem as you can seen from the photos.

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I took advantage of the cleaning of one of my Drean Commodore 64C to try the Cute 32 (CBM Universal Tape Emulator) also with this version of the C64, i have nothing else to say except that it works perfectly.

The output video is in black and white because the DREAN is made in Argentina and uses the PAL-N standard.

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