Cartograph is a native Commodore 64 application created for designing tile-based maps/levels.

This versatile tool allows you to create maps and levels for your games, matrices and data for demos and tools and much more.

Changelog:

• New: Support for CartographPC filetypes.
• New: Sample source code to display full screen map.
• New: Save character set as part of project file if a custom one is in use.
• Fixed: Color table was saving 4 extra bytes, these have been trimmed off.

source: arkanixlab.com c64dev.com

from 1541 Ultimate homepage:

February is already drawing to the end, so some news about the 1541U-II is needed here. The good news is: the boards have been produced, and the first few have been tested and are working! They are currently back at the assembly house for a missing connector, but I am expecting them back early this week.

The not-so-good news is, that the plastic cases have more delay. The Chinese company sometimes makes some promises that they are breaking afterwards. Yesterday I received a message that the new samples will be shipped on the 10th of March, while they had previously promised to send 100 cases upfront on Feb 25. I pressed them to send at least 100 pieces on, or before that date.

The good news about the cases is, that they will be black and not cream! I noticed that a lot of you have a strong preference for black. They will be produced using the PA material, enforced with glass fiber. :-)

source: 1541ultimate.net

from 1541 Ultimate homepage:

Finally, you might think! An update on the 1541U-II… As time is going fast, the moment that all the hardware parts for the 1541U-II will be ready is drawing near. It all was not too easy, but things are going now the way they should.

The major difficulty showed to be the plastic case. Finally I have found a contractor who is willing to make the plastic case exactly as I wanted it, for a reasonable price. Unfortunately, the mould for plastic injection is quite expensive; in fact about double of what I expected initially, based on an unrealistic quote that I got a few months ago. Because of the large interest in the 1541U-II, I decided to just continue with it, and leave the selling price of the total product intact.

Earlier this week, I received the first pictures of the first try-outs of the injection mould tool. The result shows a little problem in the design, with the planned material (ABS). Due to the thick and sturdy plastic constuction on the inside, sink marks are visible on the outside.

The manufacturer has tried to run the case with a different material (PA), which looks a lot better. However, due to different shrinkage characteristics, the mould tool needs to be adapted to adjust for the difference in material. (You can see this, that the matte version does not close perfectly…) They will do this, but it will take one week extra before the cases are ready. The final color won’t be black (unless I am getting a lot of angry E-mails now.. ;-), but light cream color, to match the C64C better.

Read more…

After many years, Resource release a new version of Project One (Converter and Paint program).

source: resource.cx noname.c64.org

This is a program that can playback sid files from the HVSC collection on a real c64.

SIDPLAY 64 v.06 beta (01/01/2010):

• Corrected all text output, when loading sid files from pc dir, and when loading files over netdrive. No strange signs on screen now. ( ? )
• Fixed to “Work” with Netdrive, but there is a but: all sid files extensions must end with “.prg” For instance “shape.sid” will only work if renamed to “shape.prg” or “shape.sid.prg” Netdrive only supports files with the .prg extension. Filenames must be equal or less than 16 letters (do not count file extension)
• Fixed the bug with Retro Replay. According to Countzer0 it is indeed a bug that shouldnt be there.
• Files with not enough relocation pages for siplay64 and with a built in play mode (see sid files with $0000 as play call) will now be loaded and started. Examples here are Pollytracker songs which use all memory. Other files where relocation pages doesnt leave enough memory will still give you the “out of memory error” message.
• Speeded up the keyboard scanner. You can select things faster now.
• Added a display number for number of files in dir.

source: noname.c64.org

This is a Rob Hubbard’s Demo by Crypt, one of My Favorite Musicians.

source: noname.c64.org

from 1541 Ultimate homepage:

It is about time to release some news about the 1541U-II. I think some of you must be really curious about the extra features and possibilities that the 1541U-II give, and about the progress on production and firmware. To start off with the 1541U-II features, I can tell you that it differs from the ‘standard’ 1541U Plus/Ethernet that:

• the board itself is about 30% smaller than the 1541U;
• it has a MicroSD connector, instead of a full-size SD;
• it has a real-time-clock function, for correct file time and date;
• it has a larger FPGA, which enables the implementation of more features;
• it has a USB Host port, which can be used to connect USB-sticks;
• it is targeted to have a suitable case for the device.

Some of you have written in the forums, that the MicroSD connector is not much of an improvement. But the rationale behind going to MicroSD is mainly the available space on the board is less, and that with the addition of a USB-A port, the average user will use the usb-stick rather than the SD-card.

So the MicroSD-card does not need to be removed from the cartridge very often. However, because at the moment that I announced the 1541U-II, the USB port was not yet tested, I could not reveal this feature as I did not want to make promises that I can’t keep.

The USB turns out to be quite a bit of work to get it to work, but I can now announce that I managed to implement enough of a host-controller function to be able to talk to USB devices and send the most basic commands to access a mass-storage device. I am quite close to have implemented the ‘read-block’ and ‘write-block’ functions, which is the interface level that the file system module uses. In other words, I expect to be able to access the (FAT) file-system on the USB stick quite soon!

How will it work for the user? My objective is to have one ‘directory’ level above the current root of the SD-card, where you can select which partition you want to browse. There the USB flash drive becomes visible, as well as the MicroSD card, if present.

source: 1541ultimate.net

Keyboard Twister by Shadowolf is an ATtiny45-based hardware solution to fix some issues in the DTV’s keyboard emulation.

A user “abraXxl” on forum64.de has introduced some fix and enhancement of this cool project.

source: forum64.de (only German language)

It’s in German Language but with English subs.

source: circuit-board.de

This is a new cool DTV Demo released at the Mainparty 4 in Arles, France last weekend.

source: mainparty.net noname.c64.org

Loriano has made a video about his 1541U case.

source: logan-5.co.uk 1541ultimate.net

Most of the compo stuff is now up in the archive. You can also find some photos there.

source: lcp.c64.org

from 1541 Ultimate homepage:

Some of you might have noticed that the order form has been temporarily closed, and many questions and rumours have been going around about the future of the 1541 Ultimate. The reason behind all this, is that behind the screens I have been working on a successor of the “1541 Ultimate”. How this unit will be called has not yet been determined, but it could be something as simple as “1541 Ultimate II” or “Ultimate Cartridge”.

What is it, and why was it designed? Basically, it is a scaled down version of the 1541U. It will provide similar functionality, although some things have been changed. It will no longer support full-size SD-cards, but only MircoSD, or “Transflash”. Also, Ethernet will not be supported until further notice. It will support tape emulation out of the box (without the need for special FPGA images) and it will provide a real-time clock function with battery back up. Audio output has been significantly improved, which might seem useless for just the drive sounds, but this enables the creation of FPGA images that provide additional sound channels of useful quality. The power consumption has been reduced as well. There is one extra cool feature that will not yet be disclosed ;-)

And last but not least… This unit will come with a case! At least, that is the plan; there are some negociations going on with manufacturers for plastic insertion moulding. It seems feasible to have this done, although it’s pricy for low quantities. A prototype is 3D-printed this week; the prototype board is already there and functional.

source: 1541ultimate.net

from ArduinoNut Blog:

A little vulgar I know, but it’s an adequate expression of how I’m feeling right now. The SD2IEC is working beautifully.

Up to this point it was suffering from some syndrome resulting in erratic behaviour at best to a more normal position of outright refusal to work. I could make things work sometimes by shimmying wires around, so this seemed to be the obvious first move.

I stripped all the long wires away and remade the connections. It’s often easier to see where a wire should be routed second time around…

source: arduinonut.blogspot.com

Loriano’s 1541 Ultimate Case:

Click here to see the final pictures of the new add-on for cartridge mode operation of the 1541 Ultimate Case. For order please email Loriano directly.

source: logan-5.co.uk 1541ultimate.net