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Linus Åkesson: The Chipophone

January 2nd, 2011 No comments

The Chipophone is a homemade 8-bit synthesizer, especially suited for live chiptune playing. It has been built inside an old electronic organ.

All the original tone-generating parts have been disconnected, and the keys, pedals, knobs and switches rerouted to a microcontroller which transforms them into MIDI signals.

Those are then parsed by a second microcontroller, which acts as a synthesizer.

Here some video examples:

source: linusakesson.net

Categories: Hardware, News & Rumors, Today

CBM-Command v2.0 Beta 2

January 1st, 2011 No comments

CBM-Command is a disk manager for the Commodore 64 / Commodore 128 / Commodore VIC20 and Commodore C16 computers. It is written like Norton Commander or Midnight Commander, but is much simpler due to the target platforms. Both the C128/C64/VIC20/C16 have their own native version of the application.

Release Notes – Version 2.0 Beta 2 – 2011-01-01

Changes:

  • (64, 128, Plus/4) Changed the timing code back to version 1.7 because the clock() function in cc65 does not reflect accurate timing.
  • (VIC, PET) The time(NULL) function is not available on these targets and thus had to be removed.
  • Help Hot-Key Fixed – Now when you press either F1 or H you get the help file (if the CBM-Command disk is in the drive you started CBM-Command from).
  • Updated Help File – the new help file by popmilo has been incorporated into the disk.
  • Directory navigation hot keys fixed.

Known Issues:

  • None – if you have a bug to report, PLEASE do so to the CBM-Command website or mailing list.

source: cbmcommand.codeplex.com

Tiny Eprommer Software for Easyflash

December 31st, 2010 No comments

This is a tiny eprommer software. You need a external interface connected via commodore 64 userport for burn eprom. The programmed chip will be used later with the Easyflash cartridge.

source: noname.c64.org

Some new Games and Utility for Commodore VIC-20

December 29th, 2010 No comments

Some new Games & Utility for Commodore VIC-20.

  • The VIC-20 Bible Series II: Pentateuch – 40 column version and graphics. Browse the first five books of the Old Testament (King James Version) in full 40 column screen. You can select single chapters, and scroll the text with cursor up/down. Take a look at the hi-res cliparts used as “book covers”, to graphic depictions of the main episodes of Graphics, and read about the very first steps of mankind in full 40-column text processing made using Mike’s Minigrafik. Mike also elaborated a text compression / extraction routine to fit the whole Torah in your VIC-20
  • Face Versus Heel. A pro-wrestling simulator where the outcome is determined by a random number generator, but good tactics can maximize your chances.

source: Denial (The Commodore VIC-20 forum)

Sega SC-3000

December 28th, 2010 No comments
Sega SC-3000

Autopsy:

Many thanks to Fabio D. Bovelacci for his donation. This is my second computer (ZX-81 is the first one), i spent a significant portion of my childhood in front of this one.

from old-computers.com homepage:

The SC-3000 is a computer based on the hardware of the first videogame systems released by Sega in Japan : the SG-1000 series. It can use the same game cartridges marketed for these consoles.

The SC3000 can’t be used without a ROM cartridge, which can be either a game or language. There were three different BASIC cartridges. One came with only 1Kb of RAM (and you had only 512 bytes free !), the second with 16Kb and the last with 32Kb. In official adverts, they show a total RAM of 48Kb. This was counting the VRAM and the 32Kb BASIC cartridge…

Several great games were adapted by Sega for this computer. Several graphic characteristics of the SC-3000 are fairly close to MSX ones. For example, it was one of the first computers to offer 32 sprites. Some months later, Sega released the SC-3000 H which was the same system but with a mechanical keyboard.

This computer was also marketed by Yeno under the same name (Yeno SC 3000 & SC 3000H). It was exactly the same computer except for the Yeno brand…

source: old-computers.com sc-3000.com

Project-M v2.0 (PAL/NTSC) for Atari 8Bit XE-XL

December 27th, 2010 No comments

“NRV” from Chile has started a new project on Atari 8bit machines called “Project M”.

This is basically a clone of very well popular Wolfenstein 3D PC game. This update of Project M v2 contains improvements and several bugs

source: atariage.com youtube.com

Categories: Atari, News & Rumors, Today

High Voltage SID Collection Update #54

December 26th, 2010 No comments

After this update, the collection should contain 39,626 SID files!

Thanks to all the people who have helped to make HVSC the collection that it is today, without your help it would be a much tougher task.

This update features (all approximates):

  • 933 new SIDs.
  • 217 fixed/better rips.
  • 5 PlaySID/Sidplay1 specific SIDs eliminated.
  • 21 repeats/bad rips eliminated.
  • 561 SID credit fixes.
  • 258 SID model/clock infos.
  • 28 tunes from /DEMOS/UNKNOWN/ identified.
  • 6 tunes from /GAMES/ identified.
  • 41 tunes moved out of /DEMOS/ to their composers’ directories.
  • 9 tunes moved out of /GAMES/ to their composers’ directories.

source: hvsc.de

Categories: C64/SX64, News & Rumors, Today

Commodore USA shows his baby, The Commodore 64 clone

December 26th, 2010 No comments

Commodore 64 it’s back… and better than ever! The new C64 is a modern functional PC as close to the original in design as humanly possible.

It houses a modern mini-ITX PC motherboard featuring a Dual Core 525 Atom processor and the latest Nvidia Ion2 graphics chipset. It comes in the original taupe brown/beige color, with other colors to follow.

source: commodoreusa.net

SD2Iec Firmware v0.10.1

December 26th, 2010 No comments

SD2IEC is a hardware mass storage device using an SD/MMC card and interfacing with the IEC bus. It is based on the ATmega644 or ATmega1284p microcontroller from the Atmel AVR microcontroller family.

The most prominent use of SD2IEC is emulation/replacement of a Commodore-1541 disk drive for a C64. Hardware and the microcontroller’s firmware is available as open source (GPL).

Changelog:

2010-12-25 – release 0.10.1

  • Bugfix: Remove remains of previous commands while parsing B-*
  • Bugfix: Fix response of UI command for unknown suffix chars.
  • Small improvement of JiffyDOS transfer speeds.

source: sd2iec.de gitweb forum thread c64-wiki

Categories: Firmware, News & Rumors, Today

C64 Game: Scooby Doo +3 [Special] by Hokuto Force

December 25th, 2010 No comments

Published by: Elite Systems Ltd.
Developed by: Gargoyle Games Ltd
Released: 1986

Game description: Scooby’s friends Shaggy, Fred, Daphne and Velma have been kidnapped in an enormous castle owned by an evil genius. It’s Scooby’s job to travel through it and rescue them in this platforms ‘n’ ladders beat ‘em up.

Enemies include ghosts emerging from doors, bats which must be ducked, skulls to jump over, springy thingies, and Ghoulfish. Scooby has plenty of attacking moves, but must be stationary to launch into one. You start with six lives, and get extras by picking up Scooby Snacks, and by completing each of the four levels.

source: noname.c64.org hokutoforce.netsons.org

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

December 24th, 2010 No comments

Wishing you a joyous holiday season and a happy new year.

(Italian) Storia dell’Informatica e della Comunicazione Digitale

December 24th, 2010 No comments

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italian.

Categories: Event(s), News & Rumors, Today

HxC Floppy Emulator: Software updated

December 23rd, 2010 2 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 v1.5.1.0:

  • New files Support : Jeff Vavasour Color Computer Disk Image format (*.JVC) added.
  • Floppy disk dump tool/ HFE conversion : Bitrate value are now corrected.
  • Floppy disk dump tool : a small GUI change.
  • D88 file format support improved.
  • HDM file support : gap len increased to 116.
  • FAT12 Floppy Generator enhanced : More FAT12 floppy format available, FAT geometry adjusted/corrected.
  • FAT12 Floppy Generator : Sources files on the PC side are now correctly closed in case of fail.
  • E-Mu SP1200 support : E-Mu SP1200 RAW file image support added (*.sp1200fd)
  • ISO/IBM track generator : Skew/interleave generator bug corrected.

source: hxc2001.free.fr

Categories: Hardware, News & Rumors, Today

Commodore 64 DiskMagazine – Vandalism News #54

December 21st, 2010 No comments

Onslaught / Wrath Designs / Vandalism, bring you the 54th issue of the Vandalism News.

source: noname.c64.org

Easyflash crt Binary Converter by e5frog

December 19th, 2010 3 comments

This program for M$ Windows converts the EasyFlash files in .crt format (and others as well) to two binary files that can be used by eprom programmer.

source: noname.c64.org