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Archive for the ‘News & Rumors’ Category

(Italian) Jurassic News numero #32

October 23rd, 2010 No comments

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italian.

Categories: Magazine, News & Rumors, Today

Break-Out! for Commodore VIC-20

October 19th, 2010 No comments

Break-Out! is a clone of the Atari home video game classic for VIC 20 written by Robert Hurst . The game is written in machine language and requires a expansion of 8 Kb RAM.

source: Denial (The Commodore VIC-20 forum) robert.hurst-ri.us

OpenBytes Interview: Romeo Knight!

October 18th, 2010 No comments

Romeo Knight is a musician, guitarist and former AMIGA demoscene composer.

Openbytes interview Romeo Knight about the old-scene. Click here for read the full interview.

source: openbytes.wordpress.com

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

SD2Iec Firmware v0.10.0Pre3 Released

October 18th, 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 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:

2010-10-16 – release 0.10.0pre3

  • Bugfix: Wheels 128 loader detection fixed.
  • Bugfix: G-P answer fixed.
  • Bugfix: Strip 0x0d from file names when appropiate.
  • Wheels support.

source: sd2iec.de gitweb forum thread c64-wiki

Categories: Firmware, News & Rumors, Today

Dreamhost MySQL issues: I want to kill them *fixed*

October 13th, 2010 No comments

from Dreamhost Status blog:

A backup machine is having issues at the moment, which is adversely affecting multiple MySQL machines.

The root problem has been resolved, and most of the cleanup is done…however, if you’re still noticing any lingering MySQL issues, let us know, and we’ll be happy to address them as needed.

Again, sorry for the downtime.

source: dreamhoststatus.com

1541 Ultimate II: Tape extender

October 12th, 2010 No comments

Here you can see some photo of the first version of the 1541 Ultimate II tape extender. With the latest firmware it’s now possible capture tape data to a .TAP file!

source: 1541ultimate.net

Categories: Hardware, News & Rumors, Today

Micro SwinSID – PCB by Peter Sieg *updated*

October 11th, 2010 No comments

Micro SwinSID (SwinSID88) is a hardware replacement for legendary SID sound chip which was placed in every Commodore C64 computer.

This project is based on the microcontroller ATMEGA88PU from Atmel and the emulation code is written by Swinkels. The first version of the pcb (prototype) was made by Crisp.

On the left you can see the tiny PCB of the Micro SwinSID made by a user of the forum64.de.

*This PCB is compatible with Commodore 64 and 64C but you need to Remove the resistor R3 if you install the Micro SwinSID on Commodore 64/SX64 where the SID 6581 is used.

For more information and price visit the forum64.de.

Categories: Hardware, News & Rumors, Today

1541 Ultimate II: New firmware v2.0RC9

October 11th, 2010 No comments

A new version of the firmware for the interface 1541 Ultimate II is released.

Some major fix:

  • Some debug stuff that appeared in menu removed!
  • Tape Record implemented.
  • Capabilities register added (for V1 compatibility later)
  • Initial version of memory controller for V1 hardware added.
  • Global menu items replaced by menu objects that can generate menu items based on the object’s state.
  • Some bug-fixes.
  • Christmas lights eliminated in many places.
  • 64K AR/RR Ram support added; as well as made to pass CountZero’s test program with 71 points.
  • Freezer bug is NOT yet tackled.
  • Preliminary USB hub support added (not finished)
  • Tape recorder software file created, but is still a copy of playback. Needs to be implemented.
  • IEC processor implemented.
  • Some clean up done in USB code.
  • C2N Recorder added to Fpga makefiles. (not for 250e yet)
  • TAP Encoder added.
  • ZPU altered for guaranteed IRQ handling (not used yet)

download: 1541ultimate.net

Categories: Firmware, News & Rumors, Today

Micro SwinSID – Hardware replacement for the SID sound chip

October 10th, 2010 No comments

Micro SwinSID (SwinSID88) is a hardware replacement for legendary SID sound chip which was placed in every Commodore C64 computer.

This hardware extension is designed as a module installed directly into the SID socket. It emulates the sound of the SID chip, but it is a lot more powerful and allows you experience the new dimension of C64 music.

The hardware desing of SID and Micro SwinSID (SwinSID88) modules is different in almost every way. Micro SwinSID (SwinSID88) is equipped with general purpose microprocessor (ATMega88PA or PU) with internal RAM and ROM.

A programmable device like this has a big advantage – there is a possibility to upgrade firmware and to add new features or fixes without any hardware modification.

Download: Micro SwinSID PCB and Schematics v1.1

Download firmware: Firmware (30/04/2010) / Firmware (19/10/2010)

source: forum64.de swinkels homepage

Categories: Firmware, News & Rumors, Today

X-2010: Official demo party results *party stuff updated*

October 3rd, 2010 No comments

This is the unofficial official demo party results from X-2010 (Top 3 Entries only). See also the CSDB X2010 section for more informations. C64 Demo Competition:

C64 Graphics Competition:

C64 Music Competition:

Download X-2010 Party stuff: X-2010 (999) (13 Mb) *updated*

source: noname.c64.org

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

C64 TrueType fonts v1.0 by Style

October 3rd, 2010 No comments

from Style64 homepage:

Style’s C64 TrueType package is our effort at a complete and proper TrueType (TTF) representation of the C64 glyph set.

The package provides five (5) TrueType formatted fonts as well as Embedded OpenType (.eot) and Web Open Font Format (.woff) versions ready for use in your own website.

source: style64.org

Commodore Free Magazine Issue #44

October 2nd, 2010 No comments

Commodore Free Magazine Issue #44

Free to download Commodore magazine dedicated to Commodore Computers.

In this issue you can find:

  • ACE Commander 128 RC.
  • Vandalism News #53 Released.
  • Shredz64 Updated, PSX64 Available.
  • Pocket 1541.
  • Contiki Download Page.
  • Aladdin 4D & ARES Partnership.
  • A Conversation With Chuck Peddle, Bil Herd, Jeri Ellsworth.
  • IceFileSystem 1.13 For MorphOS.
  • AmiUpdate 2.
  • CommodoreServer.com.
  • Maziacs on the Plus/4.
  • VIC20 New Game: Pillow Fight.
  • UWOL Quest For Money.
  • SCACOM Issue 18/19 Released.
  • BOH Update13 Released.
  • more

source: commodorefree.com

Categories: Magazine, News & Rumors, Today

New Dual Sid project by Tomi Malinen *updated*

September 30th, 2010 2 comments

from C64scene homepage:

Tomi Malinen is currently developing a dual SID board, although there are other solutions available for your C64 this one is interesting because of the ability to use either 6581 or 8580 as SID #2 no matter the board revision.

This means that you can play games with 6581 sound from the first channel and 8580 sound from the second.

Other features of the dual SID board are:

  • Small board, only about 40mm x 50mm.
  • SID #2 address jumper selectable between D400, D420, D500, DE00, DF00.
  • MSSIAH-compatibility at DE00.
  • Full game compatibility with double mono setting at D400.

Installation requires soldering, two wires attach to the cartridge port and two have to be soldered to the Kernal IC. When the SID #2 is mapped to D400, D420, D500 the wires to the cartridge port are not used.

Photo of both protypes installed:

source: c64scene.com lemon64.com

Unboxing Aoyue 929 Lamp & Aoyue 474A+ Desoldering Station

September 29th, 2010 4 comments
 Aoyue 474A+ Desoldering Station

Autopsy:

My new desoldering station and a magnifying lamp has arrived!

After some frustrating times removing solder on an almost 30 year old PCB i decided to get a desoldering station.

So after using this for a few hours what one word can I use to describe this station? AWESOME! I don’t know how i lived without this in the past. Using desoldering braid or a soldapullt is OK but not consistent.

Package content of Aoyue 474A+:

  • 474 Station.
  • Desoldering Gun.
  • Filter pads 6pcs.
  • Silicone Grease.
  • Filter pipe.
  • Nozzle cleaning pins.
  • Power cord.
  • Desoldering gun holder.

source: aoyue.com

JSIDPlay v2 v2.0 Latest final version

September 27th, 2010 No comments

This is a new version of the Java SidPlayer (Command line & Gui Interface).

This Java applet should work on Mac OSX, Linux and Windoze.

Download here the latest final version v2.0 (Live Installer).

source: jsidplay2.sourceforge.net