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Amiga 2000 REV4.5 Super Denise (8373R4) Upgrade

January 27th, 2011 No comments

I continue to upgrade my Amiga 2000 PAL REV 4.5. After the upgrade of the chip Fat Agnus and the Kickstart/4MB, today i have replaced the Denise chip with a new one. The Super Denise chip is capable of still higher resolutions and bit depths.

VirtualC64 v0.9.4 for Intel Macintosh OSx

January 27th, 2011 No comments

VirtualC64 emulates a Commodore 64 personal computer on your Intel Macintosh OSx > 10.6.

I wrote the software with two major goals in mind. First, I wanted to create an emulator that can be used as a demonstrator program in a first year or second year course on computer engineering.

To achieve this goal, I have integrated various debugging capabilities that let you peek inside the CPU, RAM, ROM, or one of the custom chips. Second, I tried to make the emulator as user friendly as it can get.

In short: VirtualC64 tries to combine the ongoing fascination of the ancient Commodore computers with the great user experience of today’s Macs.

Bug fixes and enhancements:

  • New screen geometry. New values reflect width, height, and aspect ratio of a real PAL or NTSC machine.
  • Added controls for shifting and zooming screen borders.
  • Improved drag’n'drop. Thumbnail images can now be dragged from one emulator window to another.
  • Added finder icons for all supported document types.
  • D64, T64, PRG, and P00 files can now be opened via the open file dialog (Open menu)
  • New background texture and startup animation.

source: dirkwhoffmann.de

HxC Floppy Emulator: Firmware & Software updated

January 27th, 2011 No 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 v1.5.2.0/v1.5.2.1:

  • BUG : Floppy dump tool broken. fixed.
  • New files Support : Atari ST DIM image (*.DIM) added.
  • New files Support : TI99 V9T9 (*.V9T9 / *.PC99) added.
  • IPF File format (http://www.softpres.org/) overlap bug corrected.
  • Internal : Tracklen is now the number of bit in the track.
  • Internal/HFE generator : Track encoding code now set correctly.
  • ISO/IBM track generator : ISO FM track data mark value corrected/changed to 0xFB.

Release notes for the SD HxCFloppyEmulator firmware upgrade v1.5.0.0:

  • SDcard : Init frequency corrected.
  • SDcard : Multi sector read & Write access added.
  • SDCard access time improved (Slow sdcard issues corrected)
  • Some important parts of the floppy write support fully rewritten : Important codes improvement (speed & size)
  • New MFM/DD  write support bitrate added.
  • FM write support added.
  • E-mu write support added (E-mu emulator, E-mu emulator II,…)
  • Two floppy drive emulation improvement/bug corrected.
  • SDCard HxC Floppy emulator settings (sound/blacklight…) are now stored into the eeprom and used at power up. At power up the last known settings are used.
  • … full release notes here

source: hxc2001.free.fr

C64 Demo: Algodancer 2 by Algorithm

January 24th, 2011 No comments

Algodancer 2 is a Commodore 64 demo by Algorithm. I love it because it reminds me a old Amiga Demo; State of the Art by Spaceball.

This a a single file C64 demonstration which demonstrates overlay/underlay vq with realtime in memory decompression and sprite plotting.

source: algotechproductions.com

CBM-Command v2.0 Release Candidate

January 24th, 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 Release Candidate – 2011-01-14

New Features:

  • Whole Disk Copying – Hotkey = “O” – This will copy a whole disk from one like drive to another like drive (ie. 1541 to 1541, 1571 to 1571) and also will copy a 1541 to a 1571.

Changes:

  • Bug fixes

Known Issues:

  • Deleting batches of files with more than 30 files does not work as expected as only the first 30 files are deleted. This is because of the way that deleting files alters the disk directory which prevents looping over the whole directory and selectively deleting files. Unfortunately I see no way around this as it’s impossible to cache the names of all the files to delete without some kind of temporary storage. This issue will not stop the release of Version 2.0.

source: cbmcommand.codeplex.com

Atari Game: CTetris4 (Gold Edition) by Hayden Doan

January 23rd, 2011 No comments

CTetris4 is a very Nice Tetяis clone for Atari 8 Bit Computers. The game is developed by Hayden Doan.

from Wikipedia:

Tetris is a puzzle video game originally designed and programmed by Alexey Pajitnov in the Soviet Union. It was released on June 6, 1984, while he was working for the Dorodnicyn Computing Centre of the Academy of Science of the USSR in Moscow.

He derived its name from the Greek numerical prefix tetra- (all of the game’s pieces, known as Tetrominoes, contain four segments) and tennis, Pajitnov’s favorite sport.

source: atariage.com wikipedia

Categories: Atari, News & Rumors, Today

C64 Game: Taipan

January 22nd, 2011 No comments

This is a new Graphics Adventure written in Basic language for Commodore 64. The game is developed by JCB of The Mean Team.

source: noname.c64.org

C64 Game: Space Trip

January 22nd, 2011 No comments

This is a new game for Commodore 64 developed by The New Dimension.

You are captain Steve Zappa, who has been transported to different star boads. Your mission is to clear all decks on each star ship from the crazy aliens that infest the ship.

Then hurry back to the computer console and teleport out of the star ship, and get back into your little space craft. You will then be taken aboard on to the next star ship, in which you have to complete each mission.

source: tnd64.unikat.sk lemon64.com

(Italian) Jurassic News numero #33

January 21st, 2011 2 comments

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italian.

Categories: Magazine, News & Rumors, Today

Micro SwinSID – Firmware update & AVR ISP Adapter

January 20th, 2011 2 comments

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

On the Photo you can see the AVR ISP homebrew Adapter for programming the firmware.

Firmware update (10012011):

  • Much improved ADSR envelope fading based on a real SID counter design.
  • More soft filter.

Hardware tip:

To increase audio quality and volume level replace R4 (2k2) resistor with 1K. This will boost volume by about 50%

source: forum64.de

Categories: Firmware, News & Rumors, Today

TeleKbd64 for iPAD

January 19th, 2011 No comments

TeleKbd64 is a app for iPAD. TeleKbd64 displays a virtual keyboard that looks like an old Commodore 8 bit computer and let you control an emulator running on a PC on the same network.

Emulated keyboards: Compatible emulators:
  • Commodore 64
  • Commodore VIC 20
  • Commodore 16
  • Commodore 64 C and G
  • Commodore SX-64
  • VICE 2.2 x64
  • VICE 2.2 xVic
  • VICE 2.2 xPlu

source: itunes.apple.com

VirtualC64 v0.9.3 for Intel Macintosh OSx

January 16th, 2011 No comments

VirtualC64 emulates a Commodore 64 personal computer on your Intel Macintosh OSx > 10.6.

I wrote the software with two major goals in mind. First, I wanted to create an emulator that can be used as a demonstrator program in a first year or second year course on computer engineering.

To achieve this goal, I have integrated various debugging capabilities that let you peek inside the CPU, RAM, ROM, or one of the custom chips. Second, I tried to make the emulator as user friendly as it can get.

In short: VirtualC64 tries to combine the ongoing fascination of the ancient Commodore computers with the great user experience of today’s Macs.

Bug fixes and enhancements:

  • Introducing cheatbox. Travel back in time by reverting to automatically taken snapshot states
  • T64, PRG, and P00 files can now be mounted as virtual disk
  • Restructured and refactored all Objective-C classes
  • Fixed a bug that caused unallocated memory to be freed

Note: The version numbering scheme is changed to comply with the update framework.

source: dirkwhoffmann.de

Limon REU wave (wav) player v2 for Commodore 64

January 15th, 2011 No comments

Data (De-Koder, Tropyx) has updated the Limon WAV player for Commodore 64. You need a REU interface (Commodore’s RAM Expansion Unit) for run this program, alternatively you can use the Vice Emulator or the interface Ultimate 1541 v2.0+

source: noname.c64.org

Mike has released a new version of C64-Archiv v3.3

January 10th, 2011 No comments

C64-Archiv descriptions:

  • Scans and stores your C64 – (games) – collection with only a few clicks.
  • Easily manages your C64-programs by creating your own categories and selections.
  • Starts the C64-programs in different emulators.
  • Delivers instructions for the emulators VICE, CCS64, HOXS64 and EMU64.
  • Works with tools e.g. 64Copy, D64Lister or DirMaster.
  • Stores the C64-programs from files with the extensions: .D64, .D71, .P00, .PRG e. .T64.
  • Stores files by name with the extensions: .TAP, .VSF (VICE-snapshot-file) and .C64 (CCS64-session-file).
  • Stores text and information files with the extensions: .TXT, .NFO and .DIZ
  • Stores PDF files.
  • Searches archiv files with the extensions: .ZIP, .7Z and .CAB
  • GameBase frontend with the possibility to download games.
  • GameBase view with up to 30 columns.
  • Supports multi-language (currently: Englisch, French, Italian and German)

Version v3.3 – What’s new?

  • New: G64 and D81-files can be stored.
  • New: RAR-files can be stored.
  • New: Main window and the import dialog were improved.
  • New: MRU lists.
  • FIXED: Various minor bugs.

source: Mikes Pages

Graph2Font v3.9.0.5 (Lite/Full)

January 10th, 2011 No comments

TomaszTebeBiela has released an update of the program Graph2Font v3.9.0.5.

This project began many years ago as a simple graphics converter for Atari but over the years the features are significantly increased. The converter runs under Windows.

source: g2f.atari8.info

Categories: Atari, News & Rumors, Today