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Vampire 600 V2 HW Accelerator for Commodore Amiga

October 22nd, 2016 No comments
Vampire 600 V2 HW Accelerator for Amiga

The Vampire 600 V2 is the newest and the fastest accelerator available for your Commodore Amiga 600.  There is nothing on the market that can compete with its performance and price. It is intended to be used as an educational tool to allow users to be able to learn programming for the 68K series of CPU’s and see the capability of todays powerful FPGA’s.

This is not the final product as there will be constant impovements to the board and core and new programming instructions are being continually added.

Main Features:

  • 128MB Fastmem RAM.
  • Digital video output (HDMI).
  • SD card for HDD storage.
  • 64 bit core, full 32 bit compatibility.
  • Directly update core from the Amiga without need for external programmer.
  • FPU and 16 bit Audio is planned for future updates.

Gallery of the installation and testing:

Video Vampire A600 V2 Unboxing/Testing (sorry only in Italian language)

source: apollo-accelerators.com kipper2k.com

Categories: Hardware, News & Rumors, Today

6 x Commodore 64 + 2 x Commodore VIC-20 repair

October 22nd, 2016 No comments

Repair Commodore 64 (ASSY 250407) 1 of 6

Asserted defect:

  • Sometimes works, sometimes not, check solder.

Fix:

I state now that this Commodore 64 has been socketed.

The work done is not bad but was better clean up the remaining flux around the pcb pads, the eye wants its part.

The defect occurred twice on 55 switching on and off (i counted them)

In one of these two times i have noticed the problem that was missing the CPU Output Clock on the solder side pad. I redid the solder and fixed the socket pin and everything worked again.

I also noticed that one of the eight RAM it was warmer than the other, but working, i have decided to replace it. I don’t exclude that this operation has only fixed one of the problems, the other might to be the power supply that i don’t have.

I have twisted several times the PCB on itself, i dropped down at least 10 times on the table and leave power on for four hours, now i  can exclude solder problems.

In the photos you will see a PLA 906114 (U17) that for some bizarre reason have solder it on the socket, really curious.

Gallery of the repair:

Repair Commodore 64 (ASSY 250425) 2 of 6

Asserted defect:

  • Black Screen.

Defects found:

  • Missing the Composite Video Signal.
  • Black Screen.
  • Missing Audio.

Repair:

  • Replaced 1 x MOS 8701 Clock Generator (U31)
  • Replaced and Socketed 1 x MOS 906114 PLA (U17)
  • Replaced 1 x MOS 6581 SID (U18)

Gallery of the repair:

Repair Commodore 64 (ASSY 250407) 3 of 6

Asserted defect:

  • Black Screen.

Defects found:

  • Black/Garbage Screen.

Repair:

  • Replaced and Socketed 1 x MOS 906114 PLA (U17)

Gallery of the repair:

Read more…

PPI Super Sketch for Texas Instruments TI-99/4a

October 22nd, 2016 1 comment
PPI Super Sketch for Texas Instruments TI-99 Repair

PPI Super Sketch for Texas Instruments TI-99 Repair.

Defect:

  • The cartridge is not recognized by the TI-99/4A.

Repair:

  • Replaced 1 x 74LS139 (U1)
  • Replaced 1 x 74LS30 (U2)

Note:

The repair of the Super Sketch cartridge was quite simple, in the first time i thought a problem of the ROM but instead the failure was the two IC U1 and U2, which should do the work of the Bank Switching.

To remove the two IC i have preferred to cut the pins and then remove each pin because i know very well this type of PCB and also lowering the temperature there is a risk that the pitches come off.

Gallery of the repair:

C64 Big Game Pack: 4K Game Collection 64K / Ninja Massacre +4D …

October 20th, 2016 No comments

Some new games or tools (Cracked / Trained or Unrealeased) for Commodore 64 have been released from your favorites groups.

Titles:

  • Collapse +20D
  • Carrier-Bourne Fighter Simulation &D
  • ALI V4 [german]
  • The Pirates of the Dark Waters V2
  • Dare Devil Denis +2DG
  • Slavia 2 Deluxe
  • Tasiemiec
  • Rise and Shine Professor Miggles
  • Dog
  • Lumberjack
  • Zombie Massacre
  • Princess Saver 2000
  • Valentine’s Day Shopping Simulator
  • Bonkey Kong
  • Goblin
  • Granny’s Teeth
  • Stareggs +4DGH
  • Goblin +
  • Bonkey Kong +
  • Zombie Massacre +2H
  • Freebooter Preview
  • Exodus Preview
  • Lumberjack +
  • Lumberjack +1H
  • Dog +
  • Rise and Shine Professor Miggles +
  • Granny’s Teeth +5D
  • Antarctica
  • Winky Blinky +
  • Watschinator
  • Super Ski
  • I Ate the Purple Berries
  • M4573R84G3L5
  • :10
  • $#!7
  • Dropout
  • Attack of the Mutant Cabbages +
  • Picross +
  • I Am the Flashing C64 Cursor +D
  • Picross
  • Firefighter Jenny
  • I Am the Flashing C64 Cursor
  • Super Ski +3
  • Winky Blinky
  • Attack of the Mutant Cabbages
  • Granny’s Teeth [post compo version]
  • Pour Le Merite +2D [seuck]
  • Sylphwyrm +2D [seuck]
  • Hack Attack Preview +D
  • Firefighter Jenny +3
  • Dropout 64 +D
  • Granny’s Teeth +4
  • Red Baron 3000 Preview
  • Snafu’64
  • Baker Street Detective +DGW
  • 4K Game Collection 64K CRT
  • Granny’s Teeth +5HD
  • Charlie Chaplin Preview
  • Colon +1TD
  • Ninja Massacre +4DGPF
  • Hack Attack +D
  • Atlantian Preview
  • Maelstrom +D

Download: All Games in One Archive (3760)

source: csdb.dk

Assembly and Replacement of the old DualSID with the MixSID

October 9th, 2016 No comments
Assembly and Replacement of the old DualSID with the MixSID

Assembly and Replacement of the old DualSID with the MixSID.

Unlike the DualSID i had to replace the two electrolytic capacitors (see picture) because the PCB of the MixSID is much more big and the two capacitors hinders the right installation of the PCB in the SID socket.

For the technical specifications of MixSID go here

Gallery:

source: henning-bekel.de

Categories: Hardware, News & Rumors, Today

SD2Snes Firmware v0.1.7d released

October 8th, 2016 No comments

Ikari has released a new firmware for the SD2Snes Flash Cartridge (Super Nintendo/Famicom). The upgrade instructions can be found here.

Changelog:

  • Reworked the in-game hook code again, squeezing out a couple more CPU cycles – compatibility improved further
  • BS-X: new bsx page file by LuigiBlood!
    • contains a proper channel map, notably fixes Fuurai no Shiren: Surara o
    • sukue and most likely more games
    • enables a great number of town features
  • BS-X: better detection for script-type ROMs (e.g. various magazines)
  • Cx4 SKIP instruction timing sped up a bit. Core felt a bit too slow. (this is a makeshift “fix” until I implement the proper Cx4 instruction timing I recently figured out)
  • Fixes:
    • fixed occasional black screen after soft reset (L+R+Select+Start)
    • in-game hook memory area visibility quirks fixed in various situations, notably fixes BS Kirby no Omochabako: Pinball
    • BS-X: fix PSRAM corruption on SNES WRAM writes, fixes a number of games, notably BS Kirby no Omochabako: Pinball (tough one)
    • PPU2 H/V count odd/even read flag is reset on ROM load, this fixes games that depend on it when run after games that leave it in a dirty state – notably audio glitches and freezes in Super Punch-Out when run after Fuurai no Shiren.
    • SPC Player: Fixed a long-standing transfer corruption bug that occurred because the original bulk transfer routine didn’t account for CPU stalls by HDMA (which is abundant in the sd2snes menu). This fixes occasionally missing instruments, corrupted samples etc.
    • fixed an occasional deadlock on bootup where the menu would hang at the “Loading…” screen.
    • fixed hard freeze when selecting a file immediately after disabling the “Hide file extensions” option
    • fixed persistent hard freeze in recent games list handling when running games with long path names (> ~120 characters)
    • revert DAC I2S timing to pre-v0.1.7c behaviour, hopefully reducing audio glitches for sd2snes Rev.G units
    • fixed corrupted file list display after playing an SPC file with a scrolled file name
  • Cosmetic changes:
    • “Loading” window is replaced by status bar notification to be less
    • disruptive with very short load times
    • configuration settings no longer have the wrong color when changed

Download:

source: sd2snes.de

Categories: Firmware, News & Rumors, Today

Ultimate-II+

September 30th, 2016 No comments
Ultimate II Plus

The ‘Ultimate II+’ is a storage solution for your Commodore C64/C128(D) home computer or in stand-alone mode for C16/Plus4/VIC-20 and so on.

This cartridge implements a ‘real’ 1541 Diskdrive for Commodore computers and with a simple press on one of the buttons, a menu will pop-up on the Commodore screen, allowing the user to view the USB storage content, and ‘mount’ .d64 or .g64 images into the Floppy Drive.

These are the most important differences from the previous version of the cartridge (1541 Ultimate-II)

  • No more MicroSD! (… that needs to be pushed in with something sharp, could fall into the case, … etc)
  • More USB ports (… one to compensate for the lost SD, and just one bonus: 3 in total)
  • IEC connector moved (… further back to facilitate use on some C128 models)
  • Integrated Ethernet (… no more need for an external USB2LAN adapter, and a smaller step to CS8900A compatibility)
  • Dual Flash (… no more worry that a software bug or upgrade failure leads to a bricked device)
  • Integrated Speaker (… who connects a speaker set to the audio jack for hearing drive sounds??)
  • External power supply connector with auto-switch over circuit (… for stand alone mode, and to lower the demand on the power supply of the C64)
  • Improved Audio (… audio codec, 24 bit/96 kHz*, for sampled sounds and SID emulation)
  • Improved Tape connector (… no more custom board and able that snaps in on the bottom, but standard USB 3.0 cable)
  • Improved power supply circuits (… for some reason they seemed to break down relatively often)
  • Slightly bigger and faster FPGA, as to control the new features.

Gallery:

source: 1541ultimate.net facebook.com

Categories: Hardware, News & Rumors, Today

Ultimate-II+: New firmware update v3.0c rev 423

September 29th, 2016 No comments

A new version of the firmware for the interface Ultimate II+ is released. This version runs ONLY on the Ultimate II+ cartridge.

Ultimate-II+ fixes: 3.0c rev 423:

  • Fixed speaker disable
  • Fixed G64 loading
  • Fixed IEC for use with JiffyDOS and single byte fetches
  • Increased output volume on codec output
  • Auto audio / REU select for MOD player (yet to do for SID player)

How to update?

  • Browse to the U2P firmware file on the USB storage and run it from the context menu.

Download: Ultimate-II+ Firmware v3.0c rev 423 (1147)

source: facebook.com 1541ultimate.net

Categories: Firmware, News & Rumors, Today

C64 Big Game Pack: Akalabeth – World of Doom +4 / Phase Out V1.4 …

September 26th, 2016 No comments

Some new games or tools (Cracked / Trained or Unrealeased) for Commodore 64 have been released from your favorites groups.

Titles:

  • Let’s Invade Preview
  • Holy Camels
  • Akalabeth – World of Doom +4
  • Phase Out V1.4 +4D
  • QUOD INIT EXIT V1.6
  • Lawless Legends Preview
  • Psycastria +4D
  • Multi-Player Soccer Manager +MD
  • The Cursed Key +2D
  • Molar Madness Preview 2 – ISE
  • Pentagram V1.20
  • Bodily Fluids
  • Fantasy +D
  • War 70 +MD
  • The Sea Voyagers &D
  • International Karaoke + Contribution Beta 1
  • Ancient Legends Preview +D
  • Firequest +6DGF
  • Waffles +3TD [english+german]
  • Rubicon
  • Rhythm Master +DG
  • Infernum +1DT
  • Awakening +1FDW
  • Carrier-Bourne Fighter Simulation &D
  • Jungle Drums +6HD
  • Sally’s Garden Preview +5
  • Sally’s Garden Preview +2
  • Demons of Dex
  • 10 RUN 10:AN ENDLESS RUNNER
  • Hit and Run Baseball +D
  • The Lost Vikings Mockup

Download: All Games in One Archive (4074)

source: csdb.dk

Commodore Amiga Mouse push-button replacement

September 25th, 2016 No comments
Commodore Amiga Mouse push-button replacement

Easy replacement of the Commodore Amiga Mouse push-buttons.

Gallery:

2 x ORIC-1 Repair

September 25th, 2016 No comments
ORIC-1 Repair

ORIC-1 Repair [1 of 2]

Defect:

  • Garbage boot Screen and then another Garbage screen (see photo).

Repair:

  • Replaced 1 x CPU 6502 (IC5)
  • Replaced 1 x RAM HM4864P (IC12)

Gallery of the repair:

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ORIC-1 Repair

ORIC-1 Repair [2 of 2]

Defect:

  • No audio.

Repair:

  • Replaced 1 x Electrolytic Capacitor interrupted of 220uF 10v (C1)

Gallery of the repair:

HDMI Male To VGA Female Converter

September 25th, 2016 No comments
HDMI Male To VGA Female Converter

Spending only 4.70 Euro including postage this interface works good, the conversion from Digital to Analog works perfectly without delays or video artifacts.

source: ebay.com

Commodore 64 (ASSY 250407) Repair

September 25th, 2016 No comments
Commodore 64 (ASSY 250407) Repair

Commodore 64 (ASSY 250407) Repair

Defect:

  • Black screen and a noisy background sound .

Repair:

  • Replaced 1 x MOS 906114 (PLA) U17
  • Replaced 1 x MOS 6581 (SID) U18

Commodore Amiga 500 (ASSY 312510) Repair

September 25th, 2016 No comments
Commodore Amiga 500 (ASSY 312510) Repair

Commodore Amiga 500 (ASSY 312510) Repair

Defect:

  • Garbage boot Screen (see photo).

Repair:

  • Replaced 1 x FAT Agnus 8371

Gallery of the repair:

Logitech Dual Action Arcade inside a ION Icade

September 25th, 2016 No comments
Logitech DA Arcade inside a ION Icade

As you can see this is a control pad of the Ion iCade case. It is designed to fit an iPad and has a built in stand for holding it.

The iCade is designed to work as a Bluetooth keyboard of sorts with an iPad.

It uses a standard arcade control wiring and is very easy to modify it to work with any interface can convert the signal from Analog to USB, like the PCB of a Logitech Dual Action joypad.

Gallery: