C64 Game: Future Lock +5 / Mail Order Monsters +7DF (EF) / Xyphus…

March 31st, 2012 No comments

Some new games (Cracked / Trained or Unrealeased) for Commodore 64 have been released from your favorites groups: Laxity, Nostalgia and Genesis Project.

Download:

source: csdb.dk

Prince of Persia Source Code – Found!

March 30th, 2012 No comments

Directly from the blog of Jordan Mechner:

My Dad (yep, the same guy who composed the music for the original Karateka and Prince of Persia) called from New York to tell me he was doing some spring cleaning and had shipped me a carton of old games and other stuff of mine he’d found in the back of a closet.

The carton arrived yesterday. My jaw dropped when I saw what was inside.

No, I don’t mean the stacks of Spanish Drosoft versions of POP and Karateka (though those are cool too, especially if you have an Amstrad computer with a cassette player). I mean those three little plastic 3.5″ disk boxes nestled among them… which appear to contain the ORIGINAL APPLE II SOURCE CODE OF PRINCE OF PERSIA that I’ve been searching for, off and on, for the past ten years, pestering everyone from Doug Carlston to Danny Gorlin and everyone who ever worked at Broderbund, and finally gave up hope of ever finding.

source: jordanmechner.com

Categories: Apple, News & Rumors, Today

Ym2149 Tracker 12.021 Beta (Bug fix)

March 29th, 2012 2 comments

Peter Jørgensen has released a new Beta version of his YM-2149 Tracker for M$ Windows. The sound chip YM-2149 is used in Atari ST/E/Falcon series.

New Function in Beta 12.021:

  • Auto portamento.
  • Buzzer Vibrato.
  • Buzzer portamento.
  • Unified frequent list.
  • Turn Tone/Wave on-off in vibrato, bend and arpeggio.
  • Vibrato Depth.
  • Invert Vibrato for synth wave.

Note from the author:

This is just a minor fix, i was when i made the startup up screen, i came to call an old routine, that should been removed (it Can mess up the instrument name).

Download: Ym2149 Tracker 12.021 Beta (Bug fix) (1039)

source: bitmania.de

Non-Linear Systems Inc (Kaypro Corporation) – Kaypro 10

March 29th, 2012 4 comments
Non-Linear Systems Inc - Kaypro 10

Autopsy:

For the correct operation of this computer i have made some repairs. Replacing some capacitors (see photo) and the rearrangement of the pressure arm of the floppy drive.

The fault of the power supply are the voltages. Under load the voltages +12 and +5 is lowered significantly.

from Wikipedia:

Kaypro Corporation, commonly called Kaypro, was an American home/personal computer manufacturer of the 1980s. The company was founded by Non-Linear Systems to develop computers to compete with the then-popular Osborne 1 portable microcomputer. Kaypro produced a line of rugged, portable CP/M-based computers sold with an extensive software bundle which supplanted its competitors and quickly became one of the top selling personal computer lines of the early 1980s.

While exceptionally loyal to its original consumer base, Kaypro was slow to adapt to the changing computer market and the advent of IBM PC compatible technology. It faded from the mainstream before the end of the decade and was eventually forced into filing for bankruptcy in 1992.

Kaypro’s first computer, the Kaypro II had a 2.5 MHz Zilog Z80 microprocessor, 64 KB of RAM, dual, single-sided, 191 kB 5¼ inch floppy disk drives, and an 80 column green monochrome 9″ CRT.

Early in the Kaypro’s life, there was a legal dispute with the owner of the Bigboard computer who charged that the Kaypro II main circuit board was an unlicensed copy or clone.

The outer case was constructed of painted aluminum. The computer featured a large detachable keyboard that covered the screen and disk drives when stowed. The Kaypro ran off regular AC mains power and was not equipped with a battery.

The Kaypro IV and later the Kaypro 4 had two double-sided disks. The Kaypro 4 was released in 1984, usually referred to as Kaypro 4 ’84, as opposed to the Kaypro IV released one year earlier and referred to as Kaypro IV ’83.

The Kaypro 10 followed the Kaypro II, and featured a 10 megabyte hard drive and a single 5¼” floppy drive.

source: wikipedia

C64 Utility: QR Code Generator

March 27th, 2012 No comments

QR Code Generator for Commodore 64.

The QR Code is invented by the Toyota subsidiary Denso Wave in 1994 to track vehicles during the manufacturing process, the QR Code is one of the most popular types of two-dimensional barcodes.It was designed to allow its contents to be decoded at high speed.

Download: QR Code Generator (1044)

source: noname.c64.org

JSIDPlay v2 v2.5 (Stable 2012)

March 26th, 2012 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 updated version of the Java SidPlayer.

source: jsidplay2.sourceforge.net

C64 Game: Market Forces / Redrunner / Market Forces / Hard Drivin’

March 26th, 2012 No comments

Commodore VIC 20 Gold Label (NTSC)

March 25th, 2012 No comments
Commodore VIC 20 Gold Label (NTSC)

Autopsy:

from Wikipedia:

The VIC-20 (Germany: VC-20; Japan: VIC-1001) is an 8-bit home computer which was sold by Commodore Business Machines. The VIC-20 was announced in 1980, roughly three years after Commodore’s first personal computer, the PET. The VIC-20 was the first computer of any description to sell one million units.

The VIC-20 was intended to be more economical than the PET computer. It was equipped with only 5 kB of RAM (of this, only 3583 bytes were available to the BASIC programmer) and used the same MOS 6502 CPU as the PET. The VIC-20′s video chip, the MOS Technology VIC, was a general-purpose color video chip designed by Al Charpentier in 1977 and intended for use in inexpensive display terminals and game consoles, but Commodore could not find a market for the chip.

As the Apple II gained momentum with the advent of VisiCalc in 1979, Jack Tramiel wanted a product that would compete in the same segment, to be presented at the January 1980 CES. For this reason Chuck Peddle and Bill Seiler started to design a computer named TOI (The Other Intellect).

source: wikipedia

Sharp MZ-80K Complete Setup

March 25th, 2012 No comments

Sharp MZ-80 P3 (Dot Printer)

March 24th, 2012 2 comments
Sharp MZ-80 P3 (close-up)

Autopsy:

I have removed two polyester capacitors (filter) before they explode.

This is a dot matrix printer produced by Sharp for Personal microcomputer System MZ-80 Series. The Sharp MZ-80 P3 must be connected to the Sharp MZ-80 I/O (Interface Unit) to be utilized. This printer has been built by Epson and later rebranded by Sharp.

Sharp MZ-80 FD (Double Floppy Disk)

March 24th, 2012 No comments
Sharp MZ-80 FD (Double Floppy Disk)

Autopsy:

I have removed two polyester capacitors (filter) before they explode.

Floppy Disk Drive for Personal microcomputer System MZ-80 Series. Each floppy disk can contain 143k of data for a total of 286K. The Floppy Disk Drive must be connected to the Sharp MZ-80 I/O (Interface Unit) to be utilized.

FOReVER XIII – A Nightmare In Horná Súča party results

March 24th, 2012 No comments

The 8bit computers multiscene party reports. See also the Forver 8bit party homepage for more informations and download.

Download:

source: forever.zeroteam.sk

Sharp MZ-80 I/O (Interface Unit)

March 24th, 2012 1 comment
Sharp MZ-80 I/O (Interface Unit)

Autopsy:

I have removed two polyester capacitor (filter) that are exploded after a few seconds.

This is a I/O Extension device to connect bus-line signals being output from MZ-80K to peripheral units such as dot printer, floppy disk, colour display and so on.

Sharp MZ-80K

March 23rd, 2012 No comments
Sharp MZ-80K

Autopsy:

from Wikipedia:

The Sharp MZ is a series of personal computers sold in Japan and Europe (particularly Germany and Great Britain) by Sharp beginning in 1978.

Although commonly believed to stand for “Microcomputer Z80″, the term MZ actually has its roots in the MZ-40K, a home computer kit produced by Sharp in 1978 which was based on Fujitsu’s 4-bit MB8843 processor and provided a simple hexadecimal keypad for input. This was soon followed by the MZ-80K, K2, C, and K2E, all of which were based on 8-bit LH0080A Sharp CPU (compatible to Zilog Z80A) with an alphanumeric keyboard.

The Sharp MZ80K was one of the popular early consumer-level microcomputers, with an architecture based on the Zilog Z80 8-bit microprocessor. It was introduced into Europe in 1979. The machine had 48KB of RAM, 32KB of which was available for user programs (the actual figure was dependent on the memory configuration and the system languages being used).

It could run a variety of high-level languages including BASIC, Pascal and FORTRAN, which had to be loaded into RAM before any programming could be undertaken. It could also be programmed directly in assembly code or machine code. The machine had an inbuilt monochrome display and a cassette tape drive. The display, keyboard and cassette drive lifted on hinges to expose the motherboard and circuitry underneath. Graphics capability was primitive, with only preset shapes and icons being available and no native hi-res capability.

This was not unusual for a late-1970s vintage microcomputer. The main drawback, however, of the MZ-80K was the non-standard keyboard, which was difficult to use.

The MZ-80K sold well in Europe despite its high price (it retailed at over £500 in 1980), and a large range of software was available, including some Japanese arcade games. It was superseded in 1982 by the MZ-80A machine.

source: wikipedia

C64 Game: Astrobot I & II + / Car Journey / Bah, Humbug! +6D

March 21st, 2012 No comments

Some new games (Cracked / Trained or Unrealeased) for Commodore 64 have been released from your favorites groups: Laxity and Genesis Project.

Download:

source: csdb.dk