Commodore | nIGHTFALL Blog / RetroComputerMania.com

Released the latest version of DiagROM v0.8

October 23rd, 2016 xAD / nIGHTFALL No comments

What is DiagROM?

DiagROM is a diagnostic tool for the amiga computers.

And it is to be used on defective machines, trying to help no-boot situations etc.

You simply replace the Kickstart roms in the Amiga with the DiagROM. and when poweron. your Amiga will start a diagnostic software. It will try to dump info on the serialport (and actual menus etc aswell) while also trying on the screen.

Updatehistory:

2016-10-22: Fixed bugs in new Chipmemdetection that made it not detect any chipmem if there was missing/Broken chipmem in the beginning. Added errorhandling in the startprocess, so it can show on serialport if there was a exceptionerror. also will show colorcodes on screen. done some smaller bigfixes. Will bump versionnumber and this will be the stable version. It will take a while until next stable version is bumped. Need to do floppy, serial, paralell tests etc before that will happen. but you always have the daily version.
2016-10-12: New Chipmem detection now handles shadowram so it should stop detecting memory instead of giving false 2MB Chip. IF no Chipmem avaible and machine can detect fastmem (NON autoconfig. more or less only A3000/4000 motherboardmem) it will now start using fastmem only. (screen flickers in different colors instead of printing text, nullmodem only) Fixed addresserrorbugs at CIA and joystickport tests on machines with 68000CPU. also should have correct CIA timing on slow machines. IF fastmemshadowram is detected during memorytests, test will exit. MANUAL test have a option to disable that test.
2016-10-07: LONG time no updates. Familystuff. Anyway. decided to do a total redo of initcode especially chipmemdetection. Detection is slower, but progress is printed on serialport so you can see address checked and if failure (in the beginning of the detection) you will see what it wrote and what is read to help debugging of chipmemproblems. Screen should flicker in green while detecting. drawback is that some tests (cia and joyport tests) now generates an addresserror. Will have a look of that.

Download: DiagoROM v0.8 Stable (1071)

source: diagrom.com

Categories: Hardware, News & Rumors, Today

Vampire 600 V2 HW Accelerator for Commodore Amiga

October 22nd, 2016 xAD / nIGHTFALL No comments

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 xAD / nIGHTFALL 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:

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

October 20th, 2016 xAD / nIGHTFALL 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 (3711)

source: csdb.dk

Categories: C128/128D/128DCR, C64/SX64, DTV, News & Rumors, Today

Commodore Monitor 1960 (Boxed)

October 19th, 2016 xAD / nIGHTFALL 1 comment

The Commodore Monitor 1960 may have been made by Daewoo (Korea) or a Taiwan company, or may be an OEMed Panasonic Panasync. The tube is made by Hitachi/Panasonic.

There has been some debate over whether it is a true multisync or a trisync monitor. Reports have been provided that indicate it can handle Super72 screen modes at about 23 kHz, and the manual says it can sync up to 38 kHz. It may be a sort of hybrid, with a wide “window” in the 15.75 kHz to 31.5 kHz range.

Gallery:

Download: Commodore 1960 Service Manual (1370)

source: bigbookofamigahardware.com

Categories: Commodore Monitors, Gallery, Retro Computers and other stuff...

Ultimate-II+

September 30th, 2016 xAD / nIGHTFALL No comments

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.