This a special edition of the Commodore C64, celebrating the 1.000.000th sale of the C64 in Germany. This is one of the most desirable Commodore items. There are about 300 golden Commodore C64 produced. The numbers from 1.000.000 until 1.000.100 were for the staff of the Commodore factory Braunschweig.

The rest was given to hard- en software companies, magazine-publishers and distributors. The C64 is a computer system with a keyboard, external power-supply and a motherboard. On the motherboard you will find a MOS 6510 processor, RAM / ROM memory, MOS 6569 VIC-II video chip, MOS 6581 SID sound chip and twice a MOS 6526 CIA. PAL version.

source: ebay.de richardlagendijk.nl

Autopsy:

In 1990 Amstrad introduced the “Plus” range which tweaked the hardware in many ways and added a cartridge slot to all models. The Plus included the 464 Plus, 6128 Plus and the GX4000 video game console (which is a cut down Plus without the keyboard nor support for non-cartridge media). All of the range included a cartridge slot and additional hardware improvements.

Most improvements were to the video display which saw an increase in palette to 4096 colours and gained the capability of hardware sprites. Splitting the display into two separate windows and pixel scrolling both became full supported hardware features although both were possible on the non-”Plus” hardware using clever programming of the existing Motorola 6845. An automatic DMA transfer system for feeding the sound chip was also added but the sound chip itself remained unchanged. Additionally, the BASIC command set for disc access was improved.

These models did not do very well in the marketplace, failing to attract any substantial third party support. The 8-bit technology behind the Plus was starting to look a little out of date by 1990 and users resented the substantial price hike for cartridge games compared to their tape and disc counterparts. However, the Plus machines did sell well in France where Amstrad still had a large following due to the success of the classic CPC range there.

The range was officially titled as ‘Amstrad 464 Plus’, ‘Amstrad 6128 Plus’ and ‘GX4000′ and the ‘CPC’ (standing for Colour Personal Computer) abbreviation used in the older generation was dropped. However, many Amstrad users refer to the Plus range as ‘CPC Plus’ or ‘CPC+’ due to the inherent similarities of the two ranges.

from: cpcwiki.eu

This is an old Commodore VIC-20 Home Computer (PAL) with a “Microgramma Extended Fonts” keyboard. The same keyboard is also used in the Commodore PET computer.

The “PET” style keyboard used on the VIC-1001 and early VIC-20s

The keyboards used in VIC-20 computers were manufactured for Commodore by Matsushita Corporation of Japan. Those used on the very first VIC-20s were almost completely flat-topped and identical in shape to that of Commodore’s PET computer (however, on the VIC-20 the PET’s number pad was replaced by four wide function keys).

The keyboards on later VIC-20s were manufactured with slightly concave tops. The concavity of the “F” and “J” keys was slightly more prominent to provide tactile feedback for touch-typists seeking the “home” position.

Commodore VIC-20 8-bit Home Computer

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 3.5 KB 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).

Gallery:

source: sleepingelephant.com/denial/wiki wikipedia

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

Titles:

• Aviator Arcade [16kb cartridge]
• Pixel City Skater
• Aviator Arcade +3
• Voivod Attack [16kb cartridge]
• Voivod Attack +5
• Cosmic Ark +4HFD 101% [pal/ntsc]
• Pixel City Skater [16kb cartridge]
• p0snake +2DP [pal/ntsc]
• p0snake [16kb cartridge]
• Honey Bee +6FD [pal/ntsc]
• Honey Bee Redux [16kb cartridge]
• C-2048 [16kb cartridge]
• C-2048 +
• C-2048 +HF [pal/ntsc]
• Race [16kb cartridge]
• Race
• Toyz [16kb cartridge]
• Cowboy Duel Junior +1F DE [english+german] [pal/ntsc]
• Blackjack aka Twenty-One (C64 & PLUS/4)
• Cowboy Duel Junior – Live Your Dream …Again!
• Falling [16kb cartridge]
• Falling &MHS
• Blackjack aka Twenty-One +1
• Falling [pal/ntsc]
• Falling +1H
• Toyz
• Falling
• Tiger Claw +3D
• Penultimate Fantasy [pal/ntsc]
• Tiger Claw [16kb cartridge]
• Mini Arcade: Climax [16kb cartridge]
• Brick Buster [16kb cartridge]
• Penultimate Fantasy [16kb cartridge]
• Mini Arcade: Climax +D
• Brick Buster +3D
• Penultimate Fantasy + [pal/ntsc]
• Penultimate Fantasy +
• Fickle [16kb cartridge]
• Tutti Frutti 64 V0.1 [16kb cartridge]
• Penultimate Fantasy 100% +3DF [pal/ntsc]
• Tutti Frutti 64 Preview +2
• Fickle +5D
• Brilliant Maze +2D
• Mini-Arcade: Climax +1FD [pal/ntsc]
• Attack of the Mutant Aliens +

Download: All Games in One Archive (3279)

source: csdb.dk

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

Titles:

• Paper Plane +1HFD 100% [pal/ntsc]
• Donkey Kong Junior +6HD [onefiled]
• Paper Plane +21D [crazy hack]
• Paper Plane
• Bruce Lee II Preview
• Donkey Kong Junior +5HD [onefiled]
• Bomb Fusion +32D [crazy hack]
• Laberinto [spanish]
• Donkey Kong Junior +3D [onefiled]
• Paper Plane &H [pal/ntsc]
• Rocky Memphis Preview 2 +1M
• Rocky Memphis Preview 2
• Rocky Memphis Preview 2 + [onefiled]
• Moonspire Preview +2
• Moonspire Preview
• X-Force +35D [crazy hack]
• Kanga +3D
• Rocky Memphis Preview 2 [pal/ntsc]
• Pandora +4DS +Pic
• Laberinto +2T

Download: All Games in One Archive (3282)

I have received a Commodore Amiga 500 to use as spare parts. I decided to restore because it’s a ASSY 312512 (Revision 3) with key-switch like IBM chiclet keyboards.

The cleaning took me a whole day but with a great satisfaction at the end of the work. The Commodore Amiga 500 works fine, the floppy drive reads very well and i have added a memory expansion (FAST RAM) of 512k.

Gallery of images (before and after cleaning):

Read more…

For this donation i thank: Andrea C. from Trieste.

Donated items:

• 1 x Apple Macintosh SE / Keyobard / Mouse / Cables
• 1 x Apple StyleWriter II / Cables
• 1 x Fenner MSX SPC-800
• 1 x Philips Quickdisk VY-0002
• 1 x Commodore 64 / Powersupply
• 1 x Bear Games Autovocabolario di Tedesco (MSX Software / TAPE)
• 1 x Bear Games Piramide Mortale Turbo (MSX Software / TAPE)
• 1 x Bear Games Il Tesoro di Argan Allunaggio (MSX Software / TAPE)
• 1 x Driller Tanks (MSX Software / TAPE)
• 1 x Antart (MSX Software / TAPE)
• 1 x A.M.C. / Dinamic (MSX Software / TAPE)

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

Titles:

• Centipede Junior +1J
• Power Pyramids +31D [crazy hack]
• Helicopter Attack Preview +3E [pal/ntsc]
• Wacky Waste +2D
• Eggland +4
• International Karaoke +
• International Karaoke + [Extended Party Disk]
• Mr. Mephisto +5DGM 101%
• Dr Jones [swedish]
• Aviator Arcade Preview +2
• Aviator Arcade Preview +
• 4 Swedish Adventures [swedish]
• Darkland +2
• X-Force +6D [2in1 version]
• Donkey Kong Junior
• Donkey Kong Junior +6D
• Donkey Kong Junior +D
• 3D Roam +2D
• Penetrator Preview +
• Bandana City +22D [crazy hack]
• Donkey Kong Junior +3D [onefiled]
• Gravitrix Preview +2

Download: All Games in One Archive (3400)

Commodore Amiga 600 (Black Screen) Repair

Defect:

• Black Screen.

Replaced parts:

• 4 x Electrolytic Capacitor 10uF 35v
• 2 x Electrolytic Capacitor 22uf 35v

Note:

The Amiga 600 Motherboard looks in good conditions; no traces of a acid leakage from capacitors, as usually happens on Amiga 600/1200/4000, but all had a too high ESR (Equivalent Series Resistance).

Commodore Educator 64 Repair.

Defect:

• The video signal was distorted.
• Smoke coming out from the monitor.

Diagnosis:

• Short circuit in the horizontal video section.

Replaced parts:

• Replaced 1 x Diode MR 854
• Replaced 1 x Electrolytic capacitor 470uF 25v
• Replaced 1 x Resistor 1 Ohm / Tolerance 10%

Working Commodore Educator 64

Commodore Dual Drive Floppy Disk Model 4040 Repair

Defect:

• Completely dead with all LEDs lit up like a christmas tree.

Replaced parts:

• Replaced 1 x LM340K (7812) Voltage Regulator (VR1)
• Replaced 1 x 7406 Hex Inverter Buffers/Drivers (UJ6)
• Replaced 1 x 6522 (VIA) Versatile Interface Adapter (UM3)
• Replaced 1 x 6504 8-Bit CPU (UH3)
• Replaced 1 x 6502 8-Bit CPU (UN1)

Note:

The cause of many problems was the previous repair. It was replaced the voltage regulator LM340K (7812) with a LM338K (Adjustable Regulators). The two components are not compatible and have a different pinout.

Download:

• CBM 2040-3040-4040-8050 Disk Drive Manual + Led Diagnostic (1131)

CBM prg Studio Version 3.2.0 is released. There are a lot of new features in this version. I’d really appreciate it if you report any bugs you find or have any suggestions/comments.

CBM prg Studio allows you to type a BASIC or Machine Code program in using a nice Windows environment and convert it to a ‘.prg’ file which you can run on an emulator, or even a real C64 / VIC20 or PET if you’re feeling brave and have the right kit.

CBM prg Studio is the result of merging C64PrgGen and VIC20PrgGen. Adding new features and fixing bugs in two apps which were 95% similar was a bit of a nightmare so merging them made sense.

It was also a good opportunity for a face lift and to add some new features, such as:

• Programs are project based, meaning all related source files, sprite files etc. are kept in one place and multiple source files can be linked more easily.
• Tabbed MDI.
• Syntax highlighting.

What CBM prg Studio isn’t is a front-end for tok64, cbmcnvrt, bastext or any other tokeniser / detokeniser / assembler. It’s all been written completely from scratch.

New features:

• PTEXT and NULL directives.
• NULL added to GenerateTo directive.
• Colour printing.
• Source overview.

Bug Fixed:

• Assembler:
  • Reformatting code.
  • Some arithmetic problems with variables.

• Basic:
  • Some screen code fixes.
  • Renumbering TRAP keyword (BASIC 3.5 & 7)
  • Mixing upper/lower case in DATA statements.
  • Wrong load address for some C128 BASIC projects.

• General:
  • Better support for Turkish language.
  • Wrong toolbar shown after start-up page.
  • Case sensitive auto-complete
  • Problems with the build events.

Download: CBM prg Studio v3.2.0 (1184)

source: ajordison.co.uk

I must thank my friends which have contributed to the growth of my Repair Laboratory with donations of spare parts.

For this donation i thank: Andrea Pierdomenico, Paolo M.R, Paolo Cognetti.

The items listed below are in poor condition and they are not working.

Donated items:

• 2 x Atari 800 XL
• 1 x Amstrad CPC 464
• 1 x Sinclair ZX Spectrum +2
• 2 x Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48k
• 3 x Commodore 6499
• 1 x Joystick Spectravideo
• 1 x Joystick Suncom Slik Stik
• 1 x Joystick Competition Pro deluxe version (PC)
• 1 x Commodore VIC-20 RF Modulator
• 1 x Commodore VIC-20
• 1 x Philips MSX VG-8020
• 3 x Commodore 64 Power Supply
• 1 x Commodore Amiga 500 Power Supply
• 1 x Philips NMS 800 Data Recorder
• 1 x SVI Spectravideo 904 Data Cassette
• 1 x SVI Spectravideo 728 MSX Home Computer
• 1 x Commodore 16
• 1 x Commodore Floppy Drive 1541
• 1 x Apple IIc
• 6 x Sinclair Spectrum Microdrive (only the drive)
• 1 x Motherboard XT Clone
• 1 x Motherboard XT IBM 5150
• 1 x Power Supply Clone XT 5150
• 1 x MDA Graphics Card ISA
• 1 x Floppy Controller ISA
• 1 x Motherboard Amiga 600
• Some Floppy Disk.
• Some Tape Cassette.
• Some cables.

I must thank Davide M. for the donation.

Gallery:

The Commodore 4040 is the replacement for the previous models 2040 (USA) and 3040 (Europe). It’s a dual drive 5¼” floppy disk subsystem for Commodore International computers. It uses a wide case form, and uses the IEEE-488 interface common to Commodore PET/CBM computers.

These drive models use a similar single density, single side floppy data storage format to that used by the Commodore 1541 drive, but with a slightly different data marker indicating which model originally formatted the disk. The low-level disk format was similar enough to allow reading between models, but different enough that one series of drive models could not reliably write to disks formatted with one of the other model series.

Download: CBM 2040-3040-4040-8050 Disk Drive Manual (2319)

Testing the Floppy Drive with the ZoomFloppy interface:

source: wikipedia

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

Titles:

• Robin of the Wood +12DG +PIC +MAP
• Camelot Warriors +8DG +Pic +Map
• Wizball USA +2 [ntsc/pal]
• Sergeant Seymour Robotcop +25D
• Tazz HS
• Rasdumje +1D
• Robin of the Wood +33D
• City Champ Preview
• Mario Clone Preview
• Blopp +1ED
• Fireblaster Preview
• Crystal Chamber Preview
• Ciphoid 9 +6DIH 101%
• Tales of the Arabian Nights +32D
• Air Sea Battle
• UFO Attack +J
• Looter 100% +1J
• Air Sea Battle +J
• Looter +
• UFO Attack
• Head-On +2D [onefiled]
• Invader Alert +ED 101%
• Savage Island 101% +1S
• Centipede Junior +1J
• Up’n Down +23D [crazy hack]

Download: All Games in One Archive (3146)