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 v2.0.15.1:

• FAT12 Loader/generator : Default file creation date set to 1985 to avoid issue with non year 2000 compatibles machines (Kawasaki JS30 robots…).
• Apple 2 Sectors generator : End of sector sync corrected, 6&2 GCR encoder corrected.
• Track viewer : Sectors on track boundary display issue corrected.

Download:

• HxCFloppyEmulator v2.0.15.1 (962)

source: hxc2001.free.fr lotharek.pl

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.

HxC Floppy Emulator DOS Disk Image Browser:

The HxC Floppy Emulator DOS Disk Image Browser is a simplified version of the HxC Floppy Emulator software. This version is designed to replace the VFD solution.

Avantages over the VFD solution:

• No driver installation needed.
• Support of 3 mode DOS floppy disk image (1KB sector size) (For PC98 based CNC machines).
• Support of special/custom DOS floppy disk image (2.5MB,4.5MB,6.78MB…)
• Ready to be used on non-windows systems (Mac, Linux,…) ! ;)
• Simple use !

Release notes for the HxCFloppyEmulator software v2.0.15.0:

• New Loader: SpeccyDos *.SDD support added
• New Loader: Apple 2 DOS 3.3 (*.DO) & ProDOS (*.PO) raw file image added.
• New Writer: HFE file with the HDDD A2 support for Apple II (http://www.bootzero.com/HDDD_A2_v1.2/HDDD_A2v1.2.html)
• New Writer: Atari ST MSA file.
• New Writer: TRS 80 *.JV3 file. (Done by David Barr ! Thanks to him :) )
• New Writer: TRS 80 *.DMK file.
• New Writer: PC88 *.D88 file.
• FAT12 Loader/generator: Atari ST 902KB  format corrected.
• FAT12 Loader/generator: Atari ST 4.23MB format corrected.
• HFE File Writer: Track padding function corrected.
• EDE File Loader: edt & edv file support added, ASR 10 gap3 adjusted to 36.
• JV3 File Loader: Sector interleaving correctly implemented.
• IMD File Writer: No allocated sector issue corrected.
• XDMS Lib: UTF8 path support added.
• LIBSAP Lib: UTF8 path support added.
• New Track/Sector support: GCR “6 and 2″ Apple II DOS 3.3/ProDos.
• FAT12 Disk Browser:  Handle freeing corrected
• GUI – Drag & Drop Support: URI type path support added (Linux).
• GUI – Track viewer window: New buttons to enable/disable track format analysis.
• GUI – Log window: New buttons to enable/disable logs messages.

• Raw Loader – Predefined raw formats added:
  • Roland W30/S330/W50/S50/S550 DD Floppy Disk.
  • OS9 1280KB Floppy Disk.
  • Linn/Forat 9000 Floppy Disk.
  • KORG T3 3″5 HD Floppy Disk.
  • Atari ST 3″5 DD Floppy Disk
  • Standard 3″5 DOS ED Floppy Disk
  • Special 2.5MB DOS EXHD Floppy Disk
  • Special 4.5MB DOS EXHD Floppy Disk.
  • Special 6.78MB DOS EXHD Floppy Disk.

• Updated:
  • Ensoniq EPS 3″5 HD Floppy Disk : Gap3 adjusted.
  • Standard 3″5 DOS HD Floppy Disk : Gap3 adjusted.
  • Standard 3″5 DOS DD Floppy Disk : Gap3 adjusted.

Download:

• HxCFloppyEmulator v2.0.15.0 (1539)
• HxC Floppy Emulator DOS Disk Image Browse (1481)

source: hxc2001.free.fr lotharek.pl

Autopsy:

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from Wikipedia:

The Commodore 8050 and Commodore 8250 were dual unit 5¼” floppy disk drives for Commodore International computers. They used a wide rectangular steel case form similar to that of the Commodore 4040, and used the IEEE-488 interface common to Commodore PET/CBM computers.

The 8050 was a single sided drive, whereas the 8250 could use both sides of a disk simultaneously. Both used a “quad” density format storing approximately 0.5 megabyte per side. The density of media was similar to later PC high density floppy disks, but the 8050 and 8250 could not use PC high density disks reliably. Since “quad” density disks were rare even at the time, users quickly found that typical double density floppy disks had enough magnetic media density to work in these drives.

These drives were not dual mode, so they could not read or write disks formatted by the more common lower capacity Commodore 1541 or Commodore 4040 models. Some variants of these drives existed. The Commodore 8250LP was the 8250 in a lower profile, tan-colored case. The Commodore SFD-1001 was a single drive version of the 8250 in a Commodore 1541 style case (similarly to the Commodore 2031LP), often used by bulletin board systems for their physical similarity to 1541s and high capacity and speed.

source: wikipedia

CBM prg Studio Version 2.7.0 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:

• Debugger:
  • Keyboard shortcuts.
  • Instruction cycle counter.
  • Overlay files.
  • VICE Snapshot files (for C64 and VIC 20 only).
  • Better execution control, e.g. step over, into etc.
  • Change SP and SR registers.
  • Memory viewer.
  • Much better performance.
  • Updated tutorial.

• Character editor:
  • Edited characters indicator.
  • Copy groups of characters.
  • Scroll the scratchpad.

• BASIC:
  • Batch mode added.
  • Constants can be defined/redefined in code, and use hex values.
  • Auto line numbering inproved.

Bugs fixed:

• ‘£’ was in invalid BASIC character.
• $(nn),y was not being assembled properly, whereas ($nn),y was.
• Casted offsets (offsets which are based on other offsets) were broken.
• Problems renumbering BASIC programs with ON..GOTO/GOSUB with spaces in the line number list.
• PC relative offsets (e.g. bvc *-2) fixed.
• ‘Align’ directive not working.
• Load/save in character editor.
• Multicolour issues with the screen/character/sprite editors.
• Including sprite files (IncBin) into assembly source only generated 63 bytes.

See the help for a complete list of new features and fixed bugs.

Download: CBM prg Studio v2.7.0 (922)

source: ajordison.co.uk

Some new games (Cracked / Trained or Unrealeased) for Commodore 64 have been released from your favorites groups: Alpha Flight, Nostalgia, Dév, The Mad Scientist, Dinasours, Didi, Unreal, The Hidden Farts and Laxity.

Download:

• Glider Rider +4/D/P/TL (986)
• Arcade Fruit Machine 101% +4DFH (1138)
• Immensity Preview (966)
• Jet Set Willy Bugfixed - TAPES (1007)
• Jungle Jack +2 (958)
• Superbike +P (991)
• Titanic (1018)
• Z-Zone +2 (955)
• Dina\'s Dinosaur Math (948)
• Electra-Ship +2 (967)
• Fetris 100% [pal/ntsc] [bugfixed] (956)
• Chopper Command + (986)
• Schlimeisch Mania (950)
• Schlimeisch Mania +F [pal/ntsc] (950)
• Guardian +2DH (950)
• Trance Sector CE +10HFD 100% [pal/ntsc] (975)
• All Games in One Archive (2475)

source: csdb.dk

This is the official demo party results from Silesia Party 7 (Top 3 Entries only). See also the Silesia Party homepage for more informations.

C64 Demo:

• 1. “Quadrangulus 80%” Dream
• 2. “B-Land Scrapbook” Samar

C64 4K Intro:

• 1. “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” Samar
• 2. “Big Blue” Vulture

C64 Graphics:

• 1. “S7″ CRRN/Elysium
• 2. “Masks” Questor/Albion
• 3. “Waiting For Silesia” Joodas/Albion

C64 Music (1SID):

• 1. “Human Hunting” Randall/Arise
• 2. “In A Rush” MCH/Genesis Project
• 3. “Cow Anus Fucked” Surgeon/Vulture

C64 Music (2SID):

• 1. “Love Fileosophy” GRG/Shape
• 2. “Last Party” Buddha/Vulture
• 3. “Blank Page, Part 3″ Conrad/Samars.

C64 Sample Music:

• 1. “Sandmonster” MCH/Genesis Project
• 2. “Chemoglobina” Bab00n/Brownhole
• 3. “Kanikurwy” Raf/Vulture

Wild competition:

• 1. “Somar” Elytarium

Download: Silesia Party 7 full Party stuff (1042)

source: noname.c64.org/csdb silesiaparty.pl

This is a firmware hack of the version 2.6d build for the 1541 Ultimate Plus (MK1) by Bradon (forum link).

The latest official version for the 1541 Ultimate Plus (MK1) is the version v2.4a.

Note from the author:

After much frustration, I finally managed to get a working build environment for the 1541U firmware.

My 1541U is a MK1 Plus unit (no network). The last revision of the firmware I could compile is 2.6d, SVN revision 131. Starting with 132 it seems that the content is too much for the older FPGA. I started to look into removing cart ROMs I don’t use and gave up realizing this would be too much to do in my spare time, since their offset locations are hardcoded.

I removed the “too old” warning check so it will boot up without having to dismiss a warning.

So far it seems to work correctly. I don’t know if the FPGA revision check really matters for this revision or not. It would appear Gideon has no desire to continue supporting MK1 units since building for them is not possible with the latest revisions. This is of course fine with me (I don’t expect he will forever and ever try to make it work on older units), I just wanted the most recent build possible.

Changes:

• Added F3 help screen to show 1541U commands.
• Modified the file viewer so that scrolling will not advance past the last line.
• Added F1 and F7 page up/down to the file viewer.
• Modified behavior of the file browser so that when you cursor-right on an item with no children, the context menu is brought up as if you pressed return.

Download: 1541 Ultimate (MK1) v2.6d.o918r4 (1261)

source: 1541ultimate.net

Some new games (Cracked / Trained or Unrealeased) for Commodore 64 have been released from your favorites groups: Onslaught, INFERIOR Software International, Antarctica and Laxity.

Download:

• Up in the Air Preview 2 +4 (923)
• Triangle +1D (967)
• Ball Preview (953)
• Flubble & Squij (+Remix) +8HD (1002)
• Gold Quest 5 (993)
• All Games in One Archive (2415)

source: csdb.dk

The High Voltage SID Collection (HVSC) is a freeware hobby project which organises Commodore 64 music (also known as SID music) into an archive for both musicians and fans alike.

The work on the collection is done completely in the Team and contributors’ spare time and is proudly one of the largest and most accurate computer music collections known.

This update features (all approximates):

• 747 new SIDs
• 315 fixed/better rips
• 7 repeats/bad rips eliminated
• 629 SID credit fixes
• 750 SID model/clock infos
• 9 tunes from /DEMOS/UNKNOWN/ identified
• 5 tunes from /GAMES/ identified
• 27 tunes moved out of /DEMOS/ to their composers’ directories
• 15 tunes moved out of /GAMES/ to their composers’ directories

Download:

• HVSC Update #59 (1262)
• HVSC Complete #59 (1444)

source: www.hvsc.c64.org

How to write the .DSK files to Floppy Disk for the Sharp MZ-80B ?

The answer is quite simple, first of all there you need an old computer with harddisk with installed the operating system DOS/FreeDOS and a Floppy Drive 5¼. The tool to use is the CPDWrite (Copy Protected Disk Writer) v1.03 and some floppy disk image in .DSK format for the Sharp MZ-80B.

Below you can download the archive containing many floppy disk in .DSK format and the utility to write files on Floppy Disk.

The original archive was downloaded from this web page, but unfortunately the only one floppy disk that seemed to be more interesting ‘DISK15.DSK’ containing the games for this computer was corrupted. I found the problem and i have fixed with the use of a hex editor, the fixed version was included in the archive.

Download:

• CPDWrite v1.03 (1345)
• MZ-80B (DSK) Floppy Images (1371)

Autopsy:

12345►

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.

From the first Z80 processor-based model to the MZ-2200 in 1983, the MZ computers included the PC, monitor, keyboard, and tape-based recorder in a single unit, similar to Commodore’s PET series. It was also notable for not including a programming language or operating system in ROM, like the IBM PC. This allowed a host of third-party companies, starting with Hudson Soft, to produce many languages and OSes for the system. In an era when floppy disk drives were too expensive for most home users, the MZ’s built-in tape drive was considered faster and more reliable than the drive on competing computers; however, this meant that the MZ series was relatively slow to adopt floppy drives as a standard accessory.

The MZ series is divided into several lines, including the text-based MZ-80K series, the graphics-based MZ-80B series, and the MZ-3500/5500 series, based on a completely different architecture. In 1982, Sharp’s television division released the X1, a completely new computer. The X series proved to outsell Sharp’s own MZ series, and in response, Sharp released the MZ-1500/2500 machines, which featured powered-up graphics and sound capabilities. However, this series saw little marketplace success, and eventually the company abandoned the line in favor of the X68000 series.

The MZ name lives on as the initials of two of Sharp’s most well-known products: the Mebius line of PCs, and the Zaurus line of personal digital assistants.

Sharp MZ-80B Loading Basic from Disk Drive CE 510:

source: wikipedia

It’s been six long years of Design and Testing of the FPGA Arcade Replay Board and now finally is available for purchase.

Price is 199 Euro for the version without composite/SVHS output, 229 Euro with.

FPGA Arcade Replay features:

• Very large FPGA with high IO pin count for expansion.64 MByte of DDR memory.
• Six layer PCB for high performance and stability.
• 24 bit HD DAC with DVI / HDMI / VGA and legacy 15K monitor support.
• Video line buffer / filter for highest quality output.
• 24 bit / 192KHz audio DAC.
• Flexible clock generator.
• Small board size, fits in standard itx/atx case.
• Lots of expansion for custom daughterboards or IO adapters (JAMMA for arcade cab use).
• Optional dual host USB with dedicated CPU for low latency.
• Daughterboard with Ethernet, fast USB and optional 68060 processor being designed.
• Designed from the ground up to support multiple platforms (Amiga, Atari and others)

source: fpgaarcade.com

Some new games (Cracked / Trained or Unrealeased) for Commodore 64 have been released from your favorites groups: Avatar, Nostalgia, Really Proud Lamers, Antarctica, Flimsoft, Genesis Project, Laxity, Hackersoft and Rewind.

Download:

• Phase Out Preview + (1050)
• XOR +7DS [pal/ntsc] (1003)
• Outbreak Preview (981)
• Lights On +6HD (948)
• Lights On (953)
• The Last Ninja +8D (950)
• TRAZ +7DH (946)
• Boxing Game Preview &D (963)
• I-Ball Revisited +35D (962)
• Tork Fighter-8 + (952)
• All Games in One Archive (2492)

source: csdb.dk

This is the official demo party results from Flashback 2013 (Top 3 Entries only). See also the CSDB Flashback 2013 section for more informations and download.

C64 Demo:

• Famous Australians Vol.1 by Fairlight, Offence, Prosonix

C64 Music:

• Back2_V_arsity by Viruz
• Night by NioByte
• Resurgence by Triton
  • Flashback zero-thirteen by Genesis Project

C64 Graphics:

• Party On, Fishbone by iLKke
• Knock by rexbeng
• Seafarer by Senex

Download: Flashback 2013 full Party stuff (1043)

source: csdb.dk

Autopsy:

1234►

from Wikipedia:

The Texas Instruments TI-99/4A was an early home computer, released in June 1981, originally at a price of US$525. It was an enhanced version of the less successful TI-99/4 model, which was released in late 1979 at a price of $1,150. The TI-99/4A added an additional graphics mode, “lowercase” characters consisting of small capitals, and a full travel keyboard. Its predecessor, the TI-99/4, featured a calculator-style chiclet keyboard and a character set that lacked lowercase text.

The TI-99/4A’s CPU, motherboard, and ROM cartridge (“Solid State Software”) slot were built into a single console, along with the keyboard. The power regulator board is housed below and in front of the cartridge slot under the sloped area to the right of the keyboard. This area gets very hot so users commonly refer to it as the “coffee cup warmer”. The external power supply, which was different according to the country of sale, was merely a step-down transformer.

Available peripherals included a 5¼” floppy disk drive and controller, an RS-232 card comprising two serial ports and one parallel port, a P-code card for Pascal support, a thermal printer, an acoustic coupler, a tape drive using standard audio cassettes as media, and a 32 KB memory expansion card. The TI-99/4 was sold with both the computer and a monitor (a modified 13″ Zenith Color TV) as Texas Instruments could not get their RF Modulator FCC approved in time. The TI-99/4A did ship with an RF Modulator.

In the early 1980s, TI was known as a pioneer in speech synthesis, and a highly popular plug-in speech synthesizer module was available for the TI-99/4 and 4A. Speech synthesizers were offered free with the purchase of a number of cartridges and were used by many TI-written video games (notable titles offered with speech during this promotion were Alpiner and Parsec). The synthesizer used a variant of linear predictive coding and had a small in-built vocabulary. The original intent was to release small cartridges that plugged directly into the synthesizer unit, which would increase the device’s built in vocabulary. However, the success of software text-to-speech in the Terminal Emulator II cartridge cancelled that plan. Most speech synthesizers were still shipped with the door that opened on the top, although very few had the connector inside. There are no known speech modules in existence for those few units with the connector. In many games (mostly those produced by TI), the speech synthesizer had relatively realistic voices. For example, Alpiner’s speech included male and female voices and could be quite sarcastic when the player made a bad move.

Playing Alpiner Cartridge:

source: wikipedia