A rare Commodore 65 on eBay.

from Wikipedia:

The Commodore 65 (also known as the C64DX, not to be confused with the Commodore SX-64 portable unit) was a prototype computer created by Fred Bowen and others at Commodore Business Machines (CBM) (part of Commodore International) in 1990–1991. The project was cancelled by CEO Irving Gould.

The C65 was an improved version of the Commodore 64, and it was meant to be backwards-compatible with the older computer, while still providing a number of advanced features close to those of the Amiga. It can be regarded as a counterpart to the Apple IIgs in providing 16-bit-equivalent technology on an 8-bit platform, though the IIgs used an 8/16 bit 65C816 processor. When Commodore International was liquidated in 1994, a number of prototypes were sold on the open market, and thus a few people actually own a Commodore 65. Estimates as to the actual number of machines found on the open market range from 50 to 2000 units.

As the C65 project was cancelled, the final 8-bit offering from CBM remained the triple-mode, 1–2 MHz, 128 kB (expandable), C64-compatible Commodore 128 of 1985.

source: ebay.de wikipedia

Autopsy:

The photos of the inside can be found here.

from Wikipedia homepage:

The ZX81, released in a slightly modified form in the United States as the Timex Sinclair 1000, was a home computer produced by Sinclair Research and manufactured in Scotland by Timex Corporation. It was launched in the United Kingdom in March 1981 as the successor to Sinclair’s ZX80 and was designed to be a low-cost introduction to home computing for the general public. It was hugely successful and more than 1.5 million units were sold before it was eventually discontinued.

The ZX81 found commercial success in many other countries, notably the United States, where Timex manufactured and distributed it under licence and enjoyed a substantial but brief boom in sales. Timex later produced its own versions of the ZX81 for the US market – the Timex Sinclair 1000 and Timex Sinclair 1500. Unauthorised clones of the ZX81 were produced in a number of countries.

The ZX81 was designed to be small, simple, and above all cheap, using as few components as possible to keep the cost down. Video output was to a television set rather than a dedicated monitor. Programs and data were loaded and saved onto audio tape cassettes. It had only four silicon chips on board and a mere 1 kB of memory. The machine had no moving parts – not even a power switch – and used a touch-sensitive membrane keyboard for manual input.

The ZX81′s limitations prompted the emergence of a flourishing market in third-party peripherals to improve its capabilities. Such limitations, however, achieved Sinclair’s objective of keeping the cost of the machine as low as possible. Its distinctive design brought its designer, Rick Dickinson, a Design Council award.

The ZX81 could be bought by mail order in kit form or pre-assembled. In what was then a major innovation, it was the first cheap mass-market home computer that could be bought from high street stores, led by W.H. Smith and soon many other retailers. The ZX81 marked the first time that computing in Britain became an activity for the general public, rather than the preserve of businesspeople and electronics hobbyists. It inspired the creation of a huge community of enthusiasts, some of whom founded their own businesses producing software and hardware for the ZX81. Many went on to play a major role in the British computer industry in later years.

The ZX81′s commercial success made Sinclair Research one of Britain’s leading computer manufacturers and earned a fortune and an eventual knighthood for the company’s founder, Sir Clive Sinclair.

source: wikipedia

It ended yesterday (24 November) the musical competition (SID Tunez) High-score Power Ballad Competition 2012.

Below you can find the complete archive of all songs released for this competition in D64, PRG, SID format. For more information please visit The C64 Scene Database.

Download: High-score Power Ballad SID Competition 2012 (1019)

source: noname.c64.org

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italian.

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

Download:

• Telengard v5.2 permadeath (941)
• Super Phoenix +TD [english] (937)
• The Cursed Key +2 (913)
• Alien Bash 2 +5F [pal/ntsc] (950)
• Sleepwalking Backwards &D (914)
• Get \'Em (16KB Cartridge Version) +5H [pal/ntsc] (950)
• All Games in One Archive (2271)

source: csdb.dk

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

Changelog:

• Menu: Files are now sorted by their entire file name instead of the first 20 characters only.
• Menu: Ignore input from non-standard controllers (Super Scope, Mouse etc.)
• SPC player: fix soft fade-in (first note cut off) on S-APU consoles (1CHIP / some Jr.)
• More accurate BS-X memory map.
• Correctly map SRAM larger than 8192 bytes (HiROM) / 32768 bytes (LoROM), fixes Dezaemon, Ongaku Tsukuuru – Kanadeeru
• Minor memory access timing tweaks (should help with occasional glitches on some systems)

Download: SD2Snes Firmware v0.1.5 (1298)

source: sd2snes.de

A new cool music demo by Algorithm/Onslaught.

Download: 8bit Passion by Algorithm (973)

source: noname.c64.org/csdb

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italian.

Some new games (Cracked / Trained or Unrealeased) for Commodore 64 have been released from your favorites groups: Antarctica, WST, Mayday!, Really Proud Lamers, TRIAD and Laxity.

Download:

• Tank (Uptime) +2D +Pic 101% (941)
• Star Trek (2003) +5H [pal/ntsc] (947)
• Paku Paku Preview +3 [pal/ntsc] (929)
• Telengard V5.1 (956)
• Dunzhin +D (949)
• Kosmodrom +1EHD 101% [pal] (1025)
• Pingvaders from space Preview 0.1 + (917)
• International 5-A-Side Football [polish] (964)
• All Games in One Archive (2455)

source: csdb.dk

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.

Firmware SD HxCFloppyEmulator v1.7.2.0:

• Microchip PIC18F4620 Rev. B5 Silicon MSSP Module Errata applied (correct possible SDCard Init issues).
• SDCard layer reviewed / corrected / enhanced : Better SDCard compatibility / Error handling.

Release notes for the HxCFloppyEmulator software v2.0.6.0:

• PRE-RELEASE – IN DEVELOPMENT: HxCFloppyEmulator software v2.0.6.0 (Windows & Mac OS X support !)

Download:

• HxCFloppyEmulator v2.0.6.0 *BETA* (1027)
• HxC Floppy Emulator Firmware v1.7.2.0 (1042)

source: hxc2001.free.fr

A new version of the firmware for the interface 1541 Ultimate II is released. This version runs only on the 1541 Ultimate II cartridge (new fpga).

Version 2.5 includes some new features:

• File viewer.
• Selectable colors in user interface.

This version also includes some fixes for nasty memory allocation bugs that existed when using USB sticks. Removal of a USB device is now at least a lot safer. Also, some file system bugs were fixed.

Version 2.5+ includes some new features:

The ‘plus’ version of 2.5 including a special 7-voice audio engine. This version is based on the same 2.5 with the bugfixes and a special FPGA build can it only supports ONE floppy drive, in favor of extra audio functionality.

Download:

• 1541 Ultimate II Firmware v2.5 (1230)
• 1541 Ultimate II Firmware v2.5+ (1243)
• Ultimate Audio API Manual v0.2 (1757)

source: 1541ultimate.net

SNDH archive v4.0 released. 121 SNDH-files added or updated!

Ever since the birth of the Atari ST, different chip music formats have had different ways to use them. If you are coding a chip music player for the Atari ST you would have to use dozens and dozens of special ways to replay music.

But in the mid 90′s, BDC of Aura crew became tired of this inelegant system and decided to fix the issue once and for all. He then created the ‘SNDH’ file format. SNDH is actually the original songfile and replaycode with a header bolted on top of the music and replayer. The header has a unified calling interface no matter what type of chip music is hidden beneath it, and it has extended datas about the music.

Download: SNDH Atari ST YM2149 Archive v4.0 (1368)

source: sndh.atari.org

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 14.00:

• Mixer control.
• Stereo.
• Simple reverb.
• Startup directory.

Beta 14.00 – note from the author:

The Ym2149 version 14.0 Beta is probably the most important update that I have released. I have change how the program handle the sound thread and that have improve the stability of the program very much.

Sometime when changing device / export to wav /sampling frequency, etc. the program would hang, but that should be gone now.
I have rewritten the Ym2149 emulations, so it should be closer to that of a real Ym2149 chip. I have also made a mixer window, where you can change stereo/ mono mode, reverb, and output volume of the channels. plus a lot more. I have also remove a numbers of smaller errors.

Download: Ym2149 V14.00 Beta full packed (with Ym files) (1453)

source: bitmania.de

Censor Design has released a new version of their demo Wonderland XI released at the demo party X-2012.

Download: Wonderland XI by Censor (Revision 2) (973)

source: csdb.dk

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

Download:

• Back to the Future +3PD +Solution (1102)
• Trance Sector +8HDF 101% [pal/ntsc] (1068)
• Trance Sector +10 HFD 101% [pal/ntsc] (1284)
• All Games in One Archive (2209)

source: csdb.dk