I just received THREE of the above boards from an eBay purchase. I don't suppose anyone has any docs, do you? (Note that these are not Centronics parallel printer interfaces, but dual 6522-driven quad parallel port cards.)

If nobody comes forward, I would be glad to donate one of these to any of you hardware gurus who could draw a schematic* and take an educated guess as to how to use them.

*schematic actually optional

Thanks.

Has anyone tried plugging the SID output into a Stylophone Pocket Synthesizer (or vice-versa)? It's a repro of the 1967 original, so it was around 10 years before even the PET was built, which makes it period-authentic.

Only $20 at ThinkGeek, so I'm tempted.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/musical-instruments/aa64/



Looks like it's sold out at ThinkGeek, but Restoration Hardware has it for $9 more:

http://www.restorationhardware.com/rh/catalog/product/product.jsp?navAction=jump&id=prod1644188

From the data sheet blurb:

"MicroVGA - Device Overview

MicroVGA is low-cost Microcontroller to VGA interface providing 80x25 16 color text mode (physical resolution is 800x600 at 60 Hz). MicroVGA is connected to a MCU via 2 or 4 wire RS-232 TTL or LVCMOS compatible interface. Display is controlled using ANSI terminal codes (such as cursor movement, colors, etc).

In addition to VGA output the interface provides also NTSC/PAL signal output for television viewing and PS/2 keyboard input. This makes the MicroVGA an ideal solution for user interface in embedded applications. The MicroVGA is a complete user interface module, 3-in-1 functions.

MicroVGA can be connected to any MCU with UART, such as Microchip PIC (including PICmicro, PIC16 and dsPIC33), Atmel ATmega, 8051, ARM, MIPS, or even PowerPC."

Datasheet: http://microvga.com/pdf/uvga-text-ds.pdf



In short, you could hook this up to a C64's (or C128's, but why?) user port and create a VGA/S-VHS 80x40 16-color ANSI terminal, with PS/2 keyboard interface to boot.

I wish there was a way to use this design's technology to creat a simple VGA/S-VHS adapter for the C128's CGA output.

$29.95 here: http://store.fungizmos.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=65&products_id=290

I never noticed this online CBM PD library before. Some of the programs might be in various Scandinavian languages, but I think most are in English. Mostly C64 stuff, but quite a few C128 programs, too. Happy hunting!

http://www.softwolves.pp.se/cbm/syspd/

Wouldn't it be cool if some CBM hardware guru interfaced this $20 chip to the C64/C128 user port?

http://micromegacorp.com/downloads/documentation/uMFPU-V3_1%20Datasheet.pdf

I've always wanted a math coprocessor chip for my C128.

Brainstorm time:

Set an interrupt to the user port 6526 that would latch a new output value every VDC scanline. Or character row. Whatever.

Now take the Intensity line of the CGA output and used it to toggle the 8-bit value from the user port into a set of 8 resistors. You'd need a small circuit board for the TTL chip and resistors.

Every time the I bit is =0, you'd get the normal low-intensity color from the RGB mix. But when I=1, you'd get an intensity value from 0-255.

That's 8 colors x 256 = 2048 different colors. The 8 'low' colors would be common to each scanline, but the intensity could be any single value from the 256 intensity values for each scanline.

That's still only 16 colors at a time, but a palette for 2k colors for the screen.

Of course, the colors you end up with would be limited by your initial palette of 8, but...

You could ALSO do this with the R, G, and B values!

What you'd have would no longer be displayable on a CGA monitor. I'm not sure what kind of monitor you would need - VGA?

Fun idea, huh? Now I need you wizards to tell me why this won't work.

I'm looking to buy a COMAL 80 cartridge for the Commodore 128.

I already own both versions of the COMAL 80 cart for the C64. The C128 cart looks a lot like the black C64 version, but it has the words "Commodore 128" prominently displayed on the label.

If you have one that you'd be willing to sell, please contact me. I'm prepared to pay well for one.

I don't own a PET but I got a PET book bundled with some other stuff and I'd like to find it a good home.

Just PM me first and it's yours. U.S. only. Sorry.

PET/CBM Personal Computer Guide (Osborne/McGraw-Hill) - (c) 1980 by Carroll S. Donahue & Janice K. Enger. Covers Rev 2 & 3 ROMS of the original PET, with chicklet or typewriter keys. I would call this book to be in 'pretty good' shape. Pages are white, no mildew. Cover is rough but not ripped. Some pencil marks in the text, and the previous owner put their name in marker on the first page, then added some ugly sticky index tabs to a few of the pages. So if you're looking for 'brand new' this ain't it, but it's clean and very usable.

Edit Forgot I had this one: Original CBM PET User Manual, (c) June 1979. For 2001-16 -32 & 3016, 3032. First Edition, and in unbelievable shape! Cover is somewhat yellowed with a few small stains, but cover and all pages are not bent or torn, The pages are pure white. Please don't pick this one up just to eBay it! I want it to find a good home.

ONE book per customer, please.

I love COMAL and I love the C128, but I don't have a COMAL 128 cartridge.

If you have one you'd like to sell, please contact me.

Someone needs to do this for the C128:

http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/bill/photos/atari1200xl_vs_dellinspiron1525/

Infoworld has a nice article titled True Believers: The Biggest Cults in Tech. It lists "Commodorians" as #4.

Jim Brain is interviewed. It's amazing to me that they found the guy who is probably the best person to serve as a spokesperson for the Commodore Cult. Usually these articles seem to dredge up somebody who has no idea what they're talking about.

Another (anonymous) interviewee says Commodore Amiga fans are "annoyingly crazy".

Also listed: Palm, Ruby, Ubuntu, Lisp, IBM midrange systems, and the Newton.

According to this chart, the Commodore 64 is intellectually equivalent to a worm.

But it has better sound and graphics.

I know, I know. I throw out too many ideas and never develop any of them. I'm lame. I admit it. But I can't help myself.

I've been thinking about the possibility of having a 65C816 accelerator that plugs into the Z80 slot on the C128 motherboard.

You would, of course, need new ROMs for the C128 to work with it, but that's a minor concern.

I'm thinking of something relatively simple - no bells and whistles like an IDE controller or any of that.

The HARDWARE would consist of a minimalist daughterboard for the Z80 slot with a 65C816 @20MHz w/16MB RAM/Flash.

The SOFTWARE would provide a multitasking O/S w/40 & 80 multiple screens/windows support, REU emulation, cartridge emulation, and execution speed control.

When the daughterboard is active, the C128 itself would be relegated to I/O duties. The main function of the board would be to allow multiple C128 and/or C64 programs to run in a multitasking environment at user-selectable speeds.

That's it. Now it's time for all you smart guys to tell me why it won't work. And you can add disparaging comments about how lame I am if you want to, as well.

Lance, how do you post those zoomable images you use in some of your posts? Is it a service, some proprietary sysop-only code, or what? Thanks.

Lemon64 seems to have been down for a couple of days. Again.

I think we should all chip in and buy a solid gold, 16 gazillion gigahertz machine to run Lemon and C128 Alive, so we don't ever have to suffer from withdrawal.

If they ever both go down at once, I don't know what I'd do.

This turned up in a Google search:

http://landover.no-ip.com/128/backupforum/index.php

It's kind of like the C128 Alive! attic. I didn't know you kept this old stuff around, Lance! This is from way back when I only had 744 posts!

Quote from: Golan Klinger on October 11, 2008, 09:01 AMThat site belonged to Vanessa Ezekowitz who still participates (albeit somewhat irregularly) in comp.sys.cbm. You could always contact her about the contents of that site.

One of the more interesting projects she had was one to interface a Connectix QuickCAM webcam (which I just happen to have in a box somewhere) to the C64/C128 user port. I knew Nick Coplin at 64HDD had written some additional software for that interface, but I didn't realize until I looked at the D64 today that he includes Vanessa's circuit diagram.

Here's what Nick has to say about it:

QuoteQuickCAM64 (18kb) is a project by Vanessa Ezekowitz, with some new drivers by me. Vanessa made the original circuit to connect the Connectix QuickCAM to the Commodore's UserPort and provided the basic software for viewing pictures. I have recompiled the software into "easy-to-use" D64 format with appropriate loaders and have added 2Mhz support for the hi-res modes if you are using a C128-in-C64-mode.

In the future I plan to develop video capture software which buffers the data to RAM or expansion RAM and then lets you save it to disk or play it back, as the original code will not let you save the images directly.

Since Nick has added 2MHz support, I hereby decree that discussion of this project is pertinent to the C128 forums.



Here's Vanessa's ASCII circuit diagram:

Quickscan G1 interface for Connectix Quickcam-to-C64
----------------------------------------------------

Parts:  1 - 5-pin PC-mount Female DIN plug
        1 - User port connector (12/24 conductor, .156" contact centers)
        1 - 25 pin male D-SUB connector (the kind that can mount on the
            edge of a board is nice)
        1 - 4066 quad analog switch (standard DIP style of course)

The numbers, letters, and indications in parenthesis at each end of the
lines is the pin number to connect to.  The wording outside the
parenthesis (like SP1, /Reset-N, etc) is the name of the pin or connection
at each end of the line.

The Quickcam comes with a little power-connector that must plug into the
DIN connector, as well as the data plug which goes into the D-SUB
connector.

As is normal with Commodore schematics in text form, a slash / in front of
an indication, such as /Reset-N, means that the line in question is
inverted (a low/grounded level means a logic "1").

User Port                                                       Quickcam

(1,12,A,N) GND ----*------------------------------- GND (18-25, DIN Pin 4)
(2) +5v ---------*-!------------------------------------ Power (DIN Pin 5)
(5) SP1 ---------!-!---------------------------------- /Reset-N (16)
(9) /PA3 --------!-!------------------------------------ PC-Ack (17)
(7) SP2 ---------!-!-------*-----*-----*-----.
                 ! !       ! 5   ! 6   ! 12  ! 13
                 ! !    ,--"-----"-----"-----"--.
                 ! !    !  E2    E3    E4    E1 !
                 ! !    !                       !
                 ! "--7-! GND                   !
                 "---14-! Vcc      U 1          !
                        !        4 0 6 6        !
           ,----------2-!B1                   A1!-1------- Nyb0 (12)
           ! ,--------3-!B2                   A2!-4------- Nyb1 (13)
           ! ! ,------9-!B3                   A3!-8------- Nyb2 (10)
           ! ! ! ,---10-!B4                   A4!-11----- /Nyb3 (11)
           ! ! ! !      !                       !
           ! ! ! !      "-----------------------'
           ! ! ! !                        
(C) PB0 ---*-!-!-!---------------------------------------- CMD0 (2)
(D) PB1 -----*-!-!---------------------------------------- CMD1 (3)
(E) PB2 -------*-!---------------------------------------- CMD2 (4)
(F) PB3 ---------*---------------------------------------- CMD3 (5)
(H) PB4 -------------------------------------------------- CMD4 (6)
(J) PB5 -------------------------------------------------- CMD5 (7)
(K) PB6 -------------------------------------------------- CMD6 ( 8 )
(L) PB7 -------------------------------------------------- CMD7 (9)
(M) PA2 ---------------------------------------------- Cam-Rdy1 (15)

A "*" at a line crossing indicated that the lines connect at that point.  If two lines cross without a "*", the lines DO NOT connect.

The D64 for Nick's software is here: http://www.64hdd.com/download/qc64.zip

I have stolen borrowed freely from Nick's site, but I hope he won't mind.

The Wikipedia article on the 8502 CPU used in the C128 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOS_Technology_8502 ) claims that the HP 35s calculator ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_35s ), released in 2007, uses the same chip!

This article ( http://www.embedded.com/underthehood/205918957?pgno=1 ) talks about the 8502, and shows the 35s circuit board. It says the 8502 inside is manufactured by a Taiwanese company called 'Surplus Technology' (which according to the Googles may actually be Thai). The chip is potted on the board. The article also says...

QuoteThe 8502 that's used here also contains the system's power management and all the typical chip-set functions. This includes an LCD diver, a keyboard controller, and so on.

...which means that only a part of the mask is being used for the 8502 itself.



The article adds that the calculator firmware is also on the 8502 chip mask. A commenter on the thread points out that the 'flash' memory is actually 32K x 8 of RAM.

All of which begs the question: Could the code be 'liberated' and turned into an HP calculator program for the C128?

Is there any way we can get all the lunatics banned for life from the eBays? I'm specifically talking about the ones who list Commodore stuff for Buy-it-Now prices they don't stand a chance in hell of ever realizing.

I mean listers like: recycledgoods.com, jinglethis, d_l_p, JTOmaha, & zeroquestresell

Has any of them ever sold ANYTHING at those incredibly inflated prices? $299 for a C128D Technical Manual!?!?

It would be bad enough if it was just occasional, but each of them tends to list dozens of items at hyper-inflated prices all at once. They make it hard to find something actually worth buying. Grrrr.

They're clogging up the the Intertubes with all that crap.

From the old Guru Don Lancaster. Uses only eight resistors. Scroll down to page 3 for the diagram, page 4 for the short article.

http://www.tinaja.com/glib/muse152.pdf

I was reading up on CP/M and found a reference to a common graphics library called GSX-80. As the first link below reveals, it's not available for the C128, though he does have the documentation for it on his site if you'd like to try your hand at porting it.

Anyway, it got me curious, and I got to Googling. An hour later, I came up with four interesting links. The first looks good, with a propreitary C128 CP/M graphics library for C called SG C Tools. The second is a link to COMAL 80, which offers graphics capabilities if you like to program in COMAL, which I do, so if I ever actually do anything with this information, I will probably use it. The last two are undocumented file links on the Genie archive. It looks like the first of these is probably identical to the SG C Tools available above. But I have no idea what the other one is.

Graphics on C128 CP/M: http://www.z80.eu/gsx.html
COMAL for C128 CP/M: http://www.schorn.ch/cpm/intro.html
Graphics in CP/M Ansi C (Genie): http://cbmfiles.com/genie/geniefiles/C128CPM/SGTOOL12.ARC
Bios-based CP/M graphics (Genie): http://cbmfiles.com/genie/geniefiles/C128CPM/GRC128.ZIP

Have fun!

P.S. I know. Lance probably has ALL of these in the library here. Don't you, Lance?

From the Wikipedia article on the C128:

QuoteMultiple zero page and CPU stack locations can be defined by twiddling some bits in the C128's MMU, which theoretically would make multitasking a possibility. In practice, the lack of hardware memory protection would create a difficult-to-manage environment in which to run a preemptive kernel. Moving the zero page does not affect the CPU's built-in I/O port, which always remains addressable at Addresses 0 and 1.

So... I understand about hardware memory protection being a problem. But has anyone come up with an environment that uses the 'move zero page and the stack' MMU trick to enable 'pretty good' multitasking?

Okay, this is from the Wikipedia article on the C128:

QuoteUnfortunately, the C128 ran CP/M noticeably slower than most dedicated CP/M systems, as the Z80 processor ran at an effective speed of only 2 MHz (instead of the more common 4–6 MHz) and because it used CP/M 3.0, whose complexity made it inherently slower than the earlier, more widespread, CP/M 2.2 system. From the source code of the C128 CP/M implementation, it is clear that the engineers originally planned to make it possible to run CP/M in the "fast" mode as well, with the 40-column output turned off and the Z80 running at an effective 4 MHz; however, this did not work on the released C128 hardware.

So.. what's the problem? Why didn't it work?

Scribd requires a free registration, but you can download the Commodore Inner Space Anthology there as a PDF. While Zimmers has had page scan JPEGs forever, I much prefer PDFs for actual use.

Unfortunately still just page images, and therefore not searchable. But it's easy enough to get around in, anyway.

Search for 'Commodore' and you'll find a TON of CBM related books and articles. Pretty nifty.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/21485/Transactor-The-Complete-Commodore-Inner-Space-Anthology

At some time in its history, the C128 moved from using 4164 (65kx1) RAM chips to 4464 (8kx8bit) chips. I'm not sure when.



But this question arises: the 4164 was dynamic RAM, while the 4464 was static. As I understand it, the VIC-II is responsible for refreshing dynamic RAM. I assume there was a hardware change to the board to eliminate the refresh. But were any firmware changes required?

I'm sure you see where I'm going with this: did the VIC-II have less to do on later boards, and does that result in any performance enhancement?

I finally got around to putting together my C128 Want List. I can't afford to buy much at once, but I hope to keep nibbling away at the list until I've got it all. So if you have something to sell that's listed below, let me know. Also see my C128 book list here (scroll down to v1.3): http://landover.no-ip.com/forums/index.php?topic=1613.15  I'm looking for any and all C128 books I don't already own.

C128 Want List 10/05/2008

Fotios 2+1 expansion card
Fotios Ethernet card
Fotios RS-232 card
Fotios Dual SID card
Jim Brain's uIEC drive/SD interface card, memory card, IDE drive
64HDD Pro, Pwr-Interceptor Parallel Cable & Adapter, Enhanced Pwr-Load Kernal EPROM for C128 (w/switch)
iPaint
CGA-to-VGA Adapter
1520 replacement gears (metal)
Connector for 1541 3K upgrade (VIC-20 expansion buss card edge connector)
JiffyDOS C128, 1571 (just need adapters & switches)
1351 Mouse
2x 1581 kits
Quicksilver IEEE 128 interface, SFD-1001 drive

Update: I'll cross stuff out as I get it.

I've seen the ROM .bin file for Skyles Electric Works' Quicksilver 128 IEEE Interface online somewhere. (Maybe Andrew has it? I can't recall.)

I've never seen the 128 version of this interface come up for sale on eBay, though I've (very) occasionally seen the C64 version. In fact, one just ended.

Which raises the question: could you buy the c64 version and just stick in the C128 ROM and have it work? Or is there more to it than that?

I'd like to set up an SFD-1001 someday, or maybe even an 8250, just for the heck of it. I'd REALLY like to have something for my BASIC 7.0 COPY and BACKUP commands to do.

Does anyone know where I can find a ROM image for the Commodore 64 'Rabbit' tape speedup cartridge?

There's a cart for sale on eBay right now from worldlam, but I really don't want to spend $15 or more for a curiosity that I'll never really use much. I'm just intrigued.

Can anyone load this program and tell me WHY I have to go to the same subroutine TWICE in lines 280-290 to get it to work? Is this a bug in BASIC, or in my machine, or am I just not seeing something?

Thanks.


10 rem scratch "32intadd.bas7"onu8
20 rem
30 rem this program adds two 32-digit integers with carry
40 rem using basic 7 on the c128
50 rem
60 rem dsave "32intadd.bas7"onu8
70 rem
80 rem by mark r. brown 09/2008
90 rem
100 rem print"" : directory"32intadd.bas7"onu8
110 graphic5 : fast
120 print"add 32-digit integers with strings"
130 print"                   12345678901234567890123456789012"
140 print"first  "; : gosub 190 : a$ = q$
150 print"second "; : gosub 190 : b$ = q$
160 gosub 380
170 gosub 250
180 end
190 rem input subroutine
200 q$=""
210 input "integer : ";q$
220 if ((val(q$)=0) or (len(q$)>32) or (val(q$)<0) or (instr(q$,".",1)<>0)) then print "error! "; : goto 210
230 q$=right$(("0000000000000000000000000000000" + q$),32)
240 return
250 rem output subroutine
260 q$ = a$ : gosub 330 : a$ = q$
270 q$ = b$ : gosub 330 : b$ = q$
280 q$ = t$ : gosub 330 : t$ = q$
290 q$ = t$ : gosub 330 : t$ = q$ : rem works if you go twice!! wtf !!!
300 print "total : "  t$
310 print "float : " + str$(val(t$)) + ""
320 return
330 rem strip subroutine
340 for xx = 31 to 1 step -1
350 if mid$(q$,(32-xx),1)="0" then next xx
360 q$ = right$(q$,xx+1)
370 return
380 rem add subroutine
390 t$ = ""
400 for xx = 32 to 1 step -1
410 ax$ = mid$(a$,xx,1) : bx$ = mid$(b$,xx,1)
420 gosub 470
430 t$ = d0$ + t$
440 next xx
450 t$ = str$(d1%) + t$
460 return
470 rem single integer digit add
480 a% = val(ax$) : b% = val(bx$) : sum% = 0
490 sum% = a% + b% + d1% : rem with carry!
500 sum$ = str$(sum%)
510 d0$ = right$(sum$,1)
520 if len(sum$)>2 then d1% = 1 : else d1% = 0
530 return


[ebay] 360090667033[/ebay]

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZcbm_dude

Where does he get all those wonderful toys???

Oh, and some other guy has a RAMLink for sale, too: [ebay] 320301805076[/ebay]

It never rains, but it pours.

$33.99 plus $12.00 shipping for 20 2716 EPROMs from the Czech Republic:

[ebay] 110264717619[/ebay]

Three points:
(1) They're unused authentic NOS from the 1980's and mil-spec, made for the Czech army.
(2) They're gold. (Shiny!)
(3) They say "TESLA" on them.

Now that my EPROM programmer is coming, I really want these bad, bad, bad! Wouldn't they look really cool inside your 128? These are Freakin' Solid Gold Soviet Bloc Cold War Tesla Chips!

If I buy them this week, I don't eat. Doesn't anyone want to buy them and sell half of them to me after payday? Please?

My thought is this: can you use one of Parallax's cheap ($2.79) controllers to build a ROM cartridge replacement that would store programs in cheap I2C serial EEPROMs?

Here's a TinyURL for the product page: http://tinyurl.com/5ug7ym

Not only could you make cheap multicarts, you could also build I2C interface projects for temperature detection and logging, A/D conversion, and other cool stuff. You could even (I think) create a fast RS-232 interface without using a MAX chip.

Could you even emulate a Commodore REU DMA controller with this?

Okay, you hardware guys (who are all way smarter and better looking than me), discuss...

Here's the auction. It's from Golan's buddy* Worldlam:

[ebay]140267252059[/ebay]

Since I'm newly getting into EPROM burning, I'd like to have SOME of these, but I sure don't need (nor can I afford) FIFTY of them! Is anyone else interested? The Buy It Now price works out to $2 apiece delivered to me here in the States. If we can drum up enough interest for a group buy, I'd be glad to handle it.

The auction ends in five days as I post this, Sep-21-08 16:00:40 PDT.

Post here if interested.

*Golan knows everybody.

Since no one else has posted a question in a long time, I've decided to. I will TRY to ask questions that won't cause a lot of discussion that ends up with me being proven wrong.

Here we go:

1. What's the length of the longest BASIC line that can be ENTERED in C128 80-column mode? 40-column mode?

2. What's the length of the longest line that can be EDITED in 80-column mode? 40-column mode?

I keep forgetting about PokeFinder, so here's a link to remind myself, and for your benefit, as well.

This one finds all the files with '128' in them - 400 files! (Of course, you can search for C64 software, too.)

Have fun!

http://ftp.pokefinder.org/index.php?s=128

6502.org has a long (but not quite complete) run of Micro magazines scanned and online as PDF files at:

http://6502.org/documents/publications/micro/

This classic magazine has tons of features on the Kim-1, PET, VIC-20, and Commodore 64, as well as other 6502 based machines. I think they went out of business right before the C128 was introduced, but there's still lots of interest to C128 owners there.

As a testament to this magazine's staying power, there were recently three 8 to 9 issue bundles of old Micro mags on eBay. Last time I checked, the bid for each bundle was over $50. Try to get that much for your old INFOs!

Let's form a co-op and buy Click Here Software. How much could Maurice possibly want for it? He's not making any money from it right now.

For our money we'd get the SuperCPU and RAMLink, JiffyDOS, GEOS, and Wheels. Plus a bunch of other, less interesting stuff.

Then we could put all of it out of its misery by releasing it as Open Source. Hobbyists could burn a few boards, sell a few kits, whatever.

How many hard-core Commodore fans are left that might contribute a few bucks to this? 1,000?

What do you think?

Well, after literally months of my C128 getting flakier and flakier, I finally bit the bullet and brought C128 #2 in from the garage. It had a bad keyboard (mechanically) but everything else seemed to be okay. I swapped tops on the machines, which I hated to do as #2 actually had the whiter case, but my cute little Suncom Icontroller is stuck to the yellow one and I was too lazy to swap keyboards anyway. Turns out #2 also had a bad keyboard CIA so I swapped in the drive controller CIA from #1. Now #2 has got two bad CIAs and a nasty keyboard. I also had to transfer the 64K VDC expansion board, which is okay because I boogered up #1's board trying to stick it into the VIC socket. (Oh, yes I did!) It worked okay but I didn't even want to think about how jury-rigged it is now. I even put the shield back on #2, since I'm suspicious that part of #1's problem might have been running it for so long without one.

So now I have what appears to be a fully functional C128 again! Yea!

Took me awhile to figure out my 64HDD installation again, but now it's up and running except for long filename support. I've checked and rechecked things and can't figure out why it's not working. Oh, well, it worked before so I'm bound to get some inspiration eventually and get that working, too.  In the meantime, I've got three drives mapped to the PC's hard drive, and one mapped to its CD-ROM. Life is good.

Shoot, I even dusted off and plugged in my Partner 128 cartridge!

Anybody in the States have one for cheap?

Thanks.

P.S. I want to try this: http://www.csbruce.com/~csbruce/cbm/transactor/v6/i5/p036.html

The old thread on this topic is tired, and I'm not getting any response there, so I'm repeating my offer here.

Several months ago, I won 24 PD disks in an eBay auction. What's on them? Who knows? The only thing the seller said is that they are from the users' group he belonged to up in Maine. They apparently compiled a set of 26 C128-specific disks, but he's missing #23-24. In all of that, I've got to assume there are many programs we're missing here. I've looked at a few directories, and my 1571 seems to be reading them fine. Whether or not all the programs will load, I have no idea.

I haven't had time to get these converted and uploaded as I'd hoped, so I'm offering to ship these disks, postpaid, to anyone in the States who is willing to convert them to d64 images and get them uploaded here. I wouldn't expect immediate results, but if six months goes by and they're still not in the library, I will post disparaging comments about you in this thread until they show up. Doing them incrementally is okay.

First to post here and ask me to send them wins. Then PM me with your address and I'll get them shipped to you in a few days.

While contemplating what might be done to pimp out the various capabilities of my C128 (see ULTIMATE C128 post below), the only port I couldn't come up with something for was the RF port. Who uses RF, anyway?

So I took a look at the schematic:



and this question reared its head: "Does the RF box (which is a 'black box' on the schematic) boost the video signals before sending them to the 8-pin video connector, or does it actually sap some of their strength?" In other words, would we be getting a better video signal if we just ripped out the RF box and jumpered the video signal right around it? Who knows, we might even get rid of those pesky vertical lines.

Anybody have an answer?

Edit: I just noticed that the RF box is also where the composite signal is mixed, but I don't care about that, either.

It's been awhile since we had one of these discussions, so...

How would you trick out a C128 if you had the money and could find all the items you want? We're talking products that actually exist, not magical wishlist stuff.

I'm excluding CMD products here, just because.

Here's my list. ( * = I actually have this.)

What would you add or subtract? Discuss.

INTERNAL
   Dual SID adapter board - for stereo sound
   2M Internal Memory Expansion - with 2nd MMU for maximum banked memory
*   64k Video RAM
   JiffyDOS

USER PORT
   User Port Expander Card - for plugging in 3 things at once
   VICREL 64 relay cartridge - for controlling real-world stuff
   Game Controller Adapter - for 4-player games
   9600 Baud RS-232 Adapter

IEC
*   1571 disk drive
      JiffyDOS
      RAMBoard
*   1581 disk drive
      JiffyDOS
*   XE1541 Adapter & Dedicated 64HDD File Server
*   Serial Printer
*   1520 Plotter
*   Parallel Printer Adapter

CASSETTE CONNECTER
   Dual Cassette Interface - for copying tapes
   C2N232I 'RS-232' PC Interface

AUDIO INPUT/OUTPUT
*   Stereo amp & Speakers
   Audio I/O Processing Equipment

RF OUTPUT
   Is there anything you can do with this?

Y/C 40-COLUMN VIDEO OUTPUT
*   S-Video Adapter

80-COLUMN OUTPUT
   VGA Converter
   LCD Monitor (with S-Vdieo in for 40-column)

CARTRIDGE PORT
*   Multi-slot Adapter
   1541U+ (with Network)
   56K RS-232 Cartridge
   MIDI Interface Cartridge

JOYSTICK PORTS
   Static Guard Protector - internal board with diodes
*   2x Joystick Y-adapter Cords
   1351 Mouse
*   Suncom Stick-on Joystick
   Atari Trackball
*   Epyx or (insert brand here) Joysticks
   Flexidraw Light Pen
*   Paddles
*   AtariLab port adapter

POWER SUPPLY JACK
   Uninterruptible Power Supply

I don't know when it happened, but eBay has RESTORED the 'Commodore' category under 'Vintage Computing'. It had been eliminated a couple of months back. Most of the Commodore items are still listed under the parent 'Vintage Computing' category, so you'll have to continue to check it, too, until people notice that the Commodore category is back.

Woo-Hoo! If we're on the eBays, we ARE SOMEBODY!!

The site says this 8-SID C64 MIDI synth was created between 2002-2007, but I hadn't seen this particular one before it was mentioned on bOING bOING this morning.

Very, very sweet. Don't you wish we'd had these back in the day?

http://www.subatomicglue.com/sidl0g/

I'm dumbfounded. Simply dumbfounded.

http://www.connectworld.net/cgi-bin/iec/fullpic?xFZLLwzm;L3112;10

Well, thanks to bidding from work and not checking what I already own first, I've ended up with a spare copy of the "Commodore Care Manual: Diagnosing and Maintaining Your 64 or 128 System". It's a TAB book, so it doesn't suck too bad, though most of what it covers is pretty elementary. A lot of it involves either common sense or some simple BASIC diagnostic programs. Like many of these types of books, the C128 coverage is pretty much tacked on to the earlier 64-only edition. Covers peripherals, too.



Anyway, if you live in the US of A and would like to have my spare copy, I'll be glad to send it to you, postpaid. First to post here gets it.

How about adding a bit of code to allow the calendar to extend up into real time? Calendars repeat in cycles, so it should be relatively easy to set it so that the clock calendar is set to a year whose calendar matches the current one, then add a number to the output to match the actual year before display.

That's one thing that does drive me nuts about programs on the c128 that use calendar information - they all stop at 1999.

Hey, why don't one of you buy this and hack it into a keyboard for your C128?



[ebay]180235184416[/ebay]

I would do it, but I'm really more of an idea man.

Not something I really have much of an interest in, but I know some of you are ardent BBSers:

BobsTerm Pro 128: [ebay]190216355776[/ebay]

CMD SwiftLilnk RS232: [ebay]260231997929[/ebay]

If any of you were planning on bidding on these, PLEASE don't get mad at me - I'm just trying to be of service. If I'm going to get nasty messages every time I point out a cool auction, I just won't do it at all anymore. I mean, why does Lance have this area, anyway?