CP/M on the C=64
https://virtuallyfun.com/wordpress/2018/07/27/running-cp-m-on-the-commodore-64/
Sunday, 29 July 2018
Sunday, 22 July 2018
A retro hardware blog I thought you guys might find interesting
A retro hardware blog I thought you guys might find interesting
https://retrozonesite.wordpress.com/page/1/
https://retrozonesite.wordpress.com/page/1/
Another Commodore keyboard replacement project!
Another Commodore keyboard replacement project!
This one can even work as a USB keyboard so you can use it with your PC or with a modern Commodore emulator or Pi powered replica.
Much thanks to new member Geir Eivind Mork for sharing this link in a comment on another post.
https://deskthority.net/workshop-f7/mec64-keyboard-t4522.html
This one can even work as a USB keyboard so you can use it with your PC or with a modern Commodore emulator or Pi powered replica.
Much thanks to new member Geir Eivind Mork for sharing this link in a comment on another post.
https://deskthority.net/workshop-f7/mec64-keyboard-t4522.html
what is the cheapest way to give WHDLOAD to an Amiga 500?
what is the cheapest way to give WHDLOAD to an Amiga 500? internal mod preferred. (IDE + ram + possibly a faster 000 or 020/030). I want to mod a few machines before selling them to give the next users an actual reason to use them. I have a big problem selling stuff I know will end up in someones storage and tossed out in a decade or two given the work I've put in them.
My dad was a farmer who needed a tool to aid him in his farm accounting.
My dad was a farmer who needed a tool to aid him in his farm accounting. So he first purchased a vic 20 he saw an ad for in a DX Listening magazine, then a c64 when it came out, then a diskdrive to better organize. He also found friends to swap disks with and despite he only played text adventure games he swapped on behalf of us kids. So I grew up with a plethora of games despite the fact that if we had a Nintendo I would probably just get one game for christmas and one for my birthday and everything in between would just be borrowing from friends which would have sucked. When my dads swap buddies went to Amiga I was allowed to use my savings to purchase one myself. And he lent me one of his swapping buddies that fed me games a while on the amiga despite my dad didn't use it, he had transitioned to a PC at that time. When that source ran dry I resorted to cover disks since I loved reading magazines and probably could have had quite a few original games if I didn't spend all my money on the magazines but well. It gave me the memories of the Amiga that makes the vic 20, the c64 and the amiga my favorite computer memories. :)
Wednesday, 18 July 2018
Build your own Amiga dual floppy drive
Build your own Amiga dual floppy drive
This project lets you mount two fully working, slim floppy drives inside an Amiga 1011 external floppy drive case.
https://github.com/sgust/Amiga-A1012-PCB
This project lets you mount two fully working, slim floppy drives inside an Amiga 1011 external floppy drive case.
https://github.com/sgust/Amiga-A1012-PCB
Tuesday, 10 July 2018
Sunday, 8 July 2018
Yet another Amiga 500 accelerator board option
Yet another Amiga 500 accelerator board option
Amiga 500 users are spoiled these days.
https://youtu.be/0jyXd3BlpN8
Amiga 500 users are spoiled these days.
https://youtu.be/0jyXd3BlpN8
Monday, 2 July 2018
This week, an early retrospective: a 1985 look at the C64, "the world's most popular computer" and its origin story...

Originally shared by mos6502
This week, an early retrospective: a 1985 look at the C64, "the world's most popular computer" and its origin story - being the "world's greatest video-game chips." See the full article here:
https://spectrum.ieee.org/ns/pdfs/commodore64_mar1985.pdf
There's lots of info in there about the VIC-II and the early production history of the C64, and a few hiccups too. Also "the albatross" - the slow disk drive interface, and the reasons for it, and the likelihood that this killed the C64's chances in business computing.
At the time of writing, the retail price had come down from $595 to an amazing $149 - and the bill of materials is estimated here as under $50.
"Although the machine has its flaws, the designers of the Commodore 64 believe they came up with many significant advances because of the freedom they enjoyed during the early stages of the project. The design team was autonomous—they did their own market research, developed their own specifications, and took their baby right up through production. But as soon as the production bugs were worked out and Commodore knew it had a winner, the corporate bureaucracy, which until then had been on the West Coast dealing with the VIC-20 and the Pet computer, moved in."
"And Jack Tramiel is currently chief executive officer of Atari Corp., the company that was Commodore’s chief competitor in the home-computer market before losing nearly a billion dollars in competing against the C-64. "
(It's not all about the VIC-II - there's an info-box about the SID too.)
"Design Case History: The Commodore 64" (PDF)
Originally shared by Norbert Landsteiner
"Design Case History: The Commodore 64" (PDF)
A great writeup on "world's greatest video-game chip," the VIC II chip, by Tekla S. Perry and Paul Wallich, IEEE Spectrum, March 1985. Includes lots of background and nifty details, like this explanation of NTSC artifact colors,
"Nonetheless, the Commodore 64 can display far more than the 16 colors listed in its documentation, in addition to its many other graphics features. Brian Dougherty, president of Berkeley, Calif., explained: 'The width of each pixel is almost half of the NTSC color clock, so when you alternate pixels of two different colors, instead of getting the two colors that you think you're getting, you get a whole new phase interpretation.'"
PDF: https://spectrum.ieee.org/ns/pdfs/commodore64_mar1985.pdf
HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17438106
https://spectrum.ieee.org/ns/pdfs/commodore64_mar1985.pdf
"Design Case History: The Commodore 64" (PDF)
A great writeup on "world's greatest video-game chip," the VIC II chip, by Tekla S. Perry and Paul Wallich, IEEE Spectrum, March 1985. Includes lots of background and nifty details, like this explanation of NTSC artifact colors,
"Nonetheless, the Commodore 64 can display far more than the 16 colors listed in its documentation, in addition to its many other graphics features. Brian Dougherty, president of Berkeley, Calif., explained: 'The width of each pixel is almost half of the NTSC color clock, so when you alternate pixels of two different colors, instead of getting the two colors that you think you're getting, you get a whole new phase interpretation.'"
PDF: https://spectrum.ieee.org/ns/pdfs/commodore64_mar1985.pdf
HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17438106
https://spectrum.ieee.org/ns/pdfs/commodore64_mar1985.pdf
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)