New C64 owner - where's all the new exciting stuff?

[Simon Carter]

Eyup,

 

          just picked up my first ever C64s, (a bundle of 1 breadbin (knackered), a C64C, 2 tape decks, an old style 1541, MPS 801, Ferguson greenscreen monitor, games etc for £150!). Was looking forward to a new world of exciting things for it, like that Atari 8-bits have (e.g. Fujinet, Ultimate 1MB et al), and there doesn't seem much like that for the C64s. Just SD2IEC, some JiffyDOS loading boosts, but not much else. Am I missing something, or have people just focussed on ubering the Ataris?

 

         Also seems harder to find good quality ROM downloads, Atari owners have Atari Mania and this site obviously, but there doesn't seem to be much of a centralised hub for Commdore activity. I've found a few sites, but none are as user friendly as the Atari specific ones. 

 

         Just bear in mind I'm finding my feet with these machines, but by god I miss Atari disk handling 🙂

[tuf]

• Enjoy the hunt - the internet will provide.  Google for Ultimate II+ and browse those products.  Plenty of things for you to spend money on!

  28 minutes ago, Simon Carter said:

  Am I missing something, or have people just focussed on ubering the Ataris?

 

 

Might need to dig a little deeper.  Enjoy the hunt - the internet will provide.  Google for Ultimate II+ and browse those products.  Plenty of things for you to spend money on!

[+OLD CS1]

2 hours ago, Simon Carter said:

Am I missing something, or have people just focussed on ubering the Ataris?

Difficult to improve upon perfection   What you are missing depends upon what you want.  The Ultimate 1541 is out there, which gives you capabilities beyond the SD2IEC, like loading cartridges from SD card, &c.  So, what are you looking for?  Like @tuf said, punch into Google and behold.  RAM expansions?  Replacement parts?  1541 replacements?

 

2 hours ago, Simon Carter said:

by god I miss Atari disk handling 🙂

The Commodore 64 lack a computer-based DOS like the Atari, though there are some wedges you can download, as well as one included with the disk drive demo disks.  The C128 and BASIC 3.5 machines have DOS-like commands in the BASIC.

 

You should check out JiffyDOS.  It is not just a fast-loader, but also offers a DOS wedge and several other features.  The most popular fast-loader from the era was Epyx's FastLoad, which you can find in various places.  You can get the original from these eBay auctions,

https://ebay.com/itm/185704783168

https://ebay.com/itm/314182653727

 

or a modern re-make

https://www.thefuturewas8bit.com/shop/commodore/eflr.html

 

I am afraid I am not terribly imaginative, so I have to ask what you want to do?  I do monotonous and unimpressive stuff with mine, like play games and run GEOS for some productivity, but there are projects out there to get on the Internet, programming IDEs, music enhancements, you name it.

[carlsson]

Regarding where to download software, I'd say the major two are Gamebase 64 (mostly older stuff) and probably CSDb (demos, newer stuff). I'm not sure about the Atari scene, but on the C64 scene, cracking software still is a thing, even for free and unprotected stuff. Thus you might not always find the original release of a given game on CSDb, but a few with cheats etc. The C64 scene to some degree respects commercial software in such way that even if a game was cracked today, they'll wait a few weeks, months or sometimes years before making a such download public.

[+Atarius Maximus]

I've sunk a lot of money into fueling my commodore addiction over the past few decades.  There are so many things you can do and so much out there if you spend a lot of time searching and digging, and of course have extra money to spend.

 

Here's what I have and what I've done to give you some ideas.  I've got a big 20 ft x 13 ft room in the basement of my house with plenty of work spaces, I've got lots of room for most of this stuff to be out and set up at once.

 

First, some interesting places for software:

https://commodore.software/ has a nice curated collection.

CSdb has been mentioned, lots of great stuff there that I use often.  

I just bought a copy of the recently released C64OS, I can't say much about it yet as I just received it in the mail today.

The Internet Archive has quite a bit of commodore software.

Over the years I've found many other collections on the internet with huge collections of disk images, some on torrent sites, random fan pages, forums, etc.  They're out there.

 

Next, my hardware and configurations.

 

Commodore 128DCR

JiffyDOS replacement for Kernal and internal 1571 purchased from Jim Brain.

Dual 1702 Monitors, one for 40 Column and one for 80 Column.  80 Column runs monochrome, I just use the chroma signal from PIN 7 of the RGB output to the input on the 1702.

Dual External 1581 Floppy drives with JiffyDOS (No sd2iec on my 128D, I stay old-school on this one and use floppies)

Commodore MPS-802 Printer

Megabit ROM installed in U36

1351 Mouse

 

Commodore 64C  (I use this one along with my music recording Mac Pro)

White kickstarter 64C case (#463 of 500)

JiffyDOS replacement purchased from Jim Brain.

Custom heatsinks installed on all of the chips that run warm.

Dual-SID SIDFX installed, purchased from https://www.sidfx.dk/, with a 6581 and an 8580 installed.  

Externally mounted audio out for connecting to my mac and/or mixing board.

15" LCD 4:3 Monitor with S-Video to VGA Adapter, and custom S-Video monitor cable purchased from an eBay seller

Cableless sd2iec mounted on the back

Reset switch cartridge in the User Port

EasyFlash3 cartridge purchased from Jim Brain

 

Commodore 64C (I use this one as a web client/web server and terminal)

JiffyDOS replacement purchased from Jim Brain.

Custom heatsinks installed on all of the chips that run warm.

64NIC+ from Jim Brain for network connectivity.

15" LCD 4:3 Monitor with S-Video to VGA Adapter, and custom S-Video monitor cable purchased from an eBay seller

Ultimate-II+ from Gideon (so no sd2iec on this one)

Three 1541-II Floppy Drives

Wi-Fi Modem pugged in to the user port, purchased on eBay

 

Commodore 64 Breadbin (For Games)

Custom Kernal based on JaffyDOS, modified and burned to an eprom by me, although I still purchased an official JiffyDOS ROM for it.

15" LCD 4:3 Monitor with S-Video to VGA Adapter, and custom S-Video monitor cable purchased from an eBay seller

Sd2iec installed internally, using the one available from JimBrain, slight cut in the side to make the SD card accessible.

EasyFlash3 cartridge purchased from Jim Brain

Original, very ugly and white/yellow 1541 drive

 

Commodore Ulitmate 64 Elite from Gideon

Commodore 64C reproduction case from Individual Computers in Germany

32" HDMI TV as a monitor

Original, barely used minty-fresh New-old-stock 64C keyboard

Two 64GB USB Flash Drives, both nearly full!

 

Commodore 128 (Flat) used for gaming, mostly.

JiffyDOS replacement purchased from Jim Brain.

15" LCD 4:3 Monitor with S-Video to VGA Adapter, and custom S-Video monitor cable purchased from an eBay seller

3" LCD for 80 column mode in monochrome.  Small enough that it's mostly for testing, but it works well for the new Eye of the Beholder game for the map screen.

EasyFlash3 cartridge purchased from Jim Brain

External sd2iec, no original floppy drives on this one

 

Other hardware:

One partially functional, extra Commodore 128 Flat for parts, it works but has some bad RAM.

A non functional 128DCR. It’s missing the internal power supply, the 1571 is bad, and it has bad RAM, I keep it around for parts.

Three non-functional Commodore 64 breadbins that I've scavenged for parts to keep all of the others running, they're all missing something - either a PLA, SID, CIA, 6510, or RAM.

A Batronix BX32P programmer to make my own custom eproms, they are around $160USD.  

A messy workbench with soldering/desoldering tools and lots of random commodore parts.

Some custom homebrew dev PCB's for custom carts I've made.

ZoomFloppy for transferring data to real commodore floppy drives from a PC.

Several older Commodore monitors that all work but have issues that make them less than pleasant to use (touchy switches, power switch broken, etc) - two 1902's, one 1802, one 1084S.  The 1702 is the only monitor model that never seems to give me any trouble.  I just switched to using mostly modern monitors now with video converters as it's just easier and takes up less space.

One Amiga 500 with a RAM expansion module and lots of original floppies, but I never had one back in the day so it sees little use, I have no nostalgia for it.  It hasn't been powered on in many years.

 

I've got a collection of old Atari 8-bit hardware too, a 1200XL, two 800XLs, a 600XL and a 400 and an SIO2SD for games, but they just don't see as much use as my beloved Commodores.

 

I'm probably forgetting some stuff, but man it took way longer to type this post that I thought it would.  It's time to go to bed!

 

Steve

 

 

[+OLD CS1]

My next project is to get GEOS v2.0 running from the ROM socket on my REU.  I know GEOS 128 is available on a ROM for the 128, so that might be the way I have to go.  All this time and I have never tried out Wheels.

 

I also have an Ultimate 64, though not the Elite edition.  As well, I picked up a C64Reloaded MkII.  Both of them are in Kickstarter cases (559 and 587 of 5,000.)  These systems are really great and the best part is the C64R uses real chips.  Got me a CMD HD-20 a few years ago and upgraded it with a SCSI2SD.  The SD2IEC is pretty nice, and I picked up an Ultimate 1541 II but have yet to really use it on my real 64C.  All my breadbins are brain dead, but I will be fixing them sometime before I die.

 

I am going to stick to analog video for all of these systems.  I picked up a C64 Mini and Maxi for my digital video needs.

[Simon Carter]

Thanks for the advice folks, plenty for me to go on with for now. Appreciate the effort!

 

First off with have to be JiffyDOS, can't believe how slow the disk drives are. 

 

May this be the start of another 8-bit love story...

 

Si

[+OLD CS1]

Here is a strange animal:

 

SD2IEC Floppy Drive Emulator with Epyx Fast load Cartridge

[RobertB]

For news on new games, I like looking at

 

https://www.indieretronews.com/search/label/C64

 

Merry Christmas!

Robert Bernardo

Fresno Commodore User Group - http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm

Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network - http://www.portcommodore.com/sccan

April 15-16 Commodore Los Angeles Super Show - http://www.portcommodore.com/class

[zylon]

On 12/24/2022 at 10:48 PM, OLD CS1 said:

Here is a strange animal:

 

SD2IEC Floppy Drive Emulator with Epyx Fast load Cartridge

I have one of those in my storage somewhere. I actually went back to the disks and 1541, as it was faster and easier to use. I'll have to look into Ultimate. I have the atarimax setups, and they are super convenient, and fast.

[+OLD CS1]

1 hour ago, zylon said:

I have one of those in my storage somewhere. I actually went back to the disks and 1541, as it was faster and easier to use. I'll have to look into Ultimate. I have the atarimax setups, and they are super convenient, and fast.

I am 90% physical media.  The SD2IEC and Ultimate 1541 have places for me, as well, mostly in terms of portability of real systems.  I also have my THEC64 Mini and full-size for similar purposes.  But, at home, on my desk, I use real floppies.

[zylon]

1 hour ago, OLD CS1 said:

I am 90% physical media.  The SD2IEC and Ultimate 1541 have places for me, as well, mostly in terms of portability of real systems.  I also have my THEC64 Mini and full-size for similar purposes.  But, at home, on my desk, I use real floppies.

I had my spare setup, with that stuff, at Mom's house up in PA, along with my XE setup, 2prt 5200, and emulator loaded XP dell. When she died in '21, I had to pack all that up and store it. I'll see it all again someday... She had over 4 van loads of gaming related stuff up there, and I was limited to what fit in the car. I elected the disks, as if they are going to fail, might as well use them, besides convenience.  C64 and 5200 just don't emulate well to me. sd2iec was great for trying new programs though, and making disks of those I liked. 

I might get one of the ones not using cart port, for use here.

Edited January 3 by zylon

[zylon]

For the single load games, the Magic Cart series works great.

[Harry Potter]

Hi!  I have a C64C and a Plus4 at my mother's house.  They share a monitor and two disk drives, an old-style 1541 and a 1541-II and a lot of home-made disks, mostly games.  I don't think the C64 and Plus4 are all that useful in modern times for serious stuff but are good for games and fun stuff.  I used to like GEOS, though.  I also have a Zoomfloppy attached to a WinXP laptop.  I have a joystick for the C64C and I think the Plus4.  I have a Datasette somewhere but don't know where.  I'd like a 1581 drive, but they're kind of expensive.  May I share the stuff I created for the C64 and Plus4?  They're not much, but I think they're worth something.

[Virtualsky]

I don't know if this would be of any help, but I have a list of links to Commodore 64 and 128 resources on my blog site that you might be able to peruse and find something useful.  https://www.my64.in.nf/doku.php?id=links

 

Under Hardware, I have links to some of the new things you can get for your 64.  Under Software I have links to sources of both new and old games and applications that I've been able to find.

 

I hope you can find something useful there.

 

Side note: If you want to speed up floppy disk operations on the C64 without having to buy anything, check out this TurboDisk utility:  https://www.my64.in.nf/doku.php?id=blog:2022-06-22

Edited January 10 by Virtualsky
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