Lallafa’s Blog

With christmas time the presents arrive… Nate Lawson presented the beta of his incredible XUM1541 USB to IEC/parallel adapter for OpenCBM. I was immediately amazed by this project and built my own version of the XUM1541. I had the chance to help out testing the software on Macs even in its early stages, so everything will work smoothly on our favorite platform…

Lallafa's XUM1541 Prototype

Now with the beta of XUM1541 online, I have another present for you: The OpenCBM on Mac page on my site. This page describes how to compile and set up the OpenCBM software yourself and how to get your device running on your Mac. Have fun!

I always searched for an elegant (i.e. automatic and scriptable ) way for announcing freshly compiled VICE snapshots. Now with the emerging hype of twitter I tried this out and with TTYtter it was easily integrated into my build scripts…

So follow me on macvice @ twitter to get the latest updates on freshly build MacVICE versions…

LTNS! Yes, indeed… it took quite a while to finish this new version, but its really worth the wait!

dtv2ser 0.4 now supports all new features of dtvtrans 1.0 including init after reset, BASIC loading, saving and RUN. Furthermore, full flash support was added!

If you are impatient then just head over to the dtv2ser homepage and download your copy.

Read more »

Puh, finally my 1541U cartridge has a decent case!
I created one myself starting with a generic case at the price of about one EUR…

Have a look at my Lallafa’s 1541U DIY Cartridge Case Page for more details!

I just built my sd2iec device board from Shadowolf. Its really small and compact so I thought why not integrate it into my modded DTV with the original joystick case. I don’t wanted to sacrificy the battery case so I knew there is not much place left…

With a lot of cramming and fiddling around I finally managed to insert the sd2iec inside my DTV Mod. Phew! Now the case is filled up to the limit – but its cool to have a sd2iec right inside the joystick;)

Have a look here at my gallery for more pictures!

Mac OS X 10.5 has a really nice feature called QuickLook. This renders the contents of your files into nice little thumbnails and also allows to inspect them in detail by pressing Space…

I have lying around hundreds of D64 disk images on my hard disk and thought it would be really nice to have a quick look at the directories…

So I wrote D64QLPlugin that allows to display the contents of a D64/D71/D81 disk image file in a small retro-style directory view…

Check it out at the D64QLPlugin Homepage!

Finally dtv2ser 0.3 is ready for prime time!

Grab your copy here: dtv2ser Homepage

The new version introduces a fully automatic bootstrap command that brings an unmodified DTV (with only a DB9 joystick connector attached) into dtvtrans mode in a few minutes without manual intervention. A normal mode types in TLR’s boot.txt basic booter on the virtual keyboard and fetches mlboot.prg and dtvtrans.prg afterwards. A new improved fast bootstrap method does some pre POKEs to speed up typing and boots in half the time. Additionally, a screen code compiler allows to type in mlboot.prg directly to screen space and run it there without the need to execute boot.txt first.

Additionally, the JoyStream is introduced to describe and execute sequences of joystick input via a special string language syntax. AutoType allows to type in arbitrary files or strings via the virtual keyboard of DTV’s basic prompt. A Screen Code compiler encodes an assembler program and directly types in the corresponding character codes on the screen to run it there.

Have fun!

The MMCReplay is the newest cartridge from Individual Computers for your C64. It combines the well-known Retro Replay cartridge with a RRNet ethernet adapter and a MMC 64 cartridge on a single board that fits into a single case.

Sounds awesome? It is! Mine arrived during this week and today I had the time to check it out. I just finished drilling out the holes for all connectors and now the board fits nicely in its case:

After using the RR+RRnet and MMC64 with the two cases interconnected and the network cable pointing upwards its a real relief to have everything in a single case.

The BIOS of the MMCReplay is really nice and full featured. You can flash ROM images directly from files stored on a SD card. You have 7 slots available that can hold different ROM images.

RRNet was tested with DiskImages64 on my Mac, of course. All works as expected
and since the MMCReplay is fully compatible to the RR+RRNet and MMC64 it is no surprise.

Now I have something new to play with… And I really feel like updating DI64 with some new features…

After thinkcommodore.com finally shut down its business, it was a sad time for Mac + Commodore fans without having a forum to discuss. Now the wait is over: a new site hit the ground: doremac.com. The site has a forum with strong focus on Commodore computing done by Mac users. Starting from data transfer connection issues to CBM emulators on the Mac you can find everything there. Head over and check it out!

Grasstust, the site maintainer, was kind enough to add a MacVICE Forum Thread. So all MacVICE related stuff including bug fixes and user support can be discussed there.

The upcoming version dtv2ser 0.3 will contain a bootstrapping command.

What’s this all about?
Read more »