Author Archives: lallafa

D64QLPlugin 0.1 released

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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!

dtv2ser 0.3 released

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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!

My MMCReplay arrived

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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… 😉

doremac.com online!

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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.

More dtv2ser+usb PCBs and a new KeyboardTwister

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Finally I got all parts for the dtv2ser+usb boards including the missing USB connector. Actually a type A female connector was placed on the layout but it is less common. By mounting a type A male connector on the lower side of the PCB upside down I was able to replace the female connector with the more common version. Now the board really looks like a USB stick:



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VICE and VICEplus Leopard fix

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Unfortunately, the new MacOS X 10.5 (Leopard) does not run the release binaries of VICE 1.22 and VICEplus 1.0 anymore.

Some debugging revealed three issues:

  • The X11.app startup has greatly simplified and does not need open-x11 (which by the way does not exist any more) to determine a valid DISPLAY value. Now MacOS X already defines a valid DISPLAY that automatically launches the X11 server. This needed a minor modification to the VICE launch scripts.
  • A really nasty bug in the CoreAudio sound driver now crashes the application. The bug existed for a long time but was never discovered since previous versions of MacOS X simply tolerated the wrong API call. Now Leopard is more picky and simply crashes. A small fix in the audio driver fixes this problem.
  • Finally, Apple updated the autoconf build tools and thus the build files needed minor modifications. Additionally, /bin/sh now seems to point to a real sh and since some scripts require /bin/bash they need to be changed to call the right shell.

I fixed these issues and now VICE and VICEplus run on Leopard, too. The fix is already applied to the current development versions of both branches.

For your convenience I also recompiled the current version with the patch applied:

KeyboardTwister for my DTV

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The DTV supports a PS/2 keyboard for an emulation of the original Commodore 64 keyboard. The PS/2 key mapping is hard-coded to a US keyboard layout. If you use a national (here: german) keyboard you have to translate the mapping manually.. Either by remembering the correct mapping or by painting new key caps…

Shadowolf on Forum64 presented a very nice solution: The KeyboardTwister. This small tinyAVR based HW Mod sits between the PS/2 connector of the DTV and the PS/2 keyboard and translates the keymapping.

Have a look at my KeyboardTwister gallery…


The KeyboardTwister connected to my DTV

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