Saturday, May 22, 2010

Stelladaptor and Ghouls and Ghosts

My Stelladaptor came in today. It allows me to use my Atari 2600 joysticks with my Mac so I can use the Commodore emulator with old school joysticks. I just used it to play an old favorite, Ghouls and Ghosts. I was unable to get Ghouls and Ghosts to work with the IDE64. It works great on the emulator. I also got some playtime on Raid on Bungeling Bay.


Friday, May 21, 2010

Found Galaxian, too!

Galaga

While hunting around at lunch, I found this old version of Galaga. It is monochrome and simple ASCII characters, but it's fast and fluid. I remember playing this for hours.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Contiki running...

I got Contiki to run and connect to the Internet. The trick was you HAVE to run it from floppy to allow the configuration file to save with all the IP and driver information. Even setting my IDE64 to device 8 didn't do the trick. Luckily, some old school 5.25 floppies came in the mail today. My next goal is to try to get Breadbox (Twitter client) to work.

1541

I fired up the old 1541 floppy today in an effort to get Contiki to work. I forgot how to format a floppy. I had to google how to do it. Duh. Anyhow, off to figure out Contiki.

Monday, May 17, 2010

80 Column Success

I managed to get an 80 column telnet session working with my Commodore 64. Basically, you launch a small program that launches the 64 into 80 column mode and then launch a special version of Guru Term that is 80 column capable. The trick is to make all that work with the IDE64. I finally figured it out today. Guru Term isn't the best terminal program, but it works. Kipper Term seems the best for 40 column, full ANSI support, but won't work with the 80 column hack.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

1942. The epic top down scrolling shooter!

Rambo First Blood Part 2

This one is a bit harder than Who Dares Wins.

Who Dares Wins 2 - A Classic!

IDE64

Here's a pic of the IDE64 with the 4gb Compact Flash as drive 12. It is connected to my Mac via usb via Vmware to an XP virtual system running PcLink IDESERV. It acts as drive 14. Attached to the side is the RR-NET ethernet adaptor.

After I figured out the power issue, it has run well and is stable.

Another pic of Spatula City in Ansi.

Commodore 64 Online

Using Kipperterm, I've merged my Commodore 64 on to the Information Superhighway. I connected an RR-NET network adaptor to my IDE64 and it works well. Seeing things in 40 columns is not ideal, but it works. I'm going to try and get Contiki to work. I think that is in 80 column.

Introducing a new generation to the C64.

River Raid

I found River Raid this morning and it brought back memories of playing this on our families Atari 5200. I remember beating this game, taking a Polaroid of the screen, and sending it in to Activision for a free patch. I remember my mom sewing it on to my baseball cap.

Centipede in the Morning

Showing Centipede to my family this morning after breakfast - a classic!

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Moving files...

Now that my plugin IDE64 issue is resolved and I can open D64 images, I am now moving my huge D64 collection to the compact flash card. It's a slow process.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

IDE64 and Plugins

I've solved the plugins issue in the file manager on the IDE64. It's one of those stupid things where I should have just followed the manual exactly. Instead I tried to take shortcuts and kept running into errors. Now, when I'm in the file manager, I can examine and launch things from inside D64 and T64 images. A lot of stuff still doesn't run from within D64 images, but it's a step in the right direction.

I played a little bit of Raid On Bungeling Bay. This was one of my all time favorites. Here's a walk-through I found on eBay.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Jumpman

Still working on my IDE64 plugin issues, but decided to take a break and enjoy Jumpman! Haven't played this in a couple of decades.

Monday, May 10, 2010

IDE64 Issue Solved

The IDE64 lockup issues were a result of not enough juice being delivered by the two standard power supplies I had. I purchased a modified Commodore 128 power supply that would work with the 64 and sure enough, I ran the 64 with the IDE64 all day. The 64 ran great with the old power supplies, but once you install an expansion card like the IDE64, I guess they draw too much power.

I spent today trying to figure out the plugin system on the IDE64. It should allow you to launch D64 images from within the IDE64 file manager. I was unable to figure it out before I had to quit. I did find and use this tip to extract D64 images on the PC and then move them using the IDE64. This worked out well.

Once I get my file management issues solved, I plan on tackling Contiki and my RR-NET card to get the old system on to the Internet.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Set Back

The IDE64 keeps locking up my system. It seems to work okay when I first start, but within 20 minutes, it locks up the 64. Then it will only run for 5 minutes at a time at the most. The oddest thing is I notice the red LED light on the 64 dims when the system crashes. If I pull the IDE64 out, the system runs just fine. I wonder if the IDE64 is drawing too much power. Maybe the power supply is failing. You really have to have a lot of patience when you put together an old system.

I've been in communication with Josef Soucek, the guy I purchased it from and he has been helping. I have another power supply coming back within the next couple of days (it was a "heavy duty" one that arrived DOA a week ago). Hopefully that will put this to rest. I'm eager to get the RR-NET and Contiki on the Internet.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Compact Flash

Installed a 4gb compact flash drive into the IDE64 and formatted it with the native 64 file system, CFS. I'm using the built in IDE64 file manager (invoked using the MAN command) to copy all the 64 disk images I have from the pc to the compact flash. So far, everything had been smooth and the glitches I've encountered have been solved by looking at the IDE64 manual.

Monday, May 3, 2010

IDE64 Running

I got the IDE64 up and running. I installed the USB driver on my XP partition on my Mac first. Then I plugged in the IDE64 and booted the 64. It recognized the device and began installing the USB drivers. I then launched the IDESERV process in XP. Running MAN on the 64 launched the IDE64 file manager. Nothing happened at first -- I had to read through the manual yo figure out that the PCLINK portion is registered to device 14. Once I hot the Commodore key and 4 for device 14 it showed all the directories in XP. I then chose the game "Way Of The Tiger" and it loaded. The IDE64 has a fast loaded which seems to run well. I will detail more when I'm not typing this from my phone!

Commodore Running

I got the replacement power supply from ebay today and the 64 is up and running. Now I need to get the IDE64 and RR-NET running. It was good to see the old blue screen again!