1571

I bought a "broken" 1571 on ebay for 20 bucks. The floppy door wasn't working. I remembered fixing a similar problem on my old 1541 from back in the day. I just got it and opened it up. A simple spring had come loose and a pin was pushed out of the way. A two minute repair job and now it works perfectly. Yay!

Arkanoid

Played a bit of Arkanoid today. Great game for the 64.

Silo 64

Played Silo 64 again and scored over 41000. Excellent game for the 64. Highly recommended!

Uh oh! Another Bomb Mania game!

I found a different Bomb Mania game in my archive! Ha! This one is definitely better.

Bomb Mania

I don't recall ever playing this game back in the day but heard about it on Twitter. It plays like Bomberman which is one of my favorite multiplayer games on Nintendo and XBox 360. So far, it's a lot of fun on the 64.

Silo 64

I played a game called Silo 64 today. I read about it on Twitter awhile back. It's a Commodore 64 game released relatively recently. It's in the tradition of other great Commodore top-down scrolling shooters like Rambo: First Blood Part 2 and Commando. The game is smooth and the music is outstanding. Give it a shot on your 64 or through an emulator!

MSSIAH + SID2SID

I think I found a guy in Europe who will sell me a SID2SID, fully assembled. I would just pop the SID chips in and I will have a Commodore 64 with 2 SID chips in it. In MSSIAH, that will give me 6 voice channels instead of 3! I'm working out the details now.

I never could figure out how to directly add videos here. Next time I'll just post them to YouTube and be done with it.

Music with the 64 has been a slow process as I've been getting busier at work. Hopefully very soon I will have a few projects sketched out.

My first attempt at music with MSSIAH

Here's a low quality video from my phone showing my first attempt at creating the beginning of a song in MSSIAH on the Commodore 64. It's been interesting learning this very well written program and the constraints of an 8-bit system are actually kind of fun. I used all pre-programmed sounds, but plan on trying to tweak my own instruments next.

BTW - This is my very first attempt in MSSIAH. I'm very familiar with sequencers like Cubase and Reason, but this was a whole different ball of wax. With one SID chip you only have three independent voices, so trying to think of a way to cram all the ideas in your head into the sequencer is challenging.

It has been fun so far and I'm really getting the hang of MSSIAH. It seems to push the limits of the Commodore 64 to the brink.

EDIT: Doesn't look like the video worked. I will try again later.

Cybernoid 2

Don't remember playing this as a kid, but the graphics are great and gameplay is fluid. Fun game!

Mouse Adapter

I got my mouse emulator from Amigakit the other day and it works well with MSSIAH. I never had a mouse on my 64 in the old days. It's an odd experience -- it will definitely make composing music a little easier. I hope to get some free time soon to begin.

Played some Top Gun on the 64 today...

Mediocre game, but I do remember playing this in the good old days! Sometimes nostalgia is enough to make the game somewhat more interesting.

Music Studio

I'm slowly getting my music studio back up and running. I'm adding the Commodore 64 and MSSIAH cartridge to the mix. It is now hooked into the Novation keyboard via MIDI and it will all direct their data to Propellerhead's Reason and Record.

I'm looking forward to making music again.

8-Bit Dreams

I received my MSSIAH synth and sequencer cartridge today from 8-Bit Ventures. It got here a lot faster than I thought which forced me to scramble around looking for all the right cables, i.e. MIDI, RCA, etc, to splice this into my home music studio. I made a few decisions on things:

I will compose all my 8-bit music on the Commodore 64 using MSSIAH and then save it to tape via the good old Commodore Datasette. I chose to go the tape route because the 1541 disk drive is huge and requires another power plug. The datasette is smaller (my desk space is limited) and gets it's power from the serial connector. Plus, I get the VERY old school feel of saving data to tape.

I need a 1351 Commodore mouse. I've had very little luck getting one on eBay, so the search will continue. The MSSIAH software utilizes the mouse heavily. It can use an Amiga mouse, but the right button function won't work.

Anyhow, I'm looking forward to posting some results when I'm done!

My son playing the classic Dig Dug...

Last Ninja 2

Playing some Last Ninja 2 this morning! I admit, I don't recall this game from back in the late 80s and early 90s when I had my first c64. The controls are a little hard to figure out and I got my ass beat by the first bad guy. The music is awesome.

Wizard of Wor

Played some Wizard of Wor this morning and scored 47600. What a great little game.

I tried playing Autoduel through emulation but the joystick won't control the car. It moves the player around town okay, but the car will not move in the arena. I will have to figure that little glitch out.

Today's Game

Today's game is Asteroid 64. Took me awhile to figure out that DOWN on the joystick was hyperspace.  Fun game!

Wizard Of Wor

Found the old game, Wizard Of Wor the other day. After playing a couple of games, I got 52,900. Still need practice, but the game holds up pretty well after all these years.

I've been playing M.U.L.E. a lot. It's a fun game, but I've yet to come in first place. I can consistently reach 2nd place.

My boy playing Centipede on the old 64 with the new joystick.

M.U.L.E. - Non-Commodore

I took Steve's advice and signed up for PlanetMULE. I played two games against A.I. opponents. I came in last place in my first game, and second place in my second game. The game is a blast and I plan on playing the C64 version soon. For some reason, it plays fine on my emulator, but crashes on the real 64. I will have to troubleshoot that. The Mac version I have is pretty slick and easy to play.

M.U.L.E.

While browsing around the Internet, I looked up "favorite Commodore 64 game" and found that a lot of people really liked M.U.L.E.

I heard of the game, of course, but I don't recall ever playing it when I was younger. I booted it up and found out quickly I have no idea how to play. I looked up instructions and found this page. I think tomorrow I will dive in and learn how to play. It seems interesting.

Rocketball!

Playing Rocketball. A classic!

Joystick

The new joystick has arrived. Let's get back to gaming, shall we!

Joystick

Just ordered a new joystick here.

Here's a pic I forgot to include of Omega Race...

Omega Race

I remember having this game on cartridge back in the day and had a lot of fun playing it. I had completely forgotten about it and found it while looking for Ogre. Unfortunately, both my joysticks have pooped out and I need to find a new one.

GEOS Running...

As you can see by the pic below, I got GEOS working on my 64 via the IDE64. It boots very fast. As a bonus, this includes geoLink, which is a TCP/IP stack for GEOS. It worked fine, but the only online app right now (that I can find) is the IRC client built into geoLink and Ping. Not much to do with that, but hopefully a terminal program with come along someday.

GEOS

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.

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.

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.

True 40 column, PETSCII telnet BBS. I haven't really seen one in 20+ years!

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.

My son playing Moon Patrol.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

Games Completed

I was thinking back to try and recall which 64 games I had completed back in the day. I know I completed Autoduel. I think I completed Paradroid. For all the hours I put in Ultima IV, I know that was one game I did not complete. Once I get the hardware back online, I am definitely giving Autoduel another whirl.

Space Taxi

It's funny how memories work. While waiting for the parts to make my Commodore 64 come alive, I have been playing a few games via emulator on my Mac. I was browsing through the titles and found "Space Taxi". I loved playing this back in the 80's, but had completely forgotten it. Just seeing the name in the directory caused all the memories of the game to flood back. I loaded it and played for awhile. What a great game.

Power Supply

The power supply I received on ebay was DOA. I'm working with the seller. Ugh. No C64 tonight.

EBay

Over the last few weeks I went on an eBay shopping spree for Commodore parts. I've purchased a mint condition Commodore 64, a 1541 disk drive, and two Atari 2600 style joysticks. My plan is to use an IDE64 to access files via USB to my computer (which I will detail in another post), so the 1541 floppy drive will remain boxed in the garage.

My friend Chad was able to procure a Commodore 1802 monitor from a local Amiga club for $20.

I also purchased an IDE64 to access files via USB to my computer. It also expands the C64 allowing more expansion units, like the RR-NET. This allows network access to the C64 via Ethernet. I purchased the RR-NET last week and it arrived a couple days ago.


I have been unable to get anything to work. I believe I have a faulty power supply from my "mint" condition Commodore from EBay. I had a very bad condition, but working C64 I got a couple years ago and tried it with this power supply and it failed as well. I have another power supply on the way from EBay that should arrive today.