#Amiga #Commodore PCMCIA CF Card Transfer Kit

Spent time today working on getting my PCMCIA CF Transfer Kit working on the Amiga 1200. Last week I installed the software, formatted the CF card, plugged it in, and NOTHING. I beat my head against it all week and finally this weekend I determined the PCMCIA slot wasn't working at all. I took the Amiga apart and used a flashlight to look inside. Two of the pins were completely bent out of the way. Using a small screwdriver I was able to gently push them back into position. After that it recognized the card, but the formatting was wrong. I had to use a special partition manager to format it for FAT16. Finally, it works. It's been fun working on and learning the Amiga, but it does make me appreciate my Commodore 64 a bit more.

#Commodore #Amiga Accelerator and Floppy

I installed an accelerator in my Amiga 1200 today. It runs for about 30 seconds and then the system locks up or it reboots. I can make it crash by hitting the CF card with a data requests, so I'm pretty sure my PSU isn't supplying enough juice for the Amiga with an expansion card. I'm on the hunt for a stronger PSU.

Meanwhile, I tried using the floppy drive for the first time and it didn't work. After some basic troubleshooting, I found out the eject button is broken. If I manually pull it out when I insert a disk, it engages the floppy and it works like a charm. I will have to dissect the floppy drive when I have time and see if it's just a broken spring. You never know what you're going to run into working on 15+ year old computers!

Here's a pic of the accelerator card:

#Commodore #Amiga New 4gb CF Card

Installed a new 4gb CF card into the Amiga today. WHDLOAD was preinstalled and seemed to work well. Of course, most games won't run on an unexpanded 1200 so I will need to wait until I get an accelerator. I did successfully play Arkanoid and Marble Madness. The new CF card also fixed the issue with the hard drive light not working.

#c64 Denio's Flea Market - Commodore Memories

This past weekend I took my family to Denio's Farmer's Market and Auction. Truthfully, it's more like a large flea market with vendors set up in rows. I hadn't been there in probably 20+ years. My parents would take my family there maybe once or twice a month. We always looked forward to it. We would go fairly early in the morning and then grab lunch on the way back. At the flea market, I would take my allowance and hunt down Commodore 64 games. Several vendors would always have them stocked. Some original games and of course, some vendors would have copied or pirated games available. I remember getting a boxed and shrink wrapped B-1 Nuclear Bomber from Avalon Hill. I also recall getting the boxed version of Elite.

#c64 Downhill Racing on Skate Or Die

Played a bit of Skate Or Die on the Commodore 64 today. This game takes forever to load. I remember owning the original as a kid and walking away from the computer for awhile while it loaded. A lot of fun, though. Here I'm playing the downhill racing competition.

#c64 Spy Hunter

Here's a pic of my son playing Spy Hunter on the 64. I played this a lot as a kid.

#c64 New beta version of ChatteRRbox

Downloaded the latest beta version of ChatteRRbox for the 64 and it feels a lot more solid and stable than the previous version. Not a single crash in 40 minutes.

In case you haven't heard, this is a fun "chat room" application that utilizes the RR-NET network adapter to connect to the CommodoreServer.com chat rooms. A fun way to stay connected to Commodore friends.

#c64 Mr. Dig and Frantic Freddy

Found a little time at lunch today to play these two classic arcade style games. Mr. Dig seems to almost be a precursor to Dig Dug. Frantic Freddy is a typical multi level Donkey Kong type of game.

#c64 Wings Of Fury

Playing a classic this morning before work -- Wings Of Fury on the Commodore 64. Looks like a Zero is trying to bomb my Corsair.

#Commodore #Amiga Amiga To-Do List

Haven't had a ton of time to spend with my new Commodore family addition -- the Amiga 1200. I do have a plan of action to-do list.

1. Format the CF card and install Workbench. It works right now, but seems to be a mess.
2. Download and install WHDLOAD and register.
3. Install accelerator card.
4. Clean keys with Retr0bright.
5. Fix left Amiga key.
6. Acquire PCMCIA CF card reader to transfer files

Way down the road, I would like to get the Amiga on the Internet like I did with my 64.

#c64 Battletech

As a high-schooler, I used to play a tabletop board game called Battletech with friends. They made it into a Commodore 64 game which I had completely forgotten about until a conversation I had on Twitter sparked a memory. Today I tried loading it on my 64, but couldn't get the system to recognize the disk images. I was able to successfully get it running on the VICE emulator on my Mac at home. Here are some snapshots of me playing it, trying to figure my way around. 

#c64 ChatteRRbox

I am currently chatting real time with other users using my Commodore 64, rr-net network adapter, and the new ChatteRRbox program at CommodoreServer.com. I am now living in the future from the past!

#c64 A Commodore 64 Walkabout

I received my copy of A Commodore 64 Walkabout by Robinson Mason. I'm eager to begin reading it! Mr. Mason has been extremely helpful to me personally in tracking down games I vaguely recall playing but couldn't remember the title. A big thanks to him. You're an asset to the 64 community.

#c64 Magnetron

While trying to find a different game on Gamebase 64, I came across Magnetron. It's a spacecraft shooter on a scrolling world. The graphics are fantastic, but this has got to be one of the LONGEST games to load, and fastloaders don't seem to work. I need to find instructions, too, as I can see there are special keys that do things like bring up maps, etc. It was published by Broderbund, who released one of my favorites, Raid on Bungeling Bay.

#c64 Thundercats

While testing my Stella adapter within VICE on the Mac, I stumbled across this game. Any fan of the cartoon from childhood will recognize it. The game has really great graphics and good sound. Other than that, it was a pretty tough game -- geting the swing of the sword just right can be difficult. 

#c64 VICE on Mac

I heard on Twitter that POWER 64 will stop working on Macs once LION is installed. To that end, I have installed the latest version of VICE on my Mac. I haven't tested anything beyond tape, disk, and cartridge images, but so far it is working well. Need to figure out how to mount multiple disks and how it will work with my Stella joystick adapter.

#c64 Thrust

Based on a tweet from @c64_endings, I found the T64 image of the game Thrust from Firebird and loaded it up via my 64 and Chameleon. The game is a bit like the old Jupiter Lander style game where you "thrust" your ship around and have to pick up and destroy various objects. The game is quite challenging!

#c64 Victory!

I have been thoroughly enjoying Lords of Conquest as you can see by my complete domination. Of course, it was only level 1. Ha! On to level two!

#c64 Lords Of Conquest

I asked a friend on Twitter (@RobinsonMason) to divulge his top three strategy titles on the 64. I love strategy games -- I remember on the old PC, Perfect General II was one of my all time favorites. But true strategy games were always a bit lacking on the 64. I loved M.U.L.E on the 64 and a few others. It wasn't until I took @RobinsonMason's suggestion and loaded Lords Of Conquest that I suddenly remembered this game. I owned the original as a kid and LOVED it! It's basically Risk on steroids and I had hours of fun playing this as a kid. I loaded it up last night and found scanned docs here: http://www.gamebox64.com/cgi-bin/displaygameboxdetails.pl?GameBox64ID=55&view=Instructions

It was fun. I need some more practice but I think Lords of Conquest is back in my life for good.

#c64 Space Pilot

I was looking through my arcade collection and found a Time Pilot clone called Space Pilot. It was a fun game and pretty faithful to the original.

#c64 Accolade's Hardball!

I was looking for new games to play when I stumbled upon Hardball! I had completely forgotten about this game and haven't played it in over 20 years. It was one of my favorites as a kid. I remember back then thinking, "How could graphics get better than this!?" Ha!

#c64 Mr. Freeze

I was looking for some games to play this weekend and my Twitter friend @CritAnime suggested Mr. Freeze. I didn't have this one in collection so I got it from Gamebase 64. It's a bit glitchy on my system - probably PAL only game, but it's been fun. On to Chiller, as suggested by @C64_endings.

#c64 Geos on the Chameleon 64

I decided to test Geos using the Chameleon 64. I figured this was a good benchmark because GEOS is difficult to get running on anything short of real floppy drives. I got it working well on the uIEC. Surprisingly, it was pretty easy to get working on the Chameleon. I just assigned the primary GEOS disk to Drive 1 and the Apps disk to DRIVE 2. I loaded GEOS via the Commodore prompt, not the Chameleon file manager and I was off to the races. Now I will try to get the emulated GEORam to work.

#c64 Pitfall 2

Continuing the cartridge theme, played some Pitfall 2. I don't recall it being such a poor game, but it's not that fun.

Anyone have good cartridge suggestions?