I recently purchased an option B build PI1541 + epyx fastload cartridge hat from eBay and attached it to a pi zero I already had, I formatted a 16gb sd card to fat32 and followed Steve White’s instructions on his website https://cbm-pi1541.firebaseapp.com/ also replacing the kernel with the one for the pi zero and putting two disk images for two c64 games into the pi1541 folder (that being ELITE and Darren Foulds’ 1nvader) the root folder on my sd card now looks like this:

PI1541 1nvader (Darren Foulds - 2019) Elite fb16 fb20 fb20-3k fb20-8k fb20-mc fb64 fb128 bootcode.bin chargen config d1541II fixup.dat kernel options start.elf

In the options folder I have enabled the following settings

splitIECLines = 1

invertIECOutputs = 0

The latter of which is on because the hat I bought had a 7407.

I inserted the cartridge complete with pi zero and the sd card into the c64’s cartridge port, and plugged it into the serial port via a 6 pin cable. When turning on the c64 I am greeted with the regular start screen followed by “FASTLOAD” indicating some communication with the hat via the cartridge port, however the hat itself shows no signs of life, the OLED display and led have not turned on. However, the pi zero’s green led turns on intermittently before eventually dying after a while. When I attempt to communicate with the PI1541 via commands from the c64 like LOAD”$”,8 or LOAD”*”,8 I get the message: DEVICE NOT PRESENT ERROR Indicating the hat has no communication via the Serial Port and I am unable to mount any disk images because the OLED is not turning on. The only thing that seems to work is the reset button, which clears the screen and displays the normal startup message again.

I have tried fiddling with the settings, wiping and setting up the sd card again and even re soldering all the parts I had originally on my pi zero but the result doesn’t change.

Thank you for reading this albeit very long and boring post. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Did anyone else ever use the Comal programming language on the C64? I remember it being more powerful and intuitive than the standard BASIC that came with the C64.

I just picked up a 1702 and want to adjust the image and colors. I've seen lots if images with the grid pattern on the screen. How do you do that? Is that a DVD that has those patters and color bars?

Defender Of The Crown was one of my favourite games back in the day. It was a strategy game done right, very accessible and addictive. I spent hours and hours playing it. The slow pace of the game, with cut scenes and separate tasks, created a gaming experience that was different than a shoot 'em up. It did a great job of immersing you into the environment. The games company Cinemaware were much hyped at the time, but this was their only C64 title I actually enjoyed. The graphics and gameplay were excellent (although I could never figure out the jousting tournament, and only won those by accident!). The only area to improve would be the soundtrack - the different melodies were cool, but it wasn't at the same level as other top titles from that era such as Skate Or Die... Anyway, my main memory of this game is it told the story well, and provided hours of addictive gameplay. Did anybody else care for it?

It is ok to play with joystick.

A few days ago I picked up a Commodore 64c with 51 original OEM disks. Unfortunately most don't seem to work anymore, so while I wait for a new power supply,l and SD2IEC, I'm grabbing all the disks I own to put on the SD card.

I've got nearly all of them but I can't seem to track down the fifth Top 20 Solid Gold disk image. The few links I can find around don't seem active anymore. Disk 5 contained the games Potty Pigeon and Grand Master Chess. I have them individually but I'm trying to keep it as close as I can to what I have.

Does anyone have a copy or know where I can find the file?

Edit: Thank you! Someone reached out and shared the file with me!

Does anyone sell a fully working, newly made C64? Not an emulation system like The64. A real C64. I was hoping to find a breadbin C64 model with all the standard parts or at least as close as possible, but already assembled as a working unit. Looking on marketplace for even used ones, that may or may not be working, are going for as much as $250.

I was active 89-90 in a couple groups, mostly Venom, doing graphics and such. The NTSC scene wasn't that big, only a handful of groups. People I spoke to every day fell out of my life when I decided to go live a regular life of a teenager.

The demo scene was my first true artistic endeavor. It taught me a lot about collaboration, social networking, and how to work within extreme limitations. I am a professional artist these days and I still use all of these skills I learned when I was 12-13 years old.

My handle was Death Merchant (typical 13-old listening to Slayer and other thrash metal). My graphics were kinda wonky but I was pretty young. It amazes me that I can find all of the demos I worked on (and even read some very embarrassing scroll text!)

I got very obsessed with thinking up concepts for demos, working with a couple programmers. I barely slept. I was previously a lazy kid, and the whole demo/pirate scene was the first taste of inspiration.

Is itcho good for c64 free games? However i am looking for a particular game where there is a soldier in intro whp greets you and then you have to shoot worlds in game Then how can i run sonic with reu emulation?

Would like to get an SX-64. I'm wondering if it would be more worthwhile to get one WITH a keyboard or just get a cheaper one without one and just make my own. I do have a parts C64 lying around, I could take the keyboard from that and maybe fashion my own adapter for it. Has anyone done this successfully? I can't really find the info I am looking for online honestly. Any links would be helpful too, like adapters etc

After waiting ca 1 month it fianlly arrived from italy. I have played it for some hours now and i think it is a fantastic game.

Did Commodore make a PAL monitor equivalent to the NTSC 1702? My searches keep just bringing up modern solutions to adapt displays. I'm wondering what was available back then.

Also, I have some basic questions about PAL video that fall into the same search engine algorithm traps.

Does PAL have a composite video technology like NTSC? Or is it all RF?

If there were composite or equivalent PAL (not RGB, I'm not taking about RGB monitors plus adapters) then did they depend on a particular mains frequency to operate, or did they generate their own timebase signal internally?

Basically, say you're a software developer in early 1983 working in North America. You have an NTSC C64 and a 1702 monitor that work fine. But you want to write your software to work well on PAL machines in the UK also. So, you fly over to the UK, talk to some developers and hobbyists there, and buy a UK PAL C64 and whatever the PAL equivalent of a 1702 is, pack them really securely and fly home.

Adapting the voltage and plugs is trivial. But, will they run properly on 60hz AC, or do you need a 50hz AC power supply, too?

Newbie question about the C64 Maxi. If I have not updated firmware on the console in four years, can I update with the most recent firmware that Retro Games has posted on their website? Or will that cause glitches and bugs?

This was a very slick game back in the day. The puzzles were a great feature. And it was the first time I heard speech used in a computer game.

If it is on the Internet it must be true! ;-)

As I understand it, to access a BBS over WiFi I need a WiFI modem that would connect to the User Port and some sort of telnet program such as CCGMS.

My question is: Do I have to load the software and manually connect to the WiFi router each and every time I power on the C64?

Is there a cart that includes the software, preserves the WiFi configurations, and for a bonus includes a Fast Loader all in one that can go on the Cartridge slot? Or am I dreaming too big?

Thanks in advance.

Hello there! I might need the community's help with this one... so I have memories of a C64 game from my childhood. I can't remember the name and no matter how many hourlong C64-game-compilations I watch on YouTube, it is never in there. I start to feel like my memory is playing tricks on me - but maybe somebody on here knows the game as well?

Soooo... I don't remember too much really, but I will just dump everything here and see what sticks:

The game I'm talking about is a sidescrolling platform shooter, pretty much a Turrican-clone really. I remember the graphics to be quite good for the time, all sprites and backgrounds were rather detailed and animations were quite smooth. I remember the color palette of the first area to be that typical orange-brown, I remember a blue area later on as well. And I think there were no stages but you went from area to area fluently. What I remember of the level design I would call dystopian-futuristic with cave-like stages that had metal pillars and platforms in them. Also I don't remember much of a HUD, not saying there was none but I'm quite sure it was none of those HUDs that covered three quarters of the screen.

Setting-wise, it is one of those sci-fi games, the character you controll is humanoid, propably a guy wearing some sci-fi-armor or possibly a robot, holding some sort of laser rifle that could be upgraded through power ups. I do remeber that as a child the character reminded me of robocop (not that I had seen the move at the age of, I don't know, six or seven... but I have an older brother and he told me things :D)

I do not remeber much of the enemy-design unfortunately. What I do remember though is that from time to time you had to fight some sort of mini boss in order to progress, there might have been different ones but I quite clearly remember one to be some sort of flying, three-headed dragon creature that did not only appear in one area, but also in another one (in a different color scheme though), that one always scared me as a child.

Now that I am typing it all out it seems I do remember quite a bit... it can't promise I am not mixing up visuals of different games in my mind though, it's been a good 30 years after all. I have played the game in the early 90s, never got too far as a child but always enjoyed playing it. As a sidenote, I live in Germany and I have no idea where we got that game from; as one did back in the day, we had like three boxes full of floppy disks and no more than a handful were originals (and this one wasn't one of them)...

So... suggestions anyone?

Edit: thanks to PaulEMoz the game is found!! That game is Galivan, by Imagine

Funny, how I have been (passively) looking for this game for years and here on reddit it does not even take half an hour until somebody finds it <3

Also funny: I just watched a Longplay of that game and while I spent hours playing it as a child, the longplay (without using any exploits) is like 10 minutes long. I might not have been a smart child.

Hi all. Can anyone reccomend a book on the sid chip?.

I'm planning on using rob tracker . The windows release or maybe the old school music routine releases on the 64.

I need to read up on pwm, ring modulation etc so i have a much better understanding on how individual sounds are created.

Would programmers reference guide be sufficient?.