Landover BBS - Commodore 128 & PET - since 1987

...the Fresno Commodore User Group will have an exhibit - a classic Commodore 64 system and a classic Amiga 2000 system.  Not only will we have games running on the systems for all to play, but we will also have the Relax Stress Reduction System for the C64 and the Haitex X Specs 3D Stereoscopic Glasses for the Amiga.

     Murphy's Law was hitting hard that weekend at Maker Faire.  I couldn't get any sound out of the PAL C64C, then I tried a NTSC C64C, and then another NTSC C64C... no sound!  How could all 3 SID chips in the computers be bad!  Well, I tried Koalapad with them... no response; Koalapad needs a working SID chip in order to figure out its coordinates (it registers in the C64 as a set of paddles).  So, was my heavy-duty Phoenix power supply killing the SID chips?
     So that first day, the C64 had to do without sound... which was fine since I hooked up the Super Sketch drawing tablet (which didn't need a working SID).  People were amazed that such an Etch-a-Sketch type device existed for the C64 back in the day.
     To the rescue came the C128 the next day.  I put it in for the C64.  I knew for sure that the sound worked in it... but no sound came out, even after replacing the video/audio cable twice.  Then Michelle, the exhibitor next to me, lent me the a/v cable for her Atari 1200XL, a cable which would work with the Commodore.  Still no response.  I determined it was the cheap NTSC/PAL LCD tv/monitor that had a failed audio system.  Even when switching it to tv, no sound came out of it.
     Ah, well, the C128 had Koalapad up and running for most of the day with Super Sketch taking its place every once in awhile.  The A2000 ran like a champ - no sound or video problems with its Amiga CRT RGB monitor.
     The crowd was very interested, remarking, "I haven't seen one of those in years..." or "I grew up with one of those..." or "I started my learning/career on one of those...", and my response was "Well, you can get back into it!"     And the children would be shown the computers with the parents remarking like, "That's the way computers were..." or "Yeah, you have to wait for it to..." or "That's what a floppy disk looks like..." 
     For those who had even more interest, I directed them to www.vintage-computer.com or to the Atari Party 2013 or to the Amiwest Show 2013 or the Amiga club in San Jose or to our club and website.  Many picked up the business cards I had laying around.
     The exhibit was very successful, and Erik Klein plans to have another set of tables open for classic computers next year at Maker Faire.

Catch Jeri Ellsworth as she wanders Maker Faire with a few new prototypes... !

     I wasn't able to get around Maker Faire very much, because I was stuck at the booth all weekend, 12 1/2 hours each day!  Her booth was in Fiesta Hall, and she was showing off the cast AR (Augmented Reality) glasses from her start-up company, Technical Illusions.  http://www.technicalillusions.com  I met her afterward with all the other friends at the Bring-A-Hack dinner at Harry's Hofbrau in nearby Foster City.  There she explained how it works.  Now if only I could get them to work on Commodores or Amigas... 

          The Haitex 3D googles for the Amiga would have to do for now,
          Robert Bernardo
          Fresno Commodore User Group
          http://videocam.net.au/fcug
          July 27-28 Commodore Vegas Expo v9 -
          http://www.portcommodore.com/commvex

I've seen them on Ebay a few times, I don't believe they have to be commodore specific

If you are refering to the interfaces, yes they must be Commodore specific. Most use the cartridge port of the Commodore computer.

If you intend to burn an actual EPROM with a Commodore burner, such as a Promenade, you need the load address of the file, otherwise you lose the first two bytes when you load it. I doubt many people use a Promenade these days. I have one though!

Sure. I have attached the four files. All of them are non-CBM format, meaning they do NOT contain the two-byte load address of the file. All four of these images will work only in the internal function ROM socket. As I mentioned, it's a one-byte change to the GEOS files to make them work with (only) the external function ROM socket. Don't know about BASIC 8 yet--haven't looked.

You can tell the difference in the BASIC 8 images from the welcome message--the later one says "V2". You can see this as plain text in the file, near the end of the image (near top of memory).

Enjoy,

--Kent

Hi!


I want to recommend you 1MB Internal Function ROM which includes all known EPROMs and is programmeble by Megabit Programmer.
I have it inside U36 socket of 128DCR.


BTW. I didn't knew about BASIC 8 v1 and v2, only one version I know, also 1571GEOS don't know.


If you have binary images of BASIC8 v1, v2 and 1571GEOS, please attach it to reply to share between all users.


Miro