Questions tagged [commodore-64]
For questions about the different versions and products of the Commodore 64
244
questions
5
votes
1answer
383 views
Is this SpeedDOS chip mounted right in my C64?
I have removed a chip to reseat it, but sadly I forgot how it was placed on my C64 (breadbin).
I assume its text should be in the same direction of all the other chips on the board, but now I don't ...
24
votes
1answer
474 views
How did the C64 lockup bug and its workarounds work?
The Commodore 64 suffered from a strange bug that caused it to lock up when typing in the full-screen BASIC editor. To trigger the bug, position the cursor on the last line of the screen, type enough ...
9
votes
2answers
515 views
How can I connect my Commodore 64 to an RGB+Sync signal via SCART?
I would like to connect my Commodore 64 to my SCART switcher (Shinybow SB-5525), which is connected to a Sony PVM via RGB+Sync. I bought this cable, only to realize after getting it, it is a composite ...
5
votes
1answer
165 views
Why is my Commodore 1541-II stuck showing “Searching for $” whilst trying to load the directory?
I have a Commodore 1541-II drive. I bought this drive used (but like new) a year ago and I used it on my Commodore 64 for about 6 months, but I moved and just reconnected it to my Commodore and it no ...
0
votes
0answers
49 views
Can I use a Commodore 64 compatible joystick with my Amiga 600? [duplicate]
I have some Commodore 64 compatible joysticks and I would like to know if I can use them with my Amiga 600. I would just plug it in and try it, but I don't want to short circuit anything.
18
votes
1answer
2k views
What's the deal with Commodore's RESTORE key?
Most early microcomputers provided either a dedicated key (e.g. Apple ][), keyboard combination (e.g. PC clones), or dedicated hardware button (countless examples) to "Reset" the computer. ...
6
votes
4answers
614 views
C128D shorted Composite and Ground
I just did a stupid thing and connected a new cable without inspecting it first. It was from a reputable seller, but has shorted pins 2 and 4.
What is the potential damage it could have caused and ...
4
votes
2answers
209 views
C64 KERNAL Loading into I/O space [duplicate]
On a Commodore 64, if I Load "*",8,1 and the file's address (first two bytes on disk) is $D000, will it load to the RAM under the I/O space?
In other words, does the KERNAL loader properly ...
6
votes
3answers
365 views
New chess engines on retro hardware
Does anyone know of any efforts to write modern chess engines for old hardware? (e.g. C64, A2e?)
I'd love to see how a pared-down Stockfish or Leela that could fit in RAM could do rating wise etc.
...
3
votes
1answer
651 views
Problems Connecting an Arduino Uno to a Commodore 64 Joystick Port
I have made up a DB9 connector with connections to an Arduino. I am using pins 1 to 4 on the connector. On the Arduino I have a small program which writes out a series of digital HIGH signals to the ...
2
votes
0answers
107 views
Running Codenet on a Commodore 64 Emulator
I finally managed to get basic networking stuff working on VICE, thanks to another thread on Retrocomputing. I'm now wondering how to setup a Codenet server emulation.
I was able to identify four ...
1
vote
0answers
47 views
How to Perform RR-Net MK3 Detection on VICE Commodore 64 Emulator?
RR-Net documentation describes a detection algorithm for the MK3 model. The algorithm is supposed to reveal the last four hex digits of the MAC address. According to documentation the MAC address 28:...
9
votes
4answers
676 views
Delay loop in BASIC
Yesterday I was looking for a way to implement a delay loop on the C64.
I came across this page: https://www.c64-wiki.com/wiki/TIME
At the bottom of the page there is a code fragment that waits for a ...
2
votes
1answer
271 views
Modern heat sinks for Commodore C64/C128
The VIC-II and SID chips in the C64/128 are prone to over-heating and are rather expensive to replace nowadays. Some other ICs in these machines may have the same issue.
An unmodified machine includes ...
6
votes
1answer
166 views
Chaining IRQ's with BASIC & Kernal routines turned off
Having disabled BASIC and Kernal routines I set up an IRQ to run the following code when the raster line reaches 200:
.irq1
inc 53280 // change border colour
// lda #$ff // clear the ...
5
votes
4answers
324 views
Running WarpCopy64 on an emulator
I'm interested in IP networking capabilities of the Commodore 64. I learned there is a tool called WarpCopy64 that can be used to run a simple file server on the Commodore. The server can be accessed ...
7
votes
3answers
499 views
Is it still possible to access a BBS via dial up internet on the C64 (or other retro computers)
I was wondering if it is still possible to access any online BBS using dial up and an 80's era computer.
I'm aware that some dial up internet providers still exist (eg Nippy Internet in the UK), but ...
3
votes
2answers
346 views
What high nibble values can you get when you read the 4 bit color memory on a C64/C128?
The C64 and the C128 have a memory for storing the color values of a character. The size of this memory is 1k x 4bit (2k x 4bit for the C128 which can do a double buffering), thus reading the value at ...
3
votes
3answers
615 views
What are quick ways to load downloaded tape images onto an unmodified 8-bit computer?
There are repositories of tape software available online, for example CPC Power for Amstrad CPC machines.
What is the fastest and simplest way to load such games onto an unmodified computer, with the ...
22
votes
5answers
6k views
How to detect a real Commodore 64, THEC64, or VICE emulator in software?
Some programs notice if they are run on a real Commodore 64 or an emulator. For example, this demo from 2007 stops on VICE emulator 3.2 with the message "No VIC inside". How is this done?
I ...
5
votes
1answer
493 views
Bank switching and memory perspectives (C64)
I've been reading up on bank switching on Wiki and in particular here which contains the below nice image and have a few questions:
Am I right in thinking that LOAD loads into RAM (dark grey in the ...
5
votes
1answer
420 views
Basic / Assembler startup code (C64)
I'm just creating my own .prg file using NCurses Hexeditor in Ubuntu which I load using load"file.prg",8 in Vice. I followed the information in this link explaining how to create a .prg file....
0
votes
3answers
232 views
c64 copy chars to sprite issue
How to do correct copying char to sprite ?
Lets say 1st char is at $2000 second is at $2008 and copying to sprite at $2480.
And with this we can copy 1 char to top left position of 1st sprite. But ...
13
votes
1answer
3k views
Why was the 1541 so slow?
The Commodore 1541 floppy disk drive, sold for use with the 64, was notoriously slow for historical and technical reasons:
Marketing insisted on compatibility with the 1540, the floppy drive sold ...
10
votes
3answers
667 views
How do I get the size of a file on disk on the Commodore 64?
As the title, really. I'm reading a SEQ file into memory, and need to know how big it is ahead of time. I know that I can get the size in blocks by parsing the directory, although it's ugly, but the ...
11
votes
4answers
2k views
Is it possible to just construct a simple cable serial↔︎serial and send data from PC to C64?
I recently saw a video made by the famous "The 8 Bit Guy" about PE6502 computer. At 19:41, he successfully sent a text file from his Windows 95 laptop to the PE6502 using only a standard ...
8
votes
1answer
294 views
Is there a possibility for a user-defined IRQ hardware vector on a Commodore 128 in C128 mode?
When an IRQ occurs, the 6502 microprocessor and its derivatives in the C64 and C128 push the status register to the stack and then load the contents of a two-byte vector at memory address $FFFE/$FFFF ...
5
votes
1answer
171 views
Menu in Octapolis
I have been retrogaming with Octapolis on an emulated Commodore 64. Starting up the game presents a menu offering a choice between one or two players, and between music and sound effects. But I don't ...
0
votes
1answer
121 views
VICE loads files slowly on Fedora 32 Linux [closed]
I lately wanted to try some of the Commodore 64 games I have kept as D64 files on my Fedora Linux system using VICE. I have lately upgraded the system from Fedora 26 to Fedora 32.
After I started up ...
11
votes
2answers
2k views
Why does the VIC-II duplicate its registers? (C64)
After sporadically reading about the C64 and tinkering here and there for over 32 years I finally decided to get to know my C64 memory layout properly. In doing so I have a question about the VIC-II ...
4
votes
1answer
190 views
From what errors could Commodore's tape loader recover
The Commodore PET/VIC-20/C64 tape routines write out the leader for each file twice, and then write the data twice. While it would seem that this should allow data to be loaded more reliably, ...
32
votes
12answers
11k views
Did computer games for Commodore 64 really take “25 minutes” to load “if everything went alright”?
In the Swedish-language song "Nostalgi" by Markoolio from 2003, some of the lyrics go:
My first computer had 64 kB
you surfed on the water, and that's that
The computer games were loaded ...
4
votes
1answer
208 views
Commodore 64 CC65 - I need help with config set up for using a data segment in Bank 3
I'm developing a game for C64 using CC65 to compile my C code to ASM. To get started quickly, I have been defining the data for my sprites in C arrays and then copying the data in those arrays to the ...
6
votes
2answers
457 views
Does a defacto format exist for Commodore 64 SID music?
I first learned about tracker / mod music on my Amiga in the early 1990's. I remember fooling around with Protracker, listening to mods with Intuitracker, and coming to the realization that all those ...
10
votes
1answer
291 views
Rationale for almost heatsunk TO-220 packages on C64 motherboard
The TO-220 packaged VR1 regulator and Q1 transistor in the Commodore 64 motherboard (reference designators cited here from the Rev. B breadbin) are mounted in a way that suggests they were supposed to ...
0
votes
2answers
250 views
Behaviour of commas in PRINT at a line-end
Does anyone have actual documentation on how MS/Commodore BASIC handles line wrapping in PRINT statements?
I tried this in an online emulator:
PRINT 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0
In this case it wraps at the ...
10
votes
2answers
712 views
What pointing devices were available for C64/C128?
Apart from 1351 mouse what other official Commodore C64/C128 pointing devices were available, or notable 3rd party like Mouse Cheese. Joysticks and controllers are out of question. C64-wiki seems to ...
4
votes
2answers
749 views
Transforming a memory dump into something loadable
As a follow-up to this question, I now have:
A memory dump of the unpacked application
The start address of the application
I can verify that the dump is correct by starting a new instance of Vice, ...
6
votes
1answer
282 views
Reconstructing uncompressed program from compressed tape image
I have a C64 program in a .t64 file. If I load it into an emulator, what I see is that it loads into a cracktro, which then proceeds to uncompress (taking several seconds at 100% speed) the original ...
7
votes
1answer
202 views
Could a double-sided Commodore disk be written to be used as a “flippy” on a 1541, without requiring flipping on a 1571?
Although the 1571 is capable of reading and writing both sides of a disk, accesses to the second side using the second head will be performed with the drive spinning in opposite direction from how it ...
10
votes
1answer
724 views
Is it possible to boot C64/C128 from floppy
When powered on 1541 reads the disk for a brief moment. Is it used to boot system from floppy? Is it possible to create a bootable commodore 64 floppy?
3
votes
2answers
499 views
How were games and programs written for the C64 in assembler in the 80s? [duplicate]
Were developers using monitors like e.g. "Supermon+64", "Merlin 64" or "Monitor$C000" and cartridges like "Final Cartridge", "Action Replay" (both of ...
4
votes
2answers
467 views
Joystick adapter from 9-pin to USB
I have still a couple of old C64/Amiga joysticks and I'd like to use them on the New C64, which has USB ports.
Is there an adapter from 9-pin male to USB?
This 3-year old article references a company ...
3
votes
2answers
200 views
Is there a Commodore 64 Fastloader/Fastsaver combination that is SD2IEC-compatible?
There exist many fastloading systems for the Commdore 64/VC 1541 combination. Unfortunately, only a few work with the cost-efficient SD2IEC device, a most notable exception is the Dreamload loader ...
1
vote
0answers
65 views
Expansion Port & Final Cartridge et al - Are they just programs in ROM, or is there more to it? [duplicate]
For the C64, there are a lot of emulation devices floating on (Euro) ebay that allow you to load programs from SDcard via emulated serial floppy or/and tape interfaces, simulating the insertion of a ...
20
votes
5answers
4k views
What kind of television set would work with the Commodore 64?
I found out all my SmartTVs don't work because they are too modern for my old computer.
I am a young owner of a Commodore 64, so please bear with me as this machine is a decade older than me.
I do ...
0
votes
1answer
141 views
Any Public Videos of Anyone Playing Jupiter Mission 1999?
When I was growing up, I played a game for the Atari 800 entitled "Jupiter Mission 1999", which has as a premise that you wake up in the middle of the night with astronauts at your door and ...
5
votes
1answer
253 views
Why are the CBM control codes for color setting so spread out?
The control codes (my C64 handbook actually calls them ASCII codes) for color changing on the Commodore 64 are as follows:
Color Control Code Color number
BLACK $90 0
...
3
votes
2answers
342 views
Is there a way to blank out a portion of a screen on Commdore C64?
I would like to blank out a couple of lines between two given rasterlines. Above that I'm planning to have a scrolling background and sprites, below that is a textual info area.
I'm thinking of a ...
15
votes
3answers
2k views
C64/PETSCII block graphic symbol: was there ever a logical reason for their “ASCII” codes?
You know those block graphic symbols that allows you to draw lines, corners, intersections, fine bar charts, etc. they are useful and one can do a lot of stuff, but their code arrangements always ...
