**********************
* COMMODORE FREE  *
**********************

Free to download Commodore 
Magazine 

Issue Number 8

May 2007

 
EDITOR


Many of you will now be in denial 
at the loss of Total Amiga 
magazine. I had been a subscriber 
for a while and what impressed me 
was the layout of the magazine. 
Although still a fanzine, it could 
easily be claimed this was a 
professional magazine. 

Also in this issue, some 
information about Back in time 
live the Sid music event, although 
sadly I will be unable to attend the 
event, I am hoping that a DVD will 
be released again, so I may be able 
to soak up some of the atmosphere.

I am always looking for articles, 
although sadly very few come 
through from readers, I would like 
to promote projects and user 
groups especially.  I would like to 
also hear about companies 
promoting Commodore by having 
hardware and software for sale, 
with a small history about when 
they started and what items are for 
sale, if you own such a company 
why not get in touch and I can 
promote you in the magazine, with 
a link to the website and a few 
pages of text about your services.

Attached to the end of the 
magazine is the Commodore 
gaming advert, although I don't 
receive any funding from 
Commodore gaming I felt it was 
important to promote what they are 
doing. I have a feeling if 
everything goes well and sales are 
good Commodore gaming may 
have something special for us retro 
users. 
 
Dave Moorman continues his 
"teach yourself basic" tutorials and 
we have another instalment of 
Assembler from Jason. 

Because Commodore Scenes VGA 
project went quiet I have an update 
in this issue, and some information 
about the project, as usual with 
these projects the idea seems easy 
to achieve but real life families and 
Collage take over and the projects 
slow to a halt. 

Richard Bayliss has put together a 
utility disk for programmers, and I 
am happy to promote this by 
having the disk image available to 
download on my website. I am 
hoping to expand this section of 
the website with disks like a 
writers disk full of utilities to 
convert text into and from different 
formats, spellcheckers etc, again 
real life is against me so if you 
have a set of utilities why not use 
the quik menu system and compile 
them into a library for other 
readers to use



CONTENTS



Editor and Contents	
	Page 2
Protovision news	
	Page 3 - 4
Other news 		
	Page 5 - 6
C64 Audio		
	Page 7
Basic Bible		
	Page 8 - 9
Hex files part III	
	Page 10 - 11
Into to programming Part II
	Page 12 - 14
Interview Jeff Ledger	
	Page 15 - 16
Commodore Scene VGA update
	Page 17 - 19
Happy Birthday system 3	
	Page 20
Commodore BBS list	
	Page 21 - 22
Bits and Pieces II	
	Page 23
Activision on the Commodore 64
	Page 24
Commodore 64 book so far
	Page 25
Interview Johan		
	Page 26
Interview Lasse Oorni	
	Page 27
Commodore 64 mark 2 1/2 dream
	Page 30 - 31
TND Programmers tool disk V1
	Page 32 -35 
Adverts			
	Page 36 - END	 




NEWS From Protovision 

THE FINAL REPLAY V0.8 ROM 
IS OUT

TFR 0.8 for the Retro Replay 
cartridge is out. V0.7 had a few 
bugfixes and a few new features. 
V0.8 includes a bug fix of one of 
those new 

features.

Changelog V0.7:
- Fixed: Fast format available 
again.
- Fixed: Removed a possible crash 
in the DOS command.
- Fixed: Monitor can now save 
RAM below $A000-$BFFF ROM.
- Added: New BASIC command 
SETIP to change IP address.
- Added: New 
DOS"D:(header),(id)" command to 
change disk header.
- Added: INFO command now 
shows network addresses and 
number of 
rasterlines.

Changelog V0.8:
- Fixed: SETIP now also has effect 
on CodeNet and not only 
NetDrive.

Get it from The Final Replay home 
page: 
http://www.oxyron.de/html/freplay
.html

In our hardware section you can 
find a neat little batch file to make 
sending files from PC to C64 with 
The Final Replay more easy.

Related links:
Forum-64: 
http://www.forum64.de/wbb2/thre
ad.php?threadid=15662
Protovision hardware section: 
http://www.protovision-
online.de/hardw/hardwstart.htm#re
tro

BOMB MANIA WITH SNES 
PADS

Zhayl created a patch to make the 
game Bomb Mania work with 
SNES Pads.It can be downloaded 
from here: 
http://dawork.synchronus.de/filez/
bombmania-snespatch.zip

Related links:
Forum-64: 
http://www.forum64.de/wbb2/thre
ad.php?threadid=15368

ARTILLERY DUEL NETWORK 
0.005 RELEASED

Version 0.005 of Artillery Duel 
Network for RR-Net or ETH64 has 
been uploaded.

Changelog:
- Now uses client/server 
terminology
- Awesome explosion graphics 
from WizardNJ
- Fixed a race condition when 
exchanging health packets (Leif 
hopes)

http://home.ica.net/~leifb/commod
ore/duel

Enjoy!

Related links:
Lemon 64 Forum: 
http://www.lemon64.com/forum/vi
ewtopic.php?t=22167
retrohackers.org Forum: 

http://retrohackers.org/forum/viewt
opic.php?t=242
Petscii Forums: 
http://jledger.proboards19.com/ind
ex.cgi?board=c64ngd&action=disp
lay&thread=1168405604

Forum-64: 
http://www.forum64.de/wbb2/thre
ad.php?threadid=14247

SINGULAR BROWSER - WEB 
BROWSER FOR RR-NET AND 
TFE

Soci/Singular put quite some work 
in his nice web browser: the 
SINGULAR  BROWSER. In a 
matter of days, he released v0.2, 
v0.3 and now v0.4 of it. Singular 
browser supports RR-Net and TFE 
(The Final Ethernet). You 
may adjust your IP settings using 
the included tool IPconfig.

Instructions for IPconfig:
1. Load IPconfig and type LIST.
2. Adjust your IP settings.
3. Type RUN to save the IPconfig-
default file.

Some hints:
1. Notice: An already existing 
IPconfig-default file must be 
deleted before running IPconfig.
2. If the programm displays "Press 
record & play on tape" after 
running it, replace "Peek(186)" in 
line 10 by the device number you 
are using, e. g. 8, and try 
again.Clicking links as well as 
entering further URLs is not yet 
supported in the current version of 
the browser.

Get it from CSDb: 
http://noname.c64.org/csdb/release
/?id=47920

Related links:
retrohackers.org Forum: 
http://retrohackers.org/forum/viewt
opic.php?t=240
Forum-64: 
http://www.forum64.de/wbb2/thre
ad.php?threadid=15548

VICE 1.21 WITH MMC64 
EMULATION

The latest version of VICE (v1.21) 
has been released earlier this  
month. Visit the VICE homepage 
at http://www.viceteam.org for 
downloads. At 
http://www.viceteam.org/plain/NE
WS you can find information on 
what's new in this release. An 
interesting new feature is MMC64 
emulation. The dump of an 
MMC64 
BIOS is required for that. You can 
find such a dump at 
retrohackers.org Forum. Notice 
you will also need the image of a 
MMC/SD card to emulate MMC64 
in VICE. To create an image of 
your MMC/SD Card, you can use 
e. g. WinImage or dd.exe.

Related links:
retrohackers.org Forum: 
http://retrohackers.org/forum/viewt
opic.php?p=1449
WinImage: 
http://www.winimage.com
dd.exe: 
http://www.chrysocome.net/dd
Please keep in mind that MMC64 
emulation is in an early stage of 
development, so there are still 
bugs.
NETMON V0.3 FOR RR-NET

hannenz has released v0.3 of 
NetMon, a tool to control and 
monitor your C64 remotely via 
RR-Net. It uses UDP over IP and 
new features in v0.3 includes 
custom IP-addresses. NetMon is 
perfectly suited for cross 
developing as it gives you full 
access to the entire C64 RAM, 
including REU, and devices on the 
serial bus. Clients for both 
Windows and Linux are available.

Related links:
NetMon home page: http://freenet-
homepage.de/hannenz/netmon.htm
l
Lemon64 Forum: 
http://www.lemon64.com/forum/vi
ewtopic.php?t=22669
Forum-64: 
http://www.forum64.de/wbb2/thre
ad.php?threadid=12982
retrohackers.org Forum: 
http://retrohackers.org/forum/viewt
opic.php?t=179

YOGIBEAR INTERVIEWED BY 
LOTEK64

Lotek64 invited 
Yogibear/Protovision, composer of 
the Advanced Space Battle 
soundtrack, for a chat. Download 
issue 20 of the magazine from the 
Lotek64 home page at 
http://www.lotek64.com and enjoy 
the detailed interview.

Related links:
Forum-64: 
http://www.forum64.de/wbb2/thre
ad.php?threadid=15107

STEREOINSID NEWS

StereoINsid V2 by Thunder.Bird is 
an internal board to plug into the 
SID socket to obtain stereo music 
and sounds with extra software. It 
also gives old games and demos a 
slight stereo effect .Required: a 
2nd SID (available as StereoINsid 
V2s pack) and a little soldering 
knowledge. Compatible with all 
C64/C64-II/SX64/C64G... and 
C128D(CR) but not with the 
C64DTV.

Features:
- can be assembled with two 
different SIDs, which also offers 
better stereo ability
- jumpers for filters and voltages 
for SID 6581/8580
- filters out the VIC noise / is able 
to do digi with new SID
- optional stereo input (connect 
your radio/CD/cassette RCA level) 
for filtering use
- stereo headphones jack for using 
direct headphones or HiFi
- 2nd SID at $D420, $D500, 
$DE00, $DF00 or other adress 
around $Dxxx
- small layout for direct connection 
to where the original SID was
- easy to install with micro clips 
(no soldering required, though it is 
recommended)
- sounds like stereo with standard 
games/demos/SIDs
Extra: 2-sided 5.25" floppy disc 
full with stereo and 2nd SID 
software

StereoINsid V2(s) is about to go 
into production in late spring. For  
more information and to pre-order, 
write to 
contact@protovision-online.de.

T64 PLUGIN FOR MMC64 - 
SMALL UPDATE
DrCreep released a new version of 
his T64 Plugin for MMC64, 
v0.07.The code was re-written 
from scratch. The new version 
features autostart and increased 
compatibility. Only really huge 
files will cause problems, as well 
as files located below $0801.Get 
T64 plugin from CSDb: 
http://noname.c64.org/csdb/release
/?id=41993

PROTOVISION SPONSORED 
SOME PRIZES FOR THE 
OXYRON PARTY
The 15 Years Oxyron Party took 
place from 23rd to 25th February 
2007 in Flensburg, Germany. To 
support the party and its 
competitions, Protovision 
sponsored some nice games:

Tanks 3000 + 4 Player Interface
Newcomer
Ice Guys

Party website: 
http://www.bequem-von-
zuhause.de
Thanks for the nice party, mates!

CBMIMAGER V0.2.4 
RELEASED

A new version of CBMImager, a 
D64 and DFI image editor for 
Windows, has been released by 
Uncle Tom and Doc Bacardi of 
The Dreams.

CBMImager V0.2.4 changelog:
- added overwrite prompt to 
extract file operations
- added check for illegal characters 
in filenames in extract file 
function
- added context-menu entries to 
change the properties of a file 
(file-type, scratch-protection, 
closed-flag)
- added capability to import and 
export P00-files (Pxx, Uxx, Sxx, 
Rxx)
- Added the ability to check for 
modified images, so a user can be 
asked to save the current image if 
he opens/creates a new image or 
exits 
the program.
- fixed a bug in the filesearcher 
where no checks were made if an 
image 
loads correctly
- fixed an issue where the user was 
left alone if an image can't be 
loaded successfully (now, an error-
message is presented to the user)

Project page: 
http://developer.berlios.de/project/
showfiles.php?group_id=7602&rel
ease_id=12219
Download: 
http://prdownload.berlios.de/rrtool
s/CBMImager0.2.4.zip


DISKIMAGERY64 0.7 FOR 
MAC, LINUX & WINDOWS
DiskImagery64 by lallafa is a 
portable (Qt 4.2.x-based), open-
source D64 disk image editor for 
Mac, Linux and Windows. It offers 
a nice GUI 
with drag-and-drop support 
between disk images and the local 
file system. Runs programs or 
mounts images directly in your 
favorite emulator. RR-Net support 
is available and allows to transfer 
programs and disk images directly 
to your real C64.

Main Feature in 0.7: Added full 
WarpCopy support. Warp/slow 
read/write disk images directly 
from/to real disks. Send DOS 
Commands, format or 
verify disks.

Grab it here: 
http://www.lallafa.de/blog

Related links:
Lemon64: 
http://www.lemon64.com/forum/vi
ewtopic.php?t=22432
Forum-64: 
http://www.forum64.de/wbb2/thre
ad.php?threadid=14844

HARDWARE SECTION 
UPDATED
Our hardware section got updated 
with various software and hints 
concerning hardware distributed 
by us: 4 Player Interface, Retro 
Replay, MMC64 and RR-Net. 
More updates to come, stay tuned!

Please use the given forum links to 
leave feedback to those bringing us 
these nice productions. Thank you!

Visit Protovision online
http://www.protovision-online.de


=========================
=====

Other NEWS

Cottonwood BBS is now 
accessable via Telnet!  Operating 
on All American BBS 
128 v12.1b!

The telnet address is 
cottonwood.servebbs.com (port 
23).

A few tips:
When calling for the first time as a 
new user, call with an ASCII 
terminal (Hyperterminal or 
equivalent from a Windows 
computer, or ASCII mode from a 
terminal program on a Commodore 
computer). This is because AA 
BBS switches to ASCII mode 
during the application process.  

If you call in with CGTERM, 
all the charachters will be reversed 
at that point.  Once you've set up 
your account, you can call with a 
Commodore graphics terminal 
program on all 
subsequent calls.  

Also, during the application, you're 
asked for your phone number, 
which is in U.S./Canada phone 
number format (###-###-####).  
This is used as a sort of backup 
ID# in AA BBS.  I don't care what 
number you use, but it needs to be 
a number that you'll be able to 
remember in the event that you 
forget your assigned ID#.  And 
finally, if you'd like to be informed 
when your account has been 
validated, send me a feedback 
message on the BBS with your e-
mail address and I'll notify you 
that way. 

 Otherwise, all accounts are 
normally validated within 24 hours 
(everyone gets the same 
full access upon validation), so you 
can just call back and enjoy your 
access.

One final note...  It seems that it's 
also necessary to tap return (or 
enter) upon connection, otherwise 
the BBS will sometimes detect the 
incorrect baud rate and begin 
transmitting at 1200 baud when it 
should be 
transmitting at 2400.  This causes a 
bunch of garbage to come across 
instead 
of the initial welcome message.  If 
this does happen, however, don't 
worry. 
Just disconnect, wait a minute or 
so, and call back.  Then, when you 
connect, just tap return (or enter) 
once or twice, and you should see 
the 
"2400 baud user detected" 
message.

Any questions?  Feel free to e-mail 
me at wiskow@verizon.net!

-Andrew (aka Balzabaar)

=========================
=====


Total Amiga magazine Closes 
down

I am or rather I was a regular 
reader of this magazine (Total 
Amiga magazine,) although not a 
very active Amiga user due to my 
Commodore 64 and 128 taking 
over, I have to admit, to I was 
quite shocked when I received an 
email from the editor about the 
magazines closure. The magazine 
was very well edited and laid out 
using where possible 100% Amiga 
machines For anyone who hasn't 
read or seen the information I have 
attached the news from the 
website. For me anyway its very 
sad news. Well done for producing 
an excellent magazine.  

so here you go 

 - Commodore free -


Posted: 07.04.2007 - 10:58    Post 
subject: Amiga Future is taking 
over Total Amiga

------------------------------------------
-----------------------------
 
The German magazine Amiga 
Future is taking over the famous 
English magazine Total Amiga 
from issue 27. 

In a very close cooperation with 
Robert Williams, and the Total 
Amiga Team, we have realized a 
concept to guarantee the future of 
an English magazine for a very 
long time. 

Of course this will only be possible 
if there are enough subscriptions 
all over the time. However existing 
Total Amiga subscribers will 
receive any magazines left on their 
subscription. 

Number 26 of the Total Amiga is 
the last issue to be published by 
SEAL in the UK. 

In the near future there will be an 
English release of the German 
Amiga Future, which will take the 
place for the Total Amiga. 

The first new issue of the Amiga 
Future to be published in German 
and English is the number 67 for 
july/august 2007 (release date 5th 
of July). 

For this all the German articles 
will be translated into English, so 
the content of both editions will be 
the same. 

Our intention is now to get in 
contact with some more translators 
with English as their native 
language! 

Interested users, they don't have to 
work for free, should call our 
editors office as soon as possible! 

Both issues of the forthcoming 
new Amiga Future will be released 
at the same time. 

In other words there are no 
changes for our German readers in 
the future, but almost all things 
will change for the current readers 
of the current Total Amiga. 

On time release every two months 
is one of the important things for 
the Amiga Future editors. Every 
issue can be ordered directly from 
us or from several Amiga dealers 
worldwide. (Interested dealers 
please call us too!) 

Every magazine can be ordered as 
single issue or as subscription, you 
can choose it with or without a 
Cover CD-ROM. 

Because the Total Amiga did not 
have such a feature in the past, all 
current subscribers will receive 
their magazines without an Cover 
CD-ROM. Subscribers interested 
in upgrading their subscription to 
include the CD can call our office 
before issue 67 is released Of 
course upgrading to the Amiga 
Future with CD-ROM is always 
possible for additional 3.- Euro 
every time. 

Each Issue Amiga Future 
magazine currently contains 52 
pages, cover pages in colour, the 
rest b/w. This won't change for the 
future as it is an important part of 
our concept. So it is even possible 
to release new issues even without 
any advertisers in a single issue! 

Prices have had to change in 
comparison to the Total Amiga 
because there are more issues per 
year and the magazines will now 
be posted from Germany. 
Every English or German issue of 
the Amiga Future will cost 4.50 
Euro without a CD or 7.50 with 
our Cover CD-ROM. All prices 
plus shipping costs, e.g. additional 
3.75 Euro worldwide! 

Our special subscription price is 
39.90 Euro resp. 57.90 Euro for 
the CD-ROM edition. Here are the 
shipping costs already included! 
You can see, becoming a 
subscriber is a lot cheaper (and 
easier) than ordering a single issue 
and it gives our editors confidence 
in the future of the English 
magazine. 

We invite anyone interested in an 
English Amiga magazine to order 
the first issue as soon as possible 
or even better subscribe to the 
magazine and become a part of the 
Amiga Future community. We can 
always only print a small 
additional quantity of magazines 
above those for subscriptions and 
preorders so make sure you get 
your copy. 

Our editors office is reachable at: 
Amiga Future, Postfach 83, D-
83234 bersee, Germany. Or 
http://www.amigafuture.de and 
redaktion@amigafuture.de ! 

The new forthcoming English 
translated issue of the Amiga 
Future magazine can already be 
ordered in our online-shop, the 
same for subscriptions with or 
without the Cover CD-ROM. 

If you have any questions, please 
don't hesitate to contact us via 
eMail or by visiting our English 
section of the website. 

Of course there is even a 
newsletter available, to 
subscription send eMail to 
newsletter-subscribe@apc-tcp.de . 

About Amiga Future 

The Amiga Future was founded 
about nine years ago and has 
started with issue 11 by the 
publisher ICP (e.g. German 
AmigaPlus) because of technical 
reasons. 

Later on the publisher FALKE has 
taken over the Amiga Future 
magazine with its editors and the 
AmigaPlus too. Almost seven 
years ago we had an buy out and 
the Amiga Future was done by its 
editors itself. Since issue 27 the 
magazine is done completely by its 
editors office, meaning writing 
articles, layout and even sales and 
marketing! 

Actually we have a very safe 
financial base, so even if the 
subscriptions getting lost that 
much this would be no reason for 
stopping the magazine at all! 
Additionally there are almost daily 
enhancements at the website. 
Besides the biggest cheats database 
(over 5.000 cheats for over 2.000 
Amiga Games) we have a very 
large database with over 1.000 
articles available online.

Actually we have even a new 
gallery with over 1.000 Amiga 
related pictures of all kinds. 
Another new feature is our 
download area with lots of full 
releases of famous Amiga 
Software titles (this includes 
Games and Applications). 

Since some time now we are also 
hosting the very famous Big Book 
of Amiga Hardware (BBoAH) 
which is being updated very often. 
Quite some other enhancements 
for the website are always planned. 

About Total Amiga 

Total Amiga is an A4 printed 
Amiga magazine published by the 
enthusiastic Amiga users at South 
Essex Amiga Link. The magazine 
covers all aspects of the Amiga 
from a user's point of view, we try 
to be as honest and realistic as we 
can.

Each issue has a selection of news, 
product reviews, hints and tips, 
tutorials and opinion. Inside the 
magazine you will find a variety of 
writers, some regular and others 
contributing the odd piece now and 
then. 

The magazine has now been 
running for about eight years, for 
the first nine issues it was called 
"Clubbed". Total Amiga is 
published quarterly (four times per 
year). Total Amiga is available by 
subscription world wide, we also 
sell single issues and distribute 
through Amiga dealers. 

Total Amiga is produced entirely 
on the Amiga using PageStream 4 
and a variety of other software. We 
try to maintain a high quality 
throughout the magazine and have 
been praised for our production 
values. Total Amiga is a non-profit 
publication and all the contributors 
and everyone who works on it 
gives their time for free as a 
service to the Amiga community. 

Future 

To retain the quality even in the 
future we need your support. At 
first of course we need enough 
subscriptions of the Amiga Future. 
Second we need some good 
translators and even writers for the 
website. 

http://www.amigafuture.de 
http://www.apc-tcp.de
_________________
Andreas Magerl 
Chefredaktion Amiga Future 
Geschftsfhrung APC&TCP 


=========================
=====
 
C64 Audio news 

Back in Time Live 2007 - June 
22nd 2007

Jeroen Tel re-confirmed this week 
for Back in Time Live 2007, the 
latest in the eccentric series of C64 
live events which have proved in 
the past to be unmissable... the acts 
are Jeroen, Reyn Ouwehand (who 
will be performing lots of 
instruments live like in his 
Garfield video), Danceaway (who 
will surprise you all, in a good 
way!), and the Las Vegas duo of 8-
Bit Weapon and ComputeHer, who 
were the impetus for the event.

Myself and Paul "Skitz" Hadrill 
checked out the venue at the end of 
last month and we were very 
happy with what we found. Lots of 
sound equipment, a stage which 
can handle it, a toilet that's clean 
and spanky, and a bistro attached 
that you can eat at if you get 
peckish. The location is good too, 
since it's right in the City of 
London. You can't sneeze without 
getting your snot all over an eaterie 
of some description. 

There are still lots of tickets left, so 
I'd be grateful if you'd continue 
buying them! At the event Seth 
will be bringing some bootleg 
copies of his new cover album, 
which should be titled "Have you 
contacted Hot Pussy yet??", but 
which is actually a much improved 
version of his last cover album. I'm 
also going to be putting his stuff 
on its own separate section in the 
new shop, since I'm expanding that 
side of things now the digital 
download stuff is in place.

Did you know that the Back in 
Time Live 2007 product holds a lot 
of bonus material about the 
previous Back in Time Lives? You 
don't need to have bought a ticket 
to download most of it, and there is 
tons of material: Videos, 
documents from the organisers, 
music tracks which have been 
created for or only played at BIT 
Live, etc... 

Anyway, it will be an excellent 
occasion which can only be better 
in one way: YOU have got to be 
there  There's also a remixer 
hangout the day before centered 
around a yet-to-be-decided pub 
near to the hotel all the remixers 
and scene personalities seem to be 
staying at.

If you've bought a "ticket", you 
might be wondering where it is: 
well, it's a guestlist affair. I haven't 
forgotten about my promise of a 
PDF file, but really if your name is 
on the list, that will be enough to 
get you in. We're not, like, ticket 
Nazis or anything ;-) There may be 
the ability to buy entry on the door, 
but you'd be silly to count on it if 
you're coming from any distance.

The other CD released at the event 
will be Reyn Ouwehand's "The 
Bland, the Blithe and the Bizarre", 
which is an incredibly jolly CD 
with lots of favourites on it: some 
of them have been previewed on 
Boz's show on Slay Radio, so you 
know what to expect ;-) 
So: be there or be square, and 
spread the word! I need you!! And 
you can meet Boz, Ziphoid, me, 
Jeroen Tel, Reyn Ouwehand, 
Marcel Donne, Slaygon, Kwed, 
LMan and Sunflower, me (again, 
since I'll be so stressed I'll have 
forgotten you from the first time), 
Anna Black, Makke, Romeo 
Knight, Skitz, and loads more!


"Back in Time Live 2007", Friday 
June 22nd, 2007 7pm-1am at the 
Spitz in Spitalfields, the City of 
London (http://www.spitz.co.uk). 

C64 remixes and chipsounds, 
many remixer stars, and headlined 
by Jeroen Tel of the Maniacs of 
Noise, now a renowned DJ and 
artiste!

You can buy tickets for 10 at 
http://www.c64audio.com/productI
nfo.php?cat=BITLIVE2007
     

Other news...

Nexus 6581 Returns

FTC Kind of releases new album: 
01:04 Eternal!

Richard Joseph Tribute album 
(supporting Macmillan Nurses 
Cancer Charity)

C64Audio signs Seth "8-Bit 
Weapon" Sternberger

C64Audio signs Tonka for new 
album, BASICally!

C64Audio.com to release Markus 
Siebold's latest album

"Back in Time 4/5/6 - What's that 
about??"

New-old material from Marcel 
Donne, Chris Abbott and Makke

Reyn Ouwehand to release new 
CD: "The Blithe, the Bland and the 
Bizarre"

Back in Time 1 and 2 Downloads 
feature exclusive edited 10th 
Anniversary booklet PDF...

Back in Time 3 Downloads feature 
exclusive novel based on storyline!

It's a lot of news so I wrote an in-
depth chatty summary here:

http://www.remix64.com/c64audio
_com_report_21_april_2007.html


=========================
=====
 
 
THE BASIC BIBLE
By David Moorman
 

Here is an alphabetical list of 
BASIC 2.0 commands, functions, 
and operators. Browse through 
them. Try them out. Learn exactly 
what they do! Commands (com) 
tell the computer what to do.  
Functions (fun) perform magic on 
values or strings in the argument 
(within the parentheses), and must 
be used either in a PRINT 
command or as  the object of a 
variable assignment. For 
example...

    5 A = -1234
    10 ?ABS(A)
    20 V = ABS(A)

ABS(n) (fun)
Returns the positive value of the 
argument, whether it is positive or 
negative.

    10 A = ABS(-123)
    (A will contain the value of 123)

ASC(string) (fun)
Returns the ASCII value of a string 
character. If the string has  more 
than one character, only the first 
character's value is returned.

    10 A = ASC("A")
    (A will contain 65)

ATN(n) (fun)
Returns the arctangent of 
argument.

    10 A = ATN(1)
    (A will contain 0.785398163 -- 
the arctangent of 1 in radians)

CHR$(n) (fun)
Returns a string character for the 
ASCII value in the argument.

    10 A$ = CHR$(65)
    (A$ will contain an "A".)

CLOSE (com)
Closes a logic file. See OPEN for 
details.

CLR (com)
Sets all variables in a program to 
zero or null (empty strings). Use at 
the top of your program.

CMD lf (com)
CoMmand command. See OPEN 
for details

CONT (com)
CONTinue -- use in Immediate 
Mode to continue running a 
program. Will not work after an 
error or after editing the program.

COS(n) (fun)
Returns the Cosine of the 
argument.

    10 A = COS(1)
 (A will contain 0.540302306 -- 
the cosine of 1 in radians)

DATA (com)
Used with READ to load string or 
numeric data into variables or 
arrays. See READ for details.


DEF FNv(V)(com)
DEFines a FuNction. Need a 
complex math function several 
times in a program? Here is where 
you can 
create your own functions. The 
function's name always begins 
with FN, plus a single letter to 
identify it, followed by a variable 
within parentheses. This variable is 
used in the following math as 
whatever value you will later put 
in your FuNction. DEFine 
FuNctions early in your program.

   
    10 DEF FNH(X)= INT(X/256)
    20 DEF FNL(X)= X-
FNH(X)*256

    (These functions will divide a 
value into High and Low byte 
values -- used to address memory 
with some ML routines.)
    30 A = 49152
    40 ? FNH(A),FNL(A)
    (The computer will print:  192    
0.)

DIM v [,v [,v [etc]]] (com)
DIM DIMensions space for 
Arrays, and is required for arrays 
with more than 11 elements. You 
can also use DIM to tell the 
program which variables you are 
going to use. This puts the listed 
variables at the beginning of 
variable memory, so they are 
easier to find.

    10 DIM A(12),X,Y,DT$(2,15)

END (com)
Ends the program.

EXP(n) (fun)
Returns the constant "e" (a math 
value) raised to the power of the 
argument.

    10 ? EXP(1)
    (This will print 2.71828183)

FOR v TO v [step v] (com)
    Begins a FOR-NEXT loop.

    10 FOR X = 1 TO 10
    20 ? X
    30 NEXT

FRE(0) (fun)
Returns number of bytes available 
for BASIC program. The argument 
is a dummy. NOTE: If the value is 
greater than 32767, a negative 
value is returned that must be 
added to 65535.

    10 DEF FNF(x)= -
(FRE(0)<0)*65535+FRE(0)
(This custom function will return 
free memory as a positive value.)
    20 PRINT FNF(FRE(0))

GET (com)
Gets a keystroke into the variable 
that follows. A numeric variable is 
valid, but the program will crash if 
an alpha key is pressed. Use a 
string variable. GET just grabs one 
keystroke, if it is there. Use 
something like the following to 
grab keystrokes:

   10 GET Z$: IF Z$ = "" THEN 10
    20 ?"YOU JUST PRESSED <" 
Z$ ">"
    30 ?"TRY AGAIN? (Y/N)";
    40 GET Z$: IF Z$ = "" THEN 
40
    50 ?Z$
    60 IF Z$ = "Y" THEN 10
    70 END

GOSUB linenumber (com)
Jumps program to a subroutine at 
the given line number. Program 
will return to after the GOSUB 
command when it encounters a 
RETURN command.

GOTO linenumber (com)
Jumps program to the given line 
number.

IF <compare is true> THEN...
When two values or strings are 
compared, the result is either -1 
(for true) or 0 (for false). In an IF-
THEN command, if the value after 
IF is not zero (therefore true), the 
code after THEN is executed. If 
the value is 0, the program "falls 
through" to the next line. The code 
after THEN can be a line number 
to jump to, or more commands.

    10 IF A=B THEN 1000
    20 IF B=C THEN A = B: 
GOTO 10

INPUT (com)
INPUT allows the user to type in 
information in a program. Here are 
some ways to use INPUT.

    10 INPUT"WHAT IS YOUR 
NAME";N$
    20 ?"HELLO, "N$"!"
    30 ?"WHAT IS YOUR AGE 
(NUMBER ONLY)
    40 INPUT AGE
    50 ?"YOU WILL BE 100 
IN"100-AGE"YEARS."
    60 INPUT"PICK TWO 
NUMBERS, SEPARATED BY A 
COMMA";A,B
    70 ?"YOU 
PICKED:"A"AND"B"."

INPUT is an old command and can 
cause many problems. An input of 
a string when a value is expected 
will result in an error. If a comma 
is included when inputing a single 
variable string, it is interpreted as 
two string inputs, and everything 
from the comma on is lost. Also, 
the user can accidentally press a 
cursor key and move off the 
INPUT line, screwing everything 
up. 

Therefore, use INPUT only as you 
are learning -- and always get a 
string variable. You can convert a 
string to a value with the 
VAL(string) function. Later, when 
you start to use a toolbox module 
or DotBASIC, you will have 
alternative INPUT commands 
available that work more 
dependably. With a little ingenuity, 
you can build an INPUT 
subroutine, using the GET 
command to get keystrokes and 
put them together in a string 
variable. Sounds like a good 
project, eh?

INPUT#lf,v
Inputs a value or string from a disk 
file. See OPEN for more 
information.

INT(n) (fun)
Returns the next smaller whole 
value of the argument.

    10 A = 123.456
    20 B = -123.456
    30 ? INT(A)
    40 ? INT(B)
    (The values printed will be 123 
and -122. We did say "next 
smaller!")

LEFT$(s,n) (fun)
Returns a string from string S that 
is N characters long.

    10 A$ = "THIS IS A TEST"
    20 B$ = LEFT$(A$,4)
    (B$ will contain "THIS".)

LEN(s) (fun)
Returns the length of string S.

    10 A$="THIS IS A TEST"
    20 ?LEN(A$)
    (Prints 14.)

LET (com)
The old fashioned way to assign a 
variable.

    10 LET A = 12
    20 LET B$ = "TEST"

    This is not used anymore. Just 
put the variable first, like we have 
done throughout this book!

    10 A = 12
    20 B$ = "TEST"
LIST (com)
Lists the BASIC program in 
memory. Used in Immediate 
Mode.

    LIST              > lists whole 
program
    LIST10          > lists line 10 (if 
present)
    LIST10-         > lists line 10 and 
on.
    LIST-10         > lists everything 
to and including line 10
    LIST10-20     > lists lines 10 
and 20 and everything in between.

    You can slow down a LIST by 
holding down the <CONTROL> 
key (VICE: <Tab>), and stop it by 
pressing <STOP> (VICE: <ESC>).


LOAD "filename",dv [,sa] (com)
Loads a program or file into 
memory from a disk. If SA is 1, 
the file is loaded to the memory 
location from which it was saved. 
LOAD is usually used from 
Immediate Mode, but can be used 
in a program -- with certain 
caveats. If one tries to load a 
BASIC program from within 
another program, the loaded 
program must be either shorter 
than the loading program, or must 
have a CLR as its first command. 

The loaded program will be 
immediately run. If LOAD is used 
to load a binary file, the program 
will jump back to the beginning 
and start over. We use other 
routines to load binary (data) files. 
See SECRETS later in this book.

LOG(v) (fun)
Returns natural logarithm of 
argument. Argument must be 
greater than or equal to zero.

    10 V = 7
    20 PWR = LOG(V)/LOG(2)
    30 ? 2^PWR

    This code uses LOG to find the 
power of 2 of the value 7. 2 to the 
PWR will equal 7!

MID$(s,b [,l]) (fun)

    Returns the section of string S 
beginning at position B to the end 
for the length of L.


    10 A$ = "THIS IS A TEST"
    20 B$ = MID$(A$,6)
    30 C$ = MID$(A$,9,1)
    (B$ will contain "IS A TEST". 
C$ will contain "A".)

NEW (com)
Erases BASIC program memory. 
Be careful!

NEXT (com)
See FOR-NEXT above.

ON v GOSUB ln [,ln [,ln [etc]]]
Value V determines which line 
number GOSUB gosubs.

    10 DIM C$(3)
    20 FOR X = 1 TO 3: READ 
C$(X):NEXT
    30 DATA "FIRE","RAM 
SPEED","RUN AWAY"
    100 ?"CAPTIAN - WHAT 
SHALL WE DO?"
    101 FOR X = 1 TO 
3:?C$(X):NEXT
    110 INPUT C$
    120 Y = 0: FOR X = 1 TO 3
    130 IF C$ = C$(X) THEN Y = 
X: X = 3
    140 NEXT
    150 ON Y GOSUB 1000, 2000, 
3000
    160 GOTO 100
    1000 ?"FIRE"
    1010 RETURN
    2000 ?"RAM SPEED"
    2010 RETURN
    3000 ?"RUN AWAY"
    3010 RETURN

This has got to be the shortest Star 
Trek game ever written! You can 
take it from here! If you have too 
many line numbers to fit on two 
screen lines, do something like 
this:

    200 ON X GOSUB 
1000,2000,3000
    201 IF X < 4 THEN 100
    202 ON X-3 
GOSUB4000,5000,6000
    203 IF X < 7 THEN 100
    204 ON X-6 GOSUB 
7000,8000,9000
    205 GOTO 100

If the value is 0 or greater than the 
number of available line numbers, 
the program falls through. The 
value cannot be negative.

ON n GOTO ln [,ln [,ln [etc]]] 
(com)
Just like ON-GOSUB, but with no 
RETURN.

=========================
=====

THE HEX FILES 
- PART 3 - 
written by Jason  

 

Welcome again, here's the third 
instalment of Hex Files for your 
delight, delectation and several 
other words beginning with the 
letter D that sound quite good. 
And, before we start proper, I'll 
just give you the solution to the 
little teaser I posed at the end of 
the previous article. 

Now, one of the joys of machine 
code is that there are several ways 
to reach the same solution and, 
whilst some are better than others, 
they're all valid at this stage in the 
game. 

So, whilst there are other methods 
that could be used (and if you 
found and used one, it's not the 
wrong answer!) the easiest way to 
modify the routine we were 
playing with in the previous 
instalment would be something 
along these lines:

		* = $0900
		ldx #$00
		lda #$03	; 
to change the character
loop		sta $0400,x
		inx
		cpx #$0b	; 
to change the number of repeats
		bne loop
		rts

Okay, lets have some fun with a 
loop shall we? One of the most 
common things in demos (and in 
fact most games too) is the 
scrolling message and what we are 
going to do is a simple one with 
some limits. As we have seen from 
the example last issue it's possible 
to put characters on the screen very 
fast, so fast in fact that we can't 
actually see it happen. 

It's also possible to move the 
characters around the screen using 
loops. Start up your text editor, tab 
a couple of times to get the cursor 
to its start position and enter this 
program:

		* = $0900
main		ldx #$00
move_loop	lda $0401,x
		sta $0400,x
		inx
		cpx #$27
		bne 
move_loop
		inc $0427
		jmp main
 


Before we run it lets look at what 
you have typed. The * command is 
as we used before, telling C64Asm 
we want our code at $0900 (again, 
2304 in decimal). We then have a 
label called main which is the start 
of our main code (hence the 
name!) and that clears the X 
register again as we have done 
before. The main loop of the 
program (named with the 
appropriate label again) is new 
though.

It reads from screen position 
$0401 and then puts whatever it 
has read into $0400. Then the X 
register goes up one and it repeats 
that until X reaches $27 (which is 
39 in decimal). Why stop at 39? 
Well, by the time X gets to 40 (by 
the time we're checking X it's been 
INCremented, remember) the 
routine is reading 

from $0428 (the start of the second 
line of the screen) and writing to 
$0427 (the right hand end of the 
first line) so if we wait we would 
be reading the first character of the 
next line of the screen! Finally we 
just play with the character at the 
top right of the screen to make 

something to look at (by constantly 
INCrementing it to make it show 
every character the C64 has).

Okay, lets crank it up and watch it 
go! Assembling is as before, save 
the file from the text editor as 
scroll.asm (the extension meaning 
"assembly code", not even vaguely 
essential to the process but it 
makes remembering what the files 
are a lot easier), type c64asm 
scroll.asm scroll.prg from DOS 
whilst in the correct directory and 
finally drag and drop the PRG into 
WinVICE and SYS2304 to start it. 

Oh! Now something is happening 
but because machine code is so 
fast we can't see what, so we need 
to slow things down a bit and to do 
that I'll introduce a new friend in 
the form of one of the locations in 
the VIC-II chip.

Location $D012 (or 53,266 in 
decimal) is known as the raster 
register. The raster is a line that 
moves down the C64's screen 
redrawing it fifty times a second 
and there are over three hundred 
"raster lines" on a standard PAL 
C64 (there are less lines and a 
faster refresh speed for NTSC 
machines) and it's possible to wait 
for a specific line and do 
something when you get there. 
Lets alter our example to take 
advantage of this, go back to the 
source and enter the following just 
after the ldx #$00 on the second 
line:

		lda #$fe
raster		cmp $d012
		bne raster


Save it back out this time as 
scroll2.asm and assemble it as 
before. These three new lines set 
the A register up with a value of 
$fe (254 in decimal), then compare 
that to whatever $D012 contains in 
the same way as we compared 
numbers in the previous 
installment and if it's not the same 
(in other words if the raster isn't at 
position $fe) then the Branch if 
Not Equal (BNE) back to raster 
keeps it waiting in that loop until it 
is.

You should now see loads of 
characters scrolling across the top 
of the screen very fast but not so 
fast that you can't see what's going 
on. Don't worry about the odd 
jump, we are only experimenting 
at this point and every now and 
then the C64 will miss a beat 
because it's busy doing it's 
housekeeping at rasterline $fe. 
Believe it or not this is moving 
fifty times a second! Okay, so one 
final trick for our new listing I 
think, flip back over to the text 
editor and alter the routine to read 
like this:

The source code for the routines 
above can be downloaded here
http://www.oldschool-
gaming.com/files/c64/hex_files/pa
rt_3_files.zip 
for easier reference.


		* = $0900
		ldy #$00	
	; this is new
main		ldx #$00
		lda #$fe
raster		cmp $d012
		bne raster
move_loop	lda $0401,x
		sta $0400,x
		inx
		cpx #$27
		bne 
move_loop
		lda $a1ff,y    
; this line is new too
		sta $0427	    
; the INC command      used to be 
here
		iny	
		; and this 
line is new as well
		jmp main
 


Save the source out as scroll3.asm, 
assemble and execute again, and if 
you press the shift and 
Commodore keys you'll see words 
flying across your screen! What 
we are actually doing in these new 
bits is using the Y register as a 
counter and reading from the C64's 
memory at $A1FF onwards for 
256 bytes. So where do the words 
come from? Well, $A1FF is 
actually where the C64 keeps some 
of its error messages and this is 
what you're seeing.

Well, I think that's almost enough 
for another installment but before I 
go another couple of little 
challenges for you all to see if 
you've got the gist; at the moment 
the routine reads it's data from 
location $A1FF but can you 
change it to read from $E460? And 
can you make it work on the 
second line of the screen rather 
than the first (remember to change 
all of the references to the screen). 
I'll give the answers in the next 
thrilling installment but If you 
have any questions about this 
article, machine code or Flamenco 
dancing, email me and I'll see what 
I can do. Oh, except about the 
dancing.

The source code for the routines 
above can be downloaded here

http://www.oldschool-
gaming.com/files/c64/hex_files/pa
rt_3_files.zipfiles/c64/hex_files/pa
rt_3_files.zip
 for easier reference.


Printed with Permission from 
Jason : Taken from the

Oldschool gaming website
http://www.oldschool-
gaming.com/c64_hex_files.php
 

=========================
=====


Mr. LOADSTAR's Introduction to 
Programming the Commodore 64 
Part II
By Dave Moorman
 

Now you have certainly played 
around with the PRINT statement. 
The question arises -- how can I 
put the text exactly where I want it 
on the screen?
We have several ways. You might 
have figured out the first. Use 
embedded cursor keystrokes. This 
is easy

10 
?[clr][down][down][right][right][ri
ght]Test

And it looks like a mess in your 
program, with all those reversed 
characters. There are two better 
ways.

The first is a routine available from 
the Kernal ROM. These routines 
are what BASIC uses to do its 
magic. But we can use them 
directly with a couple of new (to 
you) commands: POKE and SYS. 
NEW your memory and try this:

5 ?"[clr]"
10 
x=782:y=781:set=783:plot=65520
20 poke x,10:poke y,10:poke set,0
30 sys plot:?"This can be centered"

PLOT is a Machine Language 
routine. We use POKE (you can 
use a shortcut of "pO" to save 
typing) to put the X column in 
memory location 782 and the Y 
row in location 781. SET (783) 
must be set to 0 for this to work. 
Then the SYS command executes 
the ML code at 65520.You will 
notice that we can put more than 
one command on a program line, 
separated by colons. Actually,  you 
have two screen lines available for 
each program line. Back to plotting 
text on the screen. The third way is 
to use a poke and the TAB 
command.

50 row=15:col=10
60 poke 214,row-1
70 ?tab(col)"This can be centered"

The key here is the PRINT after 
poking ROW-1 in location 214. If 
you want to put your text on the 
top line, use PRINT"[home]".

Either way of plotting is just fine -- 
you choose. 

LOOPING THE LOOP

While all this is fun, the greatest 
power of a computer is to do 
things over and over again. 
Repetition makes the world go 
round! NEW your memory and 
type in this simple code.

10 ?"[clr]"
20 ?"Hello, World"
30 goto 20

Before you run this, try to figure 
out what will happen. The GOTO 
command is new, but it is fairly 
obvious. Now, run the program.

WHOA! Look at it go! When will 
it stop?

It won't. This is called an "infinite 
loop," since it will infinitely print 
"Hello, World!" on line 20, then 
goto line 20, where it prints... but 
you get the idea. In fact, you may 
be looking at it in action, 
wondering what to do. Since you 
are programming in BASIC, the 
answer is simple. Press [STOP]. 
The result is not particularly 
elegant, what with

break in 20
ready.

appearing on the screen. But this 
IS an infinite loop. Be happy we 
have a [STOP] key! (Have you 
ever had your Windows PC 
"hang?" No combination of keys, 
not even the magical [CTRL-ALT-
DELETE] will get back control. 
Guess what kind of error some 
programmer made! Yep -- an 
infinite loop -- with no way for the 
user to get out. That can happen in 
Machine Language. Infinity is 
great, but we need more control. 
More POWER! We need to be able 
to stop the loop when we want it to 
stop -- when the conditions are 
right.

Behold! The "conditional loop!"

10 ?"[clr]"
15 x=0
20 ?"Hello, World!"
30 x=x+1
40 if x<10 then 20
50 end

Here, we use X as a counter. You 
do not have to zero out X as in line 
15, but it is a good idea. You never 
know where that X has been! Line 
20 prints the text, as before. Then 
line 30 increments X. Now, if you 
are not familiar with programming, 
saying X=X+1 sounds a little 
crazy, since in algebra, X can 
never equal X+1. But the equal 
sign here is not equal. It is the sign 
to assign X with the value of X+1. 
Long, long ago, even before home 
computers, BASIC had a 
command for this. Change line 30 
to

30 let x=x+1

Now, as you read this out loud, the 
equal sign makes more sense, since 
LET lets X change its value. Think 
of it this way. X is a box, right? 
Inside that box, at the beginning of 
the program is a value of nothing. 
So, we take the nothing out of the 
box, add one to it, and put the 
result back in the box. The 
program loops, and now X 
contains 1. We take out the 1, add 
1, and put the result back into the 
box. This is exactly what happens 
with any value assignment. You 
don't need the LET command, so 
don't waste your time or your 
computer's memory. Whenever a 
variable is followed by an equal 
sign, the genie knows an 
assignment is about to happen. 
Now that you understand 
incrementing, lets look at line 40. 
This is the IF-THEN command. 
The genie looks at the comparison 
following the IF. In this case it is 
X<10. That's "X is less than 10." If 
that is true, the THEN happens -- 
in this case, the program goes to 
line 20. If X is not less than 10, the 
IF-THEN is said to "fall through," 
and the next program line is 
executed.

Any two numeric values (variables 
or constants) or any two strings 
(variables or literals) can be 
compared this way, using one of 
these comparisons:

 	Equals		
	=
 	Greater Than	
	>
	Less Than		<
	Greater or Equal
	=>  (or >=)
	Less or Equal	
	<= (or =<)
	Not Equal	
	<>

The IF-THEN command is what 
gives the computer its intelligence. 
You might have noticed that the 
genie is not too bright. It does 
exactly what you tell it to -- if it 
understands what you mean. (I will 
bet you have suffered a lot of 
SYNTAX  ERRORs!) So with the 
IF-THEN command, we tell the 
genie to change the flow of the 
program when a certain condition 
applies.And counting is just one 
possible condition. Here is another

40 if peek(198)=0 then 20
45 poke198,0

Here we are using another "system 
resource," a location in memory 
that BASIC uses for its own 
purposes. Location 198 holds how 
many times a key has been pressed 
since the last time keypresses were 
collected by the system. And, how 
about that -- we have encountered 
another command. PEEK(loc) 
peeks under BASIC right into a 
memory location itself. And we are 
fortunate to have PEEK, POKE, 
and SYS,  because the C-64 has a 
lot more power than BASIC 2.0 
can handle.

In this case, we are looking at the 
keyboard queue, the number of 
keystrokes waiting to be 
processed. If 0, then the program 
loops. If not, we POKE a 0 into 
198 (to clean things up a bit), and 
end the program. I probably should 
have put 198 in a variable

16 key=198

40 if peek(key)=0 then 20
45 poke key,0

Looks much nicer, eh? However, 
as you learn your way around the 
C-64, you will discover 198 is one 
of those locations you will 
naturally learn by heart.
As with all programming, we have 
more than one way to do most 
anything. That is part of the fun -- 
finding the best way -- for speed 
and/or elegance -- to accomplish a 
goal. Time for another tiny 
program, so NEW and enter:

10 ?"[clr]"
20 ?"Hello, World!"
30 getz$
40 if z$="" then 20

The GET command gets a 
keystroke, if any, and puts it in the 
string variable you designate. I 
always use Z$. It is a habit of 
mine. In fact, I use Z$ for nothing 
else.The comparison in line 40 is 
to see if Z$ holds anything -- or 
rather, if it is equal to nothing, 
which is indicated by two double-
quotes. As long as it holds nothing, 
the program loops. This is more 
elegant, than the PEEK(198) -- and 
full of possibilities.

Because we can string strings 
together. Did I mention 
"concatenation?" It is a powerful 
ability of BASIC. Here is yet 
another small program to try. I do 
hope you are typing these in, 
looking them over, running them, 
then listing and looking at them 
again. I know I am, even as I write.

10 ?"[clr]"
20 w$="":c$="<"
30 ?"[home]"w$c$
40 getz$:if z$="" then30
50 if z$=chr$(13) then end
60 w$=w$+z$
70 goto30

You just wrote your first attempt at 
a word processor! It's not a Good 
word processor. In fact, as you 
play with it, you might notice it's 
not even a good input routine. You 
will notice this most if you try 
using [Delete] or a cursor 
keystroke. The displayed text gets 
all messy.

But lets look at what we have 
done. We put nothing ("") in W$, 
and a little pointer ("<") in c$. 
Then we print them on the home 
row in line 30. Notice, you don't 
have to use semi-colons between 
string variables. The $ tells the 
computer where each variable 
ends.

Then we get Z$. If it is empty 
(called "null"), we loop back to the 
same line number. OOPS! We loop 
to the print line. Change line 40 to 
go to line 40. It is neater that way. 
If a key has been pressed, line 60 
adds (concatenates) Z$ to the end 
of W$. (What would happen if you 
used W$=Z$+W$? Then the 
program loops.

Now line 50 is interesting. We 
must check Z$ for a [RETURN] 
key press. Bu t we cannot use a 
[RETURN] in the program line, 
because it will enter the line into 
memory. So we must use a 
CHR$(n), which turns a number 
into a character string. You might 
try this:

?chr$(65)

You should see an "a" printed on 
the screen. Every character has a 
number. In fact, inside the 
computer, there are no characters -
- only numbers. CHR$(13) is the 
RETURN character. This is 
another number you will surely 
memorize by osmosis.

So, if Z$ holds a RETURN, then 
the program ends. That simple.

But how do we get rid of those 
things that mess up the printing of 
our line? If you guessed, "Using 
IF-THEN commands," you are 
right. Now to figure out what 
numbers to put in such commands.

Add these two lines to the top of 
your program:

1 getz$:ifz$="" then1
2 ?asc(z$):goto1

ASC($) returns the number you 
put in CHR$(n) to get the 
character. So press [a]. Yep -- 65. 
Lets try several other characters 
we do not want in W$.

Delete		20
Insert		148
Cursor Up	145
Cursor Dn	17
Cursor Lft		157
Cursor Rt		29
Home		19
Clr		147

Colors
 Black		144
 White		5
 Red		28
 Cyan		159
 Purple		156
 Green		30
 Blue		31
 Yellow		158
 Orange		129
 Brown		149
 Lt Red		150
 Dk Gray		151
 Med Gray	152
 Lt Green		153
 Lt Blue		154
 Lt Gray		155

Now, that is quite a list -- and 
doing an IF-THEN for each one 
would take a lot of lines -- and a 
lot of time. But perhaps you see a 
pattern here? These numbers fall 
into two ranges: 5 - 31 and 144 - 
159. So we can eliminate these 
keystrokes with two IF-THEN 
commands.First, break out of this 
loop by pressing [STOP]. Then 
type

1 [RETURN]
2 [RETURN]

That is all you need to do to 
remove a program line -- enter its 
line number.

Now add these two lines:

54 z=asc(z$)
55 if z>=5 and z<=31 then 40
56 if z>=144 and z<=159 then 40

List your program and follow the 
logic. We have used ASC(z$) to 
get the character value (called the 
ASCII value) of the key press. 
Then we see if Z is Greater Than 
or Equal To 5 AND Z is Less Than 
or Equal To 31. The AND means 
that both conditions must be true 
for the IF to be true. Imagine Z= 
29. Is 29 Greater or Equal to 5? 
YES.Is 29 Less or Equal to 31? 
YES. Then 29 is in the range of 5 - 
31 -- and we loop back up to line 
40. The same works in line 56 for 
the higher range.

AND is a Logic Operator, and 
works like this:

	A     AND	B	|
	Result
	-----------------------------
--------------
	False	
	False	|
	False
	False	
	True	|
	False
	True	
	False	|
	False
	True	
	Ture	|
	True

So, only when A AND B are True, 
then the Result is True.We have 
another Logic Operator we can use 
in IF-THEN commands: OR

	A       OR	B	|
	Result
	-----------------------------
--------------
	False	
	False	|
	False
	False	
	True	|
	True
	True	
	False	|
	True
	True	
	True	|
	True

If either A OR B (or both) are 
True, then the Result is True.

And with this, we can put both IF-
THENs into one:

55 if (z>=5 and z<=31) or (z>=144 
and z<=59) then 40

As with math, the comparisons are 
done in the parentheses first. So if 
Z is in either range, then the 
program loops.

Now -- that may have you 
scratching your head. Don't worry. 
Many concepts take time to take 
root. So, while we are on the 
subject, let's look at exactly 
happens in a comparison.

1 a = 7
2 ?a<10
3 ?a>10
4 end

Run this dab of code. You should 
get

-1
 0

In the BASIC of the C-64, true is -
1 and false if 0. And if you must 
know, the IF-THEN command 
only worries about false. Add these 
lines:

4 if 0 then ?"False"
5 if 1 then ?"True"
6stop

You will see that checking for a 0 
in a variable is very easy.  These 
two lines do exactly the same 
thing:

if a<>0 then 50000

if a then 50000

But if I confused you, I do 
apologize. Forget it.

Or better yet, PLAY with it. We 
have covered a lot of ground in 
this section. We have given you 
almost enough to write an arcade 
game! 

You know how to print. 
You know how to position your 
printing on the screen.  (sys plot)
You know how to get keystrokes. 
(getz$)
You know how to do math with 
numeric variables. 
You know how to use IF-THEN 
commands to add some 
intelligence to your computer. 
What is left?

Lots of stuff! But you have the 
essentials. Try to use the cursor 
keys to move a dot around the 
screen. Here is a good piece of 
code:

150 getz$:ifz$=""then 150
160 ifz$="[left]" then x=x-1
161 ifz$="[right]" then x=x+1
162 ifz$="[up]" then y=y-1
163 ifz$="[down]" then y=y+1


That should get you started

The more you fiddle around with 
these ideas, the more you will be 
ready for our next lesson.


 DMM

=========================
=====
 
Interview with Jeff Ledger 
http://www.petscii.com/
 

 
Q - Please introduce yourself to 
our reader

My name is Jeff Ledger.  I live in 
Orrville, OH with my wife, and 
three children, Michael, Matthew, 
and Michelle.

Q - What is your involvement with 
Commodore machines

The Commodore 64 kicked off my 
fascination with computers at an 
early age.  My addiction with 
technology continues to this day, 
as I spend
my days as a self-employed 
technologist, dealing with more 
modern machines during the day, 
and tinkering with my Commodore 
machines in my hobby time.

Q - you run the website 
www.petscii.com please tell our 
reader about the site

A few years ago I started a website 
for a C= project I was working on 
at the time, one website became 
several with multiple domains.  So 
PETSCII.COM is an attempt to 
bring everything under one roof.

Q - you also run the forum 
http://jledger.proboards19.com/ind
ex.cgi
Available as a link from the main 
website what does the forum cover 
and who is welcome on this 
service

The PETSCII forums were never 
really intended to become what 
they have.  Originally, I started the 
forum area as a place to easily post 
personal updates about a project at 
the time.  Over the past few years 
it has morphed into a valuable 
resource for Commodore 
enthusiasts. Sections include 
TELBBS, CML, uHacking, DTV 
Hacking, SSOCC, Retrobits
Podcast discussion, and Leif's 
Artillery Dual.   The forums are 
moderated strongly, to encourage 
"Good Taste & Good Judgment" 
and discourage personal flame 
attacks and wars.  Anyone is 
welcome to
signup and enjoy good 
conversation.   The forum also has 
the address of 
http://forums.petscii.com.

Q - you also have links to CML 
tell our reader about
CML who created this language 
and what is its usage

CML, or Commodore Markup 
Language is a concept of a parallel 
web running embedded inside of 
existing WebPages, just for my 
favourite machine.  Initially, It was 
released with a PC server program, 
which
Would fetch WebPages at the 
request of a 64, parse them for 
CML commands and send the 
results back over a serial link to be 
displayed. That rendition featured 
the ability to embed petscii 
graphics,
Function key hyperlinks, and 
sprites into a standard website, 
hidden in the remarks, which CML 
could read and translate into 40 
columns internet.   Currently, 
CML is being integrated into 
Temporal VortexTelBBS 
(bbs.petscii.com port:6400), and 
being rewritten to use "spice "for 
graphics and sound.

Q - What sort of level user would 
you class yourself

My wife would answer this 
question with the word, 
"continuous."   On the Commodore 
front, I consider myself an 
"extreme power user."  I'm still 
working my way through my 
autographed copy of Jim 
Butterfield's


machine language book.  I spent 
most of my time, back in the day, 
caught up in the piracy and BBS 
scenes.   Sometimes a lack of 
knowing all the rules works well 
for me because it allows me to be 
creative
without knowing that "I really 
couldn't do something."   I'm a 
dangerous man with a soldering 
pencil, but perhaps that makes me 
the perfect person to pave the way 
for others who are too timid to 
start their own C= hardware or 
software project.  I'm a big 
promoter of people learning how 
to make their own interfaces, or 
cables, etc.  I think people today 
have forgotten the thrill of 
accomplishment to be had in 
making something themselves and 
seeing it work.

Q- What Commodore machines do 
you still own and use

Several Commodore 64's have 
found safe harbor at my house, A 
couple 128's, a couple VIC20's, an 
Amiga, even a couple +4s. are 
stashed around somewhere.  An 
SX64 loaded with JiffyDOS is my 
favorite and can be found on my 
worktable ready for use.

Q - Did the petscii site go down for 
a while, I
noticed a statement "Many 
personal projects which were put 
"on hold"  this year due to serious 
real life concerns" were you ill and 
the main question are you ok now?

Yes, I did duck out of the scene for 
most of last year.  2006 was a 
rough year for our family.  We 
discovered that all three of our 
children have Wilson's disease, 
which is a genetic problem with 
the liver.  It's a scary thing to 
discover that your children have 
something for which there is no 
cue.   With adjusted diet, and
medicine they will continue to live 
long healthy lives.   We all had to 
go through adjustments and many 
hospital visits while this was 
gotten under control.  Everyone is 
doing better now.


Q - what can our reader do to help 
out PETSCII.COM

Join the forums and get involved in 
conversation!
Q - Tell our reader about Qlink 
and its revival - how
is the project going

Quantum Link Reloaded is an 
amazing project that was headed 
up by Jim  Brain. It is a recreation 
of the Quantum Link server 
running in Linux, which is able to 
communicate with the original 
Qlink client software to permit 
multi-user chat, games, and 
messages.  

Quantum Link demonstrates many 
features we take for granted now 
with the Internet.  It can be used 
from both VICE emulator, as well 
as a true 64 with a
serial connection.   

I know that readers outside the US 
will have little familiarity with the 
original Qlink service, but it was a 
hot item back in the day.  In 1990, 
Quantum Link became America 
Online, dropping the Commodore 
service.  

Quantum Link Reloaded  is a 
remarkable demonstration of what 
is possible when several people 
come together share their piece of 
the puzzle.   I'm proud that Petscii 
forums was able to become the 
place where everything could be 
brought together.  
http://www.petscii.com/qlink for 
details.

Q - one great project is the "Jeff 
Ledger's guide to
getting your Commodore online." 
available from the TELBBS link 
on your website and from here 
http://www.petscii.com/telbbs/c64
online.pdf I downloaded another 
copy as I notice its been updated, 
the version I am looking at is 
March 2007 please tell our reader 
about this resource

This guide is a step-by-step 
walkthrough for getting the 
Commodore 64 connected to a 
TelBBS using a simple serial to PC 
connection.   I've updated it this 
year to include emulation 
variations as well.   Here's
a list of what is in this guide:

CONNECTING TO TELBBS 
SYSTEMS
CONNECTING TO DIALUP 
BBSES WITH WINVICE
TELBBSING WITH OLD 
SCHOOL TERMS FROM 
WINVICE
CONNECTING WITH 
HYPERLINK WEB BROWSER

Complete information about 
Commodore TelBBSing can be 
found at http://telbbs.petscii.com.

Q - What plans do you still have 
for the PETSCII WEBSITE?

I have more Commodore related 
archives and information on 
various projects and interfaces 
which I haven't had time to post 
yet.   As time permits, the site will 
continue to expand.

Q - Do you have any other plans in 
the pipeline for Commodore 
Machines?

In the last couple years, I've found 
myself inspired by some of the 
great work in the form of hardware 
devices that have been created 
from many directions for our 
favourite little PC.  

I've spent some time
Discovering the world of 
programmable microprocessors, 
first with the simple PICAXE chip, 
now with the Propeller chip 
created by Chip Gracey.   (You 
might remember that name, as he 
was the one who created ISEPIC, a 
game cracking device back in the 
80's)   These inexpensive 
microcontrollers provide a lot of 
bang, and in my opinion provide
Incredible add-on power for the 
Commodore.  
I released beginners guide last year 
for interfacing the Commodore 64.   
It can be downloaded
from 
http://www.petscii.com/c64interfac
ing.pdf  Part 2 is currently in the 
works.

Q - I see you as quite a leading 
figure in the Commodore 
Community would you like to 
comment

I'm flattered, but I really don't see 
myself as anything more than a 
Commodore activist with a big 
mouth. <grin>   Our community is 
privileged to have some real 
magicians in our ranks.  I'm always 
impressed with the caliber of 
people I'm able to rub shoulders 
with at the expos and shows.

Q -  What's next for Commodore, 
when will the limit of the machine 
be reached

Every time I suspect we've found 
the limits, it seems that I glance up 
and see miles to go.

Q - I notice Commodore gaming 
have released a "gaming machine" 
basically a Fast pc in a custom 
case would you like to comment.

I'm truly saddened by what I see is 
the exploitation of the Commodore 
name. 

Nothing about these new PCs 
resembles the innovation produced 
by the Commodore Business 
Machines of years gone by.   If the 
new Commodore wanted to hold 
up the standard, they should be 
creating new technology and 
innovation instead of knock off 
hardware that already exists.  

I suspect the Commodore name 
was purchased for the use of name 
recognition reasons alone.  At least 
I have some comfort in knowing 
that a Google search produces top 
links to the proud heritage that is 
and once was Commodore.

Q - If you had 1 million pounds 
what would you do with it?

Hmm..  Let's see, that's around 
$1.9 million US dollars at current 
currency rates.  I think the first 
thing I would do is buy the 
Commodore brand from it's 
current owners with an offer they 
couldn't refuse, sell one dollar 
shares of Commodore stock to the 
current
community users, permitting them 
unlimited use of the trademark and 
name for non-commercial C= 
projects and software with the 
purchase of a single share of 
Commodore.

Commodore should be returned to 
the people who truly love her.  A 
quarter million would be spent on 
the biggest computing museum 
anyone has ever seen, complete 
with hands-on labs, meeting 
rooms, and, educational resources.

Q - and finally is there any 
question you would like
to have been asked

I've probably expanded your file 
size by double already with the 
length of my answers.  You've 
done a good job interviewing!

Q- Jeff thanks for your time

My pleasure.



=========================
=====

 
Commodore Scene VGA Adaptor 
update
The C=VGA adaptor Update
 

 
www.commodrescene.org.uk 
LATEST UPDATE - 26th 
February 2007
 

Hi everybody, updates to the 
C=VGA page (and all the other 
pages here too for that matter) 
have not been foremost on my job 
list recently :-(

 I am still in the throws of sorting 
out the mess of all the refunds 
from orders relating to Maurice. 
Unfortunately I am only one 
person and as I am having to do 
extra work to refund people I have 
had to put all thoughts of 
Commodore related matters to the 
back of my mind

So, whats happening with the 
C=VGA ? Well, after a spell of not 
being able to contact Neil about 
the project I have finaly managed 
to have a chat with him and simply 
put, he no longer can continue his 
work as his time and expertise are 
needed elsewhere - BUT - that is 
not the end of the C=VGA. This is 
what I have planned, in May I am 
in Florida on a family holiday, I 
will be collecting all my 
Commodore stuff from Neil and 
any stuff relating to the C=VGA 
and bringing back to the UK with 
me. Between now and then I am 
having talks with two or three 
people to see if it is viable to 
continue the project and get it 
finished this year. 

If nobody is willing to finish off 
this project then it will be 
cancelled and all money will be 
refunded to those who contributed 
over the years. On a personal note, 
to see this project fail would be a 
huge blow as I have spent a lot of 
time and a huge amount of money 
and hardware on it. Also, if this 
fails I will have the added hassle of 
refunding the money, most of 
which has been spent on 
purchasing components, software 
and all the other bits and pieces 
that go into such a project.

So, by the end of May 2007 we 
will know one way or the other if 
the C=VGA will be completed or 
terminated. Here's hoping !

Note : I have just tried to send 
everyone on the email list an 
updated note but the list is corrupt 
(yet again), I can't be bothered to 
rebuild it for a fifth time so all 
future news will be made here 
unless I can find a recent working 
email database.

UPDATE - 28th November 2005
Recently a few very good 
questions were asked about the 
output resolutions. I thought you'd 
like to read what was said :

1) What native resolution will the 
VGA-screen run in? 
640x480x60Hz fixed for NTSC, 
768x576x50Hz fixed for PAL. 
This is a limitation of the VGA 
signal 



generating chip used. Output looks 
great on LCD's [CRTs flicker a bit 
but look good otherwise] 
  
2) How can you make the picture 
crisp when the PAL-output of the 
64 is already so bad? 

The picture is crisp because the 
output is a 1:1 reproduction of the 
NTSC/PAL signal (minus some 
pixels on the top/bottom/left/right). 
  
3) Did you check that Interlaced 
pictures don't cause lines? 

I've had this behaviour with 
various digitizing-systems (mostly 
DV) before, and from what i 
gathered it boils 

down to this: The standard 
viewable PAL-signal has 625 
lines, and the c64 only provides 
624 (312 rasterlinesx2 
halfpictures). So apparently the 
Framebase corrector tries to "fix" 
this and moves half of the 
interlaced picture up a little bit. 
This leads to very ugly lines that 
only show with interlaced pictures, 
especially IFLI! The NTSC/PAL-
to-VGA routine is built into a 
hardware chip... It looks pretty 
good. Not studio-good, but good 
for home/game use. 
  
4) It WILL use the much better 
Y/C signal as a basis 
for the conversion and not FBAS, 
right? 

Yes. 
  
5) Doesn't 100% smooth scrolling 
require some sort of weird not-
quite-up-to-spec refresh rate most 
VGAs cannot do? Like 49 Hz or 
sth? Will there be problems with 
devices that aren't as flexible with 
timings as CRTs or TFTs like e.g. 
a beamer or a Plasma-TV? 

The chip uses 50hz to my 
knowledge. I've watched several 
PAL and NTSC scrolling demos, 
there is no noticable tearing or 
artifacts that I can see, at all. 

UPDATE - 19th November 2005
As the testing of the 80 column 
mode of the C128 is soon to begin 
I thought it would be nice to share 
our thoughts with you all. Test test 
the C=VGA to its limits it was 
decided to use the ultimate demo - 
The VDC Experience - because 
this demo is so specific in not only 
the type of c128 you use but also 
the type of monitor you have, it 
will be VERY demanding. Not 
many people in the UK have seen 
this demom and I doubt 
ANYBODY in the USA will have 
ever seen it at all. To give you an 
idea, you need a German C128 
with 64k VDC ram and a 1084 
monitor, nothing else will do.

 
UPDATE - 24th October 2005
From Neil ~ "The CNC is finally 
up and running today, I'm running 
some boards on it now. I've been 
learning my CAM program, which 
is 1006 pages long.... I also had to 
buy a CNC control program to run 
the machine, which was $160, with 
its own 500+ page manual. Also I 
had to modify a script to get my 
schematic program to convert its 
format to my machine. I finally got 
it tweaked enough to try some 
boards, I'll try to have some 
pictures to you tonight, if I have 
time.

Now I should be able to prototype 
the latest version of the C=VGA 
board and try it all out. I wouldn't 
say it's ready to CNC it yet, but 
very soon... I'll keep you posted on 
the progress anyway."

UPDATE - 3rd September 2005
Here is the abridged version of the 
latest e-mail from Neil : -

I'm still here, I assure you I have 
been making progress lately.... I've 
just been very busy at work, 
working overtime, plus going to 
school....

Having 20 or so minutes every 
night doesn't really work for 
engineering stuff, by the time you 
drag everything out, you're 
throwing everything back into a 
box.... (I've moved again, but I 
won't bother you with that). 
Working on weekends doesn't help 
either... We will be having Labor 
Day this Monday, so I'll get a lot 
accomplished then. I've gotten 
most of the problems out of the 
way, #1 being the fabrication 
part... I bought a CNC mill about a 
month ago (see picture to right).

It's a full CNC mill, accurate down 
to 0.0005" on the finished part 
(0.00127 centimeters).. it will do 
aluminum, steel, plastic, 
brass/bronze, stainless steel, 
titanium, etc... anything a fullsize 
can do. I'll be using it for the front 
and back connector panel on the 
boxes (see picture to left). All the 
square holes will be machined into 
rectangular plates... I'll be buying 
the material anodized, and then 
engraving the text into the 
anodization...

The circuit boards will also be 
milled (my last stopping point was 
so that I could get the CNC 
working to make my next 
prototype board). I will be using 
0.012" end mills, along with 
carbide drills to make the design... 
(then a 60 degree spade cutter to 
score the boards, you break them 
apart after being milled) the parts 
will be surface mounted to save 
cost (labor and component costs) 
using a hand pick-and-place 
machine, that I haveaccess to, a 
Dima FP600. 

A quick throw through a reflow 
oven (also in the same building 
with that machine) will produce a 
professional quality board. This 
will save me from having to 
manually solder 100+ boards 
(which I would never have time for 
:) This way, I should be able to do 
100 boards in an 8-hour day, and 
be done.

I have the SAA7110 talking to the 
microcontroller (I had to write 
some I2c routines from scratch), I 
just have to assemble my new 
prototype board to see if I can look 
at video...

Right now I am waiting on a 
replacement defective stepper 
motor for the CNC, which I will 
need before making a prototype 
board. I'm also currently installing 
a digital readout system (which 
reads the XYZ position and 
spindle RPM and displays it on my 
computer) in case the stepper 
motors lose "count"... I'm also 
replacing the power supply with 
one I found on Ebay... My lab 
power supply is only 3 amps, not 
enough for smooth operation. I 
recieved a 10,000 RPM kit this 
week which allows me to spin the 
motor fast enough to do boards. 
I'm also rigging up a vacuum 
system with a Hepa filter to keep 
the fiberglass dust down.

I'll hopefully give you another 
update once my motor is in and I 
machine a board or two ~ Neil

All those people who have pre-
ordered to kick start this project 
will be pleased to know that we are 
now discussing what we can do to 
your C=VGA's to make them extra 
special. Rest assured that nobody 
will have a C=VGA like yours ! 
We'll keep it a suprise for now ~ 
Allan

UPDATE - 27th August 2005

Okay then , this is where we are at 
the moment : The only working 
prototype that we have at the 
moment has be undergoing lengthy 
programming to align the NTSC 
40 column signal, this was difficult 
and took a VERY LONG time but 
it is now complete. 

Suprisingly, when the signal was 
adapted to try out the PAL 40 
column it worked first time !! To 
prove it worked as intended Neil 
tested a PAL c64 with a 19" LCD 
screen running the extremely 
beautifull but yet very graphically 
demanding Deux Ex Machina 
demo* - and it worked superbly. 
So there we have it, at the moment 
the 40 columns side of things is 
working fine so we now have to 
get working on the 80 column 
mode. I'll keep you all posted. Oh, 
I've also updated the questions and 
answers below.

* If you want to see this demo for 
yourself you can download the d64 
images from here - 1 - 2 - please 
note that this is a PAL demo only 
and will not display correctly on an 
NTSC machine, that is, until the 
C=VGA is ready ;-)

From Neil - "As mentioned before 
there is a 50hz flicker that is 
noticable on CRT monitors.... It 
does however look GREAT on my 
19" Dell LCD at work :) No 
flickering at all, since there are no 
phosphors to dim between scans.... 
"

" I've been using "Deus Ex 
Machina" for testing, it truely 
looks beautiful on all of the 
displays I've tested it with. The 
scrolling/animation is 
PERFECTLY smooth, no tearing 
or artifacts.... The C64 'interlacing' 
trick of alternating pixel colors to 
increase the pallete works just as 
good as on my 1702 C= monitor. 
The colors on the LCD look more 
vivid than the 1702, which could 
be a good or bad thing... I haven't 
tried to tweak the colors yet, but it 
shouldn't be hard to do. "

" Now I just have to complete my 
new prototype, It's built, but I need 
to change some things around and 
start the firmware... I only have an 
hour or two every day after work 
for personal projects, using my 
works' facilities and test 
equipment.... but again, the 
prototype stage shouldn't take long 
at all.... the design work has 
already been done. "

Most of all - please, please 
remember folks, this project is 
being done in Neil's 'spare time' so 
that is why it is taking so long, be 
patient, we ARE getting there and 
I guarantee it will be worth the 
wait. Pre orders are no longer 
being taken - any further cost will 
be funded by myself or the 
developer .Please e-mail 
Commodore Scene magazine Any 
technical queries will be fowarded 
onto Neil for him to answer. If you 
want to be put on the mailing list 
for the C=VGA then contact here 
to add your name.If your name 
should be listed please email me 
with your details. NOTE : The 
final price of the C=VGA is not 
decided yet.Pre-ordering is now on 
hold and no further money will be 
accepted until we can get the first 
few units dispatched and tested.

Some questions answered :
Will work with the Amiga 1200 ?

- We've had this question a few 
times and the honest answer is we 
just don't know enough about the 
Amigas audio/video outputs to say 
yes or no ! When the first units are 
ready for testing I will be handing 
out some to a couple of Amiga 
guys who will be testing various 
platforms for me. The Mk2 
C=VGA will work with a wider 
variety of older computers and 
we'll try to make sure the Amiga is 
one of them if it doesn't work with 
the Mk1.

Will it work in c128 / 80 column 
mode ?

- Yes. The C=VGA will work in 
c64/40 column mode, c128/40 
column mode & c128/80 column 
mode.

- All colours will be supported 
unlike older adapters where 80 
column mode was in B/W.

How much will it cost ?

- Estimates for the basic device are 
US$35~40, UK24~30 and 40~45 
Euros.

Can I pre-order ?

- No, pre ordering is now 
suspended.

Will it be PAL compatible ?

- Yes, the device will be PAL and 
NTSC compatible.

Will it be available in my country 
?

- Yes. Worldwide distribution is 
already in place via the 
Commodore Scene Importing 
Service and we have a USA 
distributor too.

There are already video converters 
available, why not use one of those 
?

- Have you tried one ? I have and 
believe me they are awful. No 
converter ever made supports RGB 
80 columns in full colour. This 
device is being made specifically 
for all the Commodore outputs.

Will it be blurred like older 
adapters ?

- No, it will be crystal clear and 
flicker free in ALL modes.

What will the final build quality be 
like ?

- The final device will be fully 
enclosed and very tidy. The 
developer takes great pride in all 
his projects and his other devices 
are of the highest build quality.

Will there be a VGA pass-thru port 
?

- Yes.

How will the unit be powered ?

- Not sure just yet, we are working 
on several options but a good 
option would be to use a currently 
available source such a 
Commodore peripheral so that a 
simple 'piggy back' plug could be 
used.

Can I use any size monitor ?

- Probably yes but until the 
prototype is running it is hard to 
say what the quality of output will 
be. A 14"/15" monitor would be 
about the size we currently have so 
that should look okay. The 
prototype has been play tested on a 
19" Dell LCD monitor and gave 
superb results. Problems during 
testing mean that older CRT 
monitor probably won't work well 
but most LCD's should be fine.

Will I be able to use my laptops 
monitor ?

- If your laptop allows VGA 'in' 
then I don't see any reason why 
not.

Will it have a scan doubler ?

- This device IS a scan doubler, it 
also has some nifty DSP (digital 
signal processing) functions to 
improve smoothness and flicker.

What will it look like ?

- It will be professionally finished 
off in a nice box with a pretty logo 
on it.

What happens if it doesn't work 
with my monitor ?

- We hope the finished device will 
be 'firmware upgradable' so if any 
'tweaking' is required it can be 
updated easily in situ by the user.

Will I need a specific monitor type 
?

- No. Any monitor with an 
(S)VGA input can be used, 
including TFT's ! Probably best to 
steer clear of older CRT monitors.

Will it do anything else ?

- Well the developer has been 
working overtime on this and he 
predicts many enhancements such 
as 'hot keys' for mutiple computer 
switching, mouse control and loads 
of other ideas. All these extra 
features will cost more so for the 
time being the first units will be 
simple Commodore video & sound 
in/out converters.

What about the sound ?

- Sound is taken from the c64's 
audio/video port and output 
through a stereo jack port


For more information visit 
www.commodorescene.org.u 
Happy Birthday, System 3!
By Boris Kretzinger
 

The legendary publisher was 
founded in 1982 by Mark Cale and 
Emerson Best. They began with 
games for the Atari 800, on which 
the debuted with "Colony 7". Their 
first major breakthrough, however, 
was on the Commodore 64 with 
International Karate and the Last 
Ninja series. 

Today, those classics are supposed 
to rock the market once more: with 
Epix titles licensed, System 3 is 
going to revive California Games, 
Impossible Mission and last but 
not least: The Last Ninja. Cale, 
still head of System 3, wants to 
stick to the old game play and only 
adapt the controlling - a necessity 
with Nintendo's Wii console in 
crosshair for the remakes. 

"You gotta keep the game play 
mechanics the same or else it 
ceases to be the original game and 
you're only using the game brand 
to sell games. [...] The way the 
controllers work and the whole 
idea of it actually works a lot 
better than if it's done on the PS3 
or 360", says Cale. 

"What we're doing is we're 
incorporating the original 
gameplay and mechanics and 
bringing the gameplay up to date 
..." Let's wonder, how California 
Games can be played with a 
nunchuck ... Skating ... Surfing ... 
BMX ... this promises to be 
interesting. We'll wait and see.

But let's take a look back on their 
greatest hits and introduce this 
with a last quote from Mark Cale: 
"It's hard to believe that we've 
been here for 25 years. We've seen 
a lot of changes in the industry and 
lots of people, systems and ideas 
come and go. One thing has stayed 
though - great games will always 
stand the test of time." Amen!

DEATH STAR INTERCEPTOR
1984 publishes System 3 their first 
Commodore 64 game. Without the 
Star Wars title licensed, the force 
isn't with them. Death Star is 
nothing extraordinary.

INTERNATIONAL KARATE 
In 1986 International Karate rocks 
them all: in the US alone (on all 
platforms) they sell over 1.5 
million copies. The game stays for 
three months on the number one 
billboard position.

IK+ 
IK+ was released in 1987 
throughout Europe and becomes a 
bestseller, too. By the way: 
according to Capcom, this game is 
the inspiration for their famous 
"Street Fighter 2" ...

BANGKOk KNIGHTS
Martial Arts Movies continue to be 
successful and there is no reason 
for Cale & Co not to follow this 
path. Bangkok Knights features 
huge sprites, digisound, a hot 
numbers girl and music by Rob 
Hubbard, who couldn't resist to 
implement a small musical homage 
to Rocky IV ... do you know 
where?

THE LAST NINJA
In 1987 the first title of the series 
appears. Technical outstanding and 
hard to complete, this game breaks 
all records: the c64 version sells 
over 750.000 times, all in all and 
around the world System 3 brings 
out far more than 2 million copies. 
This game has to be the most 
copied game of all time! Ben 
Daglish contributed an astonishing 
soundtrack, which is even today 
very respected.

THE LAST NINJA II
The second part follows in 1988. 
The game sells out everywhere on 
its day of release. Altogether they 
sell over 1.2 million copies world 
wide.

DOMINATOR
Dominator is a reminisces to their 
beginning on the Commodore 64: 
the shoot'em up genre. Technically 
great, but hell to play (through), 
the title can't hop above other 
average titles. Graphically nice to 
look at, the music is dark and 
melancholic. Today, this game can 
only be recommended to hardcore 
shoot'em up freaks. There are 
better titles out there.

MYTH
Myth - History in the making also 
comes out in 1989. Interesting: the 
Famicom version of this title 
comes out as "Conan" in the US. 
In Great Britain, the game comes 
along in a special Commodore 
Amiga 500 package. Despite that, 
it sells about 400.000 times world 
wide. Maybe interesting for 
collectors: there is a cartridge 
version around.

TUSKER
Tusker looks a bit like an 
unlicensed Indiana Jones title. It 
isn't a bad game at all, but gets 
often neglected when looking back 
on System 3. Too bay that they 
decided to do it in 2D instead of 
the isometric perspective they did 
for Last Ninja. Perhaps this is one 
reason for the game not being a 
smash hit.

VENDETTA
In Spring 1990 Vendetta looks and 
plays like The Last Ninja. At the 
end of every level, the player has 
to drive with a car to the next 
location. A nice game, even the 
intro looks good, but as for the 
music: the game doesn't have a top 
score.

FLIMBO'S QUEST
Cute is the first thing that comes 
into ones mind when looking at 
Flimbo's Quest. And this is indeed 
a children's game - the first from 
System 3. Why they did it? Hell, 
who knows. The only thing that 
could be of some interest is, that 
Commodore (GB)  packaged it 
with every Commodore 64 GS.

THE LAST NINJA III
1991 - at last - the third part of The 
Last Ninja comes out and, for once 
more, sets high standards. The 
"Your Commodore" magazine 
rates this title 100%, and, though a 
bit too high, they clearly underline 
the extraordinary position of this 
game. By the way: Last Ninja IV 
could be out this year - though not 
for our Commodore.

TURBO CHARGE
Turbo Charge also appears in 
1991. Very hot Intro, average 
story. The ones who drove from 
level to level in Vendetta might 
have a kind of dejavu: we're 
playing the further developed 
engine of that racing part. For me, 
this is one of the nicest games 
from System 3. And a tip for all 
those of you, who don't want to 
play through Last Ninja again - 
either because they don't want to 
or they simply cannot do so. There 
is a cartridge version of this game, 
too, but who has ever seen it? Not 
only friends of "Outrun" will have 
fun with this title. Everything 
seems to be right here, but just go 
an try it out yourselves!


=========================
=====

 
Commodore BBS list
 

 I would like to formally announce 
the "resurrection" of the C64/128 
Bulletin Board List.  This list had 
been released monthly years ago, 
but it has not been updated since 
October 2003.  I've decided to take 
it upon myself to bring this list 
back to life.  I'm keeping the same 
basic format as the old list, but I'm 
including all known dial-up AND 
Telnet boards (the old list was for 
dial-up only).  Anyway... I hope 
some of you will find this useful...  
:-)

The ASCII text version of the list 
can be found here:  
http://hometown.aol.com/cottonwo
odbbs/cbm-bbs-list.txt

The PETSCII text version of the 
list can be found
Here : 
http://hometown.aol.com/cottonwo
odbbs/cbm-bbs-list.seq
-Andrew

COMMODORE FREE Full Text 
version and email  reprinted with 
Permission of Andrew 

Commodore 64/128 Bulletin 
Board List - 25 March 2007

This is a list of all known ACTIVE 
Commodore Bulletin Board 
Systems operated on GENUINE or 
EMULATED Commodore 64 or 
128 computers, sorted by dial-
up/Telnet and BBS name. The list 
is 
published at least once per month 
with no set schedule.  The  latest 
copy is always available at:
http://hometown.aol.com/cottonwo
odbbs/cbm-bbs-list.txt (normally 
within minutes of arriving at the 
servers).

Certain items are abbreviated and 
those abbreviations can be found 
near the end of this document. 
Readers are encouraged  to upload 
this list to any BBS or Web Site 
and to notify me at: 
wiskow@verizon.net, of any 
additions, changes, corrections or 
recommendations.

If you would like to receive a copy 
of this list each time it is 
published, send an email message 
to me at: wiskow@verizon.net 
with a subject line of "Please add 
my name to the Genuine 
C64/C128 BBS List Mail 
Notification List". If you wish to 
keep the list
updated in any publication or 
online service, feel free to do 
so.Search strings are provided at 
the end of this document.

The PETSCII version of this list 
can be found at:
http://hometown.aol.com/cottonwo
odbbs/cbm-bbs-list.seq, and will 
be updated shortly after this list is 
posted (normally within minutes 
after this appears in the 
newsgroups).

Jeff Ledger maintains a clickable 
list of Telnet-accessable BBS's at 
http://telbbs.petscii.com.

NOTICE: To be included in the 
latest update, submissions need to 
be received by the 25th of the 
preceding month for the next 
months update. Any submissions 
not received by this cutoff date 
will be held for inclusion in the 
next update.
=========================
===============

DIAL-UP:
========
Telephone Number ......... +1-909-
350-9987
Location ................. Fontana, 
California, U.S.A.
BBS Name ................. Master's 
Kingdom

BBS Software.............. Color V8
BBS Platform/Hardware .... C128-
64, CHD 4GB, RL
System Operator Name ..... 
Charles Gutman 
(shifty_butch@hotmail.com)
System Operator Handle ... 
Ramswell
Maximum Modem Speed ...... 
28.8K BPS
WWW Presence ............. 
http://www.8bitprodserv.spaces.liv
e.com
Open Status Verified ..... 25 Mar 
2007
Comments ................. Open 8PM-
8AM (Pacific Time), 7 days a 
week
                           Official BBS for 
8-Bit Designs.

Telephone Number ......... +1-503-
325-2905
Location ................. Astoria, 
Oregon, U.S.A.
BBS Name ................. THE 
VILLAGE
BBS Software.............. Centipede
BBS Platform/Hardware .... C128, 
CHD 4GB, SC128
System Operator Name ..... Sensei 
David O.E. Mohr 
(lordronin@vcsweb.com)
System Operator Handle ... Lord 
Ronin (ID#1)
Amiga Sysop .............. Scott 
Farley (#16) 
(revelation_16@hotmail.com)
Maximum Modem Speed ...... 
28.8K BPS
Open Status Verified ..... 
Temporarily Down - Will re-open 
soon!
Comments ................. Official 
BBS for the Amiga Commodore
                           User's Group 
#0447. Open to the public
                           24 hours/7 days. 
Play-By-E-Mail Games
                           are welcome and 
currently running.
                           Over 2,000 files 
and over 90 Online
                           Games.  Official 
BBS for SceneWorld Disk Mag.
                          
TELNET:
=======
Telnet Address ........... 
8bitjunkyard.dyndns.org:6400
Location ................. Annapolis, 
Maryland, U.S.A.
BBS Name ................. The 8-bit 
Junkyard
BBS Software.............. Color V8.1
BBS Platform/Hardware .... C64-
EMU
System Operator Name ..... Jason 
Putnam
System Operator Handle ... Jp!
WWW Presence ............. 
http://mysite.verizon.net/putnaja1
Open Status Verified ..... 25 Mar 
2007

Telnet Address ........... 
antidote.hopto.org
Location ................. Sweden
BBS Name ................. The 
Antidote
BBS Software.............. C*Base 
v3.3
BBS Platform/Hardware .... C128
System Operator Name ..... 
Unknown
System Operator Handle ... 
Taper/TRIAD
WWW Presence ............. None
Open Status Verified ..... 25 Mar 
2007

Telnet Address ........... 
cottonwood.servebbs.com
Location ................. Moreno 
Valley, California, U.S.A.
BBS Name ................. 
Cottonwood
BBS Software.............. AA128
BBS Platform/Hardware .... C128
System Operator Name ..... 
Andrew Wiskow 
(wiskow@verizon.net)
System Operator Handle ... 
Balzabaar
WWW Presence ............. 
http://hometown.aol.com/cottonwo
odbbs
Open Status Verified ..... Will open 
with new Telnet setup during the 
week of 9 Apr 2007.
Telnet Address ........... 
bbs.excalibursstone.com:6400
Location ................. Unknown
BBS Name ................. Excalibur's 
Stone
BBS Software.............. DMBBS 
v5.3
BBS Platform/Hardware .... C128
System Operator Name ..... 
Unknown
System Operator Handle ... 
Excalibur
WWW Presence ............. None
Open Status Verified ..... 25 Mar 
2007

Telnet Address ........... the-
hidden.hopto.org
Location ................. Unknown
BBS Name ................. The Hidden
BBS Software.............. Unknown
BBS Platform/Hardware .... 
Unknown
System Operator Name ..... 
Unknown
System Operator Handle ... 
Unknown
WWW Presence ............. None
Open Status Verified ..... 25 Mar 
2007

Telnet Address ........... 
innercirclebbs.com
Location ................. Unknown
BBS Name ................. Inner Circle
BBS Software.............. Centipede
BBS Platform/Hardware .... C128, 
CHD 4GB, RL, SC128
System Operator Name ..... 
Unknown
System Operator Handle ... Eddie
WWW Presence ............. None
Open Status Verified ..... 25 Mar 
2007

Telnet Address ........... 
bbs.jammingsignal.com
Location ................. Toronto, 
Ontario, Canada
BBS Name ................. Jamming 
Signal
BBS Software.............. EBBS 64 
v3.3
BBS Platform/Hardware .... C64
System Operator Name ..... Leif 
Bloomquist
System Operator Handle ... 
Schema
WWW Presence ............. 
http://www.jammingsignal.com
Open Status Verified ..... 25 Mar 
2007

Telnet Address ........... 
lostcavernsbbs.dyndns.org:6001
Location ................. Macomb, 
Michigan, U.S.A.
BBS Name ................. Lost 
Caverns
BBS Software.............. Centipede
BBS Platform/Hardware .... C128
System Operator Name ..... 
Unknown
System Operator Handle ... Mo
WWW Presence ............. None
Open Status Verified ..... 25 Mar 
2007
Comments ................. An 
additional port is available at 
lostcavernsbbs.dyndns.org:6002

Telnet Address ........... 
madworld.bounceme.net
Location .....  West Philidelphia, 
Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
BBS Name ................. Mad World
BBS Software.............. Centipede
BBS Platform/Hardware .... C128, 
CHD 2.1GB, RL
System Operator Name ..... 
Unknown
System Operator Handle ... 
Cyberjank
WWW Presence ............. None
Open Status Verified ..... 25 Mar 
2007

Telnet Address ........... 
bbs.pipesup.ca:6400
Location ................. Unknown
BBS Name ................. Realms of 
Mystery
BBS Software.............. C*Base 
v3.x
BBS Platform/Hardware .... C64
System Operator Name ..... 
Unknown
System Operator Handle ... 
Mystery
WWW Presence ............. None
Open Status Verified ..... 25 Mar 
2007
Telnet Address ........... 
retrogradebbs.com
Location ................. Boardman, 
Ohio, U.S.A.
BBS Name ................. Retrograde
BBS Software.............. Color V8
BBS Platform/Hardware .... C64-
EMU
System Operator Name ..... Dave 
Hartman 
(mm@retrogradebbs.com)
System Operator Handle ... Metal 
Mage
WWW Presence ............. 
http://www.retrogradebbs.com
Open Status Verified ..... 25 Mar 
2007

Telnet Address ........... rkbbs.net
Location ................. Unknown
BBS Name ................. Riktronics
BBS Software.............. Image v1.2
BBS Platform/Hardware .... C64
System Operator Name ..... 
Unknown
System Operator Handle ... 
J.Rotten
WWW Presence ............. None
Open Status Verified ..... 25 Mar 
2007

Telnet Address ........... 
bbs.petscii.com:6400
Location ................. Orrville, 
Ohio, U.S.A.
BBS Name ................. Temporal 
Vortex
BBS Software.............. TVBBS 
(Custom Software)
BBS Platform/Hardware .... C64
System Operator Name ..... Jeff 
Ledger (jeffledger@gmail.com)
System Operator Handle ... Jeff 
Ledger
WWW Presence ............. 
http://www.petscii.com/
Open Status Verified ..... 25 Mar 
2007

Telnet Address ........... 
dannyboy2.dyndns.org
Location ................. Unknown
BBS Name ................. Unknown
BBS Software.............. Color V8
BBS Platform/Hardware .... C64-
EMU
System Operator Name ..... 
Unknown
System Operator Handle ... 
DSLMAN
WWW Presence ............. None
Open Status Verified ..... 25 Mar 
2007

Telnet Address ........... 
wizbbs.dyndns.org
Location ................. Unknown
BBS Name ................. Wizard's 
Realm
BBS Software.............. Color V8
BBS Platform/Hardware .... C128-
64, LtK
System Operator Name ..... Ray
System Operator Handle ... 
WizardNJ
WWW Presence ............. None
Open Status Verified ..... 25 Mar 
2007

=========================
===============

Abbreviations:
AA128.......All American BBS 128 
v12.1b
BPS.........Bits Per Second
C64.........Commodore 64, 64C or 
SX 64
C64-EMU.....Emulated C64
C128........Commodore 128 or 
128D
C128-64.....Commodore 128 or 
128D operated in 64 Mode
CBM.........Commodore Business 
Machines
CHD.........CMD Hard Drive
CMD.........Creative Micro Designs
Color V8....Color 64 Version 8
Color V8.1..Color 64 Version 8.1
GB..........Gigabyte
K...........Thousand or Kilobyte 
Depending on How Used
LtK.........Lieutenant Kernal Hard 
Drive
RL..........CMD RAMLink
SC128.......SuperCPU 128 


=========================
=====

 
"Bits and Pieces II: Return of the 
Byte"
 
By Luke Lynde
 

     Hello, here is Luke Lynde 
again. This time around I will give 
you a look back into the past, when 
computers became a part of my 
life, and the knowledge I have (or 
have not) gained along the way. 
The dates  may be a little incorrect 
sometimes, for this was a fair 
while ago - but the information I 
provide is to the best of my poor 
memory :)

     It was 1987 and I was in Year 8 
in High School. My first computer 
was an Amstrad CPC 464 - before 
then I had owned nothing except 
for  maybe a Nintendo Game and 
Watch, or some basic Space 
Invaders handheld. The first game 
I played on it was called 3D Grand 
Prix. I recently played this again 
on an Amstrad CPC Emulator 
named Caprice, I got a 
Shiver when I came across it 
again. Memories...

     I don't remember having this 
long, because maybe 6 months 
later I had an Amstrad CPC 6128 
which came with a disk drive, 
instead of  cassette.
Disks were very expensive for the 
Amstrad back then. I had a copy of 
Tasword for the Amstrad 6128, it 
looked much like Geos on the 
Commodore 128. Anyway, I am 
sure there was a lot of competition 
And similarities (not coincidences 
though) from rival 8-bit software 
producers. I have never owned a 
Commodore 128 though, or any 
other  C= brand apart from C64 
and Amiga 500.

     It was some time in 1988 that I 
noticed a magazine in the 
newsagents called Zzap!64. I got a 
copy, and just by looking at the 
screenshots, it was clear that the 
Commodore 64 was a much 
superior computer. The 4mhz 
processing power of the Amstrad 
seemed somewhat wasted, in 
comparison. After looking at this 
magazine, I knew I had to get a
Commodore 64, and I did. 1988 
was the beginning of my long 
association with Commodore 64.

     At the back of issues of 
Zzap!64 there were advertisements 
for people who swapped games. I 
contacted one person called 
Powerdual/DAAS 
who live less than 10km from me. 
DAAS stands for Doug Anthony 
All Stars, they were a Comedy Act 
on Australian TV at the time. I 
never met this person, but later he 
invited me to a train station on the 
premise 
of assaulting me, over some 
computer scandal (my lips are 
sealed). He was my first contact, 
and gave me the software needed 
to start swapping with more 
people.

     Even back in 1988 there were a 
lot of people leaving the scene for 
the Amiga, or other reasons. MAD 
(Mad Aussie Dealers) had their 
HQ in Brisbane, where I live, 
although the leader Jaguar - 
promised the world and offered 
nothing on many occasions. Much 
like another scener I was talking to 
on my mobile phone last year... He 
knew how to code,but by 1989 or 
so he apparently had enough. He 
did try to charge me money for a 
contact demo, though :( Once 
while talking to him on the phone, 
he banged his head against the wall 
and knocked himself out. He called 
back later to tell me what had 
happened... ?!?

     1988 was the year of just 
starting to understand the 
Commodore 64.1989-1991 
however, was a big
time, especially for swapping 
amongst the scene. Groups I can 
remember trading with in Australia 
include: Ikon Visual, Chrome, 
Nova, TIS (maybe it 


was TIC), QCF (Queensland Copy 
Federation). I was involved in 
some wars with groups as well, but  
I am 
not going to talk about that (once 
more, my lips are 
sealed).Forgiveness is divine?

     I had made some good 
friendships also through swapping 
with so many different people. My 
contact list was usually around 30, 
so I was no mega swapper. Every 
day, packs were arriving in the 
mail on real floppy 5.25" disks. 
Not the 3.5" of today, that aren't 
really "floppy" at all :) Keeping 
my contacts always around 30, 
meant constantly dropping some. It 
was always my perception, that the 
Australian 
scene  was considered a bit lame, 
by the Europeans - and some 
times, with  good reason.

     It was in 1991 that I bought an 
Amiga 500, selling my 
Commodore 64 and around 1000 
disks for a small fortune. However, 
I did not like the Amiga scene at 
all - and was drawn back to the 
Commodore 64 in 1992, the year 
after I finished High School and 
started working. I knew the C64 
was the computer for me... From 
1992 until 1998 I was probably 
active only half of the time, but 
always had a Commodore 64 
around to hack around with, and 
play games on.

     From 1999-2002/3 I had no 
Commodore 64 gear, and at that 
time - I did not imagine myself 
getting interested in the C64 again. 
Through emulation and the PC I 
rediscovered the C64 scene again - 
and 
joined People of Liberty around 
2004. All my articles released for 
People of Liberty are under my 
handle of IQ-Dna, in the Scene 
World disk magazine. It wasn't 
until early 2005 that I started on 
real C64 hardware again, 
purchased through the Ebay 
Internet Auction Site.

     All my articles for Scene World 
were done, when I was just using 
Emulation. When I finally decided 
to go real c64 again, the magazine 
just died. A bit of a kick in the 
teeth, but these things happen I 
guess. Anyway, since then I have 
been enjoying being a C64 user in 
real time :) Nothing beats it! Sure, 
Emulation offers a better image 
display and other nuances, but the 
real experience can only be found
by using the real thing...

     Anyway it has been about 3 or 
so years back into the Commodore 
64 again, and no regrets. I now 
have 6 keyboards, 2 1541-II disk 
drives, numerous books, power 
supplies, and lots of leads and 
other stuff. I
also collect consoles like Atari, 
Nintendo 64, Sega, Playstation 1,  
etc. I have quite a lot of stuff! 
Recently I picked up two Pentium 
One computers and an Apple 
Power PC - for free! One of the 
Pentium 1's 
I turned into a DOS Platform for 
Star Commander and CCS64, 
other 8-bit emulators, and PC Dos 
Games. I have lots of computer 
hardware filling
up a large cupboard!

     Anyway, that is my story. Alot 
of people like to hide behind a 
handle and group name, sure if 
that's the way some sections of the 
C64 civilisation operate. I like to 
communicate sometimes on a more 
human level. After all, I find it 
more interesting to hear about 
stories like the one I have told you 
today, then to go deep into some 
meaningless arguments about who 
ripped which piece of code from 
where, etc. Not that there is 
anything wrong with that :)

     Catch you later! 


=========================
=====


Activision on the C64 
By Luke Lynde
 

     Luke Lynde on the keys... Your 
Commodore 64 is also a super 
Atari 2600 console built in?! Well, 
not exactly - but you would be 
surprised. Read on and find out...

     It was sort of in an obscure way 
that I came to discover how 
addictive and playable Activision 
games are on the Commodore 64, 
in particular the titles from the 
early 80's. I regularly use an Atari 
2600 
Emulator called "Z26", so I guess 
this led me on a search for some of 
the Commodore 64 versions of the 
popular Atari 2600 games. As far 
as Atari 2600 is concerned, 
Activision was the major software 
house by a mile, for the now 
primitive console.

   The conversions to the 
Commodore 64, to my surprise, I 
found are even better. With 
exception however, there are 
probably a few stinkers I am not 
aware of. In a way, I suppose that 
the Commodore 64 conversions -
are what the coders wanted them to 
be like on the Atari 2600, at least I 
am sure.

     From games I have played from 
Activision, and what I have read - 
they are a software house that from 
very early on, put upmost 
dedication in the structure and 
implementation of computer 
games. Simple code was what 
existed back then, for it happened 
in a less technical time. 
Commodore 64 is lucky, because 
the best versions of the early
Activision titles are only to be 
found on this machine. The 
C64!The [4] Games I will talk 
about today - River Raid, Hero, 
Beam Rider, and Pitfall - are 
instant classics that retain a unique 
design and gameplay that remains 
unsurpassed to this day.

     These games have themes in 
common. The graphics and sound 
are all In simple detail, but are 
effective and well suited to the 
relevant game. As the level/stage 
increases - the difficulty increases 
by gradual (not too steep) degrees. 
You really want to get to the next 
level, so the addictiveness takes 
hold of you. They are all extremely 
playable, and are most of all, fun.

[1] River Raid
     Pilot you plane through the 
canyons, over the water, 
destroying anything in your path. 
This is a basic vertically scrolling 
shooting game, where you must 
navigate your plane through enemy 
territory - which consists of planes, 
helicopters, ships, tanks, and 
balloons. Fuel cells can be flown 
over to replenish your fuel 
supplies. Careful navigation is 
required so you don't hit the sides 
of the canyon.

     From the Option Select screen, 
there are 8 game variations - where 
you travel from bridge to bridge. 
You can increase and decrease the 
speed of your plane, but you can 
not stop the scrolling - so it takes 
Some art to become good at this 
game. Be careful to avoid anything 
that gets in your way, by either 
shooting at it or navigating your 
way around it. The graphics and 
sound effects are basic and simple, 
but
the conceptual adaption and 
playability rank in the high 
echelons of gaming nirvana.

[2] H.E.R.O.
     You are a man with a helicopter 
attached to himself, and a laser at 
your disposal. This game consists 
of screen after screen of caverns, 
which you 



must guide your man through - 
with the objective of each level: to 
rescue the trapped miner. Well 
something like that, I don't have 
any manuals for these games 
reviewed today. The graphics are 
quite nice, and the sounds are also 
suitable for this type of game. The 
higher the level you reach ,the 
more screens a cavern will consist 
of. You have bombs at your 
disposal to blow up walls, and the 
enemies consist of spiders, 
butterflies (?!), some green hands 
coming out of the walls (?!?), and 
instant death touch walls. This 
game appears very simple and 
straightforward, but you always 
are under the urge to get further 
and further in the game - where it 
obviously gets a little more 
complex. At the end of each level 
when you rescue a miner, a bonus 
is provided for bombs that you did 
not use. You will need a steady 
hand for this game.

[3] Beam Rider
     Beam Rider is a retro fashioned 
shoot em up, very reminiscent of 
the early 1980's. The playing area 
consists of a vertical grid, with 
your ship at the bottom - and your 
enemies moving down on the grid 
Towards  your ship, in an effort to 
annihilate your very existence 
completely. An alien UFO type 
inspired game. Each sector (level) 
comprises of 
15 aliens to destroy and it is a 
game of dodge and kill for 
immediate success.

     Your ship at the bottom of the 
screen has 4 positions on the grid 
to move between, and as the levels 
progress you will have other 
nuisances to avoid or kill to make 
things just that little bit harder. The 
playing area is a blue grid on a 
black background. At the end of 
each sector, a mothership appears 
across the top of the screen. 
Killing this with one of your three 
mega shots, gains you an extra life. 
This game is a combination of 
accuracy, intuition, and avoidance. 
Play it and you will see what I 
mean. A great game, that would 
look good if it was reworked today 
to a more modern format.

[4] Pitfall
     Pitfall would have to be one of 
the single most popular computer 
games of all time. I mean, it is so 
well known, and secondly - so tied 
up with the Atari craze, beyond 
rational comprehension. This was 
"the" Atari game, when released. 
You are presented with screen 
upon screen of a forest scene, 
which involves small changes to 
each screen - using the same data - 
making this game look a lot bigger 
than it actually is. 

     You have to swing on ropes, 
jump logs and scorpions, step on 
crocodile heads (crikey!), collect 
money, and traverse lakes of water 
that appear and disappear. The 
point of this game is beyond me, I 
did  Have the instructions a long 
time ago. However, it is a good 
game, a seminal classic even. As 
far as this game goes, and all the 
others I have reviewed here - also 
play the Atari 2600 versions if you 
can, for they also retain a similar 
addictive gameplay.

     Well there you have it. 
Activision is ruling on C64. There 
is more to a game than excellent 
graphics and sound. A prime 
example would be Tetris. This is 
gameplay here at its purest form. 
Take a trip down
Memory lane, and play them again 
sometime. See you!
 

=========================
=====

 
The Commodore 64 Book 
- new website online -   

The new-look website for The 
Commodore 64 Book is now 
online. New features include 
author diaries, a list of the games 
being reviewed and an FAQ. Pre-
ordering will make sure the book is 
printed, so order now!

The Story So Far...

April 2nd 2007
Deep into the research, revising the 
history segments for the start of 
each chapter. Apparently 
Commodore tried more than once 
to stop producing the C64... The 
total is over 85,000 words now, 
including review quotes and scores 
from Commodore User.

March 27th 2007
More publicity for the book! A 
very short segment on the latest 
Retrogaming Radio show from 
Shane R Monroe, about 2:54 into 
the 3+ hours. Shane was rather 
cheeky and asked for a review 
copy, so I'll have to sort something 
out in the future. More 
rewrites/research being done - I'm 
rapidly approaching 83,000 words. 
The tricky part is finding all the 
names of people involved in a 
game. Gamebase has coding and 
music credits for most games, but 
it is a laborious task to load up 
every game and check title/loading 
screens...

March 26th 2007
With family around for the 
weekend, I have less time to work 
on the book than I would have 
liked. But I did take the 
opportunity to quiz my older 
brother Chris about games he felt 
should be on the list. More 
rewrites and more covers found, so 
Sunday was not completely 
wasted.

March 19th 2007
Time to tidy up the text files and 
add in the new entries from 
yesterday. I also want to send off a 
couple of chapters to Andrew so he 
can get cracking on building the 
layouts. Fortunately I've managed 
to find some people to help me 
with the search for covers, so I 
may be able to put off the struggle 
to get to the rest of my games.

March 18th 2007
Scanned the board that 
accompanies the game Tank 
Attack, and the final file (created 
by joining four separate scans 
together) is 17Mb! The other thing 
is that raiding the cupboard meant 
I found a few games that should 
definitely be in the book... so those 
entries will be added in soon. 
Trying to keep this diary and my 
MySpace blog up to date as much 
as I can from now on.

March 17th 2007
Got down to the business of 
scanning the boxes, and also found 
a couple of rare games to scan for 
various websites. The only 
problem was, I didn't find all the 
boxes I was expecting to, which 
means some of them are stuck in 
the built-in cupboard at the back of 
my room - which is behind a huge 
pile of Commodore equipment. 
Got the new issue of gamesTM 
today, and there was the short 
interview I did with Retro editor 
Ashley Day by e-mail. Hopefully 
that will bring in some more pre-
orders.



March 16th 2007
Spent the afternoon searching 
through cupboards for game boxes 
to scan. One idea I've had to 
spruce up the layouts is using more 
sprites and game objects on the 
pages; we'll have to see if this is 
possible (and easy to do). Over 80 
pre-orders now.



February 21st 2007
After a couple of late nights, I 
finally took the plunge and worked 
out what to chop and change. Now 
I have 229 games in the list. I think 
I'm right in saying that at this point 
every game has at least a start of a 
review on its page, and there are 
now 64,000 words in total. That's a 
drop from this morning's high 
point of nearly 70,000, but things 
are in much better shape now. And 
I'm off to play Uridium for the 
Retroleague... 

February 16th 2007
It's been a good week. I've been 
hammering out more words, doing 
a few edits to earlier reviews and 
generally pressing on at full speed. 
I calculated that my typing speed 
had reached over 30 words a 
minute during a couple of long 
sessions at the keyboard! Of 
course a lot of this is rough work, 
and more detail needs to be added 
and checked - review scores, 
anecdotes, trivia and facts.
The only problem is... I have too 
many games. At last count I'd got a 
list of 254 games spread over the 
25 years. By the time you get 
things like the chapter headings 
and the introduction, I need to 
reduce that by at least 20. Wish me 
luck.

February 5th 2007
The pre-order page went live 
today. So it was time to start 
publicising the book a little more 
widely. There are a couple of 
mock-ups available as PDF's, but 
hopefully a larger selection will be 
online during the forthcoming 
week. Fortunately I managed to 
grab a bit of time to work up a few 
more reviews (this time from 
1987) and collect together the 
screenshots and covers for 1982. 
Oh, and to reply to Andrew 
Rollings' "humorous" thread on 
World of Spectrum... Pre-order 
total so far: 20!

February 3rd 2007
Thought I would have a count-up 
and see how much has been 
written so far. With the 1985 
chapter virtually complete and 
good starts on some of the others, I 
now have a total of 26,000 words.

January 2007
With the first copies of the 
Spectrum book reaching eager 
readers, the C64 version is revived. 
The most laborious task so far was 
organising all the game files for 
taking screenshots. During the 
month the holding page goes 
online, and I put the link into my 
signature on various gaming 
forums.

April 2006:
Holidays, other events and a lack 
of time mean little progress on the 
book.

March 2006:
Many hours of reading websites, 
checking lists and going through 
the Gamebase collection lead to an 
early list of games to feature in the 
book. It's not meant to be a 
definitive list of the best games, 
more a collection of significant 
titles, games I was particularly 
fond of, and some of the most 
famous. Splitting the list into years 
gives the structure of the book, and 
the first few reviews are drafted as 
a template.

December 2005:
After reading about the 
forthcoming Spectrum book, I 
contacted Andrew Rollings with 
the idea of doing a Commodore 
equivalent. Preliminary 
discussions are mainly about using 
a similar layout and design 
process, and starting on a list of 
games.


http://c64goldenyears.com/
 

=========================
=====

 
Interview with Johan 
(Shocktrooper)
The SixtyFour Originals DataBase
 

Q - Hello would you like to tell our 
reader about yourself 

The name's Johan, I'm from the 
Netherlands. Better known 
amongst c64 enthusiasts as 
Shocktrooper. I'm currently the 
administrator of the Lemon64 
forum and run a private non-
commercial website 
www.sfodb.com. I'm married and 
have one kid. 
 
Q - You say on the website you 
started collecting games for the 
c64 in 2001 would you like to 
comment about this 

In the mid-nineties, when I quit on 
my c64, I had about a dozen 
original games. When I moved out 
of my parents' house, they all got 
canned. In 1998, when I started 
working for serious money, I got 
retro-enthusiastic pretty fast, and 
wanted to get my old stuff back 
again. That's where it started. 
 
Q - I see you are quite a 
perfectionist in the persuite for the 
complete game/cover/instructions 

Like I mention on the website, I 
have one big question; is the game 
I have complete or not? The 
resource now is that at least I 
publish what I have. However, this 
isn't what I set sfodb up for. I'll 
comment more on that in the next 
question. 

Q - So your website 
http://www.sfodb.com/ what is the 
main goal you hope to achieve

I hope it will become a collector's 
resource. I'm working on a client 
that will allow people to keep track 
of their collections online and 
offline, and this should result in 
more accurate data. For example if 
four people mention that Archon 
comes with a registration card, and 
two people don't have  that, it's 
fairly safe to assume two people 
miss their registration card. 

Q - Has anyone complained that 
the items of art are copyright and 
asked for there removal 

Not yet. I hope to keep it that way 
:-)

Q - Some of the title have scans of 
the cover complete with 
measurements! and scans of the 
instructions even scans of the 
original tapes do you think you are 
overdoing it 

No. Sometimes I think the level of 
detail isn't high enough yet, but if I 
push it any further I know it'll start 
working against the total amount 
of data entered. The thing is, 
people sell what they have. There 
are at 
Least 6 or 7 versions of Winter 
Games available. If someone has a 
boxed Winter Games with no 
instructions, and a loose 
instruction sheet, how easy is it to 
just throw the two together and sell 
it as a complete game? At the same 
time I realize very well that for 
most people this amount of detail 
seems Overdone. I've heard that 
before :-)

Q - What resolution are the items 
scanned in 

300 dpi, 90% jpg quality. On the 
site I can only offer 800 pixel 
versions as space and bandwidth 
are not free unfortunately :)
 
Q - Could our reader help by 
sending in scans if so what is  the 
critera

Once I get the whole updated 
package together they will be able 
to. For Now the site is a display of 
my personal collection. 



Q - How much time do you think 
has been spent on the site 

On the site; not much. It took me 
some 10 hours to program all the 
code, and an update takes about an 
hour. The offline client has a lot 
more work in it; probably some 
100 hours total now. 

Q - You must have a real life :-) 
what do you do for a living 

I'm a win32 programmer/web 
developer/system analyst. 
Professionally I do Visual Foxpro, 
ASP & MS SQL development. 

Q - all these games are for the 
Commodore 64 do you think you 
may start a site for other 
commodore machines

I personally won't. There are too 
many c64 games to collect and 
many of them are too expensive as 
it is. 

Q - What Commodore machines 
do you own and use and more 
importantly Why 

I have a setup of a classic breadbin 
with a 1541-II, and a c128d that I 
don't use anymore. I own about 5 
c64's with an equal amount of disk 
drives. Some are broken, the ones 
that aren't I'm known to give away 
to people who are after something. 
I still use my c64 to watch demo's 
mainly. I never really play games 
on it unless I have an afternoon to 
waste :-)

I've also gone into programming 
on the c64, and released one small 
thing so far which can be found on 
csdb. Very occasionally I'm 
working on an rpg, but that won't 
be much before I retire I think. 

Q -These sites usually generate 
questions like "why bother with 
the project" would you like to 
comment 

You have to do something with 
your spare time :-) 

Q - Personally I feel we should 
preserve as much Commodore  
history as possible I have a young 
son and would love him to  gain 
the same enjoyment I had from 
Commodore machines 

Same here. My son has a few 
favourites already. Thomas the 
Tank Engine, Endless and a few 
others. 

Q - Why is Commodore so 
special? 

It's the one thing I keep coming 
back to, no matter how often I try 
to do something else, so it has to 
have some magic in it :-)

Q - If I gave you 1 million pounds 
what would you do 

Get a bigger house with climate 
control for my games, host all my 
scans in 300 dpi and donate lots of 
cash to various c64 projects to 
keep everything on the road. 
Hobbies cost lots of money I've 
already learned, and everyone can 
use a little extra sometimes. 

> Q - is there any question you 
wished I had asked you and why 

You didn't ask me why I collect 
dupes of the same game as well, as 
it  Would certainly add to the 
"mad" image people already have 
of me :-) And you also didn't ask 
me if I enjoyed the interview, but it 
could be because you're afraid of 
the answer hahaha.. ;-)

Johan	http://www.sfodb.com/


=========================
=====
  
Interview with Cadaver (Lasse 
rni)
Programmer,Graphics Artist, 
Musician Of covert bitops 
http://covertbitops.c64.org/
 

Q. Please introduce yourself to our 
readers?

I'm a 28 year old guy from 
northern Finland, with an interest 
in computers and metal music. As 
for "serious" stuff, right now I'm 
wrapping up my computer science 
studies in the university.

Q. who are covert bitops?

It's a two-man (well, Yehar hasn't 
been very active for some time, but 
anyway) C64 group dedicated to 
making C64 games, music and 
tools. The tools are mainly of the 
crossdevelopment sort, running on 
PC, but there are also a couple of 
C64 musiceditors. In addition, the 
covertbitops site has a sort of 
educational mission with 
intermediate/advanced level 
"rants" on C64 game 
programming. Anyone is
welcome to write guest C64 
programming rants, btw.

Q. Where did the inspiration for 
the Metal Warrior
series come from?

It originates from an Amiga game 
(also called Metal Warrior) which 
I wrote as I was quite young, 15 
years old. I had just started playing 
guitar, mainly metal music, and 
inspired by C64/Amiga sideview


action-adventure games, 
cyberpunk movies and such, 
wanted to create my own 
cyberpunk adventure with a metal 
guitarist as a protagonist.

The C64 Metal Warrior, not 
originally planned as a series, was 
then an opportunity to revisit this 
stuff with a slightly more "grown 
up" mindset. Some characters and 
places remain but most stuff was 
new.

Q. Did you write all the story/plot 
yourself?

Yes, except that for MW4, I came 
up with the idea of the "Agents of 
Metal" -organization together with 
a 
French musician Lionel Gendre 
(also known as Malekith or Agent 
M), who also did music for the 
game.


Q. Did you like the "Trilogy" 
special edition put
 together by Simon Quernhorst?

It was a nice opportunity for 
people to get actual packaging and 
media. Of course I personally don't 
hold the first three games in as 
good regard as when they were 
made, considering what I've 
learned
since of programming and game 
design.

Q. Do you have any plans to 
continue the series, or
put together a new game?

With that in mind that MW4 is the 
final game, I implemented a lot of 
freedom in how the story can turn 
out. So I can't know who of the 
characters lived and who died 
when you played the game, and 
therefore continuing it would be 
hard.

But yes, I have plans to make at 
least one C64 game. I've talked 
about it on the Lemon64 forum at 
least, the codename is "Hessian" 
and I guess if it comes out some 
day, it won't be that far from the 
MW
games, as the sideview scrolling 
action-adventure is still my 
favourite genre to write in.

Q. BOFH - Servers Under Siege 
was a nice game too, what inspired 
it?

The idea of a computer admin as 
protagonist came when I was 
performing my civilian service 
(instead of serving in the military) 
as a network admin/helpdesk guy. 
The building in which I worked 
was modelled as the play area, and 
then from movies like Die Hard 
came the idea of terrorists and 
bombs and lots of shooting 
happening there. This game btw. 
was originally written on the PC, 
so it was also about the
challenge of downconverting the 
game to a much more limited 
platform.

Q. Can you tell our reader about 
some of the other
games on the covert bitops 
website?

Advanced Action Movie Simulator 
is a crap game written for the 2001 
Crap Game Compo. It is supposed 
to make fun of the multi-level 
movie
licenses popularized by Ocean.

Escape From New York is a crap 
game written for the 1999 Crap 
Game Compo respectively. It's my 
tribute to both the movie and to the 
buggy/sluggish gameplay of some 
C64 games, like Cobra.

Then there are also a refinished & 
modified version of the original 
Amiga Metal Warrior and a Game 
Boy Advance version of MW4, 
which runs most of the original 
C64 game code under a very 
coarse "emulation".

Q. All the games and utilities on 
the site are free to
download, was this always the 
case?

Yes.

Q. Why don't you charge for the 
games and utilities?

The games would get pirated 
anyway, and then I'd just feel bad, 
so to me it makes more sense to 
maximize the potential playerbase 
by offering them free as default. 
As for the tools, there are 
comparable
(or better) free utilities available, 
and trying to charge for them 
would simply reduce userbase and 
make me look ridiculous.

I also kind of want to make the 
point that if you're going to charge 
for your C64 games, please try to 
make them the highest quality you 
can, comparable with commercial 
past titles. Of course making 
games as a hobby or part-time job 
isn't quite the same as getting paid 
to work on them full-time, but on 
the other hand people back then 
never had as good tools as we have 
now. Plus many commercial 
games were made in a rush of a 
few weeks or months, we have the 
luxury of spending as much time 
as we want (and can).

Q. Covert BitOps Loadersystem 
can you explain this
system, to our reader?

It's a quite flexible disk fastloader 
system for people to embed & use 
in their own assembly language 
programs, games for example. In 
the demoscene, there are also 
faster, more specialized solutions 
available (like Krill's loaders, or 
DreamLoad) but they usually also 
take more memory.

Q. What do you like to do most - 
code, write games or make music?

Isn't coding and making games the 
same? :) I guess I like coding most, 
trying to optimize some routine 
even faster for example. I always 
like to start C64 game projects 
from the technical things - like the 
scroll routine, sprite multiplexing, 
but of course once the technical 
side works well enough then it has 
to take back seat compared to 
actual gameplay, story etc. design 
decisions. 

But in the final stages of the
project the technical side may 
return to haunt you once again, for 
example you're running out of disk 
space or memory, or the things 
you've added have made the game 
too slow. Then it's back to 
technical
optimizing...

Q. What are your favourite C64 
games?

Green Beret and Gunship have 
received the most playtime, and I 
guess they are my all-time 
favourites. Though one keeps 
finding good C64 games regularly, 
there are so many of them.

Q. What started you 
programming?

The C64's manuals as well as 
articles & type-in programs in 
Finnish computer magazines.

Q. Given unlimited time, what 
would you develop for  the C64?

Even unlimited time wouldn't help 
fundamental limitations like 
processor speed or memory. But I 
guess I'd make an action/adventure 
game with very many disksides of 
data, if I wouldn't get bored first.

Q. What in your opinion is the best 
application/Demo
or game for the Commodore 64

If the idea is to pick just one, it's 
kind of hard to answer, so I'll leave 
this one out.

Q. Do you prefer to use emulators 
or the real machine?

Emulators are good for fast testing 
and yes, I use them most of the 
time, so I guess I prefer them. Real 
machines get used for final testing 
of own programs, or specialized 
gaming-marathons. Of course you 
can't beat the real thing, but the 
convenience of emulators is 
amazing.

Q. Have programmers now come 
to a full stop so to
speak with regards to new ways of 
pushing the machine to its limits?

Don't know, ask the democoders. :) 
But in terms of game development, 
one tends to notice that there are 
interesting solutions from the 
whole C64 era, some early games 
actually do some quite clever 
things. Nowadays you can better 
take inspiration from several other 
platforms too, though.

Q. Can you explain to our reader 
about Cross
development and its advantages 
and disadvantages,
related to designing applications 
for the Commodore
system

Mostly, it makes developing faster 
and less painful. You get much 
faster compile times, you can use 
mouse instead of your last almost-
broken joystick to pixel graphics, 
you can automatize the build
process (for example using a 
makefile) and if you need some 
little utilities to transform your 
data, making them in some modern 
high level language can be easier 
and faster than using C64 
assembly or
Basic, and if they are commandline 
utilities, you can easily integrate 
them with the rest of the build 
process.

What you've got to watch out for 
is making music/sound - SID 
emulation is not quite there, so test 
on a real machine or a HardSID 
card, and coding fastloaders - 
always test on real disk drives.

Also some people maintain that 
using a C64 assembler or monitor 
is more convenient for testing 
small changes, see for yourself.

Q. Do you have any advice for 
would be Commodore
programmers, should for example 
they learn basic then move onto 
Machine code or just jump in and 
learn machine code straight off

C64 Basic as a language is quite 
worthless in my opinion, but in the 
beginning it can be convenient to 
explore the graphics & sound 
capabilities using it first. 

Of course, in the end all the good 
stuff happens in C64 assembly 
language, but it can still be quite
intimidating at first, so I'd also 
recommend experience in modern 
high level languages like C++ or 
Java for getting used to algorithms 
etc. And the final thing: expect a 
lot of work and sweat in any case!

Q. Do you think anyone could 
program or does it take a certain 
type of lets say elite brain?

I wouldn't like to use the word 
"elite" but I guess it may take a 
certain kind of problem solving 
ability or a way of thinking that is 
hard to teach beyond the basics.

Q. I started to look at Goattracker 
that supports
output to the HardSID soundcard 
or CatWeasel MK3. can you 
explain to our user why this music 
system is
preferable to there current tracker?

It's quite possible that a musician 
has already found a better editor, at 
least from a personal preference 
viewpoint, but I guess it's worth 
trying out if one wants relative 
ease of use and tracker-style
editing, relatively low player 
rastertime usage (between 16-20 
lines maximum, usually) and 
relatively low player memory 
footprint.

Q. Can you provide some 
information on covert bitops None 
Commodore projects?

Anything non-Commodore related 
on the site isn't really Covert 
Bitops stuff, but included for the 
convenience of not having to 
create another homepage, or 
because it's required for the 
Commodore-related stuff, like the 
Blasphemous Multimedia Engine 
(BME) library, which is
a set of oldschool routines that aids 
the graphical crossdevelopment 
tools like the sprite/background 
editors.

Q. Do you think there is still the 
same following for
the Commodore 64 today as there 
was say 5 years ago?

Can't comment on the general 
"following", but at least the 
activity of producing demos, 
games & disk magazines is 
certainly diminishing. Of course 
it's up to everyone to decide in 
which ways and how much they 
want to be active. And there are 
always positive surprises, like the 
games produced as a result of the 
Game Over(view) Freestyle Jam.

Q. There is a hatred of 
Commodore Scener`s 
(programmers and developers) to 
what is termed
"lamers" or "lame users" can you 
explain the term
"lamer" and why the general 
hatred to these users

I don't know if it's healthy to 
discuss these things, and in the 
past it no doubt meant different 
things, but nowadays and as my 
personal opinion I'd say 
"lameness" mostly manifests as the 
laziness to do your own research. 
It's then in some way 
understandable why persons who 
have been active a long time on the 
C64 and having done their own
Research, find this laziness 
irritating and may (myself 
included) lash out in some pretty 
uncivilized ways.

Q. Do you ever think that "lamers" 
would be welcome to  say Coding 
parties, maybe even just as voters?

I actually seldom visit parties, but I 
guess it's much easier (or maybe 
because your social survival-
instinct compels you) to be 
welcoming in the physical world 
as opposed to the cyberspace.

Q. If you were given 1 million 
pounds what would you
do with the money?

I don't think that's really interesting 
to the readers, but I guess having a 
very nicely equipped home 
recording studio wouldn't hurt.

Q. How were you introduced to 
Commodore?

I remember playing Pitfall 2 in 
1985 at a friend before my family 
got our own machine about a half 
year later.

Q. What question would you like 
to have been asked?

I think everything was mostly well 
covered, so none.

Q. Have you read Commodore 
Free and if so how did you rate the 
magazine?

Yes, I can admit to skimming 
some of the issues. I'd say some 
more proofreading wouldn't hurt, 
as well as more confidence in the 
editorials. Otherwise it seems a 
fairly nice magazine.

Q. Do you think there is a market 
for an updated
Commodore 64/128 system?

Not really. I think the greatest 
strength is the standard to which 
we've used to. I know people 
program for example demos using 
the DTV's enhanced features, but 
with the C64 user base being 
limited as it is, I don't think any 
further division would create 
significant activity.

Lasse rni Thank you for your 
time, i appreciate your comments




Thanks for the interview; it was a 
pleasure to answer.

http://covertbitops.c64.org/
 
=========================
=====

 
Commodore 64 Mark 2 and a bit
A dream and my vision of a 
Commodore future
By Commodore Free
 


I had a dream, nothing unusual 
about dreaming we all do that; but 
this was a Commodore related 
dream; and in this dream I Thought 
about Commodore making a come 
back. Somehow In the dream I was 
assigned the title of "product 
development manager of 
Commodore" after all it's my 
dream so I could be assigned 
whatever I wanted couldn't I..

In the dream Commodore had 
assigned me the task of bringing 
back the "commodore 64" not in 
its old version but in some new 
and redesigned format, something 
that would sell to the masses in 
2007 and beyond. I was given a 
large budget and then asked "NOT 
to spend it all because some will 
be for marketing the machine"; 

of course in a dream anything is 
possible so my first thought was to 
contact Jeri Ellsworth and find out 
how Commodore could license or 
utilise the DTV components and 
all the hard work Jeri had been 
doing for the C-one and the DTV, I 
also wanted Jeri to work on 
Commodore, as a full time 
employee. 

Jeri and myself met and talked, I 
managed to convince Jeri that 
Commodore were back and back 
this time to stay; next Solicitors 
were called to check over 
paperwork and eventually 
documents were signed, then 
resigned amended copied, faxed 
lost signed resigned; ok you get the 
idea. 

I Convinced Commodore and Jeri 
to use FPGA logic in the new 
Commodore 64; and so the design 
finally started to take shape, at 
least in the virtual world. That 
shape was a laptop design, we 
have already seen the amazing 
picco 64, and I suggested to 
Commodore that we should 
contact the designer  Jason and 
offered him a job with myself and 
Jeri here at Commodore. 

We worked through the night 
looking at various off the shelf 
components of good quality; 
searching websites for hardware 
we could utilise with minimal 
changes and more important, 
something we could utilise at little 
cost into the new Commodore 
laptop. After all why should we 
start reinventing the wheel when 
someone already had a good wheel 
design they were selling.

We all decided that a quick way to 
extend the design was to purchase 
CMD from Maurice Randel of 
www.cmdrkey.com Maurce 
bought  the rights to the CMD 
product range and is producing the 
hardware in his spare time. We 
approached Maurice and asked for 
a price for everything CMD related 
including software and hardware 
Maurice recited a figure and we all 
fell over in shock, after some talks 
and showing that we really did 
have cash Maurice agreed a more 
reasonable amount. We paid up 
Maurice and looked at our 
inventory of stock. Of course the 
Commodore directors were a little 
unhappy as money 
was quickly dwindling and we had 
nothing but a pile of chips and 
some paper to show for our efforts; 
oh and the four or five 
Commodore 64 purchased from e-
bay we had been testing various 
applications on, well ok we were 
playing games but isn't that a form 
of testing? 

Commodore business suits entered 
demanding that we give them a 
progress report; and were 
expecting a full redesigned 
machine in less that 3 weeks time 
we decided to produce a mobile of 
some pigs flying to take to the 
presentation and hang above the 
door.  


In true Commodore style we 
collectively made up a prototype 
from wood, and managed to bluff 
through a presentation. The 
Commodore suits of course being 
business men and not hardware or 
even computer buffs were 
impressed with the bluffing; and of 
course were happy there money 
was being spent wisely, good job 
this is all a dream I was worried I 
may be sacked on the spot, or even 
worse I may wake up.

We concentrated our efforts 
mainly on trying to make money, 
because we had spent nearly 
everything Commodore had 
supplied and really had nothing but 
a presentation to show for our 
efforts. We were now in the 
process of saving and said that 
CMD products could be produced 
"as is" to start recouping our 
spending, also to promote 
Commodore back to the masses 
and ease some of the tension about 
CMD products. 

I contacted Jens Schofield about 
manufacturing CMD products and 
we sat and talked about the CMD 
design; we mentioned new ways to 
manufacture the products and 
toyed around with various mock 
designs on paper. Times have 
changed since CMD manufactured 
items; Jens looked over the designs 
and thought for a moment. I 
suggested something rather radical 
"we use less components and more 
Programmable logic" I said, Jens 
looked at me and said "go on"; 
right that way I said if bugs were 
found we could offer Free 
upgrades and fixes, maybe even 
user groups could find fixes for us 
and offer downloads. 

The positive point here is that 
using fewer components is cheaper 
to manufacture; produces less 
errors; and also reduces the size of 
the devices, and because we 
already had the software we had 
nothing more to do that recode for 
the programmable chips, the 
machines could be ready in days I 
said. Basically everyone wins, 
Commodore us and the customers, 
with better designs more stable 
designs and above all else cheaper 
designs;

I suggested we need to get the 
products out as soon as possible. I 
thought about all the users still 
needing these devices and the 
small market that was dwindling 
away because people couldn't 
obtain this hardware, or had 
become disillusioned with 
Commodore and Cmd as 
companies. The faster we act and 
the more market we can generate. 
If these devices become more 
common programmers will 
enhance there software to utilise 
this hardware we thought.

Weeks passed, so much for the 
couple of days; testing seemed to 
take forever and with all 4 of us 
working 24 hour days mistakes 
were becoming common; we 
needed more staff but had no 
money to recruit them. 
Commodore were also beginning 
to put more pressure on us to 
reveal projects, we fended them of 
with more "smoke and mirrors" 
and eventually, days later than 
planned; we had created the 
following items renamed for mass 
production to the Commodore 
market.

Commodore Hardware products

Hard disk drive
3.5 Floppy disk drive
Ram link device upgraded with 
MMC card reader
Super Cpu 128  

The products moved to marketing 
for promotion, and the usual 
design aesthetics and small 
changes that marketing department 
had us do was really minimal, for 
once the whole company could see 
the goal and needed the products in 
the shops as soon as possible. The 
small changes were mainly, due to 
the reduced part list and more 
streamline design, new logos and 
manuals needed to be produced. 

Also with the number of items 
mass produced we were able to 
reduce the cost by two thirds and 
quickly set the products for sale on 
the Commodore website. 
Commodore users who purchased 
the designs said they worked 
with100% compatibility of the old 
CMD products; and this in turn 
generated more interest and more 
sales, how many Commodore 
users are there in the world, it 
seems everyone wants one of these 
devices

I kept an eye on the products and 
was open to suggestions from 
fellow users, tweaks and 
suggestions were put onto a "wish 
list" along with more ideas.  We 
also produced "circuit only" 
versions for building these devices 
into Commodore custom tower 
cases; this was one of the many 
suggestions but also something we 
planned on doing from the start.

 We used the Commodore Gaming 
case as our test system and devised 
a special power supplies so real 
"commodore machines" could be 
transferred into these custom 
cases, the marketing team created 
more literature and the items were 
placed on the website, Commodore 
was reuniting the old hardware 
with new ways and new hardware, 
again Commodore were innovating 
products.

I suggested we contact all paper 
magazines and clubs to announce 
the new products, and suggested a 
loyalty scheme were users coming 
back to commodore could gain 5% 
discount on products if purchased 
from the website. 

Our marketing team contacted 
online Commodore hardware 
suppliers and discounts on quantity 
were offered to keep these loyal 
Commodore supporters "sweet" 
and on our sides. The feedback 
seemed positive from all suppliers, 
we made special points of offering 
to "buy up designs" or work with 
other hardware producers to mass 
produce devices, this way small 
entrepreneurial developers could 
have there hardware mass 
produced and not need to worry to 
much about implementing designs 
.

Other products I thought we 
needed were adaptors to use other 
joysticks like the play-satation 
stick, also products using memory 
cards for storage, as we had started 
with the new ramlink design. I also 
wanted the IDE 64 system; every 
stone was left unturned every 
hardware developer contacted we 
worked looking to try and 
incorporated the products were 
applicable into the old CMD 
product line and bring after years 
to a more up to date design.

Sales and press coverage was good 
for a system that is supposedly 
dead, as ever the Commodore 
brand never dies true it may sleep 
for a while but never dies. 

I was asked by various press 
representatives of our progress and 
"what now" questions, I said we 
were working with Jens on 
something like the C=one design, a 
brand new machine, for 
Commodore gamers, we said the 
machine would be a "games 
console" mainly but also have the 
ability to act as a computer with its 
own operating system and versions 
of BASIC; ready to utilise with 
nothing more to purchase, the 
system would look something like 
and Amiga 1200 with an internal 
Cd rom Hard disk and memory 
card readers; the design would also 
have Usb and Firewire connectors 
as standard; we hoped to price the 
machine at 300. 

We had created such a buz and at 
our next meeting realised we still 
didn't have a machine to sell to 
users, suggestions for this new 
machine were 

C64 and Commodore 128 
compatibility at the hardware level 
to ensure 100% software and 
hardware would run on the 
machines, this was thought to be 
possible via FPGA chips so we 
now had to work on the new 
machine design 

We devised 2 main designs; the 
Amiga 1200 style as described 
above and also 
A commodore laptop

15" lcd monitor 
Custom Commodore keyboard 
Floppy disk drive 
Cd rom 
Usb 
Firewire
External Monitor points

I awoke to the alarm clock, jumped 
out of bead and looked for my 
Commodore official workware 
I then realised I was still in my bed 
and this was all a dream, 

I thought to myself "would I buy 
some or all of these products", and 
thought about  if  the Commodore 
brand could really comeback, 
many people find the IBM 
compatible machine is to complex 
for everyday work so why 
shouldn't the machine comeback 
stranger things have happened. 

After reviewing the Dream I got 
my thoughts together, dressed and 
had breakfast, then set out to my 
standard job 

Wonder if I will have the same 
dream again in the future 



=========================
=====


 
The TND User Tool Disk
Compiled by Richard Bayliss
 

I thought I write a little something 
about the TND User Tool disk. 
Basically this is a compilation of 
many public domain tools that I 
seem to have made use with in the 
past. I still even use those today as 
well. All programs on the disk 
were done by various members of 
various demo scene groups. 

The whole idea of creating this 
tools disk is to share it with 
everybody and also give you some 
general information on how those 
programs can be used. As well as 
the user tool disk, I have also 
included another disk with various 
stuff to support the tools, such as 
the Turbo Assembler and the DMC 
music editor.

The tools on this disk are all public 
domain, just like the compilation 
and you are very welcome to copy 
the disk to all of your friends and 
contacts.  Anyway here is what we 
have on the disk, and some 
background information about the 
programs.

Turbo Assembler V7.0+ (Angels 
version)
This wasn't really the version of 
the Turbo Assembler that I used to 
use. I used to use version V5.3 
which was a version given away to 
the public domain by Case/The 
Ancient Temple. However this is a 
programming tool for writing your 
own assembly code. There is 
already an assembly programming 
feature in Commodore Free as 
someone else has took the role, but 
I have included a .D64 with 
various sources I made to create 
various programs, like the 
Goldfish demo, 2 scroll intro demo 
and the Missile Blaster game.  
Also to accompany the assembler, 
we have the Turbo Assembler 
commands. So you will know how 
to assemble, load a file etc. Hope it 
helps :o)

 

Code Suck Monitor (Padua)
Another handy old tool here. This 
program is also a programming 
tool and is also good for ripping 
code (Which I don't recommend) 
as well. The Code Suck Monitor is 
probably based on the Action 
Replay Machine code monitor. 
Most demo/game programmers on 
the C64 probably used a machine 
code monitor as well as an 
assembler. So if you don't own an 
Action Replay cartridge, here is a 
handy hint for you, to use this tool. 

Because you may wish to use 
Turbo Assembler as well as this 
M/C monitor, do not chose $8000 - 
$C000 as the address for the 
monitor or anywhere where code 
& data overlaps the M/C monitor, 
itself. However, if you would 
prefer to try programming with a 
M/C monitor instead (Which is 
slightly more difficult) then that is 
entirely up to you.

The Code Suck Monitor also have 
some instructions to help you get 
started. Simply chose the note. If 
you do chose the note then you'll 
have to load the Code Suck 
Monitor all over again from the 
menu. :o)


DMC V4.0 (Graffity)
For short, DMC stands for Demo 
Music Creator. This is a tool which 
I like to use a lot and it is very easy 
to handle, compared to DMC V5.0. 
To be able to get the hang of the 
DMC V4.0, I have included some 
example tunes in the source files 
disk, so you can get started. 
However there seem to be some 
instructions missing in this music 
editor (Unlike DMC V2.0, which 
had instructions in with the editor). 
Here are the commands:

General:
INST/DEL: Insert/Delete positions
Left arrow: Main menu
Up arrow: Read data from cursor 
position
@: Write data from cursor position  
F1: Play music from the start
F3: Pause/stop playing music
F5: Continue playing music (When 
paused)
F7: Fast Forward music (When 
playing)
Shift + F5: Record played notes 
(When in live play mode)
Shift + F7: Enter live play mode

Track Editor:
Shift + +(and value): Transpose up
Shift + - :(and value): Transpose 
down
Shift + Return: Enter 
sequence/notes editor

Sector/Notes editor:
CBM+D: Set duration
CBM+G: Set glide value
CBM+S: Set instrument
CBM+V: Set volume of channel
CBM+X: Set switch effect
= : Set end of note
: Place gate on current sound 
(Depends on how the sound is set, 
use  to stop the sound playing in 
current sector)

Keys Q-P, 1-0: Make notes
< >: Change octave of all notes 
from cursor position.

Synthesizer:
Shift + +: Select next instrument 
Shift + - : Select previous 
instrument
Shift +1 - 7: Select ocatave
Keys Q-P, 1-0: Play notes
Shift + Return: Exit 
sequence/notes editor and return to 
the track editor

Instruments / waveform editor:
Shift + +/-: Select next/previous 
instrument.
Shift + Return: (Edit waveform / 
Exit waveform editor)
Spacebar: Test instrument
(Use back arrow twice to exit)

Filter editor:
Shift +/-: Chose filter to edit.
(Use Back arrow twice to exit)


If you need to learn to create 
instruments, etc. Check out the 
Music Scene feature on my web 
site at 
http://www.redesign.sk/tnd64.

All Round Re-locator (The 
Syndrom/TIA)
This is a music re-locator that can 
relocate tunes that have been 
composed in either an old version 
of the JCH player (JCH Player 
V4), DMC V2.0, DMC V3.0, 
DMC V4.0 or DMC V5.0. Tunes 
can be relocated from their current 
position to a newer position in C64 
memory. This tool was handy for 
me to relocate my tunes for my 
game projects, so that I could have 
one tune at $1000-$1fff and 
another from $9000-$9fff, etc. 
Depending on how many tunes I 
wanted to use for the 
games/demos.


Font Editor V1.3 (Faces)
This is yet another tool I used to 
use to draw my own character set 
graphics for my own productions. 
The editor allows you to draw 
character sets of various sizes, 
which are 1x1, 1x2, 2x1, 2x2, 2x3, 
2x4, 3x2, 4x2, and 3x3. This font 
editor also has music playing in the 
background. 

I need not give you any help on 
how to use this old tool, as the help 
file is already in this very nice tool. 
We hope you have fun drawing 
your char sets with this tool.

Sprite Editor V1.2 (Faces)
Yet another graphics drawing 
program, that allows you to create 
you own hi resolution or 
multicoloured sprites for your own 
games or demo productions. I 
often used this program a lot, 
because it is very easy to handle. 
You could even save your own 
sprites from one range to another, 
which helps me even more, to save 
separate sprites.

This tool also have instructions to 
help you on your way to making 
your own game/demo sprites, with 
its handy functions, so I need not 
give you any help for this tool.

Amica Paint V1.5 (Oliver Stiller)
This is a painting program which I 
also used a lot to paint stuff. This 
tool consists of a wide range of 
options to help you draw, pixel and 
enhance your pictures, such as 
bending, rotating and other 
options, which don't exist in many 
C64 painting programs. You can 
also use an amiga mouse instead of 
a joystick if you needed to. There 
is a later version of Amica Paint 
available at 
http://www.lemon64.com in the 
applications section. I did not 
bother adding that version to the 
disk because of the other files that 
supports the utility.
 
Picture Splitter V2 (Plush)
This is a very handy utility to help 
you split your picture into three 
different files, or even swap 
colours. You can load various 
images on to this program. Those 
can be Amica Paint, Koala paint 
and a few others. Splitting a 
picture is simple. All you need to 
do is chose the memory locations 
to place your bitmap file, video 
RAM and screen colour RAM. 

Here is how to do this for intro 
pics :o) The way I do it is quite 
simple. I place the bitmap at hex 
$2000, the video RAM at $4000 
and the colour RAM at $4400, 
especially when it comes to coding 
picture demos. However, if you 
wanted to turn your picture into a 
Vidcom painter picture, simply set 
bitmap at $6000, colour RAM at 
$5800 and screen RAM at $5c00. 

Other options in the picture splitter 
is a routine that will allow you to 
swap colours with a different 
colour, simply by using keys 0-9 
and a-f and return to perform 
swap.

There are also some options that 
wall allow you to lighten or darken 
your picture to how you'd like it. 
Nice 


Visiomizer V6.3 (Magnus Lind)
Here, we have a handy utility by 
the author of the Exomizer. 
However this is probably one of 
the *best* char packers available 
for the C64. The concept is like 
many other packers, except that 
you can change load addresses for 
linking something to your 
intro/demo (say your own game or 
another demo part). 

The concept of this program is to 
compress single files that range 
from $0800-$ffff (probably lower 
than $0800). The program asks 
you to enter your filename details 
(The file that is on your disk which 
you want to pack). Then it asks for 
$01 value. I always use $37 as the 
$01 value, so I would recommend 
that you do that as well with your 
programs. The packer also asks for 
Jump address? Well it may vary. It 
depends on the program. 

Actually let's help you out a bit 
using this packer (If you have an 
action replay cartridge or reset 
cartridge with m/c monitor). 
Download a SEUCK game from 
my web site. Run the game. 
Freeze/reset to M/C monitor and 
enter S "(name of 
game),8,0801,FFFF. When done 
load the Visiomizer and enter as 
follows:

Loadname: game
Savename: game+
$01            : 37
JMP$         :4245 
Loadback $: 0801
Leastgain: $08
Maxspce: $0c

Insert your disk for packing and 
the program will work with the 
packing process. Now when 
prompted to save the file, press 
spacebar to save. After save, reset 
C64 and load the directory and you 
will notice that the game has been 
packed. The next step will be to 
test the depacker. So load game+ 
and then enter SYS2049 and the 
game will depack and run. If the 
game is fine, well done you done it 
correct. Else if parts of the game 
messed up. You may have gone 
wrong somewhere. Remember that 
for all SEUCK games, the jump 
address is $4245.



Sledgehammer II (Cross)
This is yet another packer, but this 
time it has a built in linker. The 
main purpose of using this tool is 
to grab all data and code and link it 
all into one main file. You can link 
up to 252 blocks of data, but the 
problem is that the load addresses 
must differ and be in order, else 
the packer will overwrite existing 
data causing the packed program 
to bomb. Anyway, you can even 
pack one single unpacked file. So 
yet again, let's try it out.

First of all download a SEUCK 
game from the TND web site. This 
time we will save it in two separate 
files :o)). Load the game and enter 
the M/C monitor and then do as 
follows for the first file. S 
"GAME1",8,0801,A000 then for 
the second file S 
"GAME2",8,A000,FFFF. Load up 
Sledgehammer II from the menu 
and exit the intro with spacebar 
and then insert the disk which you 
saved both SEUCK game files 
from.

Enter the depack text option and 
clear the screen then select depack 
effect as nothing (No depack text 
and effect is more helpful for 
slightly bigger compression for 
when it comes to using a 
cruncher.) Now enter the 
Sledgehammer.

Insert the disk with the two game 
files and press spacebar to start. 
Now highlight both files and press 
return. You will then see a 1 or 2 
appear (These are the files that 
have been selected and will load in 
that kind of order). Once done, use 
Spacebar to enter the 
Sledgehammer II packer and fill in 
the following:

SAVENAME: GAME+
JMP TO       : $4245 
$01 VALUE: $37

When done, the loading and 
packing commences. Once packed, 
press spacebar to save the packed 
file to disk. The file will then save. 
Reset the C64, load and run the 
packed file. You will get a black 
screen and will have to wait a short 
while for the depack to finish, then 
your game should come on.

Super Zipper V8 (Oneway)
This is probably a modified 
version of the 4-Code Zipper 
classic packer. Unlike 
Sledgehammer II and Visomizer. 
This tool is a simple char packer 
that is compatible with different 
hardware/software fast loaders. 
Entering information for packing 
of data is purely the same as with 
Sledgehammer II and Visiomizer, 
but it does not pack as good as 
Visiomizer, although still usable. 

The Cruncher AB V3.0 (Oneway)
Here is something to accompany 
the Visiomizer packer. A damn 
good cruncher. You can chose a 
type of flashy border (for depack 
effect) if you wanted to, but it is 
not mandatory. In fact, you're 
better off without an effect if you 
don't want it. Anyway instructions 
about the effect to chose is simple. 
Spacebar will test the effect. 

You also have a choice of three 
different crunching methods which 
are simply the following:

1. 202 Block fast crunch (Extra 
RAM)
2. 111 Block fast crunch 
3. 202 Block slow crunch

If you chose option 1 on this 
cruncher, you will need to have 
256K RAM installed on to your 
C64. In the past, to increase RAM 
for home microcomputers there 
used to be cartridges known as 
RAM Expansion Packs. You'll get 
a fast 2-pass crunch which will 
take a maximum time limit 
between 10-15 minutes 
(Depending on how much memory 
is to be crunched down to size).

If you chose option 2 for this 
cruncher. You wont need to have 
256K extra RAM. You can use 
BASIC kernal load or any other 
hardware/software fast load. 
However your program size is 
limited to 111 blocks. Any higher 
and the cruncher will crash.

If you chose option 3 for this 
cruncher. You wont need to have 
256K extra RAM. You will need 
to have a lot of patience. Why is 
this? Well it is because (depending 
on your program size) the 
crunching time may take up to 2-3 
hours, which means you need to sit 
back and relax or go to sleep for 
the time limit :o). 

The cruncher uses its own software 
loader.
Anyway. Say you packed a 
program using the Visiomizer, and 
want to crunch your program even 
further to get a smaller amount of 
memory. Use $0801 as the jump 
address. It wont fail if you get it 
right.

Exploding Faces Cruncher (Epic)
This is a version of the Exploding 
Cruncher, originally created by 
faces. However this version has 
high speed loader, and faster 
compression. Unlike the Cruncher 
AB, this program allows you to 
compress your programs in a one-
pass mode. 

Dir Master V8.4 (Hitmen)
This is a perfect C64 tool if you 
want to enhance and manage your 
own directories on disk. For 
example you can edit 
tracks/sectors, load addresses and 
even disguise some of your 
programs inside the directory. 
With Dir Master V8.4 you can 
create your own directory stamps, 
to give the directory art. 

Be very careful if you do this 
because if you do, loading a 
directory from disk for listing will 
take a longer time. It depends on 
the size of your directory. There's 
a help file to get you started with 
this handy tool. All you need to do 
is use '*' to enter the help screen.

Well those are all the tools on this 
disk. We hope you will find those 
to be really handy. But before I go, 
I want to help you out a bit on 
finding out how to convert an SYS 
address to a hex address for usage 
on a packer+cruncher.

In a M/C monitor i.e. Action 
Replay cartridge, use the 
following.


To find the following SYS 
addresses displayed in BASIC into 
hexadecimal:

2049:
N 2049

2061:
N 2061
Result = $080D

20480:
N 20480
Result = $5000

49152:
N 49152

That's it. You may find various 
useful information about C64 
machine code from 

http://project64.c64.org


Commodore Free

Richard Thanks for your efforts on 
this, everyone else you should be 
able to download this disk image 
from the Commodore Scene 
website by the time you read this 
text 

I am hoping to expand the utilities 
section of the site with other tools 
and utilities for users to download 
 
 
The End
 
 




