NES and SNES Controllers on a 6502 (like the C64)
NES and SNES controllers support 8 to 12 buttons with only three data pins (plus VCC/GND). Let’s attach them to a C64 – or any 6502-based system!
Visualizing Commodore 1541 Disk Contents – Part 2: Errors
We have previously visualized the physical layout of C64/1541 disks. In order to understand the encoding and potential read errors, it is more useful to visualize the disks sector-by-sector.
Commodore "Video Supergame 64" Bundle
The “Video Supergame 64” is a Commodore 64 bundled with a joystick and three games on a cartridge, sold mainly in Germany in 1988/1989. Here are some pictures.
Dumping Commodore 64/1541 Disks with Errors
Many old Commodore 64/1541 disks have read errors, but this doesn’t mean the data isn’t recoverable – with the right nibtools settings and some cleaning.
Commodore “Magic Voice” Cartridge for C64
“Magic Voice” is an expansion cartridge for the Commodore 64 that can speak 235 predefined words. Here are some pictures.
TopDesk 1.3 GEOS64/128 Original Source
Thanks to Falk Rehwagen and Jürgen Heinisch, the original source of the TopDesk file manager for the GEOS operating system of C64/C128 is available.
Converting a Commodore 1541 or 1570 Drive into a 1551
The 1551 is the weird outlier in the family of Commodore disk drives: It is the only drive using the “TCBM” bus instead of Serial or IEEE-488. And what’s even weirder? 1541 and 1570 drives converted into 1551s!
More Original Commodore Source Code
There have been a few new interesting additions to the Commodore Source Code repository, including:
Commodore Peripheral Bus: Part 5: TCBM
In the series about the variants of the Commodore Peripheral Bus family, this article covers the lowest two layers (electrical and byte transfer) of the “TCBM” bus as found on the TED series computers: the C16, C116 and the Plus/4.
Run CP/M on your C64 – using Emulation!
In this episode of computer archeology, we deconstruct a very interesting case of borrowing code from multiple places – but first try this D64 disk image with any Commodore 64 emulator or a real C64:
C64 CP/M Cartridge
The cartridge that makes a C64 a “dual processor” computer: Commodore’s CP/M cartridge for C64 contains a Z80 CPU and comes with version 2.2 of the CP/M operating system. Here are some pictures.
Commodore Bildschirmtext II Decoder Cartridge
Here are some pictures of the outside and the inside of a Commodore Bildschirmtext II Decoder Cartridge for the C64 – a 6800-based computer connected to the expansion port!
Blue Chip BCD/5.25 Disk Drive
After previously dissecting the firmware of alternate C64 disk drives, let’s now look at the hardware of one: This is the Blue Chip BCD/5.25.
The Commodore IEEE-488 Cartridge for C64
Commodore 64 disk drives were usually connected through the slow serial bus. This article shows some hi-res photos of the Commodore “IEEE-488 cartridge”, which made the faster PET drives available for the C64.
Final Cartridge III with GEOS
The Final Cartridge III is great: It comes with a disk speeder, BASIC extensions, an excellent monitor – and an impressive, but ultimately useless GUI, because there are practically no applications for it. Let’s replace the FC3 GUI with GEOS!
Commodore MAX Machine
Here are some hi-res pictures of the Commodore MAX machine (aka Ultimax or VC-10), a stripped-down game console variant of the Commodore 64 that was briefly available in 1982.
Illegal Opcode Support for the Final Cartridge III Monitor
The monitor built into the Final Cartridge III is one of the best ones for the C64. Some of its unique features are:
Commodore Peripheral Bus: Part 4: Standard Serial
In the series about the variants of the Commodore Peripheral Bus family, this article covers the lowest two layers (electrical and byte transfer) of the “Standard Serial” bus as found on the VIC-20/C64 as the main bus, but also supported by all other Commodore home computers.
GEOS Demo [GIF]
The GEOS operating system for the Commodore 64 achieved to replicate much of the GUI of the original Macintosh on a 1 MHz 8 bit CPU with just 64 KB of RAM. The GEOS Demo is a presentation by Berkeley Softworks (BSW), the creators of GEOS, to showcase the features of GEOS and BSW’s applications.