New Site Updates

Post by **Jeff-20** » Sun Mar 07, 2004 1:18 pm

I have been a little busy lately. I hadn't added much to this site. I was trying to get more members!

We now have a few links out there. I would like to ask all of the current members to help in spreading the links, if you can.

New additions to the site are coming this week. I am adding some user programs to the front page. Good and bad news. I personally don't use emulation, so they will only be for the real hardware. I am saving them as zipped wav files to be loaded by datacassette to a real vic.

For some reason, emulation does not capture all of the video effects of the real vic. I've tried. Anyway, if you have user programs and would like to do the same, please let me know.

I will add a message here to announce each time a new program (most likely a game) is added to the site.

aneurysm · Post by **aneurysm** » Sun Mar 07, 2004 10:52 pm

i need to find my tapedeck/discman adapter
that would make those .wav files sweet
why don't you use really low quality .mp3's?
i bet you could get away with mono 11khz... so like 24bit or something

Post by **Jeff-20** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 8:18 pm

You're right. I am pretty sure the Vic saves tape files in mono, but I may be wrong. I need to check on that because it could conceivably save time by using both tracks of the tape.

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Wed Mar 10, 2004 1:48 am

Although you don't fancy emulation (which is an excellent tool for cross-developing - many of the current state-of-the-art VIC-20 demo and game developers are using it), putting your files as a D64 image or at least individual PRG makes it much more flexible than having a WAV image of an audial tape.

Think about us poor people who have a 1541 connected to the VIC-20. We will have to download your WAV file, record it from the PC sound card onto a tape, load it from the datassette and then save it on a floppy rather. The other solution had been to download a D64 or PRG, use Star Commander etc to transfer the files over a X*1541 cable directly to the floppy drive.

May I ask you which and how recent emulators you have tried? I know that some of the audiovisual effects, which not yet have been enough exposed to emulator developers, does not work (i.e. the programmable pulse wave and the white noise emulation), but since VICE 1.7, it is quite accurate for rough testing and previewing.

Post by **Jeff-20** » Wed Mar 10, 2004 2:16 am

hej friend.

Star commander doesn't seem to work on pentium (or later) computers!

I wish I knew that before I threw away my old 386 because it worked fine there!

I want real hardware, but I will accomoadate emulators if you want me too.

Wow! Swedish Vic-20s. Is it just the german model or something different? Skriva met mig!

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Wed Mar 10, 2004 3:08 am

Regarding Star Commander and the X*1541 cables, see the message I wrote in the other section (collecting) or check http://sta.c64.org for latest informations about both. However, it is true that SC works best in DOS environments, but with the right cable it should work on a brand new computer as long as it supports a parallel port according to some standards.

You can see using emulators as a way to save the precious computers for the glorious moments, i.e. not burning out your VIC on boring development and idle time which a el-cheapo thirteen-on-a-dozen PC can do.

The "Swedish" is only a modified character ROM and ditto Kernel ROM to replace the [£] with Swedish letters ÄÖÅ. Unlike the German hack, this was officially sold through Commodore distributor and packaged in a proper Commodore box, as loose keys, extra stickers and of course the ROMs to be replaced with. The same was available for the C64, which also was sold as pre-installed with this different ROM set. Unfortunately a few of the graphical symbols on the keyboard were removed from access with the hack, and also it is not possible to switch to international font.

Naturligtvis kan jag skriva på svenska, men frågan är om någon mer förstår det (såvida det inte dyker upp andra svenska VIC20-ägare här). Some day I'll get in touch with this engineering firm which used to be a Commodore reseller and ask if they have any kind of stock left. If they have, chances are high that I will find a few Handic (Swedish) cartridge games previously totally unknown or forgotten by the rest of the world.