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- **********
- Topic 27 Fri Sep 26, 1986
- C.HOGAN at 22:07 EDT
- Sub: 1541/1571 DISK DRIVES
-
- ARE THEY COMPADABLE
- 12 message(s) total
- **********
- ----------
- Category 11, Topic 27
- Message 1 Fri Sep 26, 1986
- C.HOGAN at 22:10 EDT
-
- I HAVE A 1541 DISK DRIVE AND A C-64
- I AM PLANNING TO GET THE C-128 SOON
- IF I GET THE 1571 DISK DRIVE WITH IT CAN I USE ALL MY C-64 GAMES ON IT?
- IN OTHER WORDS...CAN YOU USE THE 1571 TO LOAD IN COPY PROTECTED SOFTWARE THAT
- WAS MADE FOR THE 1541?
-
- CHRIS HOGAN
- ----------
- Category 11, Topic 27
- Message 2 Sat Sep 27, 1986
- GBARRETT [VISION100] at 00:26 CDT
-
- Welcome to the C128 club, Kevin...in advance, that is!
- The 1571 drive is about 80 percent compatible with 64 software in the 64
- mode...it's just that some of the heavily copy-protected programs do funky
- things to it.
- If you still want your games, best bet is to keep the 1541 as well as the
- 1571...and switch 'em back and forth. Companies like Electronic Arts and
- Activision have copy protection schemes that may not like your 1571!
- I think you'll find you'll like the games that ARE coming out for the 128,
- tho...Firebird Software has a few...as does Infocom/Activision...but most will
- be played in the 64 mode...in 40 cols.
- (Don't think you'll see an 80 column graphics game for the 128 in the near
- future)
- -GaryB
- ----------
- Category 11, Topic 27
- Message 3 Sat Sep 27, 1986
- CHARRINGTON at 10:08 PDT
-
- Another thing to keep in mind: almost none of the copy
- programs for the 64 will run on the 1571 drives. These
- do weird things to disk RAM, and that RAM is a tad bit
- different between the 1541 and the 1571. ON the plus
- side---boy will you love how fast the 1571 is in comparison
- to the 1541.
- Courtney
- ----------
- Category 11, Topic 27
- Message 4 Sat Sep 27, 1986
- DEBS-GUEST [MIKEM] at 17:39 EDT
-
- But Fast Hack'em 3.0 and 4.0 do allow the use of 1571's, and
- quicklike, too!
- I've found that Firebirds C-64 programs are really finicky about
- the type of drive used, and many just will not run on a 1571.
- Its a shame, since Firebird puts out some of the *best* games
- available.
- -Mike
- ----------
- Category 11, Topic 27
- Message 5 Sat Oct 11, 1986
- M.SWEENEY [cougar] at 20:41 PDT
-
- As a PROUD owner of both drives I have a chance to see many weird things
- happen in trying to load programs. Activision,i.e Roadrace will not load on
- the 1571 at all. As far as E.A. goes some will and some will not. The newest
- protection schemes seem to give the most problems as some are leaving the
- CBM jump tables in the dos and writing their own, against CBM's recomandations.
- If you had to chose one or the other then by all means get the 1571. But
- if you can afford 2 then get both, it makes life so much better.
- LUCK, Mike S
- ----------
- Category 11, Topic 27
- Message 6 Sun Oct 12, 1986
- GBARRETT [VISION100] at 20:37 CDT
-
- All of the Activision product to date uses copy protection schemes that simply
- will NOT work on the 1571...the latest versions of their games state "1541 disk
- drive only" on the cover or manual. Supposedly, the company will trade disks
- for a version
- that will work on the '71...but I have yet to hear from someone who's received
- theirs back!
- -Garyb
- ----------
- Category 11, Topic 27
- Message 7 Mon Oct 13, 1986
- CHARRINGTON at 06:51 PDT
-
- I do reviews for CTODAY, and all the Activision stuff I have
- recieved (store copies) say they will run on the 1541/1571 disk
- drives. They do...but poorly. In my experience, the copy protection
- is very sensitive to disk alignment and also very sensitive to ANY
- RF from nearby tv sets/monitors etc. I'm surprised to hear you are
- seeing things marked: 1541 only. Then again, maybe it isn't so
- surprising.
- -Courtney
- ----------
- Category 11, Topic 27
- Message 8 Wed Oct 15, 1986
- GBARRETT [VISION100] at 00:04 CDT
-
- Courtney, at the Consumer Electronics Show, the reps said they were planning to
- mark their stuff 1541 ONLY until Commodore got all its 1571 bugs worked out and
- stabilized drive production (Activision reps, that is!)
- In fact, all of their literature on new games lists 6128-1541 drive...
- They have used copy protection in the past that just won't work with the 1571
- drives because of the different (unused in the 1541) registers. I know they
- have changed some of that...but most games I have tested run VERY
- poorly on the '71 with a HIGH crash level.
-
- -Gary
- ----------
- Category 11, Topic 27
- Message 9 Tue Dec 16, 1986
- MAYSMITCHELL [SounDesign] at 01:07 EST
-
- Greetings:
- Funny thing I learned today about my 1571. The Hardware
- was designed by Greg Berlin, and the Software (Dos V3.0) was
- expanded,edited, and revised by David G. Siracusa. The Hardware
- though was made far more powerful than what the operating system
- allows it to do. The Book I have been studying is 1571 Internals
- which
- says that the 1571 has a possible transfer rate of 60Kbytes/sec.
- and also can load an entire track about as fast or as fast as
- it loads sectors, I've seen this written somewhere in the
- C128 programmer's guide with the burstload and burstsave routines.
- The system is also possible to transfer at rates of 500K/sec.
- (This sounded more like 500K bits rather than bytes,I wouldn't be
- rprised if it WERE bytes!) The reason for the 1571 being slow
- lies within the fact that first Dos v3.0 has alot of Slop code
- which doesn't need to be within Operating system. Most of this
- "Slop" consists of Dos Management for two multiprocessors and
- and a dual drive (this is the code that was used for the OLD
- 4041 drives). When the 1541 is being used with the FastLoad
- carts and other Turbo utilities, all the programmers are really
- doing is kind of neating up the Operating System and using
- only the routines that should be used. The 1541 is capable of
- doing a proper transfer at 1200 bytes/sec., and it would
- this permanently if it was properly written within the
- software to do this, the 1571 can do far better and faster
- ansfer rates than what it does but the Operating System
- just doesn't tap this power. Won't somebody telly somebody
- something so that Software writers will stop using the
- OLD Dos and make a Disk operating system that was designed
- specifically for the drive??? (Meaning why doesn't Commodore
- redesign the 1571'S ROM so that it will make full use of all
- of it'S capabilites and hardware, instead of just using old
- routines that was designed for a much older drive!)
- -Ken Mays-
- ----------
- Category 11, Topic 27
- Message 10 Tue Dec 16, 1986
- MICHAEL.M [-:SysOp:-] at 21:19 EST
-
- Well, we know that 1571 DOS contains the 16K ROM from the 1541 for
- compatibilities sake (and in it's entirety). The remaining 12K, I agree
- , could have been more than an expansion on an old idea of multi-
- processor drive management. Alot is wasted. The new job loop was
- slipped in there with the second-side manager and WD 1770 controller
- , etc. Actually, alot of capabilities of the WD 1770 are not taken
- advantage of either (like stepper-motor control, and switch-selectable
- double/single density).
- I guess the bottom line in all this is money. Would we pay double the
- price of a 1571 in exchange for the added perks? The folks who do the
- studies (along with the deadline people) probably voted: NO, they
- wont pay that price (and we're behind our release date as it is).
- The possibilities are still there though, and can be taken advantage
- of. We have already seen a few hardware projects out for the 128.
- -=:Mike
- ----------
- Category 11, Topic 27
- Message 11 Tue Dec 16, 1986
- SPARROW.J at 21:46 EST
-
- Agreed Mike, and as the 1571's operating system gets further studied
- and improved upon I think we are going to see some bright 14 year old
- blow us all away. By the way, for those interested Miklos Garamszeghy
- recently did a nice series of articles on Burst mode programming
- in Twin Cities 128. Also Miklos will be our guest on a Tuesday night
- C-128 RTC in the near future.
-
- --Sparrow James
- ----------
- Category 11, Topic 27
- Message 12 Fri Dec 19, 1986
- MAYSMITCHELL [SounDesign] at 06:08 EST
-
-
- For what was said, I agree that since Commodore was
- behind (well Dos v3.0 was copyrighted in 1985), but it has
- been about a year and 3 months since it has been out for the mass
- rket,(market) surely they could have updated a few quirks here
- and there by now (which is rumored to be in effect now-messing
- up alot of Memory Maps (hee-hee)) but surely before you
- redesign an operating system you have to ask yourself, am I
- getting paid to do this or do I do a great job, get paid a few
- bucks and then that's it. I've seen alot of shortcuts and alot
- of things which could have been done (Western Digs, stepper
- ntrol is far powerful than what it's being used for.) but
- as was said...the more time/the more money. Right now I'm
- seeing how far I can push the Ram units (I have a 512K one)
- then will go back to the 1571 Internals. Maybe with a few
- more comments about what could be done with the drive (like
- a patch that makes the log-disk routine work a little better!)
- then..you never know. The most exciting thing I've read so
- far was doing transfers at 60Kbytes/sec (disk-computer-disk).
- When we get to loading tracks/saving tracks in mere seconds
- then we will know the true meaning of imaginative power!
- --> More to come later...It's late and I'm beat!
- ::SounDesign::
-