8bitfiles.net/archives/archives.tar/archives/genie-commodore-file-library/Listserv/L071596.TXT

Text File | 2019-04-13 | 17KB | 452 lines

There are 10 messages totalling 428 lines in this issue.

Topics of the day:

  1. Hard Drives and RAMLinks (5)
  2. Lynx commands
  3. pico spawning?
  4. Hard Drives and RAMLi
  5. Lynx patches
  6. Answers from Wolfgang Lorenz re. PC64 emulator questions.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date:    Tue, 16 Jul 1996 10:31:00 EST
From:    Christopher McLeod
         <[e-mail]>
Subject: Hard Drives and RAMLinks

     Can anyone out there give me the lowdown on using a PC hard drive with
     a C64?  Is there ANY kind of interface available?  I suspect not but
     it'd be great to have!

     If not, does anyone have one for sale (I cannot afford more than $250,
     as this would have to be my Christmas present from my family!  :-)   )

     Maybe a battery backed-up RAMLink would be a cheaper alternative, so
     long as it had plenty of storage space (20mg?).  If and when I get
     either of these, do they come with software to transfer and to
     organize software?  Of the softwares that Maverick will copy, which
     ones will not run off these?

     Like everyone else on the planet, I would love to be able to copy all
     of my software onto one storage device rather than having it scattered
     about on various disks of various sizes!  :-)

     Help please!  :-)

     Chris McLeod (of the clan MacLeod)

     PS I will need to keep my prices DIRT CHEAP as we just found out that
     our first CHILD is on the way!!!!!!!!!  :-> :-> :-> :-> :-> :-> :->
     :-> :-> :-> :-> :-> :-> :-> :-> :-> :-> :-> :-> :-> :-> :-> :-> :->
     :-> :-> :-> :-> :->

------------------------------

Date:    Tue, 16 Jul 1996 12:26:23 -0400
From:    Greg Noggle <[e-mail]>
Subject: Hard Drives and RAMLinks

Reply:  Item #0788818 from [e-mail]@INET00#

Ramlink is limited to 16 meg and its a soft storage device vs.
a hard drive which is a hard storage device. you turn the Rl
off and the data goes away. It does have a battery backup
for power interuptions.

There is program called 64net that uses a IBM PC and its hard
drive for storage of commodore files. It uses a special cable between
the C= and the IBM. The ibm has to have a bidirectional serial port.
Software is required on both ends. PPI who is suppose to distrubate
it in the states never bothered returning my call so I don't have
a copy to play with. Galyne(sp?) has the author Email address for the
gent is downunder I I believe.

Hope this helps

Greg

------------------------------

Date:    Tue, 16 Jul 1996 14:13:24 -0400
From:    Michael Bendure <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Hard Drives and RAMLinks

>      Can anyone out there give me the lowdown on using a PC hard drive
with
>      a C64?  Is there ANY kind of interface available?  I suspect not
but
>      it'd be great to have!

   Which type, IDE or SCSI?  The CMD interface is the most compatible and
will run with more releases than any other.  Last Issue of Commodore World
Magazine I got, showed the 40 Meg CMD for $249.95 but that was an older
issue.  The CMD HD comes with a SCSI/SCSI-II controller, case, power
supply, parallel port for the RAMLink, SCSI port, two serial ports and a
third serial looking port not yet implimented (at least on mine. hehe).
It also has an onboard, battery backed real time clock that time and date
stamps files.  The OS for the HD is setup to emulate a 1541, 1571 or 1581
disk drive to aid in running copy protected software, or you can create
native partitions up to 16 Meg each with a limit of 254 partitions.  You
can also create sub-directories in each partition that either emulate the
Commodore drives or native partitions.  The OS is also setup with
JiffyDOS, so computers with JiffyDOS will see a drastic increase in speed.
 Those with RAMLink can use the parallel port on the HD to increase the
speed of the HD to almost that of the RAMLink.  One CMD controller can
house up to a 4 Gigabyte SCSI HD.  The real power of the CMD is in the
speed and compatibility of the system.  There isn't anything else
comparable on the market.

   The Lt. Kernal may also still be available from Ron Fick.  Although not
as compatible as the CMD, the Lt. Kernal is an extremely fast drive and
has quite a few nice programming features built into its OS.  The Lt.
Kernal can house up to around 100 or more megs, also SCSI, but has a limit
of 9 partitions or LU's.  These are still nice drives for BBS's and are
probably a bit cheaper than the CMD.

   As far as IDE goes, there are a couple of projects floating around to
build one, plus there is 64NET which allows the Commodore to use a PC's HD
for storage.  Not sure of the compatibility issue with this however, since
I haven't tried it yet.

>      If not, does anyone have one for sale (I cannot afford more than
$250,
>      as this would have to be my Christmas present from my family!  :-)
 )

   The CMD would make an excellent Christmas present..  It was one of mine
a few years back.. hehe

>      Maybe a battery backed-up RAMLink would be a cheaper alternative,
so
>      long as it had plenty of storage space (20mg?).  If and when I get
>      either of these, do they come with software to transfer and to
>      organize software?  Of the softwares that Maverick will copy, which
>      ones will not run off these?

   About $50.00 cheaper initially, but thats only with 1 Meg and assuming
they still have the 40 Meg for $250.  The price of SIMMs has dropped
considerably here recently, ($125-150 for 16 Megs) which means you could
have a 16 Megs RAMLink for around $350.00 which is a pretty good deal
considering what I have in mine and the fact that the storage is all RAM.
No moving parts and extremely fast.

   I have a combination of both the RAMLink and CMD HD and wouldn't trade
them for anything.

>      Like everyone else on the planet, I would love to be able to copy
all
>      of my software onto one storage device rather than having it
scattered
>      about on various disks of various sizes!  :-)

   I rarely use disks anymore.. :)

------------------------------

Date:    Tue, 16 Jul 1996 14:17:22 -0400
From:    Michael Bendure <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Hard Drives and RAMLinks

> Ramlink is limited to 16 meg and its a soft storage device vs.
> a hard drive which is a hard storage device. you turn the Rl
> off and the data goes away. It does have a battery backup
> for power interuptions.

   Hmm, the only way to turn off the RAMLink is to unplug it.  Even then
the battery will retain the memory for quite a while.  Turning off the
computer will not destroy the contents of the RAMLink.  It has its own
power supply and is always on unless power goes out or someone unplugs it.
 Even then, the battery backup kicks in.  Mine lasts me a little over a
day before its wiped.  Though I only have 8 Megs of RAM in mine.

------------------------------

Date:    Tue, 16 Jul 1996 11:46:11 -0500
From:    Aaron Baugher <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Hard Drives and RAMLinks

   Date:         Tue, 16 Jul 1996 10:31:00 EST
   From: Christopher McLeod

        Can anyone out there give me the lowdown on using a PC hard
        drive with a C64?  Is there ANY kind of interface available?
        I suspect not but it'd be great to have!

There's a lot of talk about this, but I don't know how complicated it
is, or how compatible with existing software.  I'd suspect it doesn't
work that great.  One document that describes the process can be found
at ftp://ccnga.uwaterloo.ca/pub/cbm/hardware/, in the files
64hdproj.*.

        If not, does anyone have one for sale (I cannot afford more
        than $250, as this would have to be my Christmas present from
        my family!  :-) )

I got a pretty good deal on mine (80MB CMD), because the case was
banged up; only paid $300 for it plus a couple 128's, a few floppy
drives, and a bunch of miscellaneous stuff.  You might be able to find
one for under $250, but people just don't part with them often.

        Maybe a battery backed-up RAMLink would be a cheaper
        alternative, so long as it had plenty of storage space
        (20mg?).  If and when I get either of these, do they come with
        software to transfer and to organize software?  Of the
        softwares that Maverick will copy, which ones will not run off
        these?

I don't have a RAMLink myself, but I don't think you're going to get
one that cheap.  Last time I looked, the basic RAMLink was at least
$250, and then you'd have to add SIMMs, which even at today's cheap
prices are about $50 for 4MB.  Also, I believe the RL-DOS in the
RAMLink only supports 4 and 1 Meg SIMMs, so you have a maximum of 16MB
with it.

        Like everyone else on the planet, I would love to be able to
        copy all of my software onto one storage device rather than
        having it scattered about on various disks of various sizes!
        :-)

I've gradually been doing that myself, but it's not always simple.
Many full-disk games have to be installed in their own partition,
especially if they do any direct-sector access.  Also, games with
disk-error copy protection and games with their own goofy disk
routines probably won't work.  It's really nice for utilities, though,
and games that just have a few files.

        Help please!  :-)

        Chris McLeod (of the clan MacLeod)

        PS I will need to keep my prices DIRT CHEAP as we just found
        out that our first CHILD is on the way!!!!!!!!!  :-> :-> :->
        :-> :-> :-> :-> :-> :-> :-> :-> :-> :-> :-> :-> :-> :-> :->
        :-> :-> :-> :-> :-> :-> :-> :-> :-> :-> :->

Congratulations!

Aaron
--------------------------------------------------------
 Aaron J. Baugher          http://www.bcl.net/~abaugher
 Software Engineer                     [e-mail]
 Basic Communications, Ltd.              _Roark_ on IRC
--------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------

Date:    Tue, 16 Jul 1996 15:04:03 EDT
From:    [e-mail]
Subject: Lynx commands

To: [e-mail]

 ...Christopher said:


 CL>     Can anyone tell me how to DOWNLOAD from elm?  I can delete,

You don't.  You save the file to the local disk and then download it.

 CL>     Also, how do I prepare a new message from elm?

Press the "m" key and follow the prompts.

Unless you're asking how to write a message offline and import it into
Elm, which is a whole nother kettle of fish.

 CL>     Gaelyne, I saw that you have a web page and that you are
 CL> coming out with a book on C= on the net!  I am really excited
 CL> about that!  :-)  I

Me too.  It's coming along very well.  Part I is being proof read with
the rest to follow shortly.

 CL>     remember reading something about the problem with Novaterm
 CL> locking up while using Pine.  I have 9.5 and sure enough, it locks
 CL> up everytime I try to use Pine.  Do you know if 9.6 has fixed that?

First of all, it was not ALL versions of Pine, just one. And it has
been fixed since then, but Concentric has not updated lately.

Second, Nick posted almost immediately after the initial message was
posted that he was aware of and had fixed this.

Third, I've been using Novaterm 9.6 for almost a year now. If I
couldn't use Pine, I'd surely know it by now.  <big grin>


 CL>     Also, do you think that Concentric
 CL> would go for the following so that
 CL>     us UNIX users could have SSL encryption?

I doubt it.  They won't let us compile any Unix programs for ourselves,
and second, the ONLY way Lynx was updated was because I went and found
the update and Emailed it to the administrator who said he'd update it
"if he found time".... I simply made sure he didn't have to waste any
time in finding it on the net. <g>

BTW, the improved version of Lynx on Cris/Concentric is started by
typing "lynx.25" instead of just Lynx.  No, it's not version 2.5 - I
have no idea why it was named this.

Cheers,
Gaelyne

... http://hal9000.net.au/~moranec
___ QWKRR128 V4.51 [R]

---
 * Origin: Official QWKRR128 test site (USA) (3:800/809.64)

------------------------------

Date:    Tue, 16 Jul 1996 15:11:00 EST
From:    Christopher McLeod
         <[e-mail]>
Subject: pico spawning?

     Does anyone out there have any idea as to why my lynx provider would
     not accept my pico spawning?

     When I try and do a newsgroup message I get an error message that says
     "Error spawning editor" and it won't let me send or even create a
     message.

     Sometimes I also get a message which says that it does not recognize
     "vt100-color!".  Can any one help out there?  :-)

     Thanks!

     Chris McLeod (of the clan MacLeod)

     Yes, pico is selected in my options

------------------------------

Date:    Tue, 16 Jul 1996 18:31:33 -0400
From:    Greg Noggle <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Hard Drives and RAMLi

Reply:  Item #8232836 from [e-mail]@INET#



> Ramlink is limited to 16 meg and its a soft storage device vs.
> a hard drive which is a hard storage device. you turn the Rl
> off and the data goes away. It does have a battery backup
> for power interuptions.

   Hmm, the only way to turn off the RAMLink is to unplug it.  Even then
the battery will retain the memory for quite a while.  Turning off the
computer will not destroy the contents of the RAMLink.  It has its own
power supply and is always on unless power goes out or someone unplugs it.
 Even then, the battery backup kicks in.  Mine lasts me a little over a
day before its wiped.  Though I only have 8 Megs of RAM in mine.



        Your right, but as an example of the the difference between
        'hard storage'/'permanent storage'  and the 'soft storage'
        /'violatile storage' that RL provides I think it severed its
        purpose.

        My dog loves running under my computer desk during
        thunderstorms or even just a hard rain and that is almost
        as good as a off switch.

Greg

------------------------------

Date:    Tue, 16 Jul 1996 17:45:00 EST
From:    Christopher McLeod
         <[e-mail]>
Subject: Lynx patches

     Aaron,

     Do you have any suggestions based on the below email from Gaelyne on
     how we (Gaelyne and I) could get our "administrator" to put the Lynx
     patch (for SSL) in for us?

     If not, do you know of a server in which you've installed the patch
     that we could connect to to have the SSL encryption?

     Thanks a million!!!  :-)

       0
      <|>  Chris McLeod (of the clan MacLeod)
      / \

     -------------------------------------------------------------------

     CL>     Also, do you think that Concentric CL> would go for the
     following so that
     CL>     us UNIX users could have SSL encryption?

     I doubt it.  They won't let us compile any Unix programs for
     ourselves, and second, the ONLY way Lynx was updated was because I
     went and found the update and Emailed it to the administrator who said
     he'd update it "if he found time".... I simply made sure he didn't
     have to waste any time in finding it on the net. <g>

     BTW, the improved version of Lynx on Cris/Concentric is started by
     typing "lynx.25" instead of just Lynx.  No, it's not version 2.5 - I
     have no idea why it was named this.

     Cheers,
     Gaelyne

------------------------------

Date:    Tue, 16 Jul 1996 23:50:03 EDT
From:    From Anthony Hawkins <[e-mail]>
Subject: Answers from Wolfgang Lorenz re. PC64 emulator questions.

Hi gang,

Just got these off comp.emulator.cbm group of Usenet for deposit in the
archives and use of any readers out there with the PC64 emulator.

Read on....Anthony Hawkins <[e-mail]>

<------- text follows ------->

   From: [e-mail] (Wolfgang Lorenz)
   Date: 16 Jul 1996
   -----------------

In article <[e-mail]>, From Seamus <[e-mail]>,
the following was written:
> Does anybody know if pc64 is gonna support fast loaders such as the
> one used by the "ACtion Replay" cartridge in the near future ?

PC64Win does it right now, PC64Dos will never do it. But some day when
it runs stable, PC64Win will be ported to DOS (and OS/2 and Linux).

--------------

In article <4rul5f$[e-mail]>, From [e-mail] (Crespel
Sebastien), the following was written:
> Is there a way to use .d64 C64s files with PC64 ?

Just press SHIFT+F1. The contents page of the help file will tell you
how to do it. The next version of PC64Dos will give you a hint when you
try to open a D64 or P00 file with <Emulator / Open>.

Wolfgang

------------------------------

End of COMMODOR Digest - 15 Jul 1996 to 16 Jul 1996
***************************************************



=END=