Commodore Free 7/Commodore_Free_Issue_07_2007_Commodore_Computer_Club.d64/t.iv luigi

Text File | 2023-02-26 | 12KB | 395 lines

uInterview with Luigi

Q please tell our reader a little about yourself

A. I'm a 29 years old electronics
engineer with a master degree in
computer networking & network security.
I like computers, informatics, vintage
hardware, reading & cooking.I have been
working as a software engineer for
quite some time now. Having to spend so
much time in front of computers to
write software is not what I dream, so
I'm still searching for an occupation
that fits my needs of professional
growth & satisfaction. I like to spend
some time looking at software & disas-
sembling C64 loaders & games. I belong
to the Hokuto Force cracking group,
even if I haven't been working on any
of our C64 releases for a long time
now.

Q where do you live

A. Currently I live in Italy.

Q what was your first experience of
Commodore machines

A. My family bought a Commodore 64
when I was 12. A few friends of mine
had one too, so we used to share &
copy tape games. It was really exciting
to have a home computer with which
to play but also to learn how to
program. I think I typed in all the
BASIC code listed on the C64 User
Manual at least once ;)

Q what was you first machine & do
you still use Commodore machines

A. Before buying a C64 I owned an
Atari 2006 with lots of cartridges. I
also own an Amiga 500 with a 512 kB
memory expansion.Yes, I still use my
Commodore machines, e.g. to play
some classic titles I like very much.
Recently I spent quite some time
testing my latest project on my C64, so
I've been playing a lot & I converted
some of my tapes to TAP files as well.

Q Your website has many items listed
can you tell us a little about each
item

DC2N - This is the latest project of
mine. It is a Commodore Datasette
emulator with which one can load C64/
C16/VIC20 TAP files from a SD Card to
the real machines, duplicate tapes, &
even produce TAP files from tapes.

Tap icon - Well, I thought it was a
pity the TAP & T64 formats hadn't their
own icon. It was developed using
Deluxe Paint IV on an Amiga & later
retouched with some PC software.
Browsing my TAP folders looks nicer
now :)

Tap clean front end - Another of the
pieces of software on which I'm
actually working at. I think many
readers know Final TAP from Subchrist
Software UK. In short, for those who
don't know it: It aims to be the
ultimate TAP check & clean tool &
it is really appreciated by the TAP
community. The source code of the
console version has been recently
published under the GPL license & a
sourceforge project, TAPClean, was
derived from it. I belong to its
development team & I received a few
requests by users for a GUI version.
They used the GUI version of Final TAP
before, but the latter is not supported
anymore afaik. I guess that, as we went
on adding support to decode tape
loaders to TAPClean, the GUI version
users felt a bit annoyed by the fact
there weren't new updates. So that, I
decided to write a graphic front end
for TAP Clean, with the basic features
available in the GUI version of Final
TAP. The latest beta, available for
download, includes almost all the
previously missing features & adds
some new ones a few users & I felt the
need for.

Tap Moni - This is a "remake" of the
old "tape justage" tool, aka "head
tester". I used the console version to
inspect the TAP files I produced some
years ago since it runs without
problems under plain MS-DOS too. I
could spot tape problems & correct a
wrong alignment of the datasette heads
using this tool.Only the GUI versions
are actually supported & updated.
There's also a DC2N edition that reads
DC2N TAP files directly.

C64 basic lister - Along with typing in
the programs listed in the C64 user
Manual, I produced some good software
using CBM BASIC. So that I thought it
would have been nice to be able to
cut'n'paste the listing into a few
electronic documents.The additional
features (e.g. nested cycles indent-
ation & alignment of line numbers) came
at a later time, together with support
for a few extended BASIC sets. I think
I will make a library other people may
use to untokenize BASIC programs,
being then free to list them as they
like (with colors, syntax highlighting,
& so on).

6510 Dasm 2 - The same considerations
done for C64 BASIC Lister apply here,
more or less, I'm working on a new
engine written from scratch for
TAPClean Front End, which together with
some new additional features will be
the starting point for CBM Dasm v3 (the
GTK+ version of this tool). I will
make a library other people may use to
disassemble 6510 binaries too.

BMP2koala - I admit this was born to
save to a C64 file format the pictures
I produced with a demo program I had
once. It was a PCX->C64 image converter
supporting various formats, IIRC, but
the save option was disabled, of
course.

Tapwav - When I made this tool there
was no easy way to save TAP files back
to tapes, but the one that consisted
into producing a wav file & recording
it to tape. I was really involved in
TAP file research at those times, so I
decided to make one such tool.

Inspect win32 - it's just a demo
program. Its console counterpart can
extract binary data from TAP files &
the GUI version aimed to be very
configurable & easy to use. I never
found the time to complete it & I
don't think there's the need to do so,
since TAPClean does that too, & it does
that pretty well :)

Q I came across you site while looking
for a way to print out Commodore
BASIC listings on an emulator, the
application is perfect easy to use fast
clean & even indents code, my only
real problem is when printed to a laser
printer the text keeps reverting back
to ASCII although its right on screen
would you like to comment.

A The problem is the lack of a proper
fontset to print those listings. I
could not work at any but the two that
come with the archive. I'm confident
someone with the required knowledge
will do that sooner or later.

Q DC2n this looks a very interesting
project can you give our reader more
information on this project

A. In the beginning I just wanted to
make a datasette emulator, without the
FAT-16 filesystem support, & without
the TAP production feature. Then I
realized DC2N would have been much more
user-friendly & useful with those
additional features. In fact, I know
some Linux users are not wanting to use
MTap/PTap because they require a FAT
partition on the HD & MS-DOS to run. I
didn't know about any effective
alternative to those tools when I
started working at DC2N, so that these
features were implemented as well.I
designed the hardware, the onboard
fimware & the PC software to convert
the 16-bit format supported by DC2N to
the legacy TAP format. A few net-
friends of mine gave me some help with
other tasks & a lot of moral support.

Q Are all the projects produced by
yourself - or do you work with other
coders

A. I received hints & suggestions
from friends (mainly net-friends),
consulted online manuals & technical
documents, & so on. All the code was
written by me from scratch, but the
UART & LCD drivers in DC2N which are an
excellent work of Peter Fleury,
available on his webpages.

Q Your site seems to have had a large
number of hits 14945 on the webcounter
- Have you had many comments or
suggestions

A. I haven't received so many comments
since I created those webpages, but the
ones I received helped a lot. I seldom
receive suggestions. I'd like to
receive more to improve the software &
complete the information available from
my pages. Recently, I received one from
a guy who asked me to add a new feature
to TapWav. I will be happy to work on
that when I get some time.

Q I am still a fan of tapes, because
they recreate my Commodore experience &
memories, dashing back from the shops
with a game & waiting - watching the
flashing orders, then bitmap graphics &
maybe a loading screen then into the
game - the build up of excitement still
gets to me, although now with tapes &
tape machines failing due to age - I
spend more time cleaning heads &
waiting than actually game play, would
you like to comment?

A. I am a fan of tapes as well, so my
suggestion is to wait for a DC2N, then
save 2 thousand TAP files to a 4GB SD
Card & forget about having to clean &
hope before being able to play ;)

Q Do you have any other applications
in development

A. I can think mainly of Graphix 2006
that was not yet mentioned here.
Basically I go on working at every tool
of mine, updating it whenever its users
and I think something should be
changed/improved, if I have got enough
time to do so.I'm also wanting to write
my own game engine after having
disassembled The Last Ninja on the C64.
I started disassembling it with my own
tools & I had lots of ideas to improve/
speed up the task. Those ideas are a
guideline while writing the
disassembler in TAPClean FE, as I told
you before. Finally, I'm working at
libtap, a multiplatform static library
to encapsulate files inside TAP files
that load using one of the supported
turbo loaders along with the standard
CBM loader. The library & a test
program will be soon published.

Q If our reader is thinking they may
like to help what should they do to
help you

A. Comments & suggestions are really
welcome here. Also some help/comments
about the PCB design of DC2N is
welcome. Some help with the visual-
ization & printing of C64 fonts with
CBM BASIC Lister would be welcome too
:)

Q Can any tapes be copied & used on the
DC2n or have you found versions that
refuse to load

A. DC2N can reproduce any TAP file:
Even those loaders that rely on very
short pulsewidths load fine on a real
Commodore 64. The DC2N timer used for
PLAY & RECORD runs at 2 MHz, so it's
very accurate.

Q Has anyone meantined Copyright to
you or given problems

A. I never received any complaint in
that sense. I respect intellectual
property so that I would do my best to
solve any such problem.

Q Do you intend keeping a tape archive
or are you leaving that to others

A. I know about online tape
preservation archives with 1600+
verified & cleaned TAP files, & a
new one is going to show up. I do
know the guys who work at the latter
and I trust they will do a very good
work, with lots of tape information &
crystal-clean verified TAP files.

Q DC2n what major problems did you
have to overcome with the development
of this application

A. Honestly one of the major problems
was to find the tape port connector
that connects DC2N to a real C64.
Peepo, who is supporting this project &
going to build his own prototype, found
out Nicolas was the right person to ask
for it, so that I was able to order
those to build my prototype &,
hopefully, a few others soon. I would
order quite many connectors, but
actually there don't seem to be enough
persons interested in this project to
place such an order. Another problem
was the production of the PCB, for
which I thank Bo & Francis who
offered their help. Two PCBs were
produced thanks to their  interest in
this project.

Q Does DC2n this need a special cable
to work

A. It has to be connected to the C64
tape port, just as if it was a real
datasette. No special additional
hardware / software is needed to use
it.Actually I'm working with a test
firmware & I interact with DC2N by
means of its console port, also for
debugging purposes, connected to my
laptop. The final product won't require
the connection to a PC for it has the
required onboard buttons & a LCD to
interact with.

Q Is there any question you would have
liked to have been asked ?

A. "Why do you do that?" It's my way
to preserve the glory of Commodore
home computers & encourage people to
develop new projects on those machines
by means of cross-platform development
tools. I'm not interested in personal
glory or money.

Q Personally what do you think
"commodore did wrong"

A. Marketing & hardware design, but
I'm not experienced in any of those
topics neither ;) It's been a pleasure.
I look forward to reading the next
issue of the Commodore free magazine :)
Cheers, Luigi.

Commodore Free
For more information & to download
these excellent tools visit the website
http://digilander.libero.it/tcengineer/
 c64/index.htm#BL