Commodore Free 15/Commodore_Free_Issue_15_2008_Commodore_Computer_Club.d64/t.64 beginners 2

Text File | 2023-02-26 | 14KB | 499 lines

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Beginners guide to the 64 Part 2
(Part 1 is in Issue 14)

By now you should have a working C64
with the following on screen & ready
for user input

    **** COMMODORE 64 BASIC V2 ****

 64K RAM SYSTEM  38911 BASIC BYTES FREE

READY.

What we really need is to LOAD an
application & RUN it, maybe a game &
use our joysticks to ensure the machine
is fully working. With the machine
facing you on the right-hand side near
the power you will notice 2 joystick
ports, I suggest you purchase 2
joysticks these are cheap & easily
available on eBay look for C64
compatible or Atari D style joystick.

CARTRIDGE
The easiest option is to LOAD a game
from a cartridge, all you need to do is
power of the machine insert the
cartridge with the cover picture facing
up & then turn on the 64, the game or
utility will LOAD instantly from the
cartridge with virtually no waiting
time. Now if the game needs a joystick
in port 1 or 2 you will already have
them set up & wont have to power OFF &
change ports, also you can use the 64
for 2 player games.

ATTACHED DEVICES
Every device connected to the C64 has a
default number:
Disk drive = 8
Tape drive = 1
Printer = 4

These are the main ones you will use
with a basic setup, so to access the
device we use its number.

TAPE
To load a game or application from tape
you need to Power OFF the C64 connect
the tape drive, the connector will only
fit one way then turn on the C64, the
tape gets its power from the C64 so you
dont need any other connectors or
power. If you know the name of the
application you can type:
LOAD"application name" & press RETURN
or press RUNSTOP/RESTORE this will LOAD
the first application from tape, You
could also issue the command LOAD
filename,1 & press RETURN this would
load the filename of the device on 1
which is the tape drive; cant say I
have seen anyone use this.

DISK
To load applications from disk, power
OFF the 64. Connect the disk drive &
then power ON the drive then power ON
the 64 if you know the name of the
application you can then type
LOAD"application",8  or LOAD":*",8 this
will LOAD the 1st application from
disk. Then type RUN & press RETURN. Of
course a disk needs formatting before
use.

C64 BASIC DISK COMMANDS
Format a new disk
 OPEN1,8,15,N0:DISKNAME,ID:CLOSE 1
Load a file        LOAD FILENAME,8
Load 1st disk file LOAD *,8
Load & run file  LOAD FILENAME,8,1
Save a file        SAVE FILENAME,8
Save & replace   SAVE @0:FILENAME,8
Verify disk file   VERIFY FILENAME,8
Directory listing  LOAD $,8
                   LIST

COMMODORE FILE TYPES AND USES
DEL                Deleted file
PRG                Program file
SEQ                Sequence file
                   (usually text file)
REL                Relative file
                   (data file)

I have written a guide to help users at

 http://www.commodorefree.com/
  magazine/information/Userguide.txt

When you delete a file from a disk the
file is still viewable in the directory
but listed as DEL or deleted, you may
find it useful to type LOAD"$",8 then
hit RETURN then issue the command LIST
these 2 commands will LOAD a disk
directory from device number 8 then
LIST the files on screen; I would
advise you to try various disks & look
at the files.

PRINTERS
Printers are issued by default the ID
number 4. Most software will print to
them without further configuration.
Again have the 64 powered OFF Connect
it to the Serial port or the Disk drive
as the devices can be chained together
like USB devices. Although C64 Dot-
matrix printers & pen printers were
considered state of the art when
launched things have changed in the
computing world & dot-matrix is no
longer an acceptable output. Various
additional boxes were made to allow
a standard parallel printer to connect
to the 64. Look for devices that are C=
to Centronics or just look on eBay for
C= printer interface you should find
something like The Super Graphix card.
These allow the conversion of ASCII
from PETASCI C= used a variation of
standard ASCII format all printers use
called PETASCI these devices convert on
the fly permitting the printing to non-
C= printers, I have mine connected to a
laser & inkjet printers & both machines
output text fine from the 64. A tip is
to use the CMD command; this permits
changing the default output device so
if you wanted a directory listing
printed instead of being listed on the
screen you could issue the commands:

OPEN 1,4     open device 4, printer
CMD 1        output now goes to printer
LIST      output will go to the printer
CLOSE 1   cancels redirection command

Dont worry about the OPEN 1,4 command
right now, just use it for redirecting
text & ignore what it does, we will
cover this  & other commands in later
tutorials

Time marches on & machines especially 8
bit machines get left behind or
forgotten. Fortunately because of the
64s design & the ingenuity of
developers & the love user have for the
machine; various add-ons have been
developed for the 64 over the years.
Some of the most sought after products
were produced by CMD. Its inventory was
later purchased by Maurice Randel
http://cmdrkey.com/

WARNING
However a word of warning: before you
order anything I would advise you that
there is a long wait for products
measured in Years rather than months,
some customers have been waiting many
years for products to arrive. Obviously
this is a sideline for Maurice.  The
link shows Maurice hard at work
creating the products by himself.
The website may say 3 months wait but
you need to interpret this as 3 yrs
minimum (if it ever shows up at all)

 http://www.geocities.com/
  profdredd/maurice/cmdrkey.html

For a comprehensive look at the CMD
Hardware products go to:

 http://www.cmdweb.de/

HARDWARE
CMD produced many items of hardware
including

SCPU
A 20Mhz accelerator for the C64/128 the
device can also accommodate up to 16mb
of memory to my knowledge only the game
Metaldust takes advantage of the extra
processing power along with a handful
of Demos, GEOS & Wheels operating
systems, however other applications can
benefit. For example complex 3D style
games greatly benefit from the extra
speed. The device is switchable from
20mhz back to 1mhz for compatibility &
also includes an ON/OFF switch for
extra compatibility also has Jiffy DOS
included.

FD-2000
A 1581 drive clone, however it has a
bonus of being able to use hi-density
disks, making this device very useful
for the casual C64 user. Has JiffY DOS.
Also can Swap device numbers with
attached disk drives

HD DRIVES
Can contain up to a 4gb hard disk
includes Jiffydos & an external scsi
connector can be set with up to 255
partitions each can be 16mb in size.
Features a device swap button. You can
also create 1541 & 1581 partitions for
compatibility.

RAMlink
Can feature up to 16mb of memory. Is
Super CPU compatible i.e. they can work
together. Allows the user to set up
partitions to have disks instantly
accessed, also features a battery
backup to save the partitions when
powered OFF

JIFFYDOS
Jiffydos is a floppy drive speed up
system the chip needs fitting in the 64
machine & also in your drives for the
device to function to its potential,
but as the RAMlink, SCPU & FD drive
have Jiffydos installed, you could add
a SCPU & a FD200 disk & be Jiffydos
enabled, although other disk drives
will need the chip fitted to take
advantage, like the 1541 & 1581 drives.
Jiffydos has a powerful set of control
features to reduce typing & generally
benefit the user

1581
The 1581 is a floppy disk drive & uses
3.5" single density disks. These are
more redily available than the 1541
5.25" inch disks

IDE64
http://www.ide64.org/

The IDE64 is a cartridge that allows
standard PC IDE disk & CD ROM drives to
be connected to your 64, although it
seems everyone is sold out there is a
new version out. For more details see:
 http://www.ide64.org/ide64v4.html
There is a patch for GEOS to work with
the device, but to my knowledge Wheels
doesnt support the system.

If you are a games fan you can copy
most single file games on the device &
LOAD them very quickly

MMC
Similar to the IDE interface is the MMC
card allowing your 64 to use standard
Multimedia Sd cards up to 4gb.

CABLES
Not much use until you need one, but
you should look to invest in something
like an X1541 Cable. This cable
connects a PC to 1541 or 1581 drives &
copy file to/from it. Also useful with
the HDD64. If you own an old PC, you
should look to investing in them.

 http://www.protovision-online.de/
 http://www.vesalia.de/e_products.htm

OPERATING SYSTEMS
Geos was the first graphic operating
system I saw & requirements are low. A
1541 drive, C64/128 & joystick. You can
download a limited version for free at:

 http://cbmfiles.com/geos/index.html

Wheels made various improvements on the
Geos system but requirements are higher
You need some form of memory expansion
& ideally a hard drive

Various other systems have emerged like
Contiki. Check here for the Contiki
webserver:

 http://www.sics.se/contiki/platforms/
  contiki-commodore-64-web-server.html

And the main OS:

http://www.sics.se/contiki/

The operating system was developed for
various machines

SOFTWARE
The HDD64 system turns an old PC or
Laptop into a storage system allowing
almost unlimited number of games &
files to be added:

 http://www.64hdd.com/index_en.html

The software will work with registered
versions of GEOS. The author also sells
a speed up cartridge for users with
HDD64 speeding up access to the files
stored on PC, check the website for
full details.

The website also sells various
connectors & can transfer floppy disks
to disk images.

Also of note to CMD Hard disk owners is
Drive Ghost. Allowing users to backup
their Hard Disk

DRIVEGHOST
Here is information taken from the
website on both HDD64 & Ghostdrive (as
I promised Nick many times I would
promote his software. Sorry its taken
so long Nick) DRIVEGHOST is the only
disk imaging software for CMD drives.

Overview
DRIVEGHOST is a tool for "imaging" or
"ghosting" the contents & structure of
CMD drives. Drive ghosting is far more
than a backup - it is a complete track
& sector accurate method of copying
data & ensuring that systems, not just
files, can be restored at a later date.
Programs, databases, GEOS, Wheels,
anything & everything is captured!
DRIVEGHOST images the contents &
structure of your CMD HD, FD or RAMLINK
to special files on a PC configured to
run 64HDD. These image files can be
kept on the PC or burnt to CDROM for a
more permanent backup. DRIVEGHOST
offers the flexibility of a complete
backup/restore, user selected
partitions, or the ability to import
individual partitions to new drives or
locations. It even lets you import D64
files downloaded from the internet or
from archives onto you CMD drive.

Features
Complete backup solution for CMD drive
users - HD, FD or RAMLINK. Uses imaging
so as to capture all disk data - not
 just the files
Simple, intuitive point & click user
 interface
Runs unsupervised once started
Works with freeware & Professional
 versions of 64HDD using the popular
 X1541 cable, or use it in combination
 with IDE64
Image files stored in PC format & can
 be transferred to CDROM
Ideal for:
Backups
Restoration
Drive mechanism upgrades
Data exchange
Installing D64 files
Shuffling partitions around & more...

Version 1.06 includes:
Standard serial mode
Fast-Serial restore mode
PwrLoad cable support for fastest
 backup/restore
IDE64 file system mode to backup/
 restore your CMD system

Introduction
DRIVEGHOST is a unique backup tool
available to the C64 user. Is powerful,
yet easy to use. A graphical user
interface allows easy selection of
64HDD & CMD drives, tagging of
partitions to backup or restore, &
navigation of your 64HDD archives.
DRIVEGHOST will work with 64HDD core
version v0.7b5 (or better) - freeware
or Professional versions. 64HDD is a
MSDOS PC based emulation program that
allows 8-bit C64 computers to access
the power of PC drives via the popular
X1541 compatible cable. To find out
more about 64HDD, refer to the separate
user manual or the website. A copy of
the current freeware version of 64HDD
is included with your distribution of
DRIVEGHOST.

Of course there is no need for 64HDD if
you use DRIVEGHOST with your IDE64.

64HDD Details
64HDD is a low-cost alternative to
purchasing a Hard Drive for C64/128,
Plus4/C16 or VIC20). 64HDD works with
"images" of real C64 disks & tapes.
These images are created by transfer-
ring the data from a real disk/tape to
a standard file format. Typical disk
images are known as D64 files. Typical
tape images are known as T64 files.
There are many programs available that
will let you transfer your data, & many
websites that host archived D64 files.

The 64HDD software lets you connect
your C64 computer to the LPT port of a
PC using a standard X1541 or XE1541
cable. For faster connection a special
PwrLoader parallel cable can be used to
speed things up 30-50 times.

Once configured, your 64 can have
access your data which is safely stored
& backed-up on the PC without having to
fiddle about with dozens of floppies &
old floppy disk drives.

In addition to using your PC's hard
disk, you can access its CDROMs, USB
drive, Real-Time-Clock, etc. The PC
system can be any standard 386/486/
Pentium etc. 64HDD runs under MSDOS (or
a DOS-Box on some Win9x systems) but
may not run under Windows 2000, NT or
XP unless they have an alternate DOS
boot configured or a Direct-IO driver.
If you are stuck using a non-DOS system
such as Win2k/XP/NT or Linux, 64HDD is
also avaible on bootable CD-ROM.

64HDD supports D64, D71, D81, T64, LNX
images & the Native MSDOS file system.
MSDOS mode even supports C64 16-char
filenames in Win95 LongFileName format
if the LFNFILES plug-in (v1.55 upgrade)
(125kb) has been installed. You can
even command the PC's 3.5" floppy drive
to read/write 1581 disks using Womo's
1581COPY.

The full freeware download includes
utilities & test software, as well as
64Xplor (a cross-platform file Explorer
for C64/128/16/Plus4/VIC20 machines &
works with real & 64HDD drives).

GEOS64 is supported via a custom kernal
disk driver. Utilities are included in
the driver download to provide time &
date support as well as a disk
ShortCut tool for jumping between D64's
containing your GEOS collection.

Not forgetting the thousands of other
hardware & software that is available
for various commodore machines, check
other issues so you dont miss out.