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Commodore_Free_Issue_07_2007_Commodore_Computer_Club.d64
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t.iv joakim
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uInterview with Joakim *
Commodore Java Emulation
http://www.dreamfabric.com/c64/
http://www.jac64.com
Q Please introduce yourself to our
readers
I am 36 years old & work at the Swedish
Institute of Computer Science with
sensor network research & development.
I have a wife & two sons (20 months &
1 month old). During my spare time I
have spent quite a lot of time working
with the JaC64 & JSIDPlay project.
Q Where do you live
I live in Solna, Stockholm, Sweden.
Q What introduced you to Commodore
I was introduced by a friend that had a
Commodore C64. At the time I had a
Texas Instruments TI99/4A but it was
not as cool & feature packed as the
C64.
Q what machines do you own & do you
still use Commodore machines
I currently have a C64 & an Amiga 4000.
I am only using the C64 when playing
some good old games with my 20 month
old son.
Q Your website features a Commodore
Emulator Implemented in Java & a Java
sid player (amongst other items) what
is the Java fascination
In the beginning I just wanted a nice
performance test for Java & I was
missing my Commodore computers, so I
figured that writing a C64 emulator in
Java would be a good performance test
for Java.
Another important thing with Java is
that it is quite easy to get it running
on the web, in your browser. This makes
it possible for people that developed
C64 software, to show it live on their
websites.
Q is the Java Commodore a full
implementation
Not 100% full implementation, some
details missing in the CIA chips &
maybe some minor details somewhere else
too. But it is close to a full
implementation (but with some bugs left
to fix).
Q Please tell our reader about the Java
sid player
I am a fan of the SID chip which I
think is the coolest chip in the C64 &
there are so many nice SID tunes
available so I just had to implement a
SID player. This was quite easy since I
had the emulation of the CPU & the SID
chip implemented already. The first
version was not playing all tunes very
well (no NTSC support, many bugs, etc)
but the current version uses the sid-
player routine by Dag Lemm, the same
that is used in SIDPlay.
Q what are the technical requirements
to use this item
A recent version of Java (later than
Java 1.3).
Q This is a dumb question but I presume
its only available online
Well, I have development versions that
I am using. GUI are very unpolished but
it runs on my local computer from the
command prompt. If anyone would like to
run it "off-line" I'll polish the GUI &
release one.
Q Do Sids have to be in a certain
format or can any be used on the player
Most Sids work, but Sids using basic is
currently not supported, & some other
Sids might not work due to bugs in the
player.
Q How does the player work - does it
support drag & drop
The player is basically a Java applet
which you either give some initial
parameters or you call some methods
with Javascript. This will cause the
applet to do things such as load a Sid
song from the Web - site, play next Sid
song, or set the volume. It has no
support for drag & drop, but for a
downloadable version that would be a
good feature to have. I guess that
using Javascript & clever programming
it would be possible to have some kind
of drag & drop even in the applet.
Q Do you have any other plans for Java
Commodore applets? - maybe a image
browser
I think the plan is the make the JaC64
& JSIDPlay applets as good as possible
before going for the next project (an
Amiga emulator maybe).
Q what problems did implementing a
Commodore emulator & Sidplayer in Java
present you
A lot of work getting all the details
right, but luckily there are very good
documentation on the C64 on the
Internet. I think that the VIC chip is
the hardest chip to get right; the
timing of every detail needs to be very
precise to avoid getting strange
graphics bugs.
Q From a personal point of view 'where
did commodore go wrong'
I believe that they missed out on a few
important things:
(1) They did not find ways to upgrade
their successful computers. They never
released anything with C64 compat-
ibility, & never really managed to make
the Amiga powerful enough. (This was
what the PC-platform actually handled
very well).
(2) They were killing themselves with
odd marketing tricks - like trying to
sell their (low-end) computers as
business computers even when they knew
that it was the entertainment market
that was their main market
And from reading "On the Edge" it seems
like the management of commodore did
not get the chance to everything the
liked to do.
Q What sorces are available if someone
decided to produce their own Java
applets
All sources are available at source-
forge! Just search for JaC64 & you will
find it!
Q Is there any question you would like
to have been asked
Maybe one of the common questions I get
from my site: * Will there be a mobile
version of JSIDPlay? Yes hopefully, but
currently the implementation I have is
too slow even for my SE P990 so I guess
it might take some time before I have a
fast SIDPlayer in Java for mobiles.