Lyonsden Blog

Category - Gaming

Cassette Tape Storage Solution for 2024

I’ve covered some storage solutions for Cassette tapes in the past but sadly they are no being made. With my own collection of tapes continuing to grow (both music and computer games) I needed a smart, attractive storage solution, and preferably one that would continue to be made for a long time to come.

There was really only one way to guarantee the latter so I’ve ended up designing and 3D printing my own rack and have made it available to purchase on my Etsy Store in case anyone else would like to get one.

 

Cassette Tape Storage

Empty storage rack. Mounting holes at the top.

 

The finished storage rack measures 23cm x 23cm and is a shade over 5cm deep. I literally cannot make a larger capacity rack as that’s pretty much the maximum size of my printers’ build plates.

 

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It has a couple of screw mounting holes at the top so it can be hung on a wall. Alternatively it can be placed free-standing on a shelf, or even on its back inside a drawer.

 

Cassette Tape Storage

Lots of VIC20 games

 

The idea is that you can just keep adding more racks as your collection grows.

 

Cassette Tape Storage

A rack full of VIC20 games.

 

Although you can just place them side by side or on top of each other when expanding I’d recommend fixing them to the wall if going vertically for stability. Nobody wants their collection of tapes falling on the floor if your cat decides to go mountaineering!

 

Cassette Tape Storage

Expanding your collection – 3 racks together

 

These are produced on Bambu Labs printers using premium PLA and each one takes nine hours to complete. They’re really nice quality even if I do so so myself but you can judge for yourself by looking at the photos.

As I said if you want one you can get one from my Etsy store. If you’d like to order more than one then drop me a message and I can sort out a discount.

Wireless Tank Mouse

Wireless Tank Mouse Box

I missed the initial Kickstarter for this ‘Wireless Tank Mouse’ back in 2022 but now that they are on general sale I decided to pick one up from Sordan.ie to see if it was any good and hopefully use it with my Commodore and MEGA65 machines.

 

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The packaging is certainly very attractive featuring a very 80’s neon VHS style design on the front and a multitude of specs and features plastered over the sides and back of the box.

 

Wireless Tank Mouse

Wireless Tank Mouse

 

In the flesh it certainly looks the part and is very similar to the Amiga tank mouse we all know and love. Of course there’s two striking differences, the first of which is that this is now an optical mouse with the ball having been relegated to the history books. The second is the lack of a wire as this is now fully wireless, utilising either Bluetooth or 2.4Ghz to transmit the necessary signals back to your computer. You can switch between these options using a little 3-way switch underneath. This same switch is also used to power the mouse off when it’s placed in the middle position.

 

Wireless Tank Mouse

Wireless Tank Mouse underside

 

An optional extra that I purchased was the Tom adapter which came packaged separately in a little plastic bag. I have to confess to wondering why it was called Tom for a little while until I remembered the Tom and Jerry cartoons and then it all made perfect sense! Without this little gizmo the mouse will only work with modern computers which would defeat the purpose of it for me.

 

Wireless Tank Mouse with Tom adapter

 

The Tom device is basically just a USB to DB9 adapter with some clever electronics to convert the USB signals into something old Commodore computers can understand. Compared to most of the Tom adapters available on eBay this one seems to be extremely compact and is actually referred to as a ‘Micro Tom’. It’s housed in a really nice 3D printed case that holds everything together securely.

 

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When placed next to my original Amiga Tank mouse you can see just how close the design is. The main visible difference, besides the obvious lack of a wire, is that the buttons are a little narrower and spaced further apart on the new mouse. There’s a good reason for this that I will get to later on.

 

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Opening up the battery compartment reveals a small USB receiver tucked away at the bottom.

 

Wireless tank mouse

Wireless tank mouse battery compartment and USB receiver storage

 

This USB receiver can be plugged directly into a modern computer should you wish (Mac, Linux or PC) so you can use the mouse with those systems (or emulators running on them). If your computer has Bluetooth then you can leave the receiver in its cubby hole and simply pair it with your PC using that instead.

 

USB Receiver

USB Receiver

 

To use the mouse with Commodore machines you need to insert the USB receiver into the Tom adapter.

 

Tom adapter with USB receiver plugged in

Tom adapter with USB receiver plugged in

 

It was a really tight fit, so much so that I felt the need to double check I was putting it in correctly before risking applying more force to get the job done!

 

Wireless tank mouse batteries

Let there be (green) light!

 

It’s powered by a couple of AAA batteries (rechargeable ones appear to work fine) which helps to add a bit of weight to it. I know some people like their mice light but I’m not one of them so the batteries went some way towards compensating for the lack of the ball.

 

Mousing Around

 

Before trying the wireless tank mouse with my retro machines I gave it a quick go in my Windows 11 PC and it worked immediately and completely flawlessly. I also tried it with my MorphOS Apple Mac Mini G4 with similar success. When used with modern machines you can use it with your favourite emulator for a more immersive experience or even as your daily driver should you wish.

In addition to the obligatory left and right mouse buttons the wireless tank mouse actually fully supports mouse scrolling too. Now you may well be thinking how’s that possible – it has no scroll wheel? Well remember earlier on when I mentioned about the buttons being spaced further apart? That’s because the designer has ingeniously incorporated a touch sensitive strip between the two buttons. You can simply swipe up and down with your finger to scroll in those directions. It works really well too. Obviously it lacks the tactile feedback of an actual wheel but having one of those would ruin the whole aesthetic.

 

wireless tank mouse with my A1200

Using the wireless tank mouse with my A1200

 

I have plenty of mice for my modern computers though, I got this to use with my Amiga mainly so I plugged the Tom adapter into port 1 of my A1200 and powered it on, and it just worked. No messing around, no pairing, no software to install, just plug and play. The scrolling support worked seamlessly too, (I installed scroll wheel support for my existing wired Amga mouse years ago). Tracking was super accurate and smooth and the mouse was just as comfortable to hold as ever – in fact more so now as I’m not constantly fighting against the cable in the limited space I have available to use it!

 

Wireless tank mouse ‘Tom’ adapter (on the right)

 

Satisfied that it worked with my Amiga I fired up my MEGA65 and loaded up GEOS65 and sure enough it worked really well with that too.

 

GEOS 65 running on my MEGA65 controlled by my wireless tank mouse

 

Next I invoked ‘GO64’ and switched my MEGA65 into C64 mode to load up a BASIC Solitaire game that I typed in a few years ago. This was designed to work the the Commodore 1351 mouse and sure enough this also worked like a charm with just occasional jittering. Incidentally this is also a game that really benefits from switching the CPU to 40Mhz mode – no more lag when shuffling the cards!

I tried it with my real C64C computer and ran into my first problem. It simply refused to work. After a bit of RTFM (or RTFW in this case) I discovered the following…

 

Switching between C64 and Amiga Mode

 

Out of the box the Tom adapter is configured to run in Amiga mode. Consequently when plugging it into a C64 it just doesn’t work. (Same for the alternative C64 CORE in the MEGA65). Thankfully it can be switched into C64 1351 mode quite easily by plugging in a USB mouse, holding down the middle button (usually the scroll wheel) at bootup and whilst still holding it down press the left mouse button a few times until the red LED flashes 3 times and then you can let go. The adapter will now behave like a 1351 mouse forever until you change it back.

I did come a little unstuck trying to change it back to Amiga mode though. Either I have a slightly different model of Tom adapter or whoever wrote the instructions on the Sordan site got a bit confused. Thankfully after about 30 minutes of swapping different mice, power cycling, cursing and failing I figured it out. To switch to Amiga mode I had to hold down the right mouse button at bootup and then rapidly press the left button until the red LED flashed just the one time and then let go. (The instructions tell you to do the complete opposite which makes it flash twice which appears to be Atari ST mode).

 

What do I think of it?

 

All in this is a fantastic product that works with a huge range of machines, both old and new. It oozes nostalgia thanks to its design but at the same time embraces modernity by swapping the ball for an optical sensor, the wire for wireless connectivity and adds ‘invisible’ scrolling support beneath the plastic case. It works with pretty much every machine I own; all my Amigas, CD32, MEGA65, Commodore 64, Mac Mini running MorphOS and even my PC’s and emulators. My only criticism is the method of switching modes on the Tom adapter is a bit of a faff. I would much prefer a little 3-way toggle switch than trying to pull off some kind of weird secret handshake with the mouse. Other than that though the wireless tank mouse seems to be a jack of all trades and a master of them all and I’m really glad I picked one up.

 

Amiga Future #168 – May/June edition out now

The latest issue of Amiga Future (Amiga Future #168) for subscribers arrived a few days ago. Excitingly the cover features a brand new Amiga computer – the AmigaOne A1222 Plus which I can’t wait to read about. No doubt it will be outlandishly expensive but one can dream!

 

Amiga Future #168

Front Cover.

 

The Coverdisk

The main event on this months cover CD is ‘Photofolio 2.6’ which appears to be some sort of Amiga ‘Lightroom’. Regardless, I’m looking forward to investigating it!

 

Amiga Future #168

Cover CD.

 

What’s in Amiga Future #168

Here’s a quick snap of the contents page to give you an idea of what is in this issue. There’s plenty of both game and software reviews this issue and some interesting hardware gets covered too.

 

Amiga Future #168

Contents Page

 

Below is a little peek at some of the stuff inside Amiga Future #168. If you’d like to purchase a copy then do please take a look here. – Incidentally I don’t get any commission or anything if you buy a copy, I’m merely trying to spread the word and ensure our little community continues to thrive. 🙂

 

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Never come across Amiga Future magazine before? Perhaps you’d care to take a look at some of my other Amiga Future magazine previews here.

Freeze 64 Issue #67 Fanzine

Freeze 64 Issue #67

I’m not sure if the passage of time is accelerating or Vinny has cranked up production of Freeze 64 but either way I was happy to receive the latest edition of Freeze 64 in the post yesterday. It’s  now up to issue #67 and this edition features artwork from the brand new game ‘Good Kniight’ on the front cover.

 

Freeze 64 Issue #67

Issue #67 Cover featuring artwork from ‘Good Kniight’

 

Here’s a shot of the contents page so you can get an idea of what’s in this issue.

 

Freeze 64 Issue #67

Freeze64 Issue 67 Contents Page.

 

If you would like to find out how you can get hold of your own copy then head over to the Freeze64 website and take a look.

Finally, here’s a link to some of my previews of earlier editions of Freeze64.

Zzap! 64 Issue 19 out now

Here’s a slightly more in depth (than usual) look at my copy of Zzap! 64, Issue 19, that arrived in the post a few days ago. As well as the usual quick preview of what’s in the mag I run through what’s on this months digital coverdisk too.

 

Zzap! 64 Issue 19 Cover Image

 

As always the magazine is packed with content spanning 60 pages, including news, game reviews and insightful articles about the past, present and future Commodore 64 scene.

 

A Peek Inside

Here’s a quick look at the contents page giving an overview of what’s inside this issue.

 

Contents Page

 

The now familiar digital covermount page gives a preview of what’s on this editions disk.

 

Digital ‘covermount’ content page.

 

There’s plenty of goodies waiting to be loaded up on this months coverdisk, accessible via a slick menu screen accompanied by some great SID music as always.

 

Issue 19’s Covermount Menu screen

 

First up on the menu we have Alpacalypse – a side scrolling infinite runner style game where you have to dodge falling enemies, jump across gaps and collect fruit to increase your score. Vibrant, smooth-scrolling graphics and an excellent music track help to make this a fun game that is great for a quick blast of Alpaca action. High scores are saved to disk too which is a great feature all games should have and really fuels that ‘just one more go’ impulse.

 

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Next up is Metal Mayhem which is a tank battle game for two players or a single player vs the computer. The AI enemy tanks are brutally efficient at destroying you so I guess it was more intended to be played with a friend.

 

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Next we have ‘Spinning Image’ – probably my favourite game on this months disk. You are presented with two pictures – the one on the right is the ‘target’ picture whilst the one on the left has some bits missing. The game has you moving your avatar (Milly and Molly) left and right in order to line up and ‘fire’ a limited number of squares up onto the players picture to make it match the one on the right. The kicker is that the squares will only ‘stick’ if they bump up against an existing square.

You will quickly encounter areas where you seemingly have to get a quare to be suspended in mid air which is where the puzzle element comes into play. Some squares can be pulled back down allowing you to reposition them elsewhere to build a temporary framework to build on. A very challenging game on later levels yet still very relaxing to play as there’s no time limit in effect. The menu music is a bit annoying and shrill but the game music is thankfully understated and complements it quite nicely. You can save your progress too – essential for a game like this.

 

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The fourth game this month is a demo of ‘Phantomas 3 – The Return of Brok’ which is a neat little platform game that utilises the C64’s hires graphics mode to produce some very nice, detailed graphics.

 

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Finally there’s another demo, this time of a game called ‘Spy Agent’ which sees you trying to kill an enemy spy before he does the same to you. The game takes place within a single screen platform scenario with lifts and stairs to get around. You need a friend for this one as it’s two player only. It’s not much fun on your own as the enemy spy just stands there waiting for you to kill him before respawning elsewhere and then doing the same. Hopefully, as this is just a demo, they are working on an AI spy for all the solo players out there.

 

C64 Spy Agent

Spy Agent

 

Side 2 of the disk features a scene demo dating back to 1987, ‘Think Twice’ by The Judges featuring some funky scrolling effects and a decent SID music track.

 

Getting hold of a copy of Zzap! 64 Issue 19

This is another great edition of Zzap! 64 and well worth a buy. The magazine is available from Fusion Retro Books priced at £4.99. Make sure you use the code ‘LYONSDENBLOG’ to grab yourself a sweet 15% off the price! This code works for everything you place in your basket too!

Below you can peruse a small gallery of images from the magazine.

 

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You can find other Zzap! 64 related posts here .

Converting a Simulant ‘Classic USB mechanical PC Keyboard’ to work natively with the Amiga

Amiga USB keyboard

Back when I purchased my Amiga USB keyboard in 2022 from Simulant it carried a disclaimer that it wouldn’t work with ‘real’ Amigas but that they were working on an adapter. That was about 18 months ago now and I had almost forgotten about it. However a few weeks ago I received an email saying they were taking pre-orders for the adapter so I jumped on board. It arrived a few days ago so I’ll go through the installation and how well it works in this post.

 

Amiga Conversion Kit Contents

 

The kit included the adapter, an A4000/CD32 keyboard cable, an A2000/A3000 adapter and a small strip of doubled-over plastic.

 

Raspberry Pi Pico

 

The adapter itself consists of a small Raspberry Pi Pico board affixed to a custom PCB that has some extra chips, sockets and circuitry to interface with the keyboard itself.

 

Back of the custom PCB

 

There were no instructions supplied with the kit at all, not even a bit of paper with a URL to visit for more info. Unsure if that was an oversight or not. Thankfully I received an email from them shortly before the delivery was due and it contained a link to download some new firmware for it. Within the zip file there was a small text file with basic instructions and a few photos. It was enough to set me on the path anyway.

 

Updating the Firmware

The very first task was to install the latest firmware on the Pico board. This was really straightforward and just required me to hook it up to my PC with a Micro USB cable whilst holding down the ‘BOOTSEL’ button on the Pico board. After a few moments it then appeared on my PC as a regular storage device; ‘RPI-RP2’ and I was able to copy the firmware across.

 

The RPI-RP2 mass storage device

 

The drive disappeared automatically once the firmware had successfully installed which was my cue to unplug it and move on to the next stage.

 

Dismantling the keyboard

The next job was to get the keyboard opened up. The top half of the keyboard overlaps the bottom half and is held in place by a series of plastic clips. There are four along the front edge and another four along the back – there are none on the sides.

 

Spudger time!

 

The two halves fit together extremely snugly so to avoid any cosmetic damage I used a plastic spudger tool to gently prise the them apart and then slid it along, disengaging the clips as I progressed.

 

Amiga USB keyboard

Top half of case removed.

 

With all the clips dealt with the two halves separated easily and I was able to lift the top off and place it to one side.

 

Amiga USB keyboard

Keycap puller

 

The next job was to remove some of the keycaps to gain access to the screws holding the keyboard and bottom of the case together.

 

Amiga USB keyboard

Keys removed revealing screw beneath.

 

First I removed the Caps Lock, Tab, Q and A keys on the left…

 

Amiga USB keyboard

Keys removed revealing screw beneath.

 

Then the 7 and 4 keys from the numeric keypad on the right.

 

Removing the left-hand side screw.

 

Then I removed the small phillips screw from each side of the keyboard…

 

It’s a screw!

 

and placed them, along with the keycaps, somewhere safe so I wouldn’t lose them in the black-hole that is my desk!

 

Don’t want to lose these!

 

With the screws removed I was then able to separate the keyboard from the bottom of the case.

 

Amiga USB keyboard

Bottom of the keyboard released

 

I then set about removing the cable clamp from the bottom of the case.

 

Removing the cable clamp screws.

 

The clamp was held in place by two phillips screws, smaller than the ones I had encountered earlier.

 

The cable clamp.

 

The cable was then free to be moved around to give me more slack to work with for the next stage.

 

The path of the cable is a curvy one…

 

In order to fit the adapter I needed to remove the old cable from the keyboard circuit board.

 

Silcone…

 

Unfortunately for me, whomever made it decided it would be a good idea to squirt lashings of silicone all over it.

 

Slcing the silicone off

 

I spent the next 20 minutes very carefully removing chunks of silicone…

 

Another chunk of silicone removed…

 

using a combination of craft knife and tweezers, doing my best not to slice through anything I shouldn’t!

 

A lovely mess.

 

It was a pretty tedious task but eventually I had a small pile of silicone bits and I was able to remove the old plug from the socket and feed it back out through the small slot in the case.

 

Finally – all gone.

 

This eventually left me with a nice, silicone-free, keyboard cable socket!

 

Installing the adapter

Now it was finally time to install the adapter. I began by gently feeding it through the small slot in the base of the keyboard case until I had enough cable to work with,

 

Pushing the new cable through the slot.

 

Next I connected the plug into the empty socket on the adapter board.

 

Cable now hooked up to the Pico board.

 

Simulant recommend the adapter be placed out of the way with the two sockets straddling the plastic ridge in the case so I placed it between the left foot and the cable entry point as shown below.

 

Placing the adapter board out of the way.

 

Once I’d placed the cables where I wanted them to go I re-attached the cable clamp to hold it in place.

 

Attaching to the keyboard.

 

The final connection task was to plug in the short fly-lead running from the adapter into the socket on the keyboard (the one that was previously covered in silicone).

 

Plastic shielding.

 

Before closing everything up I wrapped the adapter in the plastic sheathing provided and secured it with a little sticky tape. This was there just to prevent any kind of electrical short occurring between the adapter and the bottom of the keyboard circuit board.

 

Making sure nothing gets trapped as the case is reassembled.

 

I then carefully mounted the keyboard back into the bottom of the case making sure that nothing got trapped in the process and then re-seated the top of the case over everything to hold it all together once more.

 

Ta-da!

 

Testing

The conversion was now complete so it was time to hook it up to my Amiga and put it through its paces!

 

A4000 PS/2 connector.

 

The standard cable it comes with ends in a PS/2 connector, like the one you would find on an A4000.

 

The 5-pin DIN adapter.

 

It also comes with an adaptor to convert it into a 5-pin DIN style connector more commonly found on A1500/2000/3000 machines.

 

The adapter cable.

 

Sadly I do not own any kind of big box Amiga to test it out with… the price of these machines has skyrocketed in recent years and it’s difficult to justify the expense when they appear on eBay, However I do have a CD32 console and this is blessed with an A4000 style PS/2 socket so I used that for my testing.

 

CD32 PS/2 ‘AUX’ socket.

 

My CD32 is equipped with a ‘TerribleFire 330‘ which means I am able to run a fully loaded Workbench environment off a compact flash ‘hard drive’. I have it hooked up to my Philips CM8833-Mk2 monitor via RGB. Not as good as an A3000 with RTG but it’s still a nice setup.

 

New keyboard connected.

 

I loaded up a copy of Final Writer and began bashing away on the keyboard. It’s a lovely typing experience with plenty of tactile feedback without being too clicky and annoying. All the characters and punction marks appeared correctly including the likes of £, @ and $ (I’m in England so use a British keyboard layout). The caps lock key also functioned correctly as did the number lock key.

 

Final Writer.

 

One little quirk I did notice was that the hash key next to the Return key was basically redundant and had no function at all. Interestingly this is a blank key on my A1200 and doesn’t exist at all on my A500 so it makes more sense in light of this. It was not an issue anyway as the hash character was accessed using the key to its immediate left whilst the tilde character was accessible from the key to the left of the numeric 1 key (which is where it is located on a real Amiga keyboard).

 

Proper Amiga keycap layout.

 

The other important thing I realised was that the Amiga keys didn’t work when trying to access Amiga shortcuts, however I found that the two ‘Alt’ keys did. I solved this by simply swapping the keycaps over so that the Amiga keys were placed directly either side of the space bar and the Alt keys adjacent to those. After that everything behaved correctly with shortcuts like ‘Amiga+ S’ to save and of course the ‘three finger salute’, CTRL, A + A to reset it proving to be no problem at all.

 

Rounding Off

At a shade over £50 this is not a cheap kit, especially when you’ve already shelled out over £100 for the Amiga USB keyboard. However it’s been well designed and does exactly what they said it would. Considering the price that original A4000 keyboards can go for on eBay it begins to look a lot more economical! It’s also been made in very small numbers so there’s no economies of scale at play either.

My only criticism would be levelled at the lack of any instructions included with the kit but maybe someone just forgot to throw them in the jiffy bag when they were packing mine? Additionally, and this is not a criticism – more of a request really, it would be great if they could give us the option to quickly switch from the original USB configuration to the Amiga one without having to take it all apart again. I’d like to continue using it with my MorphOS machine as well as with my emulated Amigas and not be forced into choosing one or the other. A first world problem for sure!

Anyway if you already have one of these Amiga USB keyboards and want to use it with a big box Amiga then I can heartily recommend this as it does exactly what it says on the tin!

Zzap! Amiga Issue #15 is out now

Today I received the latest edition of Zzap! Amiga Issue #15 ‘Micro Action’ in the post. Here’s a little glimpse inside so you can get an idea of what to expect in this issue.

 

Zzap! Amiga Issue #15

Zzap! Amiga Front Cover

 

A Look Inside

 

Here’s the contents page and below it, a handful of the 60 pages within this edition.

 

 

Zzap! Amiga Issue #15

Zzap! Amiga Issue #15 Contents Page

 

 

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At £4.99 plus postage for 60 A5 pages of Amiga goodness this is, as always, another worthy addition to my retro magazine collection. Don’t forget you can get 15% off a copy of your own with code ‘LYONSDENBLOG’ at the checkout!

Head on over to Fusion Retro Books to pick up your own copy of Issue #15.

Some more Zzap! Amiga magazine previews here.

Freeze 64 Issue #66 Fanzine

Issue 66 of Freeze 64 arrived in the post earlier today and features artwork (created by AI Vinny says) for the game ‘Strangeloop’ on the front cover. Why? Because this game is the main feature of this edition. Sadly no cheat card this month though.

 

Freeze 64 Issue #66

AI Generated ‘Strangeloop’ cover

 

Here’s a shot of the contents page so you can get an idea of what’s in this issue.

 

Freeze 64 Issue #66

Freeze64 Issue 66 Contents Page.

 

I’ve been getting Freeze 64 for many years now and have just extended my subscription for another year as Vinny continues to make a fantastic magazine that deserves our support. If you would like to find out how you can get hold of your own copy then head over to the Freeze64 website and take a look.

Finally, here’s a link to some of my previews of earlier editions of Freeze64.

Amiga Addict 28 out now

Behold, the latest issue of Amiga Addict magazine, issue 28, arrived today. This month the cover is devoted to the awesome Scala multimedia software to complement the in-depth six page feature within the magazine itself.

 

Amiga Addict 28

Issue 28 cover

 

Below is a peek at the contents page giving an overview of what’s inside this months issue.

 

Amiga Addict 28

Contents page

 

Here’s the coverdisc page providing details about what you can expect to find on this months disk (whether that be real or virtual). This month brings a collection of 3 PD games; Baldy: The Search For Missing Disks, Mad Bomber and Zerberk.

 

Amiga Addict 28

Coverdisk Capers

 

If you are not familiar with Amiga Addict cover disks, they only provide the labels – you have to supply the floppy disk. The self-adhesive labels are always of a super-high quality in glossy full colour with a peel-off backing. When applied to a suitable floppy they really look the part and provide a good excuse to blow the cobwebs out of your Amiga’s floppy drive.

 

Amiga Addict 28

My Maxell CoverDIsk 🙂

 

 

The magazine consists of 60 A4 full colour pages and features loads of news, reviews, articles, tutorials and more. This issue costs £6.50 (plus P&P) and is available from the Amiga Addict website. Amazingly it is also available in some bricks and mortar newsagents such as WHSmith so you may be able to pick it up there if you’re lucky and save yourself the postage!

 

A Look Inside Amiga Addict Issue 28

 

I’ll leave you with a quick look at just few of the articles that can be found in issue 28.

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Finally, here’s a link to some of my previews of other, earlier editions of Amiga Addict magazine.

Amiga Future #167 – March/April edition out now

The latest issue of Amiga Future (Amiga Future #167) for subscribers arrived a few days ago. This time around the front cover features the A1200 PiStorm Lite Adapter along with some nice artwork from the ‘Stuntman Seymour’ and ‘Super Delivery Boy’ games that are reviewed in this issue.

 

Amiga Future #167

Issue #167 Front Cover.

 

The Coverdisk

The main event on this months cover CD is ‘Fatman’ and ‘Wheelspin’ for the gamers and ‘Font Machine 3’ and ‘X-DVE 3.5’ for the tinkerers. Pretty decent disc this issue with something for everyone really.

 

Amiga Future #167

Issue #167’s cover CD.

 

What’s in Amiga Future #167

Here’s a photo of the contents page to give you an idea of what is in this issue. There’s plenty of both game and software reviews this issue and some interesting hardware gets covered too.

 

Amiga Future #167

Contents of Issue #167

 

Below is a little peek at some of the stuff inside Amiga Future #167. If you’d like to purchase a copy then do please take a look here. – Incidentally I don’t get any commission or anything if you buy a copy, I’m merely trying to spread the word and ensure our little community continues to thrive. 🙂

 

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Never come across Amiga Future magazine before? Perhaps you’d care to take a look at some of my other Amiga Future magazine previews here.

Zzap! 64 Issue 18 out now

Here’s a quick look at my copy of Zzap! 64, Issue 18, that arrived in today’s post.

 

Zzap! 64 Issue 18

Zzap! 64 Issue 18 Cover Image

 

As always the magazine is packed with content spanning 60 pages, including news, game reviews and insightful articles about the past, present and future Commodore 64 scene.

 

A Peek Inside

Here’s a quick look at the contents page giving an overview of what’s inside this issue.

 

Zzap! 64 Issue 18

Contents Page

 

The now familiar digital covermount page gives a preview of what’s on this editions ‘disk’. If only someone would start producing 5.25″ floppies again…

 

Zzap! 64 Issue 18

Digital ‘covermount’ content page.

 

There’s half a dozen goodies waiting to be selected on this months covermount, plus an additional full game hidden away in the Zip file – ‘Elasto Mania 64’ which is a very cool (and tricky) physics based  scrambler bike game. Imagine something along the lines of an 8-bit ‘Trials’ game. Impressive stuff for the C64.

 

Zzap! 64 Issue 18

Issue 18’s Covermount Menu screen

 

Getting hold of a copy of Zzap! 64 Issue 18

This is another great edition of Zzap! 64 and well worth a buy. The magazine is available from Fusion Retro Books priced at £4.99. Make sure you use the code ‘LYONSDENBLOG’ to grab yourself a sweet 15% off the price! This code works for everything you place in your basket too!

Below you can peruse a small gallery of images from the magazine.

 

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You can find other Zzap! 64 related posts here .

WiC64 Review

WIC64

The WiC64 might possibly be one of the most interesting devices for the Commodore 64 I’ve seen in years. It’s not just the hardware (which is great) as there have been a few Wi-Fi interfaces released already for the C64 over the years, but more how the software that’s been created for it leverages the new hardware to achieve something truly special. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that this could be the future for modern day 64 enthusiasts – I’ll explain why during the rest of this post.

 

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This glorious gizmo was sent to me by Tim Harris over at Shareware Plus. Inside the rather unassuming box there’s the main host board, an ESP32 module, a teeny tiny OLED display and a card with a link to a website to go to for more info.

 

WiC64

Contents of the WiC64 package.

 

So, what is it and what does it do?

Basically the WiC64 is a plug-in Wi-FI accessory that connects to the user-port of the Commodore 64 providing internet access. (It also works with the SX64, C128 and VIC20 computers though I’ve not tested it with these). However unlike existing Wi-Fi adapters that utilise serial mode data transfers and are thus restricted to stuff like accessing BBS due to their slow communication speeds, this bad boy operates in parallel mode, utilising 8 data lines, 2 handshake lines and one control line. This is all handled by the ESP32 module.

Basically it’s super fast and capable of loading a typical C64 program in the blink of an eye across the Internet. Yep you read that right, with this device you will be able to download (and upload) programs and files directly over the Internet on your C64!

 

Putting it together

No manual is provided but then again it is 2024 so having online documentation is to be expected. Following the link on the product card takes you to the WiC64.net website where you can download assembly instructions, a launcher program in PRG format and some STL’s to print a nice case for it.

 

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Assembly was an absolute doddle and just requires you to fit the ESP32 module and screen to the host board. They both simply push into the sockets provided – all you need to be careful with is the orientation of the ESP32 module but there’s photos in the PDF manual showing which way around it needs to go.

 

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After putting the WiC64 together I decided to 3D print the case for it so loaded the STL’s into my slicer software to prepare them for printing. The model has been well designed so no support material is needed when you place each part flat on its largest side.

 

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Just over an hour later (I have a Bambu Labs P1S printer so it’s fast) the print was complete and looked fantastic.

 

Freshly printed case halves

 

The two buttons on the host board pop through matching holes on the side of the case whilst there are a couple of little push buttons incorporated into the top of the case so you can still depress the ones on the EPS32 module.

 

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Oops

Unfortunately I ran into my first problem here when I tried to plug the newly encased WiC64 into the user port of my C64C – it simply wouldn’t fit! This was through no fault in the design of the board or even the case but just bad luck on my part because of where I had chosen to locate the switches for my SIDFX install.

 

Houston, we have a problem!

 

The case was clearly never going to fit so I had to abandon that idea and go naked. Even without the case it was an incredibly close fit with just a couple of millimetres clearance between the board and the switches. To be honest though, apart from the obvious lack of protection, I think I prefer it without the case as it does look incredibly cool with all the LED’s glowing and the little OLED screen displaying messages and such. I’ll just need to be careful to never drop a paperclip down the back of my C64!

 

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Teething Problems

With the WiC64 now plugged in it was time to test it out! I downloaded the Launcher from the WiC64.net site (currently at version 2.5) and copied it over to my 1541 Ultimate II+ cart (via ethernet)  so that I could run it.

 

Ground control to Major Tom…

 

It popped up a message saying it was searching for Wi-Fi and a few of the lights started to flicker on the board…

 

Lights are on but nobody’s home…

 

However it never got any further than this. After about a minute of trying the launcher would simply crash leaving me with a blank screen.

 

This doesn’t look good!

 

Needless to say I tried this a few times but got the same result each time. I even tried activating the hotspot on my iPhone (with maximised compatibility) in case it didn’t like my Wi-Fi 6 router but it still failed.

 

Updating the Firmware

With nothing seeming to work I decided to have a go at updating the firmware as I remember seeing this mentioned on the card. The whole process is web based and conducted within the browser itself. I had to unplug the WiC64 board from my C64 and then hook it up to my Windows 11 PC using a MicroUSB cable.

 

WiC64 Flashing

WiC64 ready to be flashed

 

Needless to say I had to install a driver for it first as the UART device was showing as unrecognised in Device Manager…

 

How it appears in device manager

 

There’s step by step instructions on the ‘Online Flasher’ page and it directs you to a Silicon Labs website to download the drivers. I have Windows 11 so chose the CP210x Universal Windows Driver which worked out well. Installing the driver was just a matter of right-clicking the device and selecting ‘update driver’ and then pointing it to the folder where I’d extracted the driver previously.

Driver successfully installed

 

Flashing the device is actually done within the browser but it must be Chrome, Edge or Opera. I use Brave but thought I’d still be OK because it’s Chromium based but the Connect button never appeared for me until I changed over to Edge. Then I was able to select ‘CP2102 USB to UART Bridge Controller (COM7)’ as the serial port to begin the process. Sadly within a few seconds of starting the update it failed with an error. Although I never did find out what caused the error the solution was to hold down the ‘BOOT’ button on the ESP32 module whilst performing the update and it then worked without a hitch.

With the firmware now updated it was time to put it back in my C64 and see if I could get it to connect to my Wi-Fi.

I hooked it back up to my user-port, turned on my 64 and loaded up version 2.5 of the launcher once more.

 

Now we’re getting somewhere!

 

Much to my delight this time around it displayed (just) my 2.4Ghz SSID (I have a Tri-band router) and I was able to enter the password to connect to it just like you would expect to do with any modern day device.

 

WiC64

BOOM! We’re in business!

 

After a few moments it connected and my C64’s IP address was displayed on the OLED screen, along with the SSID, signal strength and current firmware version.

 

WiC64 Welcome Screen

WiC64 Welcome Screen

 

The launcher menu screen also loaded up with new options to Login and Register. I didn’t have an account so I selected Register to create one which only took a few moments and then I was finally into the system proper.

 

WiC64 Menu Screen

WiC64 Menu Screen

 

Let the Games Begin!

There’s a lot of sub menus and interesting things tucked away into the WiC64 Launcher menus but I’m just going to pick out some of the things I found interesting – in no particular order!

 

Offline Games List

 

I’ll start with the games as there’s quite a lot of them. They’re split between Offline games (found in the File Area>Games section) Online games and online multiplayer games. The mind blowing thing about these games is that they load onto your C64 over the internet, but not only that they load in just a matter of seconds. I decided to give Shadow Switcher a quick blast as it’s a game I know and love. I selected it from the menu and BAM, a second later it had loaded and I was able to play it. Absolutely incredible.

 

Shadow Switcher

 

The Online and Multiplayer games have their own section which splits off into another 4 sections containing approximately 20 games. The ‘Online’ games are existing games that have been modified to incorporate persistent High Score tables where you can compete for bragging rights against other WiC64 players. There’s a global ‘all time greatest’ score table and also a ‘Todays Greatest’ which is a cool feature that gives everyone a shot at fame no matter their skill level as it gets wiped every 24 hours.

 

All-Time Greatest and Todays Greatest High Scores

 

I decided to have a blast at Great Giana Sisters next, which being a bigger game, took a bit longer to load, coming in at a whisker over 20 seconds.  Still mightily impressive and if you don’t own or have a copy of the game to hand the sheer convenience of this system is game-changing. Imagine having an entire catalogue of hundreds of games and being able to tap into them whenever you want and play them on your real C64 with persistent high scores stored in the cloud adding a new competitive edge to the gameplay.

 

Great Giana Sisters – WiC64 High Score Edition

 

There’s currently only 2 multiplayer games; Artillery Duel Deluxe and Multorio. Multorio appears to require the username of the person you want to play against upfront before it will do anything so as I don’t know anyone else using it I’ve not been able to try this.

 

Artillery Duel Deluxe

 

However Artillery Duel Deluxe is a lot more user friendly and will let you play against random people online, play local multiplayer or even just play solo. It even has a spectator mode called ‘Onlooker mode’ where you can watch other players duke it out! I’m not sure if this is live or more of a replay of past battles but it’s still entertaining!

 

Artillery Duel Deluxe

 

Obviously this isn’t Steam or Xbox Live so finding other users online can be tricky which is why the solo mode is much appreciated. I assume this is probably why the developers seem to be focusing on asynchronous gameplay, affording everyone the opportunity to compete against others, any time they want.

 

Internet Radio

WiC64 Radio is another program I found myself coming back to time and time again. It’s tucked away in the ‘Apps’ section of the ‘File Area’. Personally I would have thought the Internet section was more appropriate but it didn’t take long for me to remember where it was located.

 

WiC64 Radio

WiC64 Radio

 

I absolutely adore SID chip music and this program supplies a never-ending stream of it over the internet directly into your SID chip. The program will just keep playing an endless stream of fantastic SID tracks until you close it. If you come across one you’re not so keen on you can just tap space to skip it and move onto another,

 

WiC64 Radio

 

Not only that but you can create a custom playlist of your favourite tracks too. The screen displays lots of info about the track currently playing including the author, title, it’s release date and run time. I tend to load this up and just leave it running in the background – you can’t beat some classic SID tunes being played through real hardware.

 

Demo’s

One of the things I used to love doing in my youth was watching and listening to scene demos on both my C64 and later on my Amiga. Well the WiC64 has got me covered here too with a nifty Demo section containing 8 demo’s filled with pulsating graphics and sound for that shot of nostalgic dopamine.

 

“Quadrants” Demo

 

Most of these demo’s loaded pretty much instantaneously for instant retro gratification. The Elite Code Mechanics demo soon proved to be a particular favourite due to the amazing music which I could (and did) happily listen to for hours.

 

Elite Code Mechanics Demo

 

The still pictures obviously don’t do the demos justice but I just couldn’t get my iPhone to capture video off my 1084 monitor without it turning into a horrid flickering mess.

 

Crystal Gazer Demo

 

Ideally I’d like to see many, many more demos appear here so hopefully the developers add to this section over time, after all, most of them are probably in the public domain (unlike the games) so there shouldn’t be too many obstacles to making it happen?

 

Chat/Messaging

WiC64 seems to be a predominantly German project right now so the Chat and Message board areas are dominated by German users which is a shame but I’m sure in time as more of us come on board this will change

 

Sadly most, if not all, the messages seem to be in German

 

However I was intrigued by the ChatGPT option at the bottom of the menu. Surely this couldn’t be THE ChatGPT that is all the rage right now?

 

Surely not, ChatGPT on the C64?

 

Chat GPT

Well yes, actually it is. Incredibly the AI revolution has made it to our trusty C64’s in 2024. You can ask it any question and get a near instant reply. It works just like it does on a modern computer, simply ask it a question and it will respond with an answer almost immediately.

 

ChatGPT in action on the C64

 

Obviously unlike, for example, Copilot in Windows 11, it is unable to create images but I wouldn’t really have expected that anyway. It also does seem to lack the continuity you get when interacting with ChatGPT on modern systems. For example if you try to tell it a Knock Knock joke it will respond with ‘who’s there’ but then thinks your answer is a new question. Likewise you can start a game of hangman but your guesses don’t seem to be recognised. It’s probably churlish of me to nit pick things like this when the fact it works at all is an astonishing achievement, but it would be the icing on the cake if they could fix this. However ask it any other straight question and you will get just as comprehensive a response as you would on a new computer which is just incredible.

 

Google Maps!

Yes you read that heading right, WiC64 also gives you a portal to Google Maps on your C64 and what’s more its actually useable too! This is arguably even more impressive than ChatGPT given the graphical overhead involved in drawing them.

 

Google Maps

 

You can search for a place or post code from the menu screen or just dive straight in. It seems to have a rough idea where you are already, presumably based on your external IP address, unless it was just pure coincidence that it started me off in Merseyside! Once the map is visible on the screen you are able to zoom in and out using the function keys and pan around using WASD. There’s a choice of satellite view or road map view. Each page refresh takes about 5 seconds or thereabouts to display – eminently useable and I was able to find and navigate around places I know very easily.

 

Google Streetview!

 

But there’s more! Pressing ‘V’ toggles Street View so you can look around in glorious 8-bit 3D at your street and even find your house, all on your Commodore 64. I would not have believed this possible if I’d not experienced it myself. It’s an absolutely astonishing accomplishment.

 

Clocks

There’s plenty more programs and features to be discovered that I haven’t mentioned yet too. For instance there’s an entire sub-menu devoted to a collection of Real Time Clocks (synced to the Internet of course), ranging from a simple digital clock to some downright convoluted affairs that require some serious thought to decipher!

 

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C/Place Pixel Project

There’s also something called  “C/Place Pixel Project” which is an interesting little concept. It’s basically a community art project – you take it in turns with other users to place a single pixel on a 40×50 screen in order to ‘paint’ a picture. If nobody else is around you can make a picture on your own instead! It also has an option to let you watch a timelapse of pictures being created which can be quite mesmerising to watch and a really neat extra feature.

 

c/place Pixel Project

 

 

WiC64 Media Center

This is yet another really cool feature that lets you upload your physical disks into the cloud, either for public use or your own private use.

 

Uploading one of my disks to the WMC

 

You simply pop a disk in your drive, enter a few details to help catalogue it so you and/or others can find it in future and then hit upload. Naturally you can also download the disks too.

 

Downloading a disk from the WMC.

 

In just a couple of minutes I was able to download a game from the WMC cloud onto a floppy disk with just a few keypresses and then load it up and play it.

 

Playing the game I’d just downloaded.

 

There’s a whole repository of disks already waiting to be accessed in the cloud too. This is the sort of thing I could only dream about back when I was a teenager but it’s now a reality thanks to the WiC64.

 

Honourable Mentions

There’s even more stuff to play around with that I’ve not covered yet including:

  • MOSCloud Compiler (a facility to upload your BASIC programs and have them compiled in the cloud).
  • Remote Image Viewer (enter an image URL and it will render it on your C64). I didn’t have much success with this as most online images have horrendously long and complex URL’s and it’s very easy to make a mistake entering them without the option of copy’n’paste. However even when I was absolutely sure I had the URL correct I’d get a ‘failed to process image’ error. Hopefully it’s just a glitch and will be ironed out in due course.
  • CSDB Browser to keep up to date with the latest C64 releases
  • RSS Feed viewers for Forum64 and Tagesschau – sadly both in German only.
  • Telnet program – with a few provided servers to try (similar sort of experience to BBS’s) or you can try entering your own.
  • A DiskMags section – I found the intro screens and accompanying chip music a lot more entertaining than reading some of them but as always with these things YMMV.

 

Excess RapidNews DiskMag

 

Conclusion

I did have a few crashes and lock-ups but nothing major and considering what it’s trying (and succeeding) to do I can totally forgive a little instability. Besides, on the odd occasions it happened I just reloaded the launcher via my 1541 Ultimate-II+ cart and was immediately returned to the exact same position in the menu that I’d launched the program from. It was a minor inconvenience at most. There were also few little issues I had during setup but nothing major and they were all easily solved by a spot of RTFM. There were a couple of sections that seemed to be dominated by German speaking users but hopefully that will change as the device becomes more popular, but even if it doesn’t it only affects a tiny fraction of what’s on offer anyway.

Without a doubt this is an absolutely incredible hardware and software package that really brings the venerable C64 into the 21st Century. It offers so many new ways of accomplishing things, new ideas to try out not to mention the potential new features it may bring in the future. This is one of those devices that every C64 user owes it to themselves to get hold of. Whether you are a gamer or a tinkerer there’s something to interest everyone here and at just £35 it’s a bit of a no-brainer too. SharewarePlus has them in stock now so what are you waiting for? Go get one!