This astonishing little package from Shareware Plus dropped through my letterbox a few days ago. It was nicely presented in a custom printed box with some very trippy black and white ‘Freespin’ artwork on the cover. At this point I just thought it was a standard disk based C64 demo, or collection of them…
Back of the box
So what was inside the box? Well there was a 5.25” Floppy Disk with a cool printed colour label and snazzy jacket, an intriguing Commodore Serial to RCA plug cable and a single instruction card. A cable… maybe this wasn’t just a typical demo after all?
Contents of the Box
The card featured a link to a website for more info on the front and a simple set of instructions printed on the reverse side in nice clear, easy to read text.
Contents of the Box
So, what was it, really?
According to the blurb on the box, ‘Freespin generates sound using the floppy drive stepper motor and video through the serial bus. With just a Commodore 1541 disk drive, Freespin cable and a standard C64 monitor, you can watch the Freespin demo by Reflex that runs directly from a 1541 disk drive and without a C64’.
If you’ve ever stumbled across the Floppotron on YouTube then you’ll have a good idea what this is from the get go – but this is even better than that…
I was pretty excited at this point as I’m a sucker for this kind of thing and was chomping at the bit to see if and how it worked!
Running the Demo
Getting everything set up couldn’t have been simpler. I popped the floppy disk into my trusty 1541-II drive and performed the usual “LOAD”*”,8,1″ command. The program only took a few seconds to load up and then I simply launched it using the “RUN” command.
(By the way – it wasn’t until I saw my photo below when putting together this post that I realised I had JIFFYDOS enabled but as it happens it didn’t have any detrimental effect).
Loading up the Freespin Program
After a bit of flickering a cool looking Freespin screen appeared using the C64’s HIRES graphics mode containing instructions on how to proceed along with a wiring diagram for creating your own cable. Thankfully one was provided in the box so I didn’t need to but I appreciated having it displayed on screen like that.
The main Freespin Program screen
By the time that screen appeared the program had already been loaded into the RAM in the 1541 so I was able to disconnect the drive from the C64 and also disconnect it from my monitor too! I then hooked up the supplied cable to the serial port on my disk drive and routed it into the now empty composite video input on my monitor. At this point nothing happened but I kept the faith and did as instructed which was to open and close the lever on the drive – without removing the disk – and this is when the magic started.
Not only disk my 1541 become a mini digital orchestra but I was treated to a demo-scene style monochrome graphic display from my monitor. Graphics that were definitely not coming from my C64 VIC chip but my from my disk drive!!! Equally amazing was the quality of the music coming from the drive. The range of ‘instruments’ or ‘effects’ it was able to generate was unbelievable – if I didn’t know better I’d have sworn some of the sounds were coming from the SID chip. Very, very impressive stuff – the Floppotron, as good as it is, by contrast uses a whole bunch of other devices to make its sounds and I still don’t think it can produce anything as nuanced or awesome as this and of course this is all coming from a single 1541!
The guys behind this project can explain how it works far better than me so if you want more info on how they pulled this off head over to the Freespin website.
Sadly I did have some bad image sync issues with the video output on my LCD monitor which is hardly surprising really given the source. I ended up digging out my Commodore 1084S CRT monitor and most of those issues vanished although it did make my workbench look even more cluttered than usual!
There’s no way I can convey how it sounded without resorting to a video recording so here’s one I prepared earlier…
I apologise for the quality of the audio in the above clip – I had a window open because it was so warm and cars kept going past and planes flying over… well you get the idea. The CRT monitor also appears to flicker in the video as I couldn’t get the exposure right on my iPhone – the display is rock solid in reality.
Anyway that video is just to give you an idea of what to expect – you really need to experience this for yourself – it’s incredibly cool and clever and given it’s only £15 (plus P&P) from SharewarePlus there’s no reason not to get your own copy and see the capabilities your trusty 1541 has been hiding from you all these years!!!
