How to use FTP on your C64 Ultimate

One of the many benefits I enjoyed with my trusty 1541 Ultimate II+ cartridge was the ability to transfer files to (and from) my C64 to my modern day computer. I’m pleased to see that the C64 Ultimate also has this feature built in.

C64 Ultimate MicroSD Card Slot

You can store your digital C64 library on USB flash drives or on a memory card. To keep things super neat and tidy I decided to install a FAT formatted 16GB MicroSD card into the card slot on the motherboard. Really easy to do, just undo the three screws, lift the front of the lid and pop it in, label side up. The socket is spring loaded so you’ll hear and feel a little click once you’ve inserted it far enough.

16GB microSD fully inserted

Before going any further, you need to ensure that your C64 is connected to your LAN, either via an ethernet cable or Wi-Fi and that you know what its IP is. I’d also strongly recommend reserving that IP on your router so it becomes permanent. Not essential but does make life a lot easier if you’re going to be connecting to it a lot, and I most certainly am!

Enabling FTP service

The FTP server feature on the C64 Ultimate is disabled by default so you need to go into the ‘Network Services & Timezone’ menu and enable it, making sure you save the change to flash memory as you back out.

FTP Settings

Next you need to load up your FTP program of choice. I use ForkLift on my Mac (because it’s similar to Directory Opus which I love) and it has a nice built-in FTP client but you could use FileZilla or anything you want.

C64 Ultimate available drives

The Protocol should be set to FTP, the Server is the IP of your C64 Ultimate (192.168.1.120 in my case) and the port should be 21. Ensure Passive mode is enabled too. You should be able to leave the rest of the settings alone.

Now would be a good time to save these settings into your favourites or directory/address book, so you don’t have to enter them next time, then click on connect. All being well, a few seconds later you should be connected and viewing all the available drives accessible to your C64. In my case I could see the Flash memory (where cart and ROM images are stored), the SD card, a Temp folder and lastly a USB drive that was also plugged in.

This card will self-destruct in ten seconds…

At that point I just double-clicked the C64’s SD Card drive on my Mac and was ready to go. You can just upload files to your C64 as you would with any FTP server. D64’s, SID files, cartridges, anything at all. Transfer speeds aren’t brilliant but they’re perfectly acceptable for transferring small batches of games across. A typical 176KB D64 file takes about 4 seconds to copy over which is far quicker than taking the card out, putting it in your computer, copying the file onto it etc.

Of course if you wanted to transfer a large collection across that’s when taking the card out would make sense, but if you’re not in a hurry it’s still possible via FTP too and saves wear and tear on both your case and memory card. Also interesting to note that you can transfer files even when your C64 is playing a game or running a demo.

A nice short and sweet post today. Hope you find it useful, I know I have!