Lyonsden Blog

Tag - Floppy Disk

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 .

Zzap! 64 Issue 17 out now

Zzap! 64 Issue 17

Here’s a quick look at my copy of Zzap! 64, Issue 17, that arrived a few days ago.

 

Zzap! 64 Issue 17

Zzap! 64 Issue 17 Cover Image

 

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. Spoiler alert – there’s a lot of games getting Sizzler awards in this issue!

 

Zzap! 64 Issue 17

Contents Page

 

Sadly the coverdisk for Zzap! 64 is digital only these days as the supply of ‘new old stock’ 5.25″ disks has run dry (nobody manufactures new ones any more). There’s still a page dedicated to letting you know what you can enjoy when you ‘insert’ the .D64 file into your 1541 Ultimate II+ though (or whatever your 1541 emulator of choice happens to be).

 

Zzap! 64 Issue 17

Digital ‘covermount’ content page.

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Getting hold of a copy of Zzap! 64 Issue 17

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 nifty 15% off the price! This code works for everything you place in your basket too!

I’ll leave you with a small gallery of images from the magazine.

 

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You can find other Zzap! 64 related posts here .

Zzap! 64 Issue 16 out now

Zzap! 64 Issue 16

Here’s a quick look at my copy of Zzap! 64, Issue 16, that arrived in the post today.

 

Zzap! 64 Issue 16

Zzap! 64 Issue 16 Cover Image

 

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 16 Contents Page

Contents Page

 

Sadly the coverdisk for Zzap! 64 is digital only these days as the supply of ‘new old stock’ 5.25″ disks has run dry (nobody manufactures new ones any more). There’s still a page dedicated to letting you know what you can enjoy when you ‘insert’ the .D64 file into your 1541 Ultimate II+ though (or whatever your 1541 emulator of choice happens to be).

 

Zzap! 64 Issue 16 Coverdisc Page

Digital ‘covermount’ content page.

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Getting hold of a copy of Zzap! 64 Issue 16

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 nifty 15% off the price! This code works for everything you place in your basket too!

I’ll leave you with a small gallery of images from the magazine.

 

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You can find other Zzap! 64 related posts here .

Zzap! 64 Issue 15 out now

Zzap! 64 Issue 15

Wouldn’t you just know it, like buses, you wait months for the next editions of your favourite retro gaming magazines to arrive and then they all come at once! Yep today my postie delivered Zzap! 64 to join yesterdays Zzap! Amiga and Freeze 64 from the day before! This is issue 15 of Zzap! 64 and features possibly one of the most iconic and memorable bits of cover artwork the original run of the magazine ever used.

 

Zzap! 64 Issue 15

Yummy.

 

The magazine is packed with content spanning its 60 pages, with news and game reviews, including more than one title that gets the coveted ‘sizzler’ award!

 

A Peek Inside

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

 

Zzap! 64 Issue 15

Zzap! 64 issue 15 Contents page.

 

Sadly the coverdisk for Zzap! 64 is digital only these days as the supply of ‘new old stock’ 5.25″ disks has run dry (nobody manufactures new ones any more) . There’s still a page dedicated to letting you know what you can enjoy when you ‘insert’ the .D64 file into your 1541 Ultimate II+ though (or whatever your 1541 emulator of choice happens to be).

 

Zzap! 64 Issue 15

Digital ‘covermount’ content page.

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Getting hold of a copy of Zzap! 64 Issue 15

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 nifty 15% off the price! This code works for everything you place in your basket too!

I’ll leave you with a small gallery of images from the magazine.

 

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Zzap! 64 Issue 8

Zzap! 64 Issue 15

It’s been quite some time since I last shared a look at the latest Zzap! 64 magazine and coverdisk so having just received Issue 8 I thought I’d rectify that.

 

Zzap! 64 issue 8

Zzap! 64 Issue 8 with accompanying Disk.

 

The magazine itself is another cracking edition with plenty of content to get stuck into. Spanning 60 pages there was lots to read about, including 8 new C64 game reviews, retro reviews, news and articles.

The editorial really stuck a chord with me on this occasion as it was all about the mighty ‘Mega65′ computer. I finally took the plunge and pre-ordered one of the second batch of these myself a while back and can’t wait to get my hands on it so I really hope the idea of a regular Mega65 section comes to pass.

 

Zzap! 64 issue 8

Zzap! 64 issue 8 Contents page.

 

As always the coverdisk is a visual treat in itself before it ever goes near a 1541! Featuring some great ‘space-y’ artwork across both the disk jacket and label. I’ve probably said this before but I wish this had been the standard of disks back in the day – but I suppose full colour printing was prohibitively expensive back then.

 

Zzap! 64 issue 8

Zzap! 64 issue 8 Cover Disk.

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A huge part of the enjoyment of getting a new coverdisk for me is going in blind and discovering what’s on them. Flipping the disk over gave the game away a little as the contents were listed on the back of the jacket. Still, it will prove handy in the future when I’m trying to locate a specific game/demo.

 

Zzap! 64 issue 8

Zzap! 64 issue 8 Cover Disk – back of disk jacket.

 

Coverdisk Contents

Upon loading up the disk I was greeted with a cool title screen listing the contents of the disk and a nice piece of SID music. Issue 8’s coverdisk features three full games and two demos spread across both sides. When selecting an option from the menu it tells you which side of the disk needs to be inserted before asking you to press the space bar to load it.

Option six brings up instructions for each game accompanied by some jolly decent Last Ninja music.

 

Zzap! 64 issue 8

Cover Disk Title Screen.

 

The Games and Demos on Disk #08

 

Ball & Chain

 

This is a fun little side-scrolling, endless runner style game where you guide your character, a rubber ball, around obstacles collecting coins and defeating baddies along the way.  The ball and chain you are shackled to can be used as a weapon once you get the hang of swinging it around. The game starts off pretty easy but soon starts to get harder and faster until you inevitably go splat.

 

Ball and Chain

Ball and Chain

 

Tenebra Extended

Tenebra is a really unique puzzle game where you have to guide your character through mazes of increasing complexity to reach the exit. The neat mechanic here though is that you can only move around lit areas and most of the levels are in darkness. You can pick up torches to light the way but there will be entrances that can only be crossed when your hands are free (forcing you to drop the torch) and so on. The game also features a neat password system so you can continue your progress right where you left off. All in all a very enjoyable and relaxing little game.

 

Tenebra

Tenebra

 

Cruiser-X 79 Demo

The is a demo of an upcoming vertical scrolling shoot-em-up. Shoot stuff whilst trying to avoid getting hit yourself and picking up power-ups along the way. Decent title music and functional in-game music and SFX,

 

Cruiser-X 79

Cruiser-X 79

 

Stoker Demo v2

This is a demo of a very interesting looking platform game featuring a cute looking dragon as the main character. The main appeal of this game is the huge playable dragon character called ‘Stoker’. He’s much larger than the sort of characters we’re used to on the C64 and really well drawn and animated too. Looking forward to seeing this when it is finished.

 

Stoker

Stoker

 

Rowman

In Rowman you control a little guy in a boat who must escape from a labyrinthine cave system collecting coins and treasure along the way. You have the ability to raise (but not lower) the level of the water inside the caves which you need to use carefully to both collect coins and reach each cave’s exit. The best part of this game for me though was it’s paddle support which is pretty rare in C64 games, new or old.

It really comes into its’ own with a set of paddles attached although it is very sensitive and I found my Hedaka Paddles worked far better than my cheap Atari  ones. If you have access to a decent set of paddles this is the best way to play the game. Be warned it can get get quite frustrating! Falling rocks can be almost impossible to avoid if you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time…

 

Rowman

Rowman

 

Getting hold of a copy of Zzap! 64 Issue 8

This is another great edition of Zzap! 64 and well worth a buy, as is the coverdisk if you are a fan of physical media. The magazine is available from Fusion Retro Books and is priced at £3.99. Make sure you use the code ‘LYONSDENBLOG’ to grab yourself a nifty 15% off the price! This code works for everything you place in your basket too!

Here’s a small gallery of images from the magazine.

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Zzap! 64 Issue 3

Zzap! 64 Issue 3

Zzap! 64 Issue 3 arrived in the post last week sporting a very unique addition – an actual physical cover disk! I do remember later editions of Zzap! having cover mounted cassette tapes but this is the first time (to my knowledge) that it’s ever come with a floppy disk!

 

Zzap! 64 Issue 3

Zzap! 64 Issue 3 with Disk.

 

The magazine itself is another cracking edition with plenty of game reviews and all my favourite sections featured. A text adventure was even awarded a Zzap! Sizzler –  it’s one I’ve not played and it’s free to download – how great is that!

Being a huge Synthwave (and LukHash) fan I found Chris Simpsons ‘We are Stardust’ interview with him about his latest album especially interesting.

 

Zzap! 64 Issue 3

Zzap! 64 issue 3 Contents page.

 

The cover disk itself is beautifully presented in a full colour professionally printed jacket with matching disk label. There’s an extra notch cut into the disk too which means it’s double sided so extra goodies!

 

Zzap! 64 issue 3

Zzap! 64 issue 3 Cover Disk.

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I was really excited to see what was on the disk and was not disappointed. Kudos to the person who created the disk too – it worked perfectly even though my physical 1541-II drive is configured as device 9. Nice!

 

Zzap! 64 issue 3

Zzap! 64 issue 3 Cover Disk – back of disk jacket.

 

Side One Contents

 

Directory listing for side 1.

 

A quick ‘LOAD”$”,9 revealed that this side contained a Ghost Bunny game and also the up and coming Empire Strikes back game. Sadly the latter is just a demo but it’ll be here soon hopefully!

 

The Ghost Bunny Title Screen.

 

Ghost Bunny is a flip screen game featuring a cute rabbit who you manoeuvre around ‘flappy bird’ style and it utilises the C64’s hi-res graphics mode.

 

Ghost Bunny Game.

 

The Empire Strikes Back demo is a Zzap! 64 exclusive and starts with a really cool title screen complete with the Imperial March music playing.

 

The Empire Strikes Back Title Screen.

 

Launching the demo takes you straight to a confrontation with a bunch of AT-AT’s where I subsequently died. A lot. Can’t wait for the finished game though!

 

The Empire Strikes Back Game Demo.

 

Side Two Contents

This time loading up the directory listing revealed a single game called ‘Torreoscura’.

 

Directory listing for side 2.

 

This is a full blown text adventure game which I was delighted to find. I enjoy shoot’em-ups and platform games but I also appreciate something more chilled and cerebral. I must admit I have a real soft spot for Text Adventures (as my growing Infocom collection will attest to).

 

Torreoscura Adventure Game.

 

Getting hold of a copy of Zzap! 64 Issue 3

If you are a C64 gamer then you owe it to yourself to pick up a copy of Zzap! 64 Issue 3. The magazine is available from Fusion Retro Books and is priced at £3.99. Make sure you use the code ‘LYONSDENBLOG’ to grab yourself a nifty 15% off the price! This code works for everything you place in your basket too!

Here’s a small gallery of images from the magazine.

 

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Installing Amiga OS 3.1.4 – Part 1 (Obtaining the Disks)

For my ‘new’ Amiga 1200 I decided I wanted to have the latest Workbench running on it so I ordered myself a copy of AmigaOS 3.1.4 from Sordan in Ireland. It arrived a few days later in a small cardboard box and consisted of a ROM Installation Guide, 2 Kickstart chips and a bunch of labels for you to stick to your own Amiga OS 3.1.4 Disks.

 

Amiga OS 3.1.4 Disks

This is what you get when you purchase Amiga OS 3.1.4

 

Registering my Purchase

To actually obtain digital copies of the disks I had to register my serial number (found on the top of the Kickstart ROM’s) on the Hyperion Entertainment website. After doing that I was able to download a bunch of ADF files and a few other things (Wallpapers, Icon packs and documentation mainly) on my PC.

 

Box of Blank 3.5" Floppy Disks

Time to crack open a nice box of 3.5″ Floppies.

 

It would have been nice to have received the disks in the box but it’s no real hardship creating my own and it cuts down the price quite a lot. I love working with real floppy disks anyway, the tactile feel of them in use and listening to the whirring of the drive as it accesses them*.

*I hate working with grotty, mouldy, faulty old disks that end up giving me nothing but aggravation and a headache.

 

3.5" Disk made in England

You don’t see this much any more…

 

I decided to use my trusty Amiga 500 to create the disks as it has an SD Card reader that makes transferring the files across from my PC a doddle. Once I’d copied the ADF files over I loaded up my favourite ADF software, GoADF and dug out a box of new 3.5″ DS DD floppy disks and set about creating my 6 Workbench disks.

 

GoADF

 

Creating the Workbench Disks

I started with the Workbench disk first, selecting it from the list of ADF files provided. Double-clicking the name of the ADF loads the image into the software.

 

Amiga OS 3.1.4 Disks

Here we can see all the Amiga OS 3.1.4 Disk images in GoADF.

 

Alternatively you can click the ‘Load image’ button on the bottom left of the screen.

 

GoADF

Load (ADF) Image.

 

As I wanted to create a physical disk from the ADF files I selected ‘Image to disk…’

 

GoADF

To write ADF images to a real floppy you must select the ‘Image to disk’ option.

 

Which loads up the disk creation window. Here you can select which drive you want to use and whether you want to format and/or verify the disk.

 

GoADF

My disks were IBM PC formatted hence the ‘not a valid DOS disk’ warning.

 

I opted to both format and verify the disk. You simply can’t be too careful when working with floppy disks these days. Most DS/DD floppy disks have to be at least 20 years old by now as new ones haven’t been manufactured in a long time.

 

GoADF

At this point it might be a good time to check that the disk you have inserted really is the one you want to use!

 

Writing the First Disk

Clicking ‘write image to disk’ brings up the obligatory warning that the disk will be overwritten. Clicking ‘yes’ begins the process which starts off with the disk being formatted.

 

GoADF

Formatting the disk…

 

GoADF features a neat virtual representation of the floppy disk marking each sector white as it’s formatted…

 

GoADF

Writing the data to the disk…

 

Then blue as the data is written to it…

 

GoADF

Verifying the disk…

 

And finally places a small black dot in it after the data has been successfully verified. A couple of minutes later a little box appears to confirm the disk has been created successfully.

 

GoADF

Hurrah – one down, five to go!

 

And here’s the completed disk with it’s snazzy label affixed.

 

Amiga OS 3.1.4 Disks

Amiga OS 3.1.4 Workbench Disk.

 

Now it was just a matter of repeating the process for the other 5 ADF’s to give me a complete set of Workbench disks.

 

Amiga OS 3.1.4 Disks

A full set of Workbench 3.1.4 floppy disks!

 

However there’s a couple of other disks that needed creating – ones that no labels are provided for. The first is the ‘Modules Disk’ and the second is a new ‘3.1.4.1’ update that has recently been released containing the latest Workbench bug-fixes. The update disk was a separate download from the Workbench disks but is provided free for registered users.

 

Amiga OS 3.1.4 Disks

The extra disks needed. Sadly no professionally printed labels for these!

 

In Part 2 I will cover installing the ROM chips and performing a clean install of Workbench on a new CF/HDD.

Cosmic Force Review

This was a game I backed on Kickstarter back in March 2019 and a couple of weeks ago it finally arrived through my letterbox.

 

Cosmic Force Review

Cosmic Force Box Cover.

 

The front box artwork is nicely done featuring your spaceship surrounded by blueprints of what are presumably enemy spacecraft. The back of the box shows a few screenshots of the game along with a description of the gameplay elements you will encounter.

 

Cosmic Force Review

Back of the Cosmic Force box.

 

Opening up the box reveals a number of physical goodies that enhance ownership of the game, harking back to a time when this sort of thing was commonplace.

 

Cosmic Force Box Contents

Cosmic Force Box Contents

 

Included inside is a Blu-ray ‘making of’ documentary, a Cosmic Force sticker plus the game on a 5.25″ floppy disk along with a paper jacket to store the disc in.

 

Cosmic Force Box Contents

Goodies laid out.

 

Completing the physical box contents is a full colour instruction manual with a cover that duplicates the artwork found on the box.

 

Cosmic Force Instruction Manual.

 

The instruction manual is terrific and includes a little bit of history behind the games creation along with some technical insights into how it was programmed. Littered throughout are many colour screenshots of the game to accompany the instructions and gameplay hints provided.

 

Cosmic Force Review

A look inside the instruction manual.

 

Rounding off the manual is a list of all the Kickstarter backers who enabled the game to be created. I really liked this feature and it gave me a warm fuzzy feeling inside seeing my name listed amongst them.

 

Cosmic Force Review

My name in the Kickstarter backer list.

 

The Game

Upon first loading the game you are presented with a menu screen of sorts allowing you choose between starting the game, loading the pixel art title screen and resetting the high score. This game stores your high score on the disk which is a terrific feature that I wish a lot more games offered.

 

This is the first screen you are presented with after loading the game.

 

The vibrant pixel art title screen is well worth a load at least once. The fact that it is accompanied by a funky piece of Rob Hubbard/Jason Page music certainly doesn’t hurt it either!

 

The ‘Pixel Art’ title screen.

 

Once you’ve had enough of the title screen and music you can press fire and the game will load. You get a brief overview of the games plot and also a view of the current high score. This is a pretty spartan screen compared to the title screen which is a bit of a shame. The use of a custom font here at the very least would have elevated its appearance greatly.

 

Cosmic Force Review

This is the main title screen of the game proper.

 

Phase 1

Pressing fire starts the game proper. The first section is, as the game event admits in the manual, just like Galaxians. Waves of enemies will make their way down the screen in various formations whilst shooting at you. When destroyed some of the enemies will drop a range of power ups for you to pick up. These include a twin shot, a protective force field, a bomb which will destroy everything on screen, extra lives and an EMP that that freezes enemies in place allowing you to pick them off with ease.

If you die you will lose your current power-up. In fact even if you don’t you will lose it as soon as you enter the next level. Fortunately they are not in short supply. Extra lives in particular are thrown at you regularly and you will need them all if you are to stand a chance of reaching level 108.

 

Cosmic Force Review

The ‘Galaxians’ Phase.

 

Your ship is able to move both vertically and horizontally as you would expect and firing speed is only limited by how fast you can mash the fire button. A simplified version of the music continues to play during the game using one less channel leaving room for the sound effects of your laser fire and enemy explosions.

 

Phase 2

After a few waves of Galaxians you move onto the next series of levels – the ‘Star Wars’ phase. This is easily the weakest part of the game for me. Waves of enemy drones follow an elliptical path ‘into’ the screen. To give a 3D effect, blocky sprites are reduced in size to make them appear to fly away into the distance which in itself is an acceptable effect. However they do not fire back at you!! You can sit there doing nothing and the drones will just appear in front of you and fly away into the distance only to reappear in front of you and do the same again and again until you shoot them down. At the very least there should have been a timer or something to add some level of tension here but really the enemies should have been firing back at you.

 

Cosmic Force Review

The ‘Star Wars’ Phase.

 

Another niggle I have with this section is the lack of a firing animation. When you press fire the crosshairs will briefly flash and you hear a beep… and that’s it. If an enemy is under the crosshairs at the time it will be destroyed. Some sort of laser beam effect would have been nice here… even if it was just a couple of flashing lines like you got in Elite so you know your weapon is actually firing.

 

Phase 3

When you complete the star wars bit (and lets face it, it’s impossible to fail) it’s on to the final Defender phase. Here you fly your ship horizontally left and right across a scrolling vector landscape shooting down enemies and trying to prevent them from building bases on the planet surface.

 

Cosmic Force Review

The ‘Defender’ Phase.

 

The enemies are by and large the same as the ones you faced in the first stage of the game. They share similar attack patterns even though the screen is now scrolling horizontally. The new mechanic here is preventing the aliens from landing and building bases on the surface. Sadly there is no radar included for this section of the game which is an odd omission for a defender clone. It doesn’t ruin the gameplay completely but it does make accidental mid-air collisions with enemies more frequent than I would have liked.

Interspersed between the three phases are the occasional challenge levels. These are a variation of the Galaxians phase but enemies drop lots of pick-ups giving you a chance to stock up on extra lives and bonus score. After phase three you go back to phase one with slightly more enemies to deal with.

Verdict

The presentation of the game is a little disappointing I feel. The game makes a great first impression with a high quality box, physical goodies and that impressive pixel art screen. However things take a turn for the lacklustre once the main game loads with a screen full of text using the C64’s standard font. The enemy sprites are also very dull with poor use of colour making the game look very drab and uninteresting.

After the three phases the levels just loop around with maybe a few extra enemies so you are basically playing the same levels over and over with little to set them apart. There’s the occasional challenge level thrown in that offers extra lives and score bonuses but these don’t look much different from the standard levels.  There are 108 levels in total and so far I’ve reached level 40. Other than encountering an asteroid field once there hasn’t been anything radically different from the first few levels of play.

 

Cosmic Force High Score Screen.

The ‘Game Over’ / High Score Screen.

 

Despite appearances though it’s actually a fun little shooter once you get into it. I highly recommend using a gamepad rather than a joystick as you really need that extra responsiveness you get with a D-pad. The inclusion of a permanent high score is a big positive too as you are always striving to beat it. Sadly it is literally just a high score that is saved though. No names or initials are stored so if your wife beats your score there’s no way to save that fact for posterity.

So is it worth the £35 I pledged on Kickstarter? Sadly I don’t think so, no. It would definitely make a great budget game, maybe on Itch.io for a few pounds. However I feel it just doesn’t have the polish or variety I expect for a game at this price level.

Pi1541 Disk Drive

Pi1541 Disk Drive

Little bit of background

I’ve been aware of the Pi1541 disk drive or Pi1541 ‘hats’ for several months now. This project was undertaken to create a ‘cycle exact’ emulation of a Commodore 1541 floppy drive using a cheap Raspberry Pi computer. The idea behind it is that by fully emulating the 6502 CPU and 6522 VIA chips you would have a 100% 1541 compatible ‘disk drive’ capable of reading any disk image, even ones with custom fast loaders and exotic copy protection schemes. By contrast the ubiquitous SD2IEC devices don’t emulate either chips but rather simulate some disk protocols and use some clever code to try to blag some fast loaders into working. This is why special versions of some games need to be created to work on SD2IEC devices.

In a nutshell a Pi1541 Disk Drive utilises a Raspberry Pi B computer running custom software along with a daughter board or ‘hat’ which sits on top and connects to the GPIPO pins of the Pi. This ‘hat’ adds the standard IEC connectors and handles the stuff that is required for the Pi to successfully communicate with the attached Commodore computer. The project was created by a guy called Steve White and if you want to know the technical ins and outs then check out his website here.

Pi1541 Disk Drives can be picked up very cheaply on eBay. In fact the whole point of the project was to create something better than an SD2IEC but much cheaper than FPGA based offerings like the 1541 Ultimate II+. Of course another option is to build your own but I have neither the time nor the inclination to attempt that. The other big turn off with both of these options is that quite frankly, the devices are just plain ugly. Which brings me neatly on to my latest acquisition…

Pi1541 Disk Drive

As I mentioned earlier I’ve been aware of this project for some time, but for the reasons I mentioned above it just didn’t appeal to me. Until that is, I saw that Tim Harris who runs sharewareplus was offering a super slick, plug and play, cased Pi1541 Disk Drive complete with OLED screen. I just had to have one and after several months of waiting it has finally arrived!

 

Pi1541 Disk Drive

Pi1541 Disk Drive

 

This really is a thing of beauty, modelled closely on the first generation Commodore 1541 floppy drive. There’s so many little design cues taken from the original case. The Micro SD card slot encased in black plastic housing complete with scaled disk ‘slot’.  The red drive activity LED and green power LED. A chicken logo moulded into the casing top. The Commodore label complete with rainbow colours and a 1541 logo where the trailing 1 is actually a letter I. It even has a built in speaker to emulate the drive sounds of the original drive!

It came supplied with a Micro USB cable (to power it) and a single instruction sheet explaining what the ports are for and what the buttons do. Disappointingly it did not include a Micro SD card, IEC cable or even further instructions.

 

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The casing is approximately 5″ (13cm) deep, 3″ (7.5cm) wide and 1.25″ (3cm) tall. On the front there is a MicroSD card slot, a green power LED, a red drive activity LED and a ‘Select/Start’ switch. On the rear there is a power on/off switch, Micro USB power socket and a standard CBM IEC drive connector socket.

 

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On the top of the device is a lovely 1″ x 0.5″ (128×64 resolution) blue OLED screen along with four navigation buttons. When the device is first turned on it operates in SD2IEC mode which allows you to browse through the contents of your Micro SD card and select an image (or multiple images) to use. In this mode all 4 top buttons have a function: ‘move up’, ‘move down’, ‘exit folder’ and ‘add disk’ (for multi-disk games). In this mode the button on the front acts as a ‘select’ button.

Once an image has been selected on the device and a ‘load “*”,8,1’ (or similar drive command) is issued from the computer, it switches to full 1541 emulation mode. In this mode only the first 2 buttons on the top have a function: ‘previous disk’ and ‘next disk’. In this mode the front button acts as ‘start’.

 

Setting it up

I was advised that this Pi1541 Disk Drive worked best if you use an 8GB Micro SD card so I just picked up this [amazon_textlink asin=’B00OO1489A’ text=’generic card’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’lyonsden-21′ marketplace=’UK’ link_id=’2cfd7b41-fa87-463d-8193-fa88db2fcc6e’] off Amazon and it has worked perfectly.

 

Pi1541 Disk Drive

8GB Micro SD Card

 

Unfortunately I did not fare so well with the Micro USB power supply. The device came with a Micro USB A-B cable so I plugged it into a free port on my power strip extension lead. The drive powered up and appeared to work fine until I tried to actually load a directory listing or a program and then it would just lock up and my C64 would freeze. Thinking the device was faulty, I got in touch with the guy selling it and was advised this was likely a power issue. The Pi needs a beefy PSU, especially when it’s also powering an additional board plus OLED screen. Long story short I tried several USB chargers from phones and such like but none of them fixed the problem. In the end I ordered an official [amazon_textlink asin=’B01CO1ELT8′ text=’Raspberry Pi PSU’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’lyonsden-21′ marketplace=’UK’ link_id=’5f2082ed-bb79-4d0e-a527-0c957f374c26′] off Amazon and the problem just went away. Moral of the story? Don’t be a cheapskate and buy a decent power supply for it!

 

Pi1541 Disk Drive

Official Raspberry Pi PSU

 

In use

Once I’d properly sorted out the Micro SD card and PSU the Pi1541 Disk Drive worked perfectly. It loaded everything I threw at it including .G64 disk images that that won’t work on my SD2IEC device (but do work on my 1541 Ultimate II+). I also tried it with turbo load cartridges such as the Epyx Fastload and Action Replay VI’s Fastload. It worked perfectly and as you would expect loading times were significantly reduced using either cart. It is claimed to be 100% compatible with Jiffy DOS too but at the moment I don’t have the hardware to put that to the test.

There are a few other benefits that the Pi1541 Disk Drive has over it’s rivals. It doesn’t hijack the cassette port or user port for power like an SD2IEC device would as it’s powered independently from the host computer. Nor does it occupy the cartridge slot like a 1541 Ultimate does. It also works with my VIC20, something even the mighty 1541 Ultimate cannot do. I believe it will also work with both the Commodore 16 and plus 4 but I own neither of these machines so cannot confirm this.

There are a few niggles, the first being that the Micro SD card doesn’t have the ‘push to eject’ feature. When you want to remove it there is only 2mm of card protruding to grip onto and I found it difficult to pull out without using some needle-nose pliers.

My other gripe is that it didn’t come with an IEC cable, memory card or PSU. For a device costing £150 I would have expected these to be included and it would have saved me messing around trying to get a working power supply.

The sound produced is a little disappointing too. More a series of beep’s than a true emulation of drive noises (sounds a bit like what you get with a Gotek that’s had a sound mod fitted). My 1541 Ultimate II+ does a much better job of reproducing drive sounds.

Verdict

This is a terrific product and probably the best and most accurate emulation of the Commodore 1541 drive there has been to date. It also looks the part and will work across almost the entire range of 8-bit Commodore machines.

 

Pi1541 Disk Drive

Pi1541 Disk Drive next to 1541-II’s and a 1571

 

It’s definitely a luxury peripheral in my eyes though rather than an essential purchase. In this particular form it cannot compete on price with either the SD2IEC or the 1541 Ultimate II+ cartridge (which has many more features). However if you were to choose one of the more modest Pi1541’s you can find on eBay then it trounces the Ultimate on price and beats the SD2IEC on compatibility for a similar cost.

Another thing to bear in mind is that although, strictly speaking, SD2IEC devices are nowhere near as compatible as the Pi1541, they ARE ubiquitous. Because of this most games have been tweaked to make them work within the confines of the system out of necessity, so in most cases compatibility is often a moot point.

Bottom line is this; if you want the most compatible and by far the best looking modern 1541 Drive implementation there is and you don’t mind paying a premium for it, then you won’t find a better product than this. You can pick these up from from Tim over at SharewarePlus.

Stop that Amiga drive clicking noise!

stop Amiga drive clicking noise

Ah, the Amiga’s Drive clicking noise… For some this is the Amiga’s heartbeat, for others like me, it’s a source of increasing irritation the longer I have to listen to it. The same was true back in the 80’s and it’s still true now, especially as I have 4 drives that all click in unison! It only occurs when the drives are empty so you could stick a disk in each one to shut them up, but I’ve never been fond of that solution.

Originally back in the 80’s I installed a ‘Noclick’ program off a magazine coverdisk that silenced my drive. Sadly I no longer have either so I had to find something else. The good news is that there are quite a few on Aminet (yes Aminet is still alive and kicking!). I tried several before finding one that would reliably silence all my drives. By the way, as a rule of thumb – if any ‘noclick’ program doesn’t silence your drive after about 10-20 seconds after running it then don’t use it – it’s incompatible with your drive type and could possibly damage it over time.

 

stop Amiga drive clicking noise

There are quite a few ‘noclick’ programs to choose from but not all worked for me…

 

The one that worked for me is:

noclick20_usr.lha – http://aminet.net/util/cdity/noclick20_usr.lha

For the record I have four drives (1x internal Chinon drive, 2x external Roctec drives and 1x Gotek with sound mod) and it silenced all of them.

 

Amiga drive clicking noise

Here’s the contents of the noclick20_usr.lha archive decompressed to my Ram Disk.

 

Like most things on Aminet it is compressed using LHA so use something like Directory Opus to unpack it to your RAM Disk. Once there you can copy it to a location of your choice to run as and when you need it. If you want it to run all the time then copy it to your WBStartup directory which will cause it to run automatically every time your boot your Amiga up.

 

stop Amiga drive clicking noise

Copy NoClick to your WBStartup directory to have it run each time you boot up your Amiga.

Mayhem in Monsterland 25th Anniversary Collector’s Edition

Mayhem in Monsterland 25th Anniversary Collector's Edition

Here’s a quick look at what came in my Mayhem in Monsterland 25th Anniversary Collector’s Edition game I received yesterday. I have to say I was super impressed with the design and finish of the box, it looks and feels amazing. It’s clear that an awful lot of love and attention has been lavished on this release…

 

 

The Generation Game…

Inside the box things got even better, it was literally crammed full of goodies. Box contents included the game on a 5.25″ floppy disk, a soundtrack CD, glossy full colour user manual, art postcard, key ring, loads of stickers, 2 pin badges, an A3 glossy art poster and a double sided A3 map of all the levels! There was also an unexpected, but much appreciated packet of Milky Way Magic Stars in there too. Needless to say it didn’t last long!

 

 

I’ve bought my fair share of special edition games over the years but for the money, Mayhem in Monsterland 25th Anniversary Collector’s Edition is definitely one of the finest in my collection. You can find out more about this release over at the Binary Zone Interactive Store.

 

 

 

 

Farming Simulator C64 Edition

Farming Simulator C64 Edition

So here’s my look at Farming Simulator C64 Edition and the various options available if you want to get hold of a copy. Apparently this started life as an April fools joke but took on a life of its’ own as one of the programmers had friends active in the C64 scene.

 

Farming Simulator C64 Edition

Title Screen (on a 1084S monitor)

 

Digital Version

At the moment there are only two ways to get hold of the game in the here and now. The cheapest and by far the quickest is to head on over to the Farming Simulator website and pick up a digital copy of the game for €4.99. Although it states ‘PC Version’ you will actually get C64 software cartridge/disk images that you can run on the included emulator, C64 Mini or on a real C64 via an SD2IEC type device.

 

Farming Simulator C64 Edition

Gameplay screen (1084S monitor)

 

Collector’s Edition

The next method, which will bag you a physical copy of the game, is to purchase the physical ‘Collector’s Edition’ (available now) which includes the C64 Edition on a CD, housed in a 5.25″ Floppy Disk ‘look-alike’ wallet. You can pick this up from [amazon_textlink asin=’B07FV14S8V’ text=’Amazon’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’lyonsden-21′ marketplace=’UK’ link_id=’96d22f2c-f719-11e8-9bcc-13e16fc3c1ac’] for £39.99.

Inside you will find the C64 version of the game as shown below

 

Farming Simulator C64 Edition

The 5.25″ Floppy Styled Cardboard CD Wallet

 

At first glance it appears to be a 5.25″ Floppy Disk, but in reality it’s actually a carefully designed cardboard CD wallet. Inside you will get a nicely designed ‘C64 Edition’ CD with a digital version of the game on it along with the necessary emulators to run it on a PC should you wish to do so. There is also a copy of the manual in PDF format, presented in multiple languages.

 

Farming Simulator C64 Edition

Rear of the CD wallet

 

Farming Simulator C64 Edition

The CD sliding out of the “Floppy Disc” wallet

 

Now this might seem like an expensive way to get hold of ‘Farming Simulator C64 Edition’ but you do get a really nice big collectors edition box, 10 stickers, a beanie hat, a DVD containing a ton of tutorial videos, 5 concept art cards, exclusive DLC content, a miniature John Deere tractor, 2 A2 posters and of course the full PC game on DVD for the PC.

 

Farming Simulator C64 Edition

Farming Simulator 19 Collectors Edition Box

 

Farming Simulator C64 Edition

Contents of the Farming Simulator 19 Collectors Edition (Official Image)

 

If you are only interested in the C64 version this might not be the choice for you. However if you’ve got even a passing interest in playing the PC version then this option begins to make a lot of sense.

 

Farming Simulator C64 Edition

Here’s the control setup for the C64 version of the game

 

The C64 Cartridge Version

Finally, if you want Farming Simulator C64 Edition in a physical C64 themed box complete with the game on a proper C64 Cartridge then you can place a pre-order for the game from Protovision. This will also ship with an instruction book and the aforementioned CD version of the game for use with emulators or the C64 Mini.  The cost for this version is €50 plus postage. Granted it’s a lot more and you don’t get the PC version but for collectors this will be a tempting choice. At the time of writing this post they currently have no stock available.

*UPDATE 1 – 9th December – As of this morning they have 12 copies of the game left in stock!

*UPDATE 2 – 18th December – After snagging one of those 12 copies it has now arrived safely so here’s a few pictures of what you get inside. Unlike the PC Collectors Edition this one has been made especially for the C64 and in very limited quantities it would seem!

Inside the box is the same copy of the game on CD as found in the PC collectors edition. There is also a nice little instruction booklet and of course the main event… a proper physical cartridge containing the Farming Simulator C64 Edition game itself.  Needless to say I’m really happy I managed to get my hands on a copy of this!

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*UPDATE 3 – 21st December – Looks like the cartridge version is no longer available to purchase. The listing for it on Protovision’s website has vanished. Not sure exactly when it disappeared.

Happy farming, whichever version you go for!