Hot Trout's Retro Computer Ramblings

C64 Forever. The Commodore 64 Emulation Package by Cloanto

2009-06-05T17:24:00.002+01:00

When the C64 was launched in 1982 it immediately set the standard for 8-bit home computers. Its low cost, superior graphics, high quality sound and a massive 64 KB of RAM positioned it as the winner in the home computer wars, knocking out competitors from the likes of Atari, Texas Instruments, Sinclair, Apple and IBM.

Selling over 30 million units and introducing a whole generation to computers and programming, the C64 shook up the video games industry and sparked cultural phenomena such as computer music and the demoscene. In recent years the C64 has enjoyed a spectacular revival manifesting itself once again as a retrocomputing platform.

To allow you to experience and relive the wonders of this unique computer, Cloanto, developers of Commodore/Amiga software since the 1980s and creators of the famous Amiga Forever series, has introduced C64 Forever, a revolutionary preservation, emulation and support package. C64 Forever embodies an intuitive player interface, backed by a built-in database containing more than 5,000 C64 game entries, and advanced support for the new RP2 format, dubbed the "MP3 of retrogaming".

Over the past few years Cloanto have sent me various versions of their product Amiga Forever and asked that I review it on this blog and site. On this issue I am somewhat torn. On one hand I beleive that a format like the AMIGA which was a computing breakthrough and quite possible one of the most important developments in computing history should have its BIOS and Kickstart roms freely distributed in order to keep it alive. On the other hand Cloanto (who own the rights to the Amiga Kickstart ROM) have produced in AMIGA FOREVER one of the best all round collection of products, media, emulators and supporting material ever. It was obviously made with great passion and care towards preserving the AMIGA memory. I have now to say that I consider AMIGA FOREVER a must purchase for every and all serious retro gamers and past Amiga owners (like myself).

That said (at long last)I set out to review the C64 FOREVER product. What can I say. It continues their excellent tradition of presenting you the user with a clean, concise all round product for easily emulating the mighty Commodore 64 computer.

In closing I just want to say, thank you to Cloanto for your support and thank you for two great products, AMIGA FOREVER and C64 FOREVER.

Homebrewed CPU Is a Beautiful Mess of Wires

2009-05-29T09:58:00.003+01:00

Intel’s fabrication plants can churn out hundreds of thousands of processor chips a day. But what does it take to handcraft a single 8-bit CPU and a computer? Give or take 18 months, about $1,000 and 1,253 pieces of wire.

Steve Chamberlin, a Belmont, California, videogame developer by day, set out on a quest to custom design and build his own 8-bit computer. The homebrew CPU would be called Big Mess of Wires or BMOW. Despite its name, it is a painstakingly created work of art.

“Computers can seem like complete black boxes. We understand what they do, but not how they do it, really,” says Chamberlin. “When I was finally able to mentally connect the dots all the way from the physics of a transistor up to a functioning computer, it was an incredible thrill.”

The 8-bit CPU and computer will be on display doing an interactive chess demo at the fourth annual Maker Faire in San Mateo, California, this weekend, May 30-31. It will be one of 600 exhibits of do-it-yourself technology, hacks, mods and just plain strange hobby projects at the faire, which is expected to draw 80,000 attendees.

The BMOW is closest in design to the MOS Technology 6502 processor used in the Apple II, Commodore 64 and early Atari videogame consoles. Chamberlin designed his CPU to have three 8-bit data registers, a 24-bit address size and 12 addressing modes. It took him about a year and a half from design to finish. Almost all the components come from the 1970s- and 1980s-era technology.

“Old ’80s vintage parts may not be very powerful, but they’re easy to work with and simple to understand,” he says. “They’re like the Volkswagen Beetles of computer hardware. Nobody argues they’re the best but we love them for their simplicity.”

To connect the parts, Chamberlin used wire wrapping instead of soldering. The technique involves taking a hollow, screwdriver-shaped tool and looping the wire through it to create a tight, secure connection. Wire wraps are seen as less prone to failures than soldered junctions but can take much longer to accomplish. Still, they offer one big advantage, says Chamberlin.

“Wire wrapping is changeable,” he says. “I can unwrap and start over if I make a mistake. It is is much harder to recover from a mistake if you solder.”

Chamberlin started with a a 12×7-inch Augat wire-wrap board with 2,832 gold wire-wrap posts that he purchased from eBay for $50. Eventually he used 1,253 pieces of wire to create 2,506 individually-wrapped connections, wrapping at the rate of almost 25 wires in an hour. “It’s like a form of meditation,” he wrote on his blog. “Despite how long it takes to wrap, the wire-wrapping hasn’t really impacted my overall rate of progress. Design, debugging, and general procrastination consume the most time.”

The BMOW isn’t just a CPU. Chamberlin added a keyboard input, an LCD output that shows a strip of text, a USB connection, three-voice audio, and VGA video output to turn it into a functioning computer. The video circuitry, a UMC 70C171 color palette chip, was hard to come by, he says. When Chamberlin couldn’t find a source for it online, he went to a local electronics surplus warehouse and dug through a box of 20-year-old video cards. Two cards in there had the chip he needed, so he took one and repurposed it for his project.

The use of retro technology and parts is essential for a home hobbyist, says Chamberlin. Working with newer electronics technology can be difficult because a lot of modern parts are surface-mount chips instead of having through-hole pins. That requires a wave soldering oven, putting them out of reach of non-professionals.

After months of the CPU sitting naked on his desk, Chamberlin fashioned a case using a gutted X Terminal, a workstation popular in the early 1990s.

“Why did I do all this?” he says. “I don’t know. But it has been a lot of fun.”

Check out Steve Chamberlin’s log of how BMOW was built.

Photo: Wire wrapped 8-bit CPU/Steve Chamberlin

Superb Old Computer Quiz

2008-10-16T10:18:00.002+01:00

Check out this cool old computer and console quiz posted on the BBC website this week. I managed to score 9 out of 10 on my first try. I slipped up on the NeoGeo question. Go on and have a go then post your score back here.

Link to BBC Old Computer Quiz

Cottonwood BBS alive on a C128

2008-09-25T09:45:00.003+01:00

Cottonwood BBS

I happened across this site and BBS after a site visitor mentioned it in the Guest book. To see a BBS still in full operation with a Commodore 128 at its heart using 1581 disk drives to serve up files to users across America put a huge grin on my face.

I spent many hours as a young teenager dialling up many different BBS in search of files, other users and more knowledge. This was a time before internet, where the only way to spread code, demo's and programs was to host them on your own computer and allow access via good old modems. The BBS or Bulletin Board System was the hunting ground of the first hackers, crackers and phreakers. In an age where 2600 magazine was the underground and WarGames was 'our' movie.

I tip my hat to you guys and hope that your BBS never ends. You brought a little ray of sunshine to my day already.

Nectarine Radio to make a comeback

2008-09-24T14:03:00.006+01:00

It is with baited breath that I await the return of Nectarine Demoscene Radio in whatever form it decides to take. Only a few days have passed since the loss of Nectarine toa hacker (see post below) but already the scene has rallied to Yes (Christophe) support both financially and through the offer of temp streams, servers, hosting and backup.

You can follow a lot of the story and scene discussions at Pouet you can also visit the new Official Nectarine Revival Project and donate or just keep in touch with developments.

For my part I just want to say a big thanks to everyone making this happen. I look forward to updating my dedicated Retro Radio Page with the new feeds.

Good luck.

Nectarine Radio - GONE !

2008-09-11T18:34:00.004+01:00

I have been a fan of Nectarine Demoscene Radio for many years now, in fact from its launch. For those of you that dont know, its a site dedicated to preserving the demo scene music from the past, namly Commodore 64, Amiga and other formats from the ere. It was a polished and professional site that offered many memorable tracks. It allowd you to request tracks and was one of my regularly visited pages. Although free it did rely on donations to keep going.

Many of you will know from my website that I was a huge Amiga fan and was a part of the scene back in the 90's. So it is with a very heavy heart that I learned yesterday that Nectarine Radio site had been hacked again (it had been attached a few months ago) and this time the idiot who did it, managed to delete all files and backups. Looking at the message from the webmaster it appears that it will not be returning.

Apparently a childish scripter posted a message about the vulnerability before bringing the site down, a transscript of the message follows....

Country flag xdxf 10:29:28
look in the html src for mysql_pconnect
Country flag xdxf 10:29:01
the vuln is: http://www.nectarine.fr/played.php?Template=../includes/db.php
Country flag xdxf 10:28:44
enjoy your faggy forum in peace
Country flag xdxf 10:27:55
k that should do the trick
Country flag [name] 10:26:24
whatever
Country flag xdxf 10:26:12
just to make sure lemme delete it
Country flag xdxf 10:25:54
seems fair to me
Country flag [name] 10:25:42
Sure i promise
Country flag xdxf 10:25:24
hmm.. ok how about this.. i’ll expose the vuln if [name] admits that he’s a [rude word] and agrees to change his usern/password forever because it’s an insult to pyros/chemists everywhere…

Its easy to start ranting and raving about the hacker but alas there is no point. Who cares, all that matters is that our beloved radio station is no more. I am hoping that we can convince the webmaster of Nectarine to reconsider. Maybe after a few days rest he will once again start to rebuild the site.

In order to show our support and love for his work and also to help him pay for replacement materials and time I have started a ChipIn donation fund that I hope everyone will see fit to send a little money his way.

(Update: I have suspended my ChipIn fund in order to point directly to the official ChipIn Fund. I have also transfered any funds made to my account to Nectarines)

Please also visit the now official site of Nectarine

The Official Fund is Listed Below, Please Donate.

They're taking the hobbits to Isengard (C64 version)

2008-08-21T22:00:00.004+01:00

This is silly, funny and a great example of the never ending life of the ubercool Commodore 64 computer. Sid tunes are just the best.

Vintage Computer Festival 5.0 New Jersey

2008-08-08T09:30:00.003+01:00

Saturday, Sept. 13th and Sunday, Sept. 14th 2008
InfoAge Science Center
Wall Township, New Jersey

The 5th annual Vintage Computer Festival East will be held on Saturday, September 13th and Sunday, September 14th, at the InfoAge Learning Center at Wall Township, New Jersey. The event is sponsored by MARCH and VintageTech.

The exact daily schedule will be announced shortly.

Admission is $15 for two days, $10 for one day. Free for ages 17 and younger. Parking is free.

Please click here to visit their website for more information.

Batman Games for you to play

2008-08-01T14:09:00.006+01:00

To celebrate the new Batman movie 'Dark Knight' I have decided to list all the available Batman games you can download and play for the old consoles. Please see the entire list below with direct downloads for each rom. Remember to visit my Roms Section for complete lists on every console format.

The Roms are as follows :-

Atari LYNX - Batman Returns

Commodore 64 - Batman & Batman II

Nintendo NES - Batman 1
Nintendo NES - Batman 2
Nintendo NES - Batman 3

Nintendo Gameboy - Batman
Nintendo Gameboy - Batman Chaos in Gotham
Nintendo Gameboy - Batman Return of the Joker
Nintendo Gameboy - Batman The Annimated Series
Nintendo Gameboy - Batman Beyond - Return of the Joker
Nintendo Gameboy - Batman Forever

Nintendo SNES - Batman Forever
Nintendo SNES - Batman Returns
Nintendo SNES - Batman Revenge of the Joker

Nintendo N64 - Batman Beyond - Return of the Joker

Sega Master System - Batman Returns

Sega Game Gear - Batman Forever
Sega Game Gear - Batman Returns

Sega Genesis MegaDrive - Batman
Sega Genesis MegaDrive - Batman Revenge of the Joker
Sega Genesis MegaDrive - Batman Forever
Sega Genesis MegaDrive - Batman Returns
Sega Genesis MegaDrive - Batman and Robin

PC Abandonware - Batman The Movie
PC Abandonware - Batman the Caped Crusader
PC Abandonware - Batman Returns
PC Abandonware - Batman Forever
PC Abandonware - Batman II

Remember to check out my other 30 rom sections to see if you can find a Batman game that I have missed.

Animated Amiga Tribute

2008-08-01T10:51:00.003+01:00

I found this on youtube, its a great little tribute to the almighty Amiga. Like many of you out there, the Amiga holds a special place in my heart.

Encyclopedia of Game Machines 1972-2005 by GamePlan

2008-07-31T18:16:00.003+01:00

I kindly received a copy of this book from Winnie to review on the site. Over the years I have received many books on retro gaming and computing but none as concise and well photographed as this.

Game.Machines is a beautiful book which analyses and describes some 450 console and micro releases across the globe between 1972 and 2005. The tome's total 224 pages contain more than 600 colour pictures (not fuzzy internet jpgs, but professionally photographed shots made exclusively for this book) and tons of info and nostalgia, tech infos and background stories. Rafael Dyll, musician on the R64 Volume 2 CD and the Revival ST album, has translated it from the German original -- in close collaboration with author Winnie Forster and Rockstar's David McCarthy.

I reccomend this book to any real retro gaming/computing fan out there. It is a must have for your collection.

Visit their site for more info and to order.

Commodore MAX just popped up on eBay

2008-07-20T11:30:00.003+01:00

My blackberry just informed me that eBay has another Commodore Max computer available for you to bid on. Unfortunatly this time there is no internal foam packaging, nevertheless this is a rare item to find. Time to empt the pockets.

Commodore C116 Auction on eBay

2008-07-18T17:54:00.003+01:00

As a true collector I regularly scan eBay for odd old computers or consoles. After so many years of collecting there are not many that I do not already own, however there are two Commodore computers that I don't yet own and which I wish I could afford.

The first is the Commodore C116 which was a very poor seller and really only had some sales in europe. It only comes up on eBay the very odd time and there is one on ebay right now. Check it out.

The other is even more rare, the Commodore Max. Only available in Asia and selling in low numbers, it is extreamly rare and this recent Commodore Max on eBay sold for a whopping $910.

Please feel free to donate one of each to the cause if you happin to have one you dont want.

Welcome to Hot Trouts Retro Ramblings

2008-07-18T17:04:00.004+01:00

I have for better or worse decided to start a blog for the website. During a normal day I often scan the web for retro gaming and computing material and on my way stumble across many weird and cool stuff. I guess this is the best place to spill my brian farts to. I dont expect you to enjoy it but I do expect you to comment.

Let the junk begin and the maddness set in