My apologies to the Beatles, and any of their fans. Hopefully some of you will have a sense of humour! This is to the tune of "When I'm 64"
When I've been old and quite obsolete
For several years 'till now
Will you still be giving me a game to play?
Or will you simply throw me away?
I can play games and do many things
Who could ask for more?
Will you still use me, or just abuse me
When I'm a 64?
Back in the early '80s came a machine that gave power to the people. A machine of relative simplicity but powerful enough to do the amazing. That machine was the Commodore 64. For over a decade, games were written for this machine that would soon turn it into the first keyboard-included game console. Within a decade and with a user-base of approximately 22 million users, something to the tune of 8000 games or more were created for this machine. Although touted as a semi-serious business machine, it became the games platform synonymous with the 1980's. As most others not in the 64 scene would like to think, the Commodore 64 was just a games machine. Even still, I'd like to see a Nintendo 64 do your homework, calculate your tax return or budget, hold your address book, or most importantly - allow the average user to control it. Sometimes it makes me wonder why Nintendo bothered to release a camera and printer for their Gameboys when they know full well that they are too expensive for the kids that would want one. Not only that, but you wouldn't get much use out of them either. The only reason why the C64 went downhill was lack of interest in 8-bits and newer technology. But the C64's principle was sound. You could never infect it with a virus, you didn't need extra-manual help or idiot guides with it's software, it didn't need updating (although you could if you wanted and have a more powerful machine, equally as compatible), you could easily program it for your own needs, you always knew what it was doing behind your back, and what to do if something went wrong with the software without having to call a repairman. Games were so cheap that kids could afford them, there were thousands of them and they were fun something that some games today lack severely. The C64 couldn't go for glam so it went for game, and worked beautifully. A lot of today's computers could learn a lot from the C64 in so far as what the computing experience should be about. If it wasn't for Commodore's terrible marketing, and the inevitable march of technology, the magic of Commodore 64's would still be around. But guess what? They are! Except this time around you can play them on your PC via an emulator! But let's not forget either that there still is a sizable user base of people still using their 64's into the new millennium
Sure, the basic C64 set up that most people has consists of ...what? At least the keyboard and a 1541 disk drive and that's about it for hardware. You need at least this for the C64 to be a game machine. The specs would be (In PC terms):
1Mhz 8-bit CPU, 64K RAM, 0GB hard disk space, 8 bit sound chip
Not very impressive, huh? Funny how so much was done with just this! Now consider...
20Mhz 16-bit CPU, 16MB Direct access RAM, 18MB RAMdrive (therefore 34MB in total), 4GB Hard Disk, and 8 bit sound chip. 3.5" floppy disk and parallel port capable and real time clock.
Well the above desciption is the most powered up C64 possible (and can possibly even be expanded further should the Hard Drive get replaced with an even larger one and something gets attached to the SCSI bus on it!). The only thing that doesn't change is the old SID chip, but I think the C64 would be worse off without it! Even still, some people have installed twin SID chips to achieve 6 voice sound by placing another sid on the chip board.
All the above is possible with CMD's C64 Hardware. This kind of system gives the C64 some really powerful capabilities. Not yet fully exploited yet, but the possibility exists.
CMD SuperCPU
- cmdscpic.jpg (16.43 KiB) Viewed 1900 times
20 times the power of a C64 in a casing several times smaller
The SuperCPU turns the humble C64 into something that would upset Amiga users and puts a foot into IBM PC territory. In other words, it speeds up the C64 20 times, gives it a hand to 16-bit coding, and gives it more RAM *directly addressable* than a humble C64 would know what to do with (A whole 16MB to be exact). The result is a new world of possibilities - something the C64 could have done with 10 years ago - unfortunately.
So upon getting the SuperCPU, there is a desire to whack the thing straight into the back of the C64 to see what it can pull off. And the great thing is, you can do just that without any messing about. Being such a piece of powerful hardware, I was surprised that unlike RAMLink, this one was easy to install. I was grateful I had got the C64 model SuperCPU. Had I got the 128 verison, I would have been installing a miniture daughter board into a 128. No soldering would have been required, but from all reports, this is not an easy operation. I don't feel qualified to talk about that. The SuperCPU is only really the most useful under the C64 anyway - because now the C64 kicks the C128's butt in more ways than one and can take advantage of the software that the C128 never had. Either way, you could stick a SuperCPU 128 or 64 model into either a 64 or 128. Of course, you'd only be able to use the C64 mode SuperCPU if you didn't have a 128 with that daughterboard inside.
64K RAM SYSTEM is no more. See for yourself.
Upon turning the C64 on, instead of the usual blue screen, a little rocket with CMD written on it flies across the screen left to right leaving a white trail behind it. A large "SuperCPU" message washes across in classic demo style from left to right from above as the rocket passes across. Below, the CMD logo appears to let you know if you didn't already, who was behind the development of the SuperCPU.
Somtimes it doesn't come up and you get a SUPERCPU INITIALIZATION ERROR :06. This isn't even listed in the menu as a valid error code, but I hear on the grapevine that it means that the powersupply to your Commodore is insufficient. I can understand that, it must drain the power supply to run the CPU and power that TURBO light - and my Commodore runs of a step up transformer that isn't perfect either. Strangely, this problem is solved (for me anyway) if you have a RAMLink and pull it's power cord out! Also imagine my surprise one day to get a very rare and undocumented 07 error message!
After this, you're presented with a comforting message - that the SuperCPU has taken over your 64 and given you a lot of RAM (should it be in there and you have a SuperRAMCard). Also note here that the SuperRAMCard only has a single SIMM slot for a 72-pin Fast page DRAM SIMM. The SuperCPU's SIMM modules are NOT interchangable with that of RAMLink. They use different types of RAM. So if/when you decide to get a SuperCPU, choose wisely how much RAM you want in it. Unlike RAMLink there's only that one slot so if you upgrade it, you'll be throwing out an old SIMM.
Looking at the SuperCPU unit itself, you'll notice that there is a red LED on it marked "TURBO". This lets you know that the SuperCPU is running along at 20Mhz. If sometimes goes off when the disk drives are running (as it has to drop to 1 Mhz to do this). It often flashes if the SuperCPU is forced to flip between the two modes during operation.
Also along the top are more switches! (CMD must love these. In total, my Commodore has at least 6 of these protruding out of it - not to metion the disk drives). From right to left, you have the "enable/disable" switch. When disbaled, the SuperCPU may as well not be plugged in or even there - but it sure beats having to take it out of the expansion port when something doesn't run on it. The next switch is JiffyDOS' "enable/disable". This, much like JiffyDOS on it's own, disables the JiffyDOS kernal in the SuperCPU just in case some program doesn't like it. More often than not, I was disabling the whole SuperCPU, as the way it handles memory causes some programs (usually games - but some decrunches really give it hell), so I haven't disabled JiffyDOS much. The last switch is the Turbo "enable/disbale". This flips the speed of the CPU from 20Mhz back to 1Mhz should the program need to slow down (and stop you getting killed all the time in Strike Force Cobra). The other thing on SuperCPU is a reset button. But it's not just any reset button, because if you tap it you trigger an NMI interuppt!! (pretty useless really unless you really wanted one!)
The SuperCPU has a rear pass through expansion port, so you can still put your cartridges in the back. I have my RAMLink just about permanently in there. Speaking of having both of them, the SuprCPU actually speeds up RAMLink (and makes it more stable too - now that the SuperCPU does the timing). The use of cartridges under the SuperCPU, while compatible is limited. Game cartridges tend to work OK (too well in the case of "Lemans" you can score big time under 20Mhz!), but unfortunately freezer cartridges just don't work at all. You have to disable SuperCPU if it's even going to freeze anything.
The SuperCPU gives you access to a max of directly accessable 16MB of DRAM which is very nice if you have something to take advantage of it (Like Wheels, GEOS, Novaterm etc.) This is as long as your SuperCPU has a SuperRAMCard with RAM in it, or you're going to look a bit funny when the program can't find the RAM. Speaking of software that uses this RAM, there's not much of it around - and then it's mainly business software. I doubt the SuperCPU will spark off many games written for it. Let's face facts:- A Dreamcast costs less than a SuperCPU. Despite this, there is one game I know of being worked on. Also there are demos being worked on for the device. DMAgic's "SuperCPU kicks" is one example. For just under 1MB of on-board RAM, you get a picture of the SuperCPU spinning around like mad, with a fully digitized 5 min song. I've also got a Jpeg viewer optimized for the SuperCPU, which is great if you want to view interlaced piccies on your C64 and not wait forever for the picture to appear. This one really throws weight behind using the excess space on your CMD HD for porn! (Hey, I'm kidding! don't take me seriously) Probably the most useful application around currently for using all this 16MB of SuperRAM is The Wave internet browser program that runs on the Wheels Operating System, that needs a SuperCPU and excess RAM to run.
Despite number of games that don't work on the SuperCPU, some games do actually work better with it. Ones that work really well are Mercenary, The Sentinel, and any other game that used 3D like Freescape (Elite sadly doesn't work very well - it works too well and goes stupid under the SuperCPU). Not really worth getting the SuperCPU to see the results when a C64 emulator running 10 times the speed will do. However, the SuperCPU, unlike an overclocked emulator, maintains correct timing in some places of memory despite the speedups. So games that have a time limit, still stick to it and don't go down so fast (unless we're talking about Strike Force Cobra). It has to be tested on a case-by-case basis, depending on how the game was programmed.
All in all, the SuperCPU is a business tool, because it works better under GEOS et al. Programmers will have fun, but I can't help thinking that this hardware was a decade late to help the C64 entertainment scene. I like to use it to run crunchers from (Ha! do I wait 2 hours for a Speed 7 crunch now?). It also speeds up my catalog program for my HD - which is something I'm pleased about because it was badly coded to begin with and very slow under BASIC (even compiled).
So someday we'll find it, the SuperCPU connection, the coders, the dreamers, and me. Anyone else will probably want to hear about how it could have been but won't bother getting one - which is sad, but an unfortuante reality in these 1 Ghz days we live in. If you use GEOS avidly, then the SuperCPU is great. GEOS is too much of a sloth without it.
An old review and topics that I found on wayback, that I thought may be of interest.
Source:
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http://web.archive.org/web/20020204113321/http://www.geocities.com/cdsixfour/index.htm
