General Project NewsPosted By FullDuplex (on 06/28/2017 @ 03:04)
Subject: CRX (Commodore Retro eXpo) Las Vegas Pro
The first annual CRX (Commodore Retro eXpo) is coming! If your in Las Vegas this end of July, come down and check it out! If you're a fan of the Commodore 64/128 and Amiga computers this show is for you....or maybe your curious why these computers are still a fascination with computer users today!
More Info on CRX go to www.commodoreretroexpo.com
CRX (Commodore Retro eXpo) July 28-30th 2017 Las Vegas - Video Promo -
[link]
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Posted By Danker Than Clanker (on 04/16/2014 @ 18:54)
Subject: Power supply query.
Hey guys, I just got myself A C64. I just wanted to know if there's any variations of power supplies between different variants of C64.
I'm new to the World of Commodore and got a very good deal. £45 for C64, 1541-II and Cassette Deck. Plus about 100 games, both Cassette and Floppy Disk. With the Original Joystick to play them with! (I also have some Atari Sticks and 9 pin connector controllers too, for those 2 player games)
The only downside to this deal though, I am missing the power pack for the unit. The guy hadn't used it in 10 years or so. Being an older console; I'm fairly confident it will work first time.
I hate to say this, at the age of 20, but they really don't make consoles like they used to.
I just want to know if I can use any Commodore 64 power pack with no negative impacts on my current pride and joy.
Thanks for reading guys. And thanks for doing me a solid in telling me what I need to know.
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Posted By indiehouse (on 01/30/2014 @ 05:32)
Subject: Newcomer... MacOSX, ZoomFloppy and 1541!
Hey guys,
I have just recently gotten on board archiving C64 disks and have had limited success running OpenCBM through Terminal to create d64 images.
I realise copy protection poses a huge problem for OpenCBM and so Nibtools is my next stop. I am days away from finishing my parallel mod on my 1541-II drive and am wondering if there is a beginner's guide on how to start out.
I have a pretty descent library of C64 originals and am keen to preserve them as soon as I can. So far I have read a bunch of articles and posts on types of copy protection, and the different releases of Nibtools and how users have had mixed results. It seems things are more complex than I first anticipated and would like to start on the right foot. Any suggestions?
Cheers,
Rob
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Posted By Doug A (on 11/23/2013 @ 17:18)
Subject: Personal disks.. best way to preserve?
I have a small number of disks that I used when I was young and first starting to program. It would be neat to see if there is anything recoverable from these, as they hold many memories for me. What's the best way to proceed? From what I've read, I'm thinking a 1541 off ebay plus Zoomfloppy might do the trick. I'm just not sure if it would be worth it since they may all be unreadable. Most disks are from 1988-1992, but I did make copies of some of them around 2000.
I had a decent collection of commercial software, but I think I threw most of those out. Thanks for any ideas!
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Posted By JeffG (on 09/08/2013 @ 23:05)
Subject: Send them... where?
So... I have a bunch of disks (mostly protected) that I'd happily donate to this project. I don't have the parallel cable mods to my drive, so I suppose the smartest answer is to take you up on your offer of "Please send any original disks you have to us!".
Where, pray tell, do we send them to?
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Posted By Pete Rittwage (on 05/25/2013 @ 10:41)
Subject: NIBTools build 587
Hello friends,
I have put up the latest binaries with a number of fixes from the last months.
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All the tools now mostly deal with half-tracks natively, so it is no longer a special case. You may see them when converting to/from G64, but if they are unformatted they will not take up space in the image.
This allows games with half-tracks to work in newer versions of VICE. In the past, VICE (<2.3) ignored half-tracks and just didn't increment the data buffer, so track 34 = track 34.5. Since the SPS fixes, it works like it does on a real drive now (well, without the crosstalk) so previously converted fat-protected games may not load. You can reconvert your files with -F(x) to fix this. That command will take track number 'x' and create a 3-track wide fat track from track 'x', which will allow the protection to pass in newer emulators. This does not allow you to write a fat track with a real 1541 drive, as that is impossible. You can get lucky sometimes where the crosstalk is enough to pass, but it is rare, even with IHS.
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nibconv now creates "standard" G64 files, which can have a different maximum track lengths, speed zones, and missing (unformatted) tracks. In the past, the files were created to work with older versions of VICE (pre-2.3) that did not allow anything except hard-coded files that were exactly 42/84 tracks of 7928 bytes. Newer versions of VICE have fixed this, so this has been corrected.
Also, it is possible on certain types of protected tracks that a cycle will not be detected. In this case nibconv would just cram as much of the track as it could in the 7928 bytes it was allowed. Since newer versions of VICE calculate the density based on the track size, this can break certain protections. To avoid this, you can use the -Cxxx switch when converting, where 'xxx' is the RPM of the drive motor to simulate. Standard is 300, which will truncate any data that could not be written by a 1541 at 300RPM spindle motor, which VICE will detect as the standard density.
You will have to use older versions of nibconv if you still want to use older versions of VICE.
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Arnd Menge has added a patch to the drive code to help with USB timeouts on ZoomFloppy when detecting the density on certain types of corrupted tracks. This is incorporated into the main build now.
He has a new method that may be later released with new ZoomFloppy code, which is still under testing.
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[link]
The DOS version is only for straight, old DOS. (parallel port)
The "OpenCBM5" version is for OpenCBM >= 4.99 (ZoomFloppy)
The "OpenCBM4" version is for OpenCBM 4.0-4.2 (parallel port)
_________________
-
Pete Rittwage
C64 Preservation Project
Register your C64 today -
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Posted By Nate (on 12/25/2012 @ 14:46)
Subject: Merry Christmas 2012!
As with many of you, the C64 has a lot of association for me with Christmas. I first got a C64C with GEOS on Christmas 1986, 26 years ago. I had been programming the VIC-20 for a long time but it was limited and even magazines had stopped supporting it after 1985.
Hope you and your families have a great holiday!
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Posted By Alex G (on 09/25/2012 @ 15:47)
Subject: Well I did it...
I finally got exhausted and did what I could. I am giving up my entire collection. I had been sending Pete original scans over the past year and a half (with large gaps in between), but I didn't realize you guys were only looking for .nibs until the end. Sorry for that. I was going to ask if any of these originals with no copy protection were needed and go back and do .nibs (some are not in the DB, and I kept asking why they weren't showing up after I submitted them), but I got in a packing mood and I've packed them all up now. Hopefully they go to a good home!
[link]
---Alex
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Posted By Farulosonoth (on 04/14/2012 @ 11:42)
Subject: Greetings from The Dark Wizard
Hi there,
I have heard of this project before, and was interested. But recently one of your members Hyper Active has purchased a Defender of the Crown from me on ebay I guess in an attempt to create one of your special images with all the Copy Protection in tact.
Apparently there was a problem with side 2. Sorry about that.
Now, I am no programmer, or hardware developer by any means, I am a desktop support technician who's first machine was a C64. Just so you know my background.
I have been perusing the forums and when you guys are talking about nibs, and flux capacitors, I have no idea what your talking about. But, I do have a very keen interest in preserving these disks for the purpose of playing the games later and also equally important when our alien masters return, or when acheologists 3000 years from now excavate some ruin, they will see that we did actually used to play games that challenged our minds and not just the drivel that is being made these days (some of which I do play *hangs head in shame*)...
Ok anyway, got off on a rant there, Just stopping by to say high, I have a large collection of original C64 disks, 100's of titles, some multiple copies (I have other formats too like Amiga, older IBM PC etc... I know you guys arent concerned with that, just throwing it out there) So if you guys are searching for a particular title, let me know.
These forums are kind of different to navigate so if you really want to shoot me a quick question, it might be best to email at cosner.richard@gmail.com. I'm not sure how often I will be checking in.
I am more than willing to help you guys in any way that I can.
Thank you,
Farulosonoth - The Dark Wizard.
PS. Check out my radio station at www.rpgradio.com, I play a bunch of Computer Role Playing Game music even a few sparse tracks I created from some C64 games. There arent alot of those, but a few sprinkled in.
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Posted By Joe Bucci (on 01/08/2012 @ 10:09)
Subject: 'Personal' News
Nothing "Earth Shattering", but I am in the process of introducing myself to the 'Macintosh' World.. Yes, I got a Mac Net-Book for Christmas and I must say, I'm enjoying the 'Learning Curve'.
One of the first things I did was to put VICE for Mac OS X on it! - It *seems* to work fine!:) Like I say, a little "poking" around was needed to set it up properly.. But, it's run everything.. So far! :)
I also put "Mini vMac" on here as well.. I've got a couple of old "Mac" Apps I like to play with! :) All in all.. I'm "Liking" it.. a LOT!
That's it! - Of course, I'll keep my Windows PC.. Everyone NEEDS one!.. But, I *am* diggin' the Macintosh for 'personal' stuff!
"Later! - Booch!
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Posted By ghoshy2011 (on 11/30/2011 @ 19:48)
Subject: introduction
Hi just a quick message to say Hi to everyone and wish you all a happy christmas and new year nice to meet you, and im just working out how to get my CBM 64c games uploaded by connecting my CBM 64 to my pc. plus my amiga games aswell.. :) chat soon..
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Posted By Pete Rittwage (on 11/27/2011 @ 16:27)
Subject: New nibtools release and Happy Holidays!
Well, it's that time of year again and the Christmas demos are up on the c64preservation site. :)
---
I've released a new version of nibtools today- not a huge release, but a requested feature for the tinkerers. You can now change the extra capacity margin settings with the -m switch during writing.
In older versions, it was automatically a more aggressive setting of 5, but newer versions were 10. The size of the track is measured several times internally and the largest difference is added to this number.
Just -m by itself will have no safety zone at all other than the maximum measured capacity difference, which will surely result in some tracks overwriting the start of their own track data. So, use this only for tinkering with certain protection tracks. Putting a number after '-m' adds bytes to the safety zone.
Not using '-m' at all still produces the old behavior of measured+5 bytes.
Background: We are writing track data that is essentially a circle and "destroys it's start" if you write too much data, so we have to be careful not to write too far. These drive mechs are old, and most are belt driven, so there is a needed safe zone of 5-10 bytes, typically. Non-belt driven drives (1571, and some 1541-II) are more exact and may work fine with no safe zone.
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Posted By Pete Rittwage (on 04/11/2011 @ 22:33)
Subject: New/Fixed Protection Handlers
BanguiBob (or a contact of his that remains unnamed) made protection handler for Rapidlok that identifies and aligns the tracks when converting all RapidLok titles (except odd Law of the West RL1).
Also, I updated the PirateSlayer protection handler so that it bit-shifts the tracks for emulators automatically when converting with "-pp".
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Posted By hyper active (on 10/11/2010 @ 07:20)
Subject: bye bye 1541
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, my 1541 drive suddenly decided to give up the ghost about an hour ago, the latch just suddenly came loose and now it's like a useless toy. Hopefully my computer guy might be able to work another miracle by fixing it. If he can't, well.. Let's cross that bridge when we get to it.
It's a bit of a shame because I was just on the verge of getting Acro jet working too. Previously I wasn't able to get it to load past track 21, but changing the skew to 1 fixed it, and I was able to load it further and make it to track 29.
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Posted By Pete Rittwage (on 10/01/2010 @ 21:48)
Subject: 3,000 titles (5,200 disk sides) reached!
Thanks to everyone for help in reaching this milestone. We have over 3,000 titles consisting of over 5,200 disk sides archived in about 6 years.
It gets more difficult every day to find new disks we haven't archived, but it happens, so keep them coming. I know there a lots of educational, application, and utility titles out there we haven't seen yet. :)
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C64 Serial Registry