pouët.net

Honestly though, is it just that current drive emulation software is not mature?

Emulating a 1541 for a real C64 would require µs cycle accuracy - not possible with normal multitasking OS.

The problem is really with the I/O time accuracy and latencies. There is "1541EMU - Commodore 1541 disk drive emulator for DOS", which claims to work with most custom irq-loaders, but it really has to have all CPU to control the printer port all the time. I have not tried it yet though, hassle of freedos setup and everything, plus, uhm, other problems, i would need to get a TV or C64 compatible VGA scan-converter first. :D

If anyone wants to try, it would be interesting to hear what the results are.

I just won a C64 and a C2N datasette drive on ebay last friday...Then went to a local swap shop where I knew a 1541 was, gave the shopkeeper my money...noticed 64c under the table, shopkeeper said that it's also included along with the drive, so there's a second C64...no powersuply though. Got mine from eBay today....powersupply is weak, only turns C64 power lights on, no more. Powersupply shows 5.25v DC on 5V line...2v AC on one 9v line, 7v AC on the other line...bought another C64 on ebay today with a known working powersupply (working enough to run the datasette, at least), also won an austion for another C64 powersupply, and a C128 powersupply (which will have its plug cut off and replaced with the C64 plug).

I'm up to my ears in the things, it seems, however...

I'm going to try a few approaches to getting stuff from PC onto C64 disks...

Oddly enough, I plan to start by using the datasette to transfer data. I hope my idea works, but if not, I can always use a XA1541 cable to write d64 images to real disks.

Duh....C64. :P

Um, I think you are doing it wrong. You need to measure across both lines with the meter an AC mode...

wat?

I've just gone nuts buying C64 stuff too (a breadbox and a slimline off eBay, don't ask what it cost agh..) as well as a HardSID 4U. I am one poor but extremely retro guy right now.

The C64TPC peripheral (PC parallel port to C64 serial port, mounts D64 images and serves them) works for some games (Creatures and Wizball i've tested) but it's not the most stable thing. I also bought an MMC Replay from Vesalia (www.vesalia.de) - honestly, for demos the drive is an absolute must, and they also sell joysticks for when you get tired of coding or watching Edge of Disgrace. :)

If you want to kick around and try your hand at coding, get an MMC Replay and grab the Turbo Action ROM from http://turbo.style64.org/ - you can flash it to the MMC-Replay's banks and it will give you a 2007 version of Turbo Assembler. Then read everything at Project64 twice.

what kaneel said!

seriously: you got some superb-computer and you dont know what to do with it?
just start BASIC:

10 PRINT "Hallo,was?"
20 GOTO 10

start coding it is what i tell ya!
switch to assembler tho!

*=$1000
LDX #$00
write: LDA message,x
STA $0400,x
INX
CPX #$0B
BNE write
BRK

message: .text "hallo, was?"

or should that be JSR $1000.. probably.. i am an ASM noob

My favourite program right now:

*=$1000
LDA $d011
AND #$ef
STA $d011
LDX #$00
loop: INC $d020
DEC $d020
INX
CPX #$ff
BNE loop
INC $d020
JMP loop

FLASHY FLASH

yup,seems asm is a bit more to do about it,but with basic only you´ll be lost...not enough power so to say!
but as its 2008 there are a lot of articles to be found via google or any other searcher...c64 still needs some more design,even after "edge of disgrace" ...so theres not everything DUN already ;)

count cycles and do it,dude!

Yes you need either a real 1541 disk drive or the 1541 ultimate, which costs 119 Euro. And if you get a real drive you also need some way of transferring stuff between the C64 and your PC (The 1541 ultimate takes care of that since it uses standard SD-cards with disk images on it). And a cartridge (with fastload etc) is also very convenient.

If you can't wait for new u1541s to become available (or think they are a bit too expensive) you can get a MMC Replay:
http://www.go64.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p3_MMC-Replay.html

Then you get a cartridge and a way to transfer things (using memory card). It's still 79 Euro, and it's basically a u1541 without the drive emulation. But you can get it now.

Or you can hope that someone who bought an u1541 wants to sell you his old cartridge for cheap...

Or you can try to get hold of one of the older PC to C64 cables.
If you can get hold of a RS232-Adapter you can use http://www.kahlin.net/daniel/over5/ to transfer stuff.

There is also the C2N232 Adapter, which sold for 20 Euro, but I don't know if it is available anymore (although I might have an extra lying around...)
http://www.ktverkko.fi/~msmakela/8bit/c2n232/index.en.html

Why hasn't anyone combined vice's true drive emulation with opencbm yet? Is the 1541 too tricky for the emulation to work over the parallel port or something?

First of all, opencbm is for the PC-side, not for the C64-side.

Secondly; yes, it is too tricky. You need exact timing. It might be possible if you had full control of the host PC - (meaning no multitasking = no windows). And even then I doubt you could use much of the vice emulation since it does not need to respond immediately to requests, since it's part of a software emulator of the whole machine.

Yeah I suspected that. No multitasking wouldn't be that much of a problem tho, most people have old machines lying around that could be dedicated for this job, and even if they don't it's not like those things cost much..

Calexico:

I've done that, and it reads 2-2.5v AC.