
Commodore Free Magazine 

Issue 17 March 2008
www.commodorefree.com
Free to download magazine
Dedicated to Commodore Computers

Available as Text, Html, PDF, SEQ and
Commodore 64 D64 disk image


Editor

Some of you reading this may wonder
why I decided to include an interview
with ?Bread Box Computer systems? as
they are nothing to do with Commodore
Related items. Well because some
questions have raised recently about
Geos and who owns the rights
copyright; I thought it would be good
to include the information about the
company. 

The interview does raise and answer
some questions about Geos and maybe
not in the way many people would
think; Also they do create a great
product granted it is for the PC
system, and if you would rather not
read it you can skip out the
interview. I don?t intent to include
none Commodore items but felt the need
to include this interview.

Another competition this month the
chance to win 1 of 3 CD roms kindly
donated by PRESS PLAY ON TAPE
commodore tribute band. The competition
was missed out of issue 16 mainly due
to time, and the lack of! I apologise
for this. Goto PPOT COMPETE & get your
entries in.

Thanks also for the readers who sent
in comments they are all welcome and
shows that as well as downloading the
magazine people are actually taking
the time to read the issues as well. I
thought the CMD item would have
generated more readers comments but I
guess you are all shy. 

We also have an interview with an
orchestra this month who play C= SID
tunes, you cant say the magazine isn't
diverse

Thanks
Nigel

Website
www.commodorefree.com
E-mail
Commodorefree`commodorefree.com

Contents

Contents
Editorial / Contents

Interviews
Ahmet Zeki Eymou C64tcp
Mano Scherpbier C=64 orchestra
Jason Kelk Cosine
Frank Fischer Breadbox systems Geos
Gaelyne Gasson VCSWEB.com

General news items
C64tcp

Readers Comments

Guides
1541 Cable amendment
Upgrading Geos
In the beginning PART 2

Competition
PRESS PLAY ON TAPE
Poster competition Winning entry


HOW CAN I HELP COMMODORE FREE
Ok the best way to help would be to
write something about Commodore? (yes
for the observant I spelled the
company correctly this time) grin
seriously though articles are always
welcome.

WHAT ARTICLES DO YOU NEED
Well they vary contact me if you have
an idea but I am looking for Tutorials
 (beginners and Expert)
Experiences with Commodore
Why I love Commodore machines
Interviews ? maybe you have access to
a power user
-------------------------------------

Competition

PRESS PLAY ON TAPE

Your chance to win 1 of 3 copies of the
fabulous PRESS PLAY ON TAPE CD ROM.

PRESS PLAY ON TAPE is a Commodore 64
revival band playing classic Commodore
Music files or SIDs on real
instruments, guitars, drums, keyboards
with an added bonus of vocals.

To win one of these 3 CD ROMS and have
the disk sent directly to your address
Free of all postal charges you just
need to answer this question

"I love Commodore computer music
  because?

And your entry will be placed with the
others for reading, the best 3 stories
will be selected to receive one of the
CD ROMS.

Closing date for the competition will
be 30th April 2008

Commodore Free would like to thank
PRESS PLAY ON TAPE for donating the 3
CD ROMS for the competition.
-------------------------------------

1541 cable AMENDMENT


Hello Nigel...

First of all, thanks for your
continued hard work at making
Commodore Free, and thank you for your
"plugs" of my BBS and the C64/128 BBS
List that I maintain.  :)

I just got finished reading the latest
issue, and I wanted to point out a few
things in reference to your X1541
article. First, the .lnx file
extension is for the Lynx program,
written by Will Corley.  The first
version was simply called Lynx.  The
second version was Lynx II.  The third
version was Lynx III, and so on...
Through the final version he released,
Lynx XVII.  I happen to have a
collection of every version of Lynx
that Will Corley ever released,
and I also was one of the few people
that sent Will Corley a contribution
for his work. 

The program you talk about in your
article, Ultimate Lynx, was a hacked
version made by another author that
was supposed to support different disk
drives (Lynx was written solely for
the 1541), such as the 1581 and
SFD-1001.  I haven't had good
experiences with Ultimate Lynx.  In my
opinion, the best version ever written
was Lynx XVII.  Not only did it link
and unlink files with the .lnx file
extension, it also included a very
good directory editor, sector editor,
file copier, and more.  I have one of
Will Corley's disks of utilities,
which he called U-1541.  It includes
LynxXVII, and his short description
for the program says, "You name it,
it does it!"

Anyway...  I just thought that if you
were going to talk about the .lnx
files, you really should give credit
to the original program and the
original author, and not only mention
the later "hacked" version.

As long as you're going to talk about
.lnx files, you might as well also
talk about other file-linking
programs.  There were several that
were commonly used for file transfers
to and from BBS's and Q-Linkback in
the late 80's and early 90's...  Lynx,
as discussed, linked files without
compression and had the .lnx file
extension.  Arc was another popular
program.  Although not fast and not
very userfriendly, the great thing
about Arc was that it actually
compressed files in addition to
linking them. 

Arc files have a .arc file extension.
Library and Arkive were two other
programs which, like Lynx, only linked
files without compressing them.
Library files have a .lbr file
extension, and Arkive files have a
.ark file extension. Arc files of
around 200 blocks or less can be
converted to Self-Dissolving Arc
files, with the file extension .sda.
Likewise, Will Corley wrote a program
to convert .lnx files of around 200
blocks or less to Self-Dissolving Lynx
files.  The program converts
"filename.lnx" to "[filename]".  Most
people, myself included, would rename
the bracketed file to "filename.sdl".
There is a great program that was
released on Q-Link called Omega-Q.
The final version of that was Omega-Q
2.1.  This program had many useful
disk utilities in it. The best part
was that it would dissolve .arc, .ark,
.lbr, and .lnx... all from one
program!  It would only dissolve them,
however.  To create them, you still
needed to use the original program.

Anyway, I just wanted to elaborate a
bit on what I read in your X1541
article...  :)

Keep up the great work!

-Andrew

COMMODORE FREE
Andrew Glad you are still reading the
magazine I have to point out that
credit for the idiots guide to the
1541 should go entirely to

Rio Baan
The article was kindly reprinted from
his website

Here is his Website URL
http://www.geocities.com/cdsixfour/
 x1541.htm
-------------------------------------

Readers comments


Hi Nigel,
Just a note regarding your CMD
comments. Firstly, there are a few
enthusiasts who are working on devices
that should supercede CMD devices such
as the 1541 Ultimate here:

http://www.lemon64.com/forum/viewtopic.
 php?t=25622

Indeed, the Lemon64 forums have become
a hotbed of discussion on this very
topic. For instance, general feelings
towards Maurice can be found at

http://www.lemon64.com/forum/viewtopic.
 php?t=25371

and FD2000 cloning is currently being
discussed over at

http://www.lemon64.com/forum/viewtopic.
 php?t=26098

For my own part, I'd be willing to loan
out my spare SuperCPU 128 + SuperRAM
card to anyone with the relevant
knowledge and skill set to reverse
engineer it for the purposes of
creating a clone. Obviously, I'll need
the unit back once finished. I could,
of course sell the spare, but that way
no one will benefit.

People may contact me by email at
retrobytespr`mail.com which is also my
MSN Live Messenger address. Perhaps
the future isn't so bleak after all?

Regards,
Shaun.

COMMODORE FREE
Hi Shaun yes I know there are some
projects being looked at, I was hoping
to generate some emails and comments
and it seemed to work, many users have
contacted me to tell me about projects,
I still feel we need to pool resources
together rather than people going off
designing hardware we need to have some
sort of central system so people know
what is being worked on and don't go an
redesign the same or similar thing


Hi,

In issue 16 you state an untruth,
"Maurice owns the rights to Geos."
Well, he does NOT. He just tells
people this. I live in Michigan and so
does Maurice. There I filed a
COPYRIGHT lawsuit against Maurice, and
his company (Click Here Software Co).
He lost that suit by way of failing to
respond.

So let's get this right for all C64
readers. Berkeley Software (the
publishers of GEOS and copyright
holder) NEVER gave up their copyrights
to CMD. What CMD got from Berkeley was
a right to DISTRIBUTE. That is, a right
to make copies and sell them. This is
NOT the same as a copyright.

Your local Coke-a-Cola bottler has the
RIGHT to produce the softdrink, but NO
right to sell the formula to others.
Maurice likes to TELL people the he is
the copyright owner. But what he
purchased was the right to distribute
that CMD had. However, the ORIGINAL
COPYRIGHT never changed hands.

Here are my proofs:
1) This link is the search at the US
Copyright office for "GEOS"

http://cocatalog.loc.gov/cgibin/
 Pwebrecon.cgi?SearchArg=geos&Search
  Code=TALL&PID=23966&SEQ=200802261
   31716&CNT=25&HIST=1

You'll not find CMD or ClickHere-
Software listed on ANY copyright.

2) Here is the link for businesses
registered in the state of Michigan:

http://www.dleg.state.mi.us/bcscorp/
 srcorp.asp

You will NOT find any business listing
for "Click Here Software" or "cmdrkey."
Try it your self, here are the links:
http://www.dleg.state.mi.us/bcscorp/rs
 corp.asp?sbutton=sname&vsearch=
  cmdrkey&hiddenField=&search=Search

http://www.dleg.state.mi.us/bcscorp/
 rscorp.asp?sbutton=sname&v
 search=Click+Here+Software&
  hiddenField=&search=Search

3) IF Maurice has a copyright, all he
needs to do is file it with the
copyright office and pay $45. You'd
think that a guy would spend that much
to secure his rights. But that would
mean that he would have to prove to
the copyright office that the copyright
was transferred to him. But I think he
has NO DOCUMENTATION to prove any such
transfer.

4) On Wikipedia I found: "The Apple II
version of GEOS was released as
freeware in August 2003. The Commodore
64/128 versions followed in FEB 04."

Copyright law makes it clear, that
once a copyright is given to another
party, that the new party has the same
rights as the originator. That is,
once the Apple version was released
into freeware, so to was the Commodore
versions because they share the same
codebase, screens and even logic.

5) On eBay, I was selling the C128
Geos boot rom. Maurice tried to block
that sale, by claiming that he was the
copyright holder. That is when I
demanded that he produce documentation
of his claim. He did not produce ANY
SUCH DOCUMENTATION. So I filled a
lawsuit and formally requested his
proof of copyright. He did not produce
any such documentation. Maurice
abandoned his claim with eBay.

6) This link shows that Breadbox owns
the copyright to GEOS on ALL hardware
platforms.

http://www.breadbox.com/newsdetail.asp?
 id=40

Breadbox Pens GEOS Exclusive License
and Ownership Rights Agreement with
Geoworks, Port Richey, Fla, 29 APR 03.

Under the terms of an amended
licensing agreement with Geoworks of
Emeryville, California, effective
April 1, 2003, Breadbox Computer
Company, LLC of Port Richey, Florida,
has obtained the worldwide exclusive
and perpetual rights to the patented
GEOS operating system for all hardware
platforms. As part of the agreement
and in addition to undisclosed
financial and other terms, Breadbox
has agreed to take on certain of
Geoworks' technical support
liabilities to third parties. In
addition, under the terms of the
agreement, all ownership rights of the
Geos operating system will pass to
Breadbox at an undisclosed date. Prior
to the ownership transfer, Breadbox
has the right to bring claims against
third parties for violations of
Geoworks' intellectual property rights
in the licensed technology.

"We are very pleased to have reached
an amicable agreement with Geoworks
and we look forward to our continuing
role as the keeper of the GEOS flame.
With a little luck and our continued
perseverance and talented Breadbox
team, we aim to put GEOS back on the
map as a viable alternative. GEOS has
a long standing history of being on
the cutting edge and of being the
software of choice for the first PDA,
the Casio Zoomer, and later the
Hewlett Packard OmniGo and the Sharp
PT-9000 PDA; the Canon StarWriter Pro
5000 personal publishing system;
Brother Ensemble Word Processors; the
first PDN, the Brother GeoBook; the
first wireless Communicator, the Nokia
9000; the GlobalPC; the award winning
PC desktop software that still runs
nicely on a 386 and was selected for
IBM's Eduquest educational computer
platform; and much, much more. We will
revive and continue this legacy into
the future" stated Frank S. Fischer,
President & CEO of Breadbox.


Which begs the question, can Maurice
legally offer GEOS as his website as
freeware?

My conclusion is that neither he, nor
his company, has ever been granted any
GEOS copyright. He only has a
distribution right. The difference is
significant. A right to distribute
means that Berkeley Software cannot
win a suit against Maurice. But it
does not mean that Maurice can file a
lawsuit against anyone else that is
selling GEOS. Only the copyright
holder can do that - which Maurice is
not.

This was my argument in my case
against Maurice. Maurice did not even
file an answer.

*** One note, it is NOT illegal to run
a business in Michigan without filing
with the state. I am not saying that
Maurice has done anything illegal. I
just think that he either lied or has
deluded himself into thinking that a
distribution right means that he has
the copyright.

Eric

COMMODORE FREE
Hi Eric, I think you are correct with
your comments, and it looks like you
have had experience of the problem, I
did report about the Breadbox company
in an earlier issue of Commodore Free
magazine under the title ?What
happened to Geos? as a matter of fact
I was quite tempted to purchase a copy
to run on an old laptop as it looked
quite slick it seemed to have been
updated to something called ensamble
Geos is still available for mobile
devices:
 http://www.breadbox.com/geos.asp

Nigel,

The sad part is that IF Maurice would
just reach out to the community, I am
sure that others would help him build
the CMD hardware and he would MAKE
money. One person that has the stuff
to do PCB would makes them. Another
person would do the next part and so
on. Here in Michigan we have a HUGE
number of skilled auto workers who know
how to manufacture stuff.

Anyway, it is too bad that people are
loosing their money.

Eric
COMMODORE FREE
AGREE it seems Maurce has been offered
help on numerous occasions but every-
time turns the helpers down or doesn't
respond

COMMODORE FREE
I was trying to find a good guide on
updating Geos, I never found this and
didn't have time to create it,
Although a reader did send in this
information so I included it the
Readers section as information (if
that makes sense. Remember though
Maurice still has lots of outstanding,
orders  and ordering items may take a
long time?
-------------------------------------

Upgrading Goes
Terry/Raymon

To update Geos to my knowledge is to
use Maurice Randall's patch that uses
the power of the SCPU, I think this
was the best upgrade "ever" for Geos
2.0, but the downside of this is you
have to "patch" the original Geos 2.0
boot disk to do so.

Wheels 64 and Wheels 128 Minimum
recommended hardware:

 C=64 or C=128
 C= Monitor
 C= 1351 or CMD Smart Mouse
 Geos or C= REU
 1541 or 1571 drive or CMD drives.
 
Wheels 64 and Wheels 128 Maximum
recommended hardware:

C= Monitor
C=1351 Mouse or CMD Smart Mouse
CMD SCPU plus 1mb or more Super Ram.
CMD HD, Ramlink, FD-2000.
Geos or C= REU
C= drives optional
CMD Geocable II for faster printing.

To upgrade to Wheels 64 or Wheels 128
all you have to do is the following:
Order either Wheels 64 or Wheels 128
from Maurice Randall and then when you
get your Wheels disk,  do the
following: Type this from the READY
prompt:

 LOAD"STARTER",8   press RETURN key

It has been a long time since I have
done this but Wheels needs your
original Geos2.0 disk to get the
"serial number", after this is done
put back your original Geos 2.0 boot
disk.  Now you can boot Wheels and you
dont need the 2.0 boot disk, only for
the applications like: Geowrite,
Geopaint etc, all these old
applications will run in Wheels with
no problem.  The only thing is if you
have "only" a new Geos boot and new
applications disk you need to install
"all" new applications first: "only on
the original applications disk".  To
do this for example you click on the
Geopaint Icon this will run Geopaint
for the first time and install it, do
the same with all other applications.
After the applications are installed
you can copy those applications to
your installed Wheels (NOT THE
ORIGINAL), there is an installer on
your master disk that allows you to
make other master disks, and bootable
partitions.

To create Bootable partitions like on
the CMD HD or Ramlink, create a fairly
large Native partition, then with your
"original"  Wheels master disk, run
the install application.  When this
begins you can either select to create
a new Master boot disk or a bootable
partition, select either. After that
you can freely select the Native
partition you just  selected and
Wheels is now on its way to creating
either a new Master disk or bootable
partition. On the Master disk
everything is installed and copied,
but on the  bootable partition
only the system files are created and
printer drivers only.

I would always make a new Master disk
right away and then put away the
original Wheels Master, use only the
created Master disk, then you can add
all applications etc

In wheels you can double click on the
Toolbox, in this you can setup any
drive configurations, including using
the SCPU Ram as a Ramdrive. Im not
going to discuss setting up the Whole
Ramdrive (for SCPU), but  ONLY use
around 16396k of RAM only, dont use
all the SCPU RAM since this is  your
system RAM that Wheels uses.  In
Wheels there is also a way to change
the Background wallpaper, I think
this is done in the Toolbox, and
adjusting the Mouse speed. All other
operations are self explanatory and
easy to use, even for  beginners.

The best change to Wheels is you
don't have to worry about the border
files, Wheels OS itself operates in a
totally different nature, which in my
opinion  is a lot better and you don't
have to worry about those pesky border
files  anymore.  Wheels itself does
include more colors than Geos 2.0 did,
but this I  think depends on how
applications are programmed, more for
the 16 bit SCPU I believe.  Another
subject is The Wave Browser started by
Maurice Randall himself in year 2000,
Maurice decided to do this because we
finally had a faster processor and more
memory to work with.

The Wave 64 and The Wave 128(80 column
only) requirements:

C=64 or C=128 computer
CMD SCPU, (Required Wave browser wont
run without it)4mb ram or more).
CMD HD, Ramlink, FD-2000, 1581
1351 Mouse
Swiftlink, Turbo 232 Modem interface &
needed Modem cables.
Any external Hayes compatible Modems
Be setup with dialup ISP account

So this project evolved over time,
starting life out as a simple terminal
program, and moving more towards a
text and html and html tag browser,
that uses more of today's TCP IP ISP
"Internet Service Provider". I
remember in 2000 Maurice recruited
many in the Commodore Community to
help with Beta testing Wave browser,
myself I don't know how Maurice
remembered  everybody, but he did a
good job. Myself at the time was no
expert by any means so I did a lot of
learning myself, so this project was a
good teacher for me, so I really want
to thank Maurice for letting so many
of us beta test this wonderful
browser.

Wave finally started to work with
html, but to go to your own "text 
based" or  "html" websites you had to
know how to basically create an html
link, to do so you had to create this
in Geowrite and save that link. After
that was created then you could then
(in the browser) click on that html
link and go to that website. Remember
Wave 64 and Wave 128 up to this point
could only render or (display) PET
ascii, plain text, html, or html tags,
but "will not" display any kind  of
graphics like: .gif, .jpg, .bmp, etc
You can display many of these graphics
offline, but there is currently no
graphics Engine for Wave browser.
Maurice eventually added TCP IP dialup
for Manual, & PAP authentication (for
the dialing process). And even down-
loading could be done Im not sure if
you can upload.

There was finally a public release:
The Wave V1.0 which has a full-blown
installer that will install Wheels.
After that up to this date was: The
Wave Beta2.9 which is another beta
version to try out, which was updated
from the Public release and will do
more cool things.

The Wave 64 is physically faster but
limited to 40 columns, so the text and
html will "word-wrap" and looks funny
on the screen.  The Wave 128 works
"only" in 80 column mode, operates a
little slower,  but is still fast
enough, but the resolution and display
is really good. The 80 columns of
course gives enough room on the screen
to display accurately, and no word-
wrapping like the 64 version does.
Maurice last I knew "used" to be
working on an upgrade to Wheels called
Wheels SC.  The SC stands for "Super
CPU" and supports the Super CPU more
than the standard Wheels OS does, and
is supposed to do "primtive" Multi-
Tasking and more.  But that was about 5
years ago before Maurice bought the CMD
line, which is a whole other subject.

Upgrading then from Geos to Wheels is
fairly simple and can use the older
applications etc, just better disk
drivers etc and the whole OS has
been made more user friendly with CMD
hardware in mind, you dont have to
tinker with the many "Configure"
patches Wheels already has the needed
"device drivers" built into the
Operating system. Maurice also to
write The Wave in 1999 created Concept
Plus which I commented on earlier,
mainly to create the whole Wave Browser
software. Myself we needed this "major
overhaul" of Geos 2.0 and Maurice made
this possible with Wheels OS and it has
been more fun to me since I have
upgraded  from Geos 2.0. Which is how I
started late in 1992 when I first
discovered Geos 64 2.0, my how amazing
that was back then for the first time I
booted Geos, but fun to use. Good thing
I had the Geos 2.0 User Manual I would
have been lost without it.

Nigel I dont know how good of an
article this is but in my own words of
how to simple upgrade Geos 2.0 and
making the simply upgrade to Wheels OS.
I think it was early in 1998 when I
ordered Wheels 64 and then late in 2004
or so I finally did get Wheels 128, boy
was I impressed with the 80 column
support for Wheels.

There is the European Geos 2.0 upgrade
called MP3 64 or MP3 128, the original
programmer doesnt support this any
longer, but Werner Weicht and Colin
Thomson still support MP3(European Geos
2.0 upgrade).

I have tried out MP3, its a good
upgrade but I like Wheels  better since
Im used to the simple way it works, MP3
takes some tinkering, which I have not
had the time to figure out, and I much
prefer Wheels anyway, but MP3 is a good
upgrade for the European Geos users. I
think Markus Kannet was the programmer
for this, but he moved on the using
Linux.

Thanks, -Terry/Raymon

Wheels Copyright 1999-2005 by Click
Here Software
-------------------------------------

News

MiniGame Compo 2008
The 2008 MiniGame competition has now
started. This competition is for all
8-bit computers, and we would love to
see some *more* Commodore entries
enter the competition. The MiniGame
compo will be doing the same as last
year?s categories, which are 1K (1024
bytes), 2K (2048 bytes) and 4K (4096
bytes). For more information visit The
MiniGame compo web site:
 http://minigamecomp.org.uk/index.htm

VINTAGECOMPUTERS.NET
I have uploaded a whole slew of new
D64's, mostly BBS/Comms/Phone Phreaking
/Copy/Crack Utilities/ and related
miscellaneous stuff, by request.
I likely have more, stay tuned.
Start from ...

http://www.vintagecomputer.net/
 commodore/64/d64library/

...and sort by date.  The majority of
the new stuff is in ../BBSComm and
../utilities directories. Note that to
download you'll be asked to agree that
the files will be used for educational
purposes only.  This is to protect
copyrights and to C.M.A. Some disks
were not perfect to start with and the
D64's reflect the imperfections. let
me know if you have trouble.

Obviously some of these disks were
personal copies of miscellaneous
programs/ compilations.  Any .D64 I
post with "more" at the end is a
compilation disk.  Usually worth
checking out.

Bill
vintagecomputer.net/midatlanticretro.
 org/degnanco.net/spacevipers.com/etc

Space Invaders LED Doormat
http://www.firebox.com/index.html?
 dir=firebox&action=product&pid=
  2066&srct=wnp

Pressure sensitive doormat that runs
on a couple of AA Batteries displays
Alien space invaders via a pressure
sensitive pad onto an LED screen.

SEUCK - sideways scrolling
To celebrate the leap year, the SEUCK
Vault and Jon Wells are pleased to
announce: SIDEWAYS SEUCK! Yes, the
editor and game code of the classic
Sensible Software game creator "The
Shoot'Em Up Construction Kit" have been
modified to scroll from left to right,
with a right-to-left version to follow
in due course. To read more, visit the
SEUCK Vault at:
http://www.seuckvault.co.uk


SOASC= collection
Hi Nigel, Just a short news for your
excellent magazine. SOASC= collection
is now back online with a fast
connection and own server hosting
145449 MP3 files for the CSG8580R5,
MOS6581R2 and R4 chips.
 http://www.6581-8580.com/

In other news.. www.paula8364.com same
thing for the Amiga currently in
recording!

DirMaster v2.0/Style!
DirMaster is a Windows-based GUI tool
useful for the management of common
(and uncommon) emulator formats (such
as .d64, .d81, .tap, etc) as well as
native archival formats (such as .arc,
.sda, .lnx, etc). DirMaster
differentiates from and surpasses
competing tools with its focus on
usability - a perfect blend of
familiar appearance (e.g. natural
looking disk image contents using the
CBM character set) with modern GUI
functionality (e.g. drag and drop,
working with multiple disk images at
once).

At v1, DirMaster was already the best
GUI-based disk image tool on Windows;
v2 was in development for 18 months
and under internal use for the past
year, extending the lead and covering
the bases:

* disk image support: .d64, .d71,
.d81, .d80, .d82, .d2m .dhd, .dnp,
.dfi, .g64 (read only)
* tape image support: .t64 (read only)

* file support: .prg/.p00, .seq/.s00,
.usr/.u00, .rel/.r00 

* archive support: .arc, .sda, .lnx,
.ark, .cvt, .sfx, .wr3, zip/4 (1!...,
2!..., etc)

* open literally *hundreds* of disk
images at same time 

* fully working drag and drop:

* copy one or more files from one image
to another

* copy files between different image
formats (e.g. d64 to d81, dfi to d71,
etc)

* move/reorder files on the same disk
by dragging them 

* drag and drop files from disk images
to the OS file system

* drag and drop files from the file
system onto disk images

* recursive find: search your disk
image collection, fast (125 images per
second, 7.5k per minute)

* invoke your favorite emulator (up to
eight slots) from within DirMaster to
run a file 

* save disk images as a .txt, .csv
(with optional MD5 hash per file), or
.bmp 

* batch processing: recursively create
.txt, .csv, and .bmp or extract to
prg/seq files

* multi-level undo
* decompress archives directly off
open disk images

* BAM view which fully supports
standard error sector information 

* track/sector editor: edit in hex or
ASCII 

* sub-directory support for relevant
formats like d81 and d2m

* maintain your own favorite
'separators': drag and drop them onto
your disk image

* great support for GEOS files

* most functions have keyboard
equivalents, including file reordering
and filename editing 

* working just fine under WINE for
Linux/FreeBSD/Solaris freaks

All coding by The Wiz/Style, new
graphics/icon design by saehn/Style.

http://www.style64.org/

HardSID 4U
Welcome Mac lovers! As some of you may
already now, we didn't plan OS X
related developments... but the release
of the HardSID 4U made many Mac users
to nag me about the lack of OS X
support. Well, you won! ;)
While my friend prepares the fist
stock of HardSID 4Us to be ready for
the release date in April, I've jumped
into OS X development

http://osx.hardsid.com/

HVSC update 48 released High Voltage
SID Collection Update 48 Date:
09 MAR 08
Resulting Version: 48
Previous Version: 47

Hello fellow lover of SID music!
Nice you found some time to read thru
this script, to see what has been
changed in the HVSC and for what
reason. This time we have music from:
Vandalism News 49, Silesia party, The
82 Ditties  demo by Bluez Muz,
unreleased tunes by Adam Gilmore, John
Stormont (NEW), C64.sk SIDcompo 7,
Aegis (aged sweet 13 years old!)
Jeroen Tel, Linus, Dwayne Bakewell,
Richard Bayliss, Conrad (CRD), Froyd,
Adam Gilmore, Goto80

After this update, the collection
should contain 35,030 SID files!

This update features (all approximates)
918 new SIDs
42 fixed/better rips
0 fixes of PlaySID/Sidplay1 specific
SIDs
12 repeats/bad rips eliminated
370 SID credit fixes
101 SID model/clock infos
11 tunes from /DEMOS/UNKNOWN/
identified :-)
37 tunes moved out of /DEMOS/ to their
composers? directories
15 tunes moved out of /GAMES/ to their
composers? directories

www.hvsc.c64.org


The Commodore 64 Book 1982-199x" has
been published by Hiive Books & is now
available to order. Full details can be
found at:
 http://c64goldenyears.com

The book covers over 200 classic games
for the best-selling home computer of
the 1980's, with trivia about the
games, programmers & companies. Each
review is illustrated with full colour
screenshots and images of the
packaging. Split into sections for
each  year from 1982 to 1992, with an
additional chapter bringing the story
right up to the present day, it tells
the story of a machine that found a
place in people's homes and hearts,
and paved the way for a computer in
every home...

The book also comes with a foreword
from gaming legend Jeff Minter,
describing his love for the C64. Each
chapter is introduced with a short
history of what was happening to C= and
the games industry in that year. The
index makes finding a favourite game
easy.

This is the second book in the GOLDEN
YEARS series. The first book, The ZX
Spectrum Book 1982-199x was written
and produced by Andrew  Rollings and
published in December 2006 through
Hiive Books LLC. That title has now
sold out.

Author Andrew Fisher has written for
UK magazines including C= Force, C=
Format, Micro Mart,games TM Retro and
Retro Gamer.

Editor and designer Andrew Rollings of
Hiive Books LLC has created a fresh
new design based on the Spectrum Book,
allowing the two books to complement
each other.

Orders can be placed by credit card or
PayPal through the official site ONLY
at

http://c64goldenyears.com


Commodore 64/128 Bulletin Board

The 29 February 2008 edition of the
Commodore 64/128 Bulletin Board  List
is now ready for viewing. You can
access the list at:
http://cottonwood.servebbs.com/
 cbm-bbs-list.txt

The current state of the C= BBS Scene
is as follows:

 18 BBS's verified up & running today.
  3 additions and 0 deletions.

-Andrew


BlockParty 2008 is coming to Cleveland,
Ohio on April 4-6.  A giant demo party
and show here in North America.  Taken
from the webpage, the organizers say,
"2008's looking to dwarf 2007, as we
continue our Five Years of Blockparty
Pledge to bring you more of the top-
flight demoparty action you've come to
expect from us."
 http://www.demoparty.us

At BlockParty, attendees will listen
to guest speakers, have the chance to
attend "camps" (extended sessions for
learning demo-coding), and participate
and/or observe the competitions.  I've
been told that Commodore demo action
will be there, too.  Guest speakers
include such notables as Jason Scott
of the BBS Documentary movie (his BP
topic -- Now and Then, Here and There:
Editing) and Jeri Ellsworth of
CommodoreOne and C64 DTV fame (her BP
topic -- CPU Not Required: Making
Demos with FPGAs).

For the complete speaker list and
schedule, go to
http://www.notacon.org/blockparty.html

BlockParty 2008 will be held at the
Holiday Inn Select City Centre
Lakeside, 1111 Lakeside Ave., in
downtown Cleveland.  (The hotel
accomodations seem to be booked solid
already for BlockParty guests, but
some rooms may still be available by a
direct phone call to the hotel.The
hotel contact details are at the
Notacon website.)

Various registration packages are
available from $50 to $599.  Early
registration closes on March 23 at 9
p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.  Any
remaining tickets will be sold at the
door for $100 each.

Truly, Robert Bernardo
-------------------------------------

In the Beginning
By Lord Ronin from Q-Link


Last time I left off at the forms of
or maybe say it as ways of running
software on the C=. But I didn't go
into the last one, the disks. Because
I babble too much <G>.

Disks are a magnetic form of
information storage and retrieval.
They are also a circular disk of clear
plastic that have rust glued on it.
Rust is that iron oxide stuff on all
magnetic tapes and disks that are
listed as iron oxide. That brownish
stripe on the black roller in your
tape machine. Since it rubs off onto
that roller.

A disk for the C= is a special thing.
Look I know that those of you that
have used other computers don?t
understand what I mean. This is where
we start altering your perceptions and
preconceived notions on terms and
words. I'll just do that gradually for
you. Disk is called a floppy, some
call it a flippy. The size that we use
is 5 1/4". Now if you are real lucky,
you have a disk drive that won't hold
the 5 1/4" disk. It is too small. You
may still have the grey label on the
bottom left of the front piece. Saying
it is a "commodore 1581". This is the
64/128 3 1/2" disk drive. Using a
Double Sided Double Density disk. If
you are blessed by the gods, then you
would have a 3 1/2" disk drive that
reads "CMD FD-2000". This was and is
made by another company than Commodore.
Uses the above DS/DD disks. But also
the High Density disks, that most non
Commodore users have been using. The
one that they call a 1.44meg. If you
are super blessed and lucky. You have
the "FD-4000". This runs the Enhanced
disk, and I want one <VBG>.

 Most common of the disk drives or the
C= in 5 1/4" is the 1541. This one is
the basic standard. There where a lot
of these long and not that pretty
monsters presented. I have over 60 of
them. At this point I must add that
there are two types. OK any die hard
C= user at this point will question
me. There where several revisions of
the disk drive. But for we beginners.
The two types are only note worthy
in the disk latch. One type is a turn
like a closet handle door style.
Rotating it clockwise to lock in the
disk. Also this is the easy one to fix
when the latch doesn't work. Other
type is a press straight down on the
lever. Has a strong spring which can
fake you out at times that it has
locked down.

 Another disk drive that you might
have will be labelled as a 1571. This
has that handle latch. The differences
are wide, but for now the only thing
to understand is that the 1571 came
later and is a two headed drive.
Meaning that you don't have to turn
the disk over as you do with the 1541.
At this point take a look at any disks
that you have. If you are lucky and
are using a 1541 drive. All of your
disks will have a square cut out of
both sides. This allows the disk to be
turned over and used on the opposite
side. OK that is enough on that for
now. Last major point to make is that
the disk spins at 300rpm in the drive.
Loads and saves a lot faster than
cassette tape.

 Connecting your disk drive to the
computer. Well it isn't going to work
if you don't. And some of you are
wondering about the drive that you
have that I didn't mention. Well first
lets connect the smegger. Remember to
have the C= OFF. Now we are going to
believe that you have the connecting
cord. Logical if you have a disk drive
that you would have gotten the cable
as well. Some I picked up had the
cable still plugged into the drive.

 Most of the time this is a black
cable. You may have a whitish tan one
as well. The cable can be from 2 feet,
and I have seen some smaller. All the
way up to at least 20 feet. That is
the largest one that I have, the
smallest is 3 inches. You may have the
smaller one, which was made to connect
one drive to another in a stack. That
weirdly long one came from a school
district. I suspect they were used in
some form of networking. Saying all of
that extra stuff. The cable itself has
the same looking barrel style ends.
Doesn't matter what end you use on the
drive of the C=. Now if you are using
a monitor. There is only one hole left
to fill that is round.  If not, well
there is only one of the two round
holes back there that it will fit in
for you. Looking at the back of your
drive, ah we will use the 1541 for the
example. There are two round holes.
Doesn't matter which one you put the
cord into. They both work. The one that
you don't use can be connected to
another drive with another cord. But
lets wait on that till more
explanations.

Slight break here for those that are
using the 1571 and other drives. You
may see a small strip of little
switches. Called dip switches. At this
time don't mess with the settings. We
can hope that the previous owner had
them set correctly. All they will do
is change the device number of the
drive. That will make sense in a
little bit.

While on this little break. Yes there
are other and non Commodore disk
drives that were made for the C=. ones
that I have worked with and own are
the Enhancer 2000 and the MSD dual
drive. Seen others, and one of them
needed an operating disk for the C= to
function. Though that one never worked
for me. In any case, the connections
are the same. Now then I should add
that there was a manual that came in
the box with the disk drive. This
manual explained the how to load, and
how to save files. Shows a diagram of
track and sectors. Gives stuff on the
different file types. And generally is
way to much for the beginner to digest
at this time.

That needs some explanation before the
major part of turning on the computer.
You see I started with absolutely no
knowledge of computers. Short class
with key punching cards in college.
Followed by selling the 4K TRS units
at Radio Shack and swapping out the 4K
chip for the 8K chip. That was it till
1993ce. Would you believe me if I told
you I didn't even know that there were
different operating systems? Yeah I
didn't know that the Apple disks
wouldn't work on a Commodore or any
other platform. That was the beginners
level that I started with, and yeah I
was scared of it.

So when I looked in the disk drive
manual and see things that are
absolutely alien to me. Well I balked
a bit, OK a lot. Saying all of that to
pave the way. Here is the problem for
me. Not a smegging clue as to what any
of the stuff means. Hey isn't that why
I am writing this series? <G> But now
for you who have had experience on
another platform. Actually you have a
harder time than me. You are going to
be learning a new set of measurements
and file types. Meaning toss out what
you already know and start fresh. I'm
not going into that at this point.
Only setting you up for it, and here
is what you will experience in file
types. PRG <well known> SEQ, USR, REL,
and a rare one DEL. We will deal with
these over time. Just didn't want to
spring it on you all at once.

OK then, taking it that you have the
C= connected to your "video display
unit". Yeah the T.V. or the monitor.
You have the disk drive connected.
Right there should have been a dark
grey or black or a tannish cord. This
one is pretty obvious that one end
goes into the wall socket and the
other end that looks like a three
prong wall socket. Goes into the disk
drive, ah that is a general statement.
If you don't have any drive lights
come on. Generally these are red and
green LEDs. After you have it plugged
into the wall. Flip the switch on the
back of the drive. Yuppers that is the
power switch. They like to hide them
in almost in accessable places. More
gripes about that later. You should
hear a spin up noise. May grunt or
grind a bit. Remember it has been
silent for a while. I can tell you
that the C= loves to be used and they
get rather bitchy when they haven't
been used for a while.

Like my old VW microbus. OK the lights
should have come on and then one of
them off. Hard to be precise at this
time as on some of the drives the red
light is the on light and the green
light is the activity light. Ah that
means it flashes at weird patterns
when the disk drive is doing something.
But these lights can be reversed on
different drives. And yeah some guys
replaced the LEDS on their drives for
personal reasons that escape me.
Right, drive ON, Monitor/TV ON, now
you get to finally turn on your C=.
Wait a moment, I know you are chomping
at the bit to finally fire it up after
my babbles. But this is important. The
most important part of these first two
instalments.

Commodore ON LAST

Commodore OFF FIRST


Last thing you turn on in the stack of
things. No matter the amount of
drives, or printers or ... the
Computer is the last thing you turn
on. When you shut off your session on
the C=. Make it the first thing you
turn off. Never plug anything into the
ports of the C= while it is on. You
have a great possibility of fry-ing
out the computer.

OK I have done it wrong and not
damaged anything. But then I consider
myself very lucky. Well I think I just
recently fried a rare cart that allows
me to connect to a fast modem. Just to
illustrate my point. Flip that switch
on the right hand side of the computer
and lets hope that it still works.
Besides if it doesn't then you are
lucky and can forget reading anymore of
this drenn. <G>

You should see at once a small LED on
the top rear of the C=64 glow red.
That is if it wasn't replaced by
someone and it didn't get pushed into
the case. By The Way <BTW> this model
is called a breadbox by fans. If yours
happens to be a tannish colour. Well
after years of sun and smoke and dust.
The original colour is lost. It is
also flat and has a grey sticker inset
that says it is a commodore64c
personal computer. You have the newer
style. Still the same computer, pretty
much. There are some changes that have
a little negative effect. They changed
the SID chip. Ah, that is the Sound
Interface Device, I think it is
called. What gives the sound to the
C=. This change though will make some
of the older SID stuff, well not play
correctly. Outside of that, it is the
same for our work.

If all goes well. Then you will have a
dark blue screen. Ah that is 40
columns wide, and 25 lines tall. There
will be a light blue border around it.
In light blue it will say at the top, 

"****COMMODORE 64 BASIC V2****"

Under that will read,

"64k RAM SYSTEM 38911 BASIC BYTES FREE"

and below that the word "READY" and
this flashing solid box. First thing
most people worry aout is what can
this bugger do with just 38k free.
Trust me on this one, you don't want
to know right now. I'll talk about all
the things it can do later on. Just
accept that it is more powerful that
you realise. For reasons that will
slowly become apparent

If you see something other than what
is above on the screen. There may be
problems of a blessing. First off if
you don't see anything. Check the
connections of your output to the
monitor/TV. Making certain they are in
the right places. This may take a
little tinkering. Also when you think
it is right. Well it is time then to
play with the controls. Setting the
tint and colour and all of that sort
of thing. I have found some monitors
that where way out of colour settings.
Now then, if you have nothing but a
black screen. Maybe seeing a few
coloured lines or flashes rolling by
Time to discuss another situation. You
may have a 40/80 column monitor. Right
there is an 80 column feature to the
Commodore. Mainly this was used on the
128 models. There are also 80 column
things for the 64. But lets not jump
into that at this time. Take a look on
the front, if you are lucky. The back
if you are not. There will be either a
push button or a slider switch. In
some way they will be labled with
strange abbrebiations. You want it to
be in the CGA or Composite position.
More on this when we talk about the
128 by itself.


Another thing that might toss you a
curve in what I wrote above for the
screen. The screen is white and the
words are in black. Or some other form
of colour, and the words may not say
exactly the same thing as I wrote.
Don't worry too much. Some hackers
burned their own main chips. Adding
their colour scheme and maybe their
own names. I have seen it, but can't
tell you how it was done with the chip
burner. OK there is another major thing
that you may see and if you do, then
you are very blessed. You will also
have been wondering why I didn't
mention that little toggle switch on
your C=64. Well if you see the words
"JIFFY DOS" on that starting screen.
You have the special replacement chip
installed. I'd rather save that till
later on, in the parts about all the
additive things for the C=. The
commands for things that I will
shortly present, work with the jiffy
dos chip. A great chip, I know, as
almost all of my Commodore items have
it installed. Anyway, for you that
little toggle switch will turn the
chip on and off. For now don't worry
about it, we will over that later.
Will tell you that it is going to
shorten your loading time one hell of
a lot.

Saying that the system comes on, and
that you have a disk drive, and that
you have some disks. Which is the
general way that people have gained
these 2nd hand collections. I know
that you want to see what this machine
does before I go over the users manual.
OK I did the same thing. So pick a
disk, any disk at all. Slip it in the
drive, lable side up. <actually it
reads the bottom side of the disk>
Make certain that it is in securely.
Lock it in place and .... Save for
possibly the drive making a little bit
of noise nothing happens.

Time to start learning the system. So
you have to tell the drive to do
something. Yeah I said the drive, and
not the disk. You see unlike the other
systems. We use a smart drive. That
means to say that there is a micro
processor in the drive. We talk to it,
and not the OS on the disk. OK there
really isn't an OS <Operating System>
on the disk as you may understand it.
On that note, we use GCR formatting,
the other system that we call the
"heretic" uses MFM. Nope not a clue as
to what that means, and it is
unimportant for us at this moment.
Suffice to say in our format, well
that 1.44megger disk I mentioned, it
is 1.6megs for us.

Type the following on your keyboard.
It should be displayed on the screen.

 LOAD"$",8

after that, press the RETURN key.

 Screen should say a few things. The
light should flash rapidly on the
drive. When that is all done, in a few
seconds. The cursor, that is that
solid box, will be flashing and it is
time to type in the following.

 LIST

and then press RETURN.

All works well, and you have a bunch
of stuff that scrolls up the screen. 
Stuff that looks odd and weird to you.
Looked that way to me and I had no
idea what was going to happen. Below I
am placing an example. That we well
lightly discuss. After that, I will
cover what may have gone, or looked
like it went wrong.


0"THE VILLAGE BBS   "VC 2A

90 "LOST CAT 71"     SEQ
100"LOST CAT 72"     SEQ
40 "EDSTAR II"       PRG

434 BLOCKS FREE

Well it will look a bit like that.
Could be shorter and could be longer.
Besides, I am not sure how you are
reading this, so the format may not be
exact. Starting at the top. That 0
means that it was written or read on
device 0. This is hang over from the
days of multiple drives on one device
number. Don't worry about it. "THE
VILLAGE BBS" is the name of the disk.
That is what I called it when I
formatted it. At this point I should
mention that in normal operation it
will read in upper case. I have more to
say on the case part when we go to the
manual information. That "VC" is the ID
code that I create for the disk during
formatting. The drive/computer uses
this for the map of the disk. Lets
leave it at that point for now. "2A"
means it was done on a 1541, or similar
disk drive.

That may be a little different for
you. But now we come to the really big
difference. On the next line we have
for the first one "90", that is the
number of blocks that the file takes.
Then there is the name that I gave the
file. Ah but that is followed by the
"SEQ". Short for Sequential. Avoiding
the tech gear head stuff. Think of it
as a text file. In the illustration,
that is what it is exactly. But these
SEQ files are more than that, and not
really needed to explain more at this
stage. OK lets move to "EDSTAR II".
That is the name of the "PRG" that I
use for most of my editorial writing.
In fact it is what I am using to write
this series. But it is listed as the
PRG, or Programme file type.

At the bottom it tells us how many
blocks are free on the disk. I didn't
know of any form of measurement. So I
just accepted this at face value as
the way it is done. You may be coming
from another from another style of
measurements. Well the C= mainly uses
blocks. But some users also measure in
KB. Personally I don't. However you
may need a conversion. So in rough
terms, 4 blocks = 1KB. Right that
seems too small to do anything. Well
lets talk about that text file of 90
blocks. When printed out it will be
around 8-10 pages of text. See we can
do more in less. That is one of the
parts of interest to people in the C=
community. Like I said early, need to
relearn about computers. But that is
why you are reading this rambling
series. <BG>

 So now then, what if you didn't see
anything like the above on the screen?
Well there are a few reasons for that,
and you will run across them over
time. First thing is that there was a
rattle, a grunt and then nothing on 
the screen. Most of the time this
means that the disk isn't formatted.
If you have jiffy dos on your C=.
Press the  key and then return. You
will see something like 74,drive not
ready,00,00. For those that don't have
jiffy dos. We aren't going to do the
long type in thing to see the error.
At this time, I'll quickly add.
Under the above conditions you have an
unformatted disk. Right, it just came
out of an official company box, and
the box says that it is ibm formatted.
That is true, it is ibm formatted, it
isn't CBM formatted. Remember we use a
different formatting system. And no
not at this time am I going to tell
you how to format the disk. Not till I
have covered some other things. As you
can destroy a working disk of data, at
this stage. I know, did it several
times myself when I started.

Here is a something that I must toss
in at this stage. Your disk should
read, ah that is for the blank ones,
that it is a "double sided, double
density" disk. That might be written
as "DS/DD", or even "DD/DS". Do not
try High Density disks, "HD". Do not
use Single Density disks, "SD". HD
will make your system grunt and
rattle. But won't do a thing for you.
SD ones, will do the same rattle
stuff, but also screw your head up on
the drive. Takes a lot to put it back
in place. So speaketh the voice of
painful experience.

Look at the drive and if that
generally green light, is flashing at
a regular rate. There is a problem.
I'll deal with some of this in a
while. But here we are going to deal
with nothing shown  in a directory, or
some weird stuff on the directory.
Before going into anymore disk things
         
 I know that you aren't ready to do
this yet. Yet you need to know this
point. An experienced programmer can
bugger up the directory. Yes he can do
it intentionally. You may see a disk
with a name, and an ID code, and it
tells you that the disk has 664 blocks
free. If this seems to be a factory
disk, I mean one that has a fancy
lable on it from a company. Your disk
is suspect. No not that it is bad.
That they have hidden the directory.
The programmes on the disk may still
work fine. You just can't see them in
this way. Really you can't tell till
you try to load a programme. Hang in
there we will get to that part.

 If all you see is a 0, and not all
the time does that show. Plus what at
first glance looks like a castle
tower, or the rook in a chess set. You
have a corrupted disk 99.99% of the
time. Actually that rook looking thing
is the quote mark in reverse video.
This happens for several reasons.
Mainly a bad to incomplete format of
the disk. Like what happens if you
yank the disk out before it is
finished formatting. Yeah I've done
that as well.

Another freaky common one is the size
of the file being like 1328 or some
other fantastically high number. Since
the 1541 disk is only 664 blocks. That
can't be right and it isn't. I have
seen that mostly in decompressing some
files. Which didn't decompress right
         
OK I was just reminded that there may
be some readers that have downloaded
files for the C=64 from Websites. You
may want to put them on disk and start
playing with them. Sorry guys, ya just
gotta wait. What you have is probably
a .D64 extension on the file name.
That is made for use with the
emulators. Length of the file for one
side of a 1541 disk is 689 blocks.
Ain't gonna fit, and even if you put
it on a 1571 disk.

File won't run in the .D64 format.
BUT! We have tools to make it work for
you. Another thing to talk about in
the series. Love to tell you that was
a ploy to expand on the fact that
there is a mess of things on the Inet
for the C=. Pushing the greatness of
the C=. But my dear little Vixen,
reminded me about the DL problems we
have dealt with in the users group.
OK one last thing that you may see on
a disk in the directory. Won't see it
very often. I present it just to show
some of what people have done with the
C=. The directory can show up in
coloured text. Don't know how that is
done. One users group was talking
about it and did it on their disks. OK
that was the penultimate last thing. I
just flashed on one that is a freak
out for the beginner and an irritant
to others. You go for a listing of the
directory. You don't get one, as the
computer suddenly starts to load the
programme. Can't exactly remember how
that is done. Though I did it a few
years ago. Basically speaking it is in
the ID code and some simple tricks, so
that when the directory is read. The
LOAD command is executed for the first
programme on the disk.

Well since I don't know what disk you
used. Guess it is time to do a little
more on file types. PRG and SEQ we
touched upon. Now for USR, this stands
for USeR file. Simple and not fully
accurate, it is a file type that is
user defined. Don't worry about it
right now. You will see a lot of these
in using the prg Geos. The next one to
talk about is REL. Standing for a
RELative file. Another one not to
worry about just yet. Not very common.
Most of the time this file is used to
create a form of list. Lets leave it
at that for now. Last one to mention
is the DEL file.

As you may surmise this is for
DELeted. Exactly what this is, I don't
know. Seen it in a few places. May be
a special thing for another level of
Basic for the C=. I have only made
them with one programme. Which was a
1581 directory manipulator. Doesn't
seem to do anything that I can find
out. So we won't worry about it.
That taken care of, there is one other
thing to add to the directory listing.
Symbols on the directory. Like in the
below.

93 "BEGINNING 1"    SEQ<
0 "KITTY BOX"      SEQ*

 That < symbol means that the file is
locked. You can't scratch it. Need a
tool, or the programming lines to type
in to unlock the file. Many Geos files
will have that < on the line. OK then
we have the *  symbol. You can see
that the size of the file is 0. This
is called a splat file. It isn't
really there, most of the time.
Specifically it means that the file
was opened for the copy but it wasn't
closed. There are ways to close it,
but for me I just delete the file and
try again.

OK I know that you want to see what is
on the disk. Before we go into the
manual of the C=64. So I will tell you
how to load a file, and what you may
find. Now then the traditional way to
load a programme. Right a PRG, that is
the only thing that you can load <at
this point in time>. So below is what
you type on the screen.

LOAD"0:*",8,1
press RETURN

 OK this is the one that I use the
most. Actually it is to load a ML <we
will get to that> prg. But it works
for a BASIC one as well, most of the
time. Have to explain that more in the
next session. Out of space again.

-------------------------------------
Commodore Poster Competition ?WINNER?
Commodore Time capsule


Here we go then the winner of the
Commodore poster competition: I posed
the question "What would you put into
a time capsule?"

The winner receives one of these
posters and should have the poster by
the time he reads this issue of the
magazine, thanks for everyone that
took the time to send entries; I
enjoyed reading some of the weird
ideas like an Embalmed version of
Maurice or various people
cryogenetically frozen in time to
revive by the historians. In the end I
took a more realistic view of what
historians would like to see in a time
capsule.

For anyone that still wants to
purchase a poster here are the details


History of Commodore Computers Poster
Poster Dimensions 24" x 36"

I have for sale "The History of
Commodore Computers" poster which is
the culmination of three years of work
and research. The C= systems have been
professionally photographed
specifically for this poster and the
photos appear nowhere else.

This poster is ideal for any vintage
computer fan, C= Computer collector,
classic or vintage memorabilia display.
This is a limited edition poster and
will not be re-printed!

Poster includes hi-resolution images
of rare and hard-to-find systems
including the KIM 1, PET 2001, PET
4016, PET 8032, VIC-20, C-64, C-64C,
SX-64, C-128, C-128D, B-128, CBM
256-80, P-500, Plus/4, C-16, C-116,
VC-20, Amiga 500, & selected disk
drives.

$19.99 USA Ship $3.00
$19.99 Canada Ship $5.99
$19.99 International Ship $7.99

http://www.vintagecomputer.net/poster
 detail.cfm

Of course the water mark doesn't appear
on the final poster


-= The WINNER =-
From a user known as "JAM"

Maybe the best thing to leave for
Historians to find in a time capsule
is a full detailed explanation about
myself & my C= machines. Details about
why I purchased them & what C= ment to
me as a person.
For example why did one person go the
C= route and another the Spectrum or
other 8 bit system route.

Commodore encounter
I first encountered Commodore like as
many other users I know visiting a
friend's house, they had a VIC 20 with
various games, & delighted in showing
off with the system. my friend and I
played on the Vic 20 many times
enjoying the games that came with the
machine and also some games that were
purchased separately.

I even remember playing games on
cartridges so you didn?t have to load
tapes, at the time my friend didn't
have a disk drive. We typed in
listings from magazines and typed in
every demo and program in the manuals
that accompanied the machine. The
machine was superb the sound was great
and the colours vivid. My parents
liked the machine because it resembled
a real typewriter; I suppose it was
something they could relate to as a
functional device. They liked the real
keyboard rather than the Spectrum ZX 81
with rubber keys they though this more
a toy because it didn't have a real
keyboard, this really was a high tech
system and exciting times for young
people, nothing like this had ever been
seen before. Many people called this
the Golden era.

I knew after a month of playing with
the VIC 20 that I wanted to own one of
these machines myself & sure enough
with the most hints one person can make
and letters to Santa, at Christmas I
received a VIC 20 & datasette of my
own. Later I purchased a C= printer
this was under the assumption that the
system would be used for schoolwork how
many parents fell for this?

The machine was a favourite of mine for
3 long glorious years, and regularly
used the machine after school; I used
the machine for games and occasionally
schoolwork well, ok mainly for games
then; and pretending to do schoolwork.

I fought with programming BASIC on the
machine & this fuled my desire to learn
more and become more involved with
computing and programming languages.

I joined a local club for 8 bit
machines, where we discussed the merits
of various systems & users would bring
in the latest software to demo and WOW
other club members.

Then the C64 became available & I knew
this was the route for me to take, I
saved up enough money to purchase a C64
& 1541 disk drive. This machine became
my main machine for several years,
again used mainly for music,
programming and games.

I purchased Geos operating system and
with the aid of a Commodore dot matrix
printer produced a magazine on the
machine for our local club members to
read, about various machines of the
time. Even though I wrote about other
machines Commodore always seemed the
best machines to me. My C64 was
replaced with an Amiga 500 and later an
Amiga 1200, these remained my favourite
machines until they were eventually
partly replaced with the PC for my main
work machine, due mainly to my line of
work not through choice on my part.

C= Amiga 500 and upward machines
introduced me to the world of true
multitasking operating system, and an
improved Graphic system something the
PC is still lacking.

C= became like a cult to me, I would
not have any bad words said against the
Company and its staff. I would always
try to win in the schoolyard where my
system is better than you brandied
about.

I look back fondly to my school and
younger years as the best days of my
life not because I liked school but
because I could come home & spend time
on my computer. I remember the
Kraftwerk song, "I PROGRAM MY HOME
COMPUTER" the words still wash over my
head "bring myself into the future" I
cant remember a day without when I used
my C= systems. except for holidays
when I couldn't take the system with me

I left school to work in a computer
shop selling C= machines as well as
other systems mainly games console. I
became a good salesman & a voice for
C= machines, because of my bias and
because we know C= can do anything. I
trained on other systems, Linux and PCs
but I used Commodore wherever I could.

On training courses I bumped into other
C= users and we became good friends. It
surprised me how many C= users exist.
C= gained me more friends via Bulletin
boards and latter Email, many of these
friends I still haven't met in person
just via email and snail mail. I am
still in contact with many C= users
from the past, some of whom have moved
onto other hardware systems but others
stick firmly with the Amiga, Some of
these friends became very close and I
communicate with them on a daily
basis, others are less close and are
contacted maybe each month, Although
the Computer clubs I go to now are all
PC related if anything Commodore comes
up like the IDE 64 interface or the
Retro replay cart I will take my C= to
show the users that C= is still alive.

I still read up about OS4 for the C=
Amiga and may if the OS becomes more
popular, purchase a newer system to run
the OS on.

Later I gained employment as an IT
manager and I owe this all to C= for
sparking my interest in Computers and
computing, without C= I don't think I
would have become as involved in
computing as I have done.

Looking back I still own all my C=
machines and never sold any magazine or
hardware item I purchased, I couldn't
possibly throw anything out, I even
have my first joystick (its broken
beyond repair) but how can I possibly
throw something away that means so
much to me?

I still have the origional games and
PD software and applications with
manuals and disk covers, and even
packaging where applicable, yes even
the Polly support boxes from my
C= machines. I still follow C= groups &
read versions news postings about C=.

The machine played a big part in my
life and will always be remembered with
fond memories from myself. I may not
be 100% diehard user that utilises
nothing else but Commodore is my main
system, Funny I remember the c64 more
than another system the Amiga is still
my DTP and writing computer of choice
but if I need to relax and play a game
then its always the Commodore 64 that
comes out of the cupboard, (I really
must get a permanent setup for the
machine)

There has never been a company before
commodore that played so bit a part in
the computing world and I don?t think
there ever will be Computing for the
Masses not just the classes.

Commodore lives on forever

Regards
Jam
-------------------------------------

C64TPC
http://www.saymantek.com/c64tpcen.html
 (English)

http://www.saymantek.com/c64tpc.html
  (Turish)

C64TPC connects a C64 to PC via their
serial ports in order that C64 can use
PC's storage devices. (Hard disk,
CD/DVD, Flash Memory, MMC, etc.)
C64TPC Project's aim is eliminating
1541 Disk Drive. When you used C64TPC
you can load programs directly from
PC. Also you can save programs
directly to PC.

C64TPC consists of the two components:
an electonic device and a PC software.
The electronic device solves low level
process for communication between C64
and PC. Thus, user does not need to
struggle with complex settings or
processes. C64TPC's software is a
program with graphical user interface
for simply usage. I will be able to
release the binary for GNU/Linux and
MacOS X because its source code is
platform independent.

C64TPC supports disk images (.d64
files). It can both read and write
these files. User does not need to
extract program from these files for
use. I am planning support t.64 files
in the next release.

C64TPC's advantages from another
storage alternative for Commodore 64:

It does not need to patching.
It does not need to extract file from
 d64. It supports .d64 file format.
It needn't a deticated PC.
It needn't old MS-DOS operating
 system. It has been developing for
 GNU/Linux, MacOS X and Windows so that
 it can use modern storage devices.
 (Flash Disk, MMC, etc.)
User does not need to struggle any
complex settings or processes

The Project Status:
TO DO (Hardware)
Design is done and it is testing.

TO DO (Software)
- Full 1541 Disk Drive emulation.
- .t64 file support.

Frequently Asked Questions
1.Can it run multi-part games?

Yes, it can. There is no matter for
C64TPC. It is serves files to
Commodore by request.

2. Can it run multi-disk games?

Yes, it can. Diskette changing is very
simple in C64TPC. You can select next
diskette image at runtime. C64TPC
supports four virtual drivers. If game
is support, you can associate every
diskette images to different virtual
driver and you can play without disk
changing.

3. Some games is programming 1541 Disk
Drive's microprocessor. Can C64TPC run
these games?

No, it cannot yet. This is in the to-do
list. Current release (ver.1.0.0) can
not this much emulate 1541 Disk Drive.

4. Can it support fastloaders?

No, it can not yet. This is in the
to-do list. But C64TPC is already
faster than real 1541 Disk Drive. (37%)

5. Can it run with 1541 Disk Drive at
the same time?

Yes, it can. Of course, you must be
careful for device number conflict
------------------------------------

Interview with Ahmet Zeki EYMUR
Designer of C64TPC (Connect C64 to PC)
http://www.saymantek.com/c64tpcen.html


Q. Please introduce yourself to our
readers

A. My name is Ahmet Zeki EYMUR. I'm
living in Izmir Turkey. I'm 32 years
old.

Q. Can you tell our readers a little
about yourself?

A. I am a computer technician. I am
interest in both software and
hardware, and I am trying set-up my
own work.

Q. Do you still use C= Computers?

A. Yes, I do. I have a C64 since my
childhood and I also purchased an Amiga
500+ but have only owned it for a short
time.

Q. Please Tell our readers about
C64TPC what does it do?

A. C64TPC connects Commodore 64 to PC
via their serial ports in order that
C64 can use PC's storage devices.
C64TPC Project's aim is eliminating
1541 Disk Drive. When you used C64TPC
you can LOAD programs directly from PC.
Also you can SAVE programs directly to
PC.

Q. So you are utilising the PC as a
Large hard disk for the Commodore?

A. Yes. This project very different
from other storage alternatives for
Commodore 64.
This project's aim is eliminating 1541
Disk Drive. C64s will be able to stay
with us for a long time. Because, it
contains only the electronic parts.
But, there are mechanic parts in 1541
Disk Drives. If we want to use C64 in
future, we must provide a modern
storage alternative to its. C64TPC is
my solution for this problem. It
connects C64 to PC, so that it can
support all modern storage devices.
When C64TPC finished it will be low
cost and most effective storage
alternative for C64.

Q. Some users get confused with this
type of software, once installed how
easy is the software to use, how much
configuration is needed?

A. The software usage is very simple.
It have a graphical user interface for
intuitive usage. The electronic device
solves all process for communication
between C64 and PC. Thus, user does
not need to struggle with complex
settings or processes. C64TPC for
Windows is ready and downloadable from
project site.

Q. Does this software only work on the
C64 or are other C= systems supported?

A. My purpose was C64. C64TPC may work
with C16, C128 and VIC. Because, C64TPC
is an IEC device. But I didn't test
with them yet.

Q. The software runs only on Windows
or are other operating systems
supported, what version of Windows
does the software run on?

A. My target Operating Systems are
GNU/Linux, MacOS X and Windows XP
(newer). But I released only Windows
binary yet.

Q. The software permits the usage of
D64 images without extraction, so the
C64 just sees the files, how is this
achieved?

A. Software supports D64 file format.
You can select a target via software.
Target can be a D64 file or PC's file
system. When your target was a D64
file, software mounts to its and your
commands (LOAD, SCRATCH, etc.) applies
inside mounted D64 file. When your
target was PC's file system, your
commands applies inside selected
folder in PC.

Q. Can the hardware be purchased or
would the user have to design their own
hardware add-on?

A. I will begin selling when tests
finished.

Q. What can the device support can
games as well as say Geos be run via
the device?

A. C64TPC can run multi-part & multi-
disk games already. It will be able to
run more complex games, programs after
full 1541 Disk Drive emulation.

Q. I notice in the FAQ section that
fast loaders are not supported
although the software can read disks
faster than a standard 1541, will this
support be added at a later time?

A. Fast loaders will be able to support
after 1541 Disk Drive emulation.

Q. What other developments have you
planned for the software I notice on
the website full 1541 support is listed
how easy would this be to implement?

A. I have been studying import 1541
Disk Drive emulation from an open
source C64 emulator.

Q. have you seen Nick Copland's HDD64
would you say the software compares
with this, can the two coexist for
example if our user has HDD64 would he
gain any advantage from running C64TPC

A. I am sorry but I have a small amount
of info about HDD64.

Q. Do you have a schematic for the
cable needed to connect the C64 & PC
together can't just a X1541 cable or
similar be used?

A. No. C64TPC can connect to PC via
standard (RS232) serial cable. IEC
cable is already integrated C64TPC.
You needn't any special cable.
-----------------------------------

Interview with Mano Scherpbier
The producer of the C64 orchestra


Q. Please introduce yourselves to our
readers?

I am Mano Scherpbier the producer of
the C64 orchestra. The company where I
work for: Productiehuis ON is NON-
profit organisation. We are making
crossover pop productions. Like
breakdance ON classic (a breakdance
show on classical music) or NO blues
(www.myspace.com/NObluesnl)

Q. Can you introduce the main names of
everyone involved with the project ?

Julian van Aalderen is the vj of the
C64 orchestra, but he also came up
with the idea of the C64 orchestra. He
is a good friend of Jeroen Tel and
they were at Jeroens home. Jeroen was
playing Cybernoid 2 at the piano.
Julian asked Jeroen if it's was
possible that a orchestra was playing
Jeroen Tel's SID music. And of course
it was possible, but they did not
know how to organise...

- Jeroen Tel composer of some of the
songs the C64 orchestra playing

- Rob Hubbard composer of some of the
songs the C64 orchestra playing and
arranger of all C64 orchestra songs

- Bas Wiegers the conductor

- Ricciotti Ensemble, 12 of this
ensemble are playing in the C64
orchestra

- Productiehuis ON the organiser,
producer, booker of the C64 orchestra

- Rounder Europe the record label of
the C64 orchestra

Q. From the original thought how did
the project become a reality?

Julian has contacted productiehuis ON.
Productiehuis ON was excited about the
idea. We've contacted a couple of
Dutch orchestra's. Some of them did
not like the idea. The Ricciotti
Ensemble was excited and so the C64
orchestra was born. The first time we
talked with Jeroen Tel and Julian
about the C64 orchestra was MAY 2005.
The first rehearsal of the C64
orchestra was MAY 2006 watch this at
YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
 v=HzE1E6zI

EFQ

Jeroen Tel had asked Rob Hubbard to
arrange the music of Jeroen for the C64
orchestra. Rob Hubbard wanted to do
this, but only when the C64 orchestra
also play some music of the master
himself. We we're excited to hear this!

Q. Can you explain what the C64
orchestra is?

The C64 orchestra exist out of 12
musicians of the Ricciotti Ensemble
from Amsterdam. They are playing the
old C64 game music of Jeroen Tel & Rob
Hubbard. Julian van Aalderen aka the
C-men has made visuals of the old
computer games

Q. So you perform C64 game music on
real instruments? What instruments are
used?

We've chosen for a small orchestra
because we want to play a lot and at
small stages as well. That's why we've
chosen for 12 musicians Flute, Oboe,
Clarinet, Trumpet, Horn 1, Horn 2,
Trombone, Violin 1, Violin 2, Alto
Violin, Cello, Contrabass

Q. How was the original Commodore SID
tune converted to sheet music for the
musicians?

Rob Hubbard did this. He's a arranger
as well

Q. Will the sheet music be available
for download?

We think about it! We let you know when
we know more!

Q. How long do you dedicate to
rehearsals?

6 rehearsal before the first show. Now
we rehearse at the same day of the
show.

Q. From obtaining a sheet music copy
how long does it take to rehearse to a
point where the music is presentable to
the public?

A couple of months

Q. Are all the orchestra professional
musicians?

They are semi-professional.

Q. How do you decide which SIDs to play
in public?

Rob Hubbard and Jeroen Tel have chosen
the tunes. They know the best which
tunes sound also good when they are
played by an orchestra

Q. Where have you played the music?

At this moment only in the Netherlands.
At popfestivals, in venue's and  art-
festivals. Some other countries(Sweden,
Denmark, Portugal,Germany) are
interested. So call me when you want to
book us.

Q. Will there be a CD of recordings?

There is already a CD! RUN 10 check it
out at:
http://www.oninternet.nl/project
 .asp?projectId=40

Q. Can our reader see a performance of
the orchestra on the internet?

Yes go to YouTube and search for C64
orchestra. Our own movie is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
 v=poagc6c7qQ&feature=related

Q. Have you had many good comments
about the project?

Yes, for sure! Look at:
www.myspace.com/c64orchestra

Q. I am guessing someone will have
emailed and said the SID versions were
better can you comment?

Yes of course some people don't like
what we did. But the most important
thing is the composers of the original
tunes where totally involved in this
project and they like it! And there
are a lot of fans. When you don't like
it. No problem listen to the old tunes!
We like it too!

Q. What plans are the now for the
orchestra, where will you be playing?

I hope we are playing this year 10
shows in Europe! I'm busy to book some
shows at the summer festivals Keep an
eye at our MySpace site.

Q. Will you attempt other game music
lets say Amiga Mod files or music from
other hardware?

No we are only playing C64 music!

Q. Do you intend to play music from New
systems like the Xbox or Playstation?

NO we are the C64 orchestra ;-)

Thanks for the Interview
Ricciotti Ensemble

"The Ricciotti is Holland's most fun
orchestra" was a recent comment in a
national Dutch morning paper. The
Ricciotti is fun because the young
musicians enjoy their stand-up
performances. Sometimes, orchestra
members even dance to their own music!
The Ricciotti is fun because it plays
not only classical, but jazz and pop
music, as well. The Ricciotti is fun
because it's the world's only
orchestra that will play absolutely
anywhere and not just for seasoned
concert goers. It will perform for
twenty-seven prisoners in C Block, or
for fifteen-hundred teenagers at a
festival. Even so, being "fun" is not
enough for the Ricciotti. The
Ricciotti aims to bring high-quality
music to people who, for whatever
reason, have little or no contact with
live symphonic music. The orchestra
seeks out people where they work or
live. It means you could run into a
Ricciotti performance at school,
inside a prison, inside a hospital or
nursing home and, during the summer
months, in any street or square. No
matter how crazy the place, the
Ricciotti will play there. Any
Ricciotti performance is a thrill.
What will happen? Nothing is
predictable. Before each stand-up
appearance, the ensemble will have
made a choice from a lengthy list of
highly varied repertoire, picked from
four centuries of music. Mozart now,
Michael Jackson next, no problem. Five
minutes after socking it to you in
"Rock Around the Clock", the soloist
has combed the grease out of his hair
to move into the delicate sensibilities
of a Gustav Mahler Lied. Contrasts in
any Ricciotti performance come hard &
fast. The audience is never allowed to
fall asleep. Moments after being lulled
by a dreamy Gabriel Faur piece, the
listener is apt to be shocked into
awareness when a member of the
orchestra loudly announces:
"Now for a first performance: this
piece is specially written for the
Ricciotti!" The Ricciotti ensemble's
offbeat nature is revealed by its
curious habit of musically raiding
unsuspecting locations: when a place
looks suitable, orchestra members will
dismount, form and tune up in minutes &
start playing to a startled audience.
Missed your train? By way of
consolation, here suddenly is a thirty-
nine-piece orchestra playing on the
platform! Just arrived at the City Hall
to register your newly-born? The
Registry official may have trouble
hearing what you say over the full
sound of the orchestra bowing and
blowing away in the lobby. Throughout
its thirty-one years of existence, the
Ricciotti has never quite behaved like
regular orchestras. The Ricciotti
believes, however, that fun isn't
enough. This orchestra is a learning
experience. Through its unconventional
nature, the players, advanced amateurs
and music-college students, develop a
different way of approaching both
music and audiences. Given the goal of
reaching out to people who seldom set
foot inside a concert hall, that
different approach is essential.
Audiences, for their part, are given a
real chance to experience what an
orchestra is all about. Where they
might expect bow ties, tails and
boredom, here they meet a group of
youthful enthusiasts who transform
orchestral playing into a genuine live
happening. It's for this reason that
the Ricciotti will insist on including
regular concerts for children in its
schedule. The Ricciotti's educational
values work both ways: for orchestra
and audience.

Educational or not, the Ricciotti
remains above all else Holland's most
fun orchestra. Here is a group of
young people whose joy in playing is
totally infectious!
www.ricciotti.nl
------------------------------------

Interview with Programmer Jason Kelk


Commodore Free talks to 6502
enthusiast, www.oldschool-gaming.com
head honcho and retro writer Jason "The
Magic Roundabout" Kelk about his
passion for coding and the likes.

Commodore Free: What first interested
you in coding? And, can you  remember
the first game that you created?

The Magic Roundabout: The first time I
ever saw a home computer was at my
friend's house, he and his brother had
saved up and got themselves a VIC 20
and before that point I had no idea
such a thing even existed!  I remember
it quite clearly (which is odd
considering my usually flaky memory)
because we'd just gone to see Superman
3 at the cinema and, on returning to
their house, my friend proceeded to
try writing a game in BASIC on the VIC
based on a sequence from the film. I
watched him and how this machine was
pretty much allowing him to create
from nothing more than his imagination
and knew I wanted to be able to do
something like that myself... before
that point I liked Lego, so I went
from one kind of construction to
another really.

The first game I created (and I'm
using the term in a hideously loose
way here) was a text adventure for the
unexpanded VIC 20; it was written in
BASIC on a display machine that was in
the photographic department of our
local branch of Boots and although I
can't remember any real details, I'm
pretty sure that it was terrible in
every possible sense of the word. I
might still have it squirrelled away
on a tape somewhere, but even if it
turns up I'll bloody well deny it!

CF: How many games and demos have you
released? And which are you most proud?

TMR: Oh heck... as a programmer and
over all platforms, about 25 to 30
games and probably credited on five or
10 more for graphics, sound or support
code. As far as demos go, about 60 or
70 and I have graphics credits on half
that number again I expect. It's been
a 25 year period, I've forgotten the
exact numbers! As far as pride goes,
on the game front I'd have to say that
Reaxion (C64 and then all sorts of
platforms) is the one i'm most pleased
with because it's been on so many
formats now and always seems to get a
positive reaction (s'cuse the pun)
apart from that cease and desist email.
Cyberwing (C64) is probably a close 2nd
since it's the most complex shoot'em up
I've done to date & now I've forgotten
the pain & suffering involved I can
enjoy it myself, although I'm first to
admit it's somewhat messy internally
(as in the internal coding - Ed).
For the demos, the two I'd have to say
stand out for me personally would be
For Teh Win (C64, released at X'2006)
because it came together very well
over a short period and Presets (C64,
released at Vision '03) because it
seems to be the one that everybody
else likes - I'm not sure why, but it
was fun to write all the way through
rather than becoming slightly painful
around when it was being linked, so
perhaps that comes across?

CF: What influences your developments?
Do you drink lots of coffee & stay up
late into the night hammering out code?
Or do you think about the theory first
before starting the project?

TMR: I used to drink gallons of coffee
but I've stopped recently and now It's
tea more than anything, but my approach
is a hybrid in that I'll get a rough
idea of theory whilst out & about (I
tend to walk and use public transport
quite a bit, we don't own a car &
haven't driven since the 1980s) and
then put some code together to see if
it does what I was expecting it to. It
leads to some interesting moments
around town; I get a lot of very odd
looks because I trundle around
muttering to myself in HEX.

CF: Do you have an interest outside of
Commodore?

TMR: Oh yes, I like all 8 & 16 bit
machines really & play 2D shoot'em ups
on just about every platform I can
find the things. I've been involved
with software for a lot of them and
plan to keep expanding that range as
long as I have time to do so. Of
course, if you meant other interests
in life outside computing then I like
science fiction and comedy movies,
some television, a few books here and
there, all manner of music I don't
know I should go into further detail in
a family publication! =-) (Good choice
- Ed)

CF: Have you ever seen something on an
8-bit machine and thought "wow"?

TMR: Absolutely, the first time I saw
games like Turrican, Io or Armalyte on
the C64 or R-Type on the Spectrum, the
first times watching thousands of
demos over assorted platforms; some of
the programming is absolutely
astounding and, although I have what
I'd like to think is a reasonable
understanding of demo code, there are
still a few things that I don't know
the theory behind.

CF: In your opinion, what concessions
have to be made to develop 8-bit games?

TMR: I feel that games tend to be
shaped around the platform really, a
programmer should have a reasonable
idea of the workings of the machine
they're aiming at (which comes with
time and practice) and start with a
rough game plan, then refine it
depending on which parts the machine
seems to like or dislike and, more
importantly, which bits play well
after paring down. My own game plans
usually go along the lines of "want to
do a vertical scrolling shoot 'em up -
ugg" and then it's a case of getting
the hardest element of such a project,
in that particular case the background
scrolling, up and running before
building on and evolving things from
that point. One of the biggest
mistakes I've noticed people making is
saying "wouldn't it be great to have
Game A on Machine B" without actually
thinking through what that would
entail or if it's even possible to
convert the game without making
concessions that will break what made
Game A good to begin with.

CF: Who (or whom) do you admire from
the past and present in terms of
efficient coding and visualising
game-play?

TMR: I'd have to point to hundreds of
people to be honest... but to pick a
few names from the past, Dan Phillips
(Armalyte, C64), Joffa Smiff (Cobra
and others, Spectrum), Jeff Minter
(lots of titles, various platforms),
Manfred Trenz (Turrican series and
Enforcer, C64), Patrick Strassen
(GWNN, Bounder and various others,
C16) or the Stampers (Jetpac and the
other Ultimate titles, Spectrum). From
the current crop it would have to
include Jonathan Cauldwell (various,
Spectrum), Lasse Oorni (Metal Warrior
series and BOFH, C64), Thomas Jentsch
(Thrust, Atari 2600) and perhaps Piotr
Wisniewski (Crownland, Atari 8-bit)
but that list goes on to cover at
least a third of the people currently
developing for these platforms to be
honest.

CF: What are you working on right now?
We hear rumours of a game for the C=
PET.

TMR: Yup, in fact during the time I
was mulling over my answers to these
questions I released my first PET game
called Blok Copy; it's a relatively
simple puzzler that runs on any 40
column PET with 8K of memory or more -
just pop over to www.cosine.org.uk &
there's a note about it in the news
that'll in turn lead to the download &
so far it seems to be well-received by
the people I've asked to do the final
beta tests. I'm not sure where I'm
going after that, there are a few ideas
on the "to do" list and a load of half-
completed projects in my work direct-
ories but I prefer to play my cards
close to my chest until I know I'm
getting somewhere with a specific bit
of code. I did consider doing a Pong
clone for the 80 column PET since Gene
Hunt in Ashes To Ashes insisted the one
on his desk has it!

CF: How did you get involved in
Cronosoft? Did you not think of
approaching Protovision first?

TMR: Simon approached me, I'd never
even considered selling my code before
that point, at least not for about ten
years or so. To be honest, although I
understand where Protovision are
coming from, my personal approach
these days is to give the game away
for free and, if people want to pay a
little bit to get nice packaging and
so forth, they have the option to do
that after deciding they like the
thing. I'm not sure that would fit
into Protovision's way of doing things
and, it has to be said, they're much
more into promoting the hardware
expansions like four player adapters
than I am. My target audience tends to
be the solo player since that's pretty
much what I am myself.

CF: What do you make of people who
upgrade their C64 machines beyond 1Mhz
& 64K?

TMR: On a general front I'd have to
say "each to their own" because I'm
hardly in a position to comment about
people doing unusual things with old
computers... but it doesn't really
interest me as a programmer. I know
now because I was... persuaded shall
we say to borrow a SuperCPU from Allan
Bairstow a while back and, after an
initial bout of finding a cross
assembler that I actually liked which
had 65816 support, I spent quite a
while trying to think of something to
actually do with all that CPU grunt
and memory. That's where things sort
of stalled really, the problem was
that just about everything seemed to
either be possible on a stock machine
or at most require a RAM expansion
that can be emulated.

To be honest, games developed for the
SuperCPU or indeed anything else that
can't be emulated with a reasonable
accuracy are going to receive highly
limited exposure these days; it
doesn't matter how many owners say
that Metal Dust is fantastic, very few
people are equipped to play the thing
in the first place whilst even less
will own it and that's a huge shame if
so few gamers can enjoy the results of
all that work - granted, releasing a
game for only some models of PET puts
me fairly and squarely into a niche
market too, but it can be emulated so
those without the hardware can at least
play the thing.

CF: What advice can you give to anyone
who wants to start coding on 8-bit
machines?

TMR: My usual advice is to start slow
and not throw yourself into a huge
project to begin with, to find a
development environment that you find
comfortable and to aim towards things
that are visually oriented; people
seem to prefer to learn these sorts of
things when they can see results on
the screen even though a lot of the
more generic programming guides seem
to forego that side of things and
concentrate on the internal workings.
It's pretty hard to get enthusiastic
about adding four to the contents of a
register, but if that addition makes a
sprite go to the right it's a
different matter. Another thing to do
is find a "guru" for when you get
stuck. That doesn't mean to go nagging
the hell out of some poor sod every
five minutes, think of them as your
"phone a friend" and save them for
around the 125,000 mark. =-)

CF: Tell us your five favourite games,
please.

TMR: Io (Firebird, C64) will always be
at the top of my list, after that it
varies a little from week to week but
right now it'll probably be Turrican 2
(Rainbow Arts, C64), Armalyte
(Thalamus, C64), Outrun 2 (Sega, Xbox)
and Ikaruga (Treasure, Gamecube). Ask
me next week and that list will
probably have changed a bit.

CF: And your five favourite demos...

TMR: that's a much harder question...
at the moment it's probably something
like Desert Dream (Resource & Chorus,
C64), Deus Ex Machina (Crest, C64),
Royal Arte (Booze Design, C64), Oneder
(Oxyron, C64) and 8 Shades Of Black
(various artists, C16) but just being
able to list five really isn't enough
to cover all the awesome demos out
there.

CF: Any final words of wisdom that
you'd like to share with our readers?

TMR: Never eat yellow snow?
------------------------------------

Interview with Frank Fischer
Of Breadbox Computer Systems


Breadbox Pens GEOS Exclusive License
and Ownership Rights Agreement with
Geoworks

Port Richey, Florida, April 29, 2003
Under the terms of an amended
licensing agreement with Geoworks of
Emeryville, California, effective
April 1, 2003, Breadbox Computer
Company, LLC of Port Richey, Florida,
has obtained the worldwide exclusive
and perpetual rights to the patented
GEOS operating system for all hardware
platforms. As part of the agreement
and in addition to undisclosed
financial and other terms, Breadbox
has agreed to take on certain of
Geoworks' technical support
liabilities to third parties. In
addition, under the terms of the
agreement, all ownership rights of the
Geos operating system will pass to
Breadbox at an undisclosed date. Prior
to the ownership transfer, Breadbox
has the right to bring claims against
third parties for violations of
Geoworks' intellectual property rights
in the licensed technology.

Everyone who is a C64 owner loves GEOS
right? One of the major feats of soft-
ware engineering getting a graphic
operating system onto the C64 with the
minimum of hardware requirements. Geos
will run with just one floppy disk. But
whatever happened to the people behind
Geos and is the product still sold,
Also some speculation has arisen about
what rights Maurice Randel has to the
Goes operating system.

COMMODRE FREE
Please introduce yoursef to our readers

BREADBOX COMPUTER SYSTEMS
My name is Frank Fischer and I'm the
President & CEO of Breadbox Computer
Company, LLC. Breadbox continues to
carry the Geos torch as all other Geos
related companies have disappeared
over the years. You can find us at
www.breadbox.com on the internet.

John Howard, our VP & CTO & I are
responding to Nigel's questions below.

CF. Do you own the rights to CMD
version of Geos?

BCS. To be honest, I'd have to check
with our attorneys, but I believe we
do, as well as the Apple version.
Frank Fischer. Can you explain the
Difference between the CMD 8 bit
version of geos and Geoworks the
version you acquired are they the same
product?

BCS The C= and PC versions of Geos
are the same only in that they were
designed with the same philosophy in
mind.  They both sport an incredibly
easy to learn graphical user interface
and were very much ahead of their
times when they were introduced.  They
were both designed in an era when
programming efficiencies in memory
usage & speed optimizations paid big
dividends in usability.

CF. So are you in any way connected
with Maurice Randall from Click-here-
software?

BCS. No, not at all.

CF. Can you explain a little history
about the Company and how you came to
acquire the rights to Geos.

BCS. Breadbox was founded in 1992 by
Frank S. Fischer as a sole
proprietorship. Since then the company
has gone through several changes. In
1997 Breadbox became a privately held
Florida C-corporation with several
shareholders, and the new name of the
corporation became Breadbox Computer
Company. In June of 2000, the Company
sold most of its assets (software) to
MyTurn.com, Inc., a publicly traded
company (NASDQ-MYTN). MyTurn.com has
since filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy in
the first quarter of 2001 and was
liquidated. 

Breadbox filed a lawsuit for default
on the contract. The lawsuit has been
settled & ownership of the copyrighted
Breadbox software has been returned to
Breadbox in accordance with the
contract of sale.

While bootstrapping the company to its
present day state, Breadbox had become
the leading 3rd party developer of the
GEOS software and hardware/software
products worldwide. A small portion of
the Company's revenue stream continues
to come from the retail sales of the
GEOS desktop, PDA & Nokia Communicator
products from the Breadbox web site.
Breadbox also received revenue from
licensing its products to other
companies utilizing the GEOS OS.
Brother International & New Deal, Inc.
were the Company's major licensees.
Brother no longer distributes GEOS-
based products & New Deal, Inc. is out
of business.

Breadbox has since purchased all
rights, title and interest in the GEOS
OS from Geoworks. Geoworks has also
gone out of business.

The majority of Breadbox past revenue
streams have come from contract
development projects. Several of the
Company's larger customers include
Nokia, Xerox, Brother, Geoworks,
MyTurn.com and to a lesser extent, New
Deal, Inc. Breadbox was the official
GEOS SDK training company for Geoworks
and Nokia worldwide and was awarded the
coveted "Nokia Best Developer Award" in
1999. Under contract, Breadbox
developed the Nokia WAP browser for
the Nokia 9110 series of Communicators
running the GEOS OS. Breadbox also
developed the Mobile Doc client for
Xerox for use on the Nokia 9110
Communicators. Breadbox continues to
support the GEOS OS on all platforms as
well as the Nokia line of Communicators
& other phones utilizing the Symbian OS

 Please visit the Company's web site at
www.breadbox.com for more information
about Breadbox & our current products &
services.

CF. Should we call the version of Geos
you acquired something else Geos 16bit
what do you call the product now?

BCS. The version we concentrate on is
commonly called PC Geos, which is 16
bit. As we strive to improve & update
the OS, internally we call the revised
OS project we're trying to build Geos
32 (for 32 bit).

CF. Do any of your staff remember the
C64 version of Geos?

BCS. Several of our programmers began
Geos development on the C= & our VP &
CTO started his Geos programming career
coding for the C= version Geos. He was
published twice in the old C= magazine
"Compute's! Gazette".  He sold his C64
at a yard sale after he made the switch
to PC Geos in 1995.

CF. Was the PC version of Geos based in
anyway on the Commodore Version, & do
you know if it was first produced by
the same company?

BCS. C64 Geos was developed by Berkeley
Softworks.  They transitioned C64 Geos
to PC Geos & changed their name to
GeoWorks, & later Geoworks.

CF. Is there still much demand for Geos
as a product?

BCS. No, but we're always trying to
change that.

CF. on What devices can our user find
Geos running?

BCS. PCs, Brother GeoBooks, GlobalPCs,
Nokia 9000 & 9110 series Smart Phones,
HP 100 & 120 OmniGos, Casio Zoomers &
others.

CF. what does Geos comprise of as a
system, what software is included?

BCS. Well, we currently offer our
latest PC desktop suite called
Breadbox Ensemble. Please visit our
Website at www.breadbox.com for
complete information about what's
included.

CF. Would there be any plans to Support
the C64 with Geos & incorporate some of
the newer hardware that has emerged for
the C64?

BCS. No.

CF. Assuming a sponsor could be found
what would be a rough cost to transfer
the newer version of Geos you produce
to the C64?

BCS. I don't think it could be done at
any price.

CF. What are the hardware requirements
for the PC version of Geos?

BCS. 386 PC with SVGA video, 128MB RAM
and a 40MB hard drive & a DOS (MS-DOS,
Caldera DOS, DataLite DOS, FreeDOS).
The Ensemble suite of applications uses
about 16MB of harddrive space

CF. Do any of your staff still use C=
machines & are still following the C=
Scene?

BCS. Not that we're aware of.

CF. Would you like to add any other
comments?

I think users would be pleasantly
surprised at how far the latest PC
version of Geos has grown. Although
we're certainly in a less than
significant position of dominance in
the general consumer marketplace, we
believe there are niche markets
available to Geos. We're currently in
the process of trying to raise funding
to develop a one-to-one computing
device for the educational market
worldwide utilizing Geos & our
educational & productivity software
applications. If you know of any
potential investors that might be
interested, please send them our way!


COMMODORE FREE
Maurice is selling GEOS is this OK?

Maurice contacted me several years ago
& we discussed his situation. He's
(legally) ok selling Geos for the C=.

Thanks,
Frank
-------------------------------------

Interview with Gaelyne Gasson
 vcsweb.com


COMMODRE FREE Please introduce yourself
to our Readers

GAELYNE GASSON G'day! My name is
Gaelyne Gasson. Some of you might
remember me from Qlink, GEnie or Delphi

I started taking an active part in the
Commodore community in the early 80's
when I first wrote for my local user
group, SACUG (Saginaw Area Commodore
User's Group), and then went on to
write a C= column in BBS Magazine which
lead to writing for Commodore World
magazine.  I also edited CEE64 Alive!
disk magazine and had various stints on
GEnie and Delphi in the chat rooms. I
was also a very active participant in
the Fidonet Commodore echos back in the
day, which is how I met my husband.

CF. Where in the world do you live and
are there many Commodore users?

GG. I live in South Australia, but
lived most of my life in Michigan in
the USA until I came here when I was
about 36 yrs old.  There are only a
handful of actual Commodore users
here, but there's still a lot of folks
we run into who still have their
equipment or tell us how it was their
first computer, always with love and
enthusiasm. Once a Commodore user,
always a Commodore user it seems, if
only in heart and spirit!

CF. How did you become involved in
Computers and Commodore?

GG. When I was in college, I learned
BASIC on a PDP-11 mainframe computer -
back in the day when the 'terminal'
wasn't even a screen - it was a line
terminal, which was basically a roll
of printer paper, and anything you
typed went to the paper. It was very
archaic and hard to use.  If you back-
spaced, it would overstrike what was
typed in prior, making it nearly
impossible to read. Commands were typed
and sent one line at a time.

My first Commodore experience was with
a PET in the computer labs at college.
They were shiny and new, and used a
cassette recorder to LOAD and SAVE
programs. My class spent the day
running virtual Lemonade stands. My
next experience was when friends of
mine had a VIC-20.  I wasn't too into
the games, but they had a word
processing cartridge which I used to
write a diary, and actually bought my
own cassette to keep it on so I could
just  bring it with me whenever I
visited.

A few years later, my brother gave me
his VIC-20, and we had quite a bit of
fun with it, but when we went to our
first Commodore user group half the 
group tried to tell us to get an Amiga
and the other half convinced us to try
the C64.  We decided on the 64 because
we could afford it, and it became a
family Christmas gift at a time when
other families were buying Nintendos
for their kids. I felt the Commodore
was better value as not all of us are
game players (I'm certainly not), and I
knew I'd find plenty of things to do
with a computer versus a game machine.

CF. Tell our reader about your Web-
services. Are you a hosting services
user can utilise?

GG. We offer a variety of services
including domain name registration,
free DNS services, Web hosting, & Web
design.  The domain name registration &
DNS services are 'self-service', in
that anyone can make use of these
without any help from us. However, we
are available if anyone needs a helping
hand. We also take pride in helping
people unfamiliar to having a Website
make the best use of it and their
associated Email addresses.

CF. Can people obtain Telnet & dial-up
connections via yourselves?

GG. We don't offer dial-up services at
all these days, and our telnet
connections are only available to
people in the Commodore community. To
distinguish it from a general telnet
account one might get with some other
businesses, we refer to our service as
a 'Homestead PLUS Membership'. 

Homestead is our Commodore mailing
list, and I see the PLUS membership as
a way of having a few extra features
that aren't available to most people
with other (non-Commodore) Internet
connections. Membership doesn't
require that you use your Commodore
when logging in, by the way. It's just
we only offer memberships to people
who are part of the Commodore community
(past & present).  Some of the 'extras'
we have on hand are utilities for
converting images and other file
formats to Commodore friendly formats.

CF. Can you explain why a user would
need a Homestead PLUS Membership?

GG. Some of our members like having an
Email address associated with VideoCam
Services/VCSWEB.  Others use it to
convert graphics to various formats,
one member has a Website with details
on using the Wave.  Another member uses
his account for testing his software
that lets you use the Commodore to
browse the Internet. His software
requires a few Unix programs like PERL
on the server side (that's us) and we
have it available and when he's updated
his software it's available to all
members who login using his program.
(Cameron Kaiser's Hyperlink software).

We also have members who use their
Email accounts by logging in to our Web
mail as it's easier for them to have a
consistent Email address even if they
change ISP's frequently.

CF. Can you explain some of the Web-
sites & services you provide I know of
these main ones, are there others?

GG. http://cbm.videocam.net.au This is
the Commodore Homestead Website. The
main page always has any current news
items about what's happening in the
Commodore community while other pages
on the site include the Novaterm
manual, a few articles I've written
such as how to use ICQ (an online chat
system) from a text based system, a
favourite BBS list, an interactive
area where people can add their
favourite various types of software.
http://vcsweb.com/  VCSWEB.com is our
Web Services site where we offer Web
hosting, design, Domain Name
Registration and DNS services.

http://shop.vcsweb.com/index.php?main
 page=productinfo&cPath=2426
  &productsid=159

Actually a better URL for that is

http://cbm.videocam.net.au/
 centralmarket/

it's much easier to type and remember!

This is our online shopping area. We
sell a variety of other items, and all
Commodore related items are in the
Central Market area. 

CF. Can you tell our reader about the
Commodore Market, for example what
products are sold?

GG. We sell new products for the
Commodore. Items include my TIFCU book
in downloadable PDF format, more
Loadstar items than you can shake a
stick at, as well as memberships for
user groups, our Homestead Plus
Memberships, compilation CDs, and even
T-shirts.  The market accepts credit
card payments as well as PayPal and
bank deposit.

There are a few different sellers that
make use of the Market, and we handle
the orders and payments and then send
the orders on to the seller. When they
inform us the item(s) have been sent,
we pay them via PayPal, less a 10%
commission fee.

CF. Do you employ staff and is this
your main source of income?

GG. We're a very small 'Mom & Pop'
organisation.  I'm on disability and
Rod is currently working towards
getting certified as a network
security admin. We don't really earn
much of an income, but our services
help to pay for our servers and our
own Internet connection.

CF. You wrote a book entitled "The
Internet for Commodore C64/128 Users"
the book went out of print but has been
recently re-issued as a PDF please can
you tell our reader about the book?

GG. It was one of the hardest projects
I've ever worked on, but the results
were (and continue to be) very worth-
while.  The book takes the reader
through all the stages of getting
online (back when the only choices
were using a Dial-up system), what to
do online, commands, a bit on etiquette
for Email, newsgroups and IRC (Internet
Relay Chat), and how to configure
various things to work best for you.
It explains how to surf the web using
Lynx, reading  Email with Pine, as well
as discusses a few technologies that
aren't available any longer, such as
Gopher & Web-by-Email.  A great deal of
effort went into writing it, proofing
it, & finally publishing it. We took it
out of print as it simply wasn't
selling after the 3rd year it'd been
available.  About a year ago, we found
the disks which held the master copy &
were able to convert it to PDF format.
We have 2 different types that we
offer.  One is an indexed, searchable
PDF file, and the other is an exact,
page-for-page copy of the original 3rd
edition book.

CF. Have you thought about other
versions of the book more Commodore
friendly like a disk version or a
plain text file?

GG. There have been times we've consid-
ered concentrating on converting the
book to suit Linux users, because most
of the book relates to using Unix dial-
up systems and the commands in the book
are the same as Linux folks would use
when typing on the command line.  When
we switched our servers from using
Windows in 1997 to Linux, the TIFCU
book was on our desks and used very
frequently to look up how to do things.
It was a very useful tool to have. The
real stopping point to doing this is
that I simply no longer have the
stamina to create another manual & make
it as complete of a reference as TIFCU
has been.

The benefit of having it in PDF format
is that it can not be altered, which is
why we haven't offered it in any other
type format.

CF. How can our reader obtain the book
& what is the cost, is the book just
purely available as a PDF & a download?

The book is $10 Australian, which is
just under $10 US.  It's only available
for download from our Commodore Central
Market at:
http://cbm.videocam.net.au/
 centralmarket/

Once payment has been received, a Web
link is given so you can download the
file to your computer.

CF. Does the book still prove to be
relevant to C64/128 users today; is the
book useful for other computer users?

GG. There's a lot that is still
relevant today, especially for those
who have added Linux to their list of
computer operating systems they use.
For the C= user, all the information is
still correct, but it doesn't have
information about using the Wave or
some of the other PPP related ways of
getting online.

CF. Were you a Q-link user, maybe some
readers haven't heard about this can
you explain what Q-link was?

GG. I was on Q-link as GaelyneM. Q-Link
was a major Online Service for the C=
that was around before the Internet &
Bulletin Board Systems (BBS's) took
off.  Looking back, for what it did at
the time, it was very slick.

Unfortunately the system was later
divided between Q-Link for C= users, &
what was to become America Online (AOL)
Unfortunately the Q-Link side was more
or less abandoned by the people that
were running both systems & it closed
down on Halloween night, 1994.

If readers want a small glimpse of what
being on Q-Link was like, Jim Brain has
set up an amazing community Website
that certainly has many qualities that
the online service offered. The link to
Jim's Q-Link site is:
http://www.quantumlink.tk/

CF. As you had a column in BBS
Magazine, some readers may never have
heard of the acronym 'BBS'. Can you
briefly explain the setup & system what
software/hardware were used?

BBS stands for Bulletin Board System, &
were a neat way to communicate with
other computer users over long or short
distances, by means of the phone line.
The person calling the BBS would use a
modem connected to their computer &
software to dial out using the modem
and connect to the Bulletin Board.
From there, it was like using someone
else's computer while still typing on
your own. One could play games, chat
with others online, or participate in
message areas.  The main difference
between a BBS & the Internet is that
the BBS was just one other computer
(generally) while the Internet allows
you to do various things on any number
of other connected computers. In those
days, there was a network known as
Fidonet, which had many different
topics of conversation grouped into
what we'd know as 'forums' (or mailing
lists) today. These were named 'Echoes'
because of the way the messages were
transported around the globe. Back
then, one computer would ring a 'hub'
computer and upload all new messages it
received during the last day or so.
The hub would then make these messages
available to other computers that would
ring other systems and on it would go.

In1994, it would take up to 2 weeks for
a private message to reach Australia
from my home in the USA at the time.
Not exactly quick, but it was a fun
network to participate in.

To run a BBS, one needed BBS Software
that would accept incoming calls via
the modem (also required) & generally
make the whole system easy to use and
admin by offering menus & various
features.

CF. Did you host a BBS at one time, can
you tell our reader about this

GG. No, I never actually had a
publicly available BBS, but I did run
Omni128 for awhile so I could exchange
messages with other systems that were
using that BBS software.  You may be
thinking of my husband Rod, who ran a
BBS named "Thisledome". This was long
before we met. Interestingly enough, we
still run into people that were members
of his bulletin board & remember it
fondly. "This led me" by the way is an
example of my other half's sense of
humour.  He pronounced it as 'This'll
do me'. The software that Rod used was
EBBS 64 by Ed Parry, & it was run using
one of his CMD hard drives.

CF. Q. Do you still use BBS systems, &
why?

GG. I haven't in a long time, basically
due to lack of free time, but there are
a few systems I really wouldn't mind
connecting to & checking out. These
days you can use the Internet & telnet
to BBS's rather than dialing out with a
modem.

CF. Do you think the younger
generation has missed out out not being
able to use BBS systems?

GG. Maybe, maybe not.  My kids for
instance all use various chat programs
like ICQ or AOL's AIM to communicate
with each other and friends.  They
actively participate on Websites that
suit their particular interests, much
like I would have on a BBS. The only
difference is that no one is waiting
for the other person to get off the
phone line so another household member
could use it to log in to their
favourite bulletin board.

CF. Do you still own C= machines & do
you still user them, can you explain
what for?

GG. Yes, we still have several C=
machines, but none are in use at the
moment.  Our last system was used as a
means of monitoring our Web servers.

CF. I find it strange some C= user will
go out of there way to help on any
small problem others just don't want to
know you unless you can program in
assembler & don't need to write
anything down, have you had 1st hand
experience of this?

GG. No, probably because the people who
would avoid me have never made their
presence (or lack of) known to me. Most
people I meet have been pretty
interesting & not rude at all.

CF. What makes C= machines unique & why
are people still using them today?

GG. There are so many reasons the C=
machines are unique. Ease of use, great
software, tons of things to do with
them, and then there's the coolness
factor these days in pushing the
envelope that much further to say 'I
did this with my Commodore'.

CF. I believe you had a cancer scare do
you now have the all clear?

GG. It's been 7 years and I'm still
here, so that's the best 'all clear'
of all.  No one knows what the future
may bring, but meanwhile I'm trying to
have more living in my life than
feeling down or worrying.

My biggest problem is that I've had
way more than my fair share of problems
that have come about because of the
treatments I received for breast
cancer, & to this day I still have
several health issues that are a direct
result of either having had chemo,
radiotherapy or reconstruction. For
over a year now, I've had a nurse that
comes to my home twice a week for one
of the various 'issues', and have
recently gone on disability. It's been
a very long tough road that I'm still
on, but I do see a day when the road
will get easier. I've been trying to
get fit & healthy and have just had
some tests that let me compare my
fitness from 5yrs ago with how I am
now, and there have been very positive
improvements, so at least I know I'm
on the right path.

CF. Can people send donations to
Videocam Services/VCSWEB to support its
running?

GG. They sure can.  Visit the C=
Homestead Website at:

http://cbm.videocam.net.auand

there's a link at the top left side of
the page for donations via PayPal. Any
help would be greatly appreciated & put
towards supporting the C= community.

CF. Is there any question you would
like to have asked & do you have any
final questions?

GG. No, I think that about covers it. I
hope this gets to you in time so you
can ask me any further questions if you
need to.

All the Best,
Gaelyne
---------------------------------------
THE END
