
COMMODORE FREE MAGAZINE
-----------------------
www.commodorefree.com
Issue 18
April 2008

Editor
Well I may have overdone the What time
is it and references to Aztec C and
Bill Buckles. Read all about Bill in
this issue and his Aztec C museum.

Lord Ronin continues his tutorials for
new Commodore 64 and 128 users, I was
hoping for the same sort of series
about the Amiga range of machine, so
if you feel you have enough knowledge
about the machines history feel free
to drop me an email.

I also managed an interview with
Musician Rob Hubbard so you can read
up on what Rob is up to now, and my
review of the Commodore book is
included with this issue. I did hope
to have a review of Dirmaster V2 but
ran out of time this month so look for
that next month.

I included some stats about Magazine
download issue 16 showing the number
of unique downloads of the magazine
for each format, its encouraging to
see people still interested so thanks
for reading and support with a total
1358 readers still with issue 16, I
suppose the pressure is on to continue

         Magazine Download
             Issue 16

             HTML  160
             PDF   930
             SEQ    68
             TEXT  119
             D64    81
            -----------
         Total    1358

Whats that you say shut up babbling
and let me read the magazine, yep
sounds good to me ok then here we go.

------------------------------------

Readers Comments

Hi Nigel,

I thought it was interesting to
forward you the answer of Ahmet. I was
very interested in  his project, but
if he does not plan to follow it, it
could be problematic to get this
device and have no further assistance
nor development.
FYI,

Cheers,
Vincent

---- Forwarded message ----
From: Ahmet Zeki Eymr 
Date: 4 avr. 2008 03:26
Subject: Re: C64TPC
To: Vincent Col

Hi,
I planned releasing MacOS X binary but
I may not continue developing C64TPC.
I found a job again. I'm sorry but I
have not enough spare time. I did not
test on network but I think you can
not access networkshared folder via
C64TPC.

Thank you for your interest.
Ahmet

COMMODORE FREE
Oh this is sad news, maybe after Ahmet
has settled in his new job he may find
time to continue the project. I did
receive this news from Ahmet though

Hi Nigel,
 
I read my interview in this issue of
Commodore Free Mag. Thank you very
much. Attached e-mail is true. I can't
continue developing C64TPC project.

Best regards,
Ahmet

COMMODORE FREE
Well Ahmet offered to refund me for
the hardware but I asked him to send
out the device, its somewhere in the
postal system now so I should expect
to see the device soon, hopefully by
next month I will have a full review
(postal system permitting) and I hope
Ahmet finds time to continue
supporting this very interesting
hardware and software combination
------------------------------------

NEWS

From: Andrew Wiskow
Sent: 08 April 2008 19:40
Subject: Anything Commodore Users
Group MossyCon4 video UPDATED (again!)

Okay... I've done some experimenting,
and I think I've found a  compression
setting with more acceptable video
image quality, & the audio is still in
sync with the video. So now the
MossyCon4 video is easy on the eyes
AND the ears. ;)

Check it out at
http://cottonwood.servebbs.com/
 acug0447/mc4

As a bonus, the thumbnail image that
Google Video chooses arbitrarily is a
freeze-frame of Lord Ronin, so it's
much more fitting, I think! ;)

-Andrew 

Commodore 25 Years Party

From: Robert Bernardo
Date: Apr 4, 7:42 pm

Here is another video rip of the after
show of the Impact of the C64 with Bil
Herd, Adam Chowaniec & Dale Luck.
http://blip.tv/file/799758 

AND
Here is a rip of a cool dvd that has
some of the preshow meet & greet at
the Computer History Museum. The Woz
and Jack Tramiel from a spy cam view.
This is the correct link for the
Impact of the C64 video:

http://blip.tv/file/792025
Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug


Commodore Free

Quite an old interview but here is
Jeri Ellsworth on a television news
report talking about the C64 DTV
http://blip.tv/file/749800

CARTRIDGE CASES AVAILABLE

I have been contacted by this Ebay
seller, who informed me he has a
number of these catridge cases for
sale, I have purchased a couple of the
clear ones because we all like to see
the electronicy bits especially if
there are any of those nice flashy
lights, just a moment 2 men have a
rived in white jackets  they have
injected me in the arm sleep sleep..

Commodore 64/128 Empty Plastic
Cartridge Case

Time to make your own C64/128
cartridges!

Cartridge cases are hard to find in
bulk, this is an auction for an empty
cartridge case, ready for you to put
your PCB & eprom. This case is known
as an Atarisoft case, it has two
plastic pins/pegs & will fit any
suitable PCB. This case is used, the
label has been removed & will have
some minor label residue.

To assemle your cartridge, insert your
tested PCB, use a plastic glue & glue
both shells & leave for 5 min, then
clamp the cartridge together & leave
for 12 hours (or as per the glues
instructions). To finish just over
label the case, you can use any front
3.5" floppy disk label (widely
available & low cost) it will fit
perfectly, one on the front & one on
the back. Finished!.

Ever wanted to make your own Commodore
games/utility cartridges? This is the
solution, burn your EPROM, install &
plug & go! That's it!

We have listed 5x 27c64 eproms & 5x
Selectable Blank Cartridge PCBs to
complete your cartridges. 

If you have any questions just ask, we
will combine postage.

CLEAR2.49
Postage U.K.3.85

Discount for bulk

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/
 The-Commodore-Store

The Commodore Store have a varied
range of Commodore items for sale on
eBay well worth looking at, hardware
and software most of the items are
listed as brand new & indeed the C 128
memory upgrade I ordered was just that
New never opened with full instructions
& a test disk! I always wonder where
people still find these disks &
hardware from.

- The-Commodore-Store wrote:
Also a friend lists these to purchase
he is based in America, he just lists
he doesnt have an eBay store, people
can contact him via eBay or -
ray.lejuez`gmail.com

NEWS

1541 Ultimate Project

Available now to pre-order

Introduction to the 1541 Ultimate
Project

What is it?
The '1541 Ultimate' is a storage
solution for your Commodore computer,
such as the C64, C128, Plus4, C16, etc. 
This piece of hardware implements a
'real' 1541 drive for C= computers, &
is capable of storing the floppy disks
on a modern SD-card, or MMC-card. It
contains a replica of all the necessary
hardware to be fully compatible with a
real drive.

The '1541 Ultimate' can be used as a
cartridge in the C64/C128, or as a
stand-alone unit for use with other
Commodore models with a serial bus. In
cartridge mode, the user can view the
SD-card content with just a simple
push on one of the buttons, & 'mount'
.d64 images into the floppy drive. In
stand-alone mode, the user can use the
buttons to navigate through the
directories, or send IEC commands to a
secondary device on the bus. This
secondary device also allows saving &
loading files to the FAT file system
directly, but is not as compatible as
the 1541 drive.

Context
The '1541 Ultimate' is a personal
hobby project, that has grown into a
mature device that can be very useful
for current Commodore users. It
enables the user to copy real 5.25"
floppy disks onto an SD-card, & RUN
them from there, without the C64
knowing that it is not a real drive it
is talking to. Floppy disks are prone
to aging, & many floppies are on the
verge of getting unreadable. So in the
context of the greater "Preservation
Project" that is carried out by
Commodore enthousiasts, the '1541
Ultimate' can do a lot of useful work.
Although I am not a company, I would
like to make the '1541 Ultimate'
hardware available for Commodore
enthusiasts, especially because this
piece of hardware is very powerful &
can potentially do a lot more than
'just' implementing a replacement for
the 1541 drive. I hope that people can
understand that although this board
has been made with a lot of care &
enthusiasm, it is still a hobby
project & not an official retail
product.

Features
- Full emulation of a real Commodore
1541 diskdrive.
- Secondary 'IEC-drive' for direct
access to FAT filesystem.
- FAT/FAT32 support, with
sub-directories & long filenames
- C64 cartridge emulation; Final
Cartridge III, Action Replay,
Commodore 1750/1764 REU
- Flexible freezer menu to select,
mount, create D64 images, browse disk
images
- Configuration screen, with resident
settings
- 'Stand-alone mode' - powered through
Mini-USB connector, controlled through
buttons & IEC.

Specifications
- Board size: 68 x 96 mm
- 250k-gate FPGA
- Full size 6-pin DIN connector (IEC)
- 512 kB SRAM
- 2 MB Flash ROM
- 32 MB SDRAM (the Plus version only)
- Full size MMC / SD card compatible
(Mini/Micro SD possible with adapter)
- Stereo audio output
- 6-pin expansion pin-header for
connection to tape port (for C2N
emulation), or other future features.

Payment details
Currently, I am working on the online
webshop. Until it is finished, you can
sign up on the pre-order list for the
1541 Ultimate or 1541 Ultimate Plus.

Basic or Plus?

There are currently two variants of
the 1541 Ultimate, the basic (99) &
the plus (119) version. The major
difference is the amount of available
memory on the card. The basic has just
enough for 1541 emulation & the
necessary software to run; the plus
version, however, has 32MB of RAM,
which can be used as REU (16 MB max)
and in the future for a lot more
interesting functions. If pure 1541
emulation is what you need, the basic
version will suffice. But if you are a
power-user & you are excited to see
more & more features added to your
Ultimate card, I would strongly
recommend purchasing the plus version.

Shipping

The Ultimate card will be shipped to
you as a personal postage package. If
you are living outside of the
Netherlands, your country may apply
additional taxes upon receiving your
package. Most likely, though, the
value of the package is below the
taxable limit, so you wont be having
any problems. The following shipping
rates apply:

Within the Netherlands: 3 in small box

Within the European Union: 6 as a
postal package (priority)

Outside the European Union: 10 as a
postal package (priority)

For more information & details where
to send funds visit the 1541 ultimate
website
http://www.1541ultimate.net/content/

COMMODORE FREE
You can bet your life I have the
Ultimate version on order & await its
delivery. Expect a full review when the
item arrives


SYNTAX ERA

Pure Geek-cheek! Take famous 80s
tracks such as 19, Two Tribes, Too Shy,
Billy Jean, Broken Wings & I Feel Love,
painstakingly recreate the sound, &
inject that into classic C64 music such
as BMX Kidz, Comic Bakery, Sanxion,
Arkanoid & Ghouls and Ghosts.

Remixes come from amazing talent:
Romeo Knight, LMan, Makke, Tom Detert,
Tron, Moog, Binster, Ziphoid, Boz,
Sonic Wanderer, Tonka, Skitz, Trace,
Slaygon, iFadeo & even (gasp) a guest
appearances here & there from Chris
Abbott.

You'll wonder how we could get away
with such a cheeky tribute to the 80s:
well, no samples from the original
tracks were used, & the musical
content has been replaced by the C64
tune covered. 

The CD also features some really great
songs in their own right, which result
from a perfect match between C64
melodies & hooks, the sound of SID, &
classic 80s instrumentation, such as
Ace II, Jethro Walrus, Aspar Grand
Prix, & Dominator.

The CD was the baby of Markus "LMan"
Klein, who acted as Co-ordinator,
remixer, artist & layout, & even
made his own tea, ably assisted by Tom
Detert who did much of the mastering.

CD is in now shipping! 9.99 + postage
http://www.c64audio.com/
 productInfo.php?cat=R64SE


BACK IN TIME LIVE STOCKHOLM 2008

September 13, Kolingsborg, Stockholm,
Sweden

It's all about the Commodore 64 & its
music - Live on stage: Jeroen Tel, Reyn
Ouwehand, 6581, Disco Danceaway
It's time for another installment of
Back in Time Live, & yet again, it's
all about celebrating the C 64 & its
music. The event will take place in
Stockholm, Sweden, & this year it's
hosted by Andreas Wallstrm from C64.COM
& John Carehag from Ziphoid
Entertainment. The guys have been
around the demo scene since 1987, they
have their own radio shows on SLAY
Radio, they run C64 sites, Andreas
played in SID'80s together with Ben
Daglish  among other things. It's safe
to say they breathe C 64 air every day.

Oh, yeah... The event.

On stage, you will find headliner
Jeroen Tel (Myth, Hawkeye, Turbo
Outrun) doing his DJ act that
definately will get the dance floor
moving! His set includes his classic
SIDs, one great Rob Hubbard track,
plus unreleased SID tracks.

A band that makes its debute this
evening is the rock act 6581. The band
consists of music extraordinaire Reyn
Ouwehand (The Last Ninja 3, Flimbo's
Quest, Deadlock), Eike Steffen, aka
Romeo Knight in Amiga & C64 remix
circles, plus Andreas Wallstrm.

Reyn will also do his one-man-band set
where he starts building up a song on
the keyboard, then moves over to the
bass, then the guitar, the drums, &
finally returns to the keyboard for an
improv solo. Take a look at this
movie:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8UBY8Yj9c0
for what to expect.

Disco Danceaway, who's remix of
Bangkok Knights got rave reviews,
makes a beloved return to the Back in
Time Live stage. The wig! The glasses!
This is the coolest thing since
powdered milk.

The DJ of the evening is Jucke of
Genesis Project & The experiMENTAL
SID Show fame.

Line up is provisional & may be
subject to change.

Two shops will be available at the
event: The creator of Back in Time
Live, Chris Abbott, will bring CD's
and DVD's full of C64 goodies. More
information here: www.c64audio.com.
Individual Computers will bring their
newly produced C64 products, like the
MMC Replay & the RR-Net. More
information here: www.jschoenfeld.com.

We will also see the release of The
8Bit Philosophy from Shining Movie
Vision. This is a documentary about
the C64, the C64 remix scene & the
people in it. See & hear the likes
of Chris Hlsbeck, Reyn Ouwehand, &
Press Play on Tape. More information
here: www.shining-movie-vision.de.

Will there be any C64 celebrities like
Martin Galway & Jeff Minter there?
Who knows. But there's a rumour that
Darth Vader & a few stormtroopers
will show up to arrest naughty ZX
Spectrum owners. As of now, this
should really be considered a rumour
though.

Download the radio show aired on SLAY
Radio where the event was announced.
Join the Back in Time Live Stockholm
2008 Facebook-group. Discuss the event
at the Remix 64 forum.

More information coming up, but for
now:
Mark you calendar for Back in Time
Live Stockholm 2008 on September 13!

http://www.backintimelive.com/


Cevi-Aktuell

In this German PDF magazine the
following articles: News, Frauen und
Computer, Streetrod, DoReCon 2008,
Alpha Mod, Interview with Jrg
Winterstein & more. You can download
the magazine from the web page.
http://www.cevi-aktuell.de.vu/


SCACOM: New issue & New homepage

We launched our new website
www.scacom-online.de.vu There you can
reach the new websites
www.english-scacom.de.vu &
www.scacom-aktuell.de.vu too.The new
English-SCACOM issue 2 is available.
Goto www.english-scacom.de.vu.You can
download the PDF or read it online!
Also the new German SCACOM-Aktuell is
available!
Look at our hompeage & the first
virtual Commodore Museum of the world!
Please Give feedback & support! 


Gabriel Noel, the c64 filmmaker

All: Gabriel Noel, the c64 filmmaker,
here.

After over 300 hours of work spanning
nine months, my latest video is done,
and utilizes not only Martin Galway's
title track from 'Mikie', but incorp-
orates the music & audio effects from
the Stickybear Educational Software
series, which made its debut on the
C64. Given the nature of what it
complements (i.e. a demonstration of
the 1983 equivalent of 'Guitar Hero'),
I imagine it will generate a tremendous
amount of interest. Anyway, here is the
link:
http://www.youtube.com/
 watch?v=w-cF-MN7tQ4

Enjoy,Gabriel Noelitstheit
productionsgn

Eric Schwartz Amiga Tribute

Eric Schwartz made a tribute to the
Amiga. It's an animation with the song
Still Alive it tells the history about
Amiga. You can
http://youtube.com/watch?v=9mg6wrYCT9Q
------------------------------------

DC2N project update
-------------------
http://www.luigidifraia.com/c64/
 dc2n/index.html

01 Feb 2008
First mount Evening: I almost finished
the first mount after Farnell sent me
the sockets I needed. It came out
nicely I think. DC2N assembled by me I
will bring this one to the HCC Show as
well. This will give me the chance to
test it before sending it out to the
person who pre-ordered it.

03 Feb 2008
Handmade box Evening: enthusiast built
his own DC2N box.DC2N boxed by
enthusiast looks nice, doesn't it?


09 Feb 2008
New box Morning: I built the first
version of the DC2N box. I will bring
this one to the HCC Show.DC2N
connected to a C64DC2N boxed by me
That's a first go, I will hopefully
complete it soon.

16 Feb 2008
HCC Show Morning: I presented the DC2N
at the HCC Show today, where I met
quite some nice people. Many thanks to
the organizers!

20 Feb 2008
FAT again Evening: I compiled in and
tested the fragmented file support
routines of my FAT driver. A Turbotape
(GGS) and a Cyberload TAP image (LN2)
have been played to my C64 without
problems.

24 Feb 2008
Finishing the box Morning: I almost
finished the second version of the DC2N
box. Since I was not able to find the
switch I need for DC2N at the local
shop, I have to stop here for now. DC2N
in a box Peepo has made 693 dumps so
far! Excellent job progressing with
mount Evening: And here it is, a DC2N
almost fully mounted with the mode
selector: c2n emulation or dumping
.DC2N boxed by me

23 Mar 2008
Happy Easter! Morning: Based on the
custom DC2N mount SLC had done, I
mounted my development version:
Monitor-while-dumping DC2N I can now
switch the DC2N mode of operation and
adjust the datassette while dumping,
to perform a fine tuning for those
tapes that are hard to dump, without
having to unplug the datasette from
DC2N.That is, the signal is sent to my
C64 as well, where the "Recorder
Justage" program is kept running.

The way I do that actually is as per
below:
load "Head Tester" (aka "Recorder
Justage") from an SD Card to my C64
using DC2N in C2N emulation mode
switch DC2N into dumping mode put a
tape in the C2N connected to DC2N and
press PLAY align the head and rewind
the tape to make a clean dump of it!

Last update 20 Feb 2008

Completed 98%
Tested 99% (the three main features:
PLAY, RECORD, and Dump)

FAT-16 support
read: 100%
write: 90%

I developed a hard real-time
implementation of the FAT-16 file
system driver. Support for
fragmentation handling in write
operations will be added at a later
time.

PLAYback
legacy TAP v0 files
support for DC2N 16-bit TAP files will
be added

RECORD and Dump
DC2N 16-bit TAP files (counter rate is
2 MHz)
TAP version 0 files (100% MTap
compliant)

DC2N TAP format
16-bit DC2N format generated by
RECORD/dump operations respectively:

Offset Size Description
0x00 12 bytes ID string:
"DC2N-TAP-RAW"
0x0C 1 byte Format version: actually
only version 0 is defined
0x0D 2 bytes Reserved for future needs

0x0F 1 byte Counter resolution [bit]:
16 actually
0x10 4 bytes Counter rate (LSBF) [Hz]:
2000000 actually
0x14 any 16-bit (counter resolution)
data values (LSBF)

Each data value is the delay,
expressed in clock cycles (at Counter
rate), between two consecutive rising
(falling) edges of the Commodore
computer write line (C2N read line)
signal.0xFFFF is an overflow value,
meaning that the next data values
should be summed to this one to build
up the total delay, up to the first
non-0xFFFF value (included).
Anyway, we don't really require to
deal with that since the dc2nconv
software converts DC2N 16-bit files to
legacy TAP v1 files, which are already
supported by many emulators and tools.

DC2N TAP file resolution (2 MHz) is
actually 16 times higher than the
legacy TAP format (123.156 kHz).

Ordering:
The first batch of DC2Ns is being
already shipped to large collectors
who showed interest in having a DC2N
quite some time ago, for preservation
purposes. A second batch of devices is
being processed. Delays are likely to
occur before I will be able to work at
the new mounts for the electronic
components I need are out of stock at
the supplier I used before. Even if
people cannot yet order a DC2N until
the abovementioned issue is solved,
pre-ordering a DC2N for preservation
or entertainment purposes can be done
by writing me an email. DC2N will be
sold on a first-come-first-served
basis. If you think you should be on
the pre-order list and you aren't, or
if you are there and you don't want to
be anymore, again email me.

People who have pre-ordered so far

Firstname Lastname Country

Nigel 	  Parker   UK

COMMODORE FREE
====== I have left the other list out
if you are curious visit the website
for details ======


Hi Nigel,

Thank you for your email. Surprising
enough, tomorrow I will start working
at the DC2N to send you. Anyway, I
prefer not to give out time
estimations to the people who
pre-ordered. I would have contacted
you when the first build had been
completed and tested properly On
average, it takes three weekends to be
built. Sorry about that, but I have no
help with this and no professional
tools. I may actually be able to do it
sooner for this would be my third
build. I had built one that I meant to
sell out, but it's now part of my test
bed due to some constraints I met
recently (a huge collection of tapes
to image with one device while
developing using the other device).

Next Project
My next coming hardware project is
D1541 which I would also refer to as
"True 1541". Surprisingly enough
there's no 1541 replacement that
actually satisfies my requirements, so
that I am going to fill this gap by
myself. It's going to be all but a
quick project, even if I know I will
get there. My aim is to go beyond D64
and G64 formats to support all of the
copy protected disks in one go.
------------------------------------

Interview with C= Musician Rob Hubbard

Rob Hubbard possibly needs no
introduction, but here goes; Rob was
one of a few musicians that pushed the
SID chip way beyond what many thought
possible, I remember sitting with a BBC
micro owning friend and loading Monty
on the run, the music started and we
just sat looking at each other. The
music was so good how can this possibly
be coming from the machine. I like many
other users at the time later purchased
games purely on the fact Rob had
written the music.


COMMODORE FREE
Please introduce yourself to our reader

ROB HUBBARD
I did a ton o' C64 games audio in the
1980s.

CF Are you a classically trained
musician?

RH yes...

CF When creating Games music How long
did it take you to switch from
thinking in musical notation to
thinking in terms of code/date to
input into the machine?

RH I used to sketch music ideas on
music manuscript paper, and then type
the music into hex define byte
statements in assembler source code.
After a while a lot of hex codes
became second nature.

CF Rob can you tell our readers about
64 orchestra and your involvement?

RH  I was approached initially by
Jeroen Tel, and then once details were
agreed I started working on all the
scores. So I was heavily involved in
deciding what the ensemble should be
and the musical direction it should
take.

CF So this is a real orchestra playing
Commodore sid tunes on real
instruments? Who thought of the idea?

RH  I think it was Mano.

CF Where there many problems adopting
Games music to an orchestra?

RH  The original SID tunes only used 3
voices plus a few software tricks. So
you have to look beyond the original
tunes and add other elements. With my
own tunes it's easier since I have a
good idea what the possibilities are.

CF I presume you originally wrote your
Commodore music in manuscript format,
so was this original manuscript used
for the orchestra?

RH  No.

CF Did you have any other arrangers
help out on the orchestration, I
remember from music lessons trying to
work out a 4 piece orchestra and found
it more difficult than just writing
the music for a pianist?

RH  No I did everything myself.

CF Do you think musicians can make good
arrangers or is this a separate skill?

RH  Well it is a skill any musician
can learn. Like most things, it's a
matter of putting in the time and
effort.

CF Writing Games music or writing for
an orchestra, what do you feel is the
most restrictive?

RH  Not sure what you're getting at
here....

CF Which of your own tunes do you think
would suit an orchestral arrangement
and why?

RH  Most of the tunes for the c64
orchestra were chosen because they can
be adapted to work with the orchestra.
There are some techno type of tunes
that just would not work very well.

CF Going back to the old days What
features would you like to have added
to your famous music routine that it
did not have?

RH  I don't really know. I added the
sample player so that I could try to
add a few real instruments with
limited pitch range. So by this time
there wasn't much left that it could do

CF How did you get the idea for the
music, do you sit down and think right
I am going to create a tune in this
format with this time signature and
use this key or does the music just
evolve, for example I usually go to
bed with a tape machine or paper & pen
and when I wake have a melody I
scribble down and expand on that,
although sometimes I just go to bed
and wake up

RH  I use various methods. Most of the
time I write at the piano. Other times
I write away from the piano just with
a pen & manuscript paper. Other times I
try to just improvise and see what I
come up with.  A lot of the time in
games a producer wants something
specific so you have to copy an
existing piece. or go off in a specific
direction.

CF What did you think of other
composer's music routines at the time?

RH  They were all very clever !

CF How did you create the samples used
in games like BMX Kidz?

RH  I had a C64 sampler that I used &
then hacked the samples into my source
code.
 
CF What was it like working at EA in
the USA?

RH  It was really fantastic in the
early years. Later on EA became very
corporate and the games were all very
much alike, so a lot of the fun was
lost.

CF Do you feel music can make a bad
game seem good or better and do you
think bad music can make a good came
feel well bad?

RH  No, a good game will always be good
regardless of the graphics or audio.

CF  Do you think some of the creativity
has been lost now that games creators
can just throw in a full song from a
band or a full orchestral track,
instead of working with the hardware
itself to generate the music?

RH  Yes it has. It is also due to the
sameness of all the games, and the
fact that it costs so much money to
develop a game. The publishers can't
afford to take any risks, and so
everything is very generic.

CF Many people purchased games just
because you were listed as the
musician how did this make you feel at
the time? 

RH  Well I don't know about that
really....

CF Do you still follow the Commodore
scene?

RH  Not really. I don't have a
Commodore any more. I sold it in 1988.

CF The new game SHREDZ 64 allows
players to play along with SID tunes
using the PS2 guitar from Guitar Hero
- which of your tracks should people
try and have you seen the project?

RH  I would guess Arcade Classics - I
havent seen the game.

CF Do you feel like a celebrity, and
are you surprised people still
remember your work?

RH  Yes, I'm very surprised - I mean
it is over 20 years ago !!

CF What music projects apart from 64
orchestra are you currently working
on?

RH  Just my own private musical
projects and pursuits/interests.

CF Do you have a fan website?

RH  no.
------------------------------------


In the Beginning Part 3
by Lord Ronin from Q-Link

Right then lets do it again. You type
in ..

LOAD"0:*",8,1

 LOAD is telling the computer what you
want it to do. Which will be in the
quotes. 0 is that hang over from two
drives on one number. Commas are sort
of like a separator. 8 is the disk
drive number and that 1 at then end.
Well that is used for ML <we will get
to that later> programmes. Works for
Basic most of the time as well. That *
thing is a wildcard to load the first
prg on the disk.

 OK you then press return and
something should happen. If everything
is fine, you may see a fast "searching
for *". Then loading it and the screen
should change and the prg starts.
Well, there is that old saying about
the best laid plans of mice, men and
machines. Nothing may happen at all.
So lets troubleshoot that part.

 First it could be the load command I
gave you. Change it to ...

LOAD"0:*",8 press return

 This will load but not run the
programme. When it has loaded and the
ready is flashing type ...

RUN press return

 That is the 70% of the time fix to
the problem.

 But, Yet, However there can be
another problem. That being the first
prg on the disk isn't the one that
loads the files. This is found on some
factory/commercial disks. If you are
using one of them for your first time
<I did> and are very lucky <I wasn't>
Then you have the manual for the disk.
Which should tell you the load
command. More often you just have the
disk, and if you are fortunate. The
load command is written on the disk
label. Now it is possible to type in
the exact filename that you want to
load. Like ... 

LOAD"AD&D DICE",8,1 press RETURN

 That will find the programme on the
disk of that name and load it for you.
As well as most of the time running
it. A trick here is the wildcard. That
is the * symbol. If you are like me,
old and mentally incompetent. OK maybe
not like me,but you can't memorise the
spelling of every prg on your disk.
You can type ...

LOAD"AD&D*",8,1 press RETURN

 This command will load the first
programme on the disk that starts with
AD&D. We can discuss this a bit more
later on. Right now, you want to see
what is on the disk and what happens
to the screen. Or what is on the tape
or what is on that cart, oral of the
above. Take a look at the things for a
while. We can do more after you have
had a little fun.

:::::::::

 What did you see? A game, a tool, a
utility a something or another? Did
you look at a factory disk, some
backup copy or a disk that had a
collection of separate unrelated
files? Sure I know that you have seen
a something that may or may not have
impressed you with the C=. We are
talking about 8bit graphics and all of
that 80s stuff. You have just seen
something that probably didn't make
that much sense. Don't worry, I wanted
you to have some hands on with
programmes. See what can be done in
some form. Now then we get to some of
the meat of the C=.

 Lets admit at this point that the
thing works differently than what you
already know on other platforms. How
to operate a programme is different.
You have to tell it to load and
perhaps to run. What you saw on the
screen, well it wasn't 16,500,000
colours, of which according to Ripley
you can only see the 500,000. Nor does
it have stereo sound. Unless you have
a modified one or the Stereo SIDcart
plugged into it.

 Lets get into what the computer does,
after we go into some background. This
part is antidote in part. Part also
from readings and talks with other
users.

 This unit came out in 1982ce. Some
people say in January, others say in
June. What it did was change the
computer world. Yeah that little thing
changed the computer world. Ill add
that it changed the world period.

 Tough talk and that needs an
explanation. So here we go, and yeah I
am and have been actually using that
manual during the previous stuff. Take
a look at the keyboard. Not the same
as you have seen before. I mentioned
the return vs. the enter key. Notice
that at the top row the third key from
the right is a British pound sterling
symbol <>. Don't have that on your
other keyboard. Nor a C=key or a
run/stop key or even a clr/home or
inst/del key. Depending on your model.
You will see that there are little
graphic things either on the top of
the keys or on the fronts. I'll have
you play with them in a moment. There
may also become abbreviations on the
number keys at the top row. We will
get to them in a bit. These are some
of the differences. Here is the first
one to tell you. While other platforms
used/use ascii character. Having 128of
them in the main set <there are
expansions> Commodore uses the
standard PETascii. You have about
256characters at your finger tips. If
you think that means the characters or
the letters are the same. Nope they
are not. If you try to read a text
type file from PET to ascii. What you
will see ... iS SOMETHING ON THIS
ORDER. wHERE THE CASE IS REVERSED.
Also the extra characters not found in
the main ascii file will show up as
strange garbage if they show at all.

 Now to the story. I was around in the
early days of computers. But not a
member of it. I think that I still may
have a popular electronic magazine
with an article about the first
computer for home use, the Altair. As
I mentioned in an earlier part. I was
a tech for Radio Shack. That machine
at that time was black and white with
no sound. Some coders would make a
"thing". Didn't do anything on the
screen. But it did play a song. What
you did was tune a little portable
radio off of a station. Put it about a
foot away fom the keyboard. Then while
loading you had a song. Not a great
song because all it was doing was
modulating the Radio Frequencies that
where generated when the programme
loaded from the  tape drive. That was
the sound of that time period.

 OK here comes the Commodore 64. We
now have a three voice and 9 octave
sound capability. Remember that I said
the Radio Shack one was black & white?
The 64 has 16 colours <there are ways
to increase that for your work> More
sound than any one else and more
colours, and more memory. All in one
built in system. I have monitors from
that time period. They are monochrome.
Black & White, Green and Amber
screens. Nor do they have an internal
speaker for any sound. In my
collection of papers for the C=. I
have a poster that gives the
capabilities of the different systems
of that time, along with the prices.
Best with out adding onto the system
was 4 colours on another platform.
Though the C= disk drive was costly at
first. No way did it rival the price
of another company's drive of around
$1300.

 The Commodore 64 became the most
popular and beloved computer. Oh you
can read that in the November 1998 ce
issue of PC World. Also the 64 is in
the 2000 and 2001 <seen those
issues>Guinness book of world records.

 Well the people have a "friendly"
computer. In fact that is what the
manual tells you. That "Commodore is
known as the friendly Computer
company..." <users manual page vii>

 What you may not know is the mindset
of that time period. At the price of a
home, or Personal Computer in that
time. Your average teen isn't going
out and buying one. Parents have to
buy one. So you have to sell the
product to people in their late 20s
and early 30s. Hey that was me at that
time. So what is so hard about that?
Well today computers are an active
part of day to day life. Back then,
this wasn't the case. We parents of
that time didn't have the same ideas
as they do now. You see going back to
the 50s and 60s, whereas kids. We
learned about computers. These where
the things in movies, cheap T.V.
shows, 25 cent paperback books, and
10-12 cent comic books. That wanted to
destroy all life or take over the
world and enslave the people. Sure
that probably makes you laugh today.
But that was the input that we had in
those days. Not appositive building
foundation for computers in the home.

 So why should I, making $4.00 and
hour. Blow close to a grand on a
computer system? I mean the computer,
the monitor, drives and of course some
software. BTW: I have some with
original price tags on them of over
$40. Answer is, that I don't. I was
buying a home and taking care of a
wife and two sons at the time.

 Well there obviously where people
that bought computers. Commodore was
doing around 2 million a year in
sales. This is in the early days of a
computer when most people didn't even
know what it was or could do. Thinking
that it was a big  game machine, of a
really strange typewriter of some
form. At least it wasnt that
electronic monster that was going to
rule the world. Hmm, perhaps we were
right about that part after all.

 General story goes this way. Dad for
some reason, buys the C=64. Brings it
home. Connects it to the T.V. Then
looks into the users manual. Here is
where Commodore hooks you in, the
manual is written just for that setup.
You see, the first part of the book is
the set up that we have already
covered. Save that it doesnt really
talk about monitors that much and we
didn't go into how to connect the
audio to your stereo system.

 Lets get started on the things in the
manual. Done enough sociological
history. Time to experiment with the
keys. So take out any disk or tape
that you have in your drives. Just for
safety and we will begin with the
computer turned off, wait a few
seconds and then back on again. This
flushes the memory. Now you may find
that your 64 has a small push button
on it. I have saved that for this
moment. That push button is a hacker
additive. 99% probable that it is are
set button. Give it a push and let go.
If the screen moves a bit and goes
back to the blue screen. You have a
reset button. Books and magazines had
the plans and parts lists for
installing these. I have a plug-in
port expander that has a reset on it
as well.

 You know that I am being devious with
these notes about additives to the C=.
Slyly inserting bits on things that
were done for the C=.Indicating a
greater amount of product and
background than you may have expected.
That is the good part. Bad part is
that you could be a reader with this
extra stuff. Not knowing what it is
about, and I don't mention it at all.
Worse are the readers that have a
stock machine and have to go through
this extra drivel, on top of the
ordinary drivel. At least you can see
that it is a large world for the C=.

 That all said, I must get back to the
keys. Manual takes you through things
in a simple, and friendly way. Great
method to hook the father into the C=.
He has the cheque book, and the
greatest fears of the new tech of the
computer. That might sound silly
today. It was the reality of the time.

 Press a key and you see the letter
show up on the screen. Today that is
taken for granted. First time the guy
did that in the 80s. Seeing his name
or what ever was typed on his T.V. Now
that was radically impressive. A
sensation of wonder and a touch of
fear. OK now then I don't have to tell
you about the fact the keys are like a
typewriter with some extra ones. You
are experienced in that already. Lets
mess around with the different keys.

 The CONTROL [CNTRL] key and the C=key
have a specific use at this time. Yeah
they do more, but not just yet. So
press the CNTRL key and the number1
key. That light blue flashing box just
changed to a black one. Type your
name. Yeah it is all in black.

 A fast look at the number keys,
depending on your model, show some
abbreviations as I mentioned earlier.
Except for 9 and 0. Lets get to those
now. You should still be in black. So
just press CNTRL and the number 9.Hmm
doesn't look like anything happened
right? Try typing in your name again.
Ah there it is, but in what is called
reverse video. Looks rather cruddy too
doesn't it? Black sort of doesn't go
well in reverse video over that blue
background. Well you can change the
background and the border. In fact
there are some little home brew
programmes that floated around that
will give you all the colour
combinations. So you can see what
looks the best for you. Now just press
the space bar a few times. You have
now a black bar. Press CNTRL and 0.
That turns off the reverse video.

 Next I want you to press the C= key
and the 6 key. That box, called the
cursor has now turned into a bright
light green colour. Try the reverse
video now as well. Type a bit and do
another bar. Don't look that great
next to the black does it?

A chart for you.

 Control key and1 = black
 Control key and 2 = white
 Control key and 3 = red
 Control key and 4 = cyan
 Control key and 5 = purple
 Control key and 6 = green
 Control key and 7 = blue
 Control key and 8 = yellow
 Control key and 9 = reverse on
 Control key and 0 = reverse off

 C= key and 1 = orange
 C= key and 2 = brown
 C= key and 3 = light red
 C= key and 4 = dark grey
 C= key and 5 = medium grey
 C= key and 6 = light green
 C= key and 7 = light blue
 C= key and 8 = light gray

 Should add here for those that are
doing this on a 128. 80c mode has two
different colours.

 Lets do bit of adjusting. Press CNTRL
and 9. Putting you in reverse video.
Now go through the colours above. Use
the space bar press for about 6 times
and change the colour. Put all 16 of
them up there. Sure the blue won't
show up. Now once you have that done.
Adjust your Monitor or T.V. until the
colour, tint, hue and brightness are
acceptable to your eyes. We all have
different levels of comfort with the
settings.

 Now are you bored with that border
and screen colour? Well I do and like
to change it. So here is a way to do
that before we go onto more things.
Cursor to the start of a new line on
the screen.

TypePOKE53280,0:POKE53281,0 then press
return. You should now have a black
screen and a black border. Along with
those colour bars.

 Now that is a fancy thing to see,
especially for the first time in your
life. Well it isn't in the start of
the users manual. I'm tossing it in
here for you to see a feature.
Remember this manual was written for
the first time ever computer user in a
world that didn't have any computer
background. OR better said, the manual
was written to interest you in the
computer and keep you interested. At
the same time not to get to techy and
"nerdish".  You see the image of that
time of a computer user was the geeky
guy in the glasses, white button down
shirt with the plastic pocket
protector, stuffed with pens. I don't
think we fit that image anymore <VBG>.
What I am saying with this is that the
C= changed the way people thought
about computers. For years the 64 was
the #1 seller. Before the 64,
Commodore had the Vic-20. Before that
the PET line. Taking us back to round
1977ce. I heard a report that when
they started in 1980ce the Vic line.
There was still a 2 year backlog for
the PET system. But hey if you are
interested in that stuff, it is online
in mail lists and websites, and very
well stated in that On the Edge book
by Brian Bagnall. Plainly stated,
Commodore won the people over to the
idea and use of a Personal Computer.64
being the greatest one of the lot. As
to why they lost out and the things
that they did that were wrong. Well I
again refer you to that book. At this
point I am telling you about how great
the 64 is and how to use it. Idiotic
practices of people in the rarefied
atmosphere of that company is for
other writers.

 Right then, back to the keys. There
is that one which is labelled as
"CLRHOME". On this 128D it has the
home under the CLR part. Anyway trivia
aside. Press it now and see what
happens. Right the flashing cursor
goes up to the top left hand corner of
the screen. Before you ask, yea hit
will overwrite anything up there if
you type new stuff on the screen.
Speaking of the screen. It's pretty
cluttered up now isn't it? Well you
could turn off the 64 and back on
again to clear all that stuff.
Wasteful of time and energy. So there
must be a better way to clear the
screen. Well yeah you could cursor
down a bit until all the stuff is off
the screen. That also takes time. Tell
ya what. Cursor down a few lines.
There that is enough, now press the
SHIFT key and the CLRHOME key. Bingo,
screen is cleared and you have the
cursor at the top left. Generally this
spot is called "HOME". Techy words for
it is row 0 column 0.A way of telling
you that we count in many computer
related things, starting at 0 rather
than 1.

 Pick the colour that you want to use
for this next part. Now type in CITTY
GOT KLAWS

 Spelled worse than I usually do in
these things. Bad grammar as well.
Must be a way to fix that, besides
sending me back to remedial
English.<G> There is and this is where
we mess with the cursor keys. They are
at the bottom right of the key board.
Stated CRSR with arrows. First one in
a left to right read has the arrows up
and down. Press it as you it before in
moving the cursor. Real easy it goes
down. How to make it group? Since
there isn't an up cursor key? Press
the shift key and that cursor key. See
it goes up. Takes a little getting
used to the springs in the keyboard
for accuracy. I'm not going to tell
you about my attempts at the start in
getting the cursor on the right line.
Now there is the next key. This has
left right arrows. Press it and the
cursor moves to the right. Bet you can
guess how to move it to the left.
Yuppers that shift key. More on the
shift key later on. Now then correct
the spelling in that example by moving
the cursor over the wrong letters and
type in the correct ones. If you feel
like it. Type over the got and turn it
to a has.

 Real simple, and now to the next
part. Type in HERE ISAN EXAMLE This
should read "there is an example" How
to fit it? Cursor of course to get to
the bad areas. But then what? Well
lets go step by step. First cursor to
the HERE, put it right over the H. Now
press the shift key and the INST DEL
key. Every thing moves to the right
one space. You now type in the T. That
done, cursor over to the ISAN. Place
the cursor on the A and press shift
and INST DEL. Making the blank space.
Finish with that and cursor over to
the ML part and do the same. Adding
now in the space the P.

 That is the way to INSerT spaces. To
DELete something. Just press the
INSTDEL key. See it moves right to
left and deletes everything in it's
path. Not that hard, but it is for
those without the manual. Seen too
many of them in the past. BTW: with my
crippled hands. I have to use this
feature quite often in writing.

 Now I want you to delete the things
you have put on the screen. Either
with the isnt del key or that shift
clear home command. Good, now type a
few things. Lets just do one row of
keys on the keyboard for this
experiment. Do the one the one that
starts with the A. Don't worry about
the : ; = keys. Just the letter keys.
Got that done? OK now cursor off of
that line and then I want you to press
the SHIFT and the C= key. Hey there
you are now in lower case. Try typing
something that uses Capitals. Yeah
that is there as well. It seems from
what I have read and heard over the
years that UPPER case, or now called
screamers, was the standard   or text
on the screens. Commodore changed that
as well. Oh yeah press the C= and
Shift key again and you will go back
to upper case.

 OK now then we get a bit complicated.
Also a bit more typing for you. Clear
the screen. NOW! Pick a colour you
like. I use Cyan mostly. I want you to
do the keys row by row. In this
manner. First as it is on the screen.
Start with 1 and end with the /. Yeah
I want the + -  *  : ; = , . and the /
keys as well.

 Right, you see a meaningless line of
letters, numbers and punctuation.
Cursor down two lines and start at the
left edge of the screen fo this next
part. I want you to do the same as
above. BUT!!!! hold down the shift key
or use the SHIFT LOCK key. Hey there
are different characters on the
screen. What are called graphic
characters. In fact they are the ones
that are the illustration on the right
hand side of the keys.

 Now, cursor down two lines. Start at
the left side of the screen. Release
the Shift lock, if you used it. Type
all the keys again. BUT THIS TIME hold
that C= logo key as well. Yeah there
you have it. This makes the characters
on the left hand side of the keys.

 Now I have a T.V. show to watch and a
RPGame to run. You, probably are
feeling a bit creative at the moment.
All those characters to use and the
colours that are there as well for the
characters. Go ahead and make a box
with your name in it. Change colours,
of things. Make a step pyramid. Move
on the lines a bit, change the grey
scale colours and see it you can make
it look a tad bit 3D.IOW go play right
now, and I'll be back later. Oh yeah,
don't use the RETURN key at this time.
I know you will. But it was a friendly
word of warning. Won't hurt anything.
You will just get a message from the
64on the screen. Nothing to worry
about.

 What did you discover? Boxes that you
can use colour on to shade and make
look 3D. Using the round circle parts
with the right angle parts to form
letters? Perhaps you made a little
scene with a stick figure? Tell the
truth I did that on my BBS to
illustrate some placement of the
characters in the PBEM game.

 Bet you didn't make a Xmas scene with
tree, presents, snow, fire place and
all of that. OK if you did, you
weren't the first one. I have that
scene from some artist. Anyway that
sort of drawing is called keyboard
art. Another item for the future
discussions. I wanted you to see the
characters from the keyboard and play
a bit. Can't do this on other
platforms. Since we are short on space
in this part. I'll lay this on your
fast. There were/are software
programmes that will let you REDESIGN
these characters from the keyboard.
Not just as in a new font. But yeah
the graphic ones as well. We arent
going in that direction right now.

 RETURN or RTN or other shortened
styles of writing it. Said before it
is like the enter key on other
platforms. In essence it takes what
you put on the screen and sticks it
into the computer memory. Now you see
why you got that funny message when
you pressed return while doing the
colours and characters. RESTORE key is
to "restore the computer to the normal
state it was in before you changed
things with a programme or some
command." Confusing isn't it? Lets not
muck about with it at this point in
time. Most of the time I use it with
the RUN/STOP key to stop and reset.
Speaking of the RUN/STOP key. By
itself, it will stop the operation of
a Basic programme. Hang on a moment.
That is what the book says. However
there is a command in programming that
will defeat that RUN/STOP key. SHIFT
and RUN/STOP together, will load a
programme from the tape drive.
Advanced disk drive load command is
LOAD"0:*",8,1: <use shifted run/stop>
That does the return and will start
loading most programmes. If you have
jiffy dos, Shift Run/Stop will load
and run the first file on the disk.

 So now press run/stop and
restore.Restting everythng. Here is a
code to type in, SYS64759, and press
return. Pretty much same thing as
Run/Stop and Restore. One that isn't
in the manual for you to try. Type
inSYS64738 and press return. I use
this one for resetting back to normal.
Try the two different codes and see
what you like. Last point in this
part. Not covered in the book. How to
do that screen and border colour
change. Laid out the poke command
as POKE53280,X for the border
and POKE53281,X for the screen. X here
indicates a number. But what number?
Ah, that is where it gets confusing.
The numbers on the keyboard that you
used for colour changes aren't the
same for this part. Only because the
count for this starts at 0. Meaning
that for the border and screen colours
in the POKE statement. Black is 0. But
on the keyboard it is Control and 1.
Does get confusing at times. Play a
bit and we will do more in the next
Chapter.
------------------------------------

The C 64 book 1982-19xx Infortmation

http://c64goldenyears.com

$17.99 one fixed rate for post &
packing worldwide

pay by PayPal or credit card

Foreword written by Jeff Minter

Over 200 game reviews, all in full
colour with screenshots & cover scans

Size of a Spectrum:
Physically the book is about the size
of a Zx spectrum in size, this ties in
with an earlier work about the history
of Spectrum games and so both books
(should you decide to purchase them
both) look nice on the shelf. The
cover shows a Commodore 64 wrapped
around the front and onto the back the
Commodore keys have been doctored to
read the books title and picked out in
a lighter colouring than the other
keys to make the title stand out.

Opening the book and you could be back
in the 60s  as the use of very vivid
almost acid style colouring If you
were a fan of the Jeff Minter colour
cycling then you will feel at home
with this. Talking about Jeff minter
he provides the forward for the book.
After a few small intos, the usual
thanks, acknowledgements & references
used for the book we are on the
contents pages.

Contents:
The contents page is broken down by
year and then each year by game listed
alphabetically from A to Z  Some years
have more entries than others and I
suppose some user reading would
complain that their favourite game isnt
listed and wonder why, It would be an
impossible task to accommodate every
game ever created into such a book.

Some games are listed because they are
classic games others because graphics &
sound stood out from other titles of
the era.

History:
After each year or chapter there is a
page with some history or general
information about Commodore tying into
the year The first section for example
details the birth of the Commodore 64
from early prototypes that were on
show at the CES in 1982 going to later
chapters about the SX64 portable
Commodore 64 and the Commodore 16.

Later chapters detail the introduction
of the Amiga range of machines and
there is even a section about CMD and
the SuperCPU and the DTV designed by
Jeri Ellsworth.

Scoring:
Each game has a brief description and
some witty one liners to tie in with
the games title or content Each game
lists the Developer and distributer
with a couple of in game screen shots
and a picture of the Cassette or disk
cover where applicable Also shown at
the top of the page is an icon system
showing if the game was released on
Tape disk or Cassette or multiples
thereof.

Very amusing to me at any rate is that
each game made was obviously reviewed
at sometime by the various Commodore
magazines of the day; the amusing part
come from the fact that their were
such wide varieties of scores given by
these magazines, I presume some form
of money changed hands for the
reviewers and the low reviews were a
result of no funds available for the
reviewer. The reader of said magazine
would look at the screen shots see the
review purchase the game with rave
reviews and then take it home load the
game up and find it was in fact well
should we say rather poor , I always
took these with a pinch of salt,
preferring a try before you buy option
that some of the independent shops
provided. Reading the book reveals
some of these rather amusing anomalies
in the scoring system of the magazines
for example on the first game review
we see Axis Assassins, Your Commodore
gave a score of 6 out of 10, Commodore
User decided to award 1 out of 5 and
ZZAPP 64 awarded 70% how does that
work out then.

Index:
Listed at the end of the book is a
full index from A to Z of all the
games covered by the book the final
few games bring the reader up-to-date
with mood 64 that started life in 1996
and has been worked on but is still
unfinished and the rather excellent
Bomb Mania from Protovision

http://www.protovision-online.de/
 main.htm

released in 1996 later on we have a
page referencing the Metal Warrior
series of games 1999 to 2004 and then
Metal dust for the SuperCPU Ending
with Jeri Ellsworth and the DTV
joystick with 30 included games

Summing-up:
Although the book is relatively
expensive costing 17.99 the book is
248 pages including the index and
intros and can you really afford to
miss this piece of history Mine came
with a note from Andrew Rollings
thanking its reader for the purchase
and support 

Favourite games from the book:
My 5 Favorite games in the book in no
particular order are :
Mood 64 =Well everyone said it cant be
done on a stock c64

Bomb ManiaBecause my wife enjoys it

LemmingsAgain it cant be done they
said 

The SentinalBecause it was so strange
and kept me off school for so long 

Iridia AlphaBrilliance

Leaderboard The animation for the time
was breathtaking

Monty on the run The music shocked me
so much it was absolutely great (see
rob Hubard interview)

ParadroidExcellent idea for a game

Batalyx6 games for the price of 1
truly an adea of brilliance

AnticipalFinally I get the chance to
kill a gerbil

International soccer Great multiplayer
fun

Drat thats 11 games! But as I am
reviewing I have decided to make 11
the new 5

F.A.Q (from the Website)
1. How many pages will the book have?

254 pages, a similar size and format
to Andrew Rollings' Spectrum book.
http://www.zxgoldenyears.com/  It will
be full colour throughout. There will
be an introduction, a contents list
and then chapters for each year
starting with 1982. Towards the end of
the C64's commercial life, there is
one chapter dealing with 1993-1994,
and a final chapter looking at 1995 to
the present day. Each chapter opens
with an historical look-back at the
computer industry of the time and what
was happening with the C64. Each
review then has screenshots, a scan of
the cover artwork and the review
itself. This is split into three main
sections - a review of what I think of
the game, trivia about the game or its
creators, and finally a synopsis of
the story and how it plays.

2. I'd like to see "Game X" in the
book - will you include it?

There will be a definitive list of
games on the site as soon as it is
finalized (see question 8), but feel
free to make suggestions via the
contact page. In the case of sequels
and long-running series, there will be
references to them in an entry for
part of that series (e.g. Last Ninja
Remix is discussed under the entry for
Last Ninja 2).

3. Will it be all arcade games, or
will there be games that require a lot
of thought?

There's a good cross-section of styles
- from platformers to driving games,
text adventures to board games,
role-playing games to shoot'em ups.

4. How were the games chosen?

A combination of methods was used to
whittle down the list. First of all,
top game lists from sites like
Gamebase64 and Lemon64 were combed
through. Secondly, many of the titles
are games I played and remember fondly
for various reasons. There are also a
few obscure titles and several that
have a historic significance. The
final list was then sorted by
copyright date and alphabetical order,
and organised into chapters for the
book.

5. How were the screenshots taken?

It would be impractical to organise
screen photography, so PC emulators
like Vice and CCS were used to capture
the screenshots. The palettes used are
designed to give a "bright" image on
the page.

6. What are your qualifications for
writing this book?

I've been playing games for 25 years
and owned a Commodore 64 for more than
20 years. I have a large collection of
games and still play on my "real"
machine regularly, as well as taking
advantage of emulation to play titles
I didn't get the chance to play
before. As a freelance writer, I did
reviews for Commodore Format in its
last few issues, and the 2005 "Def
Tribute to ZZAP 64". I was also
"Professor Brian Strain", aka The
Mighty Brian in the pages of Commodore
Force. Throughout the 1990's I wrote
for fanzines and disk magazines. I've
also been published regularly in Retro
Gamer, interviewing programmers and
writing about classic games.

7. The Spectrum/Amstrad/MSX/Atari was
a better machine

All of the 8-bit machines had their
own particular strengths & weaknesses,
and often a game would be better suited
to a particular machine.

As a gamer I played a lot of Spectrum
and Amstrad games back in the day, but
the C64 was the first machine I owned
and loved. So that's what I am writing
about.
--------------------------------------

"What Time Is It?"
ReadMe for Commodore 64 Version (C)
Copyright 2008 Bill Buckels All Rights
Reserved.

Introduction - Apple IIe Version
"What Time Is It?" was (and is) an
Apple II program written by Canadian
Software Developer Bill Buckels and
was once distributed in the early
1990's by a publisher called Class
Software in Winnipeg, Canada in both
an English and a French Version. Class
Software is now gone.

"What Time Is It?" was intended for
use as "Courseware" in Canadian
Classrooms for teaching Elementary
School children how to "tell time"
using various analog and digital clock
representations.

The French Version of "What Time Is
It?" was (and is) called  "Quelle
heure est-il?".

Both English and French Versions for
the Apple IIe are available for free
download as emulator disk images at:


http://www.clipshop.ca/DiskImages/ 
http://www.clipshop.ca/c64/timed64.zip

Introduction - Commodore 64 Version
In early 2008 as part of his efforts
to produce an Aztec C programming
environment for the Commodore 64
(C64), complete with sample programs,
the developer of the Apple II version
of "What Time Is It?", Bill Buckels,
decided that he would create an
English-only version for the C64 as a
demo program in the C programming
language using an obsolete C64 compiler
program called "Aztec C". This was the
same language and the same make of
compiler that he had used for his
Apple II versions.

During the time years before when he
created the Apple II versions,  "What
Time Is It?" was one of the programs
that he had purchased the C64 Aztec C
compiler to produce. Due to an
unfortunate chain of events at that
time, programming the C64 version was
never started, although some C64's
were still in  use in Canadian
Schools.

Bill's partner on the project (and
friend and mentor) died of a heart
attack, was revived, and has spent
from that time to this recovering, so
was not capable of delivering the C64
portion of the project which he had
undertaken.

As many of us know programming is a
"team sport" and sometimes (sadly) a
game needs to be postponed or called-
off when one of the players (or in this
case half the team) gets hurt. Bill
decided not to produce the C64 version
at that time.

The Market disappeared for C64
programs almost immediately after.
(The Apple IIe followed and vanished a
year or so later from the Software
Budgets in Canadian Schools). The idea
of a C64 version of "What Time Is It?"
(and the compiler to create it) were
shelved and forgotten until recently.

Although it is now sometime in 2008,
and he had intended to have his
partner write the C64 version almost
20 years ago using a compiler produced
almost 25 years ago, Bill has finally
produced the C64 version of "What Time
Is It?" in Windows XP in less than two
weeks of his spare time including the
time required to prepare the C64
graphics and music. 

It runs nicely in the WinVICE C64
Emulator in Windows XP (it has never
been tried on a real C64), and is as
complete in every way as the other
versions, accounting for differences
between the C64, the Apple IIe, and
the IBM-PC. It turned-out to be a good
choice for an Aztec C64 production
demo program.

Also, for Bill, this now answers the
question whether or not Aztec C for
the C64 would have been capable of
producing a comparable version of
"What Time Is It?" to that of the
Apple IIe. This was just one of those
things that had to be done or he would
never have really known the answer.

There is now no doubt that Aztec C was
the right tool for the job, and only
the fickle finger of fate that took
away the livelihood of his friend and
partner prevented the release of "What
Time Is It?" before today.

History - Apple IIe
"What Time Is It?" was originally
developed for use on the IBM-PC by
French-Canadian "Courseware"
developers Denis Coulombe and Robert
Boivin on behalf of Centre de recherch
appliqu pour l'ordinateur (CRAPO) in
1989 and marketed to schools across
Canada as part of a six program set
called "Collection Les Petites
espadrilles".

Note: Espadrilles are casual flat
sandals originating from the Pyrenees.
In Quebec French, however, espadrilles
is the usual term for running shoes.

The Apple II version was written by
Canadian Software Developer Bill
Buckels on the IBM-PC in the C
programming language using the Manx
Aztec C 6502Cross-Compiler for Apple
IIe  ProDOS 8. It was completed in
mid-1991.

Bill did not have the source code for
the IBM-PC version of the program and
it wouldn't have helped much anyway.
The IBM-PC was a much more capable and
sophisticated platform than the Apple
II, so producing "What Time Is It?"
for the Apple II required a complete
rewrite "from the ground-up".

The Manx C compiler provided a
rudimentary Graphics Library, but came
nowhere close to what Bill needed to
complete "What Time Is It?" and the 3
other programs in the "Collection Les
Petites espadrilles" that he had
undertaken to write. So he set to work
to create the graphics and the sound
routines that the Apple versions
needed to behave as closely as
possible to their IBM-PC counterparts.

The IBM-PC graphics of the day that
CRAPO used (4 Colour CGA Mode) were
vastly different from Apple II
graphics (which were a coarser
resolution), and each and every screen
and graphics image needed to be
redrawn, and reformatted for the Apple
II. Using the Graphics from the IBM-PC
version as a starting point, Bill
developed his own Apple II graphics
file formats and programmed his own
set of conversion tools which he ran
on the IBM-PC to produce the Apple II
graphics after creating and editing
these in IBM-PC format to suit the
Apple II display. He did this in
conjunction with writing his Manx C
graphics library, since both tasks
were complimentary. When the graphics
images and graphics and sound library
routines were completed he moved
forward to writing the program.

Not only did the Apple II have less
capable graphics than the IBM-PC; it
also ran more slowly with only 128K of
memory, some of it unusable, and with
slower disk access and a smaller
floppy disk size. To overcome all of
this Bill broke his Manx C Apple
programs into small modules called
"overlays" which ran in very little
memory, and he used the upper ram bank
of the Apple II to store his graphics
libraries and other data to avoid
loading from disk where possible.
Since the Manx C compiler translates
its programs into machine language
which runs as quickly as can be on the
Apple II, no optimization or
additional "tweaks" were required,
except to script the game levels using
external scripts (also of Bill's
design) which further saved on disk 
space and program memory, and which
avoided slow processor intensive
operations that would otherwise have
been needed.

The finished result ran more slowly
than its IBM-PC counterpart, but for
all practical purposes, "What Time Is
It?" for the Apple II had all the same
functionality.

Recent History - Apple II
In mid-2007 Bill Buckels resurrected
the Apple IIe versions of his programs
from "Collection Les Petites
espadrilles". and released them as
Apple II Emulator Disk Images,
rebranding them "The Little Running
Steps Collection".

Although Bill is the sole author and
also the architect, the designer, and
the programmer of the Apple IIe
English and French versions of "What
Time Is It?" and the other 3 programs
in the "The Little Running Steps
Collection", he still includes the two
Quebeckers' names who wrote the IBM-PC
versions on his title screens, listed
in blue below his own.

History - Commodore 64
In December 2007 after resurrecting
his C64 Aztec C compiler, Bill Buckels
set to work to produce a C64 program-
ming environment that would provide
equal capabilities within the C64's
limitations and features as to what he
had prepared many years before for
Apple IIe programming in Aztec C.
After completing the C64 environment
in less than a 3 month period, he was
finally able to produce a C64 version
of "What Time Is It?" as complete in
every way as the other versions,
accounting for differences between the
C64, the Apple IIe, and the IBM-PC (as
noted above).

In fact the C64 Version runs at the
same speed as the Apple IIe version in
less memory, with equal or better
graphics, and better sound. Some of
the techniques that he used to save
space on the Apple IIe are the same,
such as the use of overlays & some C64
techniques are more efficient memory-
wise, like the use of compressed
graphics. He wrote additional tools as
well that were similar to the tools on
the Apple IIe that allowed embedding of
graphics, sound, and even font sets &
cursors directly in the program.

The Aztec C Compiler for the C64 is
not as sophisticated as its Apple IIe
counterpart, and provided no Graphics
Library or Sound Routines at all. All
this was written "from scratch" for
ue C64. Despite all that, which after
all these years is a given more than a
surprise, Aztec C was still equal to
the task and was close-enough to the
Apple IIe version, that the re-use of
many routines from the Apple version
was possible with fix-ups for the
differences between the two machines.
Because he had already designed the
architecture to run in a low memory
environment, in many ways the C64
version is a "port" & an optimization
of the Apple IIe version, which in turn
was an optimized but original rewrite
of the IBM-PC version that he never saw
the source code for.

System Requirements - C64 Version
"What Time Is It?" requires a
C64 with 64K of memory & a floppy disk.
It runs under the BASIC 2 Operating
System.

It can also be run from a disk image
file in an C64 emulator. It has been
tested in Windows XP using WinVICE, &
probably works in others using the d64
disk image format.

Starting: Put the "What Time Is It?"
disk in the drive & start the computer.
Type LOAD "*",8" & press [Return].
After the program loads, type "RUN" &
press [Return] and wait until the Main
Menu Screen appears.

If you are running "What Time Is It?"
in an emulator, follow the same basic
steps. In WinVICE just click-on the
disk image if you have file
associations set, or select it from
within WinVICE and auto start, or from
within your cmd window if you have
file associations set, type time.d64
press enter & it will auto start.

Keys and Navigation
The Arrow Keys are used to navigate
the menus and to select choices during
activities (Game Play).

The [RETURN] Key or the SPACEBAR can be
interchangeably used to enter
selections.

The X Key is used to return to the
Main Menu and to Exit the program.
The Sound Toggle Key - S toggles the
sound on or off at the Main Menu or
during any of the activities.

The 3 Key - Pressing the number 3 at
the Main Menu will use 3 digital
clocks for the first 10 screens of
multiple choice answers during
activities

(Game Play). This is "level 1". After
the first 10 screens, 5 digital clocks
will be used. This is "level 2".

The 5 Key - Pressing the number 5 at
the Main Menu will use 5 digital
clocks for 20 screens of multiple
choice answers during activities

(Game  Play). This effectively skips
"level 1" & goes directly to "level 2".

Note: Each time the Main Menu is
displayed the default of 3 digital
clocks is reset. There should be no
need to press the 3 key unless the 5
key has been pressed and needs to be
reset back to 3 digital clocks before
starting a new activity (Game).

The AlphaNumeric Keyboard keys are
used when required to enter info during
activities (Game Play) in all programs
in the "Collection Les Petites
espadrilles" including "What Time Is
It?". A mouse is not supported.

Title Screen
When the program loads the Title
Screen will display during loading,
then the Main Menu will appear when
the program starts after it is loaded.

Main Menu Screen
"What Time Is It?" has 3 Learning
Activities (Games) which can be
selected from the Main Menu by moving
the Snail Cursor with the Arrow Keys
to the desired activity then started
by pressing the [RETURN] Key.

Each Learning activity is a Game based
on a different type of analog clock
formatted as a series of 20 screens
presenting the time on the analog
clock as a question and 3 or 5
multiple choice answers in digital
clock format.

For the first 10 screens 3 digital
clocks are displayed. This is "level 1"
For the following 10 screens 5 digital
clocks are displayed. This is "level 2"

The student selects the answer for
each screen, and when 10 screens are
complete, the Student is presented
with a musical reward. After the reward
for completing 20 screens, the student
is returned to the Main Menu.

Activities followed by musical rewards
is the basic format of all the programs
in the "Collection Les Petites
espadrilles".

The 4th Main Menu choice exits the Main
Menu, ends the program & returns to
BASIC. It is the equivalent of pressing
the X Key.

Sound can be toggled ON or OFF at the
Main Menu or during any of the
activities by pressing S.

Activity 1: 12 Hour Analog Clock -
Hours Only
Background:
The 12-hour clock is a convention of
time keeping in which the day runs
from midnight to noon, then from noon
to midnight, and is divided into 2
periods of 12 hours, numbered from 0
to 12.

The 12-hour clock is only dominant in
a handful of countries,  particularly
the U S & Canada (except Quebec). The
24-hour clock is the most commonly used
time notation in the world today.

Game Play
This activity teaches hours in the
12-hour clock time format. For each
screen, a random time is displayed on
the 12-hour analog clock.

To the right of the analog clock is a
multiple choice menu of different
times in digital clock format, with
only one that matches the time that is
displayed on the analog clock.

For each screen, when the Snail Cursor
is to moved to the digital clock that
matches the analog clock, & [RETURN]
is pressed, a section of the Drain Pipe
on the left of the screen will fill
with water. For every 10 screens the
water will empty from the drain pipe, &
give the Snail a "bath".

Activity 2: 24 Hour Analog Clock -
Hours Only
Background:

The 24-hour clock is a convention of
time keeping in which the day runs
from midnight to midnight and is
divided into 24 hours, numbered from 0
to 23. This system is the most commonly
used time notation in the world today.
The  12-hour clock is only dominant in
a handful of countries, particularly
the US & Canada (except Quebec).

24-hour notation is in the US & Canada
also referred to as military time or
astronomical time, & in Australia as
army time. In some parts of the world,
it is called railway time. It is also
the international standard notation of
time (ISO 8601).

Game Play:
This activity teaches hours only in the
24-hour clock time format. For each
screen, a random time is displayed on
the 24-hour analog clock. The analog
clock is in the form of a "cuckoo
clock". To the right of the analog
clock is a multiple choice menu of
different times in digital clock
format, with only one that matches the
time that is displayed on the analog
clock.

For each screen, when the Snail Cursor
is to moved to the digital clock that
matches the analog clock, & [RETURN]
is pressed, a section of the Hour Glass
on the left of the screen will fill
with sand.

After the first 10 screens ("level 1")
the hourglass will be half-filled with
sand & the cuckoo will come out of the
clock & "sing".

After the next 10 screens ("level 2")
the hourglass will be completely
filled with sand and the cuckoo will
come out of the clock & "sing", then
the student will be returned to the
Main Menu.

To make the activity more challenging
in "level 2", the higher-order numbers
on the clock face will disappear every
time the time changes. If the wrong
answer is pressed however, they re-
appear until the time changes again.

Activity 3: 12 Hour Analog Clock -
Hours and Minutes 
Background:

The other 2 activities in "What Time Is
It?" present time in an "Hours Only"
format. Adding a second objective of
minutes introduces an additional base
of 60 to the base 12 & base 24
arithmetic that the student must
perform in order to tell time in hours.

The approach that "What Time Is It?"
uses is to break the minutes into
5 minute intervals which allows the
student to count by 5's and 10's to
gain a relative framework for the base
60 arithmetic that minutes & seconds
require.

Game Play

This activity teaches hours & minutes
in 5 minute intervals. For each screen,
a random time is displayed on the
analog clock.

To the right of the analog clock is a
multiple choice menu of different
times in digital clock format, with
only one that matches the time that is
displayed on the analog clock.

For each screen, when the Snail Cursor
is to moved to the digital clock that
matches the analog clock, & [RETURN]
is pressed, a light bulb on the left of
the screen will be "turned-off". There
are 10 light bulbs.

After the first 10 screens ("level 1")
all the light bulbs will be turned-off
and the Snail will take a "bite" out
of the apple on the lower left of the
screen, an angry worm will appear from
the apple, music will play, & all the
light bulbs will re-appear.

After the next 10 screens ("level 2")
all the light bulbs will be turned-off
again and the Snail will take another
"bite" out of the apple on the lower
left of the screen, then the student
will be returned to the Main Menu.
------------------------------------

Aztec C for C64 & Time source code
(C) Copyright 2008 Bill Buckels All
Rights Reserved.

The TIME program for the C 64 contains
a completely rewritten English Language
version of an application that I
originally developed & published for
Apple IIe in 1991. The formal title of
this program is "What Time Is It?".

The goal of the application is to
teach Elementary School Children how
to tell time. Regardless, my own goal
in producing this program was to
provide a full-blown application that
demonstrates what a seasoned expert
Programmer can do in the Aztec C
Environment for the C 64.

Now if all you are in this for is run
programs and not to make them the TIME
directory like all my other program
directories contains the finished
programs including a disk image called
time.d64. These programs are preloaded
on the disk image and run nicely in
the vice emulator. If you are using
these in WinVICE remember that while
graphics load quickly in Warp Mode,
the sound routines are time-based and
you should take your emulator out-of
Warp Mode for proper sound playback
and time-based events.

Introduction:
If you are reading this but have not
reviewed all of the samples and all
the projects in this programming
environment please do not be offended
if most of this goes completely over
your head, or worse yet sounds like a
nattering old man (which it should if
it's flying high enough, since that
was my intent). Take comfort in the
fact that I am giving you all the
source code and graphics images that I
used to produce the TIME application.
All this is completely transparent.
There are no trade secrets here and no
TIME deadlines so take your TIME and
enjoy the confusion because it's part
of the game. It feels so good when you
finally understand, for a moment...
'nuff said.

So let's get started and talk about
the architecture and I am assuming
that you have read the other make files
& gained an understanding that memory
management and mapping is "Job One".

Balancing the TIME Overlays:
I really enjoyed this part. Some of
you can imagine how I hurried through
getting all my samples and library
routines written and tested so I could
actually do something more-or-less
meaningful.

I wondered myself at times whether I
would be able to fit all the stuff I
needed to into memory. My work on this
particular application on the Apple
IIe using Aztec C was in the PRODOS
128K environment which allowed me To
store data in auxiliary memory. Even
in that environment which is about the
same size in conventional memory as
this one, I needed to break down the
Apple IIe version of TIME into more
overlays than I did here and to keep
the graphics data in upper memory...
an option I don't have here.

So when I did all this and it just
barely fit I knew I could show the
rest of you how far this can go
without breaking, Like I said above;
memory management and mapping is "Job
One" and showing someone what can be
done makes the job fun.

You should have already figured-out
from my other programs that I have
been playing around with program
memory holes, and sticking data into
bits of memory that I couldn't run my
programs in.

This is the way we do it. You should
also have figured-out by now that the
linker outputs the code and data
sizes, and that my make files can be
redirected to disk file so you can
review errors and do something about
them, or to examine actual data and
code size and adjust the memory usage
until there is barely any wasted
space.

When I do overlays I am always
trading-off what to put into the main
(root) module and what to link into
the overlays. If the main module gets
too bloated and the overlay wipes-out
the upper ram the program will finish
but never get back to the BASIC
prompt. My goal is always to get the
user back to the OS whether I program
for Windows, Linux, MS-DOS, Apple IIe
ProDOS, or the C64. One must therefore
consider all the overlays at once and
realize where one must put what and
when to discard and when not to.

In making TIME fit into SPACE I
created some pretty neat tools to help
save memory, and kept the code that I
could in the main module, and the code
that I couldn't in the overlays.

I run-length encoded my graphics and
re-used buffers as well. The C64 disk
drive is notoriously slow, so it is
bad enough that I needed to read these
overlays from disk but it would have
been much worse if I needed to read
additional graphics from disk, or
worse yet, to read more overlays (like
I needed to on the Apple IIe).

My comments are pretty good in the
TIME modules, but sorry kids, they are
intended for experts. So become one
yourself if you aren't already and
read the code and the MAKEFILE and run
the thing and have some fun with it.

'Nuff Said on the balancing of
overlays... some additional eulogies
on the topic are in the TIME source
code.

Using The Graphics and Sound Routines
If you have looked at my graphics
routines you know by now that I could
have gone much further, but that was
never my goal. I just wanted to have a
little fun with this old compiler and
show-off a little bit and leave the
field wide-open for competition.

I also could have optimized a little
further, or a lot further. But I
already know where all this breaks and
by now I think I got some of my
money's worth back on my original
purchase price in enjoyment.

Part of my goal was to showcase the
B64NAT.LIB in all of this. I think
that the C64 routines that I am
leaving you with are better than what
I did on the Apple. The sound is
better of course and the game play is
without doubt the same since the
processor is the same. The memory
saving technique of run length
encoding can be taken further, but I
kept it simple. Still, by comparison
the C64 stuff is easily as robust as
the Apple IIe equivalent of using
bitmap graphics from upper memory. I
am satisfied and can now leave this
alone. So by all means change the
code, and have some fun yourself.

My selection of multicolour mode was
deliberate. The graphics are simple
since I originally drew then for the
Apple II to avoid aliasing which
effectively puts them somewhere close
the same coarse resolution as on the
C64. There are strange considerations
when comparing low resolution graphics
on the IBM-PC and Apple IIe and C64
which I have discussed in length in my
Wikipedia articles etc. But the common
denominator that I mostly went with
was 4 Colors, and 2 of them being
Black and White, with the other two
mainly Red and Blue, & I will leave the
rest for you to figure-out on your own.

Read the code, run the program and
have fun!

Over and Out.

Bill Buckels February 25, 2008
--------------------------------------

Ye Olde Clip Shoppe Deluxe
ClipShop Copyright Bill Buckels
1991-2007. All Rights Reserved.
Version 2.0 (Win32 Release for XP)

ClipShop2Setup.exe - ClipShop
Installation
www.mts.net/raek/ClipShop/
 ClipShop2Setup.exe

VgaFanSetup.exe - Complimentary XP
ScreenSaver Installation
www.mts.net/raek/ClipShop/
 VgaFanSetup.exe

About ClipShop

Overview
ClipShop is a "Legacy Graphics"
utility program which allows you to
view, edit, save & print Old PrintShop,
PrintMaster, and PrintPartner ClipArt.

ClipShop also supports viewing,
editing, saving & printing of other
older graphics & text file formats
including BSaved, PCPaint Pictor PIC,
PCX & BSV.

Apple II HIRES Images & many C 64 Image
Formats are supported as well.

The currently displayed ClipArt or
graphic can also be copied to the
Windows Clipboard to be used in other
programs, to compose a new screen
image, or converted to other formats
like Windows BMP, Pictor PIC, PCX, or
BSaved.

You can choose a copy command from a
variety of 3 clipboard copy commands.
Each of these 3 commands are used to
get different proportions for the
appearance of the ClipArt or graphic.
Saving to BMP or other formats also
supports this feature.

ClipShop supports both page size and
"screen-scale" printing and Clipart
catalog printing and saving to BMP is
also provided.

Online Help
ClipShop's help file is extensive, and
you will have no trouble finding the
help you need to change colors in a
graphic, or to use the many other
graphics editing options that ClipShop
supports. The online help should
provide more than enough information
to get you started.

Extras
ClipShop comes with a large collection
of old ClipArt & many sample graphics.

ClipShop is distributed with authorized
versions of PCPaint, the very first
Paintbrush program for the PC (by John
Bridges), which can be optionally
installed to run under Windows XP, and
many other extras.

The installation of Legacy
Applications (PCPaint, etc) is
optional. During testing of ClipShop,
I have found that some hardware
platforms are unable to run CGA Mode
DOS Legacy Applications without using
DosBox.

History and Development
ClipShop was originally written by me
(Bill Buckels) in 1999, and was
reworked as a Win32 application with
support for long filenames in 2006
followed with significant functional
and content additions & improvements.

When ClipShop was first released, its
use was limited to supporting Legacy
ClipArt in Windows. ClipShop was
expanded a great deal for the 2007
Windows XP rewrite (ClipShop Deluxe),
including support for other Legacy
Graphics formats.

ClipShop now supports the features
that we have come to expect in a
Windows XP application, including File
Associations, ShortCut Menus, and
integrated printing functionality.

This release of ClipShop includes the
following Applications previously
released by ClipShop's author or the
(expanded) functionality of them (and
much more):

ClipShop Version 1.1:
Old PrintShoppe ClipArt Utility
XSHOP Old PrintShoppe Clipart Converter
ICONDRAW - Old PrintShoppe Graphics Ed
ShopSave Graphics Plaything - Old
PrintShoppe ClipArt SDK for DOS
WINBMP - DOS BSaved Text Screen to BMP
Conversion Utility
WSQUASH - BMP Image Scaling Utility
CGA2BMP - CGA Graphics Conversion to
BMP Utility
STIX - Children's Sticker Draw

ClipShop was written in C and compiled
under the Visual Studio 2005 command
line using the Win32 SDK for Windows
XP. The main application's Source Code
is not bundled with the application
since it is not for distribution. The
source code for several of the
programs that come with ClipShop is
included with ClipShop.

Effective July 15, 2007 ClipShop has
been "Officially" released and may be
publicly distributed.

Thank you "Offical Beta Testers" for
taking time to help me with getting
ClipShop ready for release.


Find out more about Bill Buckels
General
http://www.clipshop.ca/
http://www.clipshop.ca/DiskImages/
http://www.aboutus.org/Apptius.com
http://www.aboutus.org/ClipShop.ca

Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
 BSAVE%28graphicsimageformat%29


C128 Alive C64 Article Links
Windows User
http://landover.no-ip.com/forums/index.
 php/topic,317.msg3685.html#msg3685
http://landover.no-ip.com/forums/index.
 php/topic,2203.msg8795.html#msg8795
http://landover.no-ip.com/forums/index.
 php/topic,2203.msg8797.html#msg8797

BSaved Text Screens
http://landover.no-ip.com/forums/index.
 php/topic,203.msg8798.html#msg8798
http://landover.no-ip.com/forums/index.
 php/topic,203.msg8799.html#msg8799
http://landover.no-ip.com/forums/index.
 php/topic,203.msg8800.html#msg8800
http://landover.no-ip.com/forums/index.
 php/topic,203.msg8801.html#msg8801


Directory Lister
http://landover.no-ip.com/forums/index.
 php/topic,1070.msg8802.html#msg8802
http://landover.no-ip.com/forums/index.
 php/topic,1070.msg8803.html#msg8803

Compiler
http://landover.no-ip.com/forums/index.
 php/topic,70.msg8808.html#msg8808

CP/M
http://landover.no-ip.com/forums/index.
 php/topic,2218.msg8796.html#msg8796
http://landover.no-ip.com/forums/index.
 php/topic,2219.msg8804.html#msg8804
http://landover.no-ip.com/forums/index.
 php/topic,2219.msg8838.html#msg8838
http://landover.no-ip.com/forums/index.
 php/topic,2219.msg8881.html#msg8881
http://landover.no-ip.com/forums/index.
 php/topic,2228.msg8878.html#msg8878
http://landover.no-ip.com/forums/index.
 php/topic,2228.msg8912.html#msg8912
http://landover.no-ip.com/forums/index.
 php/topic,2228.msg8919.html#msg8919
http://landover.no-ip.com/forums/index.
 php/topic,2231.msg8910.html#msg8910

All C128 Posts
http://landover.no-ip.com/forums/index.
 php?action=profile;u=262;sa=showPosts
---------------------------------------

C= Free interview with Bill Buckels
Programmer & maintainer of the Aztec C
Museum


COMMODORE FREE
Please introduce yourself to our Reader

BILL BUCKELS
My name is Bill Buckels. I am a
Canadian Software Developer. Rather
than tell you about the larger aspects
of my very good life, I would like to
tell you a little about my life & times
as a computer programmer.

I started started my career in
Software Development in the 1980's
while working as a product designer
with vector based computer graphics on
"mainframe" Computer Aided Drafting
(CAD) systems. Heavily influenced by
computer magazine articles about
graphics programming by other
programmers of the day like Steve
Rimmer (Computing Now Magazine) & the
already well established PC Graphics
program market, I moved very quickly to
a new career as a professional Graphics
Programmer.

The market for graphics programs was
(and is) highly competitive and by the
early 1990's it became clear that all
but the niche markets for specialized
graphics programs were filled with
very good products, and not much more
than an average living could be made
unless one was both an exceptionally
lucky or brilliant programmer or both.
Being only average in both these areas,
and after finding the same held true
while trying my hand programming in the
already established computer music &
educational program markets, I moved to
programming in the larger market of
specialized business systems, which I
still do professionally today.

From that time to this I have produced
Shareware and Freeware in the areas of
Graphics, Computer Music, & Children's
Educational Programs, which I do as a
hobby as time permits. My latest
efforts continue to focus in those
areas, and in re-writing my older
Shareware & Freeware for the systems of
today. My recent efforts also include
documenting the almost forgotten
systems of yesterday and providing the
latest generation of programmers &
users with articles about these old
systems some which are posted on
Wikipedia and other online forums.

CF.  How long have you bee working
with C= Computers?

BB. I am relatively new to C= computers
& the first one I saw was in 1983 when
I was in my 30's when I sat down with
one of my cousin's boys who was around
12 at the time & copied an example
music program into their new home
computer, a C64, then modified it to
play a melody or two of my own. After a
brief introduction to the computer he
wandered off & did something else while
I sat for an hour or so in silent and
profound amazement at this new tech-
nology that was starting to make its
way into many Canadian homes. Up to
that point & from the time I had
entered the work-force in the late
1960's the computer had evolved from
the big institutions, academia and the
banking industry to an affordable but
still expensive proposition for
smaller business for inventory and
industrial production control. For the
decade before the introduction of the
C64 and the next five years or so that
followed I never paid much attention
to Commodore computers since my focus
on the use and programming of
computers was confined to business and
industrial uses like the emerging
Computer Aided Design & Manufacturing
(CAD/CAM) and automation technology
that had taken over in the work place.

Interestingly, by 1985 my mother who
is 83 had purchased a C64 with all the
amenities & completed a C64 programming
course at one of our local Universities
I on the other hand was becoming quite
proficient in the use & programming of
IBM-PC's as well as of the still
expensive mini computers that had
already replaced the mainframes of the
50's, 60's and 70's.

From my own perspective as well from
that of  family and friends in
general, the use of computers was
accepted by this time as part of an
evolution of literacy that extended
books and creative mediums like
writing, art and design through the
use of technology. My career through
those years had moved from Industrial
Sales which included much automation,
to Mechanical Designer and CAD/CAM
including that of trainer to pure
application programming. By late 1988
my proficiency with computers and
programming had led me to my present
career of Software Developer and
Business Consultant. I still program
in the workplace daily and even at
almost 56 years of age occasionally
still will program around the clock if
required by the project & the client.
My passion for programming is still as
keen as it ever was at that time,
despite the fact that the computers &
programming languages of today have
become increasingly more sophisticated
& complex.

However, from the time that I sat down
with my young cousin at his C64 in
1983 I have always indulged myself in
an activity that I like to call
"Recreational Programming" which has
resulted in my production of thousands
of large & small software applications
for many platforms including the C64,
and Apple IIe, as well as the IBM-PC
family of computers. In recent years I
have resurrected many of my
recreational efforts, some which were
distributed in the 80's & 90's as
Shareware & Freeware, and some that
were written for "real markets" like
Graphics, Educational & Music Prog-
ramming. I often & have from that time
to this used my recreational program-
ming as "proof of concept" for
commercial projects that I work on. The
lines between "vocation" & "career" do
not exist for me. I would always rather
sit-down in front of my computer and
program than read a book or watch
television.

Recently I have become quite
infatuated with emulators like the
excellent VICE emulator for the C64.
The whole computer industry is moving
to a general model of "virtualization"
and what that means is that anyone in
this  business needs to educate
themselves and stay informed in this
area. I regularly use "industrial
strength" virtualization as part of a
"toolbox" of client deliverables, and
incorporate products like Microsoft
Virtual PC, & VMWare into those
solutions. I also, as a "matter of
course", & have for years, used cross-
plaform development environments &
emulators which have existed long
before I wrote my first computer
program. I have never seen a time that
such excellence exists in the
"virtualization" area, and I abscribe
whole-heartedly to one of the many
little adages that we programmer-types
seem to like; "Everything Old is New
again!".

CF. How much documentation was there
available on formats like Print Shop
& Print Master for you to work from?

BB. There was never any documentation
for these old formats, but they
weren't all that mysterious either.
From the time I got into computing I
have deciphered machine language and
binary file formats. Like many in my
business I am very astute at pattern-
recognition & reverse-engineering.
Since I understand how computer
graphics work in general in a computer
program deciphering a simple file
format that is uncompressed like these
Old Print Shop libraries is as trivial
as tying ones shoelaces for someone
like me.

Consider that the Old Print shop
graphics came in two parts (a paired
library) on the IBM-PC & on other
systems like the Apple II were not in
libraries at all but in "Mini-Pix"
(individual files with descriptive
names). The Apple II could have long
names but the IBM-PC couldn't so the
designers of The Print Shop stored the
long names in a sequential binary .NAM
file of 16 characters in length for
each name and stored the corresponding
graphics at the same relative position
in a sequential .DAT file. Since we
all knew from using The Print Shop
that the resolution of the graphic is
88 x 52 with a  bit-depth of 1
(monochrome) it was not hard to use a
calculator to divide the file size of
the .NAM file by the 16 character name
length to determine the number of
graphics in the .DAT file, then to
peer into both files to decipher the
other binary parts and guess what they
might be. Being a programmer, I simply
wrote test programs to view these on my
screen & through trial & (very little)
error developed the necessary loader
and conversion routines that I then
released with example source code
about 20 years ago. I have honestly
lost track of how many times I have
performed this same type of analysis,
as I am sure many other programmers
have, but that is the short version of
how it is done!

CF. How long have you programmed in C?

BB. I started programming in C in
around 1986. To that point I had
programmed mostly in various BASIC's
and specialized engineering languages
similar to FORTRAN. However my work in
programming already extended to
programming in Assembly and pure
Machine language. I didn't so much
start programming in C as simply doing
so. I am like many programmers not
language dependent. My syntax and
pattern recognition & logic skills come
naturally as do my musical skills &
other creative skills.

One of my favourite quotes over the
years that about sums this up is by
Robert A. Heinlein; "A human being
should be able to change a diaper,
plan an invasion, butcher a hog, con a
ship, design a building, write a
sonnet,  balance accounts, build a
wall, set a bone, comfort the dying,
take orders, give orders, cooperate,
act alone, solve equations, analyse a
new problem, pitch manure, program a
computer, cook a tasty meal, fight
efficiently, die gallantly.
Specialization is for insects"

CF. What other languages have you
worked with, can you give the pros &
cons of each?

BB. At this point the number of
computer languages that I have worked
in and continue to work in fills a
very large "toolbox" (or a "workshop"
would probably be a better analogy). I
am no different than most career
programmers and we all (to varying
degrees) have provided ourselves with
the opportunity to continue to grow
and expand into all available
omniverses of language, syntax, &
dialect. I could write many books on
this and still not completely answer
your question.

I have worked with a variety of
programming languages like Assembly
Language, BASIC, and C (AB and C) in
many flavours and on many platforms.
My programming language skills extend
from the days of the Mini Computers &
the various Job Control languages to
current .NET languages in Windows &
Windows Mobile, & on the Linux Side &
Windows Side both,  C++. Even on older
computers like the C64 & Apple IIe, I
prefer to program in the C Programming
language, primarily due to the read-
ability & maintainability of C over
both BASIC & Assembly Language, and C's
general efficiency.

Whenever I looked at languages like
Pascal which is as easy learn as any
other language, DELPHI & other Pascal
dialects, it was just to be proficient,
& I translated everything to C or C++
for consistency if I needed to
translate at all. I continue to use C
code that I wrote 20 years ago in
programs for today's computers with
little if any changes, & I also will
take large C++ methods & classes and
translate them directly to to the
similar grammar of VB.NET to use in an
ASP.NET application. It is all the same
to me.

However, for someone who does not
program in C, and who simply wants to
have fun on the C64, BASIC is the
easiest language to program in.
However since programming in BASIC on
the C64 can be quite "low level" to
get-at the fun stuff like sound and
graphics, generally speaking
programming effort is equal between C
and BASIC. If one then needs to
augment BASIC 2 with machine language,
C wins "hands-down" because native
machine language can generally be
mixed with C in the same program and
with arguably the same learning curve,
and C is for the most part portable
and efficient except for these machine
language pieces.C generally "abstracts"
a program design into more readable and
again arguably higher level concepts
and control structures that are
essentailly unencumbered by clutter
like line numbers. C is modular and
lends itself to writing larger and more
readable programs with more comments
etc. It just depends on individual
needs. The drawback of using C on the
C64 is that all the references are
written using BASIC and Assembly
Language examples. Translating this
into C becomes quite easy with practice
but it does take practice.

CF. What's your favourite bit of old
clip art that you've found and
converted?

BB. The 3 disk set of Mini-Pix by
Beagle Brothers for the Apple II that
I translated to the IBM-PC in the
early 90's was one of my favourites.
My all time favourite is the clip art
library that was produced by Don Joyce
for the original release of
PrintMaster. I haven't corresponded
with Don this millenia. However the
artist that produced perhaps the best
clip art library of all time had this
to say in 1999:

"When I first came upon computers in
the early 80s, I was impressed with
the then current philosophical
approach to creating graphics
interfacing which suggested that the
goal was to get the computer to act
like your brain does, to be
intuitively useable. Then this all
reversed and didn't seem to matter
anymore. Rather suddenly, we had to
learn with difficulty art programs
that had and have little to do with
how our art brains want to work. When
stuff like Adobe appeared, the goal
was then to force your brain into
compliance with distinctly unintuitive
graphic processes. Computers were no
longer trying to be like us, we were
trying to be like computers."

CF.. Do you draw much yourself?

BB. I compose rather than draw on the
computer mostly. I cartooned my way
through most of my school rather than
pay attention in class and produced
sales catalogue as well as engineering
drawings in my CAD days in the 80's.
It depends what you mean by drawing
really. I also do freehand and scan
the composition then clean-up in a
paint program. I don't really separate
composition from Art, and have written
many interesting screensavers and
other vector as well as bitmapped
graphics programs which makes me a
Graphics programmer rather than a User
of Paint Programs. However my skill
with the mouse is easily as proficient
as most I have seen in my time in
computing. I have produced countless
drawings in both Analogue and Digital
mediums in my lifetime.

CF. Can you briefly explain BSAVE
(graphics image format)?

BB. Not briefly but I wrote a large
article on Wikipedia which can be
reviewed for more detail. A BSAVE
Image (aka "BSAVED Image") as it is
referenced in a graphics program is an
image file format created usually by
saving raw video memory to disk
(sometimes but not always in a BASIC
program using the BSAVE command). This
format was in general use when the IBM
PC was introduced. It was also in
general use on the Apple II in the
same time period. The C 128 followed
with the addition of the BSAVE & BLOAD
Commands a short time later. On the
IBM, BSaved graphics & text images
could be created for any video mode,
with more complexity for the newer
modes. On the Apple II & C 128 BSaved
Graphics were generally all that was
used.

The BSAVED format is a device-dependent
raster image format; the file header
stores information about the display
hardware address, and the size of the
graphics data. The graphics data
follows the header directly & is stored
as raw data in the format of the native
adapter's addressable memory. There is
no file compression, & therefore these
LOAD very quickly and without much
programming when displayed in native
mode. No additional information (such
as screen resolution, color depth and
palette information, bit planes and so
on) is stored. Video adapters were
simple when this format was in wide
use and the other information to load
these could usually be inferred by
programs that loaded these.

CF.  What C64 applications do you
really like?

BB. I am not so much into C64
applications written by others. We
used to have a saying in programming
that you are ether into input or
output, and that is the difference
between programmers and other users
like "gamers". Give me a good C
compiler, an application to write &
I am happy. I am currently happy with
my Aztec-C cross-compiler for the
C64 and with the WinVICE emulator,
both which run under Windows XP and
are not C64 applications at all. Not
meaning to be egotistical (that comes
naturally to a programmer) but I like
the work that I did on the various C64
programs that I wrote for my Aztec C
Museum Website.

CF. Do you follow the Commodore Demo
scene, if so have you seen anything
that amazed you and though "how was
this done?"

BB. I was into the demo scene a little
on the IBM-PC in the late 90's when it
spilled-over from the Amiga along with
the MOD files and I remember a really
good demo by Future Crew that my kids
enjoyed.

CF. Are you writing any other
applications related to the C64?

BB.  At the moment I am considering
porting my Aztec C C64 compiler
environment complete with all of my
graphics and sound libraries to the
C128. If I add additional function-
ality I will probably port whatever is
appropriate back to the C64. My focus
is not platform specific so much as
providing specific functionality for
various platforms. Having said this, it
would not be hard to write most types
of applications for the C64 using the
Aztec C compiler that augmented with my
many tools & routines. I am more
concerned as well with adding support
for additional C64 graphics formats to
some of my other applications and tools
for Windows XP and so forth. The simple
answer is no.

CF. Can you explain the history of
Aztec C, I see you have an online
museum

http://www.clipshop.ca/Aztec/
 index.htm#commodore

BB  Aztec C is a programming language
environment for a variety of older now-
obsolete platforms including the C64,
MS DOS, Apple II DOS 3.3 & ProDOS,
older Macintoshes, & Amigas. Manx
Software Systems of Shrewsbury, New
Jersey, produced C compilers beginning
in the 1980's targeted at professional
developers. Throughout the 1990's they
continued to make their Aztec C. As
their market share dropped, they tried
to make the move to specializing in
embedded systems development, but it
was too late. They disappeared
following the loss of market presence
of some of their target platforms.

CF. Do you dissemble other peoples
work to find out what makes the code
work?

BB  No. This is not usually necessary.
I will occasionally disassemble
portions of the operating systems etc.
to determine how they work but the
need to do so seems not to be present
much anymore with so much information
available on the internet. There is
not really much mystery in how programs
need to be written for me, or for many
programmers.

CF. I spend so much time on the program
design & flowcharting that once the
actual programming or coding has to be
done I loose interest in the project,
do you spend much time planning and
documenting?

BB  Yes, but generally in the areas of
business rules and time estimates, but
this is more project management than
programming. For the simple programs
that I write which is just about
everything these days I start with a
clean screen and write the program
narrative. The architecture and
everything in general conforms to
standard patterns and strategies that
are widely accepted in the industry
and second nature for me by now. A
plan like a road map is necessary if
one is just visiting, but after one
has driven the same road daily for so
many years it is not. The user
documentation is another matter and I
spend as much time on that and
commenting my code as I do on the
programming.

CF.. I notice you use Winvice do you
think emulation is important to
keeping machine alive, which would you
prefer an Emulation or a real machine?

BB  I would prefer a real machine for
using a program, but for testing and
programming an emulator works best.

CF.. What do you think about the new
hardware that is being developed for
Commodore machines?

BB  Since I am not so much into gaming
and even the Amiga I am not really
interested. But having said that I am
always keenly interested in virtual
environments but with only so many
hours in the day even I need to sleep.

CF.. Do you have a favourite machine?

No.

CF.. Have you any final comments to
add, or is there a question you would
have liked me to ask?

BB  Yes Nigel. If you ever run across
some software that will extend a 24
hour day to something longer like 48
hours please let me know. Then I might
have time to play with all the new
technology while I enjoy the old. I
have lived from a time when blocks of
ICE were delivered by horse-drawn
wagons for ice boxes for those in my
city who still did not have refrig-
erators to a time when computers
respond to voice commands. At Christmas
time I bought my lovely wife a Robot
vacuum cleaner to play with. What a
hoot! And thank you for a most
interesting interview.

....END....



