  +-------------------------+
  | COMMODORE FREE MAGAZINE |
  +-------------------------+

     Issue 19 May 2008

    www.commodorefree.com

Free to download magazine
Dedicated to Commodore Computers

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

Editor

Another issue arrives
Quite exciting times as recently I
received my DC2N and ultimate 1541
interface, although as of this time I
haven't used them! I am hoping to find
some time to test out these devices.

We continue with this issue the
Beginners guide to the Commodore 64,
and move another step closer to the
goal of a competent user.  Also in
this issue I managed to pin down
Robert Bernardo and obtain an
interview, that is quite enlightening
about Commodore and the C1 and DTV
devices that were designed by Jeri
Ellsworth finally we finish with a
review or write up of the recent
Mossycon4 

Rather disappointing is that No one
entered the PPOT competition to win 1
of 3 CD roms of the bands music, so
does that mean all readers don't want
competitions or all have the CDs
already I wonder if the question of
putting pen to paper is of putting for
some users so I will re run the
competition at a later date maybe with
1 question you need to email and answer
to and if no one replies I can take it
competitions are not wanted in the
magazine

Regards
Nigel 

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

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


Contents of Issue 19 

Editorial and Contents Page 2

NEWS
uIec news Page 3
General news Page 4
Behr Multicart VIC20 PAL VERSION Page 5

PROJECTS
Wild Bunch project Page 6-9

REVIEWS
DIRMASTER version 2 Page 10-13
MOSSYCON 4 Personal Review Page 28-30

INTERVIEWS
Interview with Robert Bernardo Page 14

TUTORIALS
DMC Music Editor Page 21-22
C64 Beginners guide 4 Page 23-27
======================================

NEWS

 uIEC and uIEC/CF are projects

Jim Brain
More options Apr 15, 12:26 am

Newsgroups: comp.sys.cbm
From: Jim Brain
Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2008 23:26:16 GMT

For those who do now know, uIEC and
uIEC/CF are projects to allow an IEC-
based CBM computer (VIC/64/128/etc.) 
to utilize an IDE drive Formatted 
with a FAT file system or a Compact 
Flash (CF) card with such a 
file system.

uIEC development took some very
interesting paths this year (more
details if there is interest), but I
am happy to report that the unit is
working and I'm now concentrating my
efforts on making it CF-card agnostic
(testing various cards I have here),
and trying to increase compatibility.
I have a deadline to have units for
sale in time for the CCCC expo in late
June.


I've taken advantage of the long list
of features in another project
(sd2iec) to make uIEC even more
compatible and useful. So, here is a
combined list of features:

o Supports IDE and CF cards (uIEC
supports IDE/IDE, IDE/CF, or CF/CF if
you have an IDE->CF adapter for the
second card.  uIEC/CF supports single
CF card)

o Supports drives of any size, though
support for >137GB drives needs more
testing. :-)

o Supports FAT12/16/32 partitions of
any legal size
* Supports partition-less
cards/drives, or up to 4 primary
partitions or   3 primary and 12
extended partitions. (Email me if you
have more than  12 extended partitions
on a drive :-)

o Supports FAT Long filenames
* Transparent support for PRG/SEQ/USR
file extensions, with REL support
planned.

o Transparent support for P00/S00/U00
files, with R00 support planned.

o Supports read and write of D64
images.

o Block level disk access supported on
D64 images

o Most CBM DOS commands
(Scratch,Initialize,Rename,etc.)
supported.

o CBM general config commands (U0, U+,
U-, UI, U9, U:, UJ) supported.

o CBM block level commands (B-R, B-W,
UA, U1, U2, UB) supported when in D64
image.

o CMD-style partition ($=P) support

o CMD-style subdirectory (MD,CD,RD)
support.

o CMD DOS Commands (G-P, G-<shift-P>)
support.
* Long form CMD directories ($=T:*,
$=T:*=L) supported

o 1581-style/CMD-FD/HD-style wildcard
matching supported ($:JIM*RAIN)

o JiffyDOS fast loader equipped (PAL
and NTSC support).  Can be enabled  or
disabled via DOS command. & Firmware
can be updated by copying new firmware
file to root dir of first drive, first
partition and resetting unit.

(* noted items are in my WIP codebase,
& are features in mainline codebase I
need to enable in my variant)

I want to publicly thank Unseen of
sd2iec for creating a very impressive
codebase that made my feeble original
attempt pale in comparison. Although I
will regret not being the originator
of the uIEC firmware, it simply made no
sense to duplicate all of the features
and require sd2iec to re-implement
features already in the uIEC project.
I think Unseen also appreciates another
developer on his firmware project. My
additions have primarily been to the
FAT LFN code, the CMD HD commands, and
multiple drive support.

In process is time-based directory
pattern matching (>00:00:00 and
<00:00:00), support for programs that
determine drive type via M-R, and
D71/D81 image support.

I'll refrain from listing the ideas in
the enhancement bucket, but there are
quite a few.  At this point, I am
prioritizing features that might make
HW changes necessary, for obvious
reasons.  Firmware-only additions can
be made after shipping.

I'm happy to answer questions in the
thread.

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.sys
.cbm/browse_thread/thread/9b8ea39e1f5dc
75a?hl=en
======================================

NEWS

Vintage Technology Magazine

Is available to download now up to
version 6 priced at 0.99 back issues
are available Go to:
 www.vintagetechnology.co.uk
to download latest issue (May '08).


This issue features:
Old-school computer learning
Will my vintage electronics collection
still work in 100 years time?
Flight sims - flying with home
computers
Defender - the thinking man's arcade
shoot-em up
Commodore PET computers
Early modems in the US & UK
Tomy handheld electronic games
Vintage LED clocks
Learn about maths the vintage way
Vintage voice recorders
First 'personal' radios
Interview with Richard Hanson -Superior
Software founder
Repairing handheld games
HP calculator memories 

FREE online sample Edition is
available
http://www.vintagetechnology.co.uk/down
load.htm

=======================================

Jeri Ellsworth at the NotaCon
/BlockParty FPGA Programming

This is Jeri Ellsworth at the
NotaCon/BlockParty April 4th, 2008.
She is talking about creating a demo in
FPGA. http://blip.tv/file/821819
Commodore brand name in trouble again

Escom paid $14m for the Commodore
name, then they suffered problems and
closed Tulip rescued the name in 2004
they sold the brand name to Dutch
firm, Yeahronimo who tried to market
the brand name by selling M3 players
and the Gravel, the company suffered
poor sales and looks like they are now
in financial problems This doesn?t
affect Commodore gaming who are a
separate company altogether.

http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2008/0
4/18/commodore_lawsuits/print.html

=====================================

#Amigaguide

The first edition of this English pdf
magazine is now available for
download. In this edition the
following: disk.info, How to use
floppies, Kick Off 2, Tilt, Trashcan,
Amiga Laptop and Sandnes BBS. You can
download the pdf after you register
(for free).
http://amigaweb.net/index.php?function=
amigaguide

3 ReadMeFirst - Editorial
4 Disk.info - News
7 Floppies...Floppies....Floppies
- Erlend writes about what we can use
all those floppies for...
8 Kick Off 2 - Did you know there is a
very strong world community gathered
around the famous Amiga soccer game
Kick Off 2? Learn more about Kick Off 2
WC, Cups and community by reading this!
12 Tilt - game review - Michal writes
 about Street Rod 2
13 Trashcan
14 Tilt - game review - Michal writes
 about another Amiga game
15 Sandnes Amiga BBS - Sandnes BBS is
 still running after 10 years, & still
 uses an Amiga 1200 as its host
 computer. SysOp Firestone writes a
 little computer history....
20 Amiga promotion products

=====================================

Behr Multicart for the VIC 20
PAL VERSION

I am happy to announce that I now
accept orders for the PAL version of
the Behr Bonz multicart. The price is
the same as the NTSC version: 30$
Canadian. Shipping to Europe or
Australia is 11$ for up to 5 carts.
Please visit www.8bitcentral.com

(COMMODORE FREE) Ordered and waiting
with anticipation will do a review for
the magazine once I have my hands on
the device

List of games included in the PAL
version:
A
AE/ Aggressor/ Alien Blitz/ Alphabet
Zoo/ Amok!/ Arachnoid/ Artillery Duel/
Astroblitz/ Atlantis/ Attack of the
mutant Camels/ Avenger

B
Black Hole/ Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom

C
Cave-In/ Centipede/ Choplifter/
Cloudburst/ Clowns Joystick/ Clowns
Paddles/ Computer War/ Congo Bongo
/Cosmic Cruncher/ Cosmic Jailbreak/
Creepy Corridors/ Crossfire/ Cyclon

D
Deadly Duck/ Deadly Skies/ Defender/
Demon Attack/ Dig Dug/ Donkey Kong
/Dragonfire/ Droids

F
Fourth Encounter/ Frogger

G
Galaxian/ Gorf/ Gridrunner

I
In the Chips

J
Jawbreaker II/ Jelly Monsters/ Jupiter
Lander

K
Keyquest/ Krazy Antics/ KStar Patrol

L

Lazer Zone/ Lode Runner/ Lunar Leeper

M
Maze/ Medieval Joust/ Menagerie/ Mine
Madness/ Miner 2049'er/ Mobile Attack/
Money Wars/ Monster Maze/ Moon Patrol/
Mosquito Infestation/ Motocross Racer/
Ms Pacman/ Mutant Herd

O
Omage Race/ Outworld

P
Pacman/ Paratrooper/ Pharaoh's Curse
/Pinball Spectacular/ Pipes/ Poker/
Polaris/ Pole Position/ Predator
/Princess and Frog/ Protector

Q
Q-Bert/ Quackers

R
Radar Rat Race/ Raid on Fort Knox/
Rally-X/ Rat Hotel/ Renaissance/ River
Rescue/ Road Race/ Robot Panic/
Robotron 2084

S
Scott Adams: Adventureland/ Scott
Adams: Mission Impossible/ Scott
Adams: Pirate's Cove/ Scott Adams: The
Count/ Scott Adams: Voodoo Castle/
Sargon II Chess/ Satellite Patrol
/Satellite and Meteorites/ Scorpion/
Sea Wolf/ Seafox/ Serpentine/ Shamus/
Sir Lancelot/ Skibbereen/ Skyblazer/
Space Ric-o-shay/ Spiders of Mars/
Spike's Peak/ Spills and Fills/
Springer/ Star Battle/ Star Post/ Star
Trek: Strategic Operations Simulator/
Sub Chase/ Submarine Commander/ Super
Amok/ Super Slot/ Super Smash

T
Terraguard/ The Sky is Falling/
Threshold/ Topper/ Turmoil/ Tutankham/
Type Attack/ Typo

V
Video Vermin/ Videomania/ Visible
Solar System

=======================================

WILD BUNCH PROJECT - THE C64 CONVERSION

http://www.gamesplaygames.co.uk/thewild
bunch/

http://www.gamesplaygames.co.uk/thewild
bunch/music/jonwells_wildbunchstory.mp3


THE STORY SO FAR.......
It was back in Nov 1987 when I got
mitts on a shiny new C64! Having been
a Classic on the good old Spectrum
(which I also owned) & Amstrad, & a
firm favourite of mine, I was very
surprised when I found that Firebird
hadn't made a C64 version! By early
1988 I was increasingly getting more
interested in the programming side of
things & so started to learn 64 BASIC.
What with The Wild Bunch being mostly
written in Basic I quickly decided to
do my own conversion as a sort of pet
project & learning curve. Having
acquired the full Spectrum BASIC
listing of the game it placed me in
good stead to undertake what was then a
mammoth task.

I learned a lot during the conversion,
but unfortunately I couldn?t finish it
as I needed Assembly experience to
handle the Gunfight bitmap sequence &
music. Also, around then I had limited
time due to starting college & also
getting contract work with Cult/D+H
Games. Around the time the work was put
on hold (mid 1988) The Wild Bunch
project was completed to around 80% &
fully playable.

Now 20 years later, following an email
from Frank Gasking of GTW regarding
the project & after finding the lost
disks with my original conversion work
on, The Wild Bunch C64 conversion has
been resurrected & is to be completed
once & for all! With the original Wild
Bunch approaching its 25th birthday at
the end of this year the intended
deadline is scheduled for a New Year
2009 release.


ORDERING INFORMATION
The Wild Bunch will be made available
as a one-off Special Limited Edition
tape for the Commodore 64 & will cost
only 3.99 + 1.00 UK P&P, outside the UK
Overseas P&P is 2.50. Once all copies
are sold there wont be any more
duplication runs so to guarantee your
copy, you should pre-order securely
using PayPal

 http://www.gamesplaygames.co.uk/
  thewildbunch/

NEWS - 13th April 2008
The Gunfight street scene is completed!
Check out my diary below for
screenshots!

NEWS - 12th April 2008
Work has started on the Gunfight street
scene today, keep an eye on the diary
over the next few days as I'll be
attempting to complete this scene over
the weekend!

NEWS - 8th April 2008
The Wild Bunch Loading screen is
complete. See my Diary entry for more
details!

NEWS - 6th April 2008
The Wild Bunch has now been made
available for overseas pre-orders. I
Have also added Kenz's Diary entries
in a new section below.

NEWS - 12th March 2008
Kenz to contribute to the project!
Following a few emails to my buddy &
all round C64 hero Jason 'Kenz'
Mackenzie of Binary Zone, BIT Live &
BITS fame he has agreed  to contribute
to the project! He will be helping in
various areas & designing the full
colour inlay & label packaging using
the original Spectrum's into a fully
authentic C64 version! Our intention is
to produce a one-off special limited
edition small duplication run on tape
with full colour authentic packaging
for C64 collectors. These will be
closely based on the original Firebird
Spectrum & Amstrad packaging to make
it as authentic as possible.

To cover production/duplication costs
this will be sold for 3.99 with 1.00
postage for UK & 2.50 postage for
Overseas orders. There will only be
one duplication run of this product so
to reserve your copy you should pre-
order using the UK or Overseas paypal

DEVELOPMENT DIARY
12th-13th April 2008
I started work on The Wild Bunch
Gunfight street scene. I used the
Spectrum screen that Kenz had sorted
out for me on a c64 disk, which I
converted onto PC first. Using Congo I
converted this straight into multi-
colour mode to see how it looked in 64
multicolour form at its most basic. As
you can see from the screenshot below a
lot of work would be needed to enhance
this fully!

The other problem with this screen is
that it's smaller than the 64 screen
size. The spectrum screen is 256 x 176
pixels, whereas the 64?s screen size
is 320 x 200 pixels. I decided the
best way would be to keep the original
size of the Speccy's & just add the
extra border around the outside &
continue the buildings into this area.
I did this using Photoshop & half an
hour later the original

Spectrum screen looked like this:

Following this I added in some brick-
work effects on the buildings in
Photoshop before the initial
conversion was to take place in Congo
& upon doing this it actually wasn't
too bad at all, but it still needed a
heck of a lot of work to optimise it
for the 64. I spent the next 3-4 hours
editing & tweaking, but still a lot
of work left to do. I decided to spend
most of the next day (Sunday 13th)
finishing it off. I continued more
work on the Gunfight scene today, but
before I began I coded a quick routine
in the CCS64 emulator & loaded in
the existing bitmap to get it to
display on the screen. This was saved
for later use. I proceeded with the
bitmap in Congo doing a good 3 hours
more worth of tweaking, changing &
playing around with various looks &
eventually I managed to get it to a
stage I am happy  with. Now during the
development of the bitmap I had an
idea to make the most from the bitmap
in which I can change the colours of
the  building, sky & ground in-game.
About 4-5 colours were not used so I
colourized each building using any
unused colours including purple, green,
red etc. Following this I adapted my
code so I can use a lookup table &
replace the red, green, purple colours
with any colour I like. The great thing
about this is that I can use the same
bitmap, but make the scene look
different by mixing the 16 colour
palette & building colours. I can also
darken the ground & sky to make the
scene look like night-time or dusk for
example which will give each Gunfight
scene a more varied look!

Once this was complete I downloaded
Sprite Pad on the PC & started work
on the actual Gunfighter sprite. I
simply magnified the original Spectrum
Gunfighter & copied him pixel for
pixel into 64 sprites, but I added an
additional multicolour sprite for
underlying behind the Hi-res black
outline. This gives the Gunfighter
full colour for his face & clothing
and I can vary these colours in the
game depending on who you are having a
gunfight with. This will again add
some variety to the scene. As an
additional extra I created a Hi-res
cactus for the background. Finally, I
bolted all this together into my code
and tested it for various scene styles,
2 of which you can at last see below.

I have a few plans for the Gunfight
sequence which will add something
extra for the 64 version compared to
the Spectrum & Amstrad, though I'm
not saying any more as that'd spoil it
for you. You'll have to find this out
yourself when you play the game!

8th April 2008
The Wild Bunch loading/title bitmap
screen has been created! This was
developed over a 3 hour period last
night. I used the original  Hi-res
Spectrum loading screen which I opened
into Photoshop on the PC. From here I
added a rainbow effect on the red sky,
I then saved & loaded this into the
Congo PC graphics tool, this allows
you to convert an image into any C64
bitmap form.

Before I started I had to resize the
image into 320x200 pixels for the full
64 screen. Following this I used the
dithering feature to convert the
rainbow effect & hi-res picture into
C64 multi-colours & spent some 2 hours
tweaking the rough edges & adding my
own  colouring to the sun, cactus, &
wording. I may come back to this at a
later stage to see if I can improve on
it further, but for now you can see the
results in the screenshot below!

5th April 2008
Wild Bunch project website goes live!

27th March 2008
Kenz produces The Wild Bunch website
layout for me to modify & use for the
pre-order, news & diary of the game.

26th March 2008
I have created more music for the
game, the jingle which plays when the
map is shown. Also the music that
plays when you take a shot character
or prisoner to the sheriffs office
following the gunfight sequence.

22nd March 2008
Kenz finishes first proof version of
The Wild Bunch inlay. See below! Wow,
very nice!

21st March 2008
The story so far intro music has been
composed. I'm using the C64's Dutch USA
music player tool on my PC running the
excellent CCS64 Emulator to handle all
the music for the game.

Click here
http://www.gamesplaygames.co.uk/thewild
bunch/music/jonwells_wildbunchstory.mp3

to download an MP3 track snippet!

18th March 2008
The original Spectrum inlay & tape
label is scanned & sent to Kenz for
redesigning & development.

16th March 2008
Using some handy emulation tools the
original Spectrum 48k Basic listing is
re-printed & my C64 conversion
listing printed for comparison &
reworking to ensure the conversion
retains the same strategy elements &
formulas as the Spectrum. With these in
hand I can make any changes to my old
source to bring it much closer to the
original. It'll also make it easy for
me to read through & pick up from where
I'd left off 20 years ago!

2nd March 2008
I find my lost C64 work disks with the
old Wild Bunch conversion source on!
This was no mean feat, what with well
over 500 work disks to sift through it
took me quite a few days to actually
find all the disks with the Wild Bunch
source on. There were so many different
snippets of source & work data that
I've done across many disks over the
years that it was very difficult to
label & keep track. I use my old
Windows 98 PC a CBM 1541 disk drive &
PC to 1541 cable & convert the Wild
Bunch disks into .d64 images on the PC.
Now I can work on this project using
the CCS64 Emulator on my modern office
PC!

KENZ's DIARY
22nd March 2008
My next job was to airbrush the front
of the inlay to change the yellow
border from the Spectrum version to a
red border to show it's a C64 game.
Using the C64 Firebird game 'Arcade
Classics' as a guide I noticed the
bottom section of the border on the
C64 game was still yellow but the top
section was red so I carefully
airbrushed the top section of the Wild
Bunch inlay to match. I then lifted
the C64/128 text from the Arcade
Classics inlay & placed it on the
Wild Bunch inlay. I then produced a red
box to go on the spine of the inlay to
show that it is the C64/128 version of
the game. To finish off the inlay I
retyped all the instructions & added
C64 loading instructions. I also
changed the credits to suit this new
version of the game. And voila! The C64
inlay was complete. I then printed a
test inlay, took a few photos of it in
a tape box & emailed them to Jon for
his feedback.

21st March 2008
I began working on the Wild Bunch
inlay today! My first job was to
remove the creases where the original
tape inlay had been folded. This took
a good few hours as I had to rebuild
the pictures of the cowboys shown in
the background on the inlay. I also
had to carefully restore the sky &
ground so it all blended together
nicely. Ironically, this was the
hardest part of the inlay to produce
and you probably won't notice any of
it as the inlay will be folded once
again when it gets put into the tape
boxes! After that I removed any
remaining blemishes, creases & small
marks from the inlay & then set
about getting rid of the two holes
from the back of the inlay. These were
the holes that the 'tape lugs' on the
tape box went through to keep the tape
secure in the box. Nowadays you can
get clear tape boxes with no lugs
(which I think look much nicer) so I
got rid of the holes. This meant more
art working to restore  the background
images & I also redid the screenshots
as one of the holes was punched right
through where the screenshots are
illustrated on the inlay. I used nice
cripsy clear screens from the emulator
on the inlay which look much sharper
than the ones on the original Spectrum
inlay.

18th March 2008
I received the tape inlay scans from
the Spectrum version of the Wild Bunch
from Jon today so I set about creating
a tape inlay template in PhotoShop to
ensure my artwork prints at the correct
size. I then dropped Jons scans into
the template & worked out what needed
to be done to the artwork. Jons timing
was perfect as it's Easter in a few
days which means I'll have a bit of
extra time to work on inlay artwork.

12th March 2008
I received a very interesting email
from Jon today which mentioned he was
resurrecting his old conversion of the
Speccy / Amstrad budget title 'The
Wild Bunch'. I was rather excited by
this news as I used to LOVE that game
on the Speccy as it was one of the
early Firebird budget games I bought.
Anyhoo, Jon mentioned he would like to
produce a special edition of the game
on tape complete with authentic
artwork so I offered my photoshop
services & requested that Jon send
me hi-res scans of the inlay to have a
fiddle with. It looks like me & Jon
are now collaborating on a C64 project
after all these years. COOL!

27th February 2008
So there I was minding my own business
when **SHAZAM!** an email arrived from
my good C64 chum Jon Wells. I had tons
of fun working with Jon (along with
Alf Yngve, Paul 'FeekZoid' Hannay &
Jason 'TMR' Kelk) on various C64
projects back in the 90's so it was
great to hear from him again after all
this time. I was also really pleased
to hear he had been working on a new
C64 release - the Sideways  SEUCK
Project - so I crafted a little banner
for him in order to help promote it.
But that was only the beginning ... !

Commodore Free would like to thank the
project Jon Wells for providing
permission to reprint this info.

=====================================

DIRMASTER version 2
http://style64.org


DirMaster is a Windows graphical disk
management tool for manipulating
commodore disk images using windows
drop and drag features and supporting
a wide range of disk image types, but
it is a lot more than that.

DirMaster
How do you improve on the best!, I
guess you just have to listen to
feedback and make your application
that bit more special. Well that's
exactly what's happened with DirMaster.
This is a superb tool, that has
recently been updated to version 2.0;
and although I looked at an earlier
version in C= Free magazine I decided
to do a full review of version 2.0

To install DirMaster you will need a
Windows machine with either windows
2000, Windows XP or Vista although the
documentation says it may work with
windows 98 there are no promises to
that effect. As with all Windows
installations you will need to have
administrator privilege over your
machine. Download the installation
package and double click to install
it's that simple.

But hey aren't there hundreds of these
tools available for creating and
manipulating Commodore Disk images?

Well yes there are versions for DOS as
well as windows and they all work,
some are clumsy and some do support
dropping and dragging some are quite
good but nothing seems as slick as
this application, read on and you will
see why.

Smooth as silk
First let me explain the dragging and
dropping on the application, select a
file lets say it's a text document,
first run the DirMaster and create or
open a disk image now left click the
file and HOLD the mouse button, drag
the file onto the disk image and then
let the mouse button go, hey presto as
if by magic the text file is now in
the disk image this function alone is
a real timesaver, I am sure windows
users will appreciate this.

The opposite also works so lets say
you have a text file in a disk image
and you want to extract it to another
folder or your windows desktop for
example, open the disk image, and left
click the file HOLD the mouse button
down and move the file to its new
location on the desktop or in another
folder, let go of the mouse button and
the file is extracted!  Double
clicking on the text file in the disk
image will open the file for reading
as shown in the screen shot of Issue
17 March 2008 Editor comments.

Hey wait that's just one feature of
the application; You could for example
open 2 disk images & copy files between
the 2 using drop and drag. You can also
open the application & drag a disk
image onto the running application;
this will open the disk image for
viewing.

Or you can run the application and
select file Open but that's just a
bit dull. You can multi select disk
images, drag them over the running
application and they will open in
separate windows for viewing. Disk
images that have changed by adding
modifying or deleting files will show
there status of a change without being
saved by adding an asterisk to the
file name as shown  the disk image is
godot127.d64 I changed one of the
files by deleting it and the disk
status has changed to godot127.d64 *

Ok I am getting way to excited lets
look at some of the menu items
starting left to right

Open a Disk image
Well fairly self explanatory click this
icon to open a disk image for viewing
or editing, also when installed if you
want you can have the application
assign itself to d64,d81 etc so double
clicking a Disk image will open a disk
image

Save a Disk Image
Guess what this saves the current disk
image, also closing the disk image will
prompt the user 'the disk image has
changed do you wish to save'

Find disk
Very nice feature you can hunt for a
file in a disk image by selecting a
folder to search and giving the
filename as shown below

Show Commodore tool
Pops open a box with the Commodore
character set, inversed video normal,
small case and commodore characters
you can then click on one to enter it
in the name of your applications title

Show separator tool
some disk images use separators
between filenames clicking this tool
provides a preset number of separator
files for the user to click and enter
into there disk image

Change the case
Toggles the case in a disk image or in
a text file so upper case letters
become lower case and vice a versa

File Properties
Shows the properties of a selected
file giving Name/Type(prg etc.)/file-
size/track & sector/date etc.

BAM Edit
If you dont know what BAM edit is this
won't be any use to you,

Move Up or Down
Moves the file in a disk image up or
down so it's higher or lower in the
disk listing order

Jump to sector
Opens the Sector editing tool

Change to parent directory

Toggle font size
Changes the size of the text and so
reduces the size of the disk image
windows there are 2 sizes normal and
small to toggle between

Toggles Hidden characters
Turns on/off hidden characters in file

Show Deleted files
Toggles on/of the display of deleted
files in the disk image

Colours
Changes the display background and
text of a disk image purely cosmetic
the first sets the background colour
the second the text colour, again this
is just the amount of attention to
detail the programmers have added to
the application, its not an essential
item to have but makes things easier
on the eye

These are the main parts of the
program you will use again all very
intuitive and if you cant remember
what one of the icons does hovering
over it will show a text hint,

Other functions from the pull down
menu are Validate disk, batch
processing 

If you click in the disk window on a
BASIC program for example, then you
are shown the listing of the basic
application shown below is a disk from
Loadstar, the loader application is in
BASIC and double-clicking on the file
opens up a box with the basic listed,
right clicking on the text allows the
copying of selected text to windows
clipboard and pasting into any
application as shown below (a selection
of the highlighted text) I would have
liked to have seen an option to print
the text preserving the C= character
set & special characters

   DV=PEEK(186):IFDV<8THENDV=8
   5 POKE32767,13:POKE53371,0
   6 POKE65534,1:REM S-KEY ON
  10 POKE53281,0:POKE53280,0:PRINT
    rstuvwxyz
    []"":IFPEEK(653)=0THENPOKE53265,11:
    GOSUB100
  11 POKE53265,27:TQ=TI:POKE198,0:
    IFPEEK(653)=0THENGOSUB1000:GOTO13
  12 POKE53280,11:POKE53281,11:GOTO50
  13 REM

Also the display can be toggled
between 40 and 80 column mode to allow
more or less text on the screen,

But I am really out of space in this
what was supposed to be a mini review


The minimise maximise & red cross close
buttons and the borders of the screen
in the DirMaster review are copyrighted
to Microsoft corporation as well as the
trademarks Windows, Windows 98, Windows
2000, Windows Vista & windows XP & the
abbreviations XP,Vista,98,2K

====================================

Interview with Robert Bernardo
Commodore enthusiast and C= promoter


COMMODORE FREE - Please introduce
yourself to our readers.

ROBERT BERNARDO - Hello to all my
Commodore and Amiga friends!  I'm
Robert Bernardo, long-time C=
enthusiast and president of the Fresno
Commodore User Group (FCUG).

CF - What do you do for a living?

RobertB - I'm an English teacher at a
middle school in California.
Specifically, I teach English as a
Second Language to students in grades
6-8 (ages 11-14).  I'm in my 29th year
of teaching.

CF - How did you first come in contact
with the Commodore brand?  Can you
remember your first Commodore machine,
and do you still own the machine?

RobertB - Back in 1981, I took a class
for teachers; if I remember correctly,
it was something called, -Computers in
Education?.  This was a whole new
world for teachers.  Using computers
in the public school setting was a new
and mysterious frontier, because there
were so few classroom computers in our
area.  Well, we met in an office
setting with rows of Tandy 3 computers
ready to be used.  We were taught the
basics - how to turn them on, what a
floppy disk was; how to load, run, and
save; how to use BASIC language.  We
moved slowly through the day-long
curriculum.  By the end of the day, I
received a pat-on-the-back in the form
of a certificate, and I thought that
was that.

In 1982 I started seeing magazine
advertisements for the inexpensive
Commodore 64.  At the same time, I
took another teachers' class in MS-DOS
which had me relearn the basics of
using a computer, in addition to those
MS-DOS commands.  In 1983 with more
and more advertisements for the
Commodore 64, I started feeling the
need to get one.  My best friend at
that time had the same notion.  We
scanned the magazine and newspaper ads
constantly for a good deal.  Finally
in August of 1983, Federated
Electronics, a chain store throughout
California, advertised the C64 for
$199.95 plus if you bought it, you'd
get the CBM bonus cassette pack for
free.  What a deal!

At that time, I was still a poor
teacher with no credit.  I bought it,
but it was about 2/5 of my monthly net
salary!  The computer was such a
best-seller that the store ran out of
the bonus cassette pack, and I had to
get a raincheck to pick it up later.
I was so excited; I brought the C64
home and eagerly pored through the
user's guide, keying in the sample
programs and watching what they did on
screen of the little black-and-white
TV I used.  However, I couldn't save
anything, because I had no disk drive
nor cassette drive.

It was only a month or two later that
I bought a cassette drive for it, but
not the CBM cassette drive because it
was more expensive; I bought a
knock-off drive for $30.  I bought my
data cassettes from Radio Shack in the
belief that those C-10 or C-20 blank
cassettes were superior to regular
cassettes.  I saved the few user guide
programs but had no source for more.
For what else could I use this
new-fangled wonder?  Then I bought my
first commercial program, the Quick
Brown Fox word-processing cartridge.
Its manual humorously led me through
my first steps in writing a document,
but I had no printer to use!  Then
after using it a few times, I
accidently pulled the cart out with
the computer on; I had shorted out the
cart, and it was useless.

In 1984, the computer magazines
started coming out - Home Computer,
Compute!, Computes! Gazette, etc.. 
Also the stores started having shelves
just for computer software, not just
one or two pieces of software but
dozens and dozens.  I bought Totl.
Text 2.6, a word processor on
cassette.  I was back into using the
C64 usefully.  My best friend bought a
disk drive and a 1525 printer, the
printer capable of printing graphics.
I had my choice - buy a 1541 disk
drive for $400 or buy a Royal
daisywheel typewriter with Centronics
interface for $400.  A letter-quality
printer... I had to have it.  Not only
was it a sophisticated typewriter, but
it would become a peripheral for my
Commodore.  O.K., printing graphics
was not a high-priority for me.  With
the additional Centronics cable that I
had to order for $20 and a type-in
program included with the typewriter,
Totl. Text 2.6 was able to use the
Royal typewriter.  Because my best
friend was deeply interested in
Commodore, too, he would key in
magazine type-in programs for me and
save them to cassette so that I could
use them.  A lot of those programs
were games and utilities, and some
were educational programs for
children.

In the summer of 1984, I took a
teachers' university class on what was
basically word-processing class with
the program, Bank Street Writer for
Apple II.  Yes, there were rows and
rows of Apple II's for teachers to
use, and though I dutifully did my
lessons on the Apple II, I always
thought of the alternative of the C64.
For our final project, we were to
write a multi-branching story for
students to read.  The other teachers
used the Apple II's, but with the
permission of my instructor, I brought
in my C64 and datasette drive and
wrote the story with the C64 and Totl.
Text.

By September, 1984, I brought my one
C64 set-up to the classroom - one of
the first teachers to have a computer
in the class.  With the typewriter/
printer and the C64, I was able to
write letter-quality papers and then
mimeograph those for students.  The
students used educational games from
the magazines, like Sea Route to India
(a simulation) and Hangman.

When the Gemco department store
declared bankruptcy in 1985, the store
had a clearance sale of everything,
including a huge selection of
Commodore items.  I bought my next
Commodore computer then, a SX-64, for
$400 plus tax.  I now had a disk
drive, and that opened up the bigger
world of Commodore programs on disk.
Students were now able to use
commercial, disk-based programs, like
Cave of the Word Wizard.

Good thing that I got the SX-64,
because the old C64 had become flaky.
I had replaced the original power
supply when my best friend had his C64
die due to a bad power supply.  That
bit of prevention wasn't enough.  The
keyboard became unresponsive.  Some
replacement 6526 CIAs and a keyboard
cleaning couldn't help it.  I had to
retire it.

Later in 1985, Commodore 128s and 1571
disk drives had dropped in price to
$200 each.  I went to the  Montgomery
Ward department store, bought the 128,
and reserved a 1571, because those
drives had sold out.  A few weeks
later when I came back to pick up the
delivered 1571, I had to show my
driver's license just to release the
1571 into my hands; those drives were
in such demand.

The 80-column display was a special
treat; what I saw on the screen was
more akin to what was printed out.  I
was on the hunt for C128 programs that
specifically catered to the machine's
abilities.  In those days, I was not
part of a user group, the nearest, the
Stockton Commodore User Group being 3
hours away, with meetings held on a
weeknight.  I had to depend on C=
magazines and retail stores to keep me
informed on what was happening with
Commodore.  I'd go to the local
bookstore to pick up the monthly
Loadstar disk magazine; I'd go to
Sears, Montgomery Ward, Software Etc.,
or Software & Such to select C64 and
C128 programs off the shelves.  I'd go
to the gigantic Commodore Business
Machines-sponsored World of Commodore
shows that were held in Los Angeles in
one year and San Francisco the next
year.  Thousands and thousands would
go to those shows!  I remember in 1986
I walked up to the CBM booth and
directly asked a representative if CBM
was going to drop support for the C128
in favor of the brand new Amiga
computer.  The rep gave me a look of
disdain and denied that the C128
support would be cancelled.  Of course,
now we know the truth.

By early 1986, I was doing class
grades with the Info magazine-rated
spreadsheet program, Vizastar 128.  In
the middle of doing my first grades
with Vizastar, the C128 system decided
to quit working!  Grades were due in a
few days!   Not knowing whether it was
the C128 or the 1571 that had gone bad
and not having time to repair the
system at the local Commodore repair
shop, I ordered a C128DCR from Lyco
Computer in Nevada.  It was over $600!

 The computer came in time, and I was
able to finish my grades.  That
computer served me well; from 1986 to
2003 I used it to calculate grades  It
was only in 2003, when the school
district told me I had to do grades on
their system, that I stopped doing
grades on the C128.

Over all those years, there would
always be a Commodore in the
classroom, first with the C64, then
the SX-64, and then finally a mix of
C64s and C128s.  During the heyday of
my putting C= computers in the class,
I had up to 4 or 5 systems on the side
tables, ready for the students to use.
By 2003, the district was pouring
Windows desktop computers into the
classroom, and the Commodores had to
be moved aside for those.  However, I
still have a C128DCR in the room.
Earlier in 2007, I brought in a PET
2001 for students to ogle; when I told
them that they were looking at a
30-year old computer, they all said,
"Ooooo!"

CF - The Fresno Commodore User Group -
http://videocam.net.au/fcug/  Tell our
readers about this group.

RobertB - Throughout the mid-1980's &
the early 1990's, though the faraway
Stockton Commodore User Group was hours
away, I tried to maintain contact with
that group.  By December 1994, the
president of that group told me that
there was a Commodore user group in
nearby Fresno.  In January 1995 I
eagerly drove over to Fresno and found
the Fresno Commodore User Group,
meeting at the downtown public library.
The members warmly greeted me, were
helpful to the Nth degree, & satisfied
my need to belong.  I immediately
became a member.  Two years later I was
elected as president of the group, and
to my chagrin, I'm still president. In
all the years that I've been with the
group, at various times I've served as
disk-of-the-month editor and as
newsletter editor.  Nine months into
my membership with FCUG, I started
writing for the club newsletter, and
I've been writing ever since that
time.

The history of this Fresno Commodore
club started back in 1981.  Our oldest
members told me that back then there
were 2 C= groups, which finally
combined forces to form FCUG.  What an
organization it was in the early days!
Meetings were held at the local adult
school which had banks and banks of
Commodore 64s to use.  Attendance at
such meetings was 150-200.  Meetings
were bi-weekly.

Nowadays FCUG meetings are monthly,
held on the third Sunday of the month
from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Pizza
Pit Restaurant.  As mentioned above,
when I joined up, meetings were in the
public library.  However, the library
kept reserving the meeting room to
other groups, though we supposedly had
a long-term lock on the room.  After
being frustrated several times in
getting the room, we made arrangements
to meet at the public meeting room in
a shopping mall.  After several months
of using that, we were moved into the
senior citizens' center of the mall. 
We thought we had a permanent meeting
place for sure, but after a few years
there, we were told that the room was
to be used for other purposes and such
a senior citizens center would be
moved out... somewhere.  That answer
was not good enough for us; it might
have been months before a new venue
would be found.  With the help of
another FCUG member, we discovered the
Pizza Pit, the owner being happy to
host our group (and also make some
money from our hungry members, I'm
sure).

The Pizza Pit is a good place to meet,
though when the Daytona 500 or the
Indianapolis 500 races are broadcast
on the big-screen t.v.'s there, the
place is too crowded and noisy to hold
our meetings.  We then move to a
nearby, calmer Mexican restaurant and
its meeting room.

Membership in our club has stayed
steady at about 25, but few are now
from the Fresno area.  The rest are
spread throughout the United States
and England.  Our treasury has stayed
steady, too; in other words, we have
plenty of money in the treasury.  Our
newsletter, the Interface, is
nominally a bi-monthly newsletter. In
the early 2000's we had three
different newsletters coming out of
the club; the Interface from our
editor, C= Voyages from me, and The
Halfling, a more folksy newsletter
from another member.  Yeah, we were
writers in those days.

In 2005 Jeri Ellsworth, creator of the
CommodoreOne and the C64 DTV,
contacted me about organizing a West
Coast Commodore show.  I then contacted
Bruce Thomas of the Commodore Users of
Edmonton, who had the same idea of such
a show, too.  If it were not for the
backing of FCUG and the Clark County
Commodore Computer Club (of Las Vegas),
the Commodore Vegas Expo, CommVEx,
would have never gotten off the ground
in 2005 and would not have continued to
this day.

When I joined FCUG in 1995, there were
several clubs throughout California,
like the Commodore Hayward User Group
(CHUG), Fremont-UnionCity-Newark-
Hayward User Group (FUNHUG), C= West/
AWest in San Francisco, the Diablo
Valley Commodore User Group (DVCUG), A
Bakersfield Computer User Society
(ABACUS), the Valley Computer Club in
Modesto, the Long Beach Commodore User
Group, the C64 Preservation Society in
Red Bluff, CIVIC 64 in Ventura, the
Sacramento Commodore User Group, and
the Stockton Commodore User Group.  I
visited most of those clubs.  By 2007,
FCUG was the only one still in
existence.  Sure, there are two Amiga
clubs and at least two retrogaming
groups left in California, but if you
want nearly 100% Commodore, you come to
FCUG.  We remain devoted to Commodore.

CF - How would our reader join FCUG,
and what would they be entitled to as
a user? 

RobertB - Club membership is only $12
a year.  You'd send us a check/money
order to our club address at 3487 E.
Terrace, Fresno, California 93703.
Alternatively, you can send us the
money through Paypal (but no credit
cards through Paypal).

For your membership, you get at least
6 issues of our Interface newsletter,
access to our disk library of 2,000 to
3,000 disks, and interesting,
late-breaking C= news by e-mail.

CF - Are you a member or promoter of
any other Commodore groups? 

RobertB - I also belong to The Other
Group of Amigoids (TOGA), an Amiga
club out of the San Jose area of
California.  I'm an honorary member of
the Fort Collins Commodore Club (FC3)
of Fort Collins, Colorado and of the
Anything Commodore User Group (ACUG)
of Astoria, Oregon.  Also I'm trying
to start up a new club in Southern
California called SCCAN, the Southern
California Commodore/Amiga Network
(formerly known as CAN).  Based in the
northern area of Los Angeles, we've
had monthly meetings since December
and now those meetings are bi-monthly,
the next one being in May.

CF - What makes Commodore special?

RobertB - A Commodore computer is a
friend, and for many of us, a long-time
friend.  It's a way of life; a multi-
functional device long before the 2008
machines we have today.  On it, we run
games, compose and play music, write
documents, publish our newsletters,
balance our portfolio, keep records,
draw our art, digitize our photos, make
our animations, and code our programs.
It's a fun computer... with a different
feel when compared to the Windows & Mac
computers of today. It has its quirks,
as all computers do, but these quirks
are familiar, understandable, and
comforting.

CF - Our readers have noticed your
photo and name appearing everywhere
related to Commodore. Can you comment?

RobertB - That is just a misconception.
I can't be everywhere in regards to
Commodore.  I just report & record the
shows and meetings that I attend. I
just spread Commodore news to users;
whether through e-mail, at the forums,
or in the newsgroups.  I just try to be
helpful, friendly, and interested in
all things Commodore and Amiga.  If
that makes me a cheerleader for
Commodore, then so be it.  Of course,
when I retire from the teaching
profession, I'll have a lot more time
to attend many more Commodore & Amiga
events and meetings.

At such events I've met many good
people and some famous ones, too.
Whether they are C= newbies or
veterans, regular users or industry
types, it's been a honor to meet all
of them.  Speaking of those in the
industry, it was quite exciting to
meet such CBM notables as Jack
Tramiel, Bil Herd, Dave Haynie, Bob
Russell, and Dale Luck.

CF - Tell our reader about your treks
to collect and redistribute Commodore
hardware.

RobertB - I usually get e-mails from
former users who have discovered the
FCUG website.  They want to unload
their collection of Commodore and
Amiga goods, but they don't want to
dispose of the goods in the landfill.
They want to donate those items to our
club in the hopes that others may
productively use the Commodore and
Amiga goods they once enjoyed.

I've been up and down the state of
California, into Oregon & Nevada in
order to rescue the items; that's a lot
of gasoline used and many hours on the
road! Usually, the rescued items are in
good to excellent condition. Those
items are packed into my large car;
sometimes I must make several trips to
the same former user just to finish
getting everything.  Then those items
are brought to one of four storage
places; my house, the rental storage
facility, my parents' house, or the
"storage" house.  From there, they can
be distributed to those who need
hardware/software.

If a FCUG member needs an item, they
have first crack at getting it.  If an
inquiry comes from someone outside the
club, I do my best to find that item.
(We don't have a database of all the
goods we have.  To make up such a
database would take months of
cataloging!)  If the item has a good
prospect of being sold, then it is
brought to the few shows where we have
a vending table.  We've had a vending
table at the Vintage Computer Festival
and at the Classic Gaming Expo.
Perhaps this year we'll have a vending
table at the Commodore Vegas Expo. 
The only problem; who is going to
transport all of that stuff all the way
to Las Vegas?!

I think our vending prices are more
than fair, maybe even outrageously low;
just enough to cover the cost of the
table and put a some dollars into the
club treasury.  $5 for a C64 with power
supply & box (if provided), $5 for a
1541 disk drive, $10 for a flat C128
with power supply, $10 for a 1571 disk
drive, 1701/2 monitor or similar - $15,
1902 monitor or similar - $20, packaged
software -$1, cartridges - $1 to $2,
extra computer magazines & books, take
them away for free.  Compare those
with prices at eBay.com, a place I
rarely visit these days when I have so
much in storage already.

I remember one year at VCF; we barely
covered the cost of the table, having
only a few dollars of profit to put in
the treasury.  It's chancy; one year
software sells big; another year it's
hardware.  You never know what the
public is into.  A big thank you to
all those who have bought items at our
table!

CF - "I ADORE MY 64"  What's all this
with the badges?  When we met, you
presented me with one.  I wear it all
the time, but the clip is slightly
broken & sometimes falls off. I really
need a new one; are they for sale?

RobertB - Hey, the badge is there to
show our solidarity in Commodore!  I
used to sell the replica badges for $3
each at shows, but now I just give
them away.  I'll give you another one.

CF - Videos and pictures of many C=
events are credited to you. Can you
tell our readers why?

RobertB - I started taking photos and
videos of the shows in the late
1990's.  First and foremost, they were
a record to which I could refer when I
needed information.  Then I found out
that other people wanted to see the
photos.  Not having a personal website,
I relied on the kindness of others to
host the photos, especially our club
treasurer who has put up many of the
photos at his website. In the late 90's
and early 2000's, when anyone wanted a
copy of the show videos, I would
transfer them to VHS tape, Beta tape,
and later DVDs for a nominal cost (a
dollar or two to cover the cost of the
tapes, some cents to cover the cost of
DVDs, and a few dollars more to cover
postage and to put into the FCUG
treasury).  I think the most we have
ever sold was 10 at one time. Who would
have known back in the those early days
that there would be video-sharing
websites on the Internet now?  (I
didn't know back then, and so, you can
hear my comments and other utterances
while I was taping.  Nowadays, I'm
much more careful.)

There are those who want me to put all
the videos up on the Web now. However,
as I have explained before to such
people, I only have a dial-up
connection at my house, and at work
the school district would take a very
dim view of me uploading hours & hours
of video on their work computers. For
my friends or those who buy the videos,
I am not loath to them putting up the
videos on the Net.

In my circumstances, I myself just
can't do it.

Just recently, Ian Matthews of
Commodore.ca and Dave Haynie (former
Amiga engineer who runs his own video
production company) have been kind
enough to post some of my videos but
not all.  They ask; I can provide.  If
they don't ask, then I don't force any
more videos upon them.

CF - What Commodore machines do you
own and use?

RobertB - Too many!  I have my main
C128DCR set-up, several back-up
C128DCRs, a couple of SX-64s (one
highly modded), a few Plus/4s (NTSC &
PAL), a few VIC-20s, several brown &
cream C64s (NTSC and PAL), a PET 2001,
a PET 4032, a couple of PET 8032s, a
64GS, a C128D (plastic, PAL), an
Argentinian Drean C64C, a calculator or
two, many different drives including
CMD, C64 DTVs (NTSC/PAL, unmodded and
modded), Hummer DTVs, CommodoreOne,
Amiga 1000s, 500s, 200s, an A3000, an
A4000, & a AmigaOne.

CF - Do you own any other "non"
Commodore machines ?

RobertB - I own various classic game
consoles; two Intellivision IIs, a
Colecovision, a Nintendo Entertainment
System (8-bit) , and the one which I
constantly feed with homebrew games,
the Vectrex.  I also have a 1978 Star
Trek pinball arcade machine and am
looking for a Star Trek: Strategic
Operations Simulator electronic arcade
machine and the 1991 Star Trek 25th
anniversary pinball machine.  In the
collection, there's also a Texas
Instruments TI-99 for which I have the
Star Trek: SOS cart (it talks!) and an
Apple IIGS computer.

The IIGS has had an interesting
history.  Other than myself who has
kept 8-bit computers in the classroom,
one of the veteran science teachers at
my school kept Apple II's in the his
room, long past the time when other
rooms and labs had switched to Windows
computers.  He used Apple IIe's, a IIc,
& a GS.  However, by last June, he had
dumped all the Apples onto the
sidewalk; he was replacing them with
slightly newer Mac LC's and Power
Macintoshes (formerly used by the
school, too).  The school janitors
hauled away the remains of the Apples,
but I was able to rescue the GS, due
in no small part to what Jeri
Ellsworth said to me, i.e., that a GS
is a great computer.  When I got to
show her the GS haul, she was amazed
that it even included an accelerator
card.  She said that all I have to do
is find a hard drive for it.

As you can see, in terms of 8-bit
computer longevity in the class, the
Commodore & I have even won out over
the Apple II & the science teacher.

CF - Tell us about Star Trek. What is
the link with Commodore?

RobertB - Star Trek has had a long
history with Commodore.  Before
Commodore was in the computer biz,
Star Trek games were played on
mainframe computers in universities.
Back in the mid-1970's, fellow
students invited me to go to the
computer center at the University of
California in Davis and get onto the
terminal of the mainframe in order to
play Star Trek. Too bad I never had
time because of my English studies!

Then when the Commodore PET came out,
William Shatner, Captain Kirk of Star
Trek fame, started advertising for it.
 I didn't know it at the time.  When
the Commodore VIC-20 came out in the
early 1980's, I may or may not have
seen the television commercial
starring the good captain.  He also
did print advertisements for the
VIC-20.

With the release of the C64, there
were several Star Trek games
developed, many looking like or
improving upon the old mainframe ST
games.  I thought that it was a marvel
that the VIC-20 and the C64 had the
Star Trek: Space Operations Simulator.
 Based on the arcade game of the same
name, these 8-bit versions had the
same, revolutionary, 3-windowed screen
of the arcade version, minus the
vector graphics and certain sounds.

Star Trek games continued being
developed, e.g., there was Star Trek:
25th Anniversary for the Amiga
1200/4000.

These days I still enjoy the
Commodore/Star Trek connection.  As a
member of Shatner & Friends,
International, we get to meet with
William Shatner once a year, have
lunch/dinner with him, & follow him in
his activities, like attending a
filming of his TV show, Boston Legal,
or going to the Hollywood Charity Horse
Show & banquet which he hosts.  And
every year I've brought a Commodore
item for Bill to autograph; first a
1581, then a VIC-20, the next year a
Commodore telephone, another year C64
DTVs, last year a Star Trek: SOS cart &
a Star Trek: 25th Anniversary package.
This year I was thinking of bringing
him a PET 2001 keyboard (but not the
entire case!) & a SX-64.

Then there is the long-planned Star
Trek game that I want to create on the
Commodore or on the Amiga.  Being no
programmer, I would do such a game
with the Shoot 'Em Construction Kit.
Yes, get it made the down-and-dirty
way!  I've already planned a storyboard
for it; now where did I put it?

CF - Would you like to comment on what
you think went wrong with Commodore?
If Commodore did make a comeback, what
should they make and sell and why?

RobertB - I don't like to speculate on
what happened to Commodore Business
Machines nor on what would have been
if CBM were to have gone a certain
way.  I find it fruitless to be
involved in such sort of imaginings...
kind of like political discussions...
nothing is ever decided, but the
argument continues ad infinitum.  I was
never a part of the internal workings
of CBM and thus cannot truly say what
went wrong.  All I can say is that
parent company support for Commodore &
Amiga computers was never really there
and that third party companies & the
users were the people who kept the C=
dream alive.

As for a return of CBM, that would be
more speculation but one on which I
will comment briefly.  In order to
stay profitable, such a returning
company would need products that would
sell well and sell consistently. Would
those products support our legacy
computers or even be new versions of
our legacy computers?  It would be nice
to think so, but as products that sell
well and consistently, no.  The company
would have to have a product or
products that would be the core
business, & hopefully, the company
would have the money to then produce
legacy products that satisfy us legacy
users. Such a company would have to
have deep pockets to afford such market
risks.
 At the end of its product lifespan,
the C64 had less than $5 of parts and
was selling at $90 retail.  Jeri
Ellsworth has mentioned that the C64
DTV had less than $8 or $9 of parts &
was selling for $30 retail, with
600,000 produced & 100,000 of the
Hummer DTVs produced.  If you do the
math, you are talking of large amounts
of money and big production runs.
Would such a company expose itself to
satisfy legacy users?  That is the
question.

Let's take it a different way. Mammoth
Toys produced the C64 DTV & the Hummer
DTV.  When she worked for Mammoth, Jeri
proposed a $40-45 laptop computer,
ostensibly marketed to children, based
on the DTV ASIC chip. Think of it... a
new C64-compatible computer!  Mammoth
turned down her proposal.

CF - Commodore Gaming. Would you like
to comment on this venture?

RobertB --  When I've tried to contact
them after the Commodore Gaming Party
of July 2007, they've either been
extremely slow to respond or haven't
responded at all.  Though the company
does not really support our legacy
computers, I have nothing against
them, and I wish them the best in
their ventures.  At least they have a
C64 emulator and a selection of games
in their Windows gaming computers.

CF - Many items of Commodore hardware
are now failing for users (due to the
age). What would you do if all your
machines and hardware suddenly stopped
working.

RobertB - Ha, that would take a long
time, because I have plenty of C=
systems in storage.  Also with repair
craftsmen as Ray Carlsen and Charles
Gutman, any repair needs are satisfied.
 As for Amiga computers, that is more
difficult; fewer systems in storage but
thankfully there is a repairperson in
the TOGA club.

CF - Commodore is available in an
emulated format on various systems.
Would you like to comment on emulation?

RobertB -- I've seen a few emulators
running on Windows, Mac, and Amiga
computers.  They are interesting, but
they are not for me.  I prefer to use
the real thing.  However, there are
those who are big into emulators, & if
it fits their needs, then more power to
them.

CF - Have you any projects in the works
or meetings/conventions you will be
shortly attending? Would you like to
promote any meetings/conventions users
can attend?

RobertB - Naturally, there are the
monthly FCUG meetings that I have to
attend.  In addition, I try to get to
the TOGA meetings, though those are
about 3 hours away.  Then there are
the bi-monthly SCCAN meetings, & those
are less than 3 hours away.

I have a slew of events that I've
attended or will attend this year; just
one in the Midwest United States this
year, because all monies are being
devoted to Europe and the events over
there.  First up was the small MossyCon
4 in Astoria, Oregon on March 16. Then
there was the BlockParty 2008 in
Cleveland, Ohio on April 4-6. I'm going
to try to make it to the June 13 South
Essex Amiga Link meeting in Wickford,
England.  Then I will be at the
Netherlands Commodore Show in Maarssen
on June 21 (I've been asked to give a
presentation.).  There is a tentative
Commodore Scene meeting in Bradford,
England, but the June or July date for
that has not been finalized.  Then I'll
be at the Monastery Party 2008 in
Opava, the Czech Republic on June 28-29
After that is the Diengestraff C=
meeting in Bochum, Germany on July 1.
A few days later I'll be at the
Amigaclub meeting in Antwerp, Belgium
on July 5.  On July 27-28 there is the
Commodore Vegas Expo which is hosted
by our club and the Clark County
Commodore Computer Club of Las Vegas,
Nevada.  In October I'll be at the
AmiWest Show in Sacramento, California.
The final show of 2008 for me will be
the Vintage Computer Festival 11.0 the
first weekend of November in Mountain
View, California.

CF - Some Commodore users are very
passionate to the point they almost
reject other users who don't know as
much.  Can you comment?

RobertB - I suppose you are speaking
of the "elite" or the elite wannabes.
They are totally opposite of what I
try to promote; they want to exclude
people; I want to include people.  As
Commodore chairman Jack Tramiel said,
"Computers for the masses, not the
classes".  The elite take it upon
themselves to set up a class of people
who are above everybody else.

CF - Why would users reject others
with less knowledge?  Shouldn't we all
stick together in the common cause?

RobertB - In the elite mentality, such
people think of themselves as being
too good, at a higher plane than all
others.  Haven't done a demo? Then you
are not elite.  Haven't programmed?
Then you are not elite. Haven't cracked
a game?  Then you are not elite.

Then there are the cyber-bullies.
Unfortunately, the Commodore community
has them, too.  Whereas, the elite
tend to ignore those who don't meet
their standards, these cyber-bullies
like to socialize and get their
jollies by fear, intimidation, threats,
& insults.  The unmoderated C= news-
groups have them; the C= chat rooms
have them.  The cyber-bullies reject
others, because they want to feel
superior, to feel in control.  These
cyber-bullies love to corner a victim,
& they are most obsessive in causing
emotional pain to their victim.  They
revel in wreaking havoc; they are quite
proud of their dubious accomplishments.
 Sorry to say but these people have
severe behavioral problems.  Best thing
to do is to ignore them but document
everything they say.  Maybe one day,
there will be laws to curtail the worst
of their behavior.


CF - People now see $$$$ with anything
Commodore related.  I have been asked
to remove game pictures because of
copyright infringements.  Would you
like to comment on this?

RobertB - Well, I think that is just
silly.  If we are talking about classic
game photos and screen captures, I do
not see the harm in showing these off.
My question is how do other magazines
get past this copyright quagmire, e.g.,
what does RetroGamer magazine do?
RetroGamer is full of photos & screen
caps of classic games.

CF - How do you rate Commodore Free
magazine?

RobertB - Commodore Free is good and
getting better! The variety of articles
is nice to have.  Some detailed proof-
reading is needed.  Run those articles
through a spellchecker or have a real
person (an English teacher?) find the
typos.

CF - I know you are a friend of Allan
from www.commodorescene.org.uk  Allan
had to close the magazine due to lack
of subscribers.  Personally, I miss
the magazine, and it's why I started
Commodore Free.

RobertB - Thank you for publishing
Commodore Free.  An English language
C= magazine is necessary, because the
German language magazines just aren't
enough.

CF - Allan owes users a large amount
of money - taken from users in order
to buy CMD products from Maurice
Randall.  Now 3 years later, these
readers are demanding a refund due to
the time it's taken.  Maurice seems to
have gone quiet and refused to answer
Allan's emails for a refund.  So, Allan
has had to refund from his own pocket.

RobertB -- I was truly sad when I
found out that information.  Not only
did Allan close out Commodore Scene
because of the subscriber situation but
also because of the customer refunds he
has had to make due to Maurice not
sending him any CMD products. I commend
Allan on his diligence in making good
on his customer refunds, especially
since he has a wife and children to
support.

CF - Do you think someone, like Jens
Schoenfeld, should offer to bail out
CMD www.cmdrkey.com -

RobertB -- As I have mentioned to
others in our club, Creative Micro
Designs does not need bailing out.
Maurice has manufacturing/distribution
rights to CMD hardware/software, but
CMD still owns the copyrights/patents.

When Maurice took over the above
rights, he mentioned at a convention
that he had to pay a hefty monthly fee
to CMD for those continuing rights.
When Maurice bought those rights & the
C= inventory of CMD, the price was
$17,000.  Whoever wants to take over
those rights would not only have to
negotiate with Maurice but also with
CMD.

CF - Maurice seems to be a great guy,
keen to help everyone, and I think he
has bitten of more than he can chew. 
Would you comment?

RobertB -- When I've met him at
conventions, he was always affable, &
in past years he was helpful on the C=
mailing lists, forums, & newsgroups.
He hasn't made a public appearance
since the Louisville Spring Expo of
2005.  I do not know the exact story on
why Maurice is not distributing CMD
products, and I don't like speculating
on this situation.

CF - Would you like to comment on the
C=One machine and on the DTV?

RobertB - Oh, each one of those would
be a massive story!  I'll limit my
response to the current state of each
system.  The CommodoreOne started life
as a brilliant idea; however, its
execution was damaged by greed and
short-sightedness.  In order to save a
few Euros per board and thus increase
profits, the board was cost-reduced to
being handicapped.  What was eventually
produced was not what Jeri Ellsworth
envisioned.  It is now a board short on
FPGA space, a board patched with
soldered wires to make it work, a board
that cannot contain the super C1 core
that Jeri planned.  In a surprising
statement about what the C1 had become,
Jeri said to me, "The CommodoreOne is
crap."

Finally, in 2006, Jens Schoenfeld
tacitly admitted that the C1 was in
need of a FPGA overhaul so that
development could continue on the
super C1 core and other cores.  He
would produce a FPGA -extender? board,
and it would be sold for 99 Euros.
However, late in 2007, thinking that
such an extender board wouldn't sell,
Jens pulled back on the idea of
producing such a cure for the C1.
Thus, we are back to square one, back
to the year 2002 in which the C1 has
been stuck.

The C64 DTV 30-games-in-one joystick
also started life with much promise;
its eventual execution was damaged by
greed and short-sightedness, too. 
Though ostensibly a toy, Jeri
Ellsworth had slyly convinced the
producers that including many Commodore
features would not cost them another
cent.  To those in the know, the C64
DTV could be converted back to a
computer with enhanced features.  It
sold well. However, the partner company
that paid Jeri for the DTV wanted more.
They refused to pay Jeri her royalty
per DTV joystick, citing that the DTV
was losing money!  Though it was
supposedly losing money, they still
wanted Jeri to continue work on the DTV
ASIC chip so they could make a new run
of DTVs, possibly with 100 games in the
joystick.  Without being paid her
royalties from the first production
runs of the C64 DTV and the Hummer DTV
game console, Jeri refused to work on
any more modifications and sued the
partner company.  The lawsuit dragged
on for months, with Jeri spending quite
a bit of money out of her pocket in
order to pay her lawyers to pursue the
case.  In the end, the partner company
conveniently "disappeared"; there was
no company left for Jeri to sue. Jeri
did not receive her royalties; the C64
DTV never would have another production
run.

CF - Do you think Jeri Ellsworth's
creation of the DTV and work on the
C=1 computer has raised awareness of
the Commodore brand again?

RobertB - It has made certain people
aware of the Commodore again.  With
only over 100 C1 boards sold, the
public impact was miniscule.  With
over 700,000 C64 DTVs & Hummer DTVs
sold, general public's consciousness of
the Commodore brand shot to the
forefront for a short while.  When the
C64 DTV started selling on November 26,
2004 at midnight Eastern Time on the
QVC shopping TV network, QVC received
call after call live on-air from
people around the U.S.A. who said they
remembered the original C64 and wanted
to have that same gaming experience
with the DTV.  The network did a
stellar job at promoting it,
advertising it, and selling it quickly.

These days with no new production runs
of the DTV, with no presence on the
store shelves, the general public has
forgotten about it.  Time after time
at shows where we have a club table
and where we display Commodore items
including the DTV, people would come
up to me and ask if they could buy the
display DTV or ask where they can buy
such an item.  Now I have to tell them
that the most common place is eBay.com.

CF - And with this new awareness do
you think people who once owned/loved
Commodore machines are "coming back"
as it were to the C= community?

RobertB - This brief surge in awareness
brought about by the DTV has brought
the hardware hackers into the fray. The
DTV board has been used to replace C64
original motherboards, has been housed
in miniature game consoles, and has
even been turned into a handheld
computer with its own LCD screen. The
ingenuity of such hardware hackers is
quite amazing when you see some of the
products they develop just based on the
DTV board.
 With the hardware hacking has come the
software hacking of the DTV; various
utilities, modded games, and even
demos are available for it. Yet, this
flurry of DTV hardware and software
hacking has quieted down now that the
DTV is no longer readily available.

CF - If you had 1 million pounds, what
would you do?

RobertB - That would be 2 million
dollars or so, based on today's
exchange rates!  Well, if I had such a
large amount of money, I would pay off
my credit card debts, invest some of
the money, spread some of the money to
the family, donate to charities, pick
up a few high-priced Star Trek
souvenirs, get some more storage for
Commodore and Amiga stuff, and fund
some Commodore projects.  In the past,
I've funded some C= companies and
projects, and with that much money, I
could fund more.  For example, long
ago Jeri Ellsworth mentioned a
CommodoreTwo project, a new board that
would be free of the faults of the
CommodoreOne, a board that would be
manufactured here in America, because
she found out it would be more
economical to do it here.  The
Commodore Two would be built the way
Jeri meant the original C-One to be -
no shortcuts, no cost-reduced
components but the best components in
order for Jeri to work her C= magic on
it.  She would be given free reign to
design it and not a limited voice. She
would have the time, the resources,
and the money to accomplish her goal.

CF - Is there any question you would
have liked to have been asked and why?

RobertB - The general state of
Commodore programming and user groups
here in the states.  Why?  Because I
see a slow but steady decline in
activity.  When I review my articles
from the late 1990's and the early
2000's, there was so much more C=
energy to report.  Over the years,
Maurice Randall and Todd Elliott, the
best GEOS/Wheels programmers,  have
disappeared.  Jim Butterfield, fabled
C= programmer, died in 2007.  No new
development on WiNGs, the C64
multi-tasking operating system
requiring a SuperCPU.  Loadstar disk
magazine is published irregularly, and
it will only have a limited run until
its final issue at #255 or #256.
Genie, Delphi, and Compuserve, and
their dedicated C= areas are gone.
Few new demos from the NTSC groups,
though individual demosceners go on.

As reported above, where there used to
be several C= clubs in California; we
are now down to one with another one
trying to get off the ground.  Where
there used to be several in Oregon,
they are now down to one.  The same in
Washington state.  One in Nevada.  One
in Colorado.  None in Arizona.  The
clubs that still survive do so due to
the determination of a few.  If it
weren't for ACUG chancellor, Dave
Mohr, that Astoria, Oregon club would
fold. If it weren't for 5C's president,
Al Jackson, that Las Vegas, Nevada club
would have a hard time staying
together.  Several times, our treasurer
has told me that if I weren't president
of FCUG, our club would have closed
some time ago.  With older members
passing away or moving away, all the
clubs are having or will have a more
difficult time staying together.

CF - Robert, thanks for your time and
commitment. 
 
=======================================

http://www.redesign.sk/tnd64/
music_scene.html

Created by Richard Bayliss
with Special thanks to Rio/Rattenrudel

Commodore Free would like to thank
Richard Bayliss for his permission to
reprint this guide Many users would
like to make more of there machines,
we all have various talents and if you
felt inspired to create music on a
C64 where would you begin, in this
guide you are lead through the various
options, for creating music with
versions of DMC music editor

The Guide has been broken down in
sections the first part will cover as
highlighted the disk image that
accompanies this series is available
from here:
 www.redesign.sk/tnd64/DMC%20Music%
  20Editors%5BTND%5D.zip

the disk contains;
DMC V2.1 (GRAFFITY), DMC V4.0
(GRAFFITY) + Docs (By Richard), DMC
V5.0, DMC V5.0+ (CREAMD/C64.SK), DMC
V5 PACKER, DMC V5.0 SCANNER and DMC
V7.0 (GRAFFITY+UNREAL)

1  Introduction 1.1  Preface 1.2  DMC
Versions
2  Getting Started with DMC 4 or 7 2.1
 Main Menu 2.2  Sound Editor 2.2.1 ADSR

1  Introduction
1.1  Preface
1.2  DMC Versions

2  Getting Started with DMC 4 or 7
2.1  Main Menu
2.2  Sound Editor
2.2.1  ADSR

2.2.2  Wavetable
2.2.3  Pulse / PWM
2.2.4  Filter
2.2.5  Vibrato
2.2.6  FX
2.3  Filter Editor
2.3.1  Parameters
2.3.2  Filter Envelope
2.4  Track Editor
2.4.1  Channels
2.4.2  Options
2.4.3  Commands
2.5  Sector Editor
2.5.1  Options
2.5.2  Commands
2.5.3  Time Control
2.5.4  Global Filter and Pulse
2.6  Quick Recaps and Examples
2.7  Packer
2.8  Relocator

3  Getting Started with DMC 5
3.1  Introduction
3.2  The Sound Editor
3.3  Making your Drumkit


3.4  Making your first piece of music
3.5  The Other Bitz!
3.6  Packing your Music

1  Introduction
1.1  Preface
Richard's Preamble:
Welcome to the 'Music Scene'
tutorials. All the resources are my
and rio's work ? previous versions are
appeared in Commodore Scene. We start
from the BASICS to the advanced music
composing using my favourite music
composer, which is Graffitys' Demo
Music Creator V4.0.

Rio's Preamble:
Regarding to Richard's welcome, i want
say hello too. Inspired by Richard's
DMC tutorial and my own experience
using that editor, i was motivated
enough to update and to overwork the
article completly (with detailed
chapters and some artwork too). I
added a table of content and as well
as further infos and knowledge about
using SID and DMC 4 and 7 (that's my
fav editor). Some chapters are united
by richard's and my work, so that
people, who want to start composing in
these days have a compact
documentation about one of the best
editors for Commodore 64.

Why we do this?
Because we have fun making music on a
C64, sharing some knowledge about
Editors which are use the unique SID
synthesizer for composing tunes.

What you need for using DMC?
You can start with a real Commodore 64
with 6581 or 8580 SID in it (you will
need some storing hardware too, like
floppies etc.) or an emulator like
VICE or something else, which can
manage disk commands and sid emulation
etc. Notice that there is a difference
between the SID types. More details
will be given in the chapters below.
Notice as well, if you use an
emulator, there will be another key
assignment. Please read about the
emulations software for yourself. The
whole tutorial will be referenced to
original C64 keyboard assignment.

Further you should know something
about bits and bytes. A understanding
for hexadecimal number system will be
necessary. But for those, who don't
know: It's a number system with a
cardinal number of 16
(0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,A,B,C,D,E,F). So
every parameter or counter have to
write down as a hexadecimal number.
Parameter or command in this
documentation will be described with
variables, like:

SND.xx or FX: xy

If there are two x variables - a 8 Bit
parameter will be expected. If i talk
about x and y variable, then two 4
Bits (nibbles) parameter will be
expected. In some cases x and y
represent a state of a flag for each
parameter (e.g. FX, Waveforms). Then
every bit of a byte (8 Bits) can be
set for a specific state. For example,
if we want to change Bit 0 (it's first
position), we write a 01 as
hexadecimal number. If we want to
change Bit 1 and Bit 2 we write down a
06, because 0110 (bin) is representing
a 6 in hexadecimal system. If you have
some special comments or annotations,
we are pleased if you add your queries
in TND forum.

1.2  DMC Versions
The predecessor of DMC is the GMC -
Game Music Creator, written by Brian
of Graffity. You will find some
similar elements in that editor too,
but the following DMC versions are
more improved. The way of DMC
development (2,4,5,6,7) was
accompanied by several groups and is
at least mainly split in two programs:
DMC 4 and 5. Some groups have done
modifications in both DMC version, so
you will find a mass of different
releases. Most of them should never be
spreaded. DMC 7 (by unreal) was using
the code of DMC 4 and it's fitted out
with some special functions. So the
first tutorial part is for up for both
versions.

2  Getting Started with DMC 4 or 7
So many people in the C64 scene uses
DMC 4 and we are two of them. Well, if
you were expecting the old Music Scene
by Andrew, think again. This is
because Richard has decided to take
over 'Music Scene' and now i (rio)
have updated the whole tutorial
(Richard hopes Andrew didn't mind).

We have decided to teach you all how
to turn yourselves into cool C64 music
composers. For those of you who are
interested in learning to use DMC 4,
we'll be teaching you how to compose,
using sid fx's and dmc commands. You
will gain a small amount of knowledge
about synthesizers and of course using
C64 SID chip for your own style of
music. Anyway, let's forget all this
nitty gritty and get on with some
serious experimenting. The DMC 4 & 7
player has various options & editors,
which can help you create your own demo
songs by using the 3 Channels of SID.
You can even use up to 8 different
tunes in one file, by using tune
switching. Furthermore DMC 4/7 allows
you to monitor playing notes in 'LIVE
PLAY SYNTHESIZER' Mode (listen to
notes, by touching keys) and to record
sequences in a time-dependent 'RECORD
MODE'. Direct Monitoring (VOICE ON/OFF)
allows you to listen to everything you
tap in. DMC 7 is fitted up with a trace
play mode.

If you start the editor, it will look
something like this:

2.1  Main Menu
The DMC has various menu options
involved. There are sound and filter
editors, a music setup, a disk menu
(or I/O menu) and different player
setups. By pushing ? (DMC 4) or CTRL
(DMC 7) you will get into the main
menu. Use the CRSR keys to highlight
an option, use RETURN to choose one.

The Sound Editor is for creating your
instrument set. The filter editor is
for editing filters, which can be
assigned to a special instrument from
Sound Editor.

In music setup (tune setup) the global
speed and global volume can be
defined. Activating the disk menu or
I/O menu will switch into file
operating menu, where you can load and
store your tunes or use some Commodore
DOS commands. In most DMC versions are
different player routines integrated.
You are able to choose a player (e.g.
A or B). Some are better in quality,
others have a better raster timing.

2.2  Sound Editor
First of all, you need to build the
instruments yourself. Highlight the
'Sound Editor' option in main menu.

Okay, now take a look at the image
below. It shows you what the Sound
Editor looks like. If we go the first
time in the Sound Editor the first
instrument will be choosen
automatically. Watch out after SND: xx
parameter at the right-upper corner.
xx shows the current selected
instrument number. Up to 23
instruments are possible (16h), which
we can select with +/- keys. You are
also be able to copy and paste
instruments by pushing: ? Arrow (Copy
- part of the screen flicker in green)
and @ (Paste - part of the screen
flicker in red). The TRO: 0x value
below, represents the transpose of a
playing test note (C-x) by pushing
space. The tone transpose can be
selected with SHIFT_R and +/-. As you
can see, the sound data are full of
zeroes, therefore there is no sound.
Press space to test the sounds. You
cannot hear the sounds at all, due to
no data.

If you want to change a parameter, you
can select it by using CRSR keys Left
and Right. To set up a parameter,
simple press a key (0..F). Possible
properties for an instrument in the
Sound Editor are as follows
ADSR: 00EA

TO BE CONTINUED NEXT MONTH
====================================

In the Beginning Part 4
By Lord Ronin from Q-Link

 Had some fun with the keys, and
played some with the colours. A good
part of that is from the manual. Just
presented a bit differently <weirdly>
than the manual. Most BASIC books that
I have seen do about the same income
form. Now lets go into some of the
features from the manual.

 This first stuff is going to sound &
seem lame. At least to today's readers.
Remember the time that this was written
& for the people at that time. We are
going to start with one of the most
commonly used terms in BASIC, PRINT.
Correct that is the term and for this
moment in time. Consider that is
exactly what it does. As I understand
it is a bit of a hang over from the
early days of BASIC back in the 60s.
Where when you said PRINT. That is what
happened. The stuff printed on paper.

May sound weird to you. But there
wasn't really anything that looked like
a monitor in those days. Well what we
today would consider a monitor. My
class in the computer language FORTRAN
in 1974ce, in college. Well it was done
on punch cards that was fed into some
monster of a hopper. Big reels of
magnetic tape spun & a gigantic printer
would print out the result on fan fold
paper. Oh yeah and the room that all
of this was in, well it was as sterile
clean as possible. Being a slob, it
really irked me to be in that room.
Funny thing is that there is more power
in the 64 than in that machine & the 64
is faster. OK it is one hell of a lot
friendlier & fun to use.

 What I want you to do now is do a
little screen typing in the start of
programming. Don't freak out. I'm
telling you in advance that this is a
sort of programming. Book doesn't do
that, it sneaks it upon you. Oh right
I forgot to say earlier. Why yes, you
can programme, code, or just plain
write your own programmes for whatever
you want on the C=64. Books and
magazines that came out where full of
these, and it is how many people
learned to programme. Who today are in
computer fields on other platforms.
Good news for you is that I am not at
that or even near any aspect of that
level of programming. I am just a user
and lamer programmer.

 OK here is what to do. Type on the
screen as follows.

PRINT"SMEG HEAD" Well you can type
anything you want. Just make sure you
have the word PRINT and what you want
in the quotations. Now press RETURN.
Using my example you should see on the
screen.

PRINT"SMEG HEAD"SMEG HEAD

READY<cursor sitting here>


If you see the scary words of ?SYNTAX
ERROR. Check to see if you have the
quotes correctly. Also see if there is
anything else on that line. Like other
text or graphics.

 Computers deal with math. At least we
don't have to worry about that mess of
binary and other forms of math. But
now you get to turn the C=into a big
calculator. I'll tell out his point,
that I had a LED digital watch that
did most of the same math functions.
But this point will show you the math
part that you can use, straight or in
programming. Type the following.

PRINT 15+15 <press return>

 You should see a 30 right under the
PR in the word print. At this point
you can try more numbers. Big ones,
little one and several of them at
once, rather than just two. Just press
return at the end of the list of
numbers. As you can guess by now you
can also do subtraction. Same as above
but with the - symbol. Yeah you can do
multiplication. This uses the *
symbol. Division uses the/ symbol.
Examples follow <G>

PRINT 15+15+35+16.89+.11

PRINT 300-150

PRINT 25*4

PRINT 10/5

 Basic 4 parts of math. But the
crippled handed old man is also lazy.
Meaning that typing PRINT each time is
a bore. Good news, there is a short
cut. Just type ?.

?15+15

is the same as

PRINT15+15

 Now a word on what you have seen.
Most programmers do it the way that I
have placed above. Book shows it as
follows PRINT 15 + 15. Each of those
spaces do take up memory space in the
computer. You can type about 80
characters in a programme line. No
spaces keep it so you can have more
characters in the programming line.
This will make more sense later on.

 A thing that you may not ever need in
your entire use with the C=, comes
next. EXPONENTIATION, this is the
ability to raise a number by a power.
Ok more simply stated, you can square
or cube a number. Try this one...
?22 <two to the second power or two
squared> Press return. Now go ahead
and try other number like ?2734. OK
that is a bit of fun, and I have not
ever really needed it in my work. But
it is a feature of the C=64.

 However the next part I have used a
lot. Since I have that useless degree
in electronics. This is Scientific
Notation. On the C= it is read this
way, 1.76E+9. Basically this means
that there is a total of 9 places to
the right of the decimal point. A way
of writing very large numbers in a
small space. 1.76E-9 would be, right
negative numbers. You may or may not
need this for your work. All the math
operations will work with this form.

 Manual does go into the idea of
precedence. Or the order in which math
functions? are done in formulas. I?ll
take it that you read this sort of
stuff before, or can access it in some
way. So we can bypass it for now.Here
is something from the book that is
interesting. Combining some of the
things that we have covered. Type in

?"5+5 = ";5+5press return and you
should see...

 5+5 = 10

 And now lets stop for a bit. Take a
look at where we are now at in the
C=64. Because at this point we are at
the divergence.

 Fancy words to mean that we are going
to move in more than one direction in
this series. Because the book goes one
way and you may not want to go that
way. To make myself clearer, the book
goes into the rank beginnings of
programming. Great for those of you
that want to learn some level of Basic
v2 programming. However, not everyone
is interested in learning to
programme. Some people like a little
understanding of programming.

Perhaps to appreciate the work done to
create the programme. Others, sure
want to learn everything about
programming and start right off. But
there is a large group even today that
just want to play with the C=64. Using
"canned? programmes for their
interests. For those readers, I am
stopping the bookwork and going into a
bit of drivel about the C=64
programmes. Then I shall return to the
manual little programming items.

 What do you want from the C=64? By
that I mean what you are going to do
with it? Oh, balance the cheque book,
keep a journal of important things,
print out a calendar, learn algebra,
teach the little ones shapes and
colours and, well that goes on and on.
Naturally you want to play some sort
of game as well. Funny I have met only
few people that admit they have a
computer to use for different things,
including game play.

 Games are one of the most numerous
programmes for the C=64. Factory ,type
in, homebrew and the like. These range
from simple little guess the number
game <we will do that one from the
manual> into 15+ disk side adventures,
with graphics and sound. Now I am not
going to say what are the best games.
My opinion is mine and will most
likely not reflect our interests
exactly. I like Role Playing Games.
Semi-enjoy strategy games, get bored
with card games, and loath text
adventures. Yet I know people that
have the reverse feelings.

 What I intend to present here is some
comments about the games for the C=64.
Because from my experience over the
years, people have wrong ideas about
the C=64 games. So lets jump in and
get to it.

 Most of the classifications of games
that you enjoy on consoles and
computers. well they were devised,
developed and labelled on the
C=64.Many of them were also ported
over to other platforms. Examples
would be Pool of Radiance and
Wasteland. The latter was made for the
IBM system and is on a CD of games for
it today. There is a yahoo group list
for it that deals with the different
platforms for that game. On the 64 it
is just one double sided disk of play.
Don't think that you will finish it in
a day. Try weeks of playtime. There is
just so much to tryout in that game.
Pool, was ported to the Amiga PC
platform. Heard of but not seen copies
for the IBM system. That is the game
that took me three weeks of 6 hours a
day, 6 days a week to complete.

 Sid Meir's Pirates, also just called
Pirates, is another one that comes to
mind. Commodore to a game console to
as I understand not only an newer game
console but a non C= computer
platform. Or at least that is the
impression I gained from a friends
computer game magazine.

 Japanese game of Go is out there for
the C=. As are several types of chess
games. One of those even allows for
different boards <I like the 3D
one>and set up placement. Not a big
Chess player, OK, a lamer level chess
player. I think that the part about
setting pieces is like for those chess
books, and moves that are in the
newspapers of my youth.

 Card games explode with the C=64.One
of the first things I did from a type
in book was a simple card game. No
graphic, only text. A 21,blackjack
game. All the way into specific
graphics created images on the face
cards. In between are the simple ones
just using the C= graphics off of the
keyboard for the cards. Can't tell you
the games. There are so many, I mean a
couple people used to make a few card
games each month for the disk magazine
loadstar <back issues are available
from loadstar>and this was done for
several years. Besides I am a dum ork
and don't know that many card games by
name and or rules.

 Board games, besides the above chess
and go are out there, or even in your
collection. Monopoly, official Parker
Brothers one, and those that are not
exactly official. I like the one that
is London and the money is in BritCit
pounds. Clue is another game. Have to
admit that the game, on the disk, and
I mean the official game. Well it is a
bit different than the board game I
played in the 60s. More rooms and
characters as I remember. Of course
there is an almost infinite list of
these games. Some that are computer
board games. I didn't know they where
board games when I first found them.

 Sort of board but not exactly are a
set of the War games. Hard to explain
these to the non player and newbie C=
user. Many are simulations from
Victory and or Avalon hill. Nothing
fancy in the graphics. Mostly a grid
looking thing and you command the
forces. Gotta tell you that I
personally have problems with this
style. When you don't have the dox, or
instruction. A problem that I have on
most of the copies I have found.
Anyway should say that there are
online preservation sites of the
manuals and dox for many of the
C=programmes. Themes for this are just
about any major battle of campaign in
history.

 But there is another style of this
war game theme. Perhaps not as
historically accurate. For my tastes
,a bit more fun. Not to say that they
are any easier. This style may have a
proper name, but I never learned it,
so they are sort of action simulations
for a lack of the proper word. In this
type you are a more integrated part of
the war game. Dam Busters is a great
one for this. Doing an actual WW II
mission from the British. You are
flying a special Bomber. dodging enemy
& yeah there are also different views
that you can select. Right it is all in
graphics. some sound effects as well.
And no it isn't easy. I've never
finished it, well if it was the German
side I won. <BG>



 There is even a game where you an
explore the Titanic on the floor of
the sea. Pictures are from the early
remotes that Ballard did on the wreck.
A game where you can run a submarine.
The book or it says you can be allied
or German navy. But my used copy is
corrupted and never got to play it,
need to find are placement copy in
some form.

 Text adventures deserve to be
mentioned by themselves. First I must
say that there are two major types.
One is just plain text, the other is
one that has text and some graphics.
The latter part being illustrated
pictures on the screen.

 This type of game has its points and
fans. Also its drawbacks and
detractors. There are statements that
this form of game was the first style
for computers and goes back to the
60s. I've read the stories about that
in different books and online. Today
you may not have a clue to what the
game looks like or how it functions.
So I'll explain as best as possible.
First off I dislike these games with a
pink and purple passion. Good got that
out of my system. Lets move to the
positive points. This form of game was
exceptionally popular for the 8 bit
realm of existence. True text
adventures are just that, they are
nothing but text. All the sounds and
pictures must come from your mind. 

OK I'll add that from some companies,
specifically one called Infocom, would
add a mess of props to the game box. I
do have some of these in my
collection. In simple terms you enter
the game world. Read the story line,
then make certain choices at each text
entry. Things like picking up
something, going in a direction, using
an item. Oh yeah and looking/examining
things in the area that you are
located.

 An important thing to do in this game
style is to make a block map of your
travels. Other wise you will be lost
and go in circles in the game.
Creating a gigantic sense of
frustration along with the feeling
that the programmer intentionally did
this to you. <what he didn't?>

 It has been said that a picture is
worth a thousand words. In programming
it is worth a lot more in memory
space. That I guess is the reason why
text adventures where very popular.
Instead of having a mess of images and
sounds. A huge game world with twists
and complexities could be created.
Letting you paint the picture in your
own mind. Sort of like an interactive
book I was told. Variations on this
would have perhaps an image and a
sound effect at a specific place in
the story. I have seen a couple that
use what appear to be C= coloured
digital images. A few seconds of sound
to set the mood, and then back to the
text part of the game. Another version
uses just the C= keyboard graphics
<gfx> for the information. This type
is in one of my type in programming
books for text adventure games. In
this example there is a keyboard
command that will show you a map.
Displaying the areas you have
explored. All done with keyboard
graphics. A real big help in game
playing for me.

 Before I explain another type of text
with gfx game, and one that I can
play. Must tell you the down side to
the stock text only game. Trying to
not wax on this too much on the psych
or cultural stuff. Big problem is
"WHAT ARE THE FRELLING WORDS?". OK
some of the games have a command
called "VOCAB", or something close to
that type of word. Typing that in will
give you a list of the accepted words
for the game. Not all the games have
that option. Some do have a? HELP"
command. Again not all of them.
Personally I find my self lost early
on in the games. Because Haven?t a
clue as to what words to use at that
time. As an example the game Mist from
Infocom. That company was considered
to have the best text games.

My character is at the gates to the
grounds of the mansion. How-to get
through the lock gates on the stormy
night. Understand that I have the
props for this game. I have the story
as well in the manual. Even a handful
of the words. Though Infocom had a way
to use a lot of words in their games.
Took me hours of real time to make it
past that gate. Oh it was blow the
horn of the car. Like I would think of
that right off the bat? Not that it
would be done, but that it could be
done in the game. BTW: that was the
first encounter in the game. I never
got past the second encounter.

 Words, the right ones and their use
is one of the problems. Another is the
right things to do. That is naturally
based on the authors sense of values.
But also the time frame of the games
creation. Sort of a time capsule of
the world. Some games of this nature
use a bit of the current pop fad
language jargon in the text. Not in
what you need to type in, but in the
words in the descriptions. As you can
tell I have problems with this sort of
game. But to be fair. I have met people
that love these games. They hunt to
this day, for ones that they have yet
to play.

 Now then there are two variations to
this type of game. These have actually
gfx in them. One has a static picture
at the top of the screen. Illustrating
some point of the game. Based on your
location. There is a bit of
descriptive text at the bottom half.
Now there is either a blank line for
you to enter the words. Or there is a
set of words for you to select. This
type I have played with some success,
and remember fondly the Lord of the
Rings in this form. A more advanced
type is set up the same way. Having
the top part of the screen with the
scene. The bottom part with the words.
Maniac Mansion is the first one of
this style that I played. Difference
here is that the top screen is
animated. In game play  you move the
character around the screen(s) with
the joystick. At first you must select
the team of characters for the
adventure. Done with the joystick.
Next you take them, one by one, to the
front of the mansion. Now to get in
you need to score the key from under
the mat. This requires looking around
and reading the text information that
is presented. 

Getting the clues for that action. But
to do it, you must select the action
in a set of commands at the bottom of
the screen. You can probably guess
that I like this game. Well I only
finished it with the help of a couple
of walk troughs?. Like most of the
games I have experienced on the C=.
They are more in depth and take longer
than expected.

 Rest your eyes a bit. That is a lot
of information to digest as well.
Point is to accept and understand that
there is a wide variety of games.
Asteroids, Defender, Mario Brothers
and more classic coin op arcade games.
Like Frogger, and Donkey Kong <ever
find the Donkey?>,Pac Man and the
clever one called Plaque Man that was
a special dental care game for kids.
Well assuming I spelled it correctly.
Shoot' Em Up games. In fact there is a
construction set to make that type of
game. War games, and yes there is a
construction set to make them as well.
Adventure games, you know the type
where you explore the world, defeat
the bad things and eventually save the
day.

Yuppers there is a construction set to
make them as well. Oh I was just
reminded that some readers may not
know what exactly is a construction
set. Simply stated it is a utility
tool. Which will allow you to create
the above types of games. Then pass
them around to your friends and others
that use the C=. Yeah a creative
thing.

 That brings me to other things the C=
can do for you. Besides the games.
Quadratic <spelling?> equations, may
not be your bag. But I had a programme
that taught them to you. In fact basic
math into Geometry I have on disks for
the Commodore. Had one that would
teach you the bones of the body.
Typing of course, and that is one that
I should really use myself. Grammar,
and that too is another one that I
should use myself. Have a few English
ones. Side note they specifically
state that they are Canadian English,
not American. I'll stop there with the
educational programmes.

Pretty much you name it, and there was
something for it on the C=. One part
that I will add. Some of these were
adjustable. I mean that if you wanted
to say update the information for the
lessons. You could do that in the
programme.

 Print Master+ & Print Shop, these are
the two most widely seen programmes
for creating, greeting cards,
stationary, banners, calendars and a
bit more. Each one has additive disks
to the main programme. Adding more
gfx, fonts and borders for your use.
There are some others, but you see the
point. We have three voices and 9
octaves for the C=. Yes there are
programmes to create music on the C=.
Many hundreds of these where on Q-Link
for free download. I have an almost 2
mega byte file is zip format of an
unknown amount of the songs. That a
guy saved from Q-Link and sent to me.

 The News Room, that is a programme
that allows you to make your own
newsletters. Contains fonts and gfx
images. The latter you can alter a
bit, or create your own. There are a
few additional disks of fonts and gfx
that you can pick up as well. I have
most of this set. Want to draw your
own things? There is a wealth of art
programmes. No idea how many are out
there for you. However the most
popular ones that I know about and
have used are, Koala <which seems to
have been a standard hi-res art prg
.Since it is used in a lot of intro
screen things> Blazing Paddles,
Animation Station, Doodle, FlexiDraw
are the ones that I have used. Koala
and Animation Station are both tablet
style drawing programmes.

There is a crack running around for
Koala that allows the use of a
joystick over the tablet. FlexiDraw
has a mess of extra programmes, that I
have yet to use. Can be used with
other input devices. I though have
only used it with the light pen. Each
of these has its own pluses and
drawbacks. As well as their dedicated
fans. All I can tell you is that I
have seen some really great art work.
Nothing that I could attempt to create
myself.

 Games, educational, creative
programmes. Those are just major
category titles. Now then, the thing
that I do most of the time, writing.
Honestly I thought at first the
C=64would be a game machine for me.
Ends up I do more writing stuff than
anything else on it. No I am not going
on about what to write or how-to
write. I am a rather poor example of
that stuff. Nor can I tell you which
is the best programme to use.

 In fact since space is running out.
All of that will be in the next part.
At this time I want to impress on you
that there is a gigantic amount of
programmes of an almost endless
variety of styles and subject matter
for the C=. When you add that people
are still doing programme writing on a
25+ year old PC. What else can be
created? Obviously not everything as
of yet. OK next session continues with
the programme overview and then back
to simple from the manual BasicV2
programming.
=====================================

MossyCon 4 Personal Review

Written by Lord Ronin from Q-Link
Edited by Robert Bernardo


 "Da fullowin iz ritten da next murn
and wth liddle sleep un nah coffeieeee
yut."

Sunday morn at 3 am. We are still on
the phone with our dedicated #8
(weirdwolf) who through the mega-graces
of the bus system in the Portland
Metroplex missed the bus from there to
Astoria. #8 will have his rants on that
one I am certain. 'Cause I gots mine
EG.

Expected here at 9 pm Saturday night.
Was not a pleasant thing to see his
nickname show up in the chat around
that time, as we were to burn the CDs
for MossyCon and he was going to show
us how that was done, plus a few other
computer related problems were to be
rectified without Lord Ronin (myself)
using the ever-present big and heavy
hammer.

Between 9 pm-ish & 3 am, using Xchat
for IRC switching between screens,
creating a minute problem for #8's
phone and having to recharge it, we
did burn the 10 CDs for the Con.

A lot of thanks go to #8
(supercommodore-Destined!/weirdwolf...)
for taking all that time to work with
us on how to burn a smegging CD with
this new Linux flavour. Finding out
that the CD/DVD burner isn't working,
and we had to replace it with the old
one from the previous set-up. Then,
files that were downloaded not
installing for the burn, and I guess
those that use non C=64/128s are
familiar with this scenario a lot more
than I.

Up at 10 am, or earlier. Coffee on the
boil, cats demanding food. Set-up time
was to be 10 am at the pizza place.
Reminds me some or a few of us
attendees should send some letter of
thanks in some format to them. Well,
at 12:10 pm, over an hour after the
event was to start & 2 hours after the
set-up time, no ride yet, & that was a
bit worrisome, after last year's
medical problem for Robert. Worries
started to cross our minds. Nope,
things were just running a bit late. I
called the pizza place... yeah, me
using a phone... hey, it was a real,
rotary dial C= phone. Talked to Gene
Woods, who told me Robert was on his
way. Shortly after that, Robert was at
the shop.

Couple of bags of things from us,
along with #30 and myself, crammed
into the boat of a car of Robert's.
Well, compared to those Tonka toys
that are on the road now, it has been
called a boat, even if the backseat
hadn't been stacked with items. Well,
the interior of that car is made for
Robert. Not 6'2" me or 6'7" #30. And I
hate seatbelts as well. Oregon
mandates the use of them. Political
rhetoric aside.

Stopping at the back boor of the pizza
place, I showed Robert the back way
there (really, it is legally highway
30) to avoid the centre of town
traffic. We off-loaded ourselves & the
bags. Now I must add here that through
a misunderstanding, we had previously
collected a supply of Amiga items.
These were originally to be for
Robert. They were put in the trunk &
back seat. Want to thank Robert here
for being so understanding about the
mix-up and then seeing that many of the
items were dupes for his group &
allowing us to keep those items in
order that we may start to rebuild the
Amiga section after the sho-vah stole
the club's stuff.

There was a line of tables that held
many items that were just for the
show. Robert had the one that Jack
Tramiel signed at the CMH event in
DEC. Really, that C=64 should have been
under glass with an alarm system. An
Amiga 4000 with several autographs as
well as a 128DCR keyboard also auto-
graphed by some of the engineers.
A lovely presentation of a collage of
the late Jim Butterfield. Going past
that to the right was a collection of
electronic controls that reminded me
of my homebrew days in electronics,
though cleaner and neater. This was
connected to a SX-64. Along in that
area was a Lt. Kernal system that as I
understand has a few additives and is
working. At the end of the line past a
FD-2000 was a VIC-20, for which #30 &
Steve Jones had to return to the shop
in order to replace the PS that went
out on it.

But at the start of the line, right
next to the back door was a C= PET
2001. Not working and was slated for
Ray Carlsen for repair. Neither #30 or
myself had ever seen a real PET 2001 in
real life before. Now I understand the
reason for the term that was used to
describe the keyboard. But hey for us
lefties, the cassette thing is on the
left side of the keyboard.

Met Steve Jones and a man whose name
escapes me, but I think it was Bilud, &
his handle is Nightlord. Wasn't his
accent that tossed me as his English is
very good. But that it just had to
happen that day. Sinus problems blinded
my left eye (I'm left-eyed dominant),
& the ear infection returned so I was
deaf in the right ear. Plus I am
horrible at remembering names. There
was also Gene Woods, who has popped by
the shop from time to time seeing how
things are going with us, even though
it is a few hundred miles & several
hours drive for him. Good that he could
come to the event, as originally that
wasn't in the plans for his schedule.
Bad that he could come to the event,
because his main schedule got frelled.
Robert had set up a tab at the pizza
place for us. Didn't know that at the
start. At the first, since most of us
had not met each other at least in
real life, we sort of just talked
about ourselves and C= related things.
Had some pizza and drinks, mainly soda
pop for the group. Of course, I had to
be different & have beer, but as the
oldest one there, I can be eccentric
at times (most of the time). Talked to
Nightlord about role-playing games. He
had played some in the past, 2nd
Edition AD&D, and IIRC he had done
that in college with friends in his
native Turkey. I think that I went
overboard on the desires we have to
create C= RPG games and tools on the
C= for RPG games, but he did seem
interested in the idea.

Wildstar arrived, having to walk over
the hill, and it is a mean hill; I
can't do it anymore. Plus it was a
nice cool day with drizzle. OK, people
from Southern California may call it a
rain, but those of us in the Northwest
would call it a light drizzle.

Did have the enjoyment of a couple of
deer going past the windows, as they
came up from the bay and back into the
woods on the hill. Nice touch for the
day. Eventually, we had to settle down
some time around 2-ish. Nightlord (hope
I have his handle correct) did the
first presentation. Now I couldn't hear
well so some others should go into this
one. Also the tech level was not the
same as mine. In essence, he created
some demos in the scene which he had
shown earlier on a non C=laptop with
the emulator. Looked very good & the
speed was smooth. At that time he was
explaining many points of how it was
done. I caught the part of using the
CPU & mem in the 1541 at the same time
things are being done in the 64.

But that wasn't his main presentation.
This was his compiler thinggy; I can't
do the name justice. So basically, I
can say that he has created a C= C++
compiler. Does only work in emulation
for creation. But as I understand, the
work can be placed on stock 1541 disks.
He knows his tech & was presenting it
well to those other hardware people who
asked some poignant questions. MossyCon
was honoured with the display of a
Tetris clone that runs at a good speed.
Created with this new compiler for us.
Sadly, he could not release it yet.
Still working on the documentation
first. He wishes that to be done
before the item is released.

Next up was the fat, old, hippy freak.
My presentation was on the use of Geos,
such as GeoWrite, GeoPaint, GeoPub,
PostPrint & GeoDos. In the creation of
the items that I was able to convert
into .pdf files & burn onto the CD.
Only the burning & converting was done
on the Linux system. The rest, even the
zipped .D64s, were done on the C= with
the SCPU. Passed out most of the CDs we
had made. Few games and a lot of the
writings that I have done for the
group. Showed off actual raw 96-page
copy of a 1st ed AD&D adventure
completely created & printed on the C=.

SMJ (Steve) was up next. He described
his Prophet 64 thing. Now I could
follow some of this, because I do have
an ancient background in electronics
& once could play musical instruments.
But there was that hearing problem, &
most of his presentation had a crying
baby & an irate child screaming in the
other part of the pizza joint. What I
could see, & the screen was on a SX-64,
was a bit small for my eyes. Well, the
screen showed a lot of items that were
to me impressive. But the sounds that
he was able to create with his home-
brew box & some other modded electronic
equipment, well, I have never heard SID
sound so clean... as if it was one of
those megabuck synthesizers. True, he
had modded the SX to be a stereo with 2
SID chips. Started off his presentation
with his laptop, where he had
documented in pix the different steps
& alterations of the SX-64. I could
follow that part. But even deaf in one
ear, that sound was fantastic.

Robert followed by showing different
units he had brought. Starting with the
PET & going through the different
autographed C= items. Now if I had my
own transport & could run fast enough,
he would have had less to take back
with him VBG.

I left out that there was a framed set
of stamps. Robert had sent a pic of
Jeri to a place that places the image
on a real, usable, 41-cent USPS stamp.
This one is framed for display. He
donated one sheet for the raffle, and
I understand another will be for
another con/expo raffle.

But for the actual hands-on work, we
had to borrow my SCPU in order to see
the Metal Dust game. This was placed
on Robert's SX-64, the one that I
would like to liberate for the ACUG. I
mean it does have in the second drive
bay a FD-4000. But I am addicted to
C=. By using a cord, this was able to
be connected to the 1702 monitor at
the VIC-20. Not sure about the entire
game. Around three 1581 disks in a
nice box. Robert did state that it has
a tendency to try to save the high
score, but when it does that, it smegs
up a file on the disk, and the game is
dead. What I saw with a couple of
volunteers was a multi-colourful,
fast, sideways scroller. Spaceship
shooting at the asteroids & planetoids
that race from the right side of the
screen. My working eye had trouble with
the background and the foreground.
There is just so much on the screen, at
least seen about 7' away, that I
couldn't tell what was what. But I'll
accept that the eye problem was to
blame.

Another hands-on display was a set of
finger joysticks in a box. This is an
actual C= game, from about 1984 IIRC
what was on the paperwork. Does use a
disk, and one cannot use regular
joysticks. I was struck at the sight
on the table of how the box and
joysticks reminded me of a RC plane
set-up. Good thing I did, as that is
what this game is about. You are
flying a RC model plane. Well, the
testers did give it a try. High marks
for innovative crashing all around.LOL

Last in that demo presentation was the
VIC-20. There was one cart that had
IIRC 38kb or RAM, but a switch out of
the three broke off, cancelling that
one. But we did see and play with the
100+ games in one cart for the VIC-20.
Ah, no one got even close to finishing
the first level of Donkey Kong, and
playing Congo Bongo with the keyboard
was a bit hard, though there is a
joystick options.

One last thing, and it is out of place
in the demo part. Robert showed off
the new MMC2IEC IIRC it is called. He
had both sets, but lost his PS unit
for the display. I was impressed at
not only the fact that here is another
new piece of C= related Hardware, but
looking at what appeared to be a
micronised DreamCast memory cart and
finding it was at least a gig in size.
Then learning that one can place 1541s
onto it and use it like a 1541 drive.
I think that I will learn more and
save up.

Well, a lot more happened, but this is
very long. We left the place around 8
pm. Later, Robert & SMJ arrived at the
commune, where, yes they did see and
Robert had some of the Kittybox cake.
More pix were taken. Talked on games &
the like. Went to the shop, the ACUG
GHQ. Spent time there talking about C=
things & looking at the items in the
shop. Eventually, at some point past
2 AM, the guys headed back to the
motel. I crashed, & for some inane
reason, was up early in the morning.
Oh, yeah, I am up. as Robert was
bringing some Amiga things for us.
Great time, met new C= friends IRL, &
hope we will be doing this next year.

BCNU
Lord Ronin from Q-Link

COMMODORE FREE
MessyCon was recorded by Robert & is
available for purchase on 2 DVD-R in
NTSC format, The pictures in this
review were extracted from the video,
you can contact Robert at:

 http://videocam.net.au/fcug/
 Fresno Commodore Users Group

THE END..
 
