Commodore SD2IEC Cassette Tape Case

I’ve still not got round to building a proper case for my SD2IEC <;see previous blog post http://stiggyblog.wordpress.com/2011/10/29/sd2iec-new-toy-for-my-commodore-64/ >; and rather than have it sit in an antistatic bag I thought I’d make a get a quick an easy case for it that was a little more robust and at least keep the dust of it whilst it’s in use.

My SD2iEC board is slightly bigger than a standard credit card and thus fits inside a tape cassette case quite nicely. Plus, by definition the device almost replaces cassette tapes/floppy disks for my 8-Bit Commodores so i thought using an old school tape case would be kinda cool.

First thing i need to do was get the Dremel out the two plastic lugs on the inside of the case that used to hold a cassette in place. These would simply be getting in the way so after a quick chop and a little light sanding with one of the Dremel attachments, it’s all nice and smooth inside.

Next I need to cut away a section in one corner of the case to allow for the serial cable and then i cut away a small slot in the front side of the case to allow access to the SD card slot.

Still plenty of room in there but i’ll add a few adhesive foam pads for protection and stop the board from moving around.

I found a template for to print your own cassette insert on the internet which was already scaled to fit perfectly and added a retro cassette image and a few other bits using Photoshop.

I’m pretty happy with the results so far. I just need to make a few holes in the top so I can access the reset and disk change buttons as well as letting the LED lights to shine through.

I’ve amended the cover slightly by adding a ‘Commodore SD2IEC’ in the best matching Commodore font I could find (EuroStile Extended) as well as some simple ‘Load’ instructions similar to those on old Commodore game tapes – amended to load the sd2iec File Browser utility.

I’m also toying with the idea of creating two other alternative inserts. One would be a mock beige Commodore 1541 floppy drive complete with Commodore logo and colour ribbon (except it would read Commodore SD2IEC instead of 1541) and the other would be based on the grey Commodore 1531 Floppy drive. What do you think?

;

C64 EasyFlash sports fun.

I had planned on being outside and at the top of a ladder this afternoon doing a few maintenance jobs that need my attention but heavy rain had soon put a stop to that…..oh no, I thought

So back indoors, warm and with a giant mug ‘O coffee, i’ve been trying out a collection of classic C64 multi sports games that have been converted to cartridge format.

Games included are -

California Games
Summer Games
Winter Games
Games, Winter edition
World Games

The beauty of this collection is that each event is available as a stand alone game and accessible via a handy-dandy frontend menu. It’s great for mixing up the events and creating new Olympic style competitions….Gives me an idea for the next RCM meetup!

Commodore 64 on, with EasyFlash cartridge and SD2iec adaptor connected.

The cartridge (.crt) image is copied from my PC to the SD card and then inserted into the SD2iec adaptor.

It’s then transferred over to the cartridge via Easy Prog.

One completed, boot the cartridge and hey presto.

Here’s me having a play around with it – Charlie StiGGy don’t surf

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vZwKWQM0cU&feature=youtube_gdata_player

I did manage to catch the frisbee though!

Sadly, the link to download the collection appears to be down so feel free to request via the comments and I’ll email you a copy.

Here’s the link anyway, just in case it comes back online.

http://tinyurl.com/yjmhmv7

Dual booting JiffyDOS for classic C64

Thanks go out to my good friend and fellow RCM’er Jon for building me another JiffyDOS rom complete with his custom 28-24pin adaptor so that it can be installed into earlier (and the best) Commodore c64 ‘breadbin’ models.

This is a dual booting Rom therefore by adding a switch I’ll be able to select between the new JiffyDOS kernel or flip to the regular C64 kernel depending on whether i want to load games/files very quickly via my SD2IEC or switch back to regular C64 kernel mode.

Thanks Jon, they both survived our mail man See you at the weekend.

You can read all about how these where made over at Jon’s site.

http://www.jammarcade.net/2011/c64-breadbin-jiffydos-dual-boot/

SD2IEC – New toy for my Commodore 64

The SD2IEC interface is a modern mass storage device for Commodore computers and is best described as an emulated floppy drive. However, unlike Commodore disk drives that require actual floppy disks with their limited storage size, the sd2iec uses more modern SD storage media. Just imagine how many 100′s if not 1000′s of c64 program’s you can fit on just one 4GB SD card!

I’ve actually had this item stored away in my desk cupboard for a few months now and not really had the chance to play with it that much but after seeing my ozzy c64 up and running again, thought I’d take another look.

Mine was hand built by one of our members at the Retro Computer Museum (thanks Charlie) and it made me smile when it arrived in the post complete with ‘retro’ packaging!

Box contents included the sd2iec board, connecting cables….

…and as an extra bonus, a JiffyDOS chip for my Commodore 128 to dramatically speed up loading times. Sadly my C128 is poorly at the mo, so that will have to wait for another day.

Front side, showing the status LED, buttons and components.

Rear side showing the SD card slot and Sirmorris’ very well made circuit board.

After formatting a 2gb SD card (fat16) with my netbook, I copied over a few Commodore disk images of both .d64 and .prg type. To keep things organised the sd2iec supports directories Therefore i created folders for games (sub folders a-z), music and demos.

To make life easier browsing through the directories on the actual C64 I’ve copied over a file manager based on recommendations from my friends Jon and Stu.

With the sd2iec board plugged in to the c64 serial port (and cassette port for power), switched it on and was greeted by a brief self test LED light show!

On screen, the familiar C64 boot screen…and no puff of smoke.

To do anything useful you need to load the file manager into memory by typing – LOAD”browser”,8 (where ‘browser’ is the name of the file manager).

After a second, Type RUN to load the File Manager.

All of the folders created earlier are now presented onscreen and can be browsed through with either the cursor keys or joystick.

It’s very basic but it does the job perfectly and is lightning fast.

Select a file to load and the C64 thinks it’s loading from floppy disk.

There’s a whole host of homebrew program’s available online and one of these is a rather natty SID tune player called SIDPlay64.

I’ve copied the program to my SD card and a few of my favourite SID tunes from the High Voltage collection. The front end is really easy to use and all the controls via keyboard are clearly explained on screen. It’s so nice to hear the original C64 SID chip do it’s stuff!

Game time!

As you can see, loading time is about the same as if from original floppy disk and although it’s pretty rapid, it can be increased dramatically by installing a JiffyDOS rom chip inside the C64.

Chatting to my mate from the Retro Computer Museum today, Jon has offered to send me switchable JiffyDOS roms for both my C64 and C64c. Huge thanks Jon, I can’t thank you enough! I’ll be following your ZX Speccy composite mod soon!