
Commodore Free Magazine
http://www.commodorefree.com/

Issue 33, September 2009

Free to download magazine
dedicated to Commodore computers
Available as PDF, HTML, TXT, SEQ
and D64 disk image

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

CONTENTS

* Editorial
* NEWS
  - Ethernet Cartridge
  - JiffyDOS License Acquired
  - 185 Classic AMIGA Games & Joystick
  - Bezerk Redux Updated
  - The C2N-II Datassete project
  - BBC computer Does SID
  - 1541 Ultimate II announced
  - Cosine TMR Game preview
  - Commodore 64 Hacking
* Interview With Marshall Alexander
* Commodore64 Ringtones
* Geos & Role Playing Games
* Interview with Johan van den Brande
* Commodore 16 and plus 4 pages
  - Graphic Tally Commodore 16+4
  - Tally Counter
  - VAT Calculator
* Commodore Computer Club Meeting
* Interview with Arcade Retro Gaming
* Multiple Classic Computer Platform

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

Editorial

Someone I know is a fanatic about X
brand of Coffee,

Nothing else will do, and yes I have
tried offering different varieties
and pretending its brand X, but he
can taste the difference. This leads
me to hardware in a very round about
way to;

Many Commodore users are fanatical
about there machines. This isn't a
problem; I may upset some of you here
by saying I am not just a Commodore
user. When I worked for Silica shops
in the U.K. (anyone remember them) I
became quite attached to the Atari
Falcon!

Now ok every machine has its
strengths and weaknesses and I know
the Falcon wasn't blessed with all
the greatest features, especially if
teamed up next to the Amiga 1200.
However I was quite drawn to the DSP
(Digital Sound Processor) in the
Falcon and wondered how far the
machine could be pushed. Sadly, the
Falcon never really took of (I know
some diehard Atari users will claim
otherwise; but hey you should be
reading and using Atari fanzines not
Commodore ones) I also quite liked
the Atari Jaguar, Atari's 32bit
console although I think they
marketed it as 64bit because it
contained 2 x 32bit chips so 32 and
32 = 64bit The Atari Jaguar seemed to
have a lot of features, Jeff minter
was backing the machine, and a quite
excellent version of Doom existed for
the device, and quite a nicely
designed hardware box (although again
you may claim differently as this is
subjective matter) placed next to the
CD32 that used CD media instead of
cartridges, well personally I think
the CD unit for the Jaguar should
have been provided free of charge.

Some Hardware technical type people
seem to like bits and pieces from one
system and hate other features from
other systems. The Commodore 64
gained an advantage because of the
SID (sound interface device) although
I think it should have had 2 SIDs in
the initial hardware design but then
I suppose there was a costing element
involved. Of course the hardware
sprites made the machine more
flexible and produce Arcade style
graphics. Now I may upset people by
saying I was never a fan of the Zx80,
Zx81 although these was the first
machines I ever "touched" as a child
to program, starting with the now
famous "hello world" and "input your
name" style applications, but I
suppose we all start somewhere. The
Sinclair machines suffered from the
membrane keyboard ,strange input
methods of characters and of course
no hardware sprites, and the sound
well it virtually wasn't there (the
zx81 didn't have any and the Spectrum
just had a small internal speaker
that fuzzed a little)

Watching the Television recently I
found someone praising the glory of
the Atari 2600 console, and I
remember sitting at the machine with
a friend playing "tank Command" quite
a remarkable offering (at the time)
from Atari something the whole family
could crowd around take turns and
beat each others high scores.

A friend at school also had an Oric
atoms now I cant remember off hand
about the specification of this
machine, I just remember the small
size and keyboard. Yes many other
systems have existed and I still
remember using some form of Timex
system with a small cassette and till
roll printer, this was version I
produced my not so famous "wall paper
estimator" application that told you
how much wall paper to buy, some
years later and I still haven't
perfected the program fully; although
I have used it to calculate how many
rolls of paper I need and it does
function to my needs, just a little
clunky.

A great many systems have appeared
and failed due to lack of software,
or features or bad design.

Of course I have just touched on a
few machines here; but it leads me
nicely into memories and retro
computing. Remember your grandparents
always said things were better in the
old days, well I don't really buy
into that, yes they seemed more
exciting for me when I was a young
child, and watching my sons
excitement at an imminent
thunderstorm and other "grown ups"
around just shrugging and saying "umh
another thunderstorm going to get wet
again" Now my young son was amazed
shouting "look the black clouds are
coming" and then "we will get
lightening" and constantly shouting
"it's a thunder storm it's a
thunderstorm?" took me back to when I
saw "Monty mole" on the Commodore 64!
I purchased the Cassette version from
a local cosmetics store called
"Boots" mainly for the screen shots,
but also I had heard about the sound
track. The game loaded and My friend
and I looked in amazement; "how is
this music coming from the Commodore
64, its not possible!" We then told
all our friends that "The music is
amazing listen.." and taped it onto
Audio cassettes to play whenever we
found a unit to place them in.

Not all retro was great,

Slow loading, large floppy drives are
all a thing of the past, now we have
SD cards hard disks and IDE
interfaces, we also devices that can
load games from memory in seconds
(although really this isn't that new
a feat for Commodore users". So while
some look back at Retro with rose
tinted glasses, just remember it
wasn't all good. Do we remember our
childhood as great and so everything
about it was great, music, computers,
TV, etc... I do remember with
fondness some of the old shows and
toys from my childhood, heck they
still look great today, is this just
my fondness of my youth or was there
something special happening. Back
then it was all innocence, today
teenagers just want to link into
facebook and brag about the number of
friends they have. I remember that
although playing computer games was
amazing, when the sun came out
playing "kick the can" was also as
good. I never really got on well in
school, maybe this was the teachers,
and maybe it was a rebellious streak.

Retro is becoming big business,
people are making money out of
selling old systems.

Who is buying the systems?

- Well to my mind it seems to be
this; Some people just collect
systems to place in a museum never to
see the light of day, maybe they have
to much money or just like the
thought of collecting all the boxes,
its like a "Clarice Cliff collector"
collecting everything she made to
place on display in a large glass
cupboard. If the device isn't used
for the purpose is was made I cant
really see the point of owning it,
however some people would disagree. I
know there are museums you can go
round and look at the items, and
preserving history is a worthwhile
cause but a "closed" museum that only
the collector has access to..

- Then we have the nostalgic; someone
who remembers the unit as a child and
it evoked strong memories, they want
the feeling of childhood excitement
back so buy the unit and for a while
its fun; but then they get fed up and
the unit ends up back on eBay or in
the loft.

- Next we have the normal users,
pushing the hardware like Geos users
printing out colour postscript files.
Programmers creating new and amazing
demos, musicians getting more and
more voices from the SID chip.

So then to sum up

I am not just a Commodore man I like
many consoles for differing reasons;
the thrill of "Tank command" the
memories of laughing at others
failing to beat our high scores, the
BBC micro and in my mind the best
version of elite; coupled with the
joy at gaining the "elite" status and
taking photos of the screen to brag
at school, the thrill of tempest2000
the flashing colours and the thumping
techno music and all that superb eye
candy, the feel of a unit in your
hand the stylish look

Even today those feelings; for me
have not gone away, amazing Commodore
demos of such programming skill I
still look at the screen in absolute
amazement; how the heck can this be
done. Nothing is impossible, heck we
even walked on the moon. Bring on the
console bring on the challenge..

Errrrmm that's it for this editorial
see you next time

Thanks
Nigel
www.commodorefree.com

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

NEWS

Ethernet Cartridge

Low cost C64/C128/C128D Ethernet
cartridge
The Cincinnati Commodore Computer
Club (CCCC) is now shipping the low
cost 64NIC+ Commodore 64/128 Ethernet
card. Designed to provide entry level
Ethernet connectivity for the C64 and
C128, the unit emulates the popular
RR-NET and will operate with
applications designed for the RR-NET.

In addition to basic Ethernet
functionality, the cartridge offers
an auto-start ROM capability,
enabling auto-boot Ethernet equipped
machines. Both C64 and C128 modes are
supported. In addition to RR-NET
emulation, the unit offers NET64
emulation and can be mapped to any 16
byte address bank in either IO1 or
IO2.

Designed by Brain Innovations, the
cartridge is offered for sale by
CCCC. Base pricing is USD$55.00.
Please contact CCCC for more
information and ordering details.

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

JiffyDOS License Acquired

Brain Innovations has acquired a
license to once again offer the
venerable JiffyDOS disk drive
enhancement solution for the
Commodore computer line. Now setting
up for sales, the company will offer
not only physical ROM replacements
but also ROM images. All drive and
machine ROMs will be available for
sale and/or download.

More details and the ordering
information will be available at
http://www.jbrain.com

From Jim Brain
As announced at the C4 EXPO, I am
working with Mark Fellows (Highland
IT Solutions) to finalize a licensing
agreement for 'JiffyDOS' ROM Overlay
manufacture and distribution.  In
addition to hardware ROM enhancement
units, I will also offer image
downloads for 1541 Ultimate, C64DTV,
and emulator users, as well as an
amnesty offering for unlicensed
copies.

To minimize manual manufacturing
processes inherent in the current
EPROM-based JiffyDOS offerings, my
goal is to utilize the ROM-el
EEPROM/FLASH solution for JiffyDOS
hardware offerings

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

185 Classic AMIGA Games and original
Competition Pro Joystick
available from Arcade Retro Gaming

185 Classic AMIGA Games and original
Competition Pro Joystick  in a unique
combination Package.
http://arcaderetrogaming.mybisi.com/pr
oduct/158821/185-Classic-AMIGA-Games-o
riginal-Competition-Pro-Joystick_78121
9.html

The use of very robust micro switches
for the two main buttons and the USB
connector for connecting to the PC
make the only difference between the
old and the new.

This Joystick is nearly unbreakable
and even more solid as the original.

The COMPETITION PRO is suitable for
all PC games that support digital
input devices. The joystick is
perfect in combination with emulators
that make classic Amiga, C64 games or
ATARI Games playable on the PC.

Of course, it also looks good as a
decorative object on the shelf unit.
And anyone wanting to remind an
classic C64 or Amiga fan of the
glorious old days will certainly find
an ideal gift in the COMPETITION PRO.

With this joystick memories come
flooding back !!

Who doesn't remember the star from
the eighties?
- Indestructible and always ready for
action.

With the new edition all
characteristics were taken over 1:1.

The dimensions are the same, the
stick is made of solid metal and the
extremely long-lived micro switches
produce characteristic clicking

The optimal joystick for beginners !!

Four firing buttons and the turbo
function permit enough control to
defeat every opponent. Made of robust
material the joystick is perfectly
suitable for every game sequence.

Perfect for use with an Amiga
emulator on the PC.

Extensive collection of games: 185
Amiga classics !!
Back to the '80s: 4 digital buttons
which make the original sound
Digital joystick with micro switches
Auto fire mode
USB connection
Extremely robust sprung metal stick
No driver needed

Go RETRO! With AMIGA CLASSIX DIAMOND
EDITION!

Welcome to AMIGA CLASSIX DIAMOND
EDITION,

the ultimate Amiga games compilation
for Windows-PCs. This CD will take
you on a journey back in time. A time
when computers were fed with
diskettes and only had 1MB of memory.
The Amiga began its triumphant
journey through the living rooms back
in 1985 with its unbelievable
graphics and sound characteristics.
Hundreds of brilliant games were
released for this system and most of
these titles easily beat many of
today's games in game design and game
play. With the AMIGA CLASSIX DIAMOND
EDITION you can experience the
incomparable feeling of classic Amiga
games once again.

AMIGA CLASSIX DIAMOND EDITION gives
you the possibility to dive into this
legendary world in an easy and
comfortable way. It includes a
detailed simulation of the original
computer models. At the start of a
game you will hear the familiar sound
of a working floppy drive again. Also
the loading times do not differ from
the original versions. We have
endeavoured ourselves to create
everything as authentic as possible.
Of course we used modern programs in
order to be able to offer you the fun
of the past on modern computer
systems. Now we want to send you into
an exciting world, which
coined/shaped the consciousness of
millions of humans.

1497 - Five Years After
18th Hole
1942
Aardvarks
AmiBee
Amiga Mini Tiles
Amotrix
Anstoß
Anstoß World Cup Edition
Aquakon
Argus
Astatin
Auf dem Weg nach Europa
Automobiles
Ball Lightning
Ball Master
Battle Duel - Striving for Glory
Battle Othello
Black Dawn
Bobble Puzzle
Bobbydash 1
Bomb Jacky
Bomber Blaster
Bop'n'Plop
Brain Race
Buzzy
City Cars
Combine
Crack Out
Crazy 8's
Das blaue Auge 2
 Das Erbe
Das schmutzige Erbe
Death Angel
Death is on the Way
Deconstruction
Defender of the Crown
Denjoy
Der Patrizier
Der rasende Reporter
Diplomacy 2.0
Duel
Duel Sword Dudes
Elefanten
Emeraude Empire
Energie Manager
Epsilon 9
Fatal Impact
Ford Capri Challenge
Fortress
Free Trading Company (DE)
Free Trading Company (EN)
Furmyre
Goal!
Hanse - Die Expedition
Indian Joe und der Schatz der Inkas
Indigo
Interphase
It Came from the Desert
It Came from the Desert II - Antheads
Jimmy's Fantastic Journey
Judgement Day
 Jump'n'Roll
Kingdom at War
Knightwoode
Krypton Egg
Last Lap
League Soccer Cards
Lethal Formula
Lords of the Rising Sun
Magnatron
Marbles
MegaTron
Metal Warrior
Mobsters City
Norse Gods
Omega
Pepsi - All over the World
Pick Out
Plubz
Push'n'Pull
Raid
Raid II - Mission X
Raid III - Total Fire
Raid IV - Super Raid
Rattlesnake
Realm of Sendai
Relics of Deldroneye
Relics of Deldroneye II
Return to Zantis
S.D.I.
Shisen-Sho
Shoot'em Baddies
 Sinbad and the Throne of the Falcon
Slez
Soccer Cards US '94
Solius the Sorcerer
Somewhere in Time
Space Job
Starbase 13
Strike Commander
Swibble Dibble
Teen Agent
Telekommando
The Amazing Adventures of Harry
Haddock
The King of Chicago
The Lost Prince
The Shepherd
The Simulator
The Task
The Three Stooges
The World of Magic
The World of Magic II - Ghelae and
the Death Sword
Tubes
TV Sports Baseball
TV Sports Basketball
TV Sports Boxing
TV Sports Football
Ultimate Gameboy
Virtual World
War
X-Balls
Zalycon
Zock Out

List price $34:99 Sale price $29:99
http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/arcadere
trogaming
http://arcaderetrogaming.mybisi.com/

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

Bezerk Redux Updated to version 1.2
http://noname.c64.org/csdb/getinternal
file.php/77624/BerzerkRedux.d64

Martin Piper
Thank you all for the great feedback.
:)

After 345 downloads of V1.1 the new
1.2 version (link already updated)
has the following changes:
- Any drive number can be used to
load the game, not just drive 8.
- A load error is reported as a load
error and not as a crash.
- Updated music routine that sounds
better with SID 8580. The 6581 is
fine and remains unchanged.
- Player shoot sound effect updated
from zerozillion's SEUCK data tweak.

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

The C2N-II Datassete project
http://pc23te.dte.uma.es/C2N-II/

The C2N-II Datassete
The C2N-II Datassete is a M.S. Thesis
of the student Pablo Tomás Campos
Valladares in order to obtain the
grade of Telecommunications with the
speciality on Electronic Systems.
This project is directed by the
professor Francisco Javier González
Cañete in the University of Málaga
(Spain).

The objective of this project is to
develop a hardware device in order to
replace the C2N Datassete of the
Commodore computers. This hardware
will be able to play the TAP image
format (this format is a dump of the
original cassettes). As this is a
digital format, no errors will occur
during the loading of the software
(as it can occur with the cassettes).
The TAP images will be stored in USB
Drives and the C2N-II will let you to
select the file and play it.

This hardware will be compatible with
the Commodore PET, VIC 20, C64 and
C128 models.

22 July 2009
The final boxed C2N-II has been
released. Some of the games that
previously did not work now do. The
firmware is going to be improved
because some games do not load
correctly.

Here you have a picture with the
final boxed version of the C2N-II.

8 July 2009
The first prototype has been released
and it has been tested for the first
time using a real Commodore 128. Some
minor bugs with the SENSE and MOTOR
signals were found and corrected. The
USB Drive is working fine. We obtain
the directory list and we can
navigate in the directory structure.
We tested 8 games with different
loaders and 4 loaded correctly and 4
did not load (50% of success). The
timings have to be improved in order
to get a 100% statistic.

Here you have a picture of the first
prototype with an USB Drive plugged.

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

BBC computer Does SID

Here is a BBC computer that has been
adapted to contain a far superior
sound chip from the Commodore 64 the
SID chip. The one thing the BBC
always lacked was decent sound; now
it has it

BBC Master with a SID chip(!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KufZAu
5Ioc
Uploaded by TMR
This is a small and very badly shot
recording of a BBC Master with a
little black box that connects the
SID chip from a C64 to it for sound;
the game is a prototype, in
development at the moment.

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

1541 Ultimate II announced

Gideon recently announced a successor
of the 1541 Ultimate.

Key changes:

MircoSD instead of SD cards
no optional Ethernet until further
notice
tape emulation out of the box
real-time clock
significantly improved audio output
case included

Find out more at www.1541ultimate.net.

http://www.1541ultimate.net/content/in
dex.php

1541 Ultimate II announcement
Dear 1541 Ultimate enthusiasts,

Some of you might have noticed that
the order form has been temporarily
closed, and many questions and
rumors' have been going around about
the future of the 1541 Ultimate. The
reason behind all this, is that
behind the screens I have been
working on a successor of the "1541
Ultimate". How this unit will be
called has not yet been determined,
but it could be something as simple
as "1541 Ultimate II" or "Ultimate
Cartridge".

What is it, and why was it designed?

Basically, it is a scaled down
version of the 1541U. It will provide
similar functionality, although some
things have been changed. It will no
longer support full-size SD-cards,
but only MircoSD, or "Transflash".
Also, Ethernet will not be supported
until further notice. It will support
tape emulation out of the box
(without the need for special FPGA
images) and it will provide a
real-time clock function with battery
back up. Audio output has been
significantly improved, which might
seem useless for just the drive
sounds, but this enables the creation
of FPGA images that provide
additional sound channels of useful
quality. The power consumption has
been reduced as well. There is one
extra cool feature that will not yet
be disclosed ;-)

And last but not least...

This unit will come with a case! At
least, that is the plan; there are
some negotiations going on with
manufacturers for plastic insertion
mounding. It seems feasible to have
this done, although it's pricy for
low quantities. A prototype is
3D-printed this week; the prototype
board is already there and functional.

Now, speaking of the case....

Since I like to keep the high
compatibility with the 1541, the big
DIN connector is still there on the
board. It might be an option to use a
custom connector for this, with a
custom cable that needs to be made
for this unit, but to be honest; this
does not have my personal preference.
I would need to have these made
separately, and stock them separately
as well. So, let's say that the big
DIN connector is a fact, how do we
enclose this? There are two options;
which are shown below:

And the second option is:

As you can see, the first one has a
"strange" bulge, but is for the rest
rather elegant, while the second one
is symmetrical, but bulkier. Which of
the two it should be, I don't know..
Maybe I'll open a poll for this, what
do you think?

Availability: It will still take
around 12 weeks before these units
can be delivered; which means late
October 2009. Price: I tried to keep
the price acceptable. Due to the
case, it has to go up just slightly
though. The selling price including
tax is ? 125; (excluding: ? 105).

Please let me know what you think.

Regards,
Gideon

Open sourced!!

The software part of the 1541
Ultimate is from now on Open Source!
Although the hardware still needs to
be documented, people can already
check out the source code, edit it
and build new applications for the
1541 Ultimate! The source is released
under GPL 3.0, which in short means
that every addition to the source
code will also need to be open
sourced and the code or parts thereof
may not be sold. The full license
agreement can be found in the 'root'
(trunk) of the SVN archive.

In order to build the software, you
need to do the following:

Install Cygwin, or run under Linux.
Make sure you have:
GNU make in order to run the
makefiles.
GCC compiler, in order to build the
conversion tools.
Install CC65 (http://www.cc65.org),
and make sure you have the required
environment variables and path set.
Install a SVN client package (either
command line in Cygwin) or a
graphical client such as Tortoise SVN.
Check out the repository from
http://svn.xp-dev.com/svn/gideonz_1541
Ultimate/
Go to the trunk directory and type
'make'.
At this point, the archive is
read-only. If you are a developer and
want to make a significant
contribution to the 1541 Ultimate,
please contact me and we can discuss
being a write-user on the archive.
Bug fixes from others can be E-mailed
as patches, which I'd happily merge
with the archive.

Happy programming!

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

Cosine TMR Game preview

Commodore Free
Cosine (TMR) has release a very nice
looking preview for GR9 Strike Force
here is what TMR has to say about the
post "taken from youtube"
TMR

This is GR9 Strike Force, the C64
game i'm writing for Retro Reunited
in September. This is an early
prototype of the first level, the
attack wave driver is set to loop
around six attackers for the moment
and there's not much in the way of
map data yet...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRh1QFS
9zWY

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

Commodore 64 Hacking
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjcvR5M
cmSg

This is unbelievable, a Commodore 64
emulator "Frodo" running a game, with
a difference, on the left of the
screen you can see the memory map and
different areas of memory changing in
real time! Ok this is good but then
we see the user jump into these
memory areas showing the individual
bytes that make up the memory map.
The user then changes these bytes in
real time and the emulator screen
updates again in real time to reflect
the changes. You need to see this to
believe what is happening. Then when
you have picked yourself up I suggest
you sit down for at least 30 minutes
with a cup of tea to recover, this is
unbelievable.

This is a preview of a new hacking
tool that provides real-time view and
edit of C64's internals.

Enjoy the hacker's view of Commodore
64.

[Note]
The hacking tool that you see is
under development. 'ICU64' will be
available for download, probably, at
the end of this summer, along with
'Frodo Redpill'. Support for VICE
(x64) have been added..
Mathfigure

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

Interview With Marshall Alexander
Paper engineer

http://www.marshallalexander.net/
http://members.chello.nl/m.egtberts2/p
df/fs9.pdf

Hello Nigel,

Here's my answers to your questions,
make sure you send me a PDF of the
magazine once it is finished. Enjoy!

Growing up in the seventies and
eighties, my childhood memories
basically consist of videogames,
bright plastic toys and TV cartoons.
Any time that was left I spent
drawing and programming games for my
Commodore 64. At a later age a few of
my childhood dreams became a reality
when I temporarily moved to
Melbourne, where I worked as a
videogame programmer, I did
oil-painting in a studio and had my
work displayed in one of the local
galleries. After a course in Graphic
Design I made a career-switch and
became a graphic
designer/illustrator. Currently back
in The Netherlands I work at a small
design company and spend my spare
time illustrating my childhood
memories and designing paper toys. I
specialize in one-piece paper toys
that consist of a single flat piece
of paper, which by intricate folding
is transformed into a 3-dimensional
model. All models are available for
free download, so collect them all,
start building and enjoy the world of
paper toys

CF.    Can you give our readers a
little history about yourself?

MA.    I'm a 38 year old graphic
designer / illustrator who started
out as a (game) programmer. Computers
and games have been an important part
of my life and growing up in the
golden age of computer games has
helped a lot with that. I still play
games very actively and the fact that
I have two kids provides me with a
nice excuse.

CF.    You worked briefly as a
programmer was this with 8 bit
machines, and what software were you
writing?

MA.  I taught myself programming on a
ZX81 and later on a C64 when I was
still very young and wrote my first
(amateur) games. Later on I studied
Information Technology and ended up
as a game programmer in Melbourne
where I worked on games for the
Playstation 2, PC and also the
Gameboy Advance. Ultimately
programming was not the thing for me
so I did a career-move and started
doing graphic design.

CF.    Please tell our readers about
your website
http://www.marshallalexander.net/

MA. The site is an outlet for my
personal projects for which there is
no room at my day-time job. I enjoy
having complete freedom with these
projects and not being restricted by
client demands, corporate culture and
other creativity killers. Plus it's
an attempt to get my fifteen minutes
of fame of course :)

CF.    So on the site there are paper
models to download and make for FREE

MA.  Isn't it great! The paper toy
community is all about sharing,
collaborating and interacting with
your fans and part of this philosophy
is offering your models for free
download. It's pretty similar to
street art, where the art is there
for everyone to enjoy, freely
accessible and occasionally ends up
in galleries.

CF.    Did you ever think about
selling the models or the ideas to
someone?

MA. When clients approach me to
design a model that they will use to
sell their products or want to sell
as a product itself, I will charge
for it as if it is a normal
illustration job. I'm talking to a
few clients at the moment for which I
might have to design some models, but
generally designing paper models does
not seem to be a very lucrative
business.

CF.    3 of the models are easily
recognised a Commodore 64, an Atari
and an old pong game, do you
reminisce about your childhood

MA. My childhood memories are an
important inspiration for my personal
work. It provides me an opportunity
to relive some great moments from my
youth. Also the seventies and
eighties somehow seem to have
produced some great toys and
computers that are still very popular
and still have very active fan
communities nowadays.

CF.    The Models are in a stylised
way and look like little men were
there any reasons for this rather
than just models of the machines as
they were

MA. The models are part of the
Foldskool Heroes series, a bunch of
models that pay tribute to heroes of
my youth. All models are based on the
same template, so I generally have to
fit all my ideas into this template.
In the case of the game consoles I
therefore had to take some liberties
regarding their layout and just try
to convey the general look of the
console. And it makes them look a bit
more like characters as well, which I
thought was nice as well.

CF.    Do you still or did you own
any Commodore Computers

MA, Of course :) At one time I even
had two C64's and had them connected
in a simple network, which was pretty
cool. I wrote a simple chat program
and placed the second C64 in little
brother's room so we could talk to
each other. The funny thing was that
the chat program that I installed on
his C64 had some hidden features in
it that I could trigger from the C64
in my room. I would drive my brother
crazy with sudden flashing screens
and stuff like that. Nowadays I don't
own a real C64 anymore, but I
occasionally play some old games on a
C64 emulator.

CF.    Do you have any plans to Model
other retro machines?

MA. There are a few ideas that are in
concept stage right now, so I'm
hoping to do another series of retro
machines.  I had some excellent
suggestions from fans around the net
as well. But I've got so many other
ideas and projects I'm working on as
well that it might take a while
before they see the light of day.

CF.    The drawings on the website
are very nice and bright,

MA. Colours are good!  And most of
the toys I illustrated where bright
toys to begin with. It's one of the
things that sells toys too, so I'm
hoping it will attract people to my
work as well.

CF.    What's the CD I notice at the
Foot of the website "love bytes" have
you released some music and if so can
our reader download a sample of this
work?

MA. Love Bits is the first released
CD of musician Unicorn Dream Attack
for which I designed all the artwork.
The guy creates some fantastic music
using old Gameboys and 'bended' toys.
Check out his MySpace page at
www.myspace.com/unicorndreamattack to
learn more and listen to his music.

CF.    Have you any comments you
would like to add

MA. Sure. It's great to see there's
still such an active community online
dedicated to these old computers.
It's a great way to share your
childhood memories and for me an
endless source of inspiration. Keep
up the good work.

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

Commodore64 Ringtones

RINGTONES

Would you like a SID ringtone?
(SID is the Commodore 64 Music
interface device called the "Sound
Interface Device" normally
abbreviated to SID)

I would like to talk a little about
getting SID tunes (Commodore 64 music
files) onto your mobile phone. Of
course as SID is such a classic sound
that's why I started the text about
SID tunes. Other Commodore machines
like the Amiga and plus4 also have
distinctive sound tracks, but for me
it's the SID sound chip that creates
a unique feeling. In the case of the
Amiga, music files are usually called
Mod files and I will look at these
later.  I love the Sid sound so much
that I am concentrating on these as
ringtones, however some of this
article will be useful for other
Commodore machines and even some
games systems.

Distinctive

Sid sounds need no real introduction,
many call the sounds just pops and
bleeps others call them genius
musical works of art, because of the
creativity needed to get the best out
of the limitations of the hardware.
The SID sound chips tones are
instantly recognisable. It has also
been said that because the SID chip
contains analogue circuitry that no 2
SID chips sound alike due to
variations in manufacture, heat etc.
There were 2 main revisions of the
Sid chip, there was the 6581 and the
8580. This isnt a SID history lesson
and if you want to find more I
suggest reading here for a start
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOS_Techn
ology_SID
People often say one SID is better
than another, this I think really
depends on the musician, as he/she
will have designed the sounds and
music for a particular chip and it
may sound odd using the opposite chip
for which the sounds were designed.
There are differences, but as this is
just about ringtones, then it's just
a case of finding music you like most
modern demos will list the Sid chip
used to design the music with.

As A True Commodore SID music fan
wouldn't it be great to have a SID
ringtone on your mobile phone, to
replace that Nokia tune?

Dependant on you phone and of course
the devices age, this would dictate
the sort of sound you can have.  Some
Mobile phones for example can play
polyphonic ringtones, some can play
wav file, some support midi file or
some are only tone based; the tones
are generated with the phones
internal composer application.

Once you have the specification of
your phone, then you can investigate
how to get the sound or tune onto
your phone. Of course if you have an
older Nokia phone like the classic
6310 this phone has tools to create
"composer" music or RTTTL files

RTTTL

Ring Tone Text Transfer Language was
developed by Nokia as a way of
transferring tunes from one device to
another. There is a Wikipedia entry
for more information about RTTTL
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_Tone
_Transfer_Language

Here is an example of a RTTTL file
sanxion_loader:d=4,o=5,b=125:16g6,16g6
,16d6,16p,16f6,16p,16c6,16d6,16p,16a#,
16p,16f,16g,16p,16f6,16g6,16a#,16a#,16
c6,16p,16a,16p,16c6,16f6,16a#6,16a#6,1
6a6,16p,16f6,16p,16c6,16c6,16a#,16a#,1
6c6,16p,16a#6,16p,16c6,16a#6,16c7,16a#
6,16c6,16p,16a#,16p,16f,16p,2g

These RTTTL files are normally saved
as ASCII text files and can then be
imported into your phone, again it
depends on the phone how you would do
this but you could use a Commodore 64
to create the text file remembering
to save the file as ASCII

Here is an example of a Nokia
Composer tune, Nokia phones usually
have an application called composer
where you can type into an
applications the tunes data, some
phones show musical staves where
graphical "notes" can be dragged and
dropped.

Start the Nokia composer and set the
Tempo then press the keys as shown

Tempo: 125
588*, 5, 2, 0**, 4, 0**, 1, 2, 0**,
6**#, 0, 4, 5, 0, 4*, 5, 6**#, 6#,
1*, 0**, 6**, 0, 1*, 4, 6#, 6#, 6,
0**, 4, 0**, 1, 1, 6**#, 6#, 1*, 0**,
6#, 0**, 1, 6#, 1*, 6**#, 1, 0**,
6**#, 0, 4, 0, 5999

The end result is, you set this file
as your phones ringtone and you have
a squeaky mono tune playing out the
theme to Sanxion loader.

Nokia
http://arcadetones.emuunlim.com/c64.ht
m

Polyphonic

So you have a newer phone, one that
can play midi files. Well there are
various ways of extracting midi note
data from Sid files for example the
sid2midi application, or just have a
look on the internet, listed here are
a variety of websites hosting midi
versions of the SID tunes. But
depending on your phone you may be
surprised and disappointed at the
results that these midi files
present. Although the notes and
timing is correct it's doubtful the
instruments will sound anything like
the classic SID chip inside your
commodore machine.

RING TONES COMMODORE

http://www.vgmusic.com/music/computer/
commodore/commodore/index-classic.html
http://home.c2i.net/skot/c-64f4_1.htm
http://almighty.c64.org/
http://midi.thehylia.com/downloads/com
modore

MP3

Depending on your phone you may have
the option to play Wav or MP3 files,
if you visit the website below,

Remix sites of Commodore tunes
http://remix.kwed.org/

You will be presently surprised that
people have already Remixed well
known SID tunes using modern
synthesisers. The resulting files are
available to download free of change!
Some stick rigidly to the original
tune others are very different
interpretations. Some people though
will still prefer the original SID
sound rather than a remix, and to be
honest I love the originals, so what
options do we have for getting the
SID sound onto our phones.

Below are a couple of SID style
emulators for various phones, you
need to check your make/model to see
which is applicable to you, whether
it's a windows mobile or a Symbian
based model check with your phone
manufacturer for details about your
phone. There is even a SID player for
java enabled mobile phones.

PocketSID for example is a music
player for Windows Mobile 2003 and
Pocket PC 2002 mobile phones
available from here
http://pocketsid.progenitus.com/

SID player for Series60 v2
http://mikie.iki.fi/symbian/sid.html

A Java-based Commodore 64 emulator
for mobile
http://sourceforge.net/projects/jmec64
/

Still not good enough

We haven't quite finished, you could
use win vice for example and record
the output to a wav file Do this by
starting the application in Vice then
on the menu select SNAPSHOT then
select Record sound

Then select where you want the file
to be saved and a name to call the
file

Notice Vice displays a message to let
you know sound is recording giving a
"sound Recording started" at the
bottom left of the screen.

When you have finished select the
menu item snapshot then the submenu
"stop sound Recording" you may need
to tidy up the wav file a little in
your favourite sound editor, then
copy the file to your phone somehow,
this would depend on the phone some
use USB some have removable storage
for example SD cards.

If your phone can't support wav
files, you could convert the file to
an Mp3. Although again this is
emulation of the SID chip rather than
a real machine. You could go directly
to the superb website
http://www.6581-8580.com/ Stone oak
valleys Mp3 recordings of Commodore
Sid files and download the MP3 of
your choice.

Ok so Mp3 isn't a format you like and
you want a none compressed Wav file
or some other audio format supported
by your phone, the options here are
to record directly from SID or an
amplified version of SID chip. Using
an AV cable is the best method to
record directly from SID to a
recording device, the cable connects
into the back of the Commodore 64 AV
port and has a yellow RCA connector
and a white connector one outputs
video the other sound, remember the
SID was mono so there is no stereo
output.
Protovision still sell these cables
and here is a direct link
http://www.protovision-online.de/catal
og/product_info.php?products_id=108&os
Csid=00ecd790aea2787703475319767d2a10

This will give you the nose and
interference associated with the SID
chip, some people say this noise and
interference is what makes the sound,
others just feel this is distortion
and try to filter out the noise with
graphic equalisation or compression.
you could of course send the output
directly to an amplifier or computer
to clean up the sounds and filter out
any noise, but to be honest I think
the noise and interference are really
part of the SID sound, then you need
to save the file to your mobile
phone. You will need to read your
phones documentation to find how this
is done

Amiga files

Of course a similar connection from
an Amiga to a receding device could
be used for Amiga Mod files. There
are websites to download remixed
Amiga mod files and MP3 recordings of
Amiga files like the Commodore 64
again you could try

Stone Oak valleys Paula website
http://www.paula8364.com/

There are also mod player websites
where the phone can run an emulator
and then play the mod file. I am
unsure if this can be used to play as
a ringtones though and do not have a
new phone to test it with.

Mod Players
http://www.pdagold.com/software/detail
.asp?s=404
http://www.pocketpcfreewares.com/en/in
dex.php?soft=15

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

Geos & Role Playing Games
Lord Ronin From Q-link

I have a habit of threatening the
#acug <irc.newnet.net> IRCgroup with
this subject when they are quiet on
CyberSpace meeting nights. But in
truth, I though it has become a
running gab. This is a real topic,
one that combines my love of the
Commodore, Geos and Role Playing
games, being a creative way to make
things for both my users group and my
game group.

OK then I have been in Commodore
since 1993. Been in Geos since around
I997. I progressed to  Wheels a few
years later than that, and the same
for PostPrint, But I have been in
Role Playing Games [RPG] since March
11th I978. I was 28 at the time, and
it was a new thing to make the mind
work. Well open truth time, Role
Playing Games; specifically Advanced
Dungeons & Dragons got me off of
drugs, and I have been clean since
I978. So yeah it is an important
thing to me.

For those readers that have no idea
of a RPG, Sorry this isn't the place
to really explain the game concept;
Also it has changed since I started.
Let's leave it as a form of mental
theatre, where the player takes is
puppet alter ego avatar and other
words for his Player Character PC).
Which he enters into a confused high
risk situation to attain some goal,
Besides staying alive to continue
along to the next adventure. In short
this is a from of mental theatre. A
game of "lets pretend" with guide
lines. Call that very vague, because
since the original game was released
in January 1974. thousands of this
style of game have been released.
Each with different guidelines and
ways to create the PC. Rant for a
moment. Not gamers making games for
gamers anymore. RPG is a multi
million plus dollar international
business, started on a kitchen table
in Lake Geneva Wise.

Let's leave that part for now. We are
Commodore users and this should
explain how Commodore hardware and
software is used to create the games.
Well this bit is on the use of Geos
for game things. But I do want to say
that the Commodore was used to make
computer RPGs, as well as tools to
use for the RPGS. I saved as many of
these as I could in the last days of
Q- Link. Dice rollers, data bases of
items to be found in different games.
Tools to create items as well as PCs,
and a mess of AD&D PC sheets to be
printed out. One example to present
is for the 40c mode on the 128. DMs
mnemonic enhancer is the name
probably spelled wrong. This 128 tool
will keep track of all the
characters, the time the torch will
burn, random rolls for monsters
appearing, the experience points for
the characters and more, for the DM
in an AD&D game. IMNSHO takes too
much away from the DM and the
players, But that is my opinion.

The elements of a RPG that deal with
the Commodore, when creating anything.

Well that is simple to say at the
start; you need to write a story and
make the maps for the game that you
are playing. I say that means some
sort of word processor and some sort
of drawing programme. I started with
Word Writer 4 and FIexiDraw. Guy in
the international game group I was in
at the time, used an apple and there
where no maps |EG).

Story is a plot line where things are
set with a lot of holes. These holes
are for the interaction of the
players with the environment of the
game. Each game is of course
different. I started 31 or so years
ago. Still like and use the original
style of writing up the text. Example
follows:

ROOM 34:
20x20
\door in the north and in the cast.
Cabinets line the walls, and there
are over a dozen desks in a cubicle
style in the room.
Party sees...

Well that is the simple thing. That
description would fit almost any RPG.
The writer puts in more descriptions
that the characters would see; and
then notes for that room, for the DM
the guy running the game. Things like
the loot, and or the clues and or the
opposition and the stats for all of
that is relevant to the specific game.

Hey! Guess what man GeoWrite will do
that and you can code for an easy
scan of the information using
different fonts and different styles.
I do that in my adventures. I key
some of that to the map so I can take
a fast look to the map and then to
the text of that particular encounter
area, as no one likes the game to
slow down by having to look things up.

Jumping now to the idea of a map,

Well a map is a thing that is created
to indicate the play area. Wow that
is a fancy way of saying it is a
maze, with things the players want to
encounter and things that they don't,
stuck around in the maze, really it's
just that. Be it a cavern, dungeon,
castle, office building, ruined city,
interior of a space ship. Halls and
rooms make the maze. Enter GeoPaint
for map making, now the average RPG
uses a scale of 1" squares. Nice for
a map board, inaccurate for actual
scale in the game, Too large to use
in GeoPaint. or even in store bought
graph paper. Well unless you are
getting larger than poster sized
sheets of graph paper. Yeah I did
that as well. Now I made a 1/4" grid
for my game work, members of my users
group have made different sized grids
and hexes. Which work for indoor and
outdoor maps for different games. In
making these, well it takes time. 40c
GeoPaint or 80c, doesn't matter, it
still takes time. Many hours and days
will be spent trying to make them. Oh
yeah if you do that, leave constraint
OFF. Smegs up the map, especially in
hexes. Squares are easy to do, though
it still takes time. I have used the
line tool to make the X & Y axis
lines on the squares. Gotten to the
point that on normal edit I can put
the pencil where I want and just use
the cursor keys without too many
errors.

Tell you that there is a set of map
squares that where on GEnie and I
think before that on Q-Link for
GeoPaint. They  used larger than 1/4"
squares but the documentation for it
was excellent. IIRC it is about 8
files in cvt.Dox in it, blank map
page and the rest is a sample of how
the pages can be used. What is great
is that the author shows how to make
a map that is larger than one sheet.
Going up and down, that is easy. Here
he shows how to go off the one map
top, bottom, left and right. Great
idea here to have some sort of
indicator on the map sheet to work
like a matrix, row X column 7 sort of
thing. See one of the things that
happens in a game is that the players
will move through the map, sure that
is obvious to all of us. However not
all gamers play on a big map board.
One of the players is called the
"mapper" his job is to keep track of
where the group has explored. Some
add things found and notes about the
encounter areas. But for this piece
the mapper is actually making a copy
of your game map during the course of
the game. So what I do is simply
print out a blank copy of my map
form. When the game starts I tell the
mapper the X & Y starting point and
then it is my job to make certain I
describe all the rooms and halls in
direction and in size. The team of
players can look at that map to
figure out what they have missed, or
where they are at the time, as games
of this nature can take many days to
play.

OK then, back to the map and now the
contents.

Remember that no matter the game it
is still a maze. In the past I spent
hours with a ruler, pencil, fine
point pen, coloured pens, graph paper
just to make a map for the game. A
lot of frustration because my art is
so bad we say I can't draw flics in
Atlanta Georgia on an August day.
Enter again Geos covered the idea of
making or finding a map sheet. Ah.
duplicate it for your work. Sounds
obvious, but I know one old pipe
smoking radical hippy that got ahead
of himself and smegged the master
copy of the file.

What to put on the map and how.

First part is difficult to answer. I
mean unless I go into a specific
game. Sure you need a legend for
yourself. Which way is North, or what
will be effective for North. Hard to
do that in a space ship that you
found floating out there in the
darkness. Your symbols for the things
on the map, as I think about that one
I need to explain that part; You can
make a barebones map. By that I mean
you have created the rooms and the
halls. Oh yeah you can make maps for
out doors as well. The trees, bushes,
hills are the walls, and the trail to
go through the area is the hall.

The other type of map that you can
make is more detailed; I have over 30
RPGs in my collection. Each one has
examples of maps; mostly to show
movement and data for combat. Taking
that Geo Write example above a 20x20
room is easy; You cover that many
squares depending on the scale of 1
square equals how many feet, in that
legend thing. Here I will rant a bit.
Walls in games arc not made by the
contractors that make motels, they
really have some thickness to them.
So on your map; make the walls as
thick as you see fits the
environment. I mean by that the walls
of the office building are thinner
than the walls found in say an
underground complex/cave. Here we can
use the brush tool and adjust the
size to make the walls as thick as
you want. If they arc very thick, you
can use the fill tool. Oh wait a
moment; new thing to state. Ah I am
cheap, so I use the gray looking fill
pattern for walls. Not only does it
take less ink on a print out, but
after looking at it in the game for
hours, the map isn't as hard on the
eyes.

Highly detailed maps are a good thing
and a bad thing. They take a lot
longer to make, and are more complex
lo make. Thanks to Geos. you don't
have to go out and buy a mess of
templates to use for creating the
details for your map. BTW: a lot of
times those templates arc not the
right scale anyway, so spoke the
voice of experience. I have no idea
as to how many fonts there are for
Geos. But I can tell you that there
arc graphic fonts. Some of them work
fine in the games; though they arc a
bit off scale. Oh wait a moment there
are font editors, those will let you
make the fonts you want. I mean you
create the say iris valve door for
the space game then save it as a
font, and then put it in the map. But
for graphic fonts that already exist,
you can use the font editor to scale
the font up or down. Truth be told
you may need to do a tad bit of clean
up work on the font after scaling it
to size. Hilgard 1 & 2. from IIRC a
RUN disk, have nothing but graphic
fonts. Between them I have made a
forest of different trees for an
outdoor map. I made the men and girls
bathrooms for a Zombie game. As the
items for those rooms arc in the
graphic fonts. Also there is the
cardinal points, the compass that I
use in my legend. Potted plants,
chairs sofas and even some buildings,
which worked good on the outdoor map.
In fact there arc some silhouettes of
people. I had others that worked in
making game maps. But they arc on the
Hard Drive with Maurice for the last
3+ years.

The font may not be in the right
angle, GeoPaint has a tool that will
let you reverse and rotate the font.
This is how I had a row of toilet
stalls on one wall and another on the
opposite wall in the Zombie
adventure. Ah but there is another
problem; typing in the font, will run
it on your map and like it was on a
GeoWrite page. I mean in a line, and
what you have underneath is erased.
Now that is a bummer man in making
that outdoor forest map. Ah but we
have a copy option in GeoPaint. So I
just put one tree for example, on the
map. Then I "copy" it in a random
pattern on the screen. Slowly
building up my forest with that one
tree font. Adding other tree fonts
later. OK I admit that I am not great
at this. So I have to go into pixel
edit and clean up a bit.
Well you can see that if you want a
detailed looking map GeoPaint is the
way to go in Commodore programmes.
You can scale the font, make your own
fonts, make your own map scaled grid
or hex, allowing you to make your own
maps for your game. My tip is that
when you make indicators on your map;
that is the room numbers, treasure,
pre-set monster encounters and that
sort of thing. You code them by using
a font and a style on the map that
you repeat in the text that you write
in GeoWrite. My example is from an
AD&D game. I use the font "dungeon",
for indicating on the map where
treasure is located. This is the only
font that I still have which uses the
British pound symbol. So I use that
for a treasure mark on the map. Tells
me that there is some sort of
treasure in that room. That font is
at 8 point and fits quite well in a
1/4" square. While the other font
called "dungeon ii" is 16 point, and
takes some careful planning and
movement to put it in the square. But
I use it on the map to make an
outlined capital "M". Telling me that
there is a placed monster. In the
text I do the same. So that room
would have the pound symbol and the
M. Both on the map and in the text.

The use of text is up to the guy
writing the adventure.

Based on his tastes, the use of the
adventure, his font collection and
his printer. I use Times Roman from
the Laser Lover's disk by Dale
Sidebotom. I understand that LW_Roma
is about the same for a stock GeoFont
this is for the main text. Explain
the reason for this in a bit, my
examples have been mostly in AD&D a
sword and sorcery themed game. But as
I said near the beginning, there are
thousands of games. Not all of them
are sword and sorcery. I actually
rather play the Sci-Fi, post
apocalyptic and espionage games. This
brings me into the font choices for
different games; being used for
chapters, headers, footers and other
code work in the text. What to use
and how much. Like at the top of this
paragraph, up to the guy doing the
adventure. Personally I like to use
fonts that in some way reflect the
theme of the same. Using those
dungeon ones for sword and sorcery
games alone with a font called
Sepulchre and one called Medallion
and another called Vatican. There are
also some Gothic fonts that I once
had as well as Old English ones.
Since I have different sword and
sorcery games I had combinations of
the above fonts set up for each of
the games. Let me know at a glance
for which game the stuff had been
written. Ah but for the Sci-Fi games
that is a bit different, as they run
a gauntlet of themes. Most of the
time I would use a font that looked
electronic. I Had several of them,
but not anymore. Basically they
looked like LED read outs, I even
made one once that looked like the
old nixie tube read out.
Espionage games, I use a simple
typewriter font. In fact that is what
it is called.
Horror games, I haven't found a font
that sets the atmosphere for me, as
of yet.

Now then, these fonts generally will
have more than one point size. Not
always, but generally. Besides with
the font editors you can make them in
different point sizes. So then by
using the point sizes as well as the
styles, by that I mean in Geos bold,
italic, underline, outline and
combinations of those styles. You can
create a varied collection of chapter
headers and titles for your pages.
Beats me using a lettering guide and
an ancient typewriter, hey that beat
trying to hand write the whole mess.

However past the writers taste for
fonts and their use in his work.

The writer will use whatever fonts he
has at hand. I know that there are
places on line that have fonts. Just
haven't gotten over the depression of
the HD data being gone for so long,
to actively look for them. The other
factor is the printer I had on that
HD63 printer drivers for Geos. But I
have to state for the record that not
all printers like all GeoFonts. Take
that Sepulchre font above. OK on my
oki-mate 10, same for the star 1020.
No way on a couple of HPs, including
the laser one with postprint. Oh many
times it will default to something
else. On my laser printer it defaults
to courier. But this font locked me
up. Yeah to the point of having to
reset printer and the I28D. You can
imagine the terror I was feeling.
Before I knew it was the font even
specific drivers for printers have
not accepted fonts. As an example my
original copy of the "who " font,
from Dr. Who this wouldn't work on
any printer in GeoWrite. I gained a
copy of it from the author's site.
The font doesn't work on my postprint
system. OK in GeoPaint, but not in
GeoWrite, that is a thing to keep in
mind when selecting fonts.

Yeah I could do a long tutorial about
how to use GeoWrite and GeoPaint to
make RPG adventures for ones game
group, but that would require doing
it for specific games. I don't think
there is that big of an audience for
that level of information. Way too
specific for us in here. What I do
want to explain is that I use the
Commodore, Geos, Wheels, Post Print
to make the adventures for my game
group. My way and style is not the
same as everyone else's. I have been
doing games for over 31 years I have
way too many shortcuts gained over
that time. But something to state
here for those that want to pretty up
their GeoPaint maps. You can use
colour! Right, you can colour code
the maps, or just make that tree
green. Does mean that if you arc
printing it out, you need colour
abilities on your printer.

Ah but if you have GeoPub as well.

Then you can make columns for the
text. Making the print out like the
old late 70s an early 80s modules.
Can add some small input of photo
scraps into the text in GeoWrite. Or
easier do it in GeoPub. Like the
control box at the door, or the
magical crown, the manual, the disk
or whatever loot, object item that
the team sees and needs. Even print
these things out on paper, along with
the information about them. Cut that
out and lay it on the player that
collects the item. Such hand outs
were in the old game adventures. Even
make a newspaper, or scroll. By using
the best looking text and create that
as a clue/hand out then pass the copy
to the players when they find it in
the adventure. Done in GeoPub As you
can place images in the page layout
part where you want and scale them,
as well as having the text flow
around the image.

Ah but if you have Post Print. Then
you can do more, with colour in
GeoPub, 32 colours as I remember your
maps can be colour as 1 stated
earlier. But you can also make colour
text, boxes, lines, circles and more
in GeoPub with Post Print. Bruce
Thomas has a great manual on a
tutorial for GeoPub. Also one can add
jpegs in the GeoPub document. So yeah
you can make something for the game.
Shoot it with a camera. Insert it in
the text and you have a colour image.
Or if you don't have colour abilities
on your printer. Gray scale the image
and insert it. But if you have GeoDos
and a FD along with a floppy drive on
your other computer. Ah there are
other ways of bringing across the
file. I just don't know them. You can
make a post script file of your
adventure. Then put it on the other
machine. Convert it to a PDF and
bingo, you have the adventure in
colour if you made it that way in a
format that no Commodore/Geos setup
users can see and use you colour map.

That is what we are doing in my users
and game group. Making the Geos
created adventures into PDF things.
Then saving them up for a CD of
Commodore created RPG things. A
fanzine of adventures for long out of
print games. Supplement items for
those games hint and tip things. Sure
it is for gamers and old school
gamers of older games but the point
of this is that save for converting
to PDF and the actual CD burning
parts. All of it is done on The
Commodore and in the Geos world.
Wonder what others can make like this
for their own hobby or work interests?

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

Interview with Johan van den Brande
Producer of the Twitter64 Application

Commodore Free.
Please introduce yourself to our
readers

Johan van den Brande.
Hi, I'm Johan van den Brande, 37
years old and father of two children.
I live and work in Belgium. My
profession is software engineering,
although I'm an electronics engineer
by education. One of my hobbies is
tinkering with the C64, which I have
been using since I was 16 years old.

CF. Was the Commodore 64 your first
computer

JVDB. No, it was not my first
computer. At the age of 12 I received
a ColecoVision video game console.
Although not a real computer that you
could program, you could expand it to
a full computer; that expansion was
called the Adam. It came bundled with
a printer as well, which made more
noise then a gun, and had a digital
tape deck. I must have been 13 years
old when I bought the Adam expansion.
The strange thing is that the shop
owner showed me a C64 as well, but
the Adam expansion was priced at a
bargain and had 80K of RAM, and a C64
only 64K. So in all my naivety I
choose the Adam...

CF. Can you tell our readers firstly
"what is twitter"; some reader may be
wondering what twitter is all about

JVDB. Twitter is a social micro
blogging site where people can say
what they are doing and other people
can subscribe to that. So when I
would post a status, all the people
that follow me get this message. The
crazy thing is that the length of one
message is limited to 140 characters,
just as with the SMS service. Some
people just say what day to day
things they are doing, but others
give out rather nice bites of news.
Another thing you see is that twitter
is used for automated systems that
twitter there status. As an example,
there is this crazy botanicals
project http://www.botanicalls.com
where pot plants can twitter if they
are thirsty. Another example would be
the tweet-a-watt system, that sends
out your electrical power consumption
via twitter
http://www.ladyada.net/make/tweetawatt
/ personally, these were the projects
that got me interested in twitter.

CF. Can you now explain what twitter
64 is

JVDB. Actually I called it
breadbox64, because the 64 is often
called the 'breadbox' and because
that one was still free on twitter.
So, breadbox64 is a twitter client
for the commodore 64. It is a fairly
simple client. You can get status
updates from the people you follow
and you can post a new status as
well. Other functionality you
commonly see in other twitter
clients, like following the public
timeline or adding yourself as a
follower to some users are not
available.

CF. What hardware do you need to run
twitter

JVDB. I use an MMC64 and RR-Net
expansion on a C64 and C128D, so I'm
sure that combination works. I have
not yet tried other setups, but I
don't see why the won't work as long
as they are supported by Contiki
(http://www.sics.se/contiki/).
Contiki is the underlying OS I used
to write breadbox64. As an
alternative, you can use a C64
emulator to give it a go. For
development, I used VICE on a Mac
book, but it will also work on Linux
or Windows (I guess).

CF. Do you need any extra software or
can you just load the twitter program
and start "twittering"

JVDB. You just need the twitter
client. It is one PRG file and one
configuration file that Contiki uses
to store the network settings. At the
start of the program you need to
provide your login name and password
for the Twitter service.

CF. Will there be a specific 128
80column version of twitter

JVDB. Good question, I wanted to have
that feature myself, but my 1084
monitor broke this winter, so I can
only see 40 chars on the setup I use
now. So, maybe if I find a better
setup I'll give the 80 character mode
a try. It should be possible, because
the Contiki OS also can run on the
C128.

CF. How do you configure the client
for example the IP address etc ca you
give our readers a brief walkthrough-
so you load twitter64 then..

JVDB. Ah, you need to get your own
network setup file via this site:
http://contiki.cbm8bit.com/ , save it
as IP.CFG on your breadbox64 disk and
give it a try. You just load it and
run it, as you would with any other
C64 program. Preferably you need a
speed loader though, as it is almost
200 blocks in size.

CF. Does the software need a mouse or
joystick to function or is it just
keyboard input only

JVDB. Everything is directed by the
keyboard. The underlying Contiki OS
has nice support for a mouse and even
has a text UI library on board (CTK),
but I choose to do that part myself.

CF. Are there any TO Do's still
outstanding on the client or is it
now finished

JVDB. It is in a workable state as it
is now, it is not perfect, but it
does what I intended it to do. Saying
that, I do have some plans; cleaning
up the code so it is platform
independent and can be compiled for
other targets supported by the
Contiki OS.

CF. Some reader may be wondering
"what's the point" so why create a
Twitter client for the Commodore 64
what was the motivation

JVDB. My motivation for all this was
to learn the Contiki OS. I'm at a
crossroad in my career as I'll become
an independent contractor in October
of this year. The idea is to find a
job as an independent embedded
software developer. Now, I learned to
know the Contiki OS a few years ago
when they released that demo with the
C64 web server and browser. For me it
looks like a nice tool to have in my
toolbox as it is used in sensor
networks and other low power systems.

CF. Do you have any other projects
for the Commodore 64 you can share
with our readers

JVDB. I really would like to write a
game for the C64. I have some ideas
brewing, but nothing concrete enough
at the moment to talk about; at the
moment, I'm toying with the user port
of the C64, trying to interface with
an AVR micro controller.

CF. Have you plans to develop maybe a
suite around twitter, web client,
mail, ftp client etc

JVDB. Actually, as breadbox64 is
developed on top of Contiki, there is
already a complete Internet suite
available. Contiki comes with all of
them. To be honest, compared to the
web client and other software
available for the Contiki OS, the
twitter application is just a small
fish. The protocol is fairly simple
as it is based on HTTP and some XML.
Without Contiki, I would never have
been able to write breadbox64. I did
not need to write everything from
scratch, the TCP/IP stack was already
there, there is a concept of threads
etc... so basically a complete set of
APIs sits there waiting for somebody
to write a nice networked game for
the C64.

CF. If you could change 3 things
about the commodore 64 when it was
being designed what 3 things would
you change

JVDB. Well, probably not much. The
C64 has this advantage of memory
mapped graphics. If you compare it
against the MSX, they had a separate
video memory and pumping data to that
video RAM is dead slow. So, looking
at it like that, the design engineers
made the correct decision. One thing
that bothered me is the clock speed.
I would have bumped it to 2 MHz. And
also the memory layout for high res
graphics is not optimal, but probably
doing it differently at that time was
not an option.

CF. Do you have a question you feel
was left unanswered

JVDB. No, not really, well maybe this
one: "Why do you still use a C64? You
must be crazy". I often hear this
question when talking to people about
this hobby. But I'll leave it to your
readers to answer that one themselves.

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

Commodore 16 and plus 4 pages
Created By John Fielden

Hi. c16 fans. Apologies, if I've
missed a month or so. It seems
everything piles up all at once..
For those wondering how long I may be
around. Subject to the editors kind
hospitality, and health permitting I
hope to eventually demonstrate that
some programs for other formats such
as The Amiga and beyond can work on
the c16/plus4.
(COMMODORE FREE you are welcome here
and I look forward to other
programming excursions')

Before we start with the essential
debugging.

It is important to note that the
extremely long program called
"Business Calculator" will work on a
genuine Commodore16.  But you might
need to strip away the non-essentials
to preserve memory when saving.  Like
the many lines of instructions that
aren't needed as you already have
them in the magazine!  You can change
the border colour control to lose the
menu, and instead of up and down
controls.  Just have it going one way
when the user presses 'c', and
resetting at the upper bound to the
lowest legal number -or, vice versa,
if you prefer.  The last main change
I can think of is to take out the
first program.  "VAT Calculator".  To
give some assistance with this I have
included as a stand alone programme
for this months feast, Though it may
vary slightly.  You already have the
original accompanying notes, So even
the most inexperienced novice should
be ok.

Having said all that.

Both programmes should work on the
other commodore 8bit formats like
VIC-20 or C=64 as there are no POKE
or PEEK commands.  In fact, the only
stumbling block I can see is The
"SCNCLR" command, which means Screen
Clear.  And can be changed to PRINT"
and then press shift and CLR HME key
".  On other formats this may convert
to CLS.

Debugging

In order to keep enjoying something;
It is important to take the time to
play.  In fact if something is new
then 70 or even 80 percent of the
time with it should be spent on
little else.  In theory, the more
time you spend with something the
better you get.  Of course learning
to get things right first time is
preferential, if you can manage to.
But often the best programmers are
those who learned to deal with
getting it wrong. (So, I must fast
becoming some kind of
"Guru"...Any-one seen the film???
-enough of that!)

The other day I saw fit to purchase a
newer computer. (new to me at least).
In the process, I decided to play
around with  YAPE, the c16/plus4
emulator for windows PCs. available
through www.commodore16.com And so
having copied it across wrote the
following:-

10 FORJ=0TO20
20 COLOR0,,J
30 NEXT J

First, it is worth noting in line 30.
The 'J' is optional.  But it is good
programming practice to have it in as
it makes the program easier to read.
Second, the response I got on typing
RUN was as follows:-

SYNTAX ERROR IN 20

It became obvious there are two
commas, where there should be only
one. So corrected this; and just
assuming that was it, I again typed
RUN.
Still the above. error

The program still being on screen, I
could see that "colour" is spelt how
the computer likes it.  So I typed

PRINT J

Producing the answer 0.

typing HELP still brought the
insistence that line 20 is somehow
wrong.  I've checked spelling, and
corrected typos.  The 0, is a valid
command in the line. i.e. ...0,J  So
what is wrong?

Try changing line 10 ...J=1 to...

You'll see the effect.  Try adding

25 fork=1to350:nextk

you might add after that

 :PrintJ

I still got the error message

ILLEGAL QUANTITY ERROR IN 20

To find why type

print j

We find the value of the variable 'j'
and see it must be over.  So change
line 10 where it says ...20 to the
value one less from the computers
complaining and whining on.
(Honestly!  Computers are soooo
clever you'd think they'd be able to
correct little things like this
themselves!  NOPE.)

A useful program for finding the
colour, or combinations you like
best.  Try adding a random element,
and a line for colour 4,l The border.
You might go through all the
combinations of the background with
one border colour.  Before moving to
the next.  If you need help with such
a program, let me know.

More fun (or "messing about" if you
wish to be critical) brought about
this program.  Try to work out what
is wrong before looking at the
answers.  A nice easy one.

10 PRINT"JOHN",X
20 IF X=4 THEN END
30 FOR X=1 TO 9
40 GOTO10
50 NEXT X

Questions

Try working out what will happen,
before typing RUN. if you guess
correctly, you won't need the answers
below:-
What is the absolute unnecessary line
in the listing?

How should the program list?

Answers.
Type RUN to see if you were correct.
You don't need the goto statement, if
you're line order is correct.

The correct order is:-
10 should be 20, 30 should be 10,
while what was 20 (ifx=4...) fits at
30.  Either delete 40,  or put REM in
front of it, and leave it intact as a
reminder of the folly of trying to be
clever with coding.

Programs This month

We've covered VAT Calc. already.

Tally Counter:  Have you ever been in
a situation where you need to quickly
make and remember a count of
something, or even multiple things.
This program saves paper, even with
the cleverly devised system of 4 1s,
followed by a strikethrough for 5.
In case you don't know what this is;
"GraphicTally" is designed to show
you.  But, please don't expect too
many graphic programs as I am by no
means competent at drawing.

GraphicTally:  An interesting
demonstration of the tally mark as it
is/was used on paper.  Of course the
above program may reduce such a need.
It's still useful to know, if you
didn't already.  The program has the
added benefit of helping to
understand the plotting of graphics.
And there is a way to write the
program using loops and maths and
reducing program size, but as it does
less to show the plotting, was less
appealing for this exercise. If you
key in lines from 2000 early, you can
run the program after about line 50
every two or three lines to get a
feel for the progress.

Finally, the first version didn't
save! The pains I've been through.
If you saw the amount of error
corrections I had to do.  You might
become a genius overnight! This skill
will come in advancing the program.
To give you an idea; try making an
educational program for young
children. Timing how fast they can
count a random number of tallys
appearing on screen. And even make a
competition with two or more players.
(I may print this in a future
edition, but see how you go, as it
will show how there are different
ways of doing the same thing).

Happy Programming
Jn.

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

Graphic Tally Commodore 16+4
By John Fielden

A demonstration program to show the
use and form of the old fashioned
Tally Mark.  An ingenious invention!
That is the tally mark rather than
the program. The latter has been
written in such a way as to untangle
the maths from it. So that bare
numbers don't get in the way for the
beginner to see how the plotting of
screen graphics work.

I reiterate, there are other ways to
write this program that others would
consider faster coding.  But they
didn't flunk maths and are on
billions of currency, have big
housing, "loving" wives and the rest
of it. Swipe over for the month. I
will help demonstrate in the next
issue when we concentrate on
generating SOUND on The C16/plus4 how
an extra loop or two, some variable
names, and the use of data statements
not only allow us to repeat ourselves
less, but give a whole new dimension
to the programmes capabilities.

The lines up to 450 create the main
demonstration with Graphics and text
explaining the procedure. 455 to 500
having started with the Graphic
screen reverts back to the 'normal'
text screen to reiterate what has
been said. (not just because I learnt
a new word -init- but to demonstrate
the potential of using multi-screens
-say "Yes John!").  510- Rounds off
the demonstration.

The GRAPHIC statements occur with a
specifically coded function.  Either
consult the manual, if you have it.
Or experiment with your own short
programs.  The various errors will
indicate where you're going wrong.

The CHAR statements are a special
version of 'PRINT' where you can plot
the column and row on screen of where
you want to print.  Again play around
with short progs. to work this out.
The statement is useable on the
normal screen as well as with
graphics.

The DRAW statements as the name
suggests prints graphics to screen.
The FOR..NEXT loops slow the program
down.  So that the user can take the
information in.

Listing of: graphictally.prg

10 REM .GRAPHICTALLY.
20 REM (C) JOHN FIELLDEN
30 GRAPHIC1,1
40 CHAR1,0,0," GRAPHIC TALLY "
50 CHAR1,0,1,"PROGRAM TO DEMONSTRATE
TALLY MARKS"
100 DRAW 1,20,20 TO 20,35
110 CHAR1,4,10,"ONE MARK REPRESENTS:
1"
120 FORJ=1TO550:NEXTJ
130 DRAW 1,30,20 TO 30,35
140 CHAR1,4,11,"TWO MARKS REPRESENT:
2"
150 FORJ=1TO550:NEXTJ
160 DRAW 1,40,20 TO 40,35
170 CHAR1,4,12,"THREE MARKS
REPRESENT: 3"
180 FORJ=1TO550:NEXTJ
190 DRAW 1,50,20 TO 50,35
200 CHAR1,4,13,"FOUR MARKS REPRESENT:
4"
210 FORJ=1TO550:NEXTJ
220 CHAR1,4,14,"WHAT YOU SEE NEXT IS
SPECIAL"
230 FORJ=1TO650:NEXTJ
240 CHAR1,4,15,"PRESS A KEY"
250 GETA$:IFA$=""THEN250
260 DRAW 1,20,35 TO 50,20
270 CHAR1,4,16,"THE STRIKE-THROUGH
COUNTS 5"
280 CHAR1,4,17,"THIS REPRESENTS ONE
GROUP OF FIVE"
290 CHAR1,4,18,"AS THE COUNT GOES
ON,"
300 CHAR1,4,19," MAKE MORE OF THESE"
310 CHAR1,4,20,"PRESS A KEY"
320 GETA$:IFA$=""THEN320
350 DRAW 1,70,20 TO 70,35
360 FORJ=1TO350:NEXTJ
370 DRAW 1,80,20 TO 80,35
380 FORJ=1TO350:NEXTJ
390 DRAW 1,90,20 TO 90,35
400 FORJ=1TO350:NEXTJ
410 DRAW 1,100,20 TO 100,35
420 FORJ=1TO350:NEXTJ
430 DRAW 1,70,35 TO 100,20
440 CHAR1,0,24," ANY KEY FOR MAIN
SCREEN "
450 GETA$:IFA$=""THEN450
455 GRAPHIC0,0
460 SCNCLR: PRINT" GRAPHIC TALLY"
470 PRINT"{down}{down}{down}{down} IT
IS EASY TO SEE 2 X 5 = 10."
480 PRINT" TWO GROUPS OF FIVE EQUALS
TEN."
490 PRINT"{down}{down} YOU THEN SEE
IF THERE IS A REMAINDER"
500 PRINT" AND ADD IT TO THE TOTAL."
510
PRINT"{down}{down}{down}{down}{down}{d
own} PRESS A KEY FOR DEMO."
520 REM GRAPHIC0,0
530 GETA$:IFA$=""THEN530
540 GRAPHIC1,0
550 FORT=14TO20
560 CHAR1,0,T," "
570 NEXTT
580 CHAR1,4,14,"THE STRIKE-THROUGH
COUNTS 5"
600 DRAW 1,120,20 TO 120,35
610 FORJ=1TO300:NEXTJ
620 DRAW 1,130,20 TO 130,35
630 CHAR1,4,17,"THE TOTAL COUNT HERE
IS TWELVE (12)"
1980 CHAR1,0,24," ANY KEY TO END
PROGRAM "
1990 GETA$:IFA$=""THEN1990
2000 FORJ=1TO350:NEXTJ
2010 GRAPHIC0,1:GRAPHIC CLR
2020 IFA$=" "THENLIST

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

Tally Counter
By John Fielden

10 REM name of program (c) John
Fielden  2009

30 D% represents a number for
automatically choosing.  I guessed
the most common
need for tally counting would be:-
Yes
No
Don't Know
But of course other answers may be
required such as :-
Don't Care
Didn't Answer
8 out of 10 cats preferred it
etc.

You have a pre set maximum of 9
answers which should be enough for
most surveys. However there is a way
to extend this and use more / all of
the letter keypad.  Are we going to
cover this here?  Err.  No, at least
not yet.  Many will get it.  A clue
is to use the CHR$(), VAL codes to
convert the keys.  Though this would
not be in pretty QWERTY
rows but A=10, B=11 C=12 etc. And
bear in mind that you can only
comfortably fit about 20 on screen.

45 Again, I saw fit to write
instructions into the programme, you
never know George Bush Junior might
need it! Sorry, George that is
"program"...of course, sir (Please
don't call me a terrorist. I buy
burgers and watch your imported telly
-programs- honest!)

50 If D% is greater than the maximum,
tell the user "I'm not buying this!"
-unless its American, ah-hem Sir!
(shuffles feet and looks down to the
ground).

70-90 IT% used to make a copy before
making sure the user is happy with
his selection.

120 loop for above ends at selected
number of options.

130 - 170 Print to screen the
statistics so far.

180 and 186 control what the screen
displays dependent on whether the
user is backtracking.

190 wait for next instruction from
user.

200 to 240 upon receiving
instruction, carry out request and
reprint screen with the updated
statistics. That just leaves the
instructions.  And return to the
start.

Future upgrades could include the
option to go up and down in bigger
numbers for various key presses.  And
change the name of a choice within
the prog.  Or edit its position.

Listing of: TallyCounter.prg

10 REM *TALLY COUNTER*
20 SCNCLR:PRINT"{black} TALLY COUNTER"
30 D%=3
35 PRINT"TYPE A NUMBER":PRINT" (BELOW
1 FOR INSTRUCTIONS)"
36 PRINT"NO HIGHER THAN 9"
40 INPUT"HOW MANY THINGS TO MARK";D%
45 IFD%<1THEN300
50 IFD%>9THENPRINT"NOT ENOUGH
MEMORY":GOTO40
60 D1%=48+D% :REM *CHR$ CODE*
70 FORJ=1TOD%:IT%(J)=0
80 INPUT"NAME OF ITEM";IT$(J)
90
PRINT:PRINT"{orange}";IT$(J);"{black}
IS THIS CORRECT Y/N?"
100 GETA$:IFA$=""THEN100
110 IFA$="N"THEN80
120 NEXT J
130 REM *SET TALLY NUMBER*
140 SCNCLR:PRINT" TALLY
COUNTER":PRINT:PRINT
143 PRINT" X TO END":PRINT" (SPACE)
TOGGLE ADD / DELETE":PRINT:PRINT
145 IFX>1THENX=0
150 FORJ=1TOD%
160 PRINT"PRESS ";J;" = ";IT$(J)"
";IT%(J)
170 NEXT J
180 IFX=0THENPRINT"{down}{down} ADD";
185 IFX=1THENPRINT"{down}{down}
DELETE";
190 GETA$:IFA$=""THEN190
200 IFA$="X" THENEND
210 IFA$=" " THENX=X+1:GOTO140
215 IFA$< CHR$(49) ORA$>CHR$(D1%)
THEN190
220 A%=VAL(A$)
230 IFX=0THEN IT%(A%)=IT%(A%)+1
235 IFX=1THEN IT%(A%)=IT%(A%)-1
240 GOTO140
300 REM *INSTRUCTIONS*
310 SCNCLR:PRINT" TALLY COUNTER"
320 PRINT:PRINT"INSTRUCTIONS":PRINT
330 PRINT"DESIGNED TO REPLACE OR
REDUCE THE NEED FOR PEN & PAPER"
340 PRINT" A LINE DOWN REPRESENTED 1
IN A TALLY MARK."
350 PRINT" AFTER FOUR 1S 1111. A LINE
WAS PUT"
360 PRINT"THROUGH THE GROUP
REPRESENTING 5."
370 PRINT"AND THE 1 COUNTS WERE
STARTED AGAIN"
380 PRINT"NEXT TO THE STRUCK 5. AND
SO THE"
390 PRINT"PROCESS CONTINUED.":PRINT
400 PRINT"IN YAPE YOU CAN SAVE WHERE
YOU ARE AT"
410 PRINT"ANY POINT.":PRINT" JUST GO
TO FILE, "
420 PRINT" EMULATOR
SNAPSHOT.":PRINT"A SUB-MENU WILL
APPEAR AND YOU ARE "
430 PRINT"GIVEN THE CHOICE OF A
QUICKSAVE, OR OF"
440 PRINT"GIVING YOUR FILE A NAME OF
YOUR OWN "
450 PRINT"CHOOSING.";:PRINT" TO
RETURN TO LATER WITH THE SAME "
460 PRINT"MENU & PROCESS -USING
LOAD..."
470 PRINT" ";CHR$(18);" ANY KEY
";CHR$(146);"{up}{up}"
480 GETA$:IFA$=""THEN480
490 GOTO10

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

VAT Calculator
By John Fielden

Listing of: vat.prg

10 REM *VAT CALCULATOR*
12 REM *(C) JOHN A. FIELDEN 2009*
16 CLR:SCNCLR:PRINT"{black} VAT CALC."
18 COLOR0,2
20 VA=17.5:T=100
30 INPUT "TAKINGS /AMOUNT: ";T
35 Q=T*VA/100:PRINT"AMOUNT: ";T
40 PRINTQ;" VAT AT: ";VA;"%"
50 PRINT"{brown} TOTAL IF VAT TAKEN:
";T-Q
60 PRINT"{lblue} ...IF VAT ADDED:
";T+Q
70 PRINTCHR$(18);"{black} ANOTHER
AMOUNT Y/N? "
75 PRINTCHR$(146)
80 GETA$:IFA$=""THEN80
90 IFA$="N" THENEND
100 GOTO16

VA is current VAT level.
T is short for Takings and set to 100
to test that everything is working
properly.  And to avoid the annoying
"DIVISION BY ZERO ERROR"
Q provides a base for the
mathematical sum to be stored
concerning how much VAT to be taken
or added to "takings".  The added sum
is given purely for the sake of
covering all bases, as such may help
with pricing an object or service.
The rest is self explanatory.

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

Commodore Computer Club U.k.
MIMI Meeting 9th August 2009

The day started well enough, with
glorious sunshine beaming out of a
cloudless sky, the problem this
causes is that my "computer room" is
in the loft space at the top of the
house and as a consequence it heats
up rather quickly in these rather
rare sunny conditions. I decided to
install 3 fans, making a mental not
that I need either some form of
air-conditioning unit and or some
form of vent to at least let the warm
air escape out of my room.

I opened the window in the "computer
room" in the misguided hope that by
some miracle would permit the wind to
at least slightly blow, and try and
cool the room down. It was a glorious
day, and nope there wasn't any wind.
Even the birds had given up singing
and just sat in the shade keeping
eerily quiet.

My mobile phone rang and it was
"Shaun" he explained he was close to
my house (coming in on the train) and
asked if Allan had arrived, "no
Allan" I said but Shaun confirmed
that "Allan said he was on his way so
he should arrive soon" As Allan knew
the way to my house; I said I would
meet Shaun at the local Train
station, and guide him in as he was
unsure of how to get to my house from
the train station. I walked down the
road and within 5 minutes and I was
soon standing next to Shaun and Chris
Syntichakis We chatted briefly and
made the customary hand interactions
then talked about Commodore while
walking back to my house, we began
cursing about the sun even though a
few days before I was cursing about
the cold and rain!

We arrived inside the house and I
made some tea, don't really drink tea
myself so I made a glass of milk, we
chatted a little then want to the
"computer room up in the loft" Chris
started work re-manufacturing a
cartridge case to fit a Retro replay
card with connected network card for
Shaun.

No sooner had we started setting
things up when the door bell went, I
walked downstairs and met Allan, I
invited him in made a cup of tea, we
chatted briefly then I explained
Shaun and Chris were upstairs and he
said "come on then what are we
waiting for" we went upstairs to the
"computer room" and Allan greeted
Shaun and was introduced to Chris

Now the attention turned to my broken
RamLinks; I had 2 that suddenly
stopped working, well that's not
entirely true I had 1 working and 1
broken. The broken one I tired chip
swapping with a completely knackered
one Shaun had lent me, I swapped over
the chips and ....well nothing it was
still dead, I tried my working
RamLink and ... Oh that's dead as
well. Shaun set to work clipping out
chips and swapping memory after what
seemed like an hour I had 2 working
RamLinks with 16mb of memory on each
and now both had clocks! Fantastic

Shaun then looked at my faulty 128d
Allan suggested it could be a number
of faults from my description so we
powered up the machine... Can you
believe it the thing worked without
problems! We powered of the machine
left it a few seconds then powered
the device back on Working no
problem! Ok must be a slight blip I
had then..

So that's 2 working RamLinks
1 Working 128D

and just at that moment Chris
produced a Cartridge Retro replay
with sticking out network card nicely
cut to house the device and keep away
static hands.

I showed the team the amazing DC2N
device that allows dumping and
loading of Tape file on a Commodore
machine; also the 1541U was also
briefly demo (more about this device
later)

1541u
Chris and Shaun both asked about the
1541U, its been some time since I
used the device and Chris wanted to
know if one particular game would
work with the device as he had
problems running this game from the
mmc64 device, we unplugged the SD
card from the MMc64 and plugged it
into the 1541 and powered up, after a
few seconds the game appeared Chris
was amazed we agreed that it must be
the emulation on the 1541u that made
the game work and must not be as good
on the MMC64 device, I explained
there were still problems as I loaded
some demos and it complained I was
using an emulator and not a real
1541, although the demo did run
without problems,

Shaun expressed an interest in the
IDE64 v4 and wondered if it would
help him transfer postscript files to
and from his Commodore, I have used
version 3 to do just that over a
serial connection transferring 5 MB
files and up to 1gb have all been
transferred, Shaun said he may be
interested in purchasing either
device as they would help him
producing magazines using Commodore
GeoPublish and transfer the files to
a PC to produce PDF versions in razor
sharp text.

I, Shaun and Allan decided we needed
to get our heads together and resolve
some problems with the CCC U.K. club.
So we headed off to a local Mc
Donald's for some food (although
McDonald's isn't something I eat so I
watched them eating and we headed
back to the house where I made some
food for myself)

The first issue with the CCC U.K. was
to sort out the full handover of
treasurer to Allan from myself. Due
to health problems and not being able
to check emails, and a pending
surgery operation; we decided it
better to remove the job from myself
so I could concentrate on getting
better and thinking about
appointments instead of worrying
about money subscriptions and the
shop.

With that out of the way Shaun
mentioned that he had purchased a
colour laser printer for use with
Wheels the upgrade from Geos. We
briefly reviewed printing from geos
and Geopublish to postscript devices
then moved onto the other issues.

The next major issue was outputting
the Commodore 128 80 column onto a
flat screen TV, I had a device I
purchased Y-Plus model A-22
RGB-to-Composite Converter
http://www.arcademvs.com/ we looked
closely at the device, well others
have done this very thing so it cant
be complicated can it,
http://home.comcast.net/~kkrausnick/c1
28-svideo/index.html we then looked
at the devices supplied connector. I
produced some cable and we set about
trying to get the unit up and running
with out much success.

Next Chris suggested we were using
the wrong interface as the board has
2 connectors but only supplied with a
cable to connect to one of the
interfaces, Allan said he had been to
Maplins to get a connector but they
didn't sell anything to fit this
particular slot on the device, we
googled on the interface and came to
the conclusion Chris was right. So
now how can we connect the wires,
well we could solder directly on the
board, ok its Sunday I have no solder
and Maplins is quite a drive, I said
I have seen this connector before on
Hp printers, Shaun said yes then we
looked at each other and said 1541
drive.

I had a drive and we unscrewed the
unit sure enough it had a connector
on there that did fit the device we
cut the cables on the 1541 and
connected the connection  to the
display circuitry using some tape and
twisting wires, yes it was very
low-tech Boom we ha a picture using a
composite output but it was a bit
bright and blurry but it was a
picture 80 columns.

Allan suggested using SVideo and
connection this via SCART to the back
of my TV. I had a connector and we
tried this, the picture was better
but to bright so we decided to turn
the voltage down on the input of the
A22 board this improved things but
the colours were not right, Allan
said he had the same unit and would
carry out further testes at home.

We finished with a chat about Maurice
and CMD what devices we would like to
be manufactured and about Jim Brain
selling Jiffy dos legally with
instructions and the Binary to
download "hurray" the end talks were
about Doom and how to create 3d
environments but with none of us
technically proficient at such things
we could only "what iffs"

It's a rare treat nowadays to spend a
full day working on my Commodore with
so many commitments I hardly find any
spare time. All the guys were very
courteous  and although I had met
Chris for the first time I seem to
get on with him no problem he seemed
to be a great guy very knowledgeable,
but all things must come to an end.
Allan had to leave to be in time for
work and within 30 minutes Shaun and
Chris were ready to leave to catch
the train. I walked with them to the
station and waved as I left.

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

Interview with Arcade Retro Gaming

COMMODORE FREE
Please introduce yourself to our
readers; also can you describe ARCADE
RETRO GAMING - The classic Gaming
Experts

ARCADE RETRO GAMING
(www.arcaderetrogaming.com) was
created in Spring 2009. The founder
Dirk Dudenbostel and co-founder
Frederic Requin both grew up with
classic computers and games. Arcade
Retro Gaming is an independent
computer game technology company that
uses its deep domain knowledge to
build a bridge into the 21st century
for classic computer, retro games and
Arcade Gaming.

Our main goal is to develop
user-friendly classic game platforms
for the general audience that the
current market is not offering. This
will preserve the classic game
experience from all different kind of
classic computers for the future.
This becomes more and more important
as the classic hardware won't be
available for long.

We also sell a wide variety of
classic games and accessories for
modern computers and consoles to
preserve the classic gaming
experience. This includes the
original Competition Pro Joystick for
AMIGA available in a modern USB
version or the classic DB-9
connector. The USB version includes
185 classic AMIGA games for the PC.
We included now for the fall season
an ARCADE Joystick with support PC
and Playstation 2-3. Especially
designed for Street Fighter Arcade
but enables all other games as well.

From the gaming side we included the
Dragons Lair, Space Ace and Dragons
Lair 2 titles in our product
portfolio. Who wouldn't remember Dirk
in his adventures to rescue the
princess? This DVD's can be played on
every DVD player, Computer and are
now even available in an HD remix
version for Blue-Ray DVD players.

Please find enclose the links to our
two Online Stores:

http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/arcadere
trogaming
http://arcaderetrogaming.mybisi.com/

You will support with each purchase;
the development of the multiple
classic computer. Donations in any
for are welcome as well.  Please
contact us under ARCADE RETRO GAMING,
e-mail: contact@arcaderetrogaming.com.

CF. Can you explain the function of
the MCC

MCC. The Multiple Classic Computer
(MCC) from ARCADE RETRO GAMING will
emulate the real hardware from the
past. It will support a menu
structure which guarantees easy of
use. The MCC will preserve the real
experience in terms of real time
emulation which current software
emulators can't offer. It will be
expandable with different cores which
allow the system to emulate all
different kinds of 8, 16 and even up
to 32 Bit machines. For the 1st
development ARCADE RETRO GAMING
concentrates on the classic Commodore
computers C-64 and the Amiga series.
The MCC comes with all interfaces to
connect the device to a standard TV
or Computer monitor. It will support
stereo out via Head Phones or an
external speakers. We have integrated
all different kind of input interface
to support Keyboard, Mouse, Joysticks
and other peripheral devices. To
support future devices we even
included a USB port.

CF. Can you give our readers some
Technical specifications about the MCC

MCC.

Technical Specification:

* Reconfigurable hardware core inside
  an FPGA, including main CPU, graphic
  engine, sound engine and interfaces
* Integrated SDR SDRAM Memory of 16
  MByte
* Integrated non volatile memory of 8
  MBit for different classic computer
  platform realization, programs and
  games (enable up to 150 and more
  games in a closed system)
* Support of external keyboard and
  mouse (PS-2 and USB interface)
* Support of classic ARCADE Joysticks
  (DB-9 or USB interface)
* S-Video or RGB Video output
* Stereo Audio Output
* SD-Card interface for external
  programs
* Battery or external power supply
  support via USB
* Core update and Firmware upgrade
  via USB interface

CF. Do you need any special skills to
set the unit up

MCC. No. The Unit will come fully
equipped with the 1st two classic
cores. You just need to connect the
power supply, TV or PC Monitor, Audio
and the Joysticks. The MCC will read
the Software and Games from the
SD-card and display the titles in a
menu. You can browse thru the menu
and select the game you like. The MCC
will fully automatically load the
game and start the game.

CF. Can original disk drives be used
or is it purely from an SD card?

MCC. The original software in the 1st
implementation will reside 100% on
the SD-card. In future
implementations the support of USB
Flash Drives or other USB media
storage could be possible.

CF. The Commodore 64 uses D64 (disk
images) I presume these and other
disk images will be supported by the
unit

MCC. Yes for sure we will support the
.D64 images for the C-64. We will
support as well the Amiga file format
.ADF (Amiga Disk File).

CF. Can the old cartridges be used on
the hardware

MCC. You can load cartridge images
the same way as you would load it
with an emulator.

CF. You can use the old hardware
joysticks and paddle devices with the
unit

MCC. We can use the joysticks, but
not the paddle (the device has no
analogue inputs). The CBM mouse
1350/1351 is emulated through the
PS/2 mouse connector.

CF. When did the project start and
can you give our readers a brief
history of its design

MCC. The project started 9 months
ago. We where looking for something
that plays Amiga games, C64 games and
Arcade. With the progress in
programmable logic, memory and
solid-state storage, we think that we
can make this affordable to a lot of
people. The first computer we decided
to emulate was the C64 (it was my
first computer 25 years ago).
Contrary to other implementations, we
created a full digital SID in VHDL.
We also implemented a complete
VIC-1541 to support games, like
Summer Games II through D64 images.

CF. Have you seen individual
Computers C- One (configurable one)
and was the unit designed in response
to the C- Ones limitations?

MCC. It is designed to be booth
cheaper and more powerful than the
Minimig and the C-One. We do not
really see it as a C-One replacement,
but more like a Minimig replacement.
The main idea was to create a more
powerful hardware emulation for
different kind of classic computers
that will be affordable for a broad
audience. It should be easy to use
and the setup should be possible from
everyone.

CF. Is there a limit to what hardware
can be "Emulated" by the device

MCC. 16/32 bits system, like the
Amiga and the Atari ST, will be
supported. The limit is the number of
colours (12-bit RGB, can be pushed to
18-bit with delta-sigma modulation),
the memory (up to 64MB, 133 MHz), and
the FPGA logic (~1 million gates).

CF. Out of the Box what systems will
be supported

MCC. We will start with C64 and Amiga
for this year. Depending on the
market demand and the success in the
market ACRADE RETRO GAMING plans
hardware emulations for :MSX, Atari
ST, Neo Geo or Archimedes. We are
also thinking about real arcade
machines like "1943" (that was
already ported to a different HW
platform by us). If someone has
interest in this direct ARCADE
emulation, or likes to support the
porting of multiple cores to the FPGA
please contact ARCADE RETRO GAMING
(E-mail:
Contact@arcaderetrogaming.com).

CF. Who writes the cores or
"emulation" software

MCC. Cores are a mix of open source
VHDL and custom VHDL, i.e. the C64
has the 6510, 6526, 6502 and 6522
from the Open Source World. The
VIC-II, SID and drive logic are
custom. There is also a bit of 6502
or 68000 assembly for the menus and
the SD-Card management.

CF. How do you change the system to
"Emulate" a different device?

MCC. The system supports SD-Card
Interfaces for the games and the
classic computer emulations. In
addition the system supports a USB
cable to update the system with an
additional core similar to update the
Software from modern cell phones,
I-Pod's and other devices.

CF. Could the unit be configured in a
way that the Commodore 64 could have
2 SIDs?

MCC. Already done. The SIDs also have
digital filters. We plan to put a
pseudo-stereo mode that uses the
second SID since almost no SW
supports 2 SIDs.

CF. Will the project be "open source"
with the SDK (software Development
Kits) available to download Free of
charge or will this be a Closed
system ?

MCC. Some parts will be open source
for tinkers. Everyone who like to put
hands on VHDL or Software development
on the MCC please contact us under
ARCADE RETRO GAMING (E-mail:
Contact@arcaderetrogaming.com).

CF. Will the users have to "purchase
core" for different system extra to
the hardware cost or will they be
Free to download and use when new
devices are "emulated"

MCC. ARCADE RETRO GAMING is currently
defining their business model to
expand the supported cores on the
system. One option could be the
purchase of the different emulations.
Another could be to get some capital
investment via donations. Last but
not least we like to encourage the
developers to support us.

CF. How much will the unit cost and
what will be included in the box, for
example does the user need to
purchase a power supply, also where
will the unit be sold

MCC. We are looking into a selling
price below the current Minimig
including Power Supply and ready to
connect to a PC monitor or a standard
TV set. We plan to offer in addition
a version which will include two
Competition Pro Joysticks and a
unique selection of the classic Games
we all enjoyed so much. The selling
price for the whole solution is not
determined at this point.

CF. What users are working on the
system

MCC. We have multiple developers
working on different parts of the
system. One big part of the
development is the FPGA software
development. Another big part is the
hardware and mechanical development.
Today all this development takes
place in USA and Europe. We are
looking into production of these
units as well in USA or Europe and
not in China. Our product will
clearly market as MADE in USA.

CF. When will the unit be available?

MCC. We are looking into distribution
for the Christmas sales.

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

Multiple Classic Computer Platform
ADVERT

CLASSIC COMPUTERSUPPORT
Unique realization to preserve the
classic computer experience and
enable the real behaviour

EXPANDABLE DESIGN
Allows user to add Keyboard, Mouse,
DB-9 Joysticks and has an SD-card
interface.

ENHANCED FEATURES ON TOP OF THE
ORIGINAL DESIGN
A lot of enhanced feature improve
even the experience compare to the
original. On demand they could be
disabled

* One hardware design which can
  emulate multiple different classic
  computers

* Easy to reconfigure for different
  Emulations

* All emulation done in real HW
  design and not Software based. This
  ensures the original behaviour and
  reaction time for games

* New algorithms improve the sound
  and picture quality

* Improved loading times compare to
  original classic computer

This Multiple Classic Computer
Platform lets dreams come true.

The Classic Computer and Classic
Arcade fan just waits on a device
which allows them to go back in the
good and easy operation and gaming
experience from the past. A lot of
people still have unique Software
developed and a lot of programs which
are still unbeatable in the easy of
use. The reconfigurable and generic
design will allow for easy switch
between multiple different
realizations and representations of
classic computers. When we look to
the 80ies and 90ies names like Atari
ST, Sinclair's ZXSpectrum, Commodores
VC20, VC-64 and the whole Amiga
Series 500, 1000, 2000 come to our
mind

Old Joystick interfaces allow the
usage of classic input devices. A
stereo audio output allows the
connection the each TV set, Amplifier
or Computer monitor to explore
enhance sound. Different versions for
the PAL and NTSC regions allowing for
seamless usage and compatibility. All
this paired with newest available
Hardware and new interface like
SD-Card, S-Video and RGB Output
improve the picture quality and the
openess of the systems. Internal
memory allows for permanent storage
of favorite games and applications,
Menu overlay will allow for easy
selection of the application or game
and the desired classic computer.

TECHNICAL SUPPORT
Experienced Design team realizes the
Hardware and Software application
development and can guide application
users.

APPLICATION SUPPORT
Special application needs and designs
in Hardware and Software could be
realized in close cooperation with
Arcade Retro Gaming engineers.

TURNKEY SOLUTIONS
Whole integration into existing
Joystick, Keyboard or stand alone
Gamebox, Arcade System will be
supported and detailed estimation can
be provided. For more information on
any of our products or services
please contact us under:
contact@arcaderetrogaming.com

Service Features and Benefits
Arcade Retro Gaming mission is to
enable partners with a low cost
application design based on this
classic computer platform. Potential
applications are not limited to the
following examples: integrated stand
alone Joystick including games, stand
alone mini computers, classic game
boxes with game software distributed
on SD-cards and integration into
Arcade Cabinets. Other non- gaming
applications in all areas e.g.
computer terminals, cash systems,
registration devices, based on
classic computer designs are
possible. Our engineers are passioned
about the classic computer area and
have extensive experience in hardware
and software design.

Technical Specification
Reconfigurable Hardware Core
including main CPU, Grafik engine,
sound engine and interfaces

* Integrated DDR Memory 32 MBytes

* Integrated non volontile memory
  128Mbyte for different classic
  computer platform realization,
  programs and games (enable up to 150
  and more games in a closed system)

* Support of external keyboard and
  mouse

* S-Video and RGB Video output

* Stereo Audio Output

* SD_card interface for external
  programs

* Battery or external power supply
  supported

* Dimensions: 110 x 90 x 20 mm

SERVICES AVAILABLE
Hardware Design
Software Design
Product Design support
Application Support
Maintenance
Small scale production support
License of Technology

Arcade Retro Gaming
123 Ambergate Drive
Madison, Alabama
United States of America
Phone +1 256 525 8393
Mail:contact@arcaderetrogaming.com

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