Commodore Free 20/Commodore_Free_Issue_20_2008_Commodore_Computer_Club.d64/t.c< scene

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Commodore Scene
Meeting report

Robert Bernardo was again making his
trips around the world visiting
computer shows & clubs in a variety
of locations after careful planning
and itinerary slots being available
Commodore Scene managed to get
together & accommodate a meeting
with Robert

Robert & Shaun Bebbington made their
way from Birmingham Alan Bairstow of
www.commodorescene.org.uk & I met them
at Preston railway station; the train
arrived on time, in reality a couple of
minutes late but this was more or less
on time. So Alan & I loaded bags into
both our cars & set off on a 30 minute
drive to my house.

Once at my house we all unloaded &
proceeded to the very un-posh &
rather cramped computer room little
more than a loft conversion but just
big enough for us to collectively
squeeze ourselves into

Robert told a shocked Alan about his
recent heart scare problem & how
even in hospital he was trying to
convert past commodore users who were
doctors & nurses into joining in
with a nearby Commodore club event.
Robert confirmed he had to take care
but was fit & well, Alan had not
heard the news, & stressed Robert
should take care, we suggested slowing
down & Alan said that men just carry
on not listening to our bodies.

I followed this up with my slipped &
bulging disks problem the lower 3
disks in my spine had slipped &
bulging pressing on nerves causing
severe pain I waited 2 years then went
to seek medical care, Alan laughed &
said its a man thing we expect the
pain to just go, & put off doctors,
I was on morphine for the pain but now
have recovered enough to use just
strong pain killers as & when
needed, in fact the whole meeting I
managed without taking any of them.

AMIGA STICKER

Robert gave us all a self adhesive
badge with Amiga logo on & proceeded
to show us about 10 DVDs with Scanned
magazines unfortunately the text was
all in German & none of us can read
German but the pictures of course were
international.


Behr-Bonz VIC-20
Robert said he had something rather
special in his bag & Shaun & I could
test it. Robert produced the Behr-Bonz
VIC-20 Multicart not just any version
but the PAL version, beta testers are
still needed as the games have only
been tested in an emulator & not on a
real machine Robert pointed out. Robert
therefore looked rather disappointed
when I started my 1st demo

I tried demonstrating the Behr-Bonz
VIC-20 Multicart 127 cartridge games
for the vic 20 all on 1 cartridge yes
Robert I already had one. Robert rather
deflated handed the device to Shaun
and suggested he try testing it on a
spare machine he had back in
Birmingham, Shaun agreed to test the
device when he had time.

The demo went rather badly although my
VIC did manage to boot to the menu, I
seemed to have a power problem & the
machine lost power & display so I was
unable to test further, Shaun lent me
another Vic to test out the device but
we were unable to find a power supply
for this VIC 20, so the demo was put
aside for another time, as we had other
items to look at.

1541 ULTIMATE

I produced a 1541 ultimate device but
said that my C64 wouldn't power up with
the device due to the amount of power
required, we did see the device load &
look inside some disk images, although
after initialising one of the freezer
functions the C64 refused to power up
due to the drain of the PSU, again this
device was put aside for further demo
when a suitable PSU was found for the
C64, Alan said he may be able to make a
flat C128 psu power my C64 & would
produce one for the next meeting

We all chatted about the various clubs
world wide & wondered why a U.K.
Commodore club hadn't been created,
going by our clubs recent get together
about 1 every 2 years we suggested that
we meet more often & form a proper
treasury, have a meeting place & try to
make the meetings on weekends rather
than midweek as 2 members were unable
to attend due to work commitments. Then
we reflected that it was no wonder the
U.K. didn't have a regular meeting as
the 5 of us couldnt even make the
commitment we all suggested this must
change & soon.  Shaun suggested some
ways of club fund raising & a meeting
place was also suggested.

C64TCP

Next for demo was c64tcp, Alan said he
had commitments he needed to attend
but promised he would contact us all
again & not wait 2 years, Alan was
also keen on a club & proper treasury,
at this point we said our goodbyes &
Alan left in his car.

C64tcp demo actually worked & I
showed the remaining members now me,
Shaun & Robert how the device
connected & loaded applications from
a PC (see full review in this issue
for more details of the device) Robert
was keen to video the device in action
& asked questions about its function, I
pointed out development had stopped,
but the device as is had potential even
if it wasnt a 1541 emulator & couldnt
handle turbo loading games.

DC2N

Next came the DC2N Robert had not seen
this device & so questioned why users
would still want to load TAP files in
real time one a Commodore machine, I
pointed out that it was in fact
real-time with no speedup of the tape
dumps & also said that most games
featured turbo loading also it helps
preserve games that would soon fail to
load from real tapes, also from a
nostalgic point of view I still use
tapes & am a great promoter of this
device that seems to work without
problems, is easy to use (although it
doesn't come supplied with Document-
ation, I will change this & produce a
guide to download from
www.commodorefree.com website when I
have time)

The DC2N as pointed out allows users
to copy commodore cassette games to a
digital format TAP files & play them
on the device as if they were real
cassettes, thus the user experiences
loading the Tap files in real time so
a cassette that took 20 mins to load
would take 20 mins to load. Shaun was
quick to point out that there would be
no tape errors on heads that needed re-
aligning or cleaning as the files were
in a digital format, it was agreed the
items was useful for preservation of
Commodore tapes & the designer had
tested the device on the PET & VIC.

We watched a few videos that Robert
had taken on his travels & an
interview with the 1541 Ultimate
creator Guidion, Shaun suggested the
device may be used as a SCpu
replacement as internally the device
ran at something like 16mhz the
interview with guideon also suggested
this may be possible. We saw a
prototype of the next version with an
Ethernet port & some other hardware
and software fixes that the designer
had implemented into the device.

I told Robert & Shaun I was still
looking for some sort of video titler
or presentation software to show text
on screen in a sort of cut down
PowerPoint style presentation we
googled for various items & in the
end it was suggested maybe a noter
style application could be used, Shaun
pointed out & downloaded a couple
that looked promising I said I would
test them & try them out, & maybe
video myself giving the presentation
to a shocked audience when they
realise the presentation is in fact
coming from an C64 & not a PC or Apple
MAC

Robert then asked about the Sound
buggy hardware device he saw in the
room & said he had never seen one of
these devices he asked about its
function, I promised to do a review
for Commodore Free magazine & upload
some of the demo music files as wavs
so we could all enjoy them, basically
the device is an FM sound module thats
controlled by the C64, Robert took out
his camera & made a video of the device
& box, but we didn't have time to load
the software & do any testing.

I asked about the state of GeoPublish
version 1.1 Robert said he didnt have
a copy it was pointed out by Shaun
that maybe Maurice didnt like its
release as there was no copy protection
on the update & thus anyone could use
the software without owning a legal
copy it seems the software may not see
the light of day, Robert said the
creator was putting a manual & proper
box together the last he heard from the
creator was over 2 years ago

We moved out into the garden as the
room became to hot for usage in the
British sunshine, we tried to contact
Maurice Randell on his home number but
just got the answer machine, Robert
suggested we phone Jeri Ellsworth but
again we just got through to an answer
machine.

Shaun did manage to contact Chris
Snowden of www.commodore16.com fame,
he was sorry he couldent attend the
meeting but was working & also had
commitments on the day. He asked if we
could try again for a weekend rather
than a midweek meeting, we all nodded
as Shaun spoke his words out loud as
we couldnt hear the phone.

All to soon Robert & Shaun had to
leave, I packed their belongings into
my car & took them back to the train
station, dropping them off. We all
confirmed that over 2 years is far to
long a time to wait to talk to each
other & we should do more to promote
Commodore machines, again a U.K. club
was mentioned, Shaun promised to keep
more in touch & even share some
programming knowledge. I watched them
walk into the station & disappear from
view, I then started the car ready for
my 30 minute drive back home reflecting
that although some of the demos didnt
work & we never had the time to look at
wheels on my setup, or even look how
the MMU unit could be removed from a
dead C128D (that was soldered on the
mother board) & inserted into a working
model, on the whole it was successful

Would we follow the promise of a U.k.
Group, only time & family commitments
would tell, arriving home I emailed all
involved thanking them & saying we need
to keep momentum & push the new U.K.
club into existence.


General shot of C128D setup. This was a
picture after the event I don't drink
coke so the cans were left by the
members, I need to point this out as a
certain person reading will question me
about the cans, its a sort of a
personal/private joke

Anyone else interested in a U.K.
Commodore club & meeting on a regular
basis? Why not drop me an email & tell
me where in the U.K. you are.

THE END ..

======
AMENDMENT PLEASE READ
Hi Nigel, I read in Commodore Free that
I suggested that the 1541 Ultimate Plus
would be a good SuperCPU replacement. I
never actually said this; what I
suggested was that with a battery
back-up function (which I think is
intended on a future revision), the
device could be a RAMLink replacement
at some point in the future. In
emulation, someone has already hacked
Wheels to recognise a 17xx Ram
Expansion Unit up to 8 megabytes, and
theoretically up to 16Mb. Okay, so this
hasn't been done in the real world as
far as I know, but the 1541U+ as far as
I can gather basically has the same
function as a 1750 REU (for instance),
but up to 16Mb. A RAMLink is 16Mb, so
all that is needed is either a power
source to keep the RAM in a solid
state, and some sort of DOS interface
to read the contents of the RAM (you'll
note that the RAMLink can do this
already as you can plug a 1750 REU or
clone into the RAMPort, which can be
either 'normal' access via JiffyDOS, or
'direct' access as it was intended to
be used, which is only possible because
the memory is kept constant as long as
it remains plugged into the RAMPort and
the RAMLink isn't unplugged). Even
without accessing the RAM like a drive,
you can 'skip RAMDisk formatting' on
Wheels, and have a RAM disk on your
desktop. This keeps the memory on even
after a soft reset, but obviously
switching the computer off will clear
it. So, keeping power to the 1541U+
even after switching off the computer
should also keep the memory intact
meaning that you can have all of your
GEOS apps in RAM for super-fast access.
The 1541U+ is going to be some kick-ass
device, that is for sure! As for a
SuperCPU clone... well, who knows what
the future will hold ;-) Sorry for the
rant! Regards, Shaun.

COMMODORE FREE = Shaun I am sorry I
have misquoted you please accept my
Apologies ok we are all human
====