Vintage Computing

[Chopper]

Great to see the real thing up and running, even if only for a bit.

Of course nowadays you can download a few C64 games on the Wii, or pretty much the lot on a home computer simulator, but it ain't the same. Got me wondering, though. Does anyone make audio downloads of C64, Atari and Speccy games that can be transferred onto tape for retro users?

Yeah, they do, Monkfish. Download them in MP3 format and record to tape. I think its even possible to hook up a CDrom to an atari and use the CD audio playback function too. Been a while tho.

I have on my desk an Atari 130XE, MegaSTE, TT030 and a pair of Falcon030's as well. I use em from time to time.

[Monkfish]

Good stuff, some of the Atari tapes used to have music that played during loading. Can't remember if the C64 did the same.

Oh the TT030 - As a teen I really wanted a TT 'cos my ST was getting trounced for speed by my mate's Archimedes. And his machine, like all the Acorns, allowed palette bashing whereas the main ST languages - STBasic, STOS, GFA - all had implicitly forced VBL synch.

[Chopper]

That was got around yarens ago. Even Stos had a 512 colour extension in later years iirc. STe could manage 16bit (palette switching) too.

TT's palette was 8 bit and the the Falcon's was 16bit. I also have a CD32\SX1, Jaguar and 2600 hooked up in the lounge.

[Monkfish]

Yep, some ST games at the time used palette bashing which is why I was so keen to use it, but I never realised that STOS was updated to allow it too. Truth be told STOS was so slow compared to GFA in so many areas that I likely migrated well before the update.

A 2600 in there, eh? That's got me hankering for a Joust session.

[Thundershot]

The C64 had some pretty impressive sound capabilities thanks to the Sid chip, Monkfish, most of the loading screens had some cool music playing.

I'm not technical, but would any one know any reason why, dispite other wise working fine, my 64 graphics went black & white?

[gung-hoeddie]

i should imagine the inner workings have started to deteriorate somewhat, it will happen overtime next the picture screen will get smaller, like old tv's used to when they were on there way out.

[Lady Jaye]

Prolly bad connection from C64 to TV.

Check the cable first to see if it is still in perfect nick or not. After 20 years it is not impossible that the connector on C64 or the cable plugs have some corrosion. Twisting the plug whilst in the socket at little at either side of the cable might help.