Commodore.news

RetroCade Synth | Jack Gassett started a new chip-tune hardware project. The project is based on the Papilio platform, and is designed for hardware hackers and musicians. The RetroCade Synth will play the Commodore 64 SID chip, the Yamaha YM-2149 chip, .mod files, MIDI files, and all at the same time! Specifications: 2 Audio connectors, MIDI (In, Out, Through), µSD card, Micro joystick, LCD display, 16 Analog inputs and 16 digital inputs.

Project: CDTV Remote Control Unit | Stefan Egger started a new project. He wants to make a replica of the prototype of the CDTV remote control unit. He has a couple of pictures from an presentation of the CDTV as an example. You can follow the progress on Stefan's web page.

Amiga Hardware | There are still people who develop hardware for the Amiga. Most of them are independent hardware developers and do not sell products through standard retail channels. On this web page you can find many of these products and information about ordering the hardware. A few examples are: RGB to Video converters, Clock-port expanders, CF to IDE adapters, etc.

UltimatePPC | Gideon Zweijtzer and Rutger Bevaart are working on a modern version of a PPC turbo card for the Amiga 3000 and 4000. This card will give your Amiga great performance and many new possibilities. Specifications of the UltimatePPC are: 33MHz 68040 CPU, 1.0GHz Freescale PowerPC CPU, 128MB memory for the 68040 and 2GB of extra memory, USB2, SATA2, Ethernet and video with a DVI connector.

C64 Bass keytar | Jeri Ellsworth showed a new project at the Bay Area Maker Fair. This time she developed an Commodore 64 bass guitar. She combined an bass guitar with a C64 and a FPGA system. The FPGA system reads the signals from the guitar strings and the C64 keyboard. The input is processed by the FPGA and send to a real SID chip to produce the sound.

FPGA Arcade - Amiga | The FPGA Arcade is a FPGA computer that can emulate many 8 and 16 bit computers. For emulation of the Amiga you can now order your FPGA Arcade from Laurent Zorawski. The system can emulate the following: 68000, 68010, 68020 and 68020EC processors, OCS, ECS and AGA chip sets, 2 MB Chip-RAM / 9,5 MB Fast-RAM, Kickstart 1.3 - 3.1, hard disks and diskette drives. For the future an expansion with a 68060, Ethernet and USB is planned.

1541 Emulator - ARM Cortex M4 | Thomas Winkler started a new project. He wants to develop a hardware replacement for the 1541 disk drive. He is using a STM32F4 Discovery development board with a 168 MHz CPU, 1 MB Flash RAM and 192 kB RAM. With this system it will be possible to emulate all serial (IEC) communications, but also Speed-DOS und Professional DOS are possible. You can follow the progress of Thomas on his blog (German language).

EPROM Programmer Universal Adapter | Reading an old EPROM is not as easy as you think. There are many different EPROMs and they can have different connections. Matthew D'Asar has made an universal adapter for an EPROM programmer. With this adapter you can read every EPROM. The adapter can be used for example on the inexpensive Willem EPROM reader / programmer.

Retro computer case - X500 Plus | Loriano Pagni designed the X500 Plus. This computer case is a tribute to the computers of the eighties and nineties and is inspired by the Commodore Amiga 500. The case is build from aluminium and plastic and has a in-built keyboard. You can install a mini-itx or flex-ATX motherboard, SSDs or HDDs, slim DVD-RW or Blu-Ray drive and a card reader. You can use the case for many systems like: PC, SAM, Raspberry pi, Natami, FPGAArcade etc.

SD2IEC Backpack | SwissMäc developed his own version of a SD2IEC. He named his version the Commodore 64 SD2IEC Backpack. In the video you can see that the device is installed on the Commodore C64 as a little backpack.

How to build an 8-Bit TTL Computer | Many people know a little bit about the internals of a 8-bit computer. The most important part is the CPU (Central Processing Unit). You can buy many different CPU's to build a computer. But Kyle from 8 Bit Spaghetti decided to make a computer the hard way. He did not buy a CPU, he build one himself from TTL chips. In this very comprehensive blog he explains how a CPU works and how you can build one yourself.

SIDboard | Stefan Noack developed a hardware SID player with the help of a Atmel micro processor. The used components are: 6581 SID, Atmel Atmega162 and a MAX 323. You can use the ACID 64 software to play your SID's on the SIDboard. Because the project is open source you can download the schematics and firmware to build your own SIBboard.

Indivision AGA Mk2 | A new version of the Amiga flicker fixer is available. The device comes in two versions and can be used with the Amiga 1200, 4000, 4000T and the CD32. Specifications: DVI-I Connector, 135 MHz Pixel clock, 16 MB frame buffer, Hardware updates are possible. The device is placed inside the Amiga on top of the Lisa chip.

Project 1565 | Stefan from the computer collection Vienna has now a real replica of the Commodore 1565 disk drive. He made a 3D drawing of the disk drive and used it to print the disk drive. With a modern 3D printer it is possible to produce 3D models. In the video you can see the result of the project. The total printing time was 4 hours.

HIVE - TriBorg SID Player | HIVE is a small computer system. The specifications are: 24 RISC processors, VGA, Video, Stereo sound, 1 MB RAM, SD card, LAN and PS/2. The whole computer fits on a eurocard and has no SMD components. Drohne235 has used his HIVE to build a TriBorg SID player. The SID's can be stored on the SD card and played with the HIVE system. You can watch an demonstration on a YouTube video.

Project 1565 | Stefan is working on a replica of the Commodore 1565 disk drive for the C65. He now has the 3D drawings of the 1565 and want to produce one example with the help of a 3D printer. The 1565 disk drive is a external disk drive for the Commodore C65 , and there is only one in existence. You can watch a video on YouTube about the project.

ATI Radeon 9200 - Amiga 4000 | Mfilos is working on a new project for one of his Amiga's. He installed a ATI Radeon 9200 (256MB RAM) graphics card in his Amiga 4000. The main problem with this type of graphics card is that the card needs a 3.3 VDC power supply. Mfilos added a LM1084 3.3V regulator to the card and now the card is recognised by the Amiga 4000. You can see a series of photo’s with detailed information on his blog how to adapt this graphics card.

Micromys V4 | Micromys V4 is a PS/2 mouse adapter for the Amiga, Atari ST and the Commodore 64/128. The Micromys V4 is made by Individual Computers and is an improved version of the Micromys V3. The most important improvement is that the adapter now can recognise the computer. This version does not have the dip switches for the configuration.

Commodore VIC mini | Commodore USA is working on a new Commodore PC. This time smaller is better. The specification of the VIC mini are: 64-bit Intel D2700 Dual Core Atom processor. 4 GB memory. nVidia Geforce GT 520. HDMI / Dual DVI. 7.1 Sound. USB 2.0 / 3.0. Blu-ray drive. WiFi /Bluetooth. 1 TB Hard Disk. Commodore OS Vision. The system cost 995 USD and will be available in 6 weeks.

VFLI - VIC-20 | Michael started a project in 2010 to enhance the graphics of the Commodore VIC-20. The new graphics mode requires a hardware modification of the VIC-20. The normal RAM is expanded from 5 kB to 8kB and the new colour RAM is 16 times bigger than the original. Recently Michael updated the conversion software and introduced gamma-correction which improves the quality of the converted pictures. You can read all about the VFLI system on the Denial forum.

Mode Machines SID 8Bit Groovebox | SID is an 8-Bit desktop synthesizer made by the German company Mode Machines. The SID can be used stand-alone or with a PC. The features are: 100+ Patches, 50+ Wave tables drum sounds / effects, Audio in/out, Midi in/out. The SID will be available in April and will cost 599 Euro.

Internal 8k expansion – VIC-20 | Thomas Lövskog has designed an internal expansion for the Commodore VIC-20. The expansion is especially designed to enhance the graphics capabilities of the VIC-20. The expansion is placed in the character ROM socket and connected to the motherboard with 7 wires. The features are: 8kByte that is usable by the VIC chip (BLK0). 32 pages of 1 kByte color RAM. 4 banks of 4 kByte RAM ($8000). Auto start and optional LED driver.

SID FPGA - AlienCortex AV | Syso4 made a successful FPGA implementation in VHDL of the Commodore Sound Interface Device Chip (SID). The FPGA development board he uses is a CyberCortex AV with an Xilinx Spartan 3E 500k gate FPGA and a 1-bit DAC with a passive RC-filter. The program that sends the data to the FPGA is ACID 64 by Wilfred Bos and the music is from Welle:Erdball.

FastATA controllers - Amiga | Elbox has introduced a new FastATA controller. With this FastATA you can use SATA, ATA and EIDE devices like hard drives, CF, CD, DVD, ZIP etc. The features are: Transfer rate 16.6 MB/s, Automatic configuration of devices, Supports PIO-0, 3, 4 and 5 modes, Compatible with ATA 33/66/100/133 devices. The controller comes with a Software pack (AllegroCDFS and FastATA), cable and a user Manual.

ACA-1231/42 | The ACA-1231/42 is a turbo card for the Amiga 1200, the card has a 68030 CPU and a MMU. The ACA-1231/42 is an improved version of the ACA-1230. The specifications are: 42 MHz CPU, 64 MB RAM (1 MB for Kickstart), Real Time Clock, Improved hardware and software compatibility.

PROP-6502 Propeller Laptop | Dennis Ferron built a laptop with a 6502 processor. The system is built with a Parallax Propeller micro-controller and a real 6502 CPU. For the case he used a toy laptop and a the screen is from a portable DVD player. The Propeller handles all the I/O for the 6502. The 6502 can access the 64 kB of memory. But the Propeller decides what that memory will be, it can be RAM, ROM, a disk controller, a input buffer etc.

MIDIbox aSIDity | Sauraen and Oikanys are working on a new project, the MIDIbox ASIDITY. This project will be the most powerful SID-based synthesizer in the world. The synthesizer will be built with NXP LPC1769 processors and MIDIbox SID 3.0 software. The system will control 8 Commodore 64 SID sound chips (4 x 6581 and 4 x 8580) and will have the following features: 32 active and 128 passive modulators, 256 SID controls, 44 knobs, 240 buttons and 760 LEDs.

A600: Internal MAS-Player | Mfilos started on a new project for one of his Amiga's. He installed a MAS-Player inside his A600. The MAS-Player is normally connected to the parallel port, needs +5V and provides two extra audio outputs. He first installed a CF2IDE, put the MAS-Player on top of it and installed an internal mixer for the audio outputs. You can see the complete build on his blog.

GCart - VIC20 | The project of Thomas Lövskog the GCart is one step further. After a long time the proto-type circuit boards have arrived. The GCart will have the following features: 64k - 1024k SRAM, 8k Kernal, Disk-management and Basic extensions with full screen editor, SD card, Audio decoder for MIDI, MP3, FLAC, WAV, OGG, etc, RTC with battery backup, WiFi, 3 buttons (RESET, NMI, DISK) and a display for text, icons etc.

DIAG264 | DIAG264 is a system to search for defects in a Commodore C16, C116 or Plus/4 computer. The system consist of a special cartridge and several loop back connectors. With this system you can test the following parts: RAM, ROM, I/O of the CPU and TED registers. On the DIAG264 web page you can find a very comprehensive manual how to test your computer.

Commodore c64 Kernal Multiload | Musicmax gives an demonstration about installing and the use of the Commodore c64 Kernal Multiload. This device comes in two parts: One EPROM that replaces the original Kernal of the Commodore 64. And a control-box that makes it possible to select and start an alternative Kernal. In the video you can see that the SX-64, EXOS V3, JiffyDOS and the Cockroach Turbo ROM are being used.

W65C02S6TPG-14 | You can buy a new 6502 processor from the company Mouser Electronics. The original 6502 was the CPU in computers from Commodore, Apple, BBC, Acorn, Atari, Coleco, Dragon etc. The new version is pin compatible with the original, but the clock frequency is now 14 MHz. There are also new instructions added: BBR, BBS, BRA, PLX, PLY, RMB, SMB, STP, STZ, TRB, TSB and WAI.

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