c64 - its back and its badass!

[commodorejohn]

Badass

98 should support long filenames from the get-go...do they work elsewhere on the PC? It might be something to do with the cable software.

[commodorejohn]

Honestly what I'd do is just get a disk-imaging utility like ImageCreator and use it with your PC transfer utility to write disk images to physical 1541 media. That'll circumvent the problem entirely.

[commodorejohn]

I guess I'm not 100% clear on what's going on here. The disk images having truncated filenames is just an annoyance, but if (as it sounds) the C64 isn't actually getting the full directory (when you LOAD "$") there's bigger issues at play. If VICE loads them properly, then I would assume something's screwy with either your cable or transfer software. It sounds like the transfer program is DOS software; have you tried A. running it from MS-DOS mode (i.e. rebooting into DOS rather than running it in a DOS box from Windows,) and B. double-checking the cable and any applicable port settings? (Is this a parallel-port cable? If so, check what parallel-port modes it's compatible with, and make sure your BIOS/controller supports and is set to a compatible mode.)

[commodorejohn]

Any reason why you are forcing yourself to use Windows 98?

Wouldn't have the issue if you were not using a 25 year old OS.

Not entirely true. DOS software with no LFN support will have no LFN support no matter what version of Windows it's run on. As for 98, it's actually the last really good choice for esoteric hardware hacks like this cable; XP supports that kind of stuff better than 2000 did, but 98 is far and away the most liberal-minded modern-ish Windows for that purpose.

[commodorejohn]

Hmm, okay. The LFN issue should not affect anything on the C64 end of things at all, unless you're using the program's option to mount a DOS filesystem directly as a virtual drive. If you're not doing that and only using disk images, there should be no reason the LFN issue would affect it, which leaves either the disk image, an issue with the program, or an issue with the hardware. The disk images ought to be good if they work in VICE, so we can probably rule that out. If you haven't already, try rebooting into DOS mode (either by pressing F5/F8 just when the BIOS starts booting Windows, or using a separate MS-DOS boot disk) and see if the program gives better results that way (a lot of hardware-hacky software really prefers vanilla DOS, and the C64HDD manual says it can be very timing-sensitive.) Also, as mentioned, check the parallel-port mode in the BIOS; it sounds like the program is more compatible with older parallel ports, so try setting it to SPP.

[commodorejohn]

Even just a 1581 + 1541 combo (or a single 1571, if you can get a 5.25" drive for your PC) would simplify things enormously.

[commodorejohn]

No: they don't run on top of DOS, so you will have even more issues. I like 2000 and XP just fine, but they're not OSes you want to do anything DOS-based and hacky on - 2000 especially. They don't give DOS programs the relatively free reign that 95-98 do, and while that's not too big an issue for something like ZZT, it's a big problem for the kind of program that hacks up a CBM serial-port emulation by manually bit-banging a cable attached to the parallel port. Kids, do not try this at home.

[commodorejohn]

With an attitude like that, why are you even here? Aren't there a billion and a half forums dedicated to rabid noophiles on the Internet that you could hang out on?