individual Computers: Catweasel MK4 delayed, C64 products on time

[Schoenfeld]

Bad news first: Unfortunately, one of our suppliers did not ship in time, so the production of the Catweasel MK4
could not start at the planned time. Due to this delay, wen can't ensure that all our customers will have the controller under their christmas tree. The soonest day of shipment is december 23rd, but it's more probable that shipping starts between christmas and the new year.

The time that we already rented on the assembly machines is put to good use: In the past days, the last networking
card for the C64 "RR-Net" has been sold, so there would have been a delivery bottleneck if the new production run would have been started as planned early 2005. The second production run of RR-Net networking cards can now be brought forward, so the network-bundle for the C64 that we're offering since september 2003 is kept available without any interruption.

Developer Oliver Achten has finished his first product that will be produced by individual Computers: MMC64 is an MMC- and SD-card interface for the C64 computer. It uses the multimedia and Secure Digital flash cards that are known from the PDA world. That means that after you power up the computer, you can access any MMC or SD card that's FAT16-formatted - up to the size of 4GB! The built-in and flashable BIOS with integrated file browser allows the user to load games and other programs, play SID-files with the built-in player, or write D64 images to a floppy drive.

MMC64 has a clockport for expansions like RR-Net, and a pass-through for other expansion cards. This pass-through is 100% compatible with the Retro Replay - both expansions can be used in their full functionality at the same time. MMC64 will be available for 49,- EUR starting february 2005, and will be demonstrated for the first time at the TUM party in Hemsbach, Germany (december 27th to 29th, 2004).

[redrumloa]

GIMME GIMME GIMME!! I have a gazillion questions about this one. I want a MMC64:-D

[magnetic]

@Jens

Thanks for the update. I have a couple of questions if you dont mind:

1. What is the expected retail price in US Dollars?

2. What is the status of OS4 drivers for MK3 and will the MK4 ship with drivers for OS4?

3. Knowing your position against Genesi, can you please make available MOS drivers (or allow someone to port them from MOS community) This would be nice for ex amiga MOS users and for Individual to sell a bunch more boards.

Thank you for your time.

magnetic

www.magneticsystemsnyc.com

[System]

@Jens

Both products look amazing!

I don't suppose either of them work on the Plus/4? :-D

[odin]

Frankensteined A1200's eat your hearts out, a fully loaded C64 with SuperCPU and all of Jens' kit wins the ultimate Frankensteinprize :-D.

[Schoenfeld]

What is the expected retail price in US Dollars?

Can't tell. The US dollar lost a lot of value, so my products are pretty expensive in the states at the moment. I'm paying my invoices in Euro, so I have to charge Euro. You definitely get good prices from Redrumloa (Anachronism industries), and only pay domestic shipping. It's definitely more economical to order from him than ordering directly, paying for the money transfer and for overseas shipment. Red is the one who should quote prices here, because he knows about the import duties, shipment and stuff.

What is the status of OS4 drivers

Working on them. The OS4 team has all necessary Catweasel models, and the controller will be embedded in the new OS to a very high degree. The multidisk.device will be ported to native PPC, but I can't give a release date for that.

Knowing your position against Genesi, can you please make available MOS drivers (or allow someone to port them from MOS community)

While the current MOS situation is not resolved, I will not give people a reason to continue using their illegal copies of MOS. The authors have not been paid in full, and they have withdrawn their licenses. My perception of the situation is that at least MOS1.4 is illegal on most Peggys at the moment. I will not support activities like that.

Jens Schönfeld

[dammy]

Atleast one of the AROS devs has now preorderd the Mk4 so I put this bounty.

Dammy
TeamAROS

[itix]

Is development material for CW Mk4 available somewhere? I'd like to support Mk4 in my new Frodo port which is available soon.

[Velcro_SP]

While the current MOS situation is not resolved, I will not give people a reason to continue using their illegal copies of MOS. The authors have not been paid in full, and they have withdrawn their licenses. My perception of the situation is that at least MOS1.4 is illegal on most Peggys at the moment. I will not support activities like that. Jens Schönfeld

Your perception is warped by your red camp mentality. Zapek never suggested anything like that. He said "Any version of MorphOS distributed with a new Pegasos is illegal since our contracts have not been honoured. Licenses are withdrawn." He said this on 17 November, 2004. What University of Law did you go to to say that this retroactively makes MOS1.4 illegal on "most Peggys" such as mine? Do you say MOS users are criminals now, Jens?

[ChaoZer]

Don't bother talking to him. It won't do you any good. He has allready shown several times what he thinks of MorphOS users.

[FastRobPlus]

MOS=MorphOS!

Ahh... It's all so clear now.

I was wracking my brain trying to figure out what CBM's legendary semicondictor company (R.I.P.) was doing to cause such a stir! Especialy since the MK4 web site says it supports the MOS 6581! :-)

I keep forgetting that there's a core of users who are retro-enthusiasts, and a core of users who are alternative-OS enthusiasts!  Some products, like the MK4, actually straddle both user bases!

[FastRobPlus]

There's just one thing about the MK4 I'm not clear on...

Is this the device that will finally allow a person with UAE/Fellow/AmigaForever/Etc. to load original game software from floppy as if they had a real Amiga drive?

[Ilwrath]

holy crap... That MMC64 is one cool idea!  :-)  Can part of it be used like an REU, too?  :-)
Well done!

[dslcc]

Yes his perception is kindof lopsided. The writer of ARexx was not paid, the writer of CrossDos was not paid. The writer of Miami was not paid. So the right thing to do would be to not support AOS either.
 :-D

[x56h34]

MMC64 sounds like such a great idea.
I hope that for transferring D64 files back to floppies WARP tranfer would be used, instead of NORMAL. :-) Jens, can you confirm this?