MagiC64 - Could some continue developing it?

[TanZyr]

@Jope

Are you shagging sheep? ;-) As the owner of a HUGE and slowly fading library of C64 originals and [ahem] "other" disks, such an interface is a godsend.

Were it not for people like me converting originals to D64, saving our collections from the ravages of magnetic media fadeout, the rest of you wouldn't have anything to use on your k-rAd, k-k00l, n0n-r0dEnt emulators - and all that speed would amount to ####.

BTW, those that're interested, I'm home now, so will begin seeking the interface schematics. I imagine it's merely a clone of the C64's serial port circuit (like the one I built long ago for use with iec.library's stuff), but I'll have to test it to be certain. :-)

[JurassicCamper]

@TanZyr... I'm with you on this one.
No substitue for having a 1541-II attached to your Amiga. It great being able to use it as a real drive with the IEC dos driver.
I reg'd MagiC64 years ago and I like the way its easy to load file from d64 images, rather than do it manually like frodo.
I would like to see an updated OS4 version with support for SID chip and digital joy ports on the Catweasel flipper.

[TanZyr]

@JurassicCamper

The only problem with the IEC.library stuff (from Easy1541 package, I think - at work again, so I can't really check) was that every time it accesses the drive (reading files), it eats a LOT of cpu time, which makes my system act like a CatWeasel S-Class on PIO mode 0 - whole system freezes as the drive's being accessed - causing really jerky mouse movements, etc.

Surely disk operations from a 1MHz system aren't THAT intensive that they need 100% of my 060/66MHz's attention for...? Wish I knew enough about coding in ASM/C on 68k to rewrite the library/tools to multitask properly, or at least stream the damned data to a user-defined buffer (I've got 128+ Megs of ram) in much the same way mp3 players on an 040 (or slower) system would work.

[Jope]

Tanzyr,

Uh, I can't think of any good insults.. :-D

I have copious amounts of C-64 disks and have also made D64 images of them back in 1994.. :-) Nowadays I find it easier to just dl the stuff off the net in a few seconds rather than rummage through a thousand floppies to find that one game / demo I'd like to see.

I never did oppose to hardware interfaces for transferring disks - my point was that if you're just normally using the emulator, the hardware option is not nearl y as convenient as using the D64s you made of those said disks with said hardware interface. ;-)

My disks still exist, because I have a truckload of CBM gear I like to play around with every now and then.. Otherwise they'd probably be in the hands of another collector, making him/her happy. :-)

[Jope]

TanZyr wrote:
@JurassicCamper

Surely disk operations from a 1MHz system aren't THAT intensive that they need 100% of my 060/66MHz's attention for...? Wish I knew enough about coding in ASM/C on 68k to rewrite the library/tools to multitask properly, or at least stream the damned data to a user-defined buffer (I've got 128+ Megs of ram) in much the same way mp3 players on an 040 (or slower) system would work.

The timing is very strict in the IEC serial interface. I guess the coder couldn't think of a more multitasking friendly way to keep realtime..

It's quite a feat under Windows too - I haven't seen a well working parallel port <-> 1541 transfer program for Win..

Personally, I use the CatWeasel III in a Pegasos.. It's fast and nice and lets me multitask while it's doing it's thang. :-)

[TanZyr]

@Jope,

re: insults - That's ok. I ran out of civil sounding insults anyway. Glad you weren't taking it seriously. ;-)

re: copius amounts of floppies - The problem for me is that I've got quite a few custom compilation disks from groups like ESI, FBR, etc that have a LOT of stuff single-filed (usually using ISEPIC, but some others that aren't), and a bunch of archived email, stories, and various other writings from "the scene" and other places that even Textfiles.com doesn't have yet. Additionally, I've got quite a few disks full of stuff I typed in from Compute! and Compute!'s Gazette over the years. So I'd like to preserve those... unfortunately, a lot of the IEC stuff won't allow the transfer of non-PRG files (REL/USR/SEQ).

re: hardware interfaces - I apologize for misinterpreting you. I'm not at all against using d64's for emulation - in fact it makes better sense, but I wanted to point out that at least one package makes it more readily accessable. :-)

re: CBM Gear - I've got a ton of it here, also. Need to clear out some desk real-estate and set some of it up again. :-) I know a few people that've really hacked to pieces their 64's into towers, and are even using them over the 'net.

re: CatWeasel - Some may remember me griping about how I couldn't find a nice double-sided drive for use with my CatWeasel MkII S-Class. I still haven't, and I've got precious little time to cobble together a hacked circuit in the 5.25" drive I was using. Unfortunately, I've got a lot of "flippies", yet can't access the back-side of the disks. How's the CW-III working for you? Played with the SID yet?