Leet or Just a Lamer? (Breadbox Season)

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Not to be taken too seriously, here’s a nerdcore production readers of this blog may appreciate:

Native C64 version:

Ultimate Audio version (PCM audio, best quality but requires an Ultimate 64):
LAMENOTER-Breadbox-Season-U64-16MB-REU.zip

VICE version (8 bit digi instead of PCM, tuned for VICE sid emulation):
LAMENOTER-Breadbox-Season-VICE-16MB-REU.zip

Original hardware version (8 bit digi, works with NSTC/PAL, 6581/8580)
LAMENOTER-Breadbox-Season-C64-16MB-REU.zip

All three in one zip:
LAMENOTER-Breadbox-Season-16MB-REU.zip

CSDB: https://csdb.dk/release/?id=264764

Instructions in the readme. Original hardware version requires a 1541 Ultimate-II with REU enabled at 16MB.

Full lyrics:

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Transwarp Writer (Native C64 encoder)

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Having always been fascinated by fastloaders, I was mightily impressed when Krill released his Transwarp 50x fast loader that doesn’t require any hardware modifications or custom KERNALs.

It was quite an achievement, with one caveat: it required using a PC tool (cc1541) to encode files in Transwarp format. You couldn’t actually make Transwarp-encoded files on original hardware.

Not any more. Since I’ve always had an interest in speedloaders and Commodore 1541 drive loads in general, I decided it was time to get deep into it. And thanks to Claude Code, I was able to do this without devoting a month of midnight oil to it.

So here’s a Commodore 64, native 6502 Transwarp Writer:

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ROMulus – Customize your Commodore 64 boot screen

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ROMulus is a browser-based Commodore 64 KERNAL patcher that lets you customize your boot screen and default colors, plus a few more things. If you have an Ultimate you can drop the kernal right in and replace the stock boot screen with your own design. It’ll also work in VICE or on an EasyFlash with original hardware. It will patch the stock KERNAL or JiffyDOS. It should also work with other KERNALs since it looks for signatures rather than fixed byte offsets.

I finished 1.0 today, and you’re more than welcome to comment with feature requests or other feedback. Enjoy.

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Rasterjack: a Poker Roguelike for the C64

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I’ve released a C64 game: Rasterjack, a poker roguelike for the Commodore 64, where you build a scoring machine out of five cards and a rack of jokers.

Rasterjack lifts the cycle-exact raster code from my Galactic Rasterbar Power demo and uses it to handle animating the joker rack and a few other things.

It’s NTSC and PAL compatible, with music data packs optimized for each standard.

You can read more about the game and download from itch.io, or download the D64 directly.

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Microsoft releases 6502 BASIC as open source

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Well, this is a nice development.

Bringing BASIC back: Microsoft’s 6502 BASIC is now Open Source

Without this BASIC the Commodore 64 would never have been anything other than a games console with an above-average keyboard. It opened up computer programming, not just entertainment, to millions of kids at super-low cost. It certainly doesn’t represent modern coding “best practices,” but it represents something kind of lost today: that READY. prompt just waiting for you to give it some instructions, instead of demanding something from you every time you log in.

Commodore Rebooted

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If you are reading this blog, you probably already know that Christian Simpson (known as Peri Fractic on his Youtube channel) is acquiring the Commodore brand. However, it’s such huge news that I felt like a blog post was certainly justified, regardless of how well-known this is.

Take a look at their first advertisement:

Commodore 64 Ultimate

You can review Christian’s first two videos about acquiring the Commodore trademarks on YouTube:

Actually rather than watching those videos you might read this article on Tedium and then this one for a good understanding of what is going on.

Suffice it to say that he and some partners are purchasing the Commodore trademark from its current owners, with the intent to reboot the Commodore brand. Their website is live.

I am going to organize a few of my thoughts in Q&A form, because these are the questions I have pondered for a few weeks before ultimately deciding I want to support the new Commodore company.

Is this new Commodore really Commodore?

Of course it’s not! But also, Yes!

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A quick look at 1984 Arcade in Branson, MO

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I took my family for vacation to Branson, MO, and we stopped by the 1984 Arcade there. I had been to the 1984 Arcade in Springfield before, and this is much the same. Admission is a flat $10 per day per person, and you get unlimited video game plays. Pinball games are $0.25 to $0.50 a play.

This arcade is fun, clean, and has a great atmosphere, with 80s music and videos playing. I think only two arcade machines on the floor were out of order. I basked in the retro glow for a while before playing some Centipede, Tempest, Stargate, Zaxxon, and then Gauntlet and Vindicators with the kiddo.

I recorded this video for vacation memories, not to give a detailed review of the arcade or show all of the games they have on the floor. But I think it gives a good sense of the ambiance. Take a look if you’re interested.

Head on over to the 1984 Branson arcade website for more details.

GameBase Regorganizer SD updated to 4.0.4.1

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It was discovered that a bug in GB Reorganizer was causing the games MoonShadow and Moonshadow to be extracted into the same folder, instead of getting separate folders with game IDs. This has been fixed, bringing the version number up tp 4.0.4.1.

Also, I have updated the supported Windows versions to 8, 10, and 11. It probably works on older versions going back to Windows XP, but I won’t be doing any testing on those.

Four Commodore 64 Utility Cartridges and a 1541 Disk Drive

More speed loaders tested; new page for C64 fast load data

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I’ve picked up a few more utility cartridges over the last year and finally got around to playing with them. Using CBM Disk Transfer Benchmark, I’ve compiled transfer rate comparisons for the Mach 5, Better Working Turbo, KCS Power Cartridge, and Final Cartridge III.

I decided it made sense to have a dedicated page for this data, so I’ve put all of my speed loader benchmark data on a dedicated page. It includes tables and graphs.

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