the machine
as always : there are no sponsors or sponsored links here (but Jeff or Elon is free to send us a quick spare billion in appreciation of our work)
- C64 - original breadbin kernel rev3, sid 6581 - looked as if it hadnt been out of the box yet so actually scared to turn it on b/c it totallly looks like nothing has been replaced yet so ... in essence it could go at any time.
- sd2iec drive (4gb overkill) , the one on the site looks like the one we have but it might not be the same version anymore. The sd drive actually came with the computer when we bought it.
- Kung Fu Flash (64gb ultrakill) , this one is handmade in Finland, if its representative of the guys work i can kinda vouch for the quality . It slots a 64gb card b/c simply small ones are kinda harder to find and they usually cost MORE than 128 or 256/512gb cards .. problem with retrodrives is they dont alway like huge cards (as we found out later with the ST) - firmware has been upgraded a few times by now. This thing is simply the best! There was a datasette with the computer too but either the cassetes dont work or the thing is a bit off. We dont really have a way to test and if we want to spend money on ebay there seems to be always something else than "a 40 year old c64 tape" we want. The only thing issss... the EASYFLASH (which is supported by kungfu flash as it has 1MB of flash memory) was never built to its max potential (which is 2Megabytes) so thats a bit sorry , but if it were a kungfu flash would need 2MB of flash mem too but if it did we at the very least would certainly want the 2MB version ...
- 9 pin ArcadeR joystick this one sits in the ST as it can be rewired for 2 buttons support but actually we wanted for the mister FPGA but almost none of the cores seem to support the 9pin port on a 'full stack' package , including the c64 ... bummer b/c playing c64 games with an xbox-type controller just somewhat feels like sacrilege
- Atari CX joysticks bought on Etsy, 3 for €15, sold as "original" , one had a broken firebutton but that was nice b/c we got some practice fixing it up with another broken one lying around here. These are slotted into the computer and never get taken out , port-wear is also a nightmare on 30+40+ yo machines imo, a FUN FACT : the sticks cost €15 on etsy from a guy in canada, by the time they got here, the Euro and Belga- Santa Tax made that €79 ...
The machine actually got bought b/c we just HAD to know the sound of a real sid versus goat versus sidplayer versus vice vs ... which all seemed to sound different. Atm for games usually we use mister FPGA, (for Atari ST too, for games that is) xept easyflash b/c the mister core doesnt support that (it also doesnt have jagpad ports on the ST/MiST core in STE mode as we found out recently) so its mainly to test the game until we feel confident in electronics
and actually have bought a rework station, b/c if it breaks down atm we couldnt even fix it or at least try to replace the capacitors (i think we should be able to do at least that ... smaller stuff will probably be hard at lvl0 in electronics)
and so ...
if they woulda let the kid do, maybe it wouldnt be WE and the kid might have been one of the better programmers in the country, we'll never find out
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mess ? it's a BORG CUBE, not a "gaming room", what do you think this is, Disneyland ? feel free to send us a mansion with "lights in the garden" and we'll use the space as if we have some ...
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on a sidenote : the frontpage updates tab wont update c64 when a scene prod is added, only when the pages are edited or something personal is added. Its a personal pick. If you want to be influence we suggest RGN and Dino for c64, PCN and Lu for the Mister and Ataricrypt for the ST .. but you could just go straight to the source and decide what you like for yourself.