This is a long episode with lots of parts, so I added an index to the description, and I might as well put it here too: 0:00 Some updates/news/thanks 1:55 Fast Load intro 5:50 Using Fast Load as a disk speeder 10:14 Advertising in RUN magazine 11:20 Epyx Fastload Reloaded 11:45 DOS Wedge 16:37 The First Menu 18:22 Sector Editor 21:50 Locking/Unlocking Files 25:40 Intermission - March Break 26:45 Machine Language Monitor
@quonomonna8126
5 жыл бұрын
I love how your hand expresses itself as well as a face would
@JesusisJesus
4 жыл бұрын
At 6:15 “what was up with that?” Apparently “FIDG” BTW. I am a doctor, your hands tell me you have heart problems. Get it checked my 🖐 friend!
@amirjawaid2362
3 жыл бұрын
hi, can you plz point me to the fast hack'em video that you referred to in this video?
@8_Bit
3 жыл бұрын
@@amirjawaid2362 I think it was this video about animated disk directories; towards the end I show how to use Fast Hack'em to edit the disk: kzitem.info/news/bejne/qYyD0ICLoYGJbGU
@jim_64s8-bitprojects5
5 жыл бұрын
One funny memory about the Epyx Fast Load - I got one as a kid and it was great. But then software started including their own fast load routines and I found most new titles and even cracked games wouldn't work with it, so I stopped using it completely. I just went back to the slow Kernal routines. Now, when I buy retro computer lots, there is inevitably a Fast Load cartridge included. I tried it again and it works great! So I found my old Fast Load cartridge and found out that it doesn't work! So my original cart died on me in the 80s and I didn't realize it!
@patsfan4life
5 жыл бұрын
64jim64 lyeah I was going to say, 95% of the games would work with it. ....
@johnsaller2481
5 жыл бұрын
My V1 stopped working but I erased it and put in V2 and it worked. I still use in on my C64C as it has no sockets. I use JiffyDos on everything else.
@shawbros
4 жыл бұрын
You should go back in time and get a warranty exchange on it.
@jim_64s8-bitprojects5
4 жыл бұрын
@ungratefulmetalpansy Yeah, I have it open and was thinking about swapping parts, re-burning the ROM, and seeing if I could get it to work.
@gregor_man
2 жыл бұрын
I had an unofficial dual cartridge with Fastload and Fastload 2 on the same circuit board, with a switch. Later I had placed that INSIDE the C64 case, I connected the PCB edge lines to the cartridge connector's soldering points with wires, and I applied a tri-state switch on the case, and a reset button, looked very good. And worked well, of course, I loved it. When I wanted to insert a separate cartridge (usually a freezer) then I set the switch to the neutral position, disabling Fastload, and it worked. I had probably a fully unique C64 this way, a first generation machine with internal Fastloads.
@markjohnson3737
5 жыл бұрын
If I had this information when I was nine years old I’d be ruling the world today. Keep up the great content!
@cheater00
4 жыл бұрын
came to say this!
@Tech-geeky
Жыл бұрын
You would ? :)
@markjohnson3737
Жыл бұрын
@@Tech-geeky 💯
@BillAnt
Жыл бұрын
We need a "Back to the Past" machine to enjoy all this new info. hehe
@RamLaska
4 жыл бұрын
I haven't WANTED an 8-bit Commodore machine in just about 34 years. Thanks, Robin. You make me want to go back and explore all of the things I missed when I was twelve ^___^
@419Films
4 жыл бұрын
I had one when I was a kid, so the video was some great nostalgia, overall. My heart truly skipped a beat, though, at the mere mention of Compute's Gazette. Loved that magazine. 😍
@BillAnt
Жыл бұрын
I feel the same, little flutters ... at our age better check on that pace maker. lol
@MurderMostFowl
4 жыл бұрын
When I was a kid, I didn’t believe this was real. I couldn’t understand how a cartridge could speed up disk reads/writes. I thought it was a trick 😂
@Kris_M
5 жыл бұрын
Great stuff. I really loved my C64 and it is fun to learn even more about it some 30 years later. Side note: I tend to call this channel the 8-bit moving hand.
@BillAnt
Жыл бұрын
"The 8- tit Magic Hands" ;D
@RonaldMorrissetteJr
5 жыл бұрын
Thank you so much for making these videos. The Epyx Fast Load cartridge was a must have back then, at least until Jiffydos. I do enjoy that you're using a real commodore 64! I have recently started to revisit my Commodore passion from the past. I owned over $2000 USD worth of C= hardware and accessories and a huge library of Commodore related books and software. Unfortunately, I no longer have any of those items. But I am working on attaining these items again. PS I used to live 15 minutes away from Creative Micro Designs and would visit there frequently!
@8_Bit
5 жыл бұрын
You're welcome, and wow, I wish I could have visited CMD in person! I phoned there occasionally (long distance from Canada was expensive!) and had some good conversations with Doug Cotton.
@thegoodrevbadandyarr4272
2 жыл бұрын
Wow, someone else remembers Jiffydos. Man that thing was the best! Kinda scary opening up my computer and disk drive as a kid and pulling and slotting chips, but the switch was the BEST!
@SuperVstech
5 жыл бұрын
My morning coding routine, when starting the c64 was to change the background color to black, and the text to yellow... sometimes I’d just change the text to yellow. Both were easier for me to read. I had the 1702 monitor too...
@matti157
3 жыл бұрын
the part about the assembly was the most interesting! i can't wait for the sd2iec + epyx fast cartridge i ordered. And congratulations, I'm Italian and I don't know 100% English but your explanations are very clear and not hasty, never change
@MobbyG
4 жыл бұрын
First: I love watching your videos, especially on my lunch. They're great! I always learn something and am surprised at really how powerful these computers were for being 8bit, especially with an add on like the Fastload! Second: I always wanted one of these. I didn't play a lot of games just because of the time it took to load. I spent most of my time online on BBSes and reading messages and playing games there. But one of the games I did really like to play was Raid Over Moscow! I remember that taking a bit and I wished I had one of these.
@TheUtuber999
4 жыл бұрын
I had modded one of my Epyx Fast Load cartridges by adding a momentary-on pushbutton switch for reset, since the Commodore 64 didn't have one, and a toggle switch to disable the cartridge when not needed - that was to save wear-and-tear from physically removing and inserting the cartridge, which was useful when used with my Commodore 128 when booting in 128 or CP/M mode.
@xc3n
2 жыл бұрын
I love that I was reading a 1985 Computer Entertainment magazine, saw the ad at 10:25 then thought "how did that thing actually work?" and landed on your video from the Wikipedia page.... only to see the same ad again XD
@StavroMueller
5 жыл бұрын
@V will reconstruct the BAM after an undelete. Also SYS57194 will re-enable Fastload
@larryaugsburger8452
4 жыл бұрын
Before I had Fast Load, I had Quick Load, which required loading from disk. Having the speed improvement as a cartridge was a godsend! As a side note, I also remember putting a lot of time and money into 1541 realignment kits.
@BillAnt
Жыл бұрын
Oh yeah totally forgot about Quick-Load, it was such a hassle having to load it from disk every time you restarted the computer, plus it wasn't compatible with more commercial games, only cracked one. lol
@cheater00
4 жыл бұрын
i loved the video - i wish I knew any of that when i had my c128, my first computer. i hope you'll make the same kind of video about other cartridges, and about more advanced functions in FastLoad! thanks a lot!
@Derision667
5 жыл бұрын
Back in the early 90s, I remember how much people used to dump on the Epyx Fastload. The "serious" C64 users, especially in the US, used either Super Snapshot or JiffyDOS. Being the cheapest of the group, Epyx was of course the cartridge that I had, and I (eventually) found it to be invaluable, especially for its (slightly hobbled) monitor. The simplicity of it always appealed to me and even now, using a machine without a DOS wedge feels foreign. Jump ahead 30-ish years and, with the release of stuff like the TFW8B's Epyx Fastload Reloaded and SD2IEC (which supports it!) it has become the premier fast loader again, along with the FCIII. Nice to see it finally getting its due.
@cheater00
4 жыл бұрын
@8-Bit Show And Tell could you please do similar videos for the other cartridges please - the classical ones from back in the day, as well as the modern ones? this video was immensely useful for me!
@peterlamont647
4 жыл бұрын
and dolphin dos! Don't forget that. Parallel transfer on a 1541 by re-purposing the din connector pins! There is a long story behind that software... and Jim Butterfield is in that story!
@cheater00
4 жыл бұрын
@@peterlamont647 wow, interesting.
@StCreed
3 жыл бұрын
@@peterlamont647 Everyone I knew that was serious about the C64 used Dolphin Dos in the 80's
@peterlamont647
3 жыл бұрын
@@StCreed I didn't. In fact, I didn't even have a 'Fastload' cartridge. I used the stock 1541 for almost 10 years. Some games like Battletech gracefully had a built in turbo disk loader. We actually only got a disk drive because it was so much faster than tape, and we didn't notice it was slow. To us, it was fast...we had nothing to gauge it against. Now, I have a super snapshot V5, 2 warpspeed, and 2 fastload carts. When buying bundles of carts you get redundants sometimes. truth be told, many games and software loaded within a minute, so it really wasn't a big deal. i should add that we didn't copy disks or have backups either. We took very good care of the disks and never had a problem.
@exidy-yt
Жыл бұрын
God I LOVED my fastload cartridge! From the DOS wedge to the fast loading routines that sped up 90% of my pirated games, it never left my cartridge slot. There were very few games I used GO64 for, even most games with their own fastloader routines (Legacy of the Ancients, most other EOA games) still worked under the fastloader routines. Best thing Epyx ever made, even over Jumpman or Gateway to Apshai.
@ralfvanbogaert3451
Жыл бұрын
It's been a looong time since I've been anywhere near a physical C64 yet I watch all of your videos with interest. Keep 'em coming Robin!
@AndyAKratz
2 жыл бұрын
Awesome tutorial. Showing how to access the EPYX menu using the GBP key was exactly what I needed! Thanks for this!
@Gossamer2
5 жыл бұрын
Memories..... I wish we had this sort of information back in the day! Back then we had to wait for someone to reply to your message you left on a BBS!
@2112dorf
7 ай бұрын
Great video! Very informative. The Directory feature alone makes this worth owning. You can view the contents of any disk when the $ command doesn’t work. Lots of games I didn’t know about on those disks….
@Bruno-Guitarist
4 жыл бұрын
Can´t believe i watched through all of this. Im such a nerd. But a very well made video. Good work.
@LeftoverBeefcake
5 жыл бұрын
So who here has changed the default screen colors and then later forgot what mode they were in and tried loading a C64 program when in C128 mode (and vice versa)? Just me? It's probably just me. :P The white text on blue is very readable, though I usually switch to white text on black with a blue border. Thank you so much for these videos, Robin. After all these decades this old dog is still learning new tricks! I wonder how many of us started out with their Commodores on a little black and white TV...
@zsteinkamp
4 жыл бұрын
Cool to hear another kid getting a start without a way to save his/her programs. We also only had a 13" black and white. Thankful to my parents for spending money on a VIC-20 (1982) instead of an Atari game system -- set me on a good career path. :) I enjoy the trip down memory lane in your videos.
@richard.wilson
4 жыл бұрын
Meant to add this a while ago for anyone whos interested, to get the pound key on a US keyboard with most emulators, just use the "ALT + \" key combination. I love using my Fastload cartridge and was curious to try it out on my BMC64 Pi 3 setup. Works a treat once I worked out how to input the pound symbol on a non UK standard keyboard. Love the channel keep up the good work. Maybe more in the series for teaching 6502/10 tricks would be an awesome addition.
@rickperez8044
5 жыл бұрын
RAT-A-TAT-A-TAT. Drive recalibration caused by copy protection schemes knocked the drives out of alignment. Thanks man. It's all coming back to me know. The late, great Jim Butterfield. His memory lives on.
@SpearM3064
5 жыл бұрын
@Rick Perez Yeah, that was (in my opinion) one of the most important engineering flaws in the 1540 and 1541. The head stop had no way to cushion the impact, so the drive head hit the stop at full force. I think if I'd been designing it, I would've replaced the head stop with an optical sensor or something, so that when recalibrating, the stepper motor would know when to stop. Or, better yet, instead of trying to move the head 40 tracks (which is what it does)… let's say it was supposed to be reading track 17. So move it 16 tracks and read the next header block to see if it was on track 1. If not, keep moving it one track at a time until it is on track 1. Recalibration might take a little longer that way, but it'd be a lot more gentle.
@sulrich70
5 жыл бұрын
It struck me as being one of the most highly compatible fast load carts, and good bang for buck. There was not much software on the c64 that required you to remove it in order for them to work - other carts it was quite common.
@patsfan4life
2 жыл бұрын
I remember 1 or 2 games max- and they weren’t great games
@fitfogey
5 жыл бұрын
Thank you for another great informative video. We got our Commodore 64’s at the same time. My parents bought mine in Jacksonville FL in March of ‘84 as well. Too cool.
@theseriousaccount
4 жыл бұрын
You are the only one I've ever seen who uses real chapters in youtube, and i thank you for it.
@quantass
4 жыл бұрын
Robin, could you make an episode going into how the Epyx Fast Loader achieved its fast loading abilities? That is, what was the magic assembly which fixed the C64.
@tobyCornish
4 жыл бұрын
"Lumbering hippo" -- Dangerous and incorrect info from Epyx. From a proper source regarding the speed of hippos: "You cannot outrun them; they've been clocked at 30-40km/h (19-25mph). You cannot outswim them; on average, hippos can swim 8 km/h (5 mph)." :)
@JohnDlugosz
3 жыл бұрын
Not only that, but they can be excellent ballerinas, as seen in Disney's _Fantasia_ .
@vwlssnvwls3262
4 жыл бұрын
I think your KZitem channel is going to be my new rabbit hole when I am bored at work. :)
@8_Bit
4 жыл бұрын
Thanks for watching, I'm glad you found my channel!
@nemysisretrogaming3771
5 жыл бұрын
I bought the fast load mainly because it was way cheaper than the action replay. I wish I could remember what the syntax was, but you could write proper 3 letter code with the fast load and also list machine code. I used it when I was programming assembly. Sei, ldx# 00, ldy# 00, stx $d020, sty $d021 lol. I must have had a later version as you could bring up the machine code monitor while games were running. It gave me a chance to view code and learn so I could write my own routines. Ps great channel and subbed.
@westerngodzilla
5 жыл бұрын
Jumpman Junior was my first game on the C64. I still love it.
@ttfidrat
5 жыл бұрын
The C64 mini includes Jumpman and Jumpman 2(jr). It plays exactly like my original JJ cartridge.
@SpearM3064
5 жыл бұрын
I totally agree. I don't even remember how much time I spent playing Jumpman and Jumpman Junior.
@danutes.8210
5 жыл бұрын
What a great guy. I just imagine an guy in 2019 solving forgoten Iphone lock code.. and then this video. It hurts damn.
@dreamvisionary
5 жыл бұрын
@8-Bit Show And Tell, you have a very soothing voice.
@evileyeball
5 жыл бұрын
I miss Zellers... I didn't realize until now (as I am a recent subscriber) that you, like me, are Canadian. High five fellow Canuck.
@alpharisc
5 жыл бұрын
BMX Racerswas the first ever game I played on the C64 back in 1986 :D
@joechevy2035
5 жыл бұрын
I had the Cinemaware Fastload cartridge back in the day.
@8_Bit
5 жыл бұрын
That cartridge is interesting to me because I've heard it supports Commodore 128 mode too. I believe it was called Cinemaware WarpSpeed.
@Watcher680116
2 жыл бұрын
One major feature not mentioned: It was one of the very few software fast loaders not blanking the screen. It would have been more obvious if you would have used a game which shows a loading screen. Like a lot of mastertronic tapes game copyied to disk by a "parameter" tool. I used to buy games on tape because the tape games were often 5 or 10 DM cheaper as disk games and then used freezer or parameter copy tools to play them from disk. BTW / half off topic: I made a turbo tape clone which could load without the screen banking. I just made the one bits shorter and the zero bits longer on save and added a command to disable screen blanking for loading. Of course it could only load files with screen unblanked which were saved with it, but the files saved with it could be loaded with any turbo tape clone. As a listing of a british c64 magazine I also found a tape speeder allowing to load with screen on which used the load/save vectors instead of arrow commands but it was not TT compatible and a little slower. But not as slow as most commercial built in game loaders. In the early days I used to backup programs on tape with turbo tape while disks were expensive. Off topic - suggestion: Later I had Dolphin Dos, which could use Tracks 36-40. I found that other hardware speeders also had such features but were not compatible because e.g. the densitiy settings for the additional tracks (or a flag indicating the 40 track usage?) were not the same. This would be an interesting topic for a video, and also if it would be possible to change the density settings for the other tracks to increase disk capacity. I wonder which densities would phyiscally work... At least track 18 should stay as it is so directory listing is still possible without a modified drive rom or software.
@fuzzybad
5 жыл бұрын
Very cool tip to automatically RUN a program from disk after LOADing! I suppose this works because the 3rd parameter to LOAD (relocate flag) actually doesn't care what value is passed -- it only checks if there is some value present.
@8_Bit
5 жыл бұрын
It seems to parse the beginning of the 3rd parameter, because it seems to require the number 0 to 255 there (I tried a bunch of things, and that's all that worked - anything else gave ?ILLEGAL QUANTITY ERROR), but the LOAD can immediately trail without a colon or anything. So it's kind of weird!
@SpearM3064
5 жыл бұрын
@@8_Bit I can explain why it works, actually. BTW, putting an 0 there is the same as leaving off the 3rd parameter. LOAD"*",8,0 does a relocating load. I'm pretty sure that any non-zero value between 1 and 255 performs a non-relocating load. Anyway... because of the way the BASIC interpreter parses commands, it sees the 1 and then sees the letter L. (Actually, it sees the token for the LOAD command, because the line is tokenized first, and then interpreted.) The interpreter says "That's not a digit between 0 and 9, so that must be the end of the number." The reason it doesn't give you a ?SYNTAX ERROR is because CBM BASIC ignores everything between the end of the LOAD command and the start of the next line. It knows that a LOAD command has up to 3 parameters, so it says "That was also the end of the 3rd parameter, so I've reached the end of the command"... and ignores the rest of the line.
@fuzzybad
5 жыл бұрын
@@8_Bit Yep that makes sense.. without having examined the Kernal code, I'm going to assume they just check the byte for 3rd param, and ignore anything else that follows. Who needs input validation? haha
@jim_64s8-bitprojects5
5 жыл бұрын
Great video! (again!) One annoyance of the Fast Load cartridge is it does not speed the loading of the directory or sequentially read files. For all my programs, I make sure any secondary data files are loaded into memory using the LOAD"FILE",8,1 method with the first two file bytes defining the memory location. This way the data files load fast too with Epyx Fast Load.
@loughkb
3 жыл бұрын
Like many, I had one as well. I also installed a reset button on the cartridge.
@Melds
4 жыл бұрын
I used to add a short program at the end of my programs to read the directory since I lost a game I wrote by loading "$" over it. I can't remember the specific commands anymore, though.
@ShesSometimesDoubleChocolate.
5 жыл бұрын
Hmm, before you fixed the directory back to normal, you should have loaded and listed it. Will you please make a revisit video that includes that (as well as my request from a previous video)?
@RyanSmith-pf7ci
2 жыл бұрын
I can't believe I never knew the commodore runstop thing!
@SpearM3064
5 жыл бұрын
By the way, if you want to update the BAM after "unscratching" a file by editing the file type, all you have to do is send the Validate (V) command. There's no need for a "proper unscratch utility" as long as you remember to validate the disk afterwards. Also by the way, you might want to get into the habit of specifying "drive 0", by adding an 0 to the end of the command (e.g. @V0), especially if you use save-with-replace. Surely you've heard of the save-with-replace bug, which has been accused of scrambling, swapping, duplicating, or overwriting disk files and of messing up the BAM? Well, I don't want to get super-technical, so the short version is that the DOS in the 1540 and 1541 is copied directly from the PET 8250, which is a dual-unit drive, so the 1540 and 1541 have a drive 0 and a phantom drive 1. What causes the bug is _not specifying the drive number on the previous operation before the save-with-replace._ The bug is most likely to occur when the disk is almost full, or if many files on the disk have been scratched and rewritten (which leaves gaps on the disk so that a file is scattered over many tracks). To avoid the save-with-replace bug, either specify the drive number for _every_ LOAD, SAVE, or disk command; for example, LOAD "$0",8 to load the directory. Better yet, just don't use save-with-replace at all. Scratch the old file, then save the new version. (Save-with-replace actually writes the entire file out to disk, and _then_ "scratches" the old copy. So if the disk doesn't have enough space for the program, then the old copy is deleted *and* the new copy doesn't get saved properly. If this happens, you need to Validate the disk, then save the program again.) I don't know if the 1571 or 1581 has the same problem. So this may not apply to you... but better safe than sorry.
@8_Bit
5 жыл бұрын
Thanks, I'll give that Validate command a try. And yes, I do use the 0 whenever I do a save-with-replace. I'll probably make a video soon-ish showing my dual drive, and then there will be definite reason for using 0 and 1 :)
@bgelais
5 жыл бұрын
i remember this Fastload ad in a Compute Gazette issue :) or meybe it was in a RUN issue...not sure to remember.
@8_Bit
5 жыл бұрын
Yeah, I think that ad ended up in pretty much every magazine for a while!
@r000tbeer
4 жыл бұрын
I don't remember how many yards I had to mow in order to buy that cartridge. Worth every penny at the time!
@BillAnt
Жыл бұрын
I find that the inclusive memory addressing on the Fast-Load is more logical than on other monitors... that's just how my mind works, including last specified byte. heh
@Darkk6969
3 жыл бұрын
I've used the Epyx Fast Load with my C64 and it was great. Then I read in some magazine, probably Compute! Gazette, that I can install a reset button on the cartridge which I did. It saved the power button!
@lurkerrekrul
Жыл бұрын
I had an Epyx Fast Load for my C64, It was great for cracked games, but I was disappointed to learn that it didn't do much for most original copies. I seem to recall that my copy of Ghostbusters, which was in two files (a small loader and the main program), didn't work with Fast Load. At the time, I figured out what the problem was and fixed it, but I don't remember what I did now. I also used it to crack the game Suicide Strike. Again, I don't remember how I did it, beyond the fact that I used the ML monitor for it. Later on, I got a Super Snapshot cartridge and that replaced the Fast Load. It was faster and had many more functions.
@DavidRomigJr
5 жыл бұрын
As I recall, the C64 kernel did load and save serially with asynchronous handshaking which was extremely stable but extremely slow. I remember hearing they had a good reason for this at the time, but I forget what it was. I don’t know exactly what Epyx did, but the C64 and the 1541 both were programmable with a 6502 compatible processors, so you could make loads and saves multi-bit parallel and fairly synchronous, which immensely improves speed. The two CPUs were very slightly different speeds, 63 cycles to 64 cycles, hence fairly synchronous. Going as parallel as possible violates the bus specs so it would interfere with other devices on the bus such as other drives and printers. So, you could make a fast loader that was spec friendly or a faster loader that is not spec friendly. It was really neat that these types of things were possible.
@8_Bit
5 жыл бұрын
Yes, you've got the general idea. The 6502 in the 1541 drive is running at exactly 1 MHz, while an NTSC C64 runs at ~1.02 MHz, and a PAL C64 runs at ~0.985 MHz. Additionally, the VIC-II chip "stuns" the C64's CPU from time to time for ~42 cycles so that needs to be taken into account. So yes, the protocol needed to be asynchronous.
@DavidRomigJr
5 жыл бұрын
Oh, yeah, you’re right, I forgot that the VIC-II did that. I swore I saw a synchronous loader before, maybe at PageTable.com. When I search, though, maybe I was thinking of the article of the 15 second copy? I dunno. Makes me wish I still had my C64. It’s 3000 miles away from me.
@8_Bit
5 жыл бұрын
@@DavidRomigJr You're right that many of the custom fast loaders are at least partially synchronous, and then re-sync periodically. Many of them blank the screen to remove the VIC-II "bad lines" complication to the timing.
@da5idnz
4 жыл бұрын
I used to have a red cartridge - I can't remember what it was called but it loaded programs faster and had a reset button. It wasn't the Action Replay.
@8_Bit
4 жыл бұрын
Maybe the KCS Power Cartridge? rr.pokefinder.org/wiki/Power_Cartridge
@andrewkiw
5 жыл бұрын
We had the fastload cart back in the day, probably still around here somewhere. Also had BMX Racer, but on tape!
@akira808state4
2 жыл бұрын
I had one of these. It wasn’t very compatible with certain disk protections, so it had to be disabled prior to loading such software. Once disabled, it can be reenabled by typing SYS 57194.
@JustWasted3HoursHere
5 жыл бұрын
Wow, you've more than doubled your subscribers in 2 days!
@sfurta
Жыл бұрын
Is it possible to stop directory listing or they forgot to implement this?
@retroman2001
4 жыл бұрын
I had to look up the order of turning on the devices in my german VC 1541 manual. It says to turn on the computer first and then the floppy drive. I wonder why that is?
@joechevy2035
4 жыл бұрын
Dragon Riders of Pern! Frikken AWESOME GAME!
@steviebboy69
2 жыл бұрын
I got a heap of c64s at least 4 of them and a heap of drives and an sx-64 years ago for about $150AUD it had this cartridge, but in my time as a teen I had Action Replay MK III . Speaking of the Advert wasn't there one with someone near the screen and a skeleton and cobwebs on them? and a similar thing they died waiting for the program to load.
@jaybrown6350
3 жыл бұрын
I had that one and I *loved* it.
@peterlamont647
4 жыл бұрын
Blue on blue is fine. I can read it with no issues. Anyone can! You can! I personally like green on black which is quite funny given I have any combo of colors I want. I think the default colors are nostalgic though. I think I settled on green on black because I was using 80 columns on a TV over RF. Its very hard to read. If you lower contrast by using green on black it is tolerable. More often than not though, I don't bother and good ol' blue on blue is fine with me.
@heidirichter
5 жыл бұрын
Regarding the colours (I'm Australian, so we use the British spelling here), I much prefer the white on blue, as the additional contrast helps my tired old colour blind eyes. I'm not that color blind that I can't read the light blue on blue, but it is more strain, while the additional contrast when it's white makes for much less eye strain for me. So I would prefer it if it was white on blue, but this is your channel, you do what you want to do, I'm not going to tell you what to do, I love the content, you asked for opinions so I've given mine, for what that's worth. Regarding the fast load, I never owned a C64, but a few of my friends did and one of them their fast load cartridge was considered to be more of a prized possession than his C64 itself, although I don't think he ever used it for anything but the fast load functionality, I doubt he even knew of any of the extra functions it has, as he considered programming to be "too nerdy", hahaha
@8_Bit
5 жыл бұрын
We call them colours here in Canada too ;) And thanks very much for voicing your opinion (and in a very respectful way)! If I get enough agreement on it, I'll start doing the white on blue. As long as I can remember to, anyway... 35 year-old habits can be hard to break. I actually lived in Perth, WA in 1987, during the prime Commodore 64 years. Most of my friends there had one, and I bought a used one for the year, and sold it again before returning to Canada.
@JoeyRivers
4 жыл бұрын
@@8_Bit while you were in Australia in 87 did you pick some issues of Australian Commodore and Amiga Review magazine and did you come across discs from ACS 1991 ;)
@8_Bit
4 жыл бұрын
@@JoeyRivers It's strange, but I don't remember seeing any Australian-based magazines while I was there. I was introduced to UK-based magazines there, like Zzap!64, C&VG, and Commodore User, which I had never seen in Canada before. My copies of Revs and Saboteur might have been ACS 1991 discs ;)
@JoeyRivers
4 жыл бұрын
@@8_Bit You didn't see them because there were very few Australian published Commodore related magazines in Australia at the time and they had small print runs and not every newsagent stocked them. The Australian Commodore Review (later Australian Commodore Amiga Review) was around from the mid 80s to the early 90s and I have almost a complete collection having personally bought most of the issues as they came out. There are scans of ACAR at archive.org. The bad thing about Australia was that we got everything 3 months late but one of the good things about Australia was getting both UK and US magazines and material on our shelves. The UK stuff was more game related and the US stuff was more "serious". I have quite a lot of Zzap, Commodore User, CVG and other UK as well as RUN, Compute Gazette from the US. Being a 'scener' back in the day was all part of the fun and kudos to your channel and others for keeping the good ol 64 alive and ticking . Now back to listening some great SID tunes on a real c64 : )
@elmariachi5133
5 жыл бұрын
The original color scheme maybe is a bit harder to read, but it's also more pleasant to the eye.
@mr.pavone9719
2 жыл бұрын
IIRC, $40 CAN was about $29.60 USD based on a .74 exchange rate.
@2112dorf
7 ай бұрын
Is it bad to leave cartridges plugged in? Will the connection to the cartridge contact become stretched?
@8_Bit
7 ай бұрын
I've never seen a C64 cartridge port fail, though I've heard some people wore theirs out by swapping cartridges too often. I've never heard of a problem from leaving a cartridge in but maybe if it was in there for years it would become a problem.
@crapcbm
5 жыл бұрын
I use my good old FC III .... Games that don't work with a fastloader, will be loaded with the "U0>M1" switch on my 1571
@happyonthetrails
4 жыл бұрын
forgive me if its been asked but does it only work on one drive? I have 2 1541's and now an SDEIC2 which I'm setting up. I can't seem to use fastload commands on my drive 9 (1541) just my drive 8. its a C4ever fastload cart. How do I (if possible) use it with the second 1541 and the SDIEC2. thanks
@8_Bit
4 жыл бұрын
I haven't tried it yet, but try POKE 186, 9 to switch to device 9 for the Fast Load commands. It may work.
@pierrenagonio
3 жыл бұрын
Very interesting hand talking ;) Thank you for your time sharing your knowledge. Sub+
@randystiles230
4 жыл бұрын
Fast Load was a must on mine!
@xcoder1122
Жыл бұрын
Fun fact: Hippos are super fast. A hippo can easily run up to 30 km/h (18.6 mph). This is faster than many human beings can run. The world record for human beings is 44.72 km/h (27.8 mph) but that's only possible over a very short distance. If I'd ask you to please run around the block, you'll probably going around 8-12 km/h (5-7.5 mph). If I ask you to run as fast as you can, you might get up to an average of 20 km/h (12.4 mph) but even then a hippo would still easily overtake you. That's why you cannot really outrun hippos. If you get attacked by one, outrunning is your worst option and might actually be fatal. Unless you can climb on anything, your best options are making a lot of noise or curling up in a ball and play dead. Every year more people die worldwide from hippo attacks than from lion, wolf, shark, and elephant attacks combined. Also hippos can swim at 8 km/h (5 mph) for an extended period of time. Competitive swimmers can swim at 7-11 km/h (4.3-6.8 mph) but not for an extended period of time. The world record for swimming is 19.8 km/h (2.3 mph) but again, that's very exceptional. Normal people can swim at speed of around 3-7 km/h (1.9-4.3 mph). So most likely you also have no chance to outswim a hippo.
@tomierkkila1485
5 жыл бұрын
I think, it is easier to see and read white text on blue background. It looks sharper on phone or small screen. Even if you are watching 480p or 360p with crappy internet connection
@harleybrignall9034
2 жыл бұрын
lol Canadian Tire you're killing me....this is for real though buying computer components at the hardware store...I bet I got a few genesis games there back in the day
@fragalot
4 жыл бұрын
it isn't the Disk Drive is slow it's the interface inside the Commodore 64 was slow. Otherwise Fast Load cartridges wouldn't work if the fault of the slowness was the drive. Back in my days I used an Atari 800XL so there wasn't a need for a fast load cartridge since it didn't take 30mintues to load a 40k game on an Atari 8bit. But there were some fun ways to accelerate disk speeds with modified chips you installed into the drives like Happy and US Doubler, and operating systems like SpartaDOS.
@johntalent2157
3 жыл бұрын
Do you use Palmolive?
@CobraTheSpacePirate
4 жыл бұрын
An other great episode would be showing how to use fast hackem or maverick using the fat track to copy bard:s tall 2 disk and how to use what ever and other utilities on those disks...even time the maverick or fasthackem fastloader against other software fast loaders.
@Geek2001
Жыл бұрын
Anyone notice how this cartridge reeks havoc with SAM for some reason? It softlocks after loading into high ram...
@ZXSpectrum128K
5 жыл бұрын
Is there an software development kit for the pc?
@8_Bit
5 жыл бұрын
There are various cross-assemblers and cross-compilers for the PC that target the C64, yes, if that's what you're asking.
@JBOpie13
4 жыл бұрын
It would be interesting if you compared this to Cinemaware/Alienware's Warp Speed Cartridge. Warp Speed's Disk Utility Section was, in my humble opinion, superior to Epyx's Fast Load, though both cartridges were great for loading disks faster.
@headshotsyouintf2
4 жыл бұрын
Zellers... I almost forgot about them... they got bought out by Target, and the Canadian Target chain flopped due to high prices, they sold the Canadian chains to Walmart, in fact, one of the stores is in the town i grew up in. Still open as a walmart last i saw, but the pandemic could have changed that
@8_Bit
4 жыл бұрын
Yes, same thing here. I doubt that Walmart is having much trouble due to the pandemic; they were one of the stores allowed to stay open throughout while most of the small businesses had to close. By the way, I made another episode with a lot more Zellers in it; link in case you're interested: kzitem.info/news/bejne/tYCiqIescYxnjZg
@headshotsyouintf2
4 жыл бұрын
@@8_Bit I will check it out later, as i am about to eat (It is close to 6 pm in my area, and i normally eat food around this time), thanks for the quality content!
@8bittimes
5 жыл бұрын
Scratch gives the number of deletwd files in the track value of the 01 FILE SCRATCHED TT SS message
@eebaker699
5 жыл бұрын
Good video.. lots of useful information. I too get that F??? Error just in the same position from time to time.... Not too sure what causes it ..... Any suggestions???? Keep up the hard work..... Thanks for sharing
@ShesSometimesDoubleChocolate.
5 жыл бұрын
I know I could just use my capture card to record audio and video straight to my PC from my 128, but I'm curious if you do something differently: What are you using to capture from your 128?
@8_Bit
5 жыл бұрын
I'm using a box called the "HDML-Cloner Box Evolve".
@ShesSometimesDoubleChocolate.
5 жыл бұрын
@@8_Bit: OK, cool, thanks for filling in my curiosity. I have the ATI something TV tuner as one of them for SD stuff other than TV and HD/SD TV, and the Hauppauge! Rocket mostly for HD stuff.
@spitfeueranna
5 жыл бұрын
Which is the best multifunction cartridge?
@8_Bit
5 жыл бұрын
If price is no object, the 1541 Ultimate as it even emulates the 1541 disk drive and RAM Expansion Unit too! Out of the cartridges from the '80s, I prefer the Super Snapshot v5, and the Action Replay 6 is very similar in functionality and preferred by many.
@spitfeueranna
5 жыл бұрын
@@8_Bit - Cool. Thanks. Wish I had any of those back in 1983. If only I had a time machine, I'd send my entire antique collection back in time. Back then I dreamed of them all; today, I have them all, but all they do is collect dust. www.1541ultimate.net/content/index.php
@AnOfficialAndrewFloyd
5 жыл бұрын
The Super Snapshot cartridge was often used to crack games. After the game loaded and before it executed, people would invoke it and save the contents of memory.
@SpearM3064
5 жыл бұрын
@A Floyd I did the same thing by adding a reset switch to my FastLoad cartridge. Most of memory is not erased when you perform a reset. It made it possible to load the game, hit reset, and then start looking for the code that performed the copy protection check.
@blackswan7292
5 жыл бұрын
Why can someone not find the schematics and CPLD code for the supercpu and put it on the Internet? So that some of us can at least make ourselves one? I just dont understand why this has not happened .
@El_Guapo74
5 жыл бұрын
I timed JiffyDOS against a few popular fast load carts. They were all just as good. I don't know why someone would rather swap chips out than just buy a fast load cart
@8_Bit
5 жыл бұрын
Yeah, for loading single-file games, cartridges are totally fine. JiffyDOS has a couple advantages which won't matter to everyone: because it's in ROM, it often continues to speed up multi-load games, while cartridges usually don't continue to work then, as the software overwrites the vectors the cartridges use. Also, JiffyDOS frees up the cartridge port and corresponding I/O space so it's compatible with other expansion hardware like REU, 80 column cards, etc. that usually wouldn't play nice with most cartridge fast loaders.
@Matlalcueitl
4 жыл бұрын
@@8_Bit True. One jiffydos drawback is one can't use datasette anymore.
@JoeyRivers
4 жыл бұрын
@@8_Bit I had Dolphin Dos in my 1541. At the time I was gobsmacked how freaking fast it was, seeing a 202 block file load in seconds was magic, but there were a few copy protected games that didn't like it at all.
@thegoodrevbadandyarr4272
2 жыл бұрын
@@8_Bit Also it had the switch so you could turn it off if your game wouldn't load with it on!
@garymetheringham4990
5 жыл бұрын
Hi Great video as usual. Do you have an Action Replay Cart? if so any chance of a tutorial on how to use the Action Replay Extension tools?
@8_Bit
5 жыл бұрын
Thanks! Unfortunately, I don't have an Action Replay. I do have a sort-of clone called the Retro Replay but I don't know a lot about it, and I'm not sure if has these tools.
@garymetheringham4990
5 жыл бұрын
@@8_Bit oh and BTW I would prefer to see white on blue in the videos as it makes it clearer to watch just my 2 cents worth.
@ShesSometimesDoubleChocolate.
5 жыл бұрын
The GBP symbol is AKA the pound Sterling symbol.
@souhailla10
5 жыл бұрын
hello sir, i see you use a keyboard with your commodore 64... but what version of your commodore are you using ?
@8_Bit
5 жыл бұрын
Hi, I forgot to mention it this episode, but it's a Commodore 128D (which includes a C64 mode) and I'm using the official (and included) keyboard for it. I show it in more detail in the second half of this episode: kzitem.info/news/bejne/1qNvqHVmj3OQaqg
@souhailla10
5 жыл бұрын
@@8_Bit okay great thankyou very much. looks awesome :-)
@JesusisJesus
4 жыл бұрын
At 28:30 it should be on page D020..
@markky315
5 жыл бұрын
1:07 google play store on the screen
@75slaine
5 жыл бұрын
Another great video lesson. Thanks. Would love further details on the other more powerful carts you mentioned. And possibly an explanation on how these things actually work and improve load times.
@8_Bit
5 жыл бұрын
Thanks! I've got that on my list of future videos, so hopefully I'll get to make it soon.
@SpearM3064
5 жыл бұрын
@Glen Gray If I remember correctly, the FastLoad cartridge used the CLK pin *and* the Data pin to send two bits of data at a time, instead of just one bit at a time. The reason they were able to do this is complicated. In layman's terms, the 6522 CIA chip is supposed to have a hardware shift register, but on the 6522, the shift register is faulty, so the VIC-20 uses slow bit-banging routines ("bit-banging" means that data transfer is handled by software, instead of hardware). They knew about this problem, and could have fixed it, but it would have taken a few months, and the VIC-20 was already in production, so they kept the VIC-20 "as-is". The Commodore 64 had a pair of 6526 chips, which had working shift registers. BUT, when they were designing the 1541, Commodore decided that backwards compatibility with the VIC-20 was more important than speed, so they installed a 6522 chip in the 1541 and copied the slow bit-banging routines from the VIC-20. The CLK pin would have been used to synchronize the two hardware shift registers. You have to have working shift registers at both ends; the C64 has a working shift register, the 1541 does not. So, the CLK line is not being used. This is why the FastLoad cartridge can use it to double the number of bits being sent. That was a pretty stupid decision, in my opinion. If Commodore had said, "To hell with backwards compatibility" and put a 6526 in the 1541 so that you had a pair of working shift registers, and replaced the slow bit-banging routines, the C64 would be able to transfer about 4 KB per second... about 60% faster than the FastLoad cartridge, which transfers data at about 2.5 KB per second. Anyway, the other thing FastLoad did, is that it blanked the screen when loading a program. The reason for this is because of the VIC-II chip. After every 8 scan lines, the CPU had to be halted for 42 microseconds to allow the next row of characters and colour nybbles to be swept into the VIC-II chip. But the 1541 was sending data every 20 microseconds. If it sent data while the CPU was halted, that data would be lost. Blanking the screen means the CPU doesn't have to be halted, and you don't have to worry about losing bits of data.
@ShesSometimesDoubleChocolate.
5 жыл бұрын
You don't have to close the drive channel every time you use one of those commands that requires it to be open.
@vcv6560
4 жыл бұрын
White text on blue background please. CTL-2 as you said.
@baardbi
3 жыл бұрын
Control + 1 to change to white 😉
@spartonberry
Жыл бұрын
Would that would be $113 today if it was US dollars, not sure of about how much the Canadian exchange rate would be. So somewhat less than $113USD.
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