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Herbarius

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Posts posted by Herbarius

  1. Posted · Edited by Herbarius

    How is that computer anything like a C64?

    The case design is inspired by the C64. That's about it.

     

     

    However, I like it, it really looks very compact, they're propably right when they claim it's the smallest desktop PC in existance - only Notebooks are even smaller.

     

    I would really like to see some independent review of that machine somewhere. Especially if there are any problems with heat or something like that, things you can't make out from the specifications alone.

  4. Posted

    I guess there are also tricks like "short pins X and Y" for when you want to deliberately erase the save data...?

     

     

    Why would anyone ever want to do that? Well think for example of a game that "unlocks" content over time, but you don't get to select a "profile", you just turn it on and bam there it is. However, you want an "honest fresh start", maybe because you bought the game used, or maybe as a self-imposed challenge.

  5. Posted

    For anyone who ever spent 6 weeks playing a game and lost the save data (happened to me on a SNES game just this year) this is a godsend product. Ability to play or not, I'm in just for the back-up of game saves. I've still got saves from half my lifetime ago depending on the battery in some carts.

     

    AX

    Wow that post completely changed my "beliefs" on how battery saves work (never owned a game system that used those).

     

    (If you want to know what those "beliefs" were: If you play the game regularly, the risk of losing the savegame is almost zero. If you don't play it, you'll lose the savegames within 1-3 years)

  6. Posted

    The only part that is different is the B&W - Color switch. It's now the Pause button for 7800 games.

    Somewhere on the web I once read a bunch of guidelines which Atari set for developing 2600 games (in later years I guess), for their own developers to follow.

     

    Apart from being able to reset the game using the fire button it also said the color/bw switch should be used to include a Pause feature. Does anyone know of any 2600 games by Atari that followed this recommendation?

  7. Posted · Edited by Herbarius

    I would really like to know if I was the only person on the planet with a Sixer that didn't properly play Air Sea Battle. 6 different carts bought - and returned - from different stores and it never worked for us... That really cheesed off my Dad back then; mainly because he wanted to play it!

     

    I would guess it's an unusually "selective" damage in your VCS. Maybe one chip that works "almost perfectly", so most games play fine, but coincidentally Air-Sea-Battle depends on that one tiny bit that's malfunctioning.

     

    I hope I'm making sense. :D

  8. Posted

    So how is the rf getting in to it?

     

    Well because I guess RF is devils' work ;) It gets through everything... I don't think there really is a practical way to really shield it.

     

    I guess all this is because the RF standard is also capable of and was originally intended to be an "airwave" you get through an antenna...

  9. Posted · Edited by Herbarius

    Also, any bad input should have an adverse affect on the keyboard, 8 rows * 8 columns = 64 keys, just about all of which are used.

     

    Any single key on the keyboard works fine.

     

    I have to take that back... or rather expand upon it. While every single key seems to work fine when pressed alone, I just noticed that when I try to type the character ">" (by pressing Shift and the "."-key) it doesn't always work... I have to press it multiple times until it finally reacts (on average I'd say two times). When that happens isn't enough to continue holding Shift down and just pressing "." again, I have to release Shift and press both again.

    There may be other keys that don't work normally in unison with the Shift or C= key anymore, maybe later I'll try them all, but the great majority of keys seems to work properly. Oh, that behaviour, when trying to type ">", only happens with the right Shift key used, with the left one it works fine. (But even with the right Shift key most or all other keys work fine.) [EDIT: Just found out, trying to type "<" using the left Shift key has the same behavior, in that case working properly with the right Shift key.]

    It's kinda like the thing when you try to use RUN/STOP+RESTORE. You have to invest some "effort" to make it work. I hope you know what I mean, I'm not sure if that beaviour is intended, however I've seen in videos of people pressing RUN/STOP+RESTORE that they seem to have the same issue, so I figured it might either be intentional, so you don't press it by accident, or the other possibility, the RUN/STOP key is just "worn out" from propably thousands and thousands of presses :D - which propably is a common condition among C64 keyboards if that theory is true.

     

     

     

    About the power supply, I've got the stock "C64C" power supply. The one you see here in the second picture - not the first one. That propably is the power supply that originally came with the system, so it too is almost 25 years old, but I figure at least it's better than the one in the first picture ;) ...

    I'll have to look into the possibility to get a replacement power supply. Maybe the same online-shop I got my XM1541- and S-Video-cables from does have some.

  11. Posted · Edited by Herbarius

    Yes of course I changed the chips with the power removed ;)

     

    I don't think the carpet is nylon. I usually don't experience static discharges (that I can feel) in my room.

     

    I performed the "repairs" right here, at my desk. Each time I touched the pipe of the radiator in my room (central heating) before I touched anything inside the C64. The radiator is at arms reach, so I didn't have to move to/from it.

  12. Posted · Edited by Herbarius

    Also, any bad input should have an adverse affect on the keyboard, 8 rows * 8 columns = 64 keys, just about all of which are used.

     

    Any single key on the keyboard works fine.

     

     

    How am I supposed to ground the relevant pins to try that? I thought given that swapping the CIAs changed the behavior, consistently, ruled out any other possible cause...

  13. Posted

    This propably has nothing to do with my CIA problem, so it gets its seperate topic. However, if anyone thinks there might be a relation feel free to point it out.

     

    As I now own an S-Video cable for the C64 which gives a much better picture on the TV than what RF does ("much" doesn't even begin to describe it...), I won't need the RF modulator inside the C64 anymore. I also observed that when the machine is powered on for a longer time, it gets quite warm just where the RF modulator is when I feel it on top of the case where the vents are (it's a "C64-II" or "C64C" style case). So I figured, having a component like that, giving up interference into the air, producing heat like that, and on top of that being 25 years old, might not be the brightest thing you could do, when it's absolutely not needed anymore.

     

    So my question is: Is there an easy way to remove or disable the RF modulator in the C64 while leaving the machine operational? Or is it a bad idea overall?

     

     

    I'm not sure if it's supposed to produce that heat. While it's the warmest area on the case after some time of use, it is far from like "don't want to touch it"-hot - after all those vents must be there for something, and the rest of it doesn't get really warm at all.

  14. Posted · Edited by Herbarius

    So, much to my dismay, the trouble I was having with the second joystick port on my C64 (didn't register pressing "UP" anymore) turned out to be a defective CIA chip - as I swapped them, and then both controller ports worked fine.

     

    At least for the moment...

     

    Because now, a week later, maybe 10 hours of actual operation of the machine (or less), suddenly the controller port acts up again - this time not registering "FIRE!". I opened it up again, and swapped them again, and confirmed: Yes, I can choose between either "UP" or "FIRE!" not functioning. So I confirmed not only one, but both CIAs are defective.

     

     

    So, now as soon as I manage to get replacements - which may be soon - I'm going to replace them both with good working ones.

     

     

    But I am wondering: Was it just coincidence the second CIA went bad such a relatively short time after swapping them? Or is it simply that having the defective CIA in the second port may have driven the first one into failing as well?

    If the answer to any of those two questions were "yes", then everything would be fine as soon as I get the new chips.

     

    But I've also considered the possibility of something else in the machine being wrong which would be a common cause for both CIA failures, and might then trash the new ones within weeks as well... Do you think such a scenario is possible or propable? If yes, what other components might that be that are responsible?

     

     

    On a related note, I thought about some safety precautions I'm planning to adhere to with the new chips, such as don't swap any cables - not even joystick cables - while the machine is on. Before now I laughed about people being scared to do it, now I understand why ;) [No, I never touched the cables in the back or the power cable while it was powered on, but occasionally I swapped controllers while it was on... like when I loaded up a game but then realized, I hadn't plugged in the controller I want to use for the game or noticed I plugged it into the wrong port]

    A second thing I'm going to do is cover the unused Cartridge- and User-Ports at the back with some cardboard (fixing inside the case.) Any other hints in that department any of you could provide?

  16. Posted · Edited by Herbarius

    And am with Crazy Climber about EA....What the hell happen to that company?

     

    Well, from what I can tell, the difference between the two is: EA, unlike Activision, always was like that. You know what I mean, the business mentality, producing "hot" games for hot money...

     

    I don't say that they couldn't have good games. Of course they had, lots of them. The only thing about the games you could propably say is that they never are very original or innovative. But what I'm really talking about is their mentality, almost snobbish, and they are "business people", with a primary focus in making money - even back then when the games industry was still young.

  17. Posted

    I don't remember this thing coming with the game I got as a kid

     

    Well, afaik this wasn't in the game right from the initial release, but was included later, propably because they got a lot of questions/complaints about the game.

  20. Posted · Edited by Herbarius

    That may be true, actually I never saw a 7800 in person. In that case I apologize.

     

    I just read someone on these forums somewhere saying the 7800 doesn't have difficulty switches, and being surprised of that I looked at pictures to check and couldn't see the switches anywhere, so I assumed it's correct - I thought that maybe at the time, the difficulty switches were already deemed "old fashioned", if you look at the 2600 library, as a rule of thumb you can say the newer the game, the less likely it uses the difficulty switches at all...

     

    Mayber there are near the controller ports as you say, they would be hard to see on photos then.

  22. Posted

    You may also want to consider a 7800 instead since it is backwards compatible and was a direct competitor to the NES.

     

    Be careful: The 7800 does not have the "difficulty switches" of the 2600. Not all games use them, but a lot of games do. On the 7800 you can play those games, but you're stuck on the default setting for both switches. (I can't say whether this is A(dvanced) or B(eginner), but I'm sure someone here will be able to tell...)

  24. Posted · Edited by Herbarius

    Did you use the hair dryer at full power or the lower setting? (Or if you have more than two settings on your hairdryer, which did you use?)

     

    EDIT: Now that I think of it, is the lower setting using a lower temperature at all? Or does it only regulate the speed at which the air is blown out, which would make the actual temperature the same, or even a higher temperature on the lower setting.

  25. Posted · Edited by Herbarius

    Well, the title says it all. What's your suggestion on how to remove labels from 5.25" floppy disks, without destroying/damaging the disk? I wouldn't dare to try the usual hairdryer trick, as it is very possible it could heat the disk to temperatures too high for the disk (most safety instructions on the back of the sleeves give a maximum temperature of 52°C/125°F).

     

    How much "force" do you think is okay to apply when trying to pull of labels without hurting the disk? It is better when I try holding down the disk with my other hand so it does bend as little as possible while pulling off a label, or may that actually "increase the stress" to the disk?

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