RobertB

After an inquiry from a FCUG member, I looked up John's website and found it to be updated! The website address has been subtly changed to http://www.bit-c-128.com/ He now has categorized the site into multiple pages - Home, Uses, How to Buy, Quick Start Guide, History, and Contact. Interestingly, under History, he notes that the BIT-C-128 Video DAC is now in its second production run after having strong Christmas sales. He even gives CommVEx a plug, Robert Bernardo Fresno Commodore User Group http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm July 30-31 Commodore Vegas Expo v12 - http://www.portcommodore.com/commvex

Happy May, C= and Ami aficionados! The Fresno Commodore User Group has its next meeting from 11 a.m. to 2+ p.m., Sunday, May 15 at -- Bobby Salazar's Mexican Restaurant 2839 North Blackstone Ave. (corner of Blackstone and Michigan) Fresno, California (559) 227-1686 For discussion, we'll have the latest news of Commodore and Amiga at the May 20-22 Maker Faire 2016 and the July 30-31 Commodore Vegas Expo v12. Once again, we'll cover the various bits from the collection of Gerald Oborn, like MSD SD-1 and SD-2 disk drives and various, classic Commodore and Amiga software packages. Due to popular demand, we review another FCUG Disk-of-the-Month from 1991... yes, that's right... from 25 years ago! Hopefully, v.p. Roger will bring in the Chalkboard PowerPad with program, Leo's Links, and give us an update on refurbishing the hardware. For the VIC-20, we get to try out the Behr-Bonz 2015 cartridge from Francois "Eslapion" Leveille of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. 127 VIC games on one cartridge! Even more for the VIC-20, we have the full cassette/disk version of the very fun shooter, "Pulse." As mentioned by a Pulse player, "Beware the Space Turkey!" Last but not least, we'll watch part 4 of the video documentary, "Growing the 8-Bit Generation." Plus news of another documentary about Jack Tramiel, Robert Bernardo Fresno Commodore User Group http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm July 30-31 Commodore Vegas Expo v12 - http://www.portcommodore.com/commvex

Happy Mother's Day, C= and Ami comrades! The next meeting of the Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network is Saturday, March 14, from 2 to 4+ p.m. at Panera Bread Restaurant 19662 Nordhoff Street Northridge, California (818) 407-9400 This month we'll look at an Amiga 500 with the late v8 motherboard and 2 megs of Chip RAM. Also clear the decks! I'll need lots of table space for an Amiga 2000 with Video Toaster running v4.3 software, a '040 Progressive Peripherals & Peripherals accelerator with 4.5 megs of RAM, a GVP HC+8 RAM board with 8 megs, a Commodore 2065 Ethernet board, and more. In the 8-bit area, we'll look at a Ray Carlsen-modded VIC-20 which has been hacked to provide S-video. We'll also have the usual C128, SX-64 and Plus/4 units with various programs. Speaking of video, we'll examine a composite/s-video-to-HDMI converter that was used at the Commodore Vegas Expo last year. Who wants to bring a small HDMI monitor? We'll view another part of newly-released video documentary, "Growing the 8-Bit Generation". Bring anything else you wish to share! Sincerely, Robert Bernardo http://www.sccaners.org

http://athana.com/html/diskette.html Truly, Robert Bernardo Fresno Commodore User Group http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm July 30-31 Commodore Vegas Expo v12 - http://www.portcommodore.com/commvex

Some time ago I signed up to be kept updated. I have not heard anything from him. Truly, Robert Bernardo Fresno Commodore User Group http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm July 30-31 Commodore Vegas Expo v12 - http://www.portcommodore.com/commvex

From the thread at http://www.commodore.ca/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=12475#p17481 -- [Jim Drew] will be demoing the uDrive (micro-Drive), a cycle-exact 1541 drive emulator. Under 1 square inch, the uDrive is designed to be fit inside the C64/128/SX-64 and allows the user to use .d64, .g64, or .scp image files (which means ANY disk, copy-protected or not). Jim says, "It basically *is* a 1541 disk drive without the mechanical drive portion. It supports any type of ROMs (CBM, JiffyDOS, etc.) as image files. With just a firmware change I can emulate other drives, like the 1571, 1581, CBM hard drive, etc. It uses a micro-SD card for holding the files." "It will be released as a 1541 emulator initially, with free firmware upgrades to make it a 1571, 1581, CMD hard drive, CBM hard drive, etc." Truly, Robert Bernardo Fresno Commodore User Group http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm July 30-31 Commodore Vegas Expo v12 - http://www.portcommodore.com/commvex

Ray Carlsen repairs them. The tech from The Other Group of Amigoids upgrades them with modern components. Truly, Robert Bernardo Fresno Commodore User Group http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm July 30-31 Commodore Vegas Expo v12 - http://www.portcommodore.com/commvex

Heh, I've used both the "cube"-like (less powerful) power supply and the rectangular, [email protected] (more powerful) p.s. on the 1581. I've found no problem using either of them. Of course, more power is better, Robert Bernardo Fresno Commodore User Group http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm July 30-31 Commodore Vegas Expo v12 - http://www.portcommodore.com/commvex

The Final Cartridges and Action Replays were not common in North America. The most common ones here were Fastload, Mach 5/Mach 128, Warpspeed, and Super Snapshot. Gave away a few Fastloads at our April club meeting, Robert Bernardo Fresno Commodore User Group http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm July 30-31 Commodore Vegas Expo v12 - http://www.portcommodore.com/commvex

That's odd. All the old reviews I read had always had high marks for it. It was faster in loading and saving than many other cartridges. It, too, is my favorite cartridge (beating out Super Snaphot v.X). The only thing that is I wish it were compatible with CMD devices. Truly, Robert Bernardo Fresno Commodore User Group http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm July 30-31 Commodore Vegas Expo v12 - http://www.portcommodore.com/commvex

I did the v1.0 to v2.0 transplant several years ago to one of my Warpspeeds. I had a socket installed on the board and had an EPROM burned with the 2.0 data. Though it was a tight fit to close the casing with the socket installed, the Warpspeed worked perfectly. Truly, Robert Bernardo Fresno Commodore User Group http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm July 30-31 Commodore Vegas Expo v12 - http://www.portcommodore.com/commvex

----------------------- Original Message ----------------------- Subject: Commodore Free issue 92 From: Nigel Parker ---------------------------------------------------------------- A new issue of Commodore Free is available to download [and also issue 91 of a few month's ago) ************************************* Commodore Free Magazine http://www.commodorefree.com/ Issue 92 Free-to-download magazine dedicated to Commodore computers Available as PDF, ePUB, MOBI, HTML, TXT, SEQ and D64 disk image ************************************* CONTENTS ************************************* * Editorial * General News - Retro gaming high score archives - Stripefixer C64 - VirtualC64 v1.1.3 - CBM PRG Studio v3.5.0 - C64SD v3 Princess FLC - Ray Carlsen's New Power Supplies - Minecraft BASIC Programming - Retro Commodore - Chicken Lips Radio 3 - The Games-Coffer - FS-UAE Upgraded - MUIBase 3.2 - Britsoft - Farewell Betamax * C64 News - Spiceworks Website Homage To C64 - LostTurboCard64 - Memwa2: Smallest C64 Emulator - HerMIDI v1.0c - Time of Silence v1.0 - C64 Endings - Glenn Holmer GEOS Fonts - Quod Init Exit v1.5 - U91306 - Eidothea [sEUCK] - VChar64 V0.0.8 - DurexForth V1.4.3 - SIDin PDF Magazine Issue 15 - Arc64 V2.8 - Tronowo - Keyman64 - Athanor - The Awakening - Retro Gamer CD News * VIC 20 News - Mini Mine Sweep - R'zos VIC Collection of 2015 - Péter és Pál and Winnetou - ColorRun Retro * C16 and Plus/4 News - Ghost 'n Goblins Arcade Music Box * Amiga News - Nazghul - AROS - Amiga 30th Birthday - California - XoXo - Amiga - Sum firmware update - Calimero v1.00 - MorphOS - Potrace v1.13 - Amiga - Boingsworld Issue 69 - New A1200 Cases Kickstarter - Call For Amiga Developers * Review: Slime and Slime Deluxe * Review: Rhythm King * Copy And Paste From WinVICE * Review: Pulse

On Tue, Mar 8, 2016 at 9:33 AM, I wrote: > The film, "Growing the 8 Bit Generation", has its first public screening at 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, March 30, at the Computer History > Museum in Mountain View (South Bay area of San Francisco), California. Some photographs of the event can be found at http://blog.retro-link.com/2016/04/photos-from-growing-8-bit-generation.html Truly, Robert Bernardo Fresno Commodore User Group http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm July 30-31 Commodore Vegas Expo v12 - http://www.portcommodore.com/commvex

Happy April, C= and Ami aficionados! The Fresno Commodore User Group has its next meeting from 10 a.m. to 1+ p.m., Sunday, April 17 at -- Bobby Salazar's Mexican Restaurant 2839 North Blackstone Ave. (corner of Blackstone and Michigan) Fresno, California (559) 227-1686 Note the earlier meeting time - 10 a.m. instead of our usual 11 a.m start time. In software we try the newest version of Jason "Pyrofer" Wright's 80-column C128 game, BoulderDash C128. For the C64, we'll go over the new Reset #08 magazine and its C64 coverdisk of games and demos. For the classic Amiga, we have the demo of the new game, Tanks Furry. For the VIC-20 with 24K RAM expansion, we look over the new game, Mah Jongg. For the Plus/4, it's the new game, Hugohunt. For the hardware part of the meeting, we'll cover the various bits from the collection of Gerald Oborn, hardware like an extremely early motherboard version of a C64 housed in a VIC-20 case, a C128 with the Utilities Unlimited Super Chip, and an Amiga 500 with a v8 motherboard plus Kickstart 3.0. Once again we'll watch newly-released video documentary, "Growing the 8-Bit Generation" -- this time part 3. Truly, Robert Bernardo Fresno Commodore User Group http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm July 30-31 Commodore Vegas Expo v12 - http://www.portcommodore.com/commvex

That is up to Bruce Gottlieb, the creator of the game. At the time of the celebration, he wanted R.J. to have the only copy in the world. Truly, Robert Bernardo Fresno Commodore User Group http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm

Yes, there were a few Lynxes at the celebration. Truly, Robert Bernardo Fresno Commodore User Group http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm

With hundreds of friends, family, Commodorians, and Amigans in attendance, CBM Amiga engineer R.J. Mical celebrated his 60th birthday on March 19-20 in a big blow out at his house. Below are some relevant links. First up is the C64 game especially created for R.J.. Entitled RJ's Super Psychedelic Birthday Trip!, the game was created by Bruce Gottlieb with the use of the sideways version of the Shoot'Em Up Construction Kit. See "RJ Mical's gift - RJ's Super Psychedelic Birthday Trip!" at Then there is "RJ Mical's birthday speech" at Finally, "Pics from RJ Mical's birthday celebration" are at http://blog.retro-link.com/2016/04/pics-from-rj-micals-birthday-celebration.html Truly, Robert Bernardo Fresno Commodore User Group http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm

Convenience for the non-DIY users. Ray does offer internal Computer Savers. Truly, Robert Bernardo Fresno Commodore User Group http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm

Memorial services were held for Amiga engineer Dave Needle on March 12. You can find a few photos of the late-night after-event at http://blog.retro-link.com/2016/04/the-get-together-after-dave-needles.html Truly, Robert Bernardo Fresno Commodore User Group http:/ /www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm

FWIW, we had a former Atari user give us his broken, towerized Falcon. It was in sad shape with loose wires, a frozen hard drive, and other problems (we guess he was a hardware hacker but didn't do a good job in hacking a working machine). One of the machine's saving graces is that it has a CT60 accelerator board in it. Right now my hardware friend is valiantly trying to fix the computer. It's been put in a proper tower (no board hanging out of it, like the former tower). He's gotten the hardware portion up to 40% working and the software up to 10%. Never give up... never surrender, Robert Bernardo Fresno Commodore User Group http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm

Oh, in which issues were your letters published? Riding the San Joaquin train through California, Robert Bernardo Fresno Commodore User Group http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm

The price is high for such a bare A2000. Does the A2091 come with any RAM? Does the machine at least have OS 2.04 disks (for better use of a hard drive)? You could get a used 4 gig or less SCSI drive mechanism for under $30. Riding the San Joaquin train through California, Robert Bernardo Fresno Commodore User Group http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm

Heh, I already play Afterburner on my Commodore 64. As for a force-feedback joystick, the closest thing I have is "force-feedback" headphones. The headphones shake, based on the loudness of the sound it receives. Would a FF joystick respond to sounds in the classic game? Riding the San Joaquin train through California, Robert Bernardo Fresno Commodore User Group http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm

On Tue, March 1, 2016 8:36 pm, I wrote: > The film, "Growing the 8 Bit Generation", has its first public screening at 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, March 30, at > the Computer History Museum in Mountain View (South Bay area of San Francisco), California. Just a reminder for all C= enthusiasts... If you are in the area, come and see CBM engineer Bil Herd and the film's producer discuss the movie. Truly, Robert Bernardo Fresno Commodore User Group http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm

The Bay Area Commodore Collective (BACC) is a San Francisco-based group devoted to Commodore gaming. BACC get-togethers happen on the last Saturday of the month, starting at 7 p.m. at Round Table Pizza Restaurant 1285 Linda Mar Shopping Center Pacifica, California 94044 Phone - (650) 355-0630 For more information, go to http://www.meetup.com/sfbacc/ On Twitter @sfcommodoreclub https://twitter.com/sfcommodoreclub The way forward is BACC!