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motrucker

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Posts posted by motrucker

  1. Posted

    The late Jim Scabery, the last Commodore dealer in Portland, Oregon, used the Commodore bricks to edge his front lawn.

     

    Truly,

    Robert Bernardo

    Fresno Commodore User Group - http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm

    Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network - http://www.portcommodore.com/sccan

    That's the best use I have ever heard of concerning these power supplies, white or black. Wish you had a photo of this!

  3. Posted · Edited by motrucker

     

    I like the games as I grew up with many of them and still many C64 games. Most of the games are great. But sorry GEOS was never usable. I still have my original copy of GEOS from back in late the 80's and it was absolutely terrible with a base C64 and one 1541. The only cool feature were all the fonts with GeoWrite. I will repeat the C64 was complete crap for non-gamers and non 6502 programmers while at the EXACT same time being the best game machine of the mid to late 80's.

     

    I'm not bashing the C64 games at all as many were revolutionary. Impossible Mission, Ghostbusters, California Games, Beach Head II and Forbidden Forrest are some of my favorite games of all time. Impossible Mission animation was amazing. Forbidden Forest music is still amazing to this day. These games were revolutionary in game design and game play.

     

    I'm not shocked at all as I'm one of those C64 users. I last powered on my C64 a few hours ago as my son wanted to play Three Stooges .. another very good C64 game.

    Perhaps because I am older than you, I used my C-64 for some serious work back in the 80s. You keep harping on GEOS, I repeat it was fine, if you knew how to use it (that means using 2.0, and a large REU. I also used a laser printer for really great print outs!) I didn't only try the C-64 - I moved to it from a TI 99/4A, and my brother had an Apple ][.. I felt the C-64 was better for all software.

    Don't get me wrong, I do (and did) play some games on the 64. Once again Wizball is a great time waster. I also enjoy working with hardware in and for the C-64. Just assembled my first Pi1541.

    I think it's a shame to waste the C-64 on nothing but games. I didn't mean that many people use the 64 for games - but rather applications that worked for you.

    Guess I'm in the minority here - but on all forums.

    • Like 1

  4. Posted

    Hey guys, is there a way to buy one of these ready made and ready to go at all? >,>.

     

    Or pay someone to put one together?

    It's really not that hard to make you own cable setup. The software side is pretty easy too. Just one question; Can you solder? That is a needed skill.

  6. Posted

     

    Geos 2.X is barely usable on a standard C64. It's just painful to do anything. It's even painful with multiple 1541s, SD expansion , extra memory or souped up emulated C64 or C128.

     

    Seriously there are no good data management, spreadsheets, or word processors. They are just crap for 8-bit machines. Even for their time they were awful. I never used 8-bit machines for these tasks as I had access to high end UNIX workstations during the late 80's and the 90's. Next are you going to claim how great the 22x23 character set is for Vic-20 word processing?

     

    Note I still like to use my TRS 80 model 100 and my Atari Portfolio because they are portable but obviously any modern phone is still much better for taking notes. I will take one of these reto laptops to retro gaming/computer shows to take notes but that is about it.

     

    Outside of games, demos, and programming (assembler, Basic) 8-bit computers are not of any value other than historic preservation.

     

    Now with that said I did have Visible Solar System on Vic-20 which was pretty cool. I actually played it the other night. Glad to see Pluto as a planet!!! Anyway Visible Solar System was available for C64 but I never tried it. I'll have to emulate it to see if it's any different than the Vic-20 version .. well besides slightly better graphics.

    If you think the Commodore 8 bit machines are only good for historic preservation, I feel sorry for you. There are many of us who love to tinker with the hardware, and still use some of the software.

    Man, why do you even play games on the 64 if you think its such a bomb?

    GEOS works very well on the C-64, if you know how to use it. Granted an REU is needed, and I prefer the 128 version for the 80 column display, but it works quite well. I gather you never tried Sky Travel - this is a program you can use, rather than play with.Oh, You forgot to bash the graphics and music software, what happened?

    You might be shocked to find out how many people still use a C-64!

  7. Posted

     

    Huh? Certainly wasn't any different in the 80's or the 90's. I bet I could list a couple of hundred games I enjoyed. I can't name a single educational program from my C64 days or even now. Note I did have Visible Solar System on my VIC-20.

    There were some great programs that were not games. Sky Travel, Doodle, Koala paint (and pad), Advanced Art Studio, Music Studio, The Fun Graphics Machine, DFile 64, Super Base, Microsoft Multiplan, GEOS 2.0, and all of the good DTP and word processor programs, and all of the many programming languages, utilities, environments, etc.. That's just off the top of my head right now.

    It's all how you look at it, but I still use the C-64 (and specially my C-128) for a lot of thing besides games. To say the C-64 isn't any good for data management, spreadsheets, or even word processing is very short sighted. BTW - I use Sky Travle on a weekly basis, still.

    Also - I have a copy of Donald Duck's Playground that a friends daughter just loves. Where is there is modern equivalent of that for Windows or Apple?

    • Like 1

  9. Posted

    So motherboards now are mainboards?

     

    (Last year I had to explain to a female retrogamer the difference between a male and female connector. She honestly didn't realize that the one with a pin is called male, and the one with a hole is called female.)

    I can remember giving a talk at our old user group about connectors, then we noticed two women turning bright red. It was truly hard not to laugh, but......

  10. Posted · Edited by motrucker

    Yeah, it's fantastic! I've been playing all kinds of stuff on my C64 and Vic-20, and all of it works great. Well, except for the mountain of C64 stuff that doesn't run right on an NTSC machine, and it'll be a few days before my 32K RAM expansion for the Vic-20 gets here, so I'm limited to 16K games at the moment. But so far I haven't really found anything that seemed like it failed on account of the Pi-1541. The only downside is that it perfectly emulates the slow loading speeds of a real 1541. :D

    I just got my setup running. It really does work quite well. Since I have NTSC machines, I have no problems. The loading times are true 1541 - I am about to see just how well the old fast loaders work. Not a bad deal; if you figure in the original prices it comes to about $35.00 USD.

    I can't thank Steve White enough.

  11. Posted

     

    I wouldn't say that, since we have lots of new 64C cases out there, why not take advantage of it?

     

    Also, we don't really need a dedicated number pad. Any of the other keys that are needed will be remapped. Also a USB connection (I think) to use an external keyboard.

     

    You'll have to listen to the podcast linked by RobertB for the info.

    I couldn't sit through the podcast - it covers to much other none 128RM stuff. I went to Forum64 to see whats up. It looks like there will be switches implemented for things like the 40/80 display. There may be an extra port for an external keyboard, but it sounds like this hasn't been finalized. There will also need to be some hacking on the case for some of the ports. I am still not that excited about using the C-64C case, but I'll wait until the final product is ready. I am glad to see some serious interest in the 128.

  12. Posted

     

    From what I can tell, you are an end user rather than a producer. You have no entry on the CSDb and nothing on here or Lemon indicates you are anything more than a platform enthusiast. This is fine, but perhaps you and I ran in different circles. Get back to me when you start coding, writing music, or pixeling for the C64.

     

    I have programmed for many, many platforms since 1982-- computers, consoles, whatever. The worst-- WORST-- community by FAR is the Commodore 64. Nothing else compares to it.

     

    You should never make such broad assumptions. To assume I don't code, or write/play music is just short sighted. I guess there's a lot of that going on here.

  15. Posted

    The Commodore scene is full of the worst of the worst people-- the same people in this thread calling you a "whiner" and a "jerk" times 100. The majority of the Commodore "scene" are in their 40s and 50s now days, and they *still* can't resist calling names like 8th graders and playground bullies.Tsk.

     

    I was on the receiving end of it for too long. Never again.

     

    Don't let these entitled people bring you down. I would say to not let them chase you from the "scene," but the modern C64 scene is like a sandbox full of turds and really not worth the time and headaches to develop software for. I am probably one of the few people who think you are doing the right thing in halting your development for the system. It's your work, your time, and your altruism. It's really amazing that so many people feel entitled to your labors simply because it exists on their favored platform. You owe them nothing.

     

    If you ever get bitten by the retro bug again, I suggest looking in to developing on the Apple II line ( E / GS) or for the Atari 8 bits. I walked away from the Commodore 64 a few years ago and have been developing for other 8-bit hardware, and the difference between users of the Apple II and the Commodore 64 is VERY stark. The people and users of my software on the Apple II line are helpful and thankful, and I really enjoy talking to people in those communities. They are active on Reddit, Usenet, and Facebook community pages, and I finally remembered what it felt like to be part of a fun, positive, and exciting computing community like I did back in the '80s. Perhaps that's what you'll need after you step away for a while. A breather can be very therapeutic, after all.

     

    Either way, the best of luck to you! If you happen to make it out to ECCC again this year, send me a PM and I'll buy you a beer. Take care--

    What a bunch of bull. If plbyrd was really sincere about all this, he would have just quit, without this post. He obviously wanted some fanfare on his leaving.

    There are loads of great people involved with the Commodore community. There are a few jerks in every retro computer community, and the Apple eight bit is not immune.

     

     

    • Like 2

  17. Posted

    So many games and so much magic, I am coming from a UK angle so take that into account...

     

    1. Paradroid - Amazing acheivement and just unlike anything else

    2. Wizball - Again its just unlike anything else you will ever play

     

    You will find games with amazing idea's, amazing graphics (for the time) and some unreal music (that stands up even now)... Be easy to just get drunk on the hundreds of games, but I agree, pick a few and really give them some love :)

    From a U.S. perspective, I agree. Wizball is still one of my favorite games! Zig Zag is another great game.Blue Max is also up there (try flying under the bridges).

    I could go on and on, but these three about top my list.

  20. Posted

     

    It's not an attack and sorry that you're seeing it that way.

     

    Moderating time with the classic computing hobby is something nearly all of us need to keep an eye on. Some more than others. Some not at all. And some go the loony bin because of this hobby.

    Then just take your toys, go home, and shut up. I for one hate a whiner.

  22. Posted

    The 128, 80 column version of GEOS was quite usable. With the 128 2.0 GEOS, you could even use a laser printer to get rid of those awful looking dot matrix print outs. My only gripe was that they never released an 80 column version of GeoPublish. The C-128, with a 1750 (at least) REU and a laser printer could create great looking output.

    The bigger the REU you had was key.

     

     

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