SDrive 1564 for C64 - Anyone have one of these? How is it?

[+wongojack]

http://www.c64sdcard.hu/en/

[JamesD]

I had one and it seemed to work well what little I got to use it.

It included a European power supply and I had to buy a plug adapter. Avoid the really cheap adapters, they don't work.

[+wongojack]

Why didn't you get to use it more? Was it because of limited functionality or other factors?

[7800fan]

It's just another version of SD2IEC, a very nice looking case too. Has DIP switch on back for setting drive ID and there's 2 versions: with and without LCD.

[+wongojack]

I've never used a SD2IEC. Does it fully replace the disk drive? So you just load your roms on there and the C64 can access them like it would from the 1541 (only faster)?

[landgraf]

Nope, think of SD2IEC and its clones as alternative mass storage devices that happen to speak the IEC-bus protocol used by the C64 to communicate with various peripherals, and a selected few other protocols like Jiffydos, too.

 

The 1541, however, is a freely programmable computer on its own, and lots of software make use of that and use completely custom data transfer routines that will only work with a near complete emulation of the 1541 internals - so far only the 1541Ultimate, Turbo Chameleon 64 and to some degree the UK1541 provide this level of compatibility.

[JamesD]

Why didn't you get to use it more? Was it because of limited functionality or other factors?

I had a fire.

[+wongojack]

Nope, think of SD2IEC and its clones as alternative mass storage devices that happen to speak the IEC-bus protocol used by the C64 to communicate with various peripherals, and a selected few other protocols like Jiffydos, too.

 

The 1541, however, is a freely programmable computer on its own, and lots of software make use of that and use completely custom data transfer routines that will only work with a near complete emulation of the 1541 internals - so far only the 1541Ultimate, Turbo Chameleon 64 and to some degree the UK1541 provide this level of compatibility.

 

Ok, so with an SD2IEC like the one linked in the first post or like this one: http://www.thefuturewas8bit.com/index.php/shop/commodore.html

 

Is the 1541 still required?

[carlsson]

It depends what kind of programs you want to load and run. If you download D64 images that contain so-called single filed programs, you can load them perfectly fine off a SD2IEC type unit. However if you download images of original floppy disks, or even more commonly demos, those are the ones that tend to try to reprogram the drive for an unique fastloader and there is where the SD2IEC units struggle. The firmware can detect a few well known fastloaders and react to those, but any custom routine that differs in "footprint" from the known ones will not work.

 

Personally I've been using an uIEC/SD (which belongs to the SD2IEC category) for a decade (*) or so, and only occasionally had the need to transfer a disk image to real floppy disk in order to run it, but then again I didn't download a lot of cool demos or tried to find backups of original disks. Generally I think the requirement of 1541U is a bit overrated, but it might also depend on your previous Commodore experiences and that you should know the limitations on beforehand.

 

(*) Well, perhaps 7-8 years.

Edited December 13, 2015 by carlsson

[landgraf]

Depends on the software you want to use

 

For copy-protected original disks and/or multiload demos a real 1541 or 99.9% compatible device is usually a must, whereas unprotected singleload software typically works fine with an SD2IEC.

 

Cracked multiload games may work if they use the standard kernal load routines or include a fastloader that can be optionally disabled - if they don't you'll need a real drive, too.

 

 

[7800fan]

SD2IEC is not 100% 1541 compatible. It'll run most program but those that has custom fast loader software or copy protection will not work. FOr example, I tried playing Ultima 5 off 1564 and when I choose the 1541 drive, it crashed and wouldn't load. I had to choose other disk drive which loaded a bit slower due to Ultima 5 not using its own fast loader code.

 

Games with copy protection and no fast loader code may work if you can find cracked copy. Many EA games for example used deliberate error sector, which would always read different every time it's checked to verify it's original disk. Disk copier can't copy error like that and the error sector would always read the same and fail copy protection check. Cracked games bypasses this and makes the game run anyway. I had to use cracked version of Bard's Tale to play it.

 

SD2IEC is more for simple program, and for backup and archival of your own disk collection such as your homemade games, old work docs, etc. It's not mean to be used with many of the popular games. For that, you'd need Ultimate 1541 cartridge, and presently it's not available for sale but more maybe next year. Ultimate is a 100% full 1541 emulated drive and is better for those who still likes playing with C64 a lot.

[+wongojack]

Well, I guess I am soon to become an expert on this stuff because I did a Craigslist deal today that included the U1541 II & the SD2IEC (from future is 8 bit not 1564). I had been hunting around for a local C64 deal casually when I noticed this guy had dropped the price on a big Commodore lot. I had said I was never going to get back into retro computing, but I sure did today. Now I just have to figure out how to get JiffyDos to work on the U1541 . . .

[TMR]

It's not totally accurate, but disabling True Drive Emulation in VICE will make it act similarly to the SD2IEC for testing compatibility; there are a few fudges on the later firmwares for things that crash and burn on the older versions like the Action Replay 6 fastloader.

[carlsson]

Yup, my uIEC/SD became much easier to use once I installed a 1581 ROM onto it, so the Action Replay Mk 6 is fooled it is talking to a 1581 and uses the appropriate fastloader routine. Apparently the corresponding 1541 routine used by AR6 is much more hairy. The only drawback is that the Easyload turbo on the VIC-20 side doesn't seem to like a fake 1581 as much, so I have to disable the ROM when switching the device between computers.