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PET 8032 games?


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I picked up a 8032 and have had a problem finding games other than text adventures that will work. I believe there are some games made for the 8032 even if there are not too many.

 

I have tried the 80 to 40 program to run games and have not had any luck.

 

Any suggestions? Thanks!

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I can't remember how the 80 to 40 column program worked on the PET 80xx models. I think it tweaked some registers on the video chip to produce a 40 column display, centered within the 80 column display. While the program generally worked for anything written in BASIC, it won't fix machine language programs or anything that updates the video ram directly. Most games write directly to the screen memory for better speed and control.

 

The 80 column PETs were always targeted at the business and educational markets. As a result, I don't remember any good games that were compatible with the 80 column machines. All of the arcade style games such as Space Invaders, Asteroids, etc were written for the 40 column PETs.

 

I have an 8032 that I picked up about 25 years ago at a flea market for $5.00. Someone hacked some switches, an extra ROM and other circuitry inside. The switch allows me to select either 40 or 80 column modes with complete compatibility. You do need to power off to switch modes. It's the best of both worlds. I don't think the product was released commercially - it looks hand made.

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As mentioned on the Facebook group, you probably refer to the character mode with capital letters and all graphic symbols, which you achieve with a key press or a POKE somewhere 59xxx IIRC. But if none of the few 80 to 40 programs are working (this probably could be tested out in emulation quite well), your chance is if it can be modified to a 4032. The topic has been up at various places a number of times, but I don't know how feasible it is, in particular if you want it to be switchable. The CRTC chip is capable of some reprogramming though which is one of the keys.

 

While I didn't find any specific 80 column games on e.g. Zimmers FTP, I have a vague memory of having seen something action oriented once but I can't remember what or where.

 

From a technical point of view, a 80x25 screen contains twice as many characters to update and would thus take twice as much time to update than a 40x25 screen. Whether that is a factor for not that many 80 column games is just a speculation.

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I thought the 40 column mode also added a video mode that the 80 column didn't have which was used for games?

 

 

As mentioned on the Facebook group, you probably refer to the character mode with capital letters and all graphic symbols, which you achieve with a key press or a POKE somewhere 59xxx IIRC.

 

 

All of the Commodore 8-bit machines contained two character sets. One was upper / lower case. The other was upper case / graphic symbols. Most 80 column PETs powered up in upper / lower mode while the 40 column PETs powered up in upper / graphics mode.

 

To switch character sets on a PET use POKE 59468,14 for upper / lower mode and POKE 59468,12 for upper / graphics mode. The Commodore PET FAQ at http://www.zimmers.net/cbmpics/cbm/PETx/petfaq.html was my resource for this.

 

On the VIC-20 and C-64 you could toggle the character set by pressing the Shift and Commodore keys together.

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I picked up a 8032 and have had a problem finding games other than text adventures that will work. I believe there are some games made for the 8032 even if there are not too many.

Last year, Space Chase was released for the PET 8032, 8096 and 8296, and for the CBM-II series. See

 

http://www.spacechase.de/

 

Perhaps that should be the competition game for CommVEx,

Robert Bernardo

Fresno Commodore User Group

http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm

July 29-30 Commodore Vegas Expo v13 -

http://www.portcommodore.com/commvex

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I'm going to get a ROM that allows switching between 40 and 80 columns so I believe everything will work. Only issue I'm told is it the 40 column program must have the N specific keyboard. Hopefully most programs work no problem.

 

I think you need more than just a ROM to be able to switch between 40 and 80 columns. The PET that I have contains a small circuit board, two switches (that must be switched together) and a lot of wires. I don't know if something more modern / simple is available.

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