RetroB1977 Posted December 22, 2021 Share Posted December 22, 2021 (edited) I recently bought a Commodore 64C off of eBay, tested and working condition. It came with a PSU and a video cable for an original 1084 monitor. It arrived a few days ago and works perfectly hooked up to my television through RF. I bought an SD2IEC from TFW8b.com. Once it came in I loaded up my favorite game, Eliminator. It loaded fine and played but there was no sound. I checked the 9VAC line on the power supply as I only checked the 5VDC line before turning it on. Sure enough, it gave out 2VAC. I hopped on eBay and bought a Electroware C64 PSU. It has yet to come in. So, are there any games you recommend or accessories I should get? Edited December 22, 2021 by RetroB1977 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeddyBear89 Posted December 22, 2021 Share Posted December 22, 2021 Just on the slim chance that you are not aware of this site......it is the most comprehensive C-64 game site ever https://www.lemon64.com And you've addressed the most important public service announcement one can say about the Commodore 64 - do not ever use the original PSU! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youxia Posted December 22, 2021 Share Posted December 22, 2021 4 hours ago, RetroB1977 said: So, are there any games you recommend or accessories I should get? There's a bazillion great games, so you'd have to narrow it down with what styles do you like. The top 100 found on the aforementioned Lemon64 is a good start in any case. As for gadgets, depends on how deep with C64 you want to get. For casual gaming only, your setup is already solid (SD2IEC should cover >90% of the library). Maybe get a nice joystick, like ArcadeR & check if your TV has S-Video, so you could connect via that and improve the image quality. if you want to do more, like code, hack games, get creative with fx/sfx and/or add some QOL improvements, then theres' a heap of assorted gadgets and mods available, but it'd help if you were a bit more specific. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted December 22, 2021 Share Posted December 22, 2021 For a while we had several "recommended C64 games" threads here. Recommend Me Some Games I just got a C64 Mini recommend me some games to add Commodore 64 Game Suggestions? Sell me on some good c64 games underrated c64 jems that arent in the top 100 list worthy to invest time in You will probably find some games mentioned in several of those threads. While the C64 has a huge library of 25000+ entries of which at least half should be unique (non-hacks), perhaps AtariAge should benefit from a pinned topic for users to recommend their favorites, since it reoccurs so often. As for the original PSU, probably it is a good thing that you replaced it though I wonder how you can only read out 2 VAC. Internally there is a 2x9 VAC transformer of which one winding is fed directly to the computer and the other is passed through rectifier diodes and voltage regulator to provide 5V DC. Usually what happens is that the voltage regulator comes loose from the solder joints and it stops working, or simply dies of old age meaning 9 VAC is rectified to ~12V DC but never regulated. If one winding is able to produce 5V but the other does not carry the 9V, it sounds like a bad solder joint or perhaps a broken cable somewhere, unless a transformer actually can malfunction in such way that the two identical windings misbehave independently. 4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RetroB1977 Posted December 30, 2021 Author Share Posted December 30, 2021 Good news! My Electroware power supply came in from Poland. It works great! The SID chips puts out sound as it should. Now time to play some games! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted December 30, 2021 Share Posted December 30, 2021 1 hour ago, RetroB1977 said: Good news! My Electroware power supply came in from Poland. It works great! The SID chips puts out sound as it should. Now time to play some games! Congrats! A happy start to a new year! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RetroB1977 Posted December 31, 2021 Author Share Posted December 31, 2021 (edited) Do you know a good tutorial to learn 6502 assembly (preferably on the C64)? Edited December 31, 2021 by RetroB1977 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted December 31, 2021 Share Posted December 31, 2021 3 hours ago, RetroB1977 said: Do you know a good tutorial to learn 6502 assembly (preferably on the C64)? I started with "The Commodore 64 Programmer's Reference Guide," and later picked up "Commodore 64 Assembly Language Programming" by Derek Bush and Peter Holmes, published by Hayden. Otherwise, Google can be your friend. "Commodore 64 Programmer's Reference Guide" at Archive.org Bombjack's Commodore books, machine/assembly language 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClassicReplay Posted December 31, 2021 Share Posted December 31, 2021 Myth, best C64 game I've personally played. But there's so much good stuff, Beach Head, Turbo Outrun, Green Beret, Pitstop, IK+, Way of the Exploding Fist... List is endless. Then there's all the homebrew. You're either 1) setting yourself up for a divorce or 2) In for the best time ever and so far have ben lucky enough to avoid marriage 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted December 31, 2021 Share Posted December 31, 2021 47 minutes ago, ClassicReplay said: You're either 1) setting yourself up for a divorce or 2) In for the best time ever and so far have ben lucky enough to avoid marriage Marriage or Commodore 64 love?? +1000 on the home-brew. So many fantastic titles have come out recently which leverage some amazing talent and impressive bending of the hardware. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClassicReplay Posted December 31, 2021 Share Posted December 31, 2021 3 minutes ago, OLD CS1 said: Marriage or Commodore 64 love?? +1000 on the home-brew. So many fantastic titles have come out recently which leverage some amazing talent and impressive bending of the hardware. You can have both, you just can't play with both 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted January 2, 2022 Share Posted January 2, 2022 On 12/31/2021 at 4:51 PM, OLD CS1 said: "Commodore 64 Assembly Language Programming" by Derek Bush and Peter Holmes Yes, I have this one photo copied in its entirety. The educational part is fine, but what really strikes with this one is the memory map and listing of ROM entry points at the back, with cross references to VIC-20 and PET BASIC V2 and V4. I understand that Rodney Zaks books also were very good. Nowadays there may be other online resources like Codebase 64 but perhaps that is more for advanced users learning certain algorithms than for beginners. I'd also like to chime in my usual disclaimer that if you're getting started with assembly language and intend to get something done, really consider learning about cross development on your PC right from the start. The initial hurdle might seem a tiny bit taller than trying something that runs natively, but I think you'll soon love the benefits of a proper editor, ultra fast assembler with lots of conditionals and include options, being able to save your sources in plain text, endless backups of your source code if you so incline and so on. If you dry test in emulation, you can have a more or less integrated environment (e.g. CBM Prg Studio) and then move to real hardware for the fine testing. I know some people in this hobby are orthodox puritans who must do things the way people did it 35 years ago in order to feel genuine, which is perfectly fine if that is your belief, but I also believe with that approach you must have a lot of motivation to maintain the interest as cumbersome procedures or plain mishaps like accidentally overwriting or losing your code might burn you very easily. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted January 2, 2022 Share Posted January 2, 2022 7 minutes ago, carlsson said: I'd also like to chime in my usual disclaimer that if you're getting started with assembly language and intend to get something done, really consider learning about cross development on your PC right from the start. This is definitely something I would have loved to have taken advantage of in the past. The best thing I had was a 6502 compiler on the Amiga (the name escapes me) that could compile stuff faster than TSDS on the 64 natively. For the TI, I use Notepad++ to edit sources and then a PC-based assembler. 8 minutes ago, carlsson said: I know some people in this hobby are orthodox puritans who must do things the way people did it 35 years ago in order to feel genuine, which is perfectly fine if that is your belief, but I also believe with that approach you must have a lot of motivation to maintain the interest as cumbersome procedures or plain mishaps like accidentally overwriting or losing your code might burn you very easily. Yeah, there is an appeal to that, for sure. But when I tried doing that on the TI (using the Texas Instruments Editor/Assembler,) I found it was definitely cumbersome and also limiting. On the C64 I used TSDS ("Total Software Development System,") of which I only used the assembler and I used Zed on the 128 to edit the source. It also really did not take all that time to run the assembler and if you manage your source and disk sets well enough, you have a much smaller chance of data loss. On a modern system you can pretty much instantly assemble, have a much better editing environment, much better project management, on-line help, and ability to dump directly to a testable target like a disk image or cartridge binary, and even send directly to an emulator like WinViCE (or Classic99 for TI stuff.) I definitely recommend trying out both environments to see how it works out. Chances are, it will be easier to set up a PC-based work environment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RetroB1977 Posted January 2, 2022 Author Share Posted January 2, 2022 Are there any future-proofing mods you recommend? Should I just leave it original? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eightbit Posted January 15, 2022 Share Posted January 15, 2022 (edited) On 1/2/2022 at 3:48 PM, RetroB1977 said: Are there any future-proofing mods you recommend? Should I just leave it original? The C64C (at least every one that I have encountered) has a really robust heatsink/shield that has fingers that touch all chips. It is a superior design so heat should not be an issue with these. I would at least open it up and ensure that this heat shield is present. If so, well, I cannot think of anything future proofing wise you would need to do other than using a new PSU (which you are according to your previous post) and thats it. Enjoy the machine! Edited January 15, 2022 by eightbit 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RetroB1977 Posted January 15, 2022 Author Share Posted January 15, 2022 12 hours ago, eightbit said: The C64C (at least every one that I have encountered) has a really robust heatsink/shield that has fingers that touch all chips. It is a superior design so heat should not be an issue with these. I would at least open it up and ensure that this heat shield is present. If so, well, I cannot think of anything future proofing wise you would need to do other than using a new PSU (which you are according to your previous post) and thats it. Enjoy the machine! Thanks! I would open it up but it has security screws. Do you know what type they are? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eightbit Posted January 15, 2022 Share Posted January 15, 2022 30 minutes ago, RetroB1977 said: Thanks! I would open it up but it has security screws. Do you know what type they are? Those should just be torx screws. Torx T9 maybe? If you have any good screwdriver bit set like the ones you can pick up for cheap at Harbor Freight the bit to open this should be in there. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RetroB1977 Posted January 15, 2022 Author Share Posted January 15, 2022 1 hour ago, eightbit said: Those should just be torx screws. Torx T9 maybe? If you have any good screwdriver bit set like the ones you can pick up for cheap at Harbor Freight the bit to open this should be in there. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eightbit Posted January 16, 2022 Share Posted January 16, 2022 (edited) 6 hours ago, RetroB1977 said: Thanks! No problem. I would also suggest to either get a test harness kit with cart to test it thoroughly, or if not do your best to test everything. This is my favorite computer of all time but I will say that so much can go wrong. I have had all sorts of weird issues over the years. CIA's going bad, PLA's, SID's., RAM...you name it. Sometimes it can get costly to keep them alive And, very important, NEVER use a Genesis controller in this. I blew out a CIA doing that years ago. More recently a CIA blew out by using a Master System controller...which made no sense to me. In any case, I stick to regular joysticks (ie: Atari type sticks, Suncom, etc) because I am too fearful to try gamepads again. And, if you want to enjoy that C64C a bit more get yourself a BackBit cartridge. I would say get an Ultimate II+ but they are not being manufactured ATM. Still the BackBit is a pretty incredible device and is miles ahead of SD2IEC: https://store.backbit.io/ Evie even sells a device to allow you to safely use Genesis controllers. I should pick that up. (EDIT: Talked myself into it and just did!) Edited January 16, 2022 by eightbit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RetroB1977 Posted January 16, 2022 Author Share Posted January 16, 2022 9 hours ago, eightbit said: No problem. I would also suggest to either get a test harness kit with cart to test it thoroughly, or if not do your best to test everything. This is my favorite computer of all time but I will say that so much can go wrong. I have had all sorts of weird issues over the years. CIA's going bad, PLA's, SID's., RAM...you name it. Sometimes it can get costly to keep them alive And, very important, NEVER use a Genesis controller in this. I blew out a CIA doing that years ago. More recently a CIA blew out by using a Master System controller...which made no sense to me. In any case, I stick to regular joysticks (ie: Atari type sticks, Suncom, etc) because I am too fearful to try gamepads again. And, if you want to enjoy that C64C a bit more get yourself a BackBit cartridge. I would say get an Ultimate II+ but they are not being manufactured ATM. Still the BackBit is a pretty incredible device and is miles ahead of SD2IEC: https://store.backbit.io/ Evie even sells a device to allow you to safely use Genesis controllers. I should pick that up. (EDIT: Talked myself into it and just did!) Thanks! Is there a game you recommend to try to test everything? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eightbit Posted January 16, 2022 Share Posted January 16, 2022 3 hours ago, RetroB1977 said: Thanks! Is there a game you recommend to try to test everything? Not really. I usually will run lots of games, demos, etc. Games that use port 1 for the controller as well as games that use port 2. As you try more software you'll get a better idea if the machine is working properly or if you have issues (like crashing to basic alot..etc). You can also run Commodore diagnostic cart but you'll error on some of it due to the lack of a test harness. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RetroB1977 Posted January 16, 2022 Author Share Posted January 16, 2022 2 hours ago, eightbit said: Not really. I usually will run lots of games, demos, etc. Games that use port 1 for the controller as well as games that use port 2. As you try more software you'll get a better idea if the machine is working properly or if you have issues (like crashing to basic alot..etc). You can also run Commodore diagnostic cart but you'll error on some of it due to the lack of a test harness. Every game I have tried works fine. GEOS 1581 works too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RetroB1977 Posted January 16, 2022 Author Share Posted January 16, 2022 3 hours ago, eightbit said: Not really. I usually will run lots of games, demos, etc. Games that use port 1 for the controller as well as games that use port 2. As you try more software you'll get a better idea if the machine is working properly or if you have issues (like crashing to basic alot..etc). You can also run Commodore diagnostic cart but you'll error on some of it due to the lack of a test harness. I ran 64 Doctor and tested the keyboard, joysticks, and RAM. Everything worked! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deteacher Posted March 27, 2022 Share Posted March 27, 2022 As far as which games to play, I'd start with ones that were only written for C64: Space Taxi, Dino Eggs, Toy Bizarre, Park Patrol, Ultimate Wizard, to name a few. Mail Order Monsters is a great game as well. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris+++ Posted March 28, 2022 Share Posted March 28, 2022 (edited) I second the above (especially Dino Eggs and Toy Bizarre), as well as the terrific multi-scrolling Broderbund game Raid on Bungeling Bay. More absolute favorites are detailed on this page. Bulldog and Interchange, for instance, are often overlooked. Edited March 28, 2022 by Chris+++ 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.