The height of geekiness!

[Couldn't give a rats arse]

I know this is completely geeky, irrelevant and self promoting but I'm really pleased with myself. I've managed to set up an old laptop to act as a disk drive for my Commodore 64! This means I can store all the images of games on the laptop and play them on the real thing. Or backup games from C64 tape into emulator readable files.

OK - flame away! I just wanted to tell someone!

 

[beorhthelm]

actually that sounds pretty cool. Old skool computers are the dogs bollocks

 

[Scarface]

Quick, hide before someone bogwashes you and nicks your lunch money!

 

[REDLAND]

Thats quite cool, through the serial or parallell port ?

 

[Gazwag]

So what game is next then

 

[Marc]

good stuff mate

I keep meaning to sort out my PC-Amiga Emulator so i can play quality footy games (Sensible Soccer/Kick Off) instead of thats PES shite. Also all the other great games I've got on floppy,truly fabulous and hours of fun

 

[Rangdo]

But its not the same without having the flickering lines around the edges of the screen for 10 minutes before it crashes and you have to rewind the tape and start again.

 

[Scarface]

I have a megadrive and gameboy emulator which play some absolute classics!

 

[Couldn't give a rats arse]

Thats quite cool, through the serial or parallell port ?

Through the parallel port - I bought a cable (XE1541) a while back which allowed me to connect my C64 disk drive to a PC and transfer images. But it can also talk direct to the C64. I've had to install DOS on the laptop and tweak a load of settings but load"$",8 now shows me a directory listing of the PC.

Just as well as my real C64 drive knocked itself out of alignment and is now sulking and refusing to load any disks - just makes rattling noises.

I'm trying to convert 3 games that aren't available in emulator format and I'm having a nightmare, They are World Cup, The Boxer and Trevor Brooking's World Cup glory. Don't think they will make a good NSC game but you never know.

 

[Couldn't give a rats arse]

But its not the same without having the flickering lines around the edges of the screen for 10 minutes before it crashes and you have to rewind the tape and start again.

It acts in real time and even uses the speaker to make the same clicking noises as a real drive!

 

[Marshy]

I work i n I.T and your right thats well Geeky !

 

[Rangdo]

It acts in real time and even uses the speaker to make the same clicking noises as a real drive!

I didn't know you could get disk drives for the C64. Remember the old load screens that used to reveal the picture line by line. Then they brought out invadaload where you could play space invaders whilst the game loaded. I've got an old Spectrum 48K with the spongy keyboard in the loft complete with Horace goes Skiing and Grand Prix.

 

[Couldn't give a rats arse]

I didn't know you could get disk drives for the C64. Remember the old load screens that used to reveal the picture line by line. Then they brought out invadaload where you could play space invaders whilst the game loaded. I've got an old Spectrum 48K with the spongy keyboard in the loft complete with Horace goes Skiing and Grand Prix.

The 1541 disk drive is legendary! It took 5.25" disks. You could buy the single sided ones from Argos. Then, use a little cutter which made a nick and allowed you to use the other side.

Problem is, they are notorious for losing alignment. When they format a disk, the heads make a noise like a machine gun. Eventually, this knocks them out of alignment and I can't find a way of fixing it.

I'm running the ultimate test now - loading one of my games and then Freeze Framing it to disk. (The Freeze Frame or Action Replay was the pirate's dream. Load up a game, press the button, save it to a blank tape or disk and Bob's your Uncle. It load's in seconds and you can give the original game back!