retroputing

Flack · Site Admin Joined: 09 Dec 2004 Posts: 1528

When using FCIII, do you have to use the GUI?
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98PaceCar · Joined: 22 Aug 2006 Posts: 464

Nah. When it first comes up, use a joystick to go to the System menu option and from there, use the Basic option. That will drop you to the normal basic prompt and will work as usual. I think the F5 key is the shortcut to do a load.

Flack · Site Admin Joined: 09 Dec 2004 Posts: 1528

Are the cartridge images in the unit's BIOS, or are they loaded in somehow? I'd sure like to put Epyx's Fastload on there and call it good.
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98PaceCar · Joined: 22 Aug 2006 Posts: 464

From what I have read, they are stored in the FPGA somewhere, but there are plans to allow users to flash other carts into it. I'd be much happier with the non-hacked version of AR. That seems to be the biggest source of issues from what I've seen.

For now, I just keep it on the FCIII or disabled with the Jiffydos rom soft loaded.

Flack · Site Admin Joined: 09 Dec 2004 Posts: 1528

Flack · Site Admin Joined: 09 Dec 2004 Posts: 1528

Jesus, this has to be one of the most frustrating projects ever.

I switched to Maverick 5 and used the Nibbler. I did probably 10 disks in a row and then I got an error while trying to copy that said, "Drive 8 is not online" (or something like that). Drive 8 is of course the 1541u. I rebooted and tried again. Same error. I've tried 10 times and I always get that error now. JESUS. I tried the fast copier, the Nibbler with the REU, and the file copier, and all of those work. The REU Nibbler seems to take significantly longer because it reads the entire disk into RAM and then writes it. The fast copy is working so right now what I'm doing is copying all my cracked disks with that, and then I'll REU Nibble the ones that may still be copy protected.

I'm getting closer, but, sheesh ...
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98PaceCar · Joined: 22 Aug 2006 Posts: 464

Ah! Thankee much!

How many disks do you have? I guess I'm somewhat lucky (?) that I sold my original collection, so I don't have any emotional attachement to what I have now. Though I do wish I still had it all and was fighting your issue.

Do you keep up with 1541ultimate.net? I haven't seen anything about updates, but I believe they are at least working on a bug list to start doing some fixes. Once they get this part nailed down, it will be the end of my C= floppy collection.

Flack · Site Admin Joined: 09 Dec 2004 Posts: 1528

I have almost 700 (double-sided) disks from "back in the day." I would divide those up into three basic categories:

Generic pirated games: These are games cracked by national groups like ESI or Ikari or whoever. These are probably all on GB64. I have no emotional attachment to these.

Localized pirated games: These are games that were cracked by local groups, or games that were cracked by other people and then local folks added their own intros on top of the other intros. I suspect I may have the only copy of a lot of these games at this point. I have some emotional attachment to these.

Misc files: pictures I drew, things I wrote, buffer captures from BBSes, BBS disks ... stuff like that. I know I am the only person with many of these files. I have great emotional attachment to these disks and files.

The problem is, with C64 disks, they are in no particular order. Disk 5 might have a game on the front and pictures on the back. Disk 328 has a term program, some BBS captures, and Strip Poker. There's no rhyme or reason as to where I saved stuff, so really the only solution at this point is to back everything up and then sort it out later.
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98PaceCar · Joined: 22 Aug 2006 Posts: 464

Wow! You do have a mountain of work ahead of you. Does the 1541-III do a better job of reading than the 1541u or is the 1541u easier because of the better implementation? If you like, I can send you images of all my Maverick disks to see if any of them work better for you. As scary as it is, I have master copies from one of the lots I bought out (never had seen an original version of any copy program before!!). Smile

Flack · Site Admin Joined: 09 Dec 2004 Posts: 1528

The 1541-III only reads single-file games for the most part. While it works OK for looking at pictures and/or playing single-file games, it doesn't seem to do any multi-loading at all. Kind of a bummer, really. That one aspect changed the 1541-III from being a must-have item to being a novelty. The 1541u, on the other hand, I could see being a real replacement for a 1541. I could see someone running a BBS from one, for example.
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98PaceCar · Joined: 22 Aug 2006 Posts: 464

So it won't create a d64 at all? That's a bit surprising, even the MMC64 did that.

Flack · Site Admin Joined: 09 Dec 2004 Posts: 1528

According to the webpage, the 1541-III supports "writing from within a D64 file," which basically means you can save high scores, text files or BASIC programs to a virtual disk. Under future wish list items is listed "BR and BW commands required for simple disc copying."

The way I see it, these devices are used for three things; loading single file games, loading multi-load games, and transferring real images to D64 images. The 1541-III only does 1 of the 3 (loading single file games) while the 1541u does all 3. If you can get your hands on one, the choice seems simple to me.
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98PaceCar · Joined: 22 Aug 2006 Posts: 464

I didn't realize the III was that limited. Seems like it's a less capable version of the MMC64, but with a much nicer package.

I agree, the 1541u is the only way to go. I still have confidence that they will get the disk reading issues sorted out but even if they don't, it's still a great replacement for a real drive with it's multi load capabilities.

Flack · Site Admin Joined: 09 Dec 2004 Posts: 1528

Agreed -- even as it stands I give it an 8.5/10. With more reliable writing and the ability to use my own cartridge dumps (Fastload, Isepic, etc) I'll give it a 10.
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le geek · Joined: 08 Nov 2005 Posts: 32 Location: Decatur, GA

Man I am really tempted to try and get one of these... I already backed up my personal stuff back when Star Commander still worked with my machine, but I'm hearing the siren call of playing on real hardware...
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