retroputing

[Flack]

Just an update. Using Maverick's 30 second fast copy with no fastload cartridge enabled, I have 100% success -- that is, assuming the disk has no read errors.

Using the Nibbler I still have hit or miss. Sometimes the program simply kicks out and never recovers. Sometimes it works. When it aborts, you have to reset everything and start all over.

The REU Nibbler so far has been 100%. I haven't used it a lot, but the few times I have, it's worked flawlessly. It's pretty slow, but does a good job. To be honest, the new things I've needed to Nibble I simply downloaded or copied off of GameBase D64 images.

I don't know that this project will ever really be done. I mean, if I ever get all the disks copied, some of them probably have errors, and if that's the case, the only way it'll ever be done is to test every fucking game I own.
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Flack
The Gas Chamber | robohara.com | Twitter | Facebook

[Ice Breaker]

Half of the fun is revisting the games you haven't played in years! That's what I ended up doing when moving files over to the memory card some time ago.
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-- Retroputing --
www.particles.org
www.retroputing.net
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particlesbbs.dyndns.org

[Flack]

Thought I would add this to the thread. One of the disks I recently copied was an old Kracker Jax utility called the "Hacker's Utility Kit". While trying things out I loaded it up and found it had a two drive disk nibbler. I decided to try it out since I haven't had much luck with the Maverick Nibbler.

So far, the Kracker Jax Nibbler has worked 100%. It's slightly slower as it doesn't seem to read and write at the same time and it took a total of four passes. Nibbling one disk took exactly two minutes. The fast copy in Maverick only takes about 35 seconds, so nibbling (of course) takes a little longer.

Even better news, the Kracker Jax Nibbler seems to be copying several disks that the Maverick fast copy did not. For example, I copied Accolade's Test Drive with the 30 second copier and the D64 image did not work. I retried it with the Kracker Jax Nibbler, and that DID work.

From here on out I think I'm going to split my disks into two piles; full disk games, and non-full disk games. Anything that's a full disk game is going to get nibbled.
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Flack
The Gas Chamber | robohara.com | Twitter | Facebook

[Flack]

Hey 98P, I haven't looked yet but based on the flurry of traffic flowing into my inbox, it looks like a new 1541U firmware may be available. I'll check it out tonight if I get a chance before we head out on vacation.
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Flack
The Gas Chamber | robohara.com | Twitter | Facebook

[98PaceCar]

Thanks for the heads up! I went out there and got it, but it's a Pal only package. Easy enough to fix though, just had to replace the cart images with NTSC versions. Not sure if I got all of them correct or not, but after the update they all still seem to respond so I guess I'm good.

From reading, seems like a pretty nice update for the first one out of the gate. LMK if you need the roms I used.

[Flack]

Ya! If you want to just e-mail me the package you made that would be cool.
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Flack
The Gas Chamber | robohara.com | Twitter | Facebook

[Flack]

I know I responded via e-mail, but just to keep everything in one place ... I got the update and it worked great. The new version (1.1) seems to create blank floppy images much faster (1 second vs. 5 seconds on 1.0) and the new cartridge images work much better, too. Now if I could only figure out a way to get Epyx Fastload on there, I'd be in heaven. I know Epyx's cart has fewer features than most of the others, but it's the one I grew up with and know best.
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Flack
The Gas Chamber | robohara.com | Twitter | Facebook

[98PaceCar]

Not sure if anybody else is on the preorder list for batch 2, but he's announced that the next batch will have RR-Net cpabilities built in. It's an extra bit of cash, but seems to be worthwhile. There are also a few board changes to help with the compatibility of the 1541-II and possibly others.

[Rockin' Kat]

[Flack]

In case you didn't see it on Lemon, some jerk hacked the 1541 Ultimate website a couple of days ago and it looks like the site was restored from backup. The forums look to be missing a couple of days worth of posts.
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Flack
The Gas Chamber | robohara.com | Twitter | Facebook

[98PaceCar]

Saw the hack. Just glad that there's no sensitive info on his site!

BTW, beta firmware 1.3 is out now. He's doing both Pal and NTSC in the same package, so no more hacking up cart images to flash it. Doesn't look like anything real fancy in the upgrade, but worth it for stability.

[98PaceCar]

Well, I guess I spoke too soon. The 1.3 beta firmware added Ramboard support, which I think speeds things in Maverick up quite a bit. You can also have any of the speeders with an REU as well as at least 1 new cart. Looks like you can select if you want regular 1541, 1541-II, 1541c, or external rom image loaded for the 1541 emulation. Not sure why you'd use anything other than an external or regular 1541, but I guess it's there for a reason.

All in all, another worthwhile upgrade!

[obliterator918]

I put in a pre-order for the 1541 Ultimate right after I saw it at OVGE (so Rob and Darren can split the bill). I saw it in action and couldn't resist.

One thing bugs me -- the website doesn't have any documentation. Does it come with any kind of instruction manual? I was hoping to read it while I wait for the second batch to finish...
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-Brandon

[98PaceCar]

[obliterator918]