Lurker introduction and request

Centallica · Post by **Centallica** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 8:01 pm

Hi Group,

Been reading the boards now for a few weeks and just wanted to introduce myself to the group.

My name is Brian Thomson from outside of Toronto, Ontario Canada. I got started with the Pet's back in Public School and bought my 1st Vic when they 1st came out. Had quite the collection of games on tape from Compute and a few other mags plus cartridges etc. Until the dreadful threw it all away in the early 90's...sacriledge I know....had built up some serious index finger muscles typing in all those games :>)

Now I recently got back into the Vic-20 (bought another off EPay along with about 50 or so carts and a dozen books from various auctions). I know you can download the games from the net onto a PC using a altered cable and the 1541 drive but is there an easier way to get the games than trying to figure out this cable, program to do so etc?

Would anyone be willing to tape or disk their games for me for a fee plus expenses or suggest an alternative way? Thanks much appreciated Brian

Post by **Jeff-20** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 10:17 pm

thank goodness for my XE1541 cable... Thanks Brian Ketterling!!

I can't think of another way. Maybe audio tape transfers. I know someone else here knows how to do this.

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Wed Feb 23, 2005 5:01 am

It seems the WAV-PRG and Audiotap software will somehow include switches both for recording and reading VIC tapes (internally it already is supported), so when that happens, it may be a working solution, apart from the hassle to record WAVs onto tape from your sound card, getting the right recording volume and cross your fingers that your VIC will load it back.

There are a couple more interfaces, some still sold while others currently discontinued. Look for C2N232 (out of print) etc. Still, if you have the drive, the right kind of PC

and some luck, the X-cables seem the easiest and quite reliable solution once your setup is working.

Mayhem · Post by **Mayhem** » Wed Feb 23, 2005 7:22 am

MTAP and PTAP are all you need for tapes to get them to and from a PC. What I use for my C64 and Vic20 magnetic spool media.

Given there's plenty of TAPs out there, you should be able to acquire the necessary equipment cheaply to do it (in my case it's a X1531 cable running to a C16 tape deck).

Schema · Post by **Schema** » Wed Feb 23, 2005 7:24 am

Hi Brian,

I live in the north end of Toronto, and there are a handful of other VIC/Commodore users from Toronto on here too.

I have a XE1541 cable and 1571 drive attached to my PC, it's really easy to use (Quick plug for my gui4cbm4win software

)

You're welcome to give me a list of games you want, and drop by some evening for an hour or two while I transfer them.

Also, you might be interested to know that TPUG (Toronto PET Users Group) is still going, and we still have monthly meetings. We've been talking about having a VIC20 night one of these months, maybe we should. Either way, you're welcome to come to a meeting sometime. People come from as far away as Waterloo so Barrie's not really that far.

http://tpug.icomm.ca/

Centallica · Post by **Centallica** » Wed Feb 23, 2005 7:42 pm

Thanks everyone for their suggestions! I did some google and Ebay searching and it seems there's a few sources to buy the cable done already (didn't want to start making cables at this stage of the game).

Leif your website says that the gui4cbm4win program doesn't work with the XE1541, did I read this right? Should I use the Star Commander program instead? Once I get a good base of games using the XE1541, we can get together to see what I'm missing and talk shop about Commodores!

I have some CD-roms of Vic Programs already that I was going to use with the VICE emulator with, are these "roms" the same programs that one would transfer to tape (I assume so but want to verify)?

I've been thinking of attending the TPUG meetings (a lot people say this apparently) and would definitely attend a Vic-20 night! I work in Vaughan so a bit of a wait down there before the meeting (4:30-7:30) but would like to meet the others!

I'll drop you an email when I get set up with the XE1541 rig Leif...
Thanks
Brian

Mikam73 · Post by **Mikam73** » Thu Feb 24, 2005 7:08 am

Schema wrote:Hi Brian,

I have a XE1541 cable and 1571 drive attached to my PC, it's really easy to use (Quick plug for my gui4cbm4win software )

/

That software sounds very intresting. I have used Star Commander with XA cable. It would be great copy files on Windows.

I always worry that W2K crash or something when install drivers like that, but I did read their homepage and it said that software wont load driver automatic when you boot up.

How do you start that on windows? Does it load up just clicking that programs windows interface icon or?

Schema · Post by **Schema** » Thu Feb 24, 2005 8:55 am

Centallica wrote: Leif your website says that the gui4cbm4win program doesn't work with the XE1541, did I read this right? Should I use the Star Commander program instead?

Yes, that's right. However, it's super easy to convert an XE to an XM (just swap 2 wires), or just make a small adaptor (this is what I did).

There's also talk of all new XE1541 cables being made with a switch built-in, so you can use it as either an XE or XM cable.

I have some CD-roms of Vic Programs already that I was going to use with the VICE emulator with, are these "roms" the same programs that one would transfer to tape (I assume so but want to verify)?

What's the file extension? .d64, .t64, .prg, .p00 are all fair game (along with several others).

I've been thinking of attending the TPUG meetings (a lot people say this apparently) and would definitely attend a Vic-20 night! I work in Vaughan so a bit of a wait down there before the meeting (4:30-7:30) but would like to meet the others!

I work in Brampton, so I'm in the same situation. I just work a couple of hours of overtime on the days when there are TPUG meetings. Or, it's possible to arrange in advance to get the meeting room unlocked earlier.

Schema · Post by **Schema** » Thu Feb 24, 2005 8:58 am

Mikam73 wrote: That software sounds very intresting. I have used Star Commander with XA cable. It would be great copy files on Windows.

I always worry that W2K crash or something when install drivers like that, but I did read their homepage and it said that software wont load driver automatic when you boot up.

How do you start that on windows? Does it load up just clicking that programs windows interface icon or?

Yes, it's so nice not to have to reboot to DOS to use Star Commander. I've never had any trouble with the cbm4win driver, it seems very stable. And yes, you just double-click the icon to start the GUI program, which starts the drivers.

Don't forget, my GUI is simply a front-end to the command-line tools which are part of cbm4win. It doesn't do any of the work itself.

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Thu Feb 24, 2005 3:40 pm

Centallica wrote:I have some CD-roms of Vic Programs already that I was going to use with the VICE emulator with, are these "roms" the same programs that one would transfer to tape (I assume so but want to verify)?

Besides what Leif / Schema wrote above, some of those "roms" may actually be ROMs thus requiring memory expansion in certain configurations as discussed over and over on the board before. But file-wise, yes even the ROM images can be stored on tape or disk just like any other file (they just load into a different part of memory).

Centallica · Post by **Centallica** » Thu Feb 24, 2005 6:21 pm

I'll order a XM1541 cable from the "X1541 Shop" or $7US more for the XA.

The MAME programs look mostly prg files so should work btw.

This seems a lot easier than I thought (so far)!

Leif you got PM Denial mail,
Brian

Denial

Lurker introduction and request

Lurker introduction and request

XE1541 seems the way to go!

Re: XE1541 seems the way to go!

Re: XE1541 seems the way to go!