vic20 1541 drives ???
jonathan lutkus
I am looking to add a drive to my vic20 system but do not know what
drive to get .
Anyone with info on my problem please email me . also if anyone know
where i can get memory expansion mods i would greatly appreciate it
thanks
john
Dave Ross
In article <35299012...@ptd.net>, jonathan lutkus <lut...@ptd.net> wrote:
>I am looking to add a drive to my vic20 system but do not know what
>drive to get .
>Anyone with info on my problem please email me . also if anyone know
>where i can get memory expansion mods i would greatly appreciate it
Any Commodore disk drive should work with the VIC-20 just fine. You wont be
able to utilize the burst modes of the 1571 and 1581 (the 1571 will probably
want to stay in 1541 mode). There was a drive made specifically for the
VIC-20. I have one right here on my desk, actually. It's the VIC-1540. It's
pretty much identical to the VIC-1541, but it talks at a higher speed over the
serial bus since the VIC I takes less CPU time than the VIC-II used in the
C64. This makes it incompatible with the 64 (haven't tried it on the 128
yet) unless you blank the screen.
On a side note, the 1541 can be put into a "1540 mode" with a command (which
eludes me at the moment).
Hope that helped.
Bo Zimmerman
Dave Ross wrote in message <6gc9if$h...@corn.cso.niu.edu>...
That would be open1,8,15,"u0-":close1
Man, the 1540 is a hard to find drive though. I've been looking for one
of those for the longest time. Finally I had to win an eBay bid for a C64c
and some sort of star printer just to get one. It'll be nice not having to
enter that dadgum command every time I turn on my VIC though.
Great computer, BTW. You other Commie folks should get ahold of one if
you havn't already. It is in many ways more "charming" than the 64 or 128.
--
Bo Zimmerman
mailto:b...@prismnet.com
http://www.prismnet.com/~bo
"geoJunky at large"
[C128DCR-20mhz-330HD-14.4-13mgRL-1581-FD2000]
[C64/C64C/C65/VIC20/PLUS4/C16/SX64/C128/B128]
[C=SP9000/C=Colt/C=PC10/CDTV/A500/A3000/64DX]
Milan Polle
I am using a standard 1541 with my VIC, works perfectly, I can enter the
above command to speed up the drive, but it is not needed for operation.
Actually only the VIC can use the faster drive mode, which is faster
than using it with the C64. This is because the VIA(?) chips used in the
C64 where supposed to be faster than the VIC's, but there turned out to
be a bug in them, so the only way to use the drive was to sequentially
read bits, whereas the VIC can read whole bytes at a time.
> Great computer, BTW. You other Commie folks should get ahold of one if
> you havn't already. It is in many ways more "charming" than the 64 or 128.
It has great adrenalin pumpin' shoot-em-ups as well, they are faster
than on the C64, because the VIC's screen is about twice as small (less
data to put to the screen).
Milan
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Imagine textures/images/utils, CandyFactory instant 3D graphics program,
Atari Lynx Programming (with Amiga), vic-20 emulator etc.
All at: http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Way/1038/
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nicolas Welte
Milan Polle wrote:
> Actually only the VIC can use the faster drive mode, which is faster
> than using it with the C64. This is because the VIA(?) chips used in the
> C64 where supposed to be faster than the VIC's, but there turned out to
> be a bug in them, so the only way to use the drive was to sequentially
> read bits, whereas the VIC can read whole bytes at a time.
The story as I heard it went this way:
CBM developed both the 1540 and VIC 20 with the VIA 6522 for their bus
interface. The 6522 has a serial shift register which can be used to
send serial data quite fast. The Processor accesses whole bytes in the
VIA, the serial transfer is done in hardware. But the VIAs had a bug
which made the shift register useless for the interface between VIC and
1540. So CBM had to do the whole stuff in software which was as slow as
we all know it.
The C64 couldn't even keep this speed because of the VIC-II always
stopping the processor, so the bus protocol had to be slowed down even
more.
In the C128 and 1571, the CIA 6526 was used on both sides of the bus.
Since this chip has a debugged shift register, the old idea could be
used at last, giving us the well known burst mode.
Nicolas
Otter
>Dave Ross wrote in message <6gc9if$h...@corn.cso.niu.edu>...
>>In article <35299012...@ptd.net>, jonathan lutkus <lut...@ptd.net>
>wrote:
>>>I am looking to add a drive to my vic20 system but do not know what
>>>drive to get .
>>>Anyone with info on my problem please email me . also if anyone know
>>>where i can get memory expansion mods i would greatly appreciate it
>>
>>Any Commodore disk drive should work with the VIC-20 just fine. You wont
>be
>>able to utilize the burst modes of the 1571 and 1581 (the 1571 will
>probably
>>want to stay in 1541 mode). There was a drive made specifically for the
If you can't find a 1581, I highly recommend the 1571. True, as was
stated, you can't use the burst mode. However, they will work in
double-sided mode on the VIC (on the PLUS/4 as well). If you have
trouble finding a 1571 in your area, I can pick up one at a local
thrift store for you for cost (about $10) plus shipping. I also have
plenty of spare data cables and can include one for you. The power
cable is just a standard 3-prong AC cable.
If you are interested, just let me know and I will get it for you.
(Not sure how much the shipping will be on one of these...though I am
guessing it will be less than $10.)
-- Otter
Otter
On Wed, 08 Apr 1998 10:36:19 +0200,
Milan Polle <mil...@geocities.com> wrote:
>Bo Zimmerman wrote:
>>
>
>> Great computer, BTW. You other Commie folks should get ahold of one if
>> you havn't already. It is in many ways more "charming" than the 64 or 128.
>
>It has great adrenalin pumpin' shoot-em-ups as well, they are faster
>than on the C64, because the VIC's screen is about twice as small (less
>data to put to the screen).
>
I heartily agree. The VIC-20 has some of the best classic arcade
ports ever conceived. She is also fairly easy to program (even in
assembly language), and cartridges for her are still cheap, since the
scalpers haven't discovered them yet while they concentrate on the
2600, 5200, 7800, Colecovision, and Intellivision.
I really have my Vicki spoiled. I have her running off of a 1581,
1571, and an Excellerator Plus. I plan on eventually creating stuff
that will let her use the 1351 mouse as well as a light gun...
If you haven't yet experienced this system, I highly recommend you
watch your thrifts, fleas, and garage sales for one and give 'er a try.
-- Otter