THE SUPER CPU
As you know, one of the last (if not THE last) hardware upgrades for the C- 64/128 system was the SuperCPU, developed and sold by Creative Micro designs (CMD) in E. Longmeadow, MA. Several of us own and appreciate this bit of tour de force!
While it is still not super easy for 8-bitters to cruise the internet, there is a website for SCPU affionados. Try the SuperCPU Home at:
and educators with several user-friendly and affordable peripherals (such as
joysticks, a "datasette" cassette storage device, modems, printers, and shortly
thereafter the VIC-1540 floppy drive, etc.) being released.
During the early 1980's, IBM was promoting the PC Jr. computer which was
radically inferior (in most ways) to the rest of the home computer systems on
the market and vastly more expensive. Commodore was, therefore, really
receiving more competition from the Atari 400 and 800, the Texas Instruments
99, the Radio Shack Color Computer, and the Apple 2 computer. Despite the
rivalry between these 8-bit manufacturers, much of the credit for innovation
goes to Commodore largely because Commodore consistently pushed the price down
and because the Atari and Apple computers used the Commodore 6502 processor as
their main microprocessing chip.
In the very early 1980's unique marketing schemes were developed by different
firms trying to cash-in on the developing computer craze. The fascination that
many people had begun to experience with the fledgling computer video game,
educational, business, and word processing capabilities of these computers
quickly led to various multi-level marketing groups trying to involve people in
selling these machines. There were few computer stores at the time and most of
them were small. Computers were somewhat of an uncertain novelty item which
many of the larger electronics and department stores were a little slow to
embrace because of the uncertainty and lack of experience in dealing with such
products. Consumers were often equally tentative and uncertain, although there
was a great deal of enthusiasm on the part of those who were keenly interested
in such products. Many factors such as these created opportunities and schemes
for the smaller and more adventurous and creative individuals who wanted to get
involved -- sometimes in unconventional ways. Often times, young and penniless
entrepreneurs developed some hot-selling Commodore software or hardware on a
very low budget, resulting in overnight fame and fortune.
Just as the Commodore Vic-20 was beginning to become fairly popular and many
stores and some multi-level marketing programs had acquired significant
inventories of Vic products, rumors began to emerge that Commodore was working
on a vastly more powerful version of the Vic-20 to be called the Vic-64 and
eventually called the Commodore 64 (many came to casually refer to it as the
"C-64" or just the "64"). As the rumors of the impending release of the
Commodore 64 continued, they sparked excitement and uncertainty in the
Commodore market. Those who had invested quite a bit of money into the Vic-20
line found themselves with ambivalent and mixed emotions. This was probably
the first experience which many individuals had ever encountered with the
phenomenon we now refer to "upgrading". Undoubtedly, some became resentful.
Some of those who had developed their marketing strategy and acquired large
inventories of Vic-20 products found themselves scrambling around to modify
their plans or to obtain price-protection as the value of Vic-20 products began
to plummet rapidly.
Commodore had originally planned to release the Commodore 64 for nearly $1000
(without any floppy drive or monitor), but by the time it actually hit the
market, they had already decided to reduce the suggested retail price to just
under $500. This was still a lot of money back then; keep in mind that $500
back then was about the equivalent of $1000 today. Still, it was the best deal
on the home computer market -- especially since it had a built-in RF modulator
for connecting directly to a regular television set. Amazingly, the price of
the Commodore 64 plummeted to under $300 within a matter of months, and a few
months later was down to $200. Suddenly, customer interest in these amazing
new computers began to heat up.
About this time many sizeable chain stores (some of which had already been
[Part III - next time]
########################################
THE TIME IS A-COMING! - next month begins our annual renewal "campaign" - that
determines the fate of the club for another calendar year. At the end of the
1999 recruiting year, our membership stood at 42. With the passage of a year,
we were able to get back only to 38 - or about a 10% loss.
We did manage to get some truly new members during Y2000 so far, but our losses
outweighed those gains.
We welcome the new members and hope that they have found the club useful enough
to be motivated to rejoin. And, obviously, we hope ALL our old members will
also rejoin.
If we are able to get to at least the 35 level in renewals (and hopefully, add
a few new members, too), we should be able to get comfortably thru Y2001. At
that level, the member dues will cover the cost of publishing the monthly
newsletter, which is our single largest ongoing expense.
Thru the sales efforts of Charles Curran, we were able to add a little to our
bank account; so that we reached our financial goal of having a $1,000 rainy
day cushion. That goal was set to allow us to replace the club PC in the event
of a full hemmorraghe, or to recover from a similar fate with the BBS - these
being our main vulnerable financial investments.
So, start thinking about renewing - and remind other folks that if they join
before the end of the year, the dues will cover not only the rest of this year
but all of next year, too. Anyone joining in October gets 15 months membership
for the price of 12!
APPEAL - many of you will remember the sky show program called "Sky Travel" for
the C-64. You also may recall that there were a number of hidden items that
would show on your screen when you hit certain combinations of date, time and
place. However, your editor has lost the reference to an article - most likely
in Commodore magazine that described them. If any member (or other reader) can
dig up the reference, it would be most appreciated. My recollection is that
the info was on a single page of text on a rectangular background (which may
have been in color, but I'm not sure).
LOADSTAR - see p.5 for some news on the Loadstar front - for PC users who still
have an interest in their Commodore technology - via the emulation route.
PERSONAL WEB PAGES - do you have a personal webpage? Would you want to have
its URL published in the NL? If so, let Emil know that URL. And, if we get
some significant response, we can dedicate a spot for such notices here.
And, don't forget, the MLCUG webpage is another place for a member link to be
published. Just leave a message on the page for our web maestro, Peter
Whinnery.
DOWNLOADING - from the MLCUG BBS. Our BBS is a handy, local source of (we
hope) useful files that is available to the members for up or downloading. The
BBS software has a particularly good implemenatation of a range of transfer
protocols that are used for this operation. However, many of you report that
you have problems getting or giving files.
So, at the last meeting, a procedure for doing so was distributed. It was
generated by going thru an actual downloading process and capturing everything
that happened on the screen. Then, in the resulting file, each step was
annotated with comments to explain what was happening and suggesting good
options, selections or procedures to get best results.
All copies were snapped up - but more will be available at the next meeting; so
come grab one, if you are interested.
LUNCH - some of us regularly adjourn after the meeting for lunch at the
Villanova diner. Attendees are invited to join the fest - for more
conversation, with food!
****************************************
Article II: You do NOT have the right to never be offended. This country is
based on freedom, and that means freedom for everyone - not just you. You may
leave the room, change the channel, express a different opinion, and so on; but
the world is full of idiots and probably always will be.
****************************************
A Dialog for All Drives
Here's an easy way to view the properties for multiple hard drives all at once.
Open My Computer and select all your hard drives by holding down the Ctrl key
and clicking on each drive. Next, right-click on any one of the drives and
choose Properties from the Context menu that appears; Windows will create a
single dialog with tabs for each drive. It also works for floppy, removable and
mapped network drives.
***************************************
At several recent meetings, we have mentioned the (PC) Power Tools column, by
Karen Kenworthy, published by Winmag.com. These weekly columns - which are
available by free email subscription - or from the webpage:
www.winmag.com/columns/powertools/ - provide useful utilities for the average
computer user. But, they also provide some nice training for budding
programmers!
As previously mentioned, these utilities are programmed in Microsoft's Visual
Basics v6.0. Both the final runnable application AND the VB& source code are
available on the website.
Interestingly enough, the current version of the eLoadstar product is
implemented in VB6 also!
As Dave Moorman, the eLoadstar guy noted, he taught himself the use of VB from
a Sams publication. So, members who would like to try some actual programming
- maybe learning how Dave did it - can get one of the many VB books and go at
it. The large number of Power Tools gives you a potfull of fully accessible
source code to work on, learn about and improve. Go for it!
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
FOR SALE: the club has an increasingly large inventory of Commodore stuff -
software, computers, disk drives, monitors, printers, etc. We have recently
been getting a number of sales via the info posted on the MLCUG web page. But,
those sales have just scratched the surface of ouinventory!
So, if you are in need of replacements or augmentation, please contact Charles
Curran (610-446-5239 or ccurran@icdc.com) - he has most of the stuff and the
prices are VERY reasonable!!!
****************************************
Again we started the July meeting with our hour+ of round-the-table
announcements, followed by Q&A (i.e. problems being solved???)! However, for
the FIRST TIME in memory, there was so much discussion that yours truly did not
have the time to cover the raft of tidbits that he had brought along!
Amazing...
For the "demo" part of the meeting, we opened up the club's PC and took a
gander at the insides - crowded with cables! Our intention was to install,
and get running, a second hard drive to provide more space to increase the demo
capabilities of the computer. We wanted to get space for more than one copy of
Windows; so we have a "regular" and a "demos" version, plus space for some
distributuion of Linux (we have way too little space for it on the machine now)
and a physically separate data drive, for increased data safety.
Unfortunately, the Murphy (of Murphy's Laws) came for a visit! Much to our
chagrin, while the new drive would slide (with some difficulty) into the open
drive bay, you could not put in the holding screws as the slots in the side of
the drive bay and the pre-tapped holes in the hard drive did not match - but
only by a smidgen!! So, after trying to get things to fit, we threw in the
towel and took the PC home for prepping.
The prepping is now done. It took only a couple of minutes with a small file
to remove about a half millimeter of metal to make the screws fit comfortably.
Darn - it was so easy!!.
But, the drive is in place and the needed cable connectors (power and IDE) fit
nicely; so we should not have any problems next time (Hear that Murphy???).
BTW, we did take the opportunity to slip in a couple of 16 MB, 60 ns, EDO SIMMs
to bring the system RAM up to 64 MB. Not an essential for the way we use the
system, but it will be helpful in speeding some tasks up.
See you at the September meeting...
There is some interesting news on this front. In the last couple of weeks,
yours truly has been in touch with Dave Moorman of Loadstar. Dave is the
author of the rather new "e" version of Loadstar 64 - called surprisingly:
eLOADSTAR! Here's the story:
The Loadstar folk's "eLoadstar" project is putting out all kinds of material
garnered from the nearly 200 issues of Loadstar 64. And some new material,
too, as I understand it.
When the project started, it was based on the FRODO C-64 emulator. And that
version is downloadable from the PC clone library on our BBS in a file called:
SAMPLER.EXE
When run, it installs the FRODO emulator and a sample issue.
Recently, the author, Dave Moorman, has switched to the VICE 1.3 emulator.
This new version has been made available from the PC clone library, also, in a
file called: eSampler.exe
When run, this version installs the VICE emulator and the same sample issue of
Loadstar as with the FRODO emulator.
However, just very recently, Dave updated the sample issue to reflect the
change in emulators. That sample issue has now been placed in the library in a
file called: Sampler.d81
For those who would like to give the "new" eLoadstar a whirl, download the
esampler.exe and sampler.d81 files. Then, run the esampler.exe to install the
system (which will go into a directory on your C: drive called "eLoadstarv".
In that directory is a subdirectory called "eld81". And in it, there will be
one file - "sampler.d81". So, rename that file to something else and replace
it with the "sampler.d81" that you downloaded.
Now, when you run the emulator - from an icon that was placed on your desktop -
you'll get the NEW version.
Have a go and see what the Loadstar folks are producing. As of this writing,
they have produced (or, I should say, Dave has produced at least six issues of
the new eLoadstar).
I plan to demo the sampler - briefly - at the next meeting. Come take a look.
You may want to buy!!
REMEMBER, attendees are asked to nominate their favorite Commodore app(s) for a
look-see emulation at those meetings. Yawl let us know - right???
****************************************
Here's help in deciphering those cryptic messages:
WinErr: 005 Multitasking attempted - System confused.
WinErr: 006 Malicious error - Desqview found on drive. (Boy, you gotta know
some history to figure this one out!)
August's meeting agenda saw a slight change from the PPC Linux
installation we had planned for Bill Bacon's A3000. Bill and I had
problems getting Linux to install before the meeting. Instead, our
August meeting focused on some of the "successes" I've had with Linux
m68k on my A2000. Some of the details can be found below.
For September, Bill Bacon suggested I should do a presentation on
third party OS enhancing software that is frequently required to be
installed to run many commercial, shareware, and freeware programs.
These programs include MUI, ClassAct, the ixemul libraries, the
various Rexx libraries, various archivers, datatypes, and other
software that hasn't crossed my mind yet. If there is interest,
we'll even review the best desktop enhancement / replacement I've yet
used on any computer, DOPUS 5.x, and some of the DOPUS desktop
(workbench) configurations that make the AMIGA the FRIENDLIEST
desktop of any computing platform.
SUMMER AMIGA SIG MEETINGS
As you probably know by now, the Amiga SIG will no longer meet
regularly at Villanova University. Instead we will continue to meet
at 2210 Lantern Lane in Lafayette Hill. We will also be trying to
start our meetings a half hour earlier at 9:00AM instead of 9:30AM.
So, please note the change of starting time.
During our May meeting we discussed our summer schedule. Since the
SIG is so small it is important that members keep each other informed
of their vacation schedules. As it is right now, non of the
attendees at the last meeting have a vacation conflict with the
summer schedule. I ask that members keep the SIG leader informed if
there is a change which would cause a personal conflict. Thank you.
TED DEAN EMAIL
Members wishing to stay in contact with Ted by email can reach him at:
We began our meeting with a slight change from the norm. To get an
insight into what our Amiga SIG users are about when it comes to
computers, I asked each of them to name their 2 most frequent uses of
computers. It didn't matter whether it was for work or for play or
what platforms they used. The object was to get a perspective of
what might be subjects of potential future value to them.
The results included database use of both a corporate and personal
nature, emulators, programming, spreadsheet use, tools to support
alternate hobbies, and web surfing.
NEWSLETTER TOOLS
I was asked a couple of questions about how I prepare my Amiga SIG
newsletter articles. The answer is that I use some relatively simple
Amiga software and take about 2 nights and 4-6 hours total to create
both the text based and HTML versions. I use the second night as a
way to renew my perspective on what I've written the night before and
thus give myself a chance to filter out awkward grammar and correct
other details.
Here's the software I use:
TRANSWRITE -- by Gold Disk, no longer commercially available. Their
software package was bundled with the Amiga back in 1991 and included
this simple text-based word processor that is much like "The Write
Stuff" for the Commodore C64. Some of the uniquely simple to use
features of this word processor include change to upper or lower
case, join or separate lines used in conjunction with setting the
window width to a specific number of columns, and a simple, but
powerful search and replace function.
TW2HTML -- from Aminet. This command line driven software does the
initial, simplistic conversion of my Transwrite documents to HTML. I
then use Transwrite as an editor to finish and polish the HTML format
for use on the club's Web page.
AWEB -- distributed commercially by AmiTrix Development. This Amiga
browser comes closest to displaying HTML documents with the same look
as MSIE and Netscape. AWeb also has the capability to define a
default editor and it contains an edit function in its menu. While
checking my HTML document for proper display, I can select the menu
edit function and immediately send the document to Transwrite for
further editing. Saving the revised document from Transwrite updates
the HTML document on disk and reloads it into AWeb for further review.
PATCHING IN OS3.5
See "SOMEWHERE BETWEEN OS3.1 & 3.5" near the end of this article
for how to take advantage of some of the OS3.5 enhancements without
doing a full OS3.5 install.
LINUX
The last time we dealt with Linux was a few months ago when we did an
ad-hoc installation from "The Amiga Unix Compendium V1.2". At that
time we had just enough meeting time available to complete an
installation without time to boot Linux.
Our August meeting was spent reviewing some of the basics related to
understanding and configuring the Linux system. This required that
we review some of the basic shell commands. Here are some of the key
points from this review:
We had only a few minutes to talk about NetBSD. NetBSD 1.4.1 is on
the "The Amiga Unix Compendium V1.2" CDROM. Here are some of the
points discussed about NetBSD during the meeting:
Last month I listed files from OS3.5 that the OS3.5 wary Amigan can
install in OS3.1. I again provide that list of software plus a few
more files, and they are SETPATCH, AMIGAOS ROM UPDATE,
AMIGAGUIDE.DATATYPE, AMIGAGUIDE.LIBRARY, INSTALLER, and
TEXT.DATATYPE. The AMIGAOS ROM UPDATE file should be installed in
your DEVS: directory, and it requires that the new version of
SETPATCH be installed for it to be of any use.
NOTE: A fair number of the following files come from the free 3.6MB
Boing Bag 1 (BB1) download at:
http://www.amiga.com/3.5/download/boingbag1.lzx
FUTURE MEETINGS
If you have either software or hardware for your Amiga that has taken
your fancy, please bring it to our attention. I'm sure your specific
interests will be of interest to others. Let me know if this is the
case at the next meeting, or leave me email on our BBS. Remember, a
user group is only as rewarding as the sum of the efforts of its
individual members.
Meetings are in the St. Augustine Center at Villanova University. The 8-bit
and PC sessions will be in Room 110 (Amigans at John Deker's house).
[Map goes here]
Enter from the ITHAN AVENUE main gate, then proceed to the 2-level parking
building adjacent to St. Augustine, on the Ithan Avenue side.
NOTE: maps on our webpage - http://astro4.ast.vill.edu/mlcug/
-----------------------------------------------------------
64/128/PC/Amiga Meetings 2000 Steering Committee Meetings
September 9 September 20
October 14 October 18
November 11 November 15
* = first Saturday ** = second Wednesday
***************************************************************************************
EDITOR: Emil J. Volcheck, Jr. 1046 General Allen Lane West Chester, PA
19382-8030
(Produced with C-128D/SCPU 128, RAMlink, HD-40/85, 1571, FD-4000, THE WRITE
STUFF 128, XETEC Super Grafix, Canon BJ-200ex, Swiftlink and Motorola 288
modem)
MLCUG BBS: 610-828-1359 ( 300 --> 33600 bps ), 24 hr/day
WWW: http://astro4.ast.vill.edu/mlcug/
PUBLICITY: Robyn Josephs 610-565-4058
DISK ORDERS: Charlie Curran 610-446-5239
VILLANOVA SPONSOR: Prof. Frank Maloney, Dept. of Astronomy
MLCUG STEERING COMMITTEE:
PRESIDENT: Emil Volcheck 610-388-1581 SECRETARY: Charles Curran 610-
446-5239
TREAS/MEMBERS: Dewitt Stewart 610-623-5145 SYSOP/AMIGA SIG: John Deker 610-
828-7897
INTERNET/Linux:Peter Whinnery 610-284-5234 DATABASE: Layton Fireng 610-
688-2080
AT LARGE: Tom Johnson 610-525-3440 AT LARGE: John Murphy 610-
935-4398
A COMMODORE HISTORY - II
ANNOUNCEMENTS & COMMENTS
########################################
THE BILL OF "NO RIGHTS"
WIN TIP OF THE MONTH - for Win9x
POWER TOOLS
#@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
@ How about an aid for your faithful @
@ editor? In the form of an article @
@ for YOUR newsletter? It can be a @
@ short or long one - in one or many @
@ parts. It can be a tip, review or @
@ harangue (polite, of course) on the @
@ software, hardware or technology of @
@ your interest and choice. @
@ @
@ You can get it to me by snail mail, @
@ on a floppy or zip - by email to @
@ emilv@ccil.org - by email on the @
@ MLCUG BBS (in the message body or @
@ as an attached file - it can take a @
@ file of ANY kind). @
@ @
@ With that much latitude, I'm sure @
@ that every MLCUG member surely has @
@ an item of value to pass on to the @
@ rest of us. How about it????? @
@ @
@ NO item this time! @
@ @
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
$ TRADING POST $
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
LAST MONTH'S PC/128/64 MEETING
****************************************
EMULATION
Trouble with Windows Errors?
MAIN LINE AMIGA USER HAPPENINGS
by John Deker
======================================
_ __ _ <>_ __ _
/\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\
/__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\
/ \\_| \/ ||_||_ \__//_/ \\_
======================================
MEETING REVIEW...
COMPUTER USERS USING COMPUTERS
NETBSD
SOMEWHERE BETWEEN OS3.1 & 3.5
FILES WORTH A GRAB VER SOURCE
------------------ ----- --------
*amigaguide.datatype 44.13 BB1
*amigaguide.library 44.4 OS3.5 CD
*AmigaOS ROM Update 44.6 BB1
CPU 44.3 BB1
DiskCopy 44.5 BB1
FastFileSystem 45.1 OS3.5 CD
Info 39.18 Aminet
*Installer 44.10 OS3.5 CD
List 43.2 BB1
Mount 44.6 OS3.5 CD
*SetPatch 44.6 BB1
ShowConfig 44.7 BB1
*text.datatype 44.10 BB1
* = Added to list since last month
These files offer improved hardware support for newer CPU's, bigger
hard drives and partitions, better identification of expansion boards
and devices, and fix a bug or two. The new SETPATCH will add support
for GlowIcons and NewIcons as well as integrate the NSD (New Style
Devices) command patch that previously required the NSDPatch found on
Aminet. You no longer need the NSDPatch command if you use the new
SetPatch. However, you will still need the NSDPatch.cfg file to be
in your DEVS: directory.
DIRECTIONS FOR ST. AUGUSTINE CENTER MEETING ROOM