I was a nerd years ago, I think.
I used to be a Comodore 64 nut. Its the first computer I learnt how to use, and I still regard them very highly. 8-bit badness. They first came out in 1982 with 64KB of RAM, sound and graphics superior to IBMPC's at the time, and a MOS 6510 processor. The 6510 processor was a derivative of the 6502 but with an added 6-bit internal I/O which was used to bank-switch the machine's ROM in and out of the processor's address space, and to operate the Datasette tape recorder. Apparently they are the best-selling single computer of all time. We had the C64C which was released in 1986 and looked more like a C128.
Good ol' the PEEK's and POKE's. I was coding in BASIC when about 6. The best fun I had was programming the SID chip to make some killer sounds. John Martins at Marion used to have a decent computer section, and some generous random individuals would bring a disks to load a scene demo/intro for all to enjoy. I would buy a 5.25" disk to save the found gem and bring it home. The best demo I ever found was 'The Final Fuck Demo' which had some rather crude animations of sexual acts to a killer soundtrack. I think is the earliest pr0n I ever saw. My mum witnessed this one day and all hell broke loose in the house, hence the disk got confiscated and hidden.
Now, back to the SID chip - to me the most important part of the C64. It was designed by Bob Yannes, had 3 channels, each with an ADSR envelope generator, several different waveforms, ring modulation and filter capabilities. Very advanced for its time. Due to the 3 channel limitation, generally chords were played as arpeggios - which gave the C64 its signature sound. Other sound chips of the day were designed by people who knew nothing about music.
There were 2 versions of the SID chip. The first was the MOS 6581 which was found in the original breadbox C64's (and some early C64C's and C128's). It was replaced by the MOS 8580 in 1987 and used in C64C's of that time. Some people prefer the sound of the 6581, deeming it more 'crisp'. The main difference was that the 6581 used 12v power, whereas the 8580 used 9v. You can actually modify a 9v C64C board to use a 12v 6581 SID chip by use of a voltage modification.
The Datasette sucked, so not long after getting the C64C we got a 1541 disk drive. The bad thing here was that because we had one of the earlier 1541 disk drives, not all games worked. The 1581 had a mode where it would store more sectors on a single side of a 5.25" disk, rather than using both sides. It also didn't help that our 1541 was purchased in Singapore. Fast Hack'em was the best nibbler for the C64 because you could pirate copy-protected software.
In about 1991 we ended up getting a 386SX PC. I had only used Commodores, Amigas, Apples (][, ][GS, Mac), Amstrads, Ataris, Tandys, etc so it was different world to me. Nearly a year later we ended up getting an internal ISA 2400baud modem. I started joining BBS' and downloading all teh fine warez.
I then stumbled across a BBS called Fishbowl, and the sysop was an avid C64er. He was the creator of 64NET - which basically plugged into the cartridge port of your C64 and the other end to your PC so that you could dump images (such as games) from your PC straight to the C64 so you wouldn't need to use disks. He also modified C64's into the spec of the prototype C65's aka C64DX. I had 2x C64C's - one with a busted SID chip (so it wasn't really worth using) - so I sent it to him so he could have a crack at it. The C65 was supposed to be the advanced successor to the C64, and would be able to run all the current software. The reason why other Commodores such as the Plus/4 never took off was because it did not have the thousands of commercial titles which the C64 did. Commodore canceled the C65 project in 1991, though it would have competed with the low-end Amigas at the time. It could display 256 colours whereas an OCS Amiga could display only 64.
So wheres my C65? Well, the guy changed numbers, etc. etc. and I think I lost a bit of interest. Then one day when checking out some C64 sites in 2005 I found the fucker. Emailed him, wheres my C64?! Obviously after 12 years he didn't know the exact whereabouts of MY computer. He just suggested I find another one off eBay.
*cries*
I WILL own another C64. Just haven't had enough time lately. I really want one again. One to play games on, and another to hack into a standalone MIDI-controlled synth for some 6581 SID action. I HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY.
I have a BBS system ready to roll. Unfortunately the virtual FOSSIL drivers are a bitch to set up, and I have a dynamic IP, so it's not online yet. I origionally set up the same OBV/2 system I ran back in 1996, but it just doesn't want to run under XP, so I've switched to a sweet Iniquity2 setup. About 90% of the menus are custom, including about 4 matrix screens.
You can do it with a dynamic IP, just setup a DDNS account and enter the settings into your router so that it updates itself. Setup port forwarding, bang.
Yeah I'm a fan of Iniquity2 - mine is still setup also. My original board was running RemoteAccess for a while because it was compatible with heaps of doors, etc. but it just didn't have the l33t factor. I also used to score BBS software on whether it would auto-capitalize the first letter after the hyphenation in my surname. From our chat from not long ago: within XP - virtual FOSSIL is the only way because of DOS software using direct hardware calls. Unless you create virtual COM ports - but then again you won't be able to fake the hardware IRQ and memory address. Personally I would setup a virtualisation environment for DOS within VMware, and the DOS apps will be at home. Plus this gives you an added layer of security in-case you get exploited by buffer overruns, etc - they only get access to the environment, not your whole PC. It also sucks because you need a front-end which handles the incoming telnet connections and routes them to the right nodes on the BBS. I reckon its easier and less painful to find a *nix BBS server with telnet built-in.
Oh yeah, and my PC is called Bacteria, My D: drive LiFEPOD, E: drive WATERMELON, F: drive ALiEN GiRL, G: drive SiCKNOTE, H: drive PACMAN.
...and I'm a bit of a uni nerd!
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