Posted By
George
on 2014-05-26
06:30:14
 |  Commodore LCD Emulator
Hi Guys,
for those who don't already know. For the famous Commodore LCD there is an emulator out now. The LCD was a very ahead of its time and portable prototype. The LCD supports Basic 3.6 (!). Would be interesting to know, where the differences are.
The matching the floppy drives: commodore 1561. They are also battery-powered.
Commodore LCD
commodore 1561
 
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Posted By
JamesC
on 2014-05-24
13:23:06
| Re: Commodore LCD Emulator
For basic details on the LCD, review the article in Commodore Microcomputers magazine, Mar/April 1985:
http://www.floodgap.com/retrobits/ckb/secret/cbm-clip-lcd1.jpg
http://www.floodgap.com/retrobits/ckb/secret/cbm-clip-lcd2.jpg
BASIC 3.6 includes most of the commands of BASIC 3.5:
1. RLUM() evaluates as a variable, equivalent to RL(0).
2. The COLOR statement gives a SYNTAX ERROR.
3. RCLR (return the current COLOR) gives an UNIMPLEMENTED COMMAND error.
4. EXIT (from a DO loop) is modified to exit BASIC if not currently running in a DO loop. Think of it as a "Quit BASIC" command, with no y/n confirmation.
The function keys along the bottom of the screen can be redefined with the KEY command. 3.6 adds the keyword POPUPS (token FE25), which allow the system's Notepad and Calculator to pop up "over" BASIC.
I also see a hidden keyword USING (token FB). Since it's just before UNTIL and WHILE (tokens FC and FD) I suspect it was intended for a DO loop.
Many BASIC 7.0 keywords are in the LCD's ROM, but there is no code to support them. FAST, SLOW, and QUIT give SYNTAX errors. Interestingly, OFF (token FE24) does not cause any error at all!
The following "FE-token" commands from BASIC 7.0 will cause UNIMPLEMENTED COMMAND errors:
BANK, FILTER, PLAY, TEMPO, MOVSPR, SPRITE, SPRCOLOR, RREG, ENVELOPE, SLEEP, CATALOG, DOPEN, APPEND, DCLOSE, BSAVE, BLOAD, RECORD, CONCAT, DVERIFY, DCLEAR, SPRSAV, COLLISION, BEGIN, BEND, WINDOW, BOOT, WIDTH, SPRDEF, STASH, FETCH, SWAP.
The following "CE-token" commands from BASIC 7.0 will cause UNIMPLEMENTED COMMAND errors:
POT, BUMP, PEN, RSPRPOS, RSPRITE, RSPRCOLOR, XOR, RWINDOW, POINTER.
BASIC program storage starts at $1000. When using GRAPHIC 1 (the only graphic mode supported on the LCD), BASIC moves up to $3000. Since there are no color or luminance tables to maintain, only pixel data, the LCD places its bitmap from $1000-2FFF.
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Posted By
MMS
on 2014-05-24
19:49:57
 | Re: Commodore LCD Emulator
I see a lot of similarities to TED series. Not only the cursor buttons, but the way it seems to behave. I suppose it had no sprites (it should not be), so maybe it based on TED, finally realizing the business computer, Plus/4 planned to be? The one chip concept helps the low power consumption a lot (with proper IC technology)
PS. great links :-D; "host it yourself !", haha! Made my day.
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Posted By
JamesC
on 2014-05-24
18:11:25
| Re: Commodore LCD Emulator
@MMS: You're correct, no sprites.
I forgot to check sounds on the LCD emulator earlier. VOL gives a SYNTAX error, but SOUND does not. This seems to be a bug in BASIC 3.6, as the LCD can only beep. 
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Posted By
MIK
on 2014-05-24
23:41:59
 | Re: Commodore LCD Emulator
I want to see some games! 
Would be cool to have some Nintendo Game&Watch style games on it starting with this one which I still own ha!
Donkey Kong 3, one of 3 I believe that Nintendo made in the widescreen format.
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Posted By
JamesC
on 2014-05-25
01:08:19
| Re: Commodore LCD Emulator
How would you load games onto the LCD emulator linked above? 
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Posted By
George
on 2014-05-25
09:03:09
| Re: Commodore LCD Emulator
Perhaps its possible to modify Yape, so it can run the LCD.
@MMS: Yes, i also think that the LCD is part of the 264 history. Many similarities and some things are thought further and improved. I love this system. A really cool machine. The only thing i really miss, is a bigger screen (640x480). It still holds good, for its age.
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Posted By
Litwr
on 2014-05-25
14:35:44
| Re: Commodore LCD Emulator
LCD has only *light* hardware (no SID sound, no VIC sprites, 32 K RAM) - so it is possible to port all its software to C+4... The only problem is 480x128 unusual screen resolution, but C+4 is capable to use up to 320x288 (320x264 on the real monitors)...
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Posted By
MIK
on 2014-05-26
01:51:06
| Re: Commodore LCD Emulator
James,
I was reading on the emu homepage at the hardware facts that a 1541 drive was or was to be supported and they were on about using the Amiga style 3.5 floppy disks with the drive running on batteries, something like that. Loading is possible on the LCD from what it was listing, I think...
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Posted By
JamesC
on 2014-05-27
10:44:27
| Re: Commodore LCD Emulator
@MIK: I was referring to the browser-based emulator. No filesystem support there.
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Posted By
JamesC
on 2014-05-27
21:04:13
| Re: Commodore LCD Emulator
What if we all wait til October 2015, then hitch a ride back to 1985 in the Delorean?
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Posted By
MIK
on 2014-05-28
05:49:15
| Re: Commodore LCD Emulator
COOL.
I would tell Commodore that one day PC will take over the world and changes would need to be made because your be no more in less than 10 years from now!
They would lock me up and say I'm crazy... 
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Posted By
George
on 2014-05-28
17:45:16
| Re: Commodore LCD Emulator
Cool stuff James!
If you want to download the LCD emulator, and make it standalone, do following (Firefox):
a) Download the whole site (the javascript-files are saved in a separate sub-directory)
b) Download the roms and save them in the folder, where you saved the Emulator site.
c) change following lines in the HTML-File:
// old Line 129
//http.open("GET", "http://ep.lgb.hu/jsep/data/?GetBinary=" + fn, false);
// new
http.open("GET", fn, false);
comment foll0wing Lines out (from line 139)
//if (http.status != 200) {
// alert("HTTP: got non-OK answer: " + http.status);
//return false;
//}
I tried to make a Memo-Box, where you can copy&paste Basic-Code and send it to the Emulator. I failed. Crazy thing to write an emulator in Javascript..
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