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Posted By

Midge_the_Mouse
on 2019-06-10
03:47:11
 What's the best modern loading device for Commodore Plus 4

I see lots of modern loading devices for the Commodore Plus 4 and Commodore C16
Which is the best to use for most file formats and reliability

Posted By

Lavina
on 2019-06-10
04:51:46
 Re: What's the best modern loading device for Commodore Plus 4

I'd say SD-1541/2

Posted By

candle
on 2019-06-11
20:01:04
 Re: What's the best modern loading device for Commodore Plus 4

i've just spent one hour copying promised land demo to a floppy using sd2iec and cbm commander
am i doing something wrong? is there a faster way?
my setup is sd2iec as #8 and 1571 as #9
i could get 1541, but missed my chances with 1551 - it was a bit expensive though
is there any fater method?

Posted By

retroscener
on 2019-06-11
22:34:08
 Re: What's the best modern loading device for Commodore Plus 4

The Princess C64SD by far. As well as PRG and D64 file support, it also has full .tap support including ripping tapes to .tap format and vice versa.
http://www.commodore16.com/a-c16-video-guide-of-the-princess-c64sd/
Unfortunately they are out of production now but if you can find one on eBay, get it.

Posted By

candle
on 2019-06-12
04:22:13
 Re: What's the best modern loading device for Commodore Plus 4

i don't think any bitbanging solution will suffice
i'm expecting 80kB/s transfers as i have on my atari
sorry for comparasion, but this is what i'm used to, and facing loading speeds so low is just something i can't imagine - not in 2019 at least
as for the tapes - if i want my kids to reconsider changing the game, then i get my tape recorder for atari and load them game from tape - 30 minutes between games can learn my little ones some patience
and since i've been there when i was a kid myself, i don't want or need to use tape of any kind anymore

i've heard that parallel cable for 1541 was kinda popular in certains and if i understand, 1551 is using similiar solution by the design
isn't there any modern solution using parallel interface?

Posted By

gerliczer
on 2019-06-12
10:36:12
 Re: What's the best modern loading device for Commodore Plus 4

candle wrote: i've just spent one hour copying promised land demo to a floppy using sd2iec and cbm commander
am i doing something wrong? is there a faster way?

Yes, you are. You should use some OpenCBM with compatible cable and your 1571. Or Star Commander if you have a DOS machine lying around.

candle wrote: i'm expecting 80kB/s transfers as i have on my atari
Unrealistic. The Commodore floppy drives cannot be expected to achieve speeds anywhere near to your dreams. I'm not aware of anything close to that performance even for the C64. And the 64 is way much more supported with new hardware. Programs for 264 series machines will surely have no drivers for such storage peripherals even if they existed.

Posted By

candle
on 2019-06-12
14:16:30
 Re: What's the best modern loading device for Commodore Plus 4

i do not understand
what is unrealistic? decent storage options?
i've tryed with opencbm - no luck, windows drivers installed, software provided claimed that there is no interface to work with - i do not belive this is good as it gets

if you care, www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXe7x8xoSnE

i don't see why 10% of transfers mentioned in the description could not happend

Posted By

MMS
on 2019-06-12
16:09:38
 Re: What's the best modern loading device for Commodore Plus 4

My € .02 :
-BSZ's device used in Evo Lution and MicroMorph0s1s (despite a really specific device, loading FLI gfx into two 16KB specific memory adress) seems to much faster (!) that mentioned 80KB/s speed.
This is full screen FLI, and as per BSZ calculation, it load the full screen animation with 800KB/sec into RAM.
This is a kind of DMA, and pretty decent.
Evo Lution
As BSZ mentioned in the detailed description below, the device can be used as a 32KB RAM expansion, and this part can be loaded that fast.
Unfortunately only one piece exists for the time being... Imagine what can be done, together with the 12bit sound.

- I have two SD card based devices: microIEC integrated into an 1541/II floppy drive (very nice, no extra cables or PSU needed, just the "usual" looking 1541, and the microIEC is aavilable at #10).

-Also bough last year the Hungarian made SD-1541/II. Extreme high compatibility (I tested with C64 GEOS, demos, works great), OLED display, very intuitive user interface with a wheel. With JiffyDOS ~5-6 KB/sec speed is possible, despite not being a mechnical drive. It is more about the data you can push through in IEC with bitbanging.

-Parallel cable solutions on C64 with 1541 were highly incompatible. Two years ago on Arok Larry's slideshow's fastoader did not work on the organiser's modded 1541 (had this parallel interface), so I lent them my "vanilla" 1541/II to able to show that fantastic release.

I also vote to SD-1541/II, till BSZ's device is not possible to order/buy/produce happy

(eg. IDE 64 at 99€ with compactflash is faster than 80KB/sec, but our platform does not have such an IDE device)
http://www.ide64.org/ideperf41.gif

Posted By

candle
on 2019-06-12
17:12:21
 Re: What's the best modern loading device for Commodore Plus 4

MMS: do you attend some multiplatform copy parties too? aarok is a bit far (Balaton if i remember correctly), forever party perhaps?
but who knows - perhaps
if production uses bare metal, disregarding kernal and drivers, then you'll be stuck at stock speed and very expensive pheripherial emulators that will still preform poorly, but at least will be usefull in that sense whatever one puts in, it will load
i've been doing some research on iec bus today and learned that this bus was a bit faster in vic-20, and when making c64, they have to make it even slower, for cpu to catch up... next good thing was c128 with high speed serial clock - probably handled in hardware instead, but didn't found much about it (not that i've tryed - c128 is still on my wanting list, and every time i try to buy one someone bids me over)
friend of mine pointed me to speedy cartridge documentation - is it comaptible with sd2iec solutions?

Posted By

MMS
on 2019-06-12
18:11:12
 Re: What's the best modern loading device for Commodore Plus 4

OFF: I am not a big party member, joined only the last two Arok (great experience, will go this year too), and presented some stuff on Ha!wangarda 2 years ago in Krakow (I saw two crazy modded Ataris there), and fall in love with Krakow.
Before that only Computer Christmas '92 happy



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