Forum (#18602) - Plus/4 World



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Posted By

westsider_gw
on 2009-10-05
08:57:11

Brand New Plus/4

I just mysteriously (lol) obtained a plus/4 in great condition..
and I've been doing research for the past several days on it.
I have the Console, AV cable, and Power cable... but thats it

Its NTSC btw. (I'm American)

What are the first things I should be doing? Im very interested in its advanced BASIC and the extensive list of games for it.. well.. the NTSC ones I guess.
I figure I need a floppy drive, but I'm not sure which one to get, etc.. and I need a way to transfer files to the unit as well I suppose

Also if it helps, I have basic soldering skills if I needed to whip something up.. but I'm really not that good lol.
Thanks :D

Posted By

YERZMYEY
on 2009-10-05
09:22:13

Re: Brand New Plus/4

Congratz!

Games can be found here http://plus4world.powweb.com/sl.php
(look in further sections).

Posted By

Chicken
on 2009-10-05
10:34:47

Re: Brand New Plus/4

Hi and welcome

About the foppy drives... A 1551 would be nice but those are extremely rare, epecially on your side of the big pond. Most plus/4 users have a 1541 or 1541-II which are probably the easiest to obtain anyway. Plus, they are supported by many programs (e.g. speed loaders, demos, games) as well.
Though, any of the floppy drives you can find in the hardware section on this site will do.

There are several MMC/SD card based "alternatives" that emulate (more or less acurately) a 1541 drive. This might be a good option if you need to transfer files from PC. Since I don't have any of these devices I can't say much about availability. Most of them stem from the C64 "scene" but they can be used for plus/4, too.

Otherwise, there are several cables available that let you connect a 1541 to the parallel port of your PC. They are called X[another letter]1541 cables. Depending on the OS on your PC different versions are recommended.

Btw, do you have any manuals?

You could just hook up the plus/4 to a display and start playing around with BASIC... getting familiar with that doesn't require a floppy drive. Ok, you won't be able to save your work but for some experiments it's just fine.

Posted By

MMS
on 2009-10-05
11:27:44

Re: Brand New Plus/4

There are some great scanned manuals avaialbel here and there.

I downloaded few PDFs, some of them is really starts from the basics, and finetuned for USA customers.
A C16 docus are 100% useable, except 3+1 SW and keyboard layout

http://plus4world.powweb.com/publications/English/all

Posted By

westsider_gw
on 2009-10-05
15:10:39

Re: Brand New Plus/4

Im hoping to get a floppy drive for it.
Whats the best way to transfer files from the PC to the old 5.25"?

And also, I have all the computer's original documentation and its in the box.

Posted By

westsider_gw
on 2009-10-05
20:18:51

Re: Brand New Plus/4

I'd also like to know if there is anybody out there who sells joystick adapters? lol.. I wanna be able to play games or use joystick-enabled programs too.

Posted By

Andras78
on 2009-10-06
01:53:21

Re: Brand New Plus/4

Hi,
here is a post to sell a complete machine. could be get there some other parts:
http://chicago.craigslist.org/chc/sys/1397468476.html

Posted By

MMS
on 2009-10-06
02:24:18

Re: Brand New Plus/4

Well, when I was a kid, in the computer shop there were C16 joy adapters everywhere

I never though, that it could be a problem, only recently I saw people looking for this special adaptor. In fact I also do not understand, why they did not add one as a standard part of the set.
(I can say, it was a real mistake by Commodore guys, although it really needs less space than the ATARI one).

Here you find some of the mentioned cables (ohm, an other site...)
http://www.commodore16.com/c16shopH.htm

Bye: MMS

Posted By

TLC
on 2009-10-06
03:20:58

Re: Brand New Plus/4

As for transferring files or discs: your options are similar to as if you were transferring C64 stuff.

In short: generally, it's not possible to read/write Commodore disks by PC gear directly. From that on, your options are either "connecting a Commodore drive to the PC" (to have it to do the dirty lowlevel work) or "not using a drive/disks (at least, for this part) at all".

The first option needs a cable, and a controller program. Cables are sold at eBay and Commodore retro webshops. As for the controller, if you have an old PC with DOS or Windows 95/98 installed, your best bet might be Star Commander. With NT, XP, 2000, 2003, Vista etc. this might be opencbm/cbm4win and optionally gui4cbm4win. More about that here: http://sta.c64.org.

The second option might be something like the MMC2IEC device http://www.c64-wiki.com/index.php/MMC2IEC, a card that "emulates" a 1541 drive on a protocol level. Pro: no disk needed, but just an MMC or SD card. You can copy from/to the card on the PC easily. Con: these devices emulate no hardware features of the 1541, ie. custom loaders and fastloaders will not work.

Posted By

westsider_gw
on 2009-10-09
18:32:12

Re: Brand New Plus/4

Thanks, this information has been a big help.

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