Posted By
Luca
on 2005-09-02
16:30:28
 |  Do you know...
Do you know there is a program that transfers a cup of coffee in a format that a +4 can read from a 20Gb hard disk connected by serial port?
Which is your prefer orange coloured pixel? I love that one I'd seen in the 3rd level of Voidrunner.
I tried to press "Y" keys so many times, but on the screen a "Y" appears continuosly,instead of a rolling hippo, as I had expected, why?
Do you know if somebody tried to convert Halo2 on +4? It should be quite easy, apart of some bigger sprites. I'd found this address that can be helpful. There's a forum in that site, where I guess we could ask this and more.
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Posted By
JamesC
on 2005-09-02
21:27:44
| Re: Do you know...
I have questions also!
How do I load an Amiga 640*400 bitmap into my +4 and where in memory would it reside?
Where is the 'start' button on my keyboard? Is my keyboard defective?
I made a converter so I can use the mouse from my iMac. Why won't it work in Geos?
I found a great place to learn more as well. it's here.
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Posted By
MIK
on 2005-09-03
05:33:58
 | Re: Do you know...
Luca did you know a +4 makes a good door stop? It has been designed at the perfect angle to keep even the doors of heaven open which I believe is the place you are now from smoking some bad weed?
lol. 
James I would imagine if you ever do get that bitmap to load in a Plus4 it would melt the machine.
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Posted By
SVS
on 2005-09-03
14:46:34
 | Re: Do you know...
More code, less coke...........
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Posted By
Luca
on 2005-09-03
15:44:25
| Re: Do you know...
...and most of all, less lame questions on the forum and more search activities before pressing keys.
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Posted By
Lavina
on 2005-09-05
03:43:35
 | Re: Do you know...
did you know that our belowed plus4 chips tend to die because of overheating? Yeah, the native cooling is quite ineffective in plussy, so one of my teammates have invented a better method. He kept a big portion of plasticine in the fridge, and put it on the chips. He only had to be careful about replacing the hot portion with new and fresh one from the fridge, otherwise the stuff would melt into the motherboard.... which happened several times, so he gave up this idea.
Another nice experiment with plussy is to get rid of one of the security sticks in the round plug of a joystick so you can attach it to the datacassette plug. If you are ready, just type LOAD and press ENTER. If you do not have ENTER button, try to get one. Anyhow, move the joystick, and the effect you will see beats all the effects of CD4. Hm, maybe I'm the only one who have seen it?????
About cleaning the plussy: Don't care about precisious handling, just disassemble it, and throw it into a big bowl of warm water mixed with shower gel. Leave it, then dry it for two days, and voila, nice and shiny. (also the invention of my TEAMMATE).
Do you know the ultimate reset protection crack? It's TLC's plussy. He switches off the plussy with the main power switch, then turns it on, and the program is intact in the memory.
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Posted By
JamesC
on 2005-09-05
10:11:04
| Re: Do you know...
Lavina, you might suggest that your friend use silicone gel ice packs. These you put in the freezer to cool, then remove them and they stay cold for up to 8 hours (480 minutes to you people on the metric system). If he uses several small ones, he might be able to fit the keyboard back on the machine, as well.
I use a 1531 to C2N adapter on my machine; it does not have the security pin and lets me move the joystick to emulate dongles from C64 software.
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Posted By
MIK
on 2005-09-05
15:38:42
| Re: Do you know...
ultimate reset protection crack!!
Yes this trick used to work on the version of ACE +4 that takes half an hour to load!
Once you power up the plus4 back up from switching it off you could also type:
LIST
and abera cadabera.
Try it!
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Posted By
Rachy
on 2005-09-06
02:45:56
| Re: Do you know...
Dudez, the heat was over, what is wrong with you?
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Posted By
Csabo
on 2005-09-06
09:48:54
| Re: Do you know...
I dunno, but this is just about the weirdest thread we've ever head. Turquoise chloroform costmary!! Khm. It was fun to read though.
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Posted By
Lavina
on 2005-09-06
12:20:55
| Re: Do you know...
"up to 8 hours (480 minutes to you people on the metric system)"
LOL This is the best one I've ever red. :D
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Posted By
JamesC
on 2005-09-06
21:34:35
| Re: Do you know...
Lavina: thank you!
SVS: This is a Pepsi household!
I was glad to see that Lando caught on, I thought he was gonna give it away.....
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Posted By
Litwr
on 2005-09-07
00:22:11
| Re: Do you know...
I heard several times the saying that any computer may be good to hammer nails!
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Posted By
Rachy
on 2005-09-07
02:16:13
| Re: Do you know...
I loosely remember an Amiga emulator for the Plus/4. Was it actually working? How is the speed?
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Posted By
Lavina
on 2005-09-07
02:55:28
| Re: Do you know...
Rachy, I think you only dreamed it...
I just recall, IMPY almost broke his skull at my place; as he first saw Digial Box I's Pharao mask, he fell back and hit his head to the cupboard. I think the only fact that saved him is that I had my plussy connected that time to black/white TV, not color. Otherwise, the astonisment effect would have been even greater. So, knowing this accident, just try to imagine what would happen now, if some graphic-mode-magicians like Murphy or Bubis or Larry would travel back in time and would show us, 10 years old plussy users some nice graphics. :O
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Posted By
Lavina
on 2005-09-07
05:26:38
| Re: Do you know...
Hey guys, I remember some rumors about pressing one of the long grey keys at the bottom of the plussy, or somewhere near, and somehow some program would start. You don't even have to type LOAD or anything, just press a key, and this program starts instantly!!! Is it true?
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Posted By
JamesC
on 2005-09-07
07:46:43
| Re: Do you know...
I have heard this too. You must hold the round rubber buttons in on the bottom of the machine, all 4 must be held at one time, while also holding the reset button, and turn the power on.
If all 4 round buttons and the little white square reset button are not held down, then turning the power on puts you into standard mode.
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Posted By
JamesC
on 2005-09-07
08:02:45
| Re: Do you know...
Today I am working on a Windows XP emulator. However the Plus/4 doesn't have enough power to run it at full speed, so I have made a booster pack consisting of automobile batteries and dental floss. My goal is to boost the Plussy up to about 2GHz this way.
But, to avoid copyright problems, I have had to change certain things. For example if you have an error, instead of a "ping" sound, my emulator says "bork bork bork". No longer will we have a Blue Screen of Death, it will instead be yellow with a pirate's flag.
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Posted By
SVS
on 2005-09-07
08:36:12
| Re: Do you know...
The CCC mag editor, once published the famous MS-DOS emulator for C64. It really worked! (this is true, not part of the joke)
One of my dream was (is) to convert it to Plus4. After this, I'll load on it the Forever emulator, and inside it the MS-DOS emulator,
then I'll load on it the Forever emulator, and inside it the MS-DOS emulator,
then I'll load on it the Forever emulator, and inside it the MS-DOS emulator,
then I'll load on it the Forever emulator, and inside it the MS-DOS emulator,
then I'll load on it the Forever emulator, and inside it the MS-DOS emulator,
then I'll load on it the Forever emulator, and inside it the MS-DOS emulator,
then I'll load on it the Forever emulator, and inside it the MS-DOS emulator,
then I'll load on it the Forever emulator, and inside it the MS-DOS emulator...........................
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Posted By
Lavina
on 2005-09-07
08:52:25
| Re: Do you know...
Just be careful, the plussy cpu tends to overcool very much on higher frequencies than 1Ghz. You have to isolate the mainboard from the TED and the CPU because they freeze it to below 0 Celsius!!!! In these circumstances the mainboard can even break by touching it!!!!
I recommend the same technique they use for astronaute suits, one layer foil, one layer vacuum, one layer foil.... 5 times repeating it should be enough to keep the CPU's freezing temperature from ruining the rest of the system.
One more thing. At such speed, the cursor flashing is too fast, actually it does not flash any more, so you have to modify that speed in the ROM. You also have to slow down the keyboard matrix input, because touching one button can write several hundred characters to the screen. (A.K.A. primo effect)
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Posted By
Degauss
on 2005-09-07
17:03:05
| Re: Do you know...
Did you know that after the recession of the 8-bit market, the Berks became a marauding gang? In the nineties they joined the RAF, but there's a rumor that four of them were snitches. They were rehabilitated in a leniency programme and know work as entertainers for a television company.
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Posted By
JamesC
on 2005-09-07
18:13:03
| Re: Do you know...
Lavina, yes I discovered this thermal problem today. I solved it by pulling TED from its' socket and putting it in the microwave for two minutes per half hour.
I suspect that I'll have to modify a vacuum cleaner to attach to the computer. It'll do double duty by keeping the dust off the other chips, which will make their markings so much easier to read three years from now.
During testing I found that 3+1 doesn't like NTFS... keeps giving me a pirate flag. Script/Plus seems to be more tolerant, but won't report more than 2GB free on my 1541.
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Posted By
JamesC
on 2005-09-07
18:16:43
| Re: Do you know...
Lavina said: "One more thing. At such speed, the cursor flashing is too fast, actually it does not flash any more, so you have to modify that speed in the ROM."
I forgot to mention this in my last post -- to save Luca from the rolling hippos, the XP emulator will not recognize the Y key. Instead you must press Shift-Control-Y so that the system knows you meant to do this.
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Posted By
Rachy
on 2005-09-08
02:51:41
| Re: Do you know...
Once I talked a guy who actually believed that Pigmy coded a C64 emulator for Plus/4 and all his converted stuff is running inside the unreleased emulator...
BTW, my dream was loading as many emulators inside eachother as possible. I am at 5 right now:
Running on Mac a PC emulator which is running a PSX emulator which is running an Amiga emulator which is running a C64 emulator which is running a Spectrum emulator.
Who's gonna break my record?
(No cheating! I mean loading the same envidonment twice! )
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Posted By
Luca
on 2005-09-08
08:29:30
| Re: Do you know...
I created a monster... 
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Posted By
Csabo
on 2005-09-08
09:38:29
| Re: Do you know...
You did, and I for one am not complaining. Look at how much fun we're having!
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Posted By
MIK
on 2005-09-08
10:13:31
| Re: Do you know...
Indeed its good to have a fun joke about our beloved machine than rather hear untrue b1tching about what it might or might not do next to some other machine.
Did you know the plus/4 was originally disigned as a business machine! Yes the first true lap top of our time but to save money Commodore removed the battery which used to be housed inside the machine and the all important flip-top LCD colour wide-screen screen. Long before wide-screen TV's took off Commodore were there and thats why the working area of the screen as we see from the Plus/4 doesnt fit our square TV's. 
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Posted By
Luca
on 2005-09-08
14:10:40
| Re: Do you know...
Eh, that's because in these days I'd seen a cascade of lame questions over the forum, where a click on the "search" button would be much more useful...
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Posted By
JamesC
on 2005-09-09
17:18:15
| Re: Do you know...
OK I hooked up the battery pack with the dental floss, and now my Plus/4 plays "Smelly Cat" from Friends when it comes on.
But I see no place to define the default power-off sound! Luca, SVS, Csabo, where is it?
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Posted By
Rachy
on 2005-09-11
03:38:52
| Re: Do you know...
JamesC: "it's not your faaauuult"
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Posted By
Csabo
on 2005-09-11
08:57:16
| Re: Do you know...
The designers of the Plus/4 were really shortsighted for leaving the mute button off. Well, nowadays we have these internet keyboards that have volume controls/mute on them, but what can you do, this is 1984 technology.
So just type the command that makes the plussy quiet. It's a little long, but we all have used it so often, it's like burnt into our brains, we can just type it with our eyes closed. It goes like:
pO3153,79:pO16*197,22:pO631*5-1,dec("30"):pO3155,58:pO1319,13:pO239,1:?chr$(19);
Easy as pie. Mmmmm.... Pie.....
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Posted By
JamesC
on 2005-09-11
09:54:04
| Re: Do you know...
Csabo, this is a very good idea. I have defined F17 to this, and F18 to the reverse to turn sounds back on.
BTW I found the location to define power-off sounds. It's on the back of the motherboard, re-connecting the jumper between C108 and C111.
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Posted By
austin
on 2005-09-17
16:36:00
| Re: Do you know...
Mentalists.
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Posted By
JamesC
on 2005-09-17
20:51:21
| Re: Do you know...
True. But it's so much fun!!!!!!
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Posted By
MIK
on 2005-09-18
04:29:35
| Re: Do you know...
I started a new project by having a remote control for the C16/Plus4, just like your TV does.
I thought implementing the software side first to the machine with a standby feature would be the easy part? I got as far as colour0,1:colour4,1 but now I can't see or do anything, I can't bring the screen back up. I think I have killed my Plus/4
I wonder if I should of made the remote first? I mean the red light is still on just like a TV.... B0ll0x! grrrr.
any ideas?
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Posted By
JamesC
on 2005-09-18
11:24:22
| Re: Do you know...
Lando, the problem is that the Plus/4 uses bastardized American English and you're using the Queen's English.
You might also wish to use the luminance feature to distinguish between shades of black.
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Posted By
MIK
on 2005-09-18
14:56:14
| Re: Do you know...
Well spotted James
hahah my own joke back fired!
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Posted By
JamesC
on 2005-09-20
21:51:55
| Re: Do you know...
Lando, it took me two days to recognize what you were originally saying.
You need a blinker for the power LED so that you can tell the machine has gone into standby mode. How about borrowing a blinker from the neighbor's car, the left turn blinker will do cause he never signals a left turn anyway. And since a car blinker runs on 12 volts, it'll work just fine in your Plussy on the voltage that goes to the power light.
If you can find an old VIC or C64 modem, the huge square ones that look like the 1750 and 1764 ram expansion packs, that should be big enough to hold the blinker and you already have voltage pins on the user port to connect it to... if I remember correctly there's also a composite video signal on the userport too, like the old CBMs. When the composite signal goes low, the blinker should start blinking the power light until the composite signal goes high again.
Now that I think about it even more, the receiver for a PC wireless keyboard might fit in that old modem housing too.... you'd only have to cut a hole in the top for the antenna to stick out of. Microsoft's old WebTV service used to have an add-on keyboard, wireless, sold by Philips. If you can find one of those, they're pretty light and the key travel is almost as short as a chicklet 116.
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Posted By
SVS
on 2005-09-21
02:52:07
| Re: Do you know...
[Blinker]
James, I can suggest for the blink led an easy to find, reduced LCD screen with resolution 1x1, so that you can have till 65535 colors on the same led. Now the problem is to find 65535 meanings to be signal by it.
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Posted By
JamesC
on 2005-09-21
14:49:20
| Re: Do you know...
That's a good idea, SVS. The 1x1 can be mounted on top of the antenna for the remote receiver, this way nobody has to rewire their Plussy. True Plug-and-Play is what I'm looking at here.
Or Plug-and-Click, from Lando's point of view.
The colors can signify how long the unit has been in standby.... maybe you or Csabo could write a program that would print out a color chart on a 1525 or MPS803 for us.
Um.... ok now we'll need printer support in YAPE. Quick, call Gaia and demand it straight away so that Lando can finish this project!
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Posted By
MIK
on 2005-09-22
09:17:33
| Re: Do you know...
The Blinker is a good idea! I could..... I mean I could wait for my Amiga to crash and at this very moment take the whole thing apart and strip out the lights while they are still flashing. If I can transfer the lights quick enough they may still flash once in the plus4! Thing is though the Amiga lights are green and yellow. Ummm, should be ok as long as no one else uses the machine other than me.
I'm hoping this new xbox 360 Media Remote will cover all my Plus/4 needs! If it can control a box with no keyboard then I'm laughing!
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Posted By
JamesC
on 2005-09-27
22:35:10
| Re: Do you know...
Lando, that remote has arrow keys, an Enter button, a Base 10 keypad, and datasette control buttons.... but it's in Microsoft BASIC, not Commodore BASIC. If you wanna pop GBP400 (I don't see a pound-symbol on my keyboard, cursed Microsoft compatibility!) only to find out that this remote will cause your Plussy to spew "WAIT 6502,256" on your screen all day long, go ahead.
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