Site Blog

Farewell Patrick!

My "Highscore" Story

25 Years Cascade

Commodore 64: 8 Bit Legend

The Stuff Is Out There

I hate moving...

Puhh... being back from Greece in the beginning of October, I finally felt driven on enough to finish this new Cascade website, which was slowly getting rotten as alpha in my projects folder (it's beta now ;-). Meeting all those old friends in Hellas after such a long time, besides seeing the famous Antikythera mechanism from eye to eye, gave me a lot of new energy, which I wanted to invest before it fades again...

To this website:
Well after I stopped uploading old stuff to csdb last year (read below why), I started concentrating (besides other things, of course) on a new Cascade website as the old site was apr. 7 years old and really antiquated. I wanted a dynamic content system, the possibility of an easier site administration and a little blog-like system, just to spit out my thoughts from time to time, whenever I feel to do so. Furthermore I wanted to integrate my personal demo and game databases into an easier webdesign, therefore the new layout was made with .css (well most of it at least). So I recoded the whole site from scratch. All in all it took quite long to finish the code, because real life leached most of my energy. But now it's finished and I hope you all like this...

Some words to csdb:
As I said I stopped uploading stuff to csdb, although I still sit on tons of missing old cracks. The reasons for this is that my motivation for supporting csdb sadly was killed, after some ppl started to spam the database for unknown reasons. Maybe those guys suffer of heavy image neurosis, being keen on upload credits in the csdb stats, I don't know... but now there are many, many "scene releases" in csdb that are either not scene related or no releases by definition or worse, even both! Some entries are totally senseless, others were only done to have some bytes for upload to csdb. It's so weird!
And not to mention all the double-entries because some ppl are not willing to check properly. So the amount of 67.000 "scene releases" in csdb is definitely artificially elevated, spoiling this cool web resource :-(

Hopefully someday things get better, or I simply regain motivation to support csdb more than just keeping track on the Cascade entry... we'll see...

06.12.2019 - Komoda & Amiga + magazine issue 14 released
New issue (fourteen) of Komoda & Amiga + has been released. It is a paper magazine for all Commodore machines lovers. You could purchase in two language versions: Polish (25 zł + shipping) and English (8 euro + shipping)

05.12.2019 - ThED – MOS technology TED replacement for Commodore 264 series
This time it is not a story but rather a piece of news: There is work in progress on a TED replacement project. As we all know, TED is very often fried in all those precious C16s, C116s or Plus/4s and there is no replacement. The aim to change it was the reason to start the ThED project.

05.12.2019 - TwoBit - The Joystick Doubler for C64
There is a new hardware from Evie Salomon available at her BackBit store: The TwoBit is a joystick doubler for your Commodore 64. Use a single joystick to play games without swapping ports, and with no latency; 3-way slide switch: 1 or 2 (joystick functions in that port), or Both (works for most games without changing setting); Compatible only with single-button joysticks (not for use with paddles, mice, light pens, 2-button joysticks); Safety feature prevents incompatible joysticks from causing harm; 3D printed ABS case.

02.12.2019 - 10 Things You Can Do With BackBit
This video gives an insight into a plethora of useful things you can do with your BackBit cartridge for C64 (10 to be exact!). Among other things, you can use it as a Dead Test, keep track of save versions, make a presentation, or just use it as a video game jukebox! Never wait for loading, never swap a disk. It's plug and play, the BackBit way!

30.11.2019 - New Video from 8-Bit Show And Tell: Year One Recap
The channel of '8-Bit Show And Tell' is one year old! Join him in a look at Jim Butterfield's 'Commodore 64 Training Tape' which is a major source of inspiration for the channel, and then a go through all this year's episodes with some quick thoughts about each one. Also includes the uncut version of his appearance on The 8-Bit Guy earlier this year!

25.11.2019 - ADF-Copy App 1.020 released - now with OSX support
ADF-Copy is a small hardware i developed which uses a Teensy 3.2 microcontroller to read and write non copy protected Amiga disks with an out of the box PC 3.5 Floppy drive connected to the microcontroller which can be build with a few jumper wires on a breadboard with no additional component. The low level stuff is handled in the microcontroller which is controlled by a Java application.

24.11.2019 - 10 Minute Amiga Retro Cast EP 44 – The AmiWest 2019 Report
Doug of '10 Minute Amiga Retro Cast' has returned and this time he has made an interesting report about the this years AmiWest 2019 event. AmiWest took place in Sacramento, California, in October.

24.11.2019 - Scene World Podcast Episode #78 - Creating a New Mechanical Amiga Keyboard
The Micronics is hard at work creating a new mechanical keyboard for the Amiga 500, 600, and 1200, and Liwei Guan is the person making it all happen. AJ and Joerg talk to her about how she got involved in the Amiga community, the logistics of creating a new keyboard, and the unique directions she's taking to get this done.

24.11.2019 - MeMO v3.8 released - Memory Card Game for Amiga
MeMO is a card memory game whose peculiarity is that it allows two players to play it simultaneously - that is, they can flip cards at the same time and battle for the best score!

23.11.2019 - New Video - Exploring My Commodore IEEE-488 Disk Drive Collection
Take a look at (and listen to) various parallel IEEE-488 Commodore floppy disk drives from '8-Bit Show And Tell', including the 4040, 8050, 2031LP, and SFD 1001, hooked up to his PET 4032 computer.

23.11.2019 - GoADF! 2.0.2 released
The shareware programm (7 Euro) GoADF! can read and write ADF files and, among others, can mount them as virtual drives. This latest version also supports the formats DMS, ADZ and HFE.

19.11.2019 - Eye of the Beholder for C64 - Intro near completion
Watch the new intro trailer for the C64 port of 'Eye of the Beholder'. Only two scenes left to implement now. Also new music!

18.11.2019 - Amiga game Run'n Gun: The Ninja Zombie Killer (AGA)
In 'The Ninja Zombie Killer' you do not finish a level by getting to the exit but surviving zombie waves. The game was written with the construction kit RedPill, requires an AGA Amiga and supports two fire buttons.

16.11.2019 - GoADF! 2.0 released
The shareware programm (7 Euro) GoADF! can read and write ADF files and, among others, can mount them as virtual drives. This latest version also supports the formats DMS, ADZ and HFE.

16.11.2019 - Karateka (Temporarily) Killed My 1541, and Other C64 Scares
New video from 8-Bit Show And Tell about the following topic: Several times when you've thought your Commodore 64 was broken, but it turned out you were doing something wrong. Sometimes it's obvious, sometimes it's not!