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General C64 & Amiga 500 questions

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linuxlove

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  • Do I need any special boxes to hook either one up to the TV?
  • Can disks for the systems be written using a PC?
  • I'm out of questions for now
 
Commodore 64
1. The C64 has a built-in RF modulator as well as a 5/7-pin DIN connector which will output composite with the proper cable.
2. If you have a CatWeasel expansion card, you should be able to write floppies on your PC. Otherwise a X-series cable and a spare 1541 are recommended.

Amiga 500
1. The Amiga 500 has DB23 RGB and greyscale (usually called monochrome) outputs. In order to connect to a regular TV, you need an external A520 RF modulator.
2. With a bit of luck, trial and error, you might be able to write 3.5" floppy disks on a PC. Otherwise you could try to transfer data via a null modem or get an Amiga floppy disk with a DOS/FAT driver for 720K floppy disks.

Amiga 1200 (yes, I know you didn't ask)
1. The Amiga 1200 has a built-in RF modulator and built-in composite video as well as the DB23 RGB. Thus you could connect it directly to a TV.
2. While floppies still are a problem, the 1200 (and its little brother 600) have a PCMCIA slot in which you can fit a CF to PCMCIA reader. It takes a few driver files to get it to operate but once it is set up, you can insert a FAT formatted memory card and easily transfer lots of data.
 
So that A520 RF modulator. Looking at some pictures of it, could I plug a cable into the Video Out jack on it into the composite video in jack on the VCR to work on the TV?

A520 -> Video Out jack -> Video In jack on VCR -> Does it work?
 
Yes, it should work perfectly fine if your TV lacks a (composite) video in on its own. If you would have lived in Europeland, you could also get a RGB to SCART cable but I realize that probably is not an option to you.
 
For sharing data with my Amiga 1000, I use Amiga Explorer, a null modem cable, and a laptop running WinXP. Then I can read/write the Amiga floppy drives from the laptop. Just thought I'd mention it as an option...
 
A couple more C64 questions:

  • Can 360KB PC floppy disks be reformatted for use on C64?
  • What is an "X-series" cable?
 
* Can 360KB PC floppy disks be reformatted for use on C64?

Yes. I did it all the time, once it became impossible to buy unformatted disks. One side goes unused, of course, unless you cut a notch in the other side and flip the disk over. It was a questionable practice but extremely common.

* What is an "X-series" cable?

A cable that connects a Commodore disk drive to a PC parallel port. You can find pinouts online. Using software, it's then possible to control the 1541 from a PC and write files or disk images to it.
 
1. Theoretically, PC formatted floppy disks can be reformatted on a 1541. However back in the old days I got a much higher rate of read errors when reusing a floppy disk previously used in a PC than with any other disk, reformatted or not. I don't know if it has anything to do with MFM vs GCR encoding, or that PC floppy drives have stronger magnets than Commodore drives have. Then again, your milage may vary and it doesn't hurt to try.

2. The X-series is a practical way to reference to the X1541, XE1541, XM1541, XA1541 etc in one. They all connect to your PC's parallel port in one end and a 1541 type (1540, 1570, 1571, 1581 and clones work just as well) floppy drive in the other end. You can either build or buy a ready made cable. In modern days, I recommend either XM1541 or XA1541 as they are known to work in Windows, Linux etc and still are pretty cheap designs. On eBay, you can often see X-series adapters, which consists of a little circuit board and connectors for a regular 6-pin DIN IEC cable instead of a length of cable. It should work just as well, but perhaps sometimes the circuit board and an extra cable behind your PC may be a bit difficult to fit, depending on how tightly arranged your desktop is.

Regarding using the back side of floppy disks by flipping them over, so-called "flippies", the theory is that the dust jacket inside will catch any dust particles as the floppy disk spins, in order to not harm the disk or R/W head. When you flip the disk over, it will rotate backwards and possibly release some dust that the jacket previously has collected. I have at least 30-50 disks thoroughly used on both sides without ever noticing it being a problem, but then again your milage may vary.

Some of the earliest floppy disks were only certified for single sided use. Cutting a hole and using the back side may lead to undefined behavior. I have some single sided SKC floppy disks that both sides used to work for several years, then suddenly the back side became unreadable while the front side still worked. The single sided disks also feel a bit more narrow, but since it worked to format and store data there in the first place, it can't be completely uncoated.
 
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I did want to add that for the 64 using the RF modulator, the best thing to get is an RCA to Coax adapter along with an RF cable that's fairly thick, but not stiff. That seems to get the best picture on an old standard def TV, which is what I'm using for one of my monitors (I also have the S-Video connector with audio/video hookups for use on my HDTV). By the time you add together the 64, the TV, the disk drive and possibly other stuff (REU, datasette, etc.), it will generate quite a bit of RF, so a good solid cable will help to avoid getting an overly-fuzzed out picture.
 
If you have a TV with composite input jacks, I'd avoid the use of the RF modulator altogether. In fact, I would wager to say if you're stuck using composite inputs on a VCR and then using that to output RF to the TV, the picture quality will be much better than that with the built in RF modulator. They are notoriously bad on Commodore machines.
 
Oh yeah... just one more thing. ;) As has been mentioned already, the A520 is the RF modulator for the 500. It has both RF modulated and color composite outputs. The system itself has composite video, but is only monochrome. So, if you want color output to a TV/composite monitor, you still need the 520. Same story here though, you're better off using the composite output. I used the 520 adapter for a quite a while until we ponied up $250 for a *used* 1084S monitor back in the day. 80 column text on composite video is not much fun. :)
 
While it doesn't matter to Linuxlove, I own a DB23 RGB to SCART cable. Sadly the picture quality on my rather recent 14" CRT TV is quite poor in RGB mode. Perhaps it is due to the cable, but the image is so relatively blurry so I would have thought it is composite video. Then again, perhaps it is? I haven't opened up the connectors to look what is inside, but assume the circuitry to convert RGB to composite is so complex that it would not fit into a DB25 or SCART housing.

On my 1084S using DB9 input, the image is sharp and nice though. Perhaps I should try the SCART cable with another TV of a better brand, like a Sony.
 
It could be I suppose. If you've looked inside the 1084 RGB cable, the RGB signals are separate coax cables and then the syncs are unshielded (within the cable bundle that is).
 
I've just restarted an Amiga 500 that I had in storage. I was working fine 5 years ago. Now, I get the green screen and 10 short light pulses followed by 1 long pulse, during which the screen goes gray. Some threads recommend cleaning the chips -- that's more than I know how to do. Any suggestions on how I could sell this setup, as is? (Amiga 500, 1084S monitor, Progressive Peripherals Frame Grabber video digitizer, Star Gemini 10-X dot-matrix, printer, software)
 
A dead A500 isn't worth much. Green screen is dead chip RAM could be cause by a bad power supply killing RAM, loose AGNUS chip, or maybe you have a trapdoor RAM expansion with a leaking battery (remove it and see if the unit boots).
 
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