New products for C64 and Amiga from Individual Computers

[demolition]

Originally Posted by Lord Aga

Well, here's my constructive criticism/advices...
First of all, I don't know what Chameleon is.
More clear info would certainly draw in more buyers. If I don't know what it is (or will be) I don't know if I want it or not.

Weird comment tbh. You could have found it what it was 10 times in the time it took you to write that post. It is not a well-kept secret. Besides it is not a finished product yet, so it is only targeted those who knows what it is in detail..

[paulo_becas]

Originally Posted by Lord Aga

Well, here's my constructive criticism/advices...
First of all, I don't know what Chameleon is. And I try to follow the Amiga hardware scene almost religiously. Not to say that I did not try to find out what it is. I got that it is some FPGA tech. Something to do with C64. Or not ? Maybe I got that wrong. I don't know what it does. Don't know the exact price tag. And now some talk about the remote. Whoaaa dontknowwhatsthatabout...

More clear info would certainly draw in more buyers. If I don't know what it is (or will be) I don't know if I want it or not.

I guess that every guy that's interested in the C64 scene knows what a chameleon is, looks like your an amiga only guy so it's normal that you don't know or your not interested in knowing what a chameleon is.

[Schoenfeld]

Chameleon in our Wiki: http://wiki.icomp.de/wiki/Chameleon

Also allows running Minimig, Sinclair Spectrum, Atari 2600 and Atari 800XL (being worked on, but already public).

The main purpose though is giving the C64 "the ultimate expansion" with up to two emulated 1541 disk drives, accelerator (faster than SCPU), memory expansion (REU+GeoRAM), a huge bucket full of cartridge emulations, and a comfy menu that makes using the Chameleon easier. Still requires some knowledge about the C64, as it does not check for impossible hardware configs: It lets you switch on all kinds of cartridge emulations at the same time, which would not work on a real C64 either :-) (more hardware features omitted - see Wiki).

Oh, and it's "beta", which means that lots of work still needs to be done (and has been done!) on the firmware. All bugs are public - we're 100% open about every bit of work that still needs to be done. The Chameleon is already the best C64 core, but it's not perfect yet. We work systematically on all known bugs, and we welcome everyone who wants to join in and do more tests. If you expect a perfect product, the Chameleon is not for you. Not yet.

Jens

[Lord Aga]

Thanks Jens ! It is a lot clearer now

As Paolo said, it is more of a C64 thing. Although there is a Minimig core involved. And no, I don't mind imperfection, I just never had a C64. I was a Speccy guy But I know a friend who might be interested as he was a C64 fan. Floppy drives, cartridges and everything.

Originally Posted by demolition

Weird comment tbh. You could have found it what it was 10 times in the time it took you to write that post.

And you could have explained it to me, but you didn't. Weird, huh

[AmiDog]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

The main purpose though is giving the C64 "the ultimate expansion" with up to two emulated 1541 disk drives, accelerator (faster than SCPU),

Interesting that the wiki says "Shown in the table are the measured values with screen switched off and all possible optimizations" and still the tests keep the SCPU in the default, slowest possible, setup. Really easy to spot since ZP writes are dead slow, clearly indicating that full mirroring is used. Running a SCPU with the default setup makes about as much sense as using a 060 accelerator without any FAST-RAM in an Amiga.

(The v2 SCPU results are better than the v1 ones since the v2 doesn't mirror ZP and stack by default. Still, just enable the BASIC optimization setting and all RAM accesses will be much faster.)

[Schoenfeld]

The SCPU results were provided by users. We have none of the two SCPU versions. I'm happy to update the table with values that use the optimizations you're talking about. I honestly don't know how to tweak a SuperCPU, and neither does Tobias who maintains that Wiki page.

The progams we've used are freely available, so if you have the results with said optimizations, this will be updated shortly. The main purpose of having all that information online is to give an exact picture of what Chameleon is capable of delivering. I don't want to show a distorted picture, so thanks for the hint.

Jens

[Ffin]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

Chameleon is in it's seventh year of development. The project is causing huge losses. Even now, after the price increase of december 2013, I'm losing about 60,- EUR per unit. This subsidized price is in place in order to get more *true* betatesters into the boat. The price will be increased once more when we leave beta status.

Jens

I don't want to see a good developer go out of business, I guess I'll have to give up beer for a while ☺

[Schoenfeld]

quoting myself:

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

*If* I get the clockport mode to work (that's questionsble at the moment, as I have a feeling that the 8-bit mode of the chip is broken),

The 8-bit mode of the USB chip is not broken - the current prototype passes multiple hour-long tests without a single glitch. Sorry for pointing to a1k.org again - my new website with blog is still in the works: http://www.a1k.org/forum/showthread.php?t=41499&page=21

Jens

[Snyfls]

I have two more questions regarding Comp Pro Joysticks if you do not mind.
These remakes are the same like the original ones from 80s? I never owned one so I can not compare. And Amiga remakes are the same like the USB ones?

[dirkies]

All remakes I opened looked completely different inside and felt lighter. They broke very soon too, unlike the originals that even after 25 years still are rock solid. Hence i bought a db9 to usb adapter (like the Donald one) and used that instead.

[Snyfls]

Thanks!

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by dirkies

All remakes I opened looked completely different inside and felt lighter. They broke very soon too, unlike the originals that even after 25 years still are rock solid. Hence i bought a db9 to usb adapter (like the Donald one) and used that instead.

Interesting - you found a difference between joysticks that were made on the same tooling? The USB and the new Retro joysticks have been made on the exact same tooling, so they are exactly the same. After the first production run, some parts of the mechanical/moving components have been updated, so the fire buttons don't get stuck any more, and the stick itself holds better, even if you pull hard on it. These changes have lead to virtually zero returns on the second "Retro" production run, so this third production run for the Retro joysticks comes with no changes.

Jens

[Adrian Browne]

I had one of these knocking around till recently, it was still in perfect condition after all those years. I never favoured the button style though; I think 'Zipsticks' had a similar button setup, quite sensitive. The stick on these is very rugged; the amount of quickshots I went through back in the day...You would not believe.

I recall now that on occasion I cannibalized broken joysticks and repaired them. Damn amiga games were so tough and I'm so stubborn.

[dJOS]

I'm not sure how anyone could accuse Jens comp pro's of being flimsy! They are absolutely bullet proof and extremely solid in my experience.

[dirkies]

Hi Jens. I compared the original Suzo db9 ones with the modern usb ones.those made in the 80s are built like a tank, unlike the remakes. Surely the new retro ones are similar to the usb ones, but their only resemblance to the original Suzo ones is the looks, nothing else. Just the weight and the noise already reveal what is original and what is new. Then use it for a while and *if you are used to the original ones*, you soon realise it just doesn't cut it, if they last, which none of mine did, they all broke real soon if used heavily. Fact that my 2 Suzo sticks from 1985 and 1986 still work today is telltale. They did survive Decathlon on the C64 without any issue!

[dJOS]

The only reason the old ones weigh more is due to the lead weight in the base.

[demolition]

Originally Posted by dirkies

Hi Jens. I compared the original Suzo db9 ones with the modern usb ones.those made in the 80s are built like a tank, unlike the remakes.

Suzo did not make the Competition Pro. They made a similar looking model named Prof Competition which feels more sturdy (less creaking).
On this picture you have two models of the Competition Pro on the left, and Suzo's Prof Competition on the right:

The original Competition Pro was made by Kempston Micro Electronics:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kempst...ompetition_Pro

[Snyfls]

Leave dirkies alone please He just answered my question about differences between original Comp Pro joysticks, no matter who produced them, and Comp Pro joysticks from Speed Link.

[fryguy]

Would be cool if you could make new TAC-2s. But perhaps it is hard to get the rights to do that.

[dirkies]

My 2 competition pros have a suzo sticker on the inside. Slam dunk!