29 Dec
2008
29 Dec
'08
6:33 a.m.
Zane H. Healy wrote:
The uIEC/SD I bought from Jim Brain was delivered
Friday night (USPS
was actually unable to deliver for several days in our area). My mail
is currently going to a different location than we're living, so I
picked it up yesterday, and retrieved my customized C64 from storage,
and got everything plugged in last night (this was the first time we'd
been able to get our car out of the driveway in over two weeks).
Once I figured out how to use it, all I can say it is seriously cool,
way better than my MMC-Replay for dealing with D64 images, and it was
a lot cheaper! I'm even able to use it with the MMC-Replay plugged in
so I have my Ethernet connection. With the MMC-Replay I was only able
to get one or two D64 images to work, with the uIEC most I've tried
have worked. I've been playing "Temple of Apshai" all day and having
a blast! :-)
Now to decide if I put it in some sort of case, or if I mount it
inside the C64 somehow.
Zane
I'm glad you're enjoying it.
As I implied in a previous post, the device has an interesting history
that has shifted my philosophy concerning such projects. I've come to
realize that, in the hobbyist space, collaboration yields much more
fruit for the project, even though one loses the "I did it all myself"
statement. I was always afraid I would never learn as much if I didn't
do it all myself, but that has *NOT* been the case. And, it's nice to
bounce ideas off others when trying to map new concepts like IDE
partitions and such into a 25+ year old platform.
Although I am now biased, I started uIEC because I felt the IDE64 took
away too much flexibility. It assumes the 64 is the only CBM machine,
requires an expansion port, and requires programs use only the normal
KERNAL IEC routines if they are to work. As a VIC/C128 owner, that
seemed wrong.
The MMC64, on the other hand, is more complex to explain. As a
"mega-cart", it's fine (load cart images onto SD card, play lots of cart
or single filer games). But, then they started marketing it as a
general purpose drive unit (or people started assuming it world work
like that), I think it suffered. It's not ideally suited for that use.
There are still things to do with the uIEC base, though. IEEE488
support would be a great win, as then PET/CBM machines would have a
solid state device to use, and I am working on a USB link to a PC, so
one can slave their Win/Mac/Linux box to their CBM. And, for those who
want something more vintage as a target, the protocol is simple RS232 (I
use a RS232->USB converter), so they could add a MAX232 and write a
suitable app for anything that provides RS232.
Jim