Blog · corpus.blog/blogs/michaeldoornbos.com/posts
michaeldoornbos.com
michaeldoornbos.com
2021
Finally got this 128 sorted out. 4.95 volts on the board is WAAY better than the 4.61 when I started.original ↗
16 Mar 2021
More C64 Badlines fun while on Zoom calls. Running @NoelsRetroLab benchmark with the screen on vs screen off (PAL). 2.4 seconds faster.original ↗
16 Mar 2021
In High school (like 1991) my grandma bought me a bunch of electronics equipment from Radio Shack. I’ve upgraded almost everything over the years except my multimeter which finally went to multimeter heaven last week. Its replacement lacks the vintage charm though.Thanks grandmaoriginal ↗
16 Mar 2021
10 minute lunchtime progress: Even if I set the CPU speed on the Ultimate to 48MHz it looks like the Part 5 cipher calculations will still take 190 hours to complete. Or... 380 days on a standard Commodore 64. I may have to rethink this one a little... #commodore #c64original ↗
10 Mar 2021
The c0pperdragon ended up in the short board 64C. The installation was easy other than the momentary panic that I had bent a VIC pin(I didn’t).original ↗
9 Mar 2021
I bought one of these but have two machines that can really benefit from it. Thus begins the internal dialog about which one. Shut up, I’m not talking to myself. #commodore #c64 #128original ↗
9 Mar 2021
Only have time for so much. In addition to my code cracking work, I have time for one hardware project this week. These are my choices and I want to be all in on all of them. #commodore #fpga #6502original ↗
8 Mar 2021
5 Mar 2021
4 Mar 2021
Super excited to be testing this Snappy cart for @adrianglz64 , definitely one of the more exciting projects I know about for the 64 at the momentoriginal ↗
4 Mar 2021
Okay, I need to get writing posts now because I'm two weeks ahead. Finished the code for Part 4: John Connors pin cracker from Terminator 2, only on an 8 Bit Computer. This one was SO fun and unlike the movie prop this actually sorta does some work. #commodore #c64original ↗
3 Mar 2021
10 minute breakfast progress part 3 of the cipher series: message "cracked". Now need to write the article. Only a week ahead of schedule at this point ;-)original ↗
2 Mar 2021
Someone just pointed out that my ignite talk with the infamous VHS tape Shuttle Launch story was 11 years ago today. I decided to start SpaceUPDC that night. Where did the time go?original ↗
27 Feb 2021
This evening’s project is an RF modulator replacement on this short board. It sure is tiny. #commodore #c64original ↗
23 Feb 2021
I’ve been quietly working on an avionics product as a side hustle for quite some time. Today the hardware prototype build starts. #fpgaoriginal ↗
21 Feb 2021
No, I’m not retro righting these two. In my mind, they earned this color. #commodore #c64 #tandyoriginal ↗
20 Feb 2021
This BASIC program by Raeto Collin West has been a HUGE help in understanding the SID controls. Allows you to toggle bits with the space bar in real time. Game sound effects are no longer black magicoriginal ↗
20 Feb 2021
This screen starts like this and gets better as it warms up. Time to hunt down some bad capacitors.original ↗
20 Feb 2021
I'm VERY bullish on the Mega 65 in large part because they kept the C64 compatibility. It really could be my "one machine". With zero effort my standard dev environment just works (minus REU for now).original ↗
18 Feb 2021
Going to take a short detour this evening to look deeper at the Mega 65. Rather than get to crazy with my keymap problem I just designated an old keyboard as the Mega emulator and put stickers in places that aren’t standard. Next is picking an assembler.original ↗
18 Feb 2021
It took a lot of eBay patience to get a copy of this for a reasonable price. It’s been a wonderfully challenging read. Hat tip to @8BitShowAndTell for introducing me to it. #commodore #c64original ↗
18 Feb 2021
Just ordered a couple RF Modulator replacements. One for my 128 and the other for this 64C.That's some impressive color bleed ;-) My breadbin got the @craig1black capacitor trick and it's working great. This 64C, not so much.original ↗
17 Feb 2021
I'm thinking about replacing the RF Modulator on my short board (PAL). What is this crap on the boardoriginal ↗
17 Feb 2021
17 Feb 2021
17 Feb 2021
10 minute before work progress: SHA256 project is creating results, but they are incorrect. Now for the bug hunt on 800 lines of Assembly in Turbo Macro Pro where you can only view 20 lines at a time ;-) Feels close. WAY closer than I thought I'd be in a week. #commodore #C64original ↗
16 Feb 2021
10 minute lunchtime progress: break from the SHA256 thing, the math is hurting my brain. Adding a "flour bomb" level to the game and I need some "exploding" bags of flour. Don't be intimidated by my artistic prowess. I have several minutes of art training. #commodore #c64original ↗
15 Feb 2021
Urg, this has that bloated proprietary feel that my experience tells me that I will regret doing any serious work on. I don't do proprietary formats. Bleh. #FPGAoriginal ↗
15 Feb 2021
10 Minute pre workday progress on my SHA256 on 6502. I think I'm close to it rudimentarily working which is kinda nuts. 900 lines of code and 126 labels so far (yikes). #commodore #c64original ↗
15 Feb 2021
This card duplicator saved my butt this morning. Something went wrong on my Ultimate II and it dumped huge files onto the card and corrupted my primary assembly files. I happened to have cloned the card last night. 20 hours of work saved. Phew. #commodore #c64original ↗
12 Feb 2021
10 minute pre evening workout code progress: Well, now I'm down the rabbit hole. Steps 1-3 of SHA256 on a 40 year old computer down, about 300 steps to go. #commodore #c64original ↗
11 Feb 2021
10 minute lunch break progress: Implementing SHA256 on a 6502 is going to be particularly challengingoriginal ↗
11 Feb 2021
The article where I use a commodore 64 to do "slides" instead of 3 minutes with power pointoriginal ↗
11 Feb 2021
The more complex the machine, the more things that can break. Left engine alternator today.original ↗
10 Feb 2021
9 Feb 2021
Seems silly to use a slide deck to convey ideas when a BASIC program will work perfectly fine.original ↗
8 Feb 2021
Still working on this one. MUCH harder than I thought. This iteration is with REU, creating 512k random numbers (0-255), counting the occurrences and outputting as decimal counts. Takes 31 seconds on PAL, 38 on NTSC. hmm, I really should blank the screen during #c64 #commodoreoriginal ↗
7 Feb 2021
Pictures don’t really do justice to how wicked cool the white vinyl of this collection is. Perfectly complements the silver album cover.original ↗
25 Jan 2021
Was chatting with someone about C64 startup states, so during a long con call this morning I played with dumping memory contents as decimal location, hex location, dec value, hex value. Too slow to be usable but was fun to dooriginal ↗
25 Jan 2021
Non helpful error messages. This is from last night, clearly the backlight is working or I wouldn’t have been able to see this…original ↗
21 Jan 2021
Just opened a box in storage looking for something and found this little gem. Came out of my Dad’s 79 Suburban. Still works ;)original ↗
19 Jan 2021
I'm trying to decide if I should fully embrace the chunky PESCII graphics or if I should spend time on a bitmap title screen. I think it's safe to say that I wont be taking anyone's graphics jobs away from them anytime soon. #commodore #c64original ↗
17 Jan 2021
The graphics are still rudimentary and the landscape scroll isn’t quite as smooth as I want, but definitely making progress. Programming on vintage hardware(not cross assembled) is harder but more satisfying somehow. #commodore #c64original ↗
16 Jan 2021
Figured out split screen scrolling on my own. After 90 days I’m ready to say that I’m graduating to intermediate level 6510/02 assembly programmer. It’s got the slightest glitch which I suspect will be worse on my PAL machine. Turbo Macro Pro lunchtime fun :) #commodoreoriginal ↗
14 Jan 2021
Version 3 of my One Time Pad program on the Commodore is in progress. Used a tip from @8BitShowAndTell he helped me with for another project in this one and it's working. The rest of v2 to v3 should be easy (famous last words) #commodore #c64original ↗
12 Jan 2021
I don’t do resolutions, but I do focus on a theme sometimes. If chapter 46 of my life had a theme, this would be it.original ↗
10 Jan 2021
I haven’t been this pleased with a new keyboard since I got my Happy Hacker in 1999. Cherry Mx Brown switches for the win.original ↗
9 Jan 2021
Welp, it's supposed to snow the next 15 hours, somewhere in the 5 inches range. I think I'll watch TV. HAHAHAHA, right. My 6502 Breadboard computer needs to be moved to some PCBs. Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to solder we go…original ↗
7 Jan 2021
My “The64 mini” will be going into my airplane panel soon (I can’t bring myself to cannibalize one of my real machines) but for now it’s become the calculator on my desk. This 7 inch screen is also going into the plane. #commodore #c64original ↗
7 Jan 2021
So far your score resets to zero if you don't stay VFR and the fire button changes the plane color. I made a list of gameplay I'm going to add a little at a time. It even sorta looks like a Zenith which wasn't easy with a 24x21 pixel sprite limitation.original ↗
7 Jan 2021
Phone apps are cool I guess, but I’ve always been a hardware device person. These make regular rotations on my desk. Hat tip to my son for the mechanical stopwatch.original ↗
6 Jan 2021
3 Jan 2021
My sprites sorta look like my Zenith, not bad for the first crack at it. #commodore #c64 #myzenith750original ↗
3 Jan 2021
2020
The new video series has been in production while on my "break" (I've never been good at breaks anyway). I've forgotten how long post-production takes even with great tools. Anyway, very pleased so far.original ↗
28 Dec 2020
My Color Maximite 2 and Raspberry Pi 400 are sharing this 8 inch screen now. Perfect setup for both machines and doesn’t take up a ton of room.original ↗
27 Dec 2020
I haven’t been able to get over the USB-C only ports on my MacBook. Seems like a good idea on the drawing board, but practically it’s a mess. God forbid you want to use your laptop in your lap AND plug in an SD card at the same time. #willibreakittodayoriginal ↗
23 Dec 2020
For #doscember my favorite DOS software is STSPlus by the late Dave Ransom. This was a fixture on my computer screen for many years. Still works ;)original ↗
22 Dec 2020
9am on the first weekday of Christmas vacation and finished my One Time Pad program on the Commodore 64. This is the first Assembly program I’ve ever competed to a 1.0 version. #Commodore64 #c64 #commodoreoriginal ↗
21 Dec 2020
My vacation time doesn't roll over to the next year, so starting in about an hour, I'm off until Jan 4th. Time to void some warranties!original ↗
18 Dec 2020
15 Dec 2020
That’s a bug splatter at 15,000 feet. What kind of bug flies that high? Hopefully it wasn’t Tinkerbell.original ↗
14 Dec 2020
In case you were wondering, RedHat 5.2 from 1998 will not boot on a @system76 Laptop from 2016 without some kernel trickery. I’m not giving up though.original ↗
13 Dec 2020
Working on my project to recreate my first Linux install close to how I remember it. Would you consider it cheating if I replaced the marginally flakey 30 year old hard drive with an IDE to SD card adapter?original ↗
13 Dec 2020
12 Dec 2020
I was telling someone that I never use my Commodore 128 in 128 mode, so playing @8BitShowAndTell’s“10 print racer” game on it checks that box AND I get to use the number pad just like on the PET he demoed it on. #Commodoreoriginal ↗
8 Dec 2020
Not surprisingly this was WAAAYY easier in BASIC. Although it runs at about 1/100th the speedoriginal ↗
7 Dec 2020
I played around with programming Commodores as a kid, but only got so far. This is my first “real” software on the Commodore. Implemented generating one time encryption pads using a random(ish) generator. Never stop learning. #commodore #c64original ↗
6 Dec 2020
I love Turbo Macro Pro, but sometimes I want to keep things in version control. Turns out exporting to ASCII files is only two steps. (this is @8BitShowAndTell code with my annotations while I was following his video) #commodore #c64original ↗
5 Dec 2020
2 Dec 2020
If you’re a pilot in winter this is what it looks like out your office window. #tigerbaronoriginal ↗
2 Dec 2020
Oh, one more December project… Getting RedHat 5.2 (1998) on a 486 Monochrome laptop with 4MB of RAM.original ↗
30 Nov 2020
I don’t have a portable Commodore and felt like coding in a different room so my MacBook is just gonna have to do for this evening. Do you suppose when they designed the Retina display they considered some yahoo using it for a 40 column display?original ↗
29 Nov 2020
On the prowl for Nat’s Christmas Album on Vinyl. I have several of his other albums but missing that one.original ↗
28 Nov 2020
Took a little modern electronics wizardry to get it working on an LCD but this is a surprisingly usable writing machine. Plus it has no internet which is its best feature. #commodore 128original ↗
25 Nov 2020
Trying to decide which to have in my office setup next. Note that the RedHat 5.2 is from the first time they used that version number. So 1998. I’m leaning Amiga...original ↗
24 Nov 2020
23 Nov 2020
23 Nov 2020
Delivery for today was a CGA to VGA converter. A Commodore 128 in 80 column mode was my dream setup in 1986. Only took 34 years to put it all together and get myself one.original ↗
20 Nov 2020
You can tell you landed somewhere up North when the pilot lounge has a fireplace in it. #tigerbaronoriginal ↗
19 Nov 2020