Re: Accelerating the CPU!

[Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net>]

Jason Compton writes ...
> 
> Rubywand (rubywand@swbell.net) wrote:
> :      C-64 users have a couple of big advantages: They have a very simple
> : machine; and, they do not much care whether or not their 20MHz '816 board
> : will run their old wares.
> 
> <snort at both comments>
> 
> I'll take your inflammatory remarks in good humor. :)
>

     The C-64 really is a simple machine. This simplicity makes it easier to 
produce an upgrade which can be selectively bypassed when running old programs.

     Most C-64 wares are games and most of these were designed to run fine at 
normal speed. The main C-64 user-convenience bottleneck has always been disk 
access. Aside from applications like GEOS, there would seem to be little gain in 
running old C-64 wares at 20MHz or 200MHz.


>
> ....
> 
> The 20mhz '816 board actually does a surprisingly GOOD job of running old
> software ....

     What are the board's specs? What is its price?

     How do you deal with arcade games? For example, does each ware have to be 
deprotected and modified?



> compatibility is of primary concern since there's
> really no SuperCPU-only software right now.
>

     Too bad. What projects are 'in the works'?

     What sort of Display (resolution x number of colors) is available to 1990's 
C-64 users? Has Sound been improved? Has C-64 DOS been improved?



> It is true that anything that calls undocumented opcodes will likely fail,
> but most applications and a surprisingly high percentage of games work
> just fine.  Some don't work quite the way you'd like them to at 20mhz, but
> others get a very enjoyable speed increase.  And GEOS has been patched to
> run beautifully. ....
>

     It is nice that the 20MHz C-64 board works so well with the patched GEOS and 
some games.


Rubywand