New to Commodore 64 and Amiga - Help?

[alienjesus]

A few weeks back, a friend gave me her spare Amiga 500. It has no cables, connections, peripherals or whatever, just the unit. Today I managed to buy a Commodore 64 at a bootsale for £10 with a few games, a joystick, adapter and cassette reader. I tested the system, and it seems to work, although I can't get the spindle on the cassette reader to spin, so I haven't tried any games yet.


I'm honestly pretty clueless about these old computers though, so I have a couple fo questions, if anyone can help.

1. Is the datasette (tape reader/writer) not spinning likely to be a problem with the unit itself, or a power issue realted to the C64?

2.How many C64 games are on cartridge or floppy disc. A quick search on eBay shows lots and lots of tapes. As much as I should get the full, slow, screechy loading experience if I want to experience classic C64, I wouldn't mind being able to just play the games more quickly.

3. Are there any peripherals I should make sure I have for the Commodore 64? How about the Amiga?

4. The commodore reads cartridges without any attachments right? Do I need peripherals for floppy discs? I know I need a tape deck for cassettes.

5. Same question for Amiga. Most games on Amiga are on Floppy instead of cassette right? Do they take as long to load as the Commodore 64 games?

6. Is it possible to write games to floppy discs and have the systems read them? It might be worth doing so I don't have to use the tapes, which are slow, loud, and liable to get worn out.

I'm sure theres loads more I'm forgetting. If you have any other info you think I might need, please tell me. I'm totally clueless here!

[CRTGAMER]

Does the datasette spindle spin when you press the rewind button? To load a game, rewind and press Commodore RunStop keys. But casstte games are a very slow load process. The C64 is the forgotten game console! The game carts work by just plugging in and turning the power on. Plugs in any composite hookup, you can build a custom cable for SVideo too. Any 2600 compatible joystick or paddle will work, exclusive SPINNER controlled Omega Race game. Try to get a 1541 lever style disc drive and a Fast Load cart made by EPYX.

The famous startup screen, instant operating system.



Look for a game called Cliff Hanger, relive the Roadrunner Cartoons.



The ultimate cart, makes games not load but run 4x faster!



I have a few other Commodores: http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopi ... 01#p284901

[alienjesus]

The datasette spindle doesn't spin when you hit rewind, fast forward or play. It's definetely not working, I just can;t be sure if its the datasette or the console connection :S

[Hobie-wan]

I bet one of the belts is gone in the datasette. Perhaps you can find a replacement. Over there in Europe it seems most games came on tapes, which is a lot slower then even the slow diskettes. The US disk drives used a 6 pin DIN cable for communication and a standard PC power cable. Carts are just plug and power on. Atari 2600 sticks work in a C64, but Genesis (and maybe SMS) pads can damage a C64, so don't use one of those.

[alienjesus]

I bet one of the belts is gone in the datasette. Perhaps you can find a replacement. Over there in Europe it seems most games came on tapes, which is a lot slower then even the slow diskettes. The US disk drives used a 6 pin DIN cable for communication and a standard PC power cable. Carts are just plug and power on. Atari 2600 sticks work in a C64, but Genesis (and maybe SMS) pads can damage a C64, so don't use one of those.

This is really useful to know thanks.
What about the Amiga, does the same apply there?

[silverback]

ALL Amiga games come on floppy, ok later ones for the 1200 and the cd32 came on disc but thats no use to you as the 500 won't play any of them.

The Amiga is much faster loading, however some games have lots of discs, SF2 has 4 discs and Beneath a steel Sky has 15!

And yes you have to swap them frequently.

Copied games work fine. However some have to be cracked. The general security for games was you got a disc in the box, you had to line up symbols then enter what the result was so the game would run. If you copy one of these and don't have the keywheel thing you can't play them. Cracked ones are fine.

Open the trap door under the 500 and see if theres a board in there, if there is then it has the 512kb expansion (takes the system up to a massive 1 megabyte lol) which is NEEDED. If you don't have it then a lot of games can't be played.

The Amiga has a specific power block, the tv out unless you have an amiga monitor (phillips made the most popular one) then you need the rf unit.

The mouse is the d pin type and the joytstick the same, but megadrive etc pads can be used in the joysticks place.

[Hobie-wan]

The mouse is the d pin type and the joytstick the same, but megadrive etc pads can be used in the joysticks place.

You absolutely sure they don't cause the issue they can with a C64? Just would hate to blow up an Amiga.

[flamepanther]

The mouse is the d pin type and the joytstick the same, but megadrive etc pads can be used in the joysticks place.

You absolutely sure they don't cause the issue they can with a C64? Just would hate to blow up an Amiga.

I have no clue what they do to a C64, but a friend of mine used a Genesis pad on his Amiga 500 and Amiga 1000 for several years without problem.

[silverback]

my amiga has lasted 20 ish years just fine with joysticks and master system/megadrive pads...

[Hobie-wan]

Fair enough.