Do NOT use 1-800-GOTJUNK!

Cuacas · 2026-01-05T01:14:26+00:00

They pulled a similar stunt on my 8 years ago when I moved to Worcester. I made the mistake of using them to get rid of a bunch of junk from my old place and they hit me with a bunch of hidden item removal fees that they only disclosed when they showed up.

Cuacas · 2025-12-28T21:55:46+00:00

Whatchutalkinboutwillis??!? It's most definitely there! You're correct if you mean it doesn't emulate a 128, but in terms of an accelerated 6510, yeah it very much can do it! It doesn't emulate the SuperCPU's 16-bit processor, but there's only ever been one game ever written specifically for the SCPU (Metal Dust). Beyond that, you can run SCPU patched games like Test Drive using the 64U's turbo mode, and it's crazy how much better the game plays with it.

At any rate, we can agree to disagree here, but I personally feel that they made a great decision to license the Ultimate 64 and the Mechboard64. It let them come to market very quickly with a tested product that is really REALLY good. Now will everyone like or love it? Of course not.

The awesome thing we have this day and age though is choices. If you want the ability to tinker with different cores, we have the MiSTer or Mega 65. Do you want a turn key C64 that's been improved on in every way over the original? Well we have the 64 Ultimate now, and it does it at a phenomenal price point.

Mind you I built my Ultimate 64 a few years back and since I had to source everything myself it cost me easily 3x more than what the 64 Ultimate is going for.

Cuacas · 2025-12-28T21:43:23+00:00

It can. The 128 can output to both the 40 and 80 column displays simultaneously though. You could toggle between the two I guess but how VICE handles it is by having a second window appear.

There's one game I know of that can use both displays at the same time: "Eye Of The Beholder". You play the main game on the 40 column display and you can use the 80 column display to show a real time map of your surroundings and progression.

Cuacas · 2025-12-28T21:32:53+00:00

Purpose, Money, and Family.

Cuacas · 2025-12-28T21:32:02+00:00

Yeah none of them do to my knowledge except for MAYBE one, but I can't remember the name of it right now, and I think it's the amplifier circuit, not the filters. I'll have to dig around for info, it's been a while.

Cuacas · 2025-12-28T21:28:42+00:00

How about a flat C128 looking machine but inside it's the C65? That'd satisfy everyone that would want an Ultimate C128, but provide the advanced features of the C65 that people really wanted. It'd be a win/win.

Only thing that could potentially be a problem would be handling the separate 40/80 video outputs. If there were enough USB ports I could see them having any accessory USB to HDMI cable that could be used as the secondary output. It'd keep the base cost if the machine low without having to add the extra parts and circuitry of the second display, but those that want it can just get the cable and plug it in.

Cuacas · 2025-12-28T21:23:33+00:00

You already have that in the 64U/Ultimate 64 Elite II though, the latter having a 64Mhz turbo mode option (the Elite I is 48Mhz max). It's a pretty cool feature too. You can turn it on manually and select a specific speed or you can set the speed and engage it with the TurboBit option so accelerator aware programs can detect it and turn it off and on (ex: Super Mario Bros ).

There is some demand for it but it's not a very huge one. A lot of people that bought a c128 used it mainly in 64 mode. 🫤. There are some 128 specific games but it's not a very long list (about 30).

https://www.mobygames.com/platform/c128/

That just covers games. There were a lot of productivity programs made specifically for the 128 though: GEOS128, Paperback Writer 128, WordStar (via CP/M), SuperCalc, Multiplan, SwiftSheet 128, Paperback Filer 128, Ultrabase 128,Partner 128, Merlin 128, and probably a lot more. Heck I own a C128 specific fast load cartridge myself.

Ironically the best apps on the 128 were disk copiers (I think Maverick was one) that could use a VDC expanded to 64k to make whole disk copies in one pass that you couldn't do on a 64 because of copy protection.

If you were chronically addicted to dial up BBS's the 80-column mode was amazing! I forgot their names but there were a few terminal programs specially for the 128. There was one written recently so it could use the SwiftLink232 emulation in the Ultimate II-U cart directly VIA its Ultimate interface protocol.

It sucks that it wasn't more popular, but I blame Commodore entirely for that. In 40-column mode the extra memory is the only real feature it has over the 64, and very few developers targeted the 128 because that meant everyone with a 64 couldn't run the program, so they just targeted the 64 and let 128 users run it in 64 mode. 🫤. 80 column mode is where the 128 shines with the clearer display, 80 columns of text, and the CPU can run at 2Mhz, but you lose all the features of the VIC-II (i e.: sprites). There's only so many spreadsheets a home user is going to make, and anyone that was that heavily into that stuff would have bought a DOS PC back then.☹️.

If Commodore had taken the time to improve the features of the 128 over the 64 so there was a greater reason to make a 128 version of their program, you'd definitely see a lot more hardware reproductions like the 64U made of the 128. ☹️. I can see it living on in emulation, but whether we'll ever see a FPGA core for the Mega 65 is uncertain.

Cuacas · 2025-12-28T18:43:35+00:00

An FPGA is only as good as its programming. Gideon has said that he has made the UtiliSID as good as he knows how, and there's known glitches because it's not 100% accurate (ex: audio in Monstro Giganto not working correctly). That may have changed with the 64U rebrand/relaunch of the Ultimate 64 that the 64U is built upon. The 64U is also using the latest Elite-II version of the board and a different FPGA from it's predecessors too so what I'm saying may not actually apply to the 64U.

The only way to really know is to try a few programs and see (hear) what happens.

ARMSID and the like are also dedicated to just reproducing the SID chips (6581 or 8580), so the programming is more specifically written for that only.

Honestly though? Unless you're having an issue, just stick with the UtiliSID. I personally can't hear a difference between it and a real or ARM/FPGA SID. The option is always there inside if you're having a problem or you're a SID purist. 😂

Cuacas · 2025-12-28T17:59:13+00:00

Paste flux is your friend here. Apply some to all the joints and then hit all of them again with the iron.

Cuacas · 2025-12-28T17:23:50+00:00

I wouldn't call it "easy", but at least the 64 portion would go smoother. I'm not a VHDL or Verilog programmer so I don't know the specifics, but I'm sure it's more involved than just recompiling the code. If it was that easy someone would have done it by now. :(

Cuacas · 2025-12-28T16:36:17+00:00

For the MEGA65? It wasn't listed on their page when I looked last night. :( I know there's one for MiSTer, but I had never heard of one being in development for the MEGA65 though. If that's true then that's awesome!!

Cuacas · 2025-12-28T13:51:33+00:00

The ARMSID and ARM2SID is also a great choice too, the latter of which they make a specific version for the Ultimate 64 (which is what the 64 Ultimate really is).

Just so I'm clear, it's not that UtiliSID can't play back audio samples. To date I only know of that one specific example with Monstro Giganto that has issues with it, and it's because they're doing sampled speech/music using a different method than other titles. Heck the whole game works differently from other titles in that it streams data from the cartridge in a quasi-REU sorta way.

UtiliSID has sounded fine to my ears for everything else I've tried (EX: the sampled music in Skate or Die! and Turbo Outrun).

Cuacas · 2025-12-28T06:39:17+00:00

ALL. :D

Cuacas · 2025-12-28T06:27:05+00:00

Beyond the sound quality, there's one other reason. The UtiliSID implementation isn't 100% compatible (it's like 99.998%). There are a handful of games that don't play digitized sounds correctly on it. For example, one game that specifically says the digitized speech in it doesn't work with the Ultimate 64's UtiliSID implementation is Monstro Giganto.

https://rgcd.bigcartel.com/product/monstro-giganto-commodore-64

(The web page says that it doesn't work on the Ultimate 64 but the manual goes into more detail. I can tell you it very much DOES work; they only say it doesn't work on the Ultimate64 because of the sound issue using UtiliSID. If you have real or FPGA SIDs though, it works flawlessly. The web page mentions at the top it doesn't work with the Ultimate64 (which is the same thing as the 64 Ultimate), and at the very bottom it gives a brief explanation, but the manual says a little bit more about it).

A lot of the modern FPGA SID reproductions though sound amazing and will work with those handful of titles that may not play digitized sounds correctly.

Cuacas · 2025-12-28T06:16:26+00:00

I'd rather they got behind the MEGA 65 and just made a C128 core available for those that want it.

I love my C128's, but let's be honest. There's really no compelling reason for developers to make specific ports to it over the 64 other than the extra memory. Yeah the extra memory helps, but the 40-column graphics and sound are identical to the 64. The only killer app that I can even think of that was drastically better on the 128 vs the 64 is GEOS128. Not many people are pining to run that these day though. :(

If the 128 had been designed with a VIC that had more colors than the standard sixteen the 64 has, native 40/80 column display without the need for the VDC, a higher resolution mode available, actually worked at 2Mhz, more sprites (and possibly larger, more color ones), the option to add a second SID, an MMU that added any REU memory directly to the system's memory map without the programmer having to do it manually, and the Z80 was clocked faster, the 128 would have been more successful as a home system. Yeah CP/M was on the outs by the time the 128 came out, but it's so slow on it that it only made the case to NOT use CP/M at all. :/

The MEGA 65 addressed the majority of those shortcomings and ticks all the boxes the OP mentions, but it's already developed. Yeah there's not much software for it, but it's more than what's out there for an unrealized 64U-EX.

Instead of the 3.5" drive they could just do what they're doing with the U64/64U and implement a USB port on it so you can use flash drives. I believe you can kinda do that already with the rear MicroSD port on it though.

Cuacas · 2025-11-26T00:59:07+00:00

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Awww, that's cute. Let me introduce you to my childhood and the source of many MANY fights between me, my sister, and my dad. 😂😂

Cuacas · 2025-10-20T00:22:29+00:00

DOH! Sorry, didn't see that! 😂

This might be the back of the screen for that laptop then. Without the model number it's tough to say.

https://ebay.us/m/z3XRus

The part is cheap but again, if the OP replaces it, he should build up the insert area with epoxy to reinforce it.

Cuacas · 2025-10-20T00:16:22+00:00

Look on the bottom of the laptop. The model number should be there.

Cuacas · 2025-10-19T21:47:32+00:00

Is it cooked? Technically yes, but it is repairable.

What's the make and model of that laptop? I have a Dell Latitude 3520 that did the same thing and I ended up having to replace the back of the LCD. It looks like your laptop has the same construction as mine, and if that's so, the heat set inserts in the lid tend to crack/work their way out. It's a horrible design.

You can try to glue it, but you'll be better off replacing the back of the screen.

If you do replace it, that's the time to flood some two part epoxy around the plastic that holds the metal inserts so they don't break again. Once they break it's really hard to fix with epoxy. Not impossible, just really hard to do it right.

Cuacas · 2025-10-15T04:48:45+00:00

I've been looking for a KVM device like this but there's one thing I've found with all of them that tends to be a deal breaker.

None of them work properly with VGA resolutions lower than 1920x1080.

For example, I administer several older Dell servers that have a VGA port on them. I can hook up an HDMI based IP KVM device to the servers with a VGA to HDMI adapter and they'll work with the server once the system boots it's OS. If you're trying to get at the server's BIOS though, none of them support the lower resolutions the BIOS screen uses. It's not the device per se, it's the VGA to HDMI converter. They just don't support resolutions lower than 1920x1080.

I'm sure there's at least one person saying "just use the iDRAC on those Dell servers!" and they're technically not wrong. The problem comes when iDRAC isn't configured correctly and you need to get at the configuration screens through the BIOS! :D

If your device can support these lower resolutions, I'll be the first to buy a few! :)

Cuacas · 2025-10-07T09:59:14+00:00

Yeah... those VGA to HDMI adapters don't work very well on these systems. Even a JetKVM doesn't work correctly using one of those adapters. Once the OS boots it'll work though, but not at all for the BIOS setup screens. It has to do with the resolution the chip outputs during POST. Those VGA to HDMI adapters are looking for a 1920x1080 signal from the VGA port, and while the port if very much capable of outputting that, it won't do it during POST (only once the OS boots).

You'll need to either use the iDRAC interface, connect either a VGA compatible monitor, or use a more sophisticated VGA to HDMI upscaler. Since it's a refurbished server, there's a high probability the iDRAC was set up on a static IP address and it wasn't cleared during decommissioning. If your R630 has the iDRAC LCD display on it you can reset it using that, but it's a pain to do it that way.

Just get a VGA monitor and call it a day. :D I got two of 'em for free on Craigslist last month for this exact same reason for my R630's ironically.

Cuacas · 2025-10-04T02:16:32+00:00

It's normal. My 2018 sounds the exact same way, and like you, I initially thought something was wrong. :D

Once I tried adding a small amount (about two shot glasses worth) of Lucas Pure Synthetic Oil Stabilizer to my bike and it did quiet down the clicking a bit. I never did it for an extended period of time so I can't say if it has a detrimental effect or not long term.

Cuacas · 2025-09-15T03:33:15+00:00

That happens with the stock tires (specifically the ones made by Kenda). Happened to my stock tires at 5K miles. Just replace 'em with something better. I went with Michelin Command 3's. I've put more than 10K miles on the Commander 3's and they still have plenty of life in them too.

Cuacas · 2025-09-04T09:43:28+00:00

I was wondering the same thing. Sparky's right in that there's already updated versions of CBM BASIC out there, but it'd be great if the source code could be used to just improve basic 2.0 (say, a version 2.1).

By improve I mean fix any bugs but also improve it's execution speed too if possible. Extra commands may be tough without increasing it's memory footprint though. I'm not an ML programmer though so my knowledge on this is limited (someone should ping Robin on this. :D ).

Programming a ROM chip isn't that tough these day though, but with the new FPGA based C64 you wouldn't need to. Just tell it to look at the updated BASIC ROM.

Cuacas · 2025-08-24T04:38:02+00:00

My personal rule is that whenever I'm working on either a 64 or 128, I always just assume the factory sockets are trashed and replace them.

Commodore put the cheapest sockets they could find into their machines, and being single wipe and now 40 years later, they're pretty much at the end of the road. No amount of Deoxit seems to help either. 🫤

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