User avatar
Bulletdust

Posted Thu Feb 11, 2021 2:13 am

Came across this the other day, basically it's VIM for 8 bit machines and the C64 appears to be the most supported with binaries included in the archive not only for 40, 53, 65 and 80 columns - But there's also a VDC binary that I assume is for a hardware 80 column card...

...That sadly I don't have...

Anyway, I tool a few screenshots, take a look. Link here:

http://vi65.sourceforge.net/

Image

Image

Now bear in mind that it's really hard to take photo's of CRT's - So the pics don't do the result justice for software 80 columns. Although I have seen better software 80 column fonts.

Image

And here's the mysterious 'VDC' binary:

Image

User avatar
rpiguy9907

Posted Thu Feb 11, 2021 8:40 pm

Wouldn’t VDC be for the Commodore 128? That is what the 80 column chip was called.

And I always wondered why more programs didn’t offer a 64 column mode since 5x64=320. It is very readable.

User avatar
Bulletdust

Posted Fri Feb 12, 2021 2:27 am

rpiguy9907 wrote:
Thu Feb 11, 2021 8:40 pm
Wouldn’t VDC be for the Commodore 128? That is what the 80 column chip was called.

And I always wondered why more programs didn’t offer a 64 column mode since 5x64=320. It is very readable.
The problem with software 80 columns is you're running characters using 4x8 pixels, meaning the font used in terms of readability is really important. I actually find the 80 column font used under Striketerm very good, but I have tuned my 1084S very precisely - I've even gone in there and tweaked the focus on the flyback (do not do this if you don't know how to be safe regarding HT transformers).

In relation to the VDC binary, that one is specifically for the C64 as there's another set of binaries for the C128 included in the archive.

User avatar
Zippy Zapp
CA, USA

Posted Fri Feb 12, 2021 3:39 pm

rpiguy9907 wrote:
Thu Feb 11, 2021 8:40 pm
Wouldn’t VDC be for the Commodore 128? That is what the 80 column chip was called.
Bulletdust wrote:
Fri Feb 12, 2021 2:27 am
In relation to the VDC binary, that one is specifically for the C64 as there's another set of binaries for the C128 included in the archive.
When I read this I remembered that I thought there was a way to tap into the VDC in 64 mode of a 128. I thought I remembered reading about it in a Compute! article or some other magazine at the time. I will have to look.

From the website:
Supported text modes:

C64 - 40/53/64/80x25 (VDC 80x25 on C128)
C128 - 40/53/64/80x25, VDC 80x25

So it seems the VDC in the 64 package is for the 128 VDC in C64 mode. Obviously this won't work on a C64 but it is cool. I am not sure of the practicality of it though since you already have the 128 so why not run the native 128 version instead of in C64 mode?

I didn't know they made this. Also a Plus 4 version. How cool.

User avatar
Bulletdust

Posted Sat Feb 13, 2021 3:17 am

Zippy Zapp wrote:
Fri Feb 12, 2021 3:39 pm
rpiguy9907 wrote:
Thu Feb 11, 2021 8:40 pm
Wouldn’t VDC be for the Commodore 128? That is what the 80 column chip was called.
Bulletdust wrote:
Fri Feb 12, 2021 2:27 am
In relation to the VDC binary, that one is specifically for the C64 as there's another set of binaries for the C128 included in the archive.
When I read this I remembered that I thought there was a way to tap into the VDC in 64 mode of a 128. I thought I remembered reading about it in a Compute! article or some other magazine at the time. I will have to look.

From the website:
Supported text modes:

C64 - 40/53/64/80x25 (VDC 80x25 on C128)
C128 - 40/53/64/80x25, VDC 80x25

So it seems the VDC in the 64 package is for the 128 VDC in C64 mode. Obviously this won't work on a C64 but it is cool. I am not sure of the practicality of it though since you already have the 128 so why not run the native 128 version instead of in C64 mode?

I didn't know they made this. Also a Plus 4 version. How cool.
I wanna see this work in 80 column mode using the 64 binary on a 128! Who has a 128 they can try this on?

Here's another little Commodore 8bit 'tit bit'. Did you know the NTSC Plus 4 runs at 2.2Mhz with the screen blanked? This makes the Plus 4 one of the fastest 8 bit 6510 based micro's around for computational tasks.

User avatar
Zippy Zapp
CA, USA

Posted Sat Feb 13, 2021 11:27 am

I would like to try it on my 128 but the download links on the vi65 webpage are broken. EDIT: but I did find them, no disk images though so I will make those up:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/vi65/

User avatar
Bulletdust

Posted Sat Feb 13, 2021 2:56 pm

Zippy Zapp wrote:
Sat Feb 13, 2021 11:27 am
I would like to try it on my 128 but the download links on the vi65 webpage are broken. EDIT: but I did find them, no disk images though so I will make those up:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/vi65/
That's odd? All the disk images were included in the archive I downloaded.

Image

User avatar
Zippy Zapp
CA, USA

Posted Sun Feb 14, 2021 5:15 pm

Bulletdust wrote:
Sat Feb 13, 2021 2:56 pm
I have the same files as you but look close there is no disk images. By Disk images I mean .D64 files with all the files enclosed. I found that usually with projects like this all the versions are grouped inside disk images. What is there is all the individual files. The ones without extensions are PRG files.

It isn't a big deal though as It is easy enough to create disk images or copy the files to an SD2IEC and run them direct.

User avatar
Bulletdust

Posted Sun Feb 14, 2021 11:00 pm

Zippy Zapp wrote:
Sun Feb 14, 2021 5:15 pm
Bulletdust wrote:
Sat Feb 13, 2021 2:56 pm
I have the same files as you but look close there is no disk images. By Disk images I mean .D64 files with all the files enclosed. I found that usually with projects like this all the versions are grouped inside disk images. What is there is all the individual files. The ones without extensions are PRG files.

It isn't a big deal though as It is easy enough to create disk images or copy the files to an SD2IEC and run them direct.
They're .PRG files. I just unzipped them straight onto my SD2IEC.





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