Guide to the Ultimate-64

The project

I started the project some years ago, but never designed production-ready hardware for it. I picked up the pieces and merged it with the latest Ultimate-II+ code. This combination was prototyped on a product from Technolution B.V. (the company I work for); a product that uses an Altera (=Intel) FPGA and has DVI output as well as USB ports. Using a USB keyboard, I managed to type on this “thing” and load some demos from the ‘Ultimate’ drive. Many demos and games seemed to work flawlessly. From there, I decided I should first create the hardware platform with all the required I/O, such that I could do better tests. The result of this is shown in the first prototype, as shown in the picture above.

Basic operation

MultiButton

The Ultimate-64 has one button on the side of the board, which is placed on the original position of the power button.

This button is called the MultiButton, because it handles several functions.

Function

Description

Power on

When the machine is off, press the button briefly to switch it on

Power off

Press the button for 4 seconds to switch off the machine.

Reset

Press the button for about 1 second to reset the machine.

Menu

Press the button briefly to enter the File Selection (Ultimate) menu.

Ultimate64 features

More about mounting disks

Remember that ‘mounting’ a disk means creating a link between the 1541 part of your ultimate cartridge, and a file on a storage device. This means, that when the link has been established, “writes” that the 1541 performs will be written back into the disk image file as well. In this way, the ‘real’ behavior of a floppy is emulated.

This behavior will not always be what you want. There are two options to avoid this: ‘mount’ the floppy as read-only, or ‘mount’ the floppy in ‘unlinked’ mode. When write protected, the drive itself cannot write to the floppy. In unlinked mode, the writes to the floppy are performed, but do not reflect in the .D64 or .G64 file. When the storage device is removed, the 1541 drive automatically switches to unlinked mode. Be aware that writes to the disk will then be lost when you turn off the machine.

You can write the current unlinked floppy image back to your USB device at any time from the F5 menu.

HDMI port

The HDMI port can be connected to a modern display ( eg. television ), so you can use the Ultimate-64 in the future.

Resolution of the HDMI output

The output resolution is 720 x 576 at 50 Hz (for the PAL version), also noted as 576p50. This is a standard resolution that all HDMI capable screens are supposed to support, according to the CEA-861 standard. However, to meet the exact timing of a C64, the timing parameters of this video mode are slightly modified. I have not come across screens that do not accept the generated HDMI signal.

Frame delays of the digital HDMI port

None. There is no frame buffer, so there is no need to worry. Some screens, especially non-gaming screens, may introduce some latency. I observed this with a 4K screen that actually resampled the output to just 30Hz. Computer monitors should have less latency, and with “game mode” turned on, latency can be reduced to one frame (20ms) or less.

Because there is no frame buffer, scrollers and such are perfectly smooth. If the TV renders the image at the speed it is sent over the HDMI link everything will be smooth.

If HDMI is used for output, there is also output generated on the PAL output ( display connector ).

In the configuration menu you can change several setting regarding this port.

  • U64 Specific Settings

    • HDMI Scan lines

  • User Interface Settings

    • Interface Type ( overlay mode )

Overlay mode causes the Ultimate menu to be displayed in the bottom-right corner of the screen and only on the HDMI or DVI display. If you unplug the HDMI cable and press the Ultimate button, the Ultimate menu will revert to being displayed full screen on the analog output.

If you need to disable the overlay view but can’t (or don’t want to) unplug the HDMI cable, you can use turn overlay off with:

  • Ultimate Button

  • Down 4x

  • Right 2x

  • RUN STOP 2x

Ethernet port

The ethernet port can be connected to a switch ( or hub ) to communicate with the Ultimate-64 over your own network.

In the configuration menu ( Network settings ) you can change several setting regarding this port.

Some of you may be familiar with the RR-net solution that brings Ethernet to the C-64. Currently, the built-in Ethernet port does not provide RR-net compatibility. However:

The Ethernet port is used natively by the firmware. There is some primitive support for file-transfer using FTP (needs improvement), and it is possible to connect to the Ultimate-II+ using a VT-100 terminal program on the Telnet port (port 23). This gives the possibility to control the machine remotely, and swap disks without actually interrupting the program running on the C-64.

USB support

The Ultimate-64 supports most USB sticks and Flash card readers out of the box. It also supports USB 2.0 Hubs. It is recommended to use powered USB hubs only (with an external power supply). USB 1.1 Hubs are not supported.

There are three USB 2.0 ports available on the board; two on the back and one on the “internal” side of the board/case.

Please note that the port on the left is not a USB 3.0 port. Although you may use this port as a 2.0 port, it is not USB 3.0 compliant. The extra signals on a USB 3.0 connector are used to communicate with the tape port (see below). Please do not attempt to attach a USB 3.0 device to the blue USB connector on the Ultimate-II+. You may safely use a USB 3.0 device on the right side of the cartridge.

File Systems

Currently, the Ultimate-II+ supports the FAT16/FAT32 file system on any storage device, and the ISO9660/Joliet on CD/DVD ROM drives, or ISO files. It is able to read D64 files, as well as D71 and D81 files (no partitions), T64 files.

Supported file-types

The Ultimate-64 can open / mount several file-types:

  • PRG

  • D64

DMA loads

The Ultimate-II+ is capable of loading files directly through the cartridge port into the memory of your C=64. This is called DMA load. The menu supports loading files of the .PRG type only. It doesn’t matter if the PRG is located on the FAT/ISO file system, or inside a disk image (.D64), or inside a tape archive (.T64). Be aware that a lot of programs inside a .D64 file require that the rest of the disk is mounted in the drive. For those programs, use the ‘Mount & Run’ command.

Tape Support

The Ultimate-64 is capable of emulating a cassette tape deck (CBM1530/1531).

In order to play a tape, browse in the menu to a .TAP file, and press enter and select “Play Tape” from the popup menu. This will initialize the tape streamer from the start of the tape. Use functions in the main menu (F5) to pause/resume playback. It is also possible to write the .TAP file to a real tape, using a CBM1530/1531 deck.

The Ultimate-64 can also capture tape signals into a .TAP file. The ‘F5’ menu will show you the available options.

Joystick ports

Joystick

Mouse

Paddles

Light(pen/gun)

Cartridge support

Cartridge slot

Cartridge Emulation

Because the Ultimate-II+ will occupy your cartridge slot, a list of popular expansions available for the C=64 are integrated into the Ultimate-II+. These expansions include cartridges such as the Action Replay, Retro Replay, The Final Cartridge III, Super Snapshot V5, KCS Power Cartridge and the Epyx fastloader. In the configuration menu, even the CBM1750/1764 RAM Expansion unit can be enabled, with expansion RAM up to 16 MB!

Many of these cartridges have a reset button and a freezer button. This is the function of the other two buttons on the Ultimate-II+. By default, the left button is the freezer button, and the button on the right is the reset-button. Through the configuration menu, the buttons can be swapped if desired.

  • Does the Ultimate 64 support external cartridges?

    • Yes, the cartridge port is fully supported.

  • So I an insert an Ultimate-II+ module and have an awesome system? :-)

    • You could, but you don’t need to. The Ultimate-II+ is fully integrated into the Ultimate-64 board.

  • Oh, but how is this possible? You mentioned I can use external carts?

    • You could see it as a port extender. Obviously, you cannot use the same features of the expanded port at the same time. But, you can, for example, use the REU from the build-in Ultimate-II+ function, together with an external music cartridge, or utility cartridge that allows some registers at $DF00. And of course, when you turn off all cartridge emulation features of the Ultimate-II+, the cartridge port is free to use.

Ultimate Audio module

The Ultimate Audio module provides 8 simultaneous sampling voices. This module is utilized as part of the Ultimate-64 firmware for playing Amiga MOD files. This option is available in the context menu in the file browser.

If you like to do some programming yourself using this sampler, you can enable this module in configuration menu. It then appears in the I/O region. The programming interface is fully documented. Documentation can be downloaded from the official website:

http://1541ultimate.net/content/download/ultimate_audio_v0.2.pdf

Alternate ROMs

In order to use an alternate ROM, browse in the file system to the binary ROM file that you like to use. The file should have the ‘.bin’ or ‘.rom’ extension. When you press enter, and the file is of the correct size, the option will appear: “Use as..”. Kernal ROMs should be exactly 8K, and drive ROMs should be exactly 16K or 32K.

NOTE: When you use an invalid file as Kernal replacement, the C64 will no longer boot. However, even when the C64 gives a black screen, you can still enter the configuration menu in order to disable the Kernal replacement option.

Software IEC

The Software-IEC module is a serial bus service that can be enabled in the configuration menu. This module provides two additional devices on the Commodore serial bus; the IEC bus:

  • Virtual drive that gives direct access to the Ultimate-II+ file system;

  • A virtual printer

Printer

The virtual printer is a valuable contribution created by René Garcia. It takes printer commands from the Commodore 64, and creates a black and white image of the printed graphics and text. This image is then saved to the USB flash drive. The full documentation of the printer emulation and all of its capabilities and options is available here:

http://1541ultimate.net/content/download/mps_printer_emulation.pdf

Virtual drive

The virtual drive can only be used to access files of the file system, through the OPEN/CLOSE commands on the IEC bus. By default, the path of the IEC drive is ‘/Usb0’, which is the top most USB connector on the right of the unit. This default path can be changed in the configuration menu. When the USB drive contains a program ‘TEST.PRG’, it can be loaded with the basic command LOAD”TEST.PRG”,10. Similarly, you can save your programs with the SAVE command. When loading the directory (LOAD “$”,10), the path will be shown as disk name.

The command channel 15, can currently only be used to change the current directory. Just like on modern systems, “..” is the parent directory and “/” is the root directory:

OPEN 15,10,15,”CD:/USB1/MYPROGRAMS”:CLOSE 15

At this point, the virtual drive is not JiffyDOS compliant.

Ultimate Command Interface

Since some time, it has become possible to control the Ultimate-64 programmatically through the I/O port of the C64, thus from a program that runs on the machine. This is useful for many things; for example it can be used to access the file system much faster than through the serial bus. But it can also be used to load files from the file system into REU memory for example. The set of commands grows over time and will provide more and more powerful features.

Documentation of the interface itself is available here:

http://1541ultimate.net/content/download/command_interface_v1.0.pdf

Accessing the file system is done through the “DOS” target, which is documented here:

http://1541ultimate.net/content/download/ultimate_dos_v1.0.pdf

Tape Support

The Ultimate-64 is capable of emulating a cassette tape deck (CBM1530/1531).

In order to play a tape, browse in the menu to a .TAP file, and press enter and select “Play Tape” from the popup menu. This will initialize the tape streamer from the start of the tape. Use functions in the main menu (F5) to pause/resume playback. It is also possible to write the .TAP file to a real tape, using a CBM1530/1531 deck.

The Ultimate-64 can also capture tape signals into a .TAP file. The ‘F5’ menu will show you the available options.

Real Time Clock

For getting correct time stamps on the files that are created on the USB pen drives, the Ultimate-II+ offers a real time clock (RTC) function. This RTC can be set through the configuration menu.

The RTC is powered by a CR2032 battery, which is located inside of the unit. Calculations show that the lifetime of this battery is several years.

Video connector

The 8-pin DIN ( video ) connector can output several different output signals, for each output you need a special assembled cable.

Output signals

  • Composite ( CVBS ) ( PAL )

  • S-Video ( PAL )

  • RGB ( PAL )

The Composite and S-Video cables are the same as you use for the original Commodore 64.

NTSC

NTSC will work on all modern screens because they support 576p for PAL as well as 480p for NTSC.

Full NTSC compatibility will be implemented in the near future, the hardware can handle this without problems. It will be an software (firmware) update, so a setting will come available in the configuration menu.

  • Is the tape port supported?

    • Yes.

  • How do I connect the Ultimate-II+ tape adapter then?

    • You don’t need to. The emulated tape drive automatically ‘connects’ to the tape pins when playing TAP files.

  • How about the User Port? On the picture it seems that the User port is no more.. Boo hoo!

    • You’re right, the User Port is no longer avaiable at the original position. However, all signals from the User Port are available from a pin-header on the board. It is therefore possible to create an extension cable that brings out the user port.

  • So, as the Ultimate-II+ is integrated, it comes with the emulated floppy drive, correct?

    • Yes, that is correct.

  • And, I don’t need to connect an external IEC cable to make use of this drive?

    • No, that is no longer required, because it is all inside of one chip.

  • Does the board have Ethernet?

    • Yes, just like the Ultimate-II+, the Ultimate 64 will also have an Ethernet port. Even more so, the plan is to release a version with WiFi as well at a modest higher price.

  • Buttons? The Ultimate-II+ had buttons, but they seem to have gotten lost.. How do I…?

    • Relax.. There is still one button, in the place of the original power switch. This momentary switch is used to turn on the power and get into the Ultimate menu. Reset and freeze are implemented by holding the button and/or hitting the RESTORE key. You can turn off the machine from a menu option, or hold the button for 4 seconds..

SID Chips

The Ultimate-64 does have support for 2 REAL SID chips that can be placed in the SID-1 & SID-2 sockets.

THE REAL THING!

Audio purists want REAL chips because the those chips are analog, they sound warmer (fatter) than an FPGA emulated SID.

It supported both 6581 as well as 8580 chips. The voltage for these chips is set by jumpers, as well as the external filter components.

It is not software controlled because the chips can not switched on the fly.

SID output on HDMI

The output of both SID chips are digitized on the board and the digital samples are merged with video into the HMDI stream.

NO AUDIO ?

The Ultimate-64 has an internal SID FPGA SID emulation onboard which can generate the audio signal, so it works fine without REAL SID chips. So if you do not have REAL SID chips, you stil have audio.

User port

Installation

U64 mainboard

Firmware Updates

Supported files types

Disclaimer

The ‘firmware’ on your Ultimate-64 board consists of a rather large number of functional parts that all work together. Although an insane number of hours have been put into testing and improving the firmware and software, I am very certain that it still has bugs. Some testing work still needs to be done. The device will be improved further as time passes. Check the download section at the website for the newest firmware version. We believe in the end this will sure be the ‘ultimate’ replacement for your 8-bit Commodore 64 computer.

Social Media

For quick answers to many questions regarding your device, you may be interested to join the the Facebook group “1541 Ultimate”.

Known issues

  • Notes van Gideon

https://1541u-documentation.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

Volgens mij is er per menu item een aantal dingen belangrijk. Een algemene beschrijving, wat doet het, wat kun je er mee, een gebruiksvoorbeeld, en wat zijn de eventuele beperkingen En eventueel referenties naar de externe manuals, zoals bijvoorbeeld van de cartridge ROMs. Of manual van de REU, etc.