SWRAP It Up

I went with Jeff to the SWRAP Expo this weekend which was quite an experience. It was my first time going to the expo and probably won't be the last. I've always had a soft spot in my heart for the Commodore 64 but these guys and gals take it to a whole new level. They are truly pushing 20 year old computers to their limits and beyond. One of the most impressive demos was Steve Judd showing the SLANG language compiler for the SuperCPU. Basically, a programmer can assign any keywords she prefers to its equivalent command in assembly language. In BASIC terms, instead of passing the CPU a POKE statement with a numerical value like 53281,0 you could say screenbg(black) instead. If that still doesn't make sense, don't worry. Just trust me that it was cool.

Another impressive demonstration by Jim Brain addressed software that allows things like .zip archives and even HTTP sites to be mounted as storage drives on the C64. Jim showed how it is possible, with his software, to make the C64 think that it sees a storage device when it is actually looking at a web site or any number of archive file formats. He said that he plans to include FTP sites in the future.

Other demos included a prototype of the C-One, a Commodore machine emulated in PC hardware which was running in a very sweet modded case, by the way, an expansion device (the VIC REL) and software that lets you automate other electronic devices (a radio controlled truck was used for the demo) with your C64, a C64 BBS including real time chat hosted on a Linux server, and a Nintendo Light Zapper that had been modded to work on a 1702 Commodore monitor. I also got to see the IDE64 in action. The Last Ninja loaded up in 2-3 seconds instead of the usual few minutes.

In terms of purchases, I was able to acquire two new Epyx 500XJ joysticks, music composition software, an Incredible Musical Keyboard overlay, a Commodore Programmer's Reference Guide, and a near-mint , boxed copy of Might and Magic. Needless to say, I spent a decent amount of time using my C64 for the rest of the weekend! I had actually forgotten how fun it was to program with this computer. Not long after my parents brought our old machine to Chicago, I dug back in to BASIC programming for a refresher and yesterday I finished a program that pretends to predict your future but mostly just spits out nonsense.

After the expo, Amy and I went with Dennis to the Music Box theater to catch a midnight showing of Forbidden Zone. I had never been to the this theater before and it was awesome on the inside. The theater was built in 1929 (probably before Black Tuesday) and it was thoroughly ornamented to look like you're sitting in a small Mexican town. At least, I thought it looked like a Mexican town. Anyway, the inside of the theater looked much like the inside of one of the restaurants in the Mexico Pavilion at Disney's Epcot Center. Strangely enough, the music that was playing before the movie started was game music from the C64 with a woman singing some kind of gibberish over it. One of the tunes she made up words for was the theme from Auf Wiedersehen Monty. I was truly struck by the synergy of events that day. By the end of the movie, I had been awake for about 20 hours so I wasn't entirely coherent, but seeing as though the movie was even less coherent than I, it hardly mattered.