atered for. Indeed, the
new SuperGEOS experience was a wonder to behold. A very good example of this is the vast geoPublish desktop publishing software. With goPublish in its standard 1Mhz form the c64 'full page' redraw was abysmal. However, in SCPU 20Mhz mode it was a joy to use and, later on in the life of geoPublish, when a full colour laser printing and full JPEG processing version was implemented, the SCPU made these features a breeze to use. It is worth pointing out that the Turbo Master was also very stable with GEOS and gave superb running results. However, these were nowhere near as good as the SCPU's massive
20Mhz.

To add to the benefits of GEOS, users would have to install GEOS specific enhancements that came supplied with the SCPU on a disk, adding things like:

* Batching the GEOS boot so it ran in 1mhz mode during the loading

* Creating a SuperGEOS autoexec that patches the GEOS Kernal

* Installing an updated smart mouse driver (if detected)

However, even with the patches installed, GEOS will run normally, even if the SCPU is removed from the system. As long as the GEOS programmers stick to the programming conventions of GEOS, their software should run as normal without modifications!

Other benefits of the SCPU were compatibility with an REU that could be
plugged into the SCPU, and of course the biggest of these is the 16MiB CMD RAMLink. In fact, a special cable from the CMD Hardrive to the RAMLink improved data transfer to quite a considerable extent. The SCPU made it that little bit faster too! This cable can increase the transfer rates of large files and even entire partitions! This, of course, made the process of
backing up large chunks of data a doddle (you could think of this function
like the introduction of DMA access on the PC to the hard disk). The only downside to this was that some applications didn't like the cable, and would freeze up GEOS mid task! The only way to get around this would be to remove the cable completely, and that means turning off the Commodore and rebooting. You could see how this is not really ideal, but you get to know what does and doesn't work, and then remember not to use problem software in future.

Of course, not all standard non-GEOS software would run with the SCPU; disk access that didn't use the Kernal Rom loading routines for example would fail, as would software using its own turbo disk loading routines! Software that needed precise timing for the graphics routine would also fail, and other timing-related software that was expecting a 1Mhz processor would also fail to run due to said software being confused that calculations were ruining 20
times faster!

Of course many programmers tried to patch these titles to be SCPU compatible, but you did have the option on the SCPU "switch" to switch back to 1Mhz mode.
I suppose you had to "suck it" and see, dig out an old slow title; and plug it in. You may be surprised how playable it now is. Some of these titles, especially old BASIC games, could be given a new release of life. Some would even be playable!

One particular commercial game that springs to mind is Hard Drivin'. this
game on a stock C64 was disastrous. However, plug in the SCPU and you were dragged around the track at break-neck speed! Other games to benefit were the 3D Freescape range of games. These worked incredibly well on the SCPU, with the card speeding up the screen redraws to a "playable" level. In fact, there were quite a few games that performed admirably well with the SCPU and it breathed new life into them - albeit briefly.

The SuperCPU had another feature; an optional daughter board. This board
could be added internally, and could house extra memory (from 1MiB to 16MiB). These modules were 72pin fast page SIMMs dram and seem hard, although not impossible to obtain, especially now. A problem with all this extra hardware attached to your humble c64 was heat! To alleviate the heat problem; it is quite acceptable to run your SCPU without its metal casing on, and most users did just that. Many tried to fit internal fans to the SCPU to try and dissipate the heat from all this power. Also featured as standard in all SCPU's is the now famed JiffyDOS speed loader and commodore toolkit. With a compatible device (ie. another device with JiffyDOS installed), you could
load programs at break-neck speeds.

The compatibility of the SCPU device was enhanced by the use of toggle
switches on the top of the unit; these were:

* Enable/Disable - Turned the device on or off

* Enable/disable JiffyDOS - Turned jiffyDOSloader on or off

* Enable/disable TURBO - Toggled 20Mhz accelerator function, flipping the
machine between 20Mhz or 1Mhz

* Reset button - Reset the machine & SCPU

On the rear of the machine is a pass-through port, so should you need to use a cartridge or even a CMD RAMLink, you can plug this into the device without having to unplug the SCPU. However, should you desire to freeze a game with
an action replay style freeze utility, you would need to disable the SCPU altogether or, even worse, unplug the device!

What's the use for all that memory then? Well GEOS users would make the most of the SCPU`s extra memory power, and most users installed the full 16MiB of ram. You could load applications into a ram disk that ran instantly, as no disk access was required! Nothing much else really came out for the SCPU except for a few demos, and very much later in its life the only real game specifically (actually 'required') to use the SCPU was Metal Dust by Protovision.

One last thing for all you lucky SCPU users out there, make sure you strip and clean your SCPU's connections every once in a while. You'd be amazed how much better it runs when the SIMM mounting and other electrical connections are clean!

Written by Nigel Parker www.commodorefree.com

With Additions and checking By Allan Bairstow www.commodorescene.org.uk

LINKS

Emulated SCPU

www.lemon64.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=45656

Unofficial CMD website

www.cmdweb.de/scpu.htm

A quote from the Unofficial CMD website

Pricing

Users of PC, Amiga and Macintosh spend several thousand (1000) dollars to have speed increases of 3-7 times in best cases. The SuperCPU gives you a 20 times faster machine! And this for a price of $199... Excellent. The SuperRAM
card is $79, but the best way is to get a SuperCPU with SuperRAM card
installed - for $259

CMD - SuperCPU GAMES

members.optusnet.com.au/spacetaxi64/supercpu-games/cmd_super-cpu-games.htm

supercpu.cbm8bit.com/games.htm

Hi-Res Detailed Pictures Of SCPU

www.flickr.com/photos/92393283@n00/5397696636

Metal Dust Commodore Free Review

www.commodorefree.com/magazine/vol5/issue51.html

Wikipedia CMD

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Micro_Designs

DEFUNCT Click Here Software Co.

cmdrkey.com

Freescape games to download

www.3dconstructionkit.co.uk/freescape.html

geoPublish desktop publishing software

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeoPublish

GEOS users (a graphical operating system for the Commodore64)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GEOS_(8-bit_operating_system)


*************************************
INTERVIEW WITH ANDERS (BORAY)
Catching up on new developments
By Commodore Free
*************************************

Commodore Free took some time out to chat again with Boray; we thought it
would be nice to catch up on new developments; after the initial interview in Commodore Free magazine. The first interview is still available to read online; it was "printed" in issue 40. The first interview was mainly about
his software application called PRG STARTER; to read more head over to here, www.commodorefree.com/magazine/vol4/issue40.html#ARTICLE9 and by the way; I can't recommend this software highly enough; Once you used it you will wonder how you managed without it, but remember to click the paypal donate button.
So with a couple of biscuits and a nice cup of tea we sat down for our chat

- - - - - - - - - -

Q. Hi Anders (boray) can you give the readers of Commodore Free a quick
update on the fantastic PRG starter applicati

--- MBSE BBS v1.0.01 (GNU/Linux-i386)
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