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Comment by jansan | Hacker News Reader

Maybe this is a good place to ask a question regarding the hardware that is required to transfer code from and to your C64. I have a C64 and a 1541 sitting in my basement in a box and I sometimes take it out to check if it still works (it does).

After watching one particularly insane demo [1] I decided that I need to run them on my own machine for full experience. The question is what hardware is necessary to run them. After a little research it seems that something like a Kung Fu Flash cardridge and an SD card is all that I need to put on my Christmas wish list. Can anyone with more insight tell me if this is the right way to go?

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPb6y44HagI

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Kung Fu flash is probably all you need, with a few caveats (eg. With KFF the drive is "emulated" by intercepting kernal vectors rather than acting as a 1541 on the serial bus, so some software that eg. uses fast loaders or relies on the disk drive for offloading computation won't work).

If you want to get fancy you could go for something like an Ultimate II+ and a usb key, which will get you a bunch of extra functionally like network connectivity, extra SID support, pretty solid compatibility, REU emulation etc (but UII+ will also cost a lot more).

Given you've got a real 1541, maybe you could just copy files/disk images across to the real thing if KFF doesn't work for a particular program I guess?

If you want to run demos, you need a device with (close to) 100% 1541 compatibility. The Ultimate II+ cartridge is your best bet, but it’s a bit pricey and availability is sometimes spotty. Pi1541 is a cheaper option, especially if you diy, but you’ll need a fast loader solution as well. KFF, sd2iec, and other cheap devices don’t offer hw level 1541 compatibility and can’t run demos.

Thanks for the insight. But since I own a real 1541, there should be a way to copy disk images to a floppy using Kung Fu Flash, right?

Yes all(?) modern solutions should let you transfer disks to a 1541, and it’s always fun to treat yourself to using real media. I believe the kff supports the ef3 usb transfer protocol, but you might want to double check before you buy.

That said, the U2+ really lives up to the name and really is the most featureful device - everying else is a compromise.

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