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Next SCCAN meeting - Sunday, Nov. 13

Post by rbernardo »

Happy November, C= and Ami comrades!

The next meeting of the Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network is Sunday, Nov. 13, from 2 to 4+ p.m. at

Panera Bread Restaurant
19662 Nordhoff Street
Northridge, California
(818) 407-9400

Note that the meeting is on Sunday, not the usual Saturday.

For this meeting, the AmigaOne XE G4 returns with OS 4.1 Final Edition and a newer video card. Also we'll look into the A4000 Power Tower, a machine from the late Dave "Lord Ronin" Mohr who was the chancellor of the Astoria Commodore User Group. For the Commodore 64/128, member Bogdan will bring in a WiModem with 3D-printed, transparent case. Member Charles G. will visit (his last visit being roughly 8 years ago!). Plus we'll have a VIC-20, Plus/4, and SX-64 for members' use.

Bring anything else you wish to share!

Back from the Pacific Northwest,
Robert Bernardo
Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network
http://www.portcommodore.com/sccan
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Next FCUG meeting - Sunday, Nov. 20

Post by rbernardo »

Happy Thanksgiving, C= and Ami aficionados!

The Fresno Commodore User Group has its next meeting from 11 a.m. to 2+ p.m., Sunday, Nov. 20 at --

Bobby Salazar's Mexican Restaurant
2839 North Blackstone Ave. (corner of Blackstone and Michigan)
Fresno, California
(559) 227-1686

For discussion, I will have an update on the progress of next June's Pacific Commodore Expo NW.

In hardware we'll examine a Ray Carlsen newly-repaired Blue Chip 128 disk drive. In software we'll look at various new or rediscovered VIC-20 games -- It Game from the Grave, Final Quest, VICrossroads, Hat Trick, and Track&Field. (Roger, bring your various RAM expanders!) For the Plus/4, it's Bombrunner. For the C64, we'll play around with the various games picked up from last Saturday's SC3 Arcade Party. For the classic Amiga, we'll try out various games and applications picked up from the October Amiwest Show. Plus we'll try to get to the items that we did not cover in the September meeting. :)

FCUG celebrating its 35th anniversary,
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Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm
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Next FCUG meeting - Sunday, Dec. 18

Post by rbernardo »

Merry Christmas, C= and Ami aficionados!

The Fresno Commodore User Group has its next meeting from 11 a.m. to 2+ p.m., Sunday, Dec. 18 at --

Bobby Salazar's Mexican Restaurant
2839 North Blackstone Ave. (corner of Blackstone and Michigan)
Fresno, California
(559) 227-1686

For discussion, we'll talk about the 35 year history of our club and show early FCUG newsletters.

Because it's Christmas, naturally we'll look at holiday demos and games for the Commodore 64 and Plus/4. For the VIC-20, we'll try drawing Christmas pictures with Minisketch, 8K ram expander, and a Flexidraw lightpen. And because one of the VIC-20's has a R65C02 processor, we can finally try out the cartridge, MOSES: The Assembler of the Ages (which requires a 65C02). In Amiga matters, I'll bring in the AmigaOne XE G4 with OS 4.1 Final Edition and Radeon HD 4650 video card. (Hmm, what Christmasy item can I run on the A1? :) ) As usual, we'll try to get to the items that we did not cover in the November meeting.

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm

P.S. If I can get 5V out of the C128, there will be a demonstration of Jason "Pyrofer's" new RGB digital-to-VGA adapter that goes directly to a multi-scan VGA monitor without the need of a scandoubler/flicker-fixer.
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Next FCUG meeting - Sunday, January 22

Post by rbernardo »

Happy New Year, C= and Ami aficionados!

The Fresno Commodore User Group has its next meeting from 11 a.m. to 2+ p.m., Sunday, January 22 at --

Bobby Salazar's Mexican Restaurant
2839 North Blackstone Ave. (corner of Blackstone and Michigan)
Fresno, California
(559) 227-1686

For discussion, we'll talk about June Pacific Commodore Expo NW and the July Commodore Vegas Expo. Also we will peek at the .PDF of "Commodore: the Amiga Years" which is the follow-up to the book, "Commodore: a Company on the Edge". This .PDF not only talks about Amiga but also the fabled Commodore 65, the Commodore 900, and the Commodore LCD.

It seems that a couple of C=/Ami movies are being released at the moment. For your viewing enjoyment, we look at part one of "Viva Amiga: The Story of a Beautiful Machine".

We aren't forgetting hardware; in addition to the usual club C128 set-up, the VIC-20 returns with more games as does the AmigaOne XE G4. Also for club member Louis, we'll try out an Amiga 2000 with OS 3.1, 2 gig SCSI hard drive, and 4 megs of Fast RAM.

Writing from Nassau, the Bahamas,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm
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Next SCCAN meeting - Saturday, January 28

Post by rbernardo »

Happy New Year, C= and Ami comrades!

The next meeting of the Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network is Saturday, January 28, from 2 to 4+ p.m. at

Panera Bread Restaurant
19662 Nordhoff Street
Northridge, California
(818) 407-9400

Richard will be bringing his Amiga 600 with Vampire 2 accelerator. I'll be bringing in the new Ray Carlsen power supply for the VIC-20 (early model) and the new C128 Video DAC from Pyrofer of England. Bogdan will bring in a couple of Commodore calculators and a Commodore book on calculators. The AmigaOne XE G4, VIC-20, Plus/4, and SX-64 will be available for the members' use.

Discussion will revolve around the Viva Amiga film that was just released; the film, From Bedrooms to Billions: the Amiga Years; the .PDF release of the early chapters of the book, Commodore: the Amiga Years; the Ultra Reset for the SX-64, the Pacific Commodore Expo NW, and the Commodore Vegas Expo.

Bring anything else you wish to share!

Back from the Caribbean,
Robert Bernardo
Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network
http://www.portcommodore.com/sccan
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Next FCUG meeting - Sunday, February 19

Post by rbernardo »

Happy Valentine's Day, C= and Ami aficionados!

The Fresno Commodore User Group has its next meeting from 11 a.m. to 2+ p.m., Sunday, February 19 at --

Bobby Salazar's Mexican Restaurant
2839 North Blackstone Ave. (corner of Blackstone and Michigan)
Fresno, California
(559) 227-1686

For discussion, we'll talk about the May Maker Faire, the June Pacific Commodore Expo NW, and the July Commodore Vegas Expo.

Once again, we look at the newly-released film, "Viva Amiga: The Story of a Beautiful Machine," part two this time.

In hardware, we'll examine the new Ray Carlsen power supply for the VIC-20 (early model) and the 3D-printed, VIC-20 cartridge case for the Final Expansion 3, Rev. 11. Member Bruce may be bringing back his A2000 for us to examine in detail. And because I don't expect rain pouring down, I'll be able to yank out the AmigaOne XE G4 out of the car. ;)

If we can get them on disk or on SD card drive, we'll try out

VIC-20 - $B, Maxi-Edit, and Cask Jumper
C64 - Bear Jam for the Chalkboard Powerpad and The Bear Essentials
Plus/4 - various demos and slideshows

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group

P.S. Remember that you can access our current and older Interface newsletters at

http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm
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Next SCCAN meeting - Saturday, March 11

Post by rbernardo »

Happy almost springtime, C= and Ami comrades!

The next meeting of the Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network is Saturday, March 11, from 2 to 5+ p.m. at

Panera Bread Restaurant
19662 Nordhoff Street
Northridge, California
(818) 407-9400

We missed seeing it last time, but this time I'll make sure we see the new C128 Video DAC from Pyrofer of England. Also we'll examine the second of Dave "Lord Ronin" Mohr's Amiga towers. Then there is the new SwinSID Ultimate from Hungary and the new Final Expansion 3 Rev. 11 for the VIC-20. (I'll need very tiny Torx or square-head screwdrivers to open up its 3-D printed case!)

We'll discuss Commodore at the May Maker Faire, the June Pacific Commodore Expo, and the July Commodore Vegas Expo.

I'll be seeing Ray Carlsen on March 24, so if you have any Commodore hardware that needs repair, bring it to the meeting, and I'll give it to Ray to fix.

Bring anything else you wish to share!

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network
http://www.portcommodore.com/sccan
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Next FCUG meeting - Sunday, March 19

Post by rbernardo »

Happy Spring, C= and Ami aficionados!

The Fresno Commodore User Group has its next meeting from 11 a.m. to 2+ p.m., Sunday, March 19 at --

Bobby Salazar's Mexican Restaurant
2839 North Blackstone Ave. (corner of Blackstone and Michigan)
Fresno, California
(559) 227-1686

For discussion, we'll talk about the May Maker Faire, the June Pacific Commodore Expo NW, and the July Commodore Vegas Expo. This time, we look at part 3 of the newly-released film, "Viva Amiga: The Story of a Beautiful Machine." Also I'll have information for member Louis about his CommVEx presentation on modding the Plus/4.

In hardware, we'll try out the Final Expansion 3, Rev. 11, for the VIC-20. We'll examine the SwinSID Ultimate for the C64 and C128. For member Brad, I'll bring back the Kim Uno (KIM-1 replica), and perhaps he can figure out how to use it. Member Bruce may be bringing back his Amiga 2000 for us to replace the battery in the system. I will be bringing in the A2000 which will be at Maker Faire and at CommVEx. Refurbished by Duncan M., this one is loaded with a Blizzard 2060 50 MHz. board, 128 megs of Fast RAM, 2 megs of Chip RAM due to MegaChip, SCSI controller board with 8 megs of RAM, NewTek Video Toaster, Digital Processing Systems Personal TBC, A2065 Ethernet card, Digital Processing Systems Personal Animation Recorder (PAR), OS 3.1, SCSI CD-ROM drive, 4 gig SCSI main hard drive, 500 meg SCSI hard drive for the PAR.

At last month's meeting, we flailed around with the Bear Essentials and the Chalkboard Powerpad for the C64. This month it returns, but no more flailing, because now we have the instructions in order to use the program with the Powerpad. :)

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm

P.S. Plus a there will be a box of complete C64 software packages, free for anyone to have.
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Next FCUG meeting - Sunday, April 9

Post by rbernardo »

Happy almost Easter, C= and Ami aficionados!

The Fresno Commodore User Group has its next meeting from 11 a.m. to 2+ p.m., Sunday, April 9 at --

Bobby Salazar's Mexican Restaurant
2839 North Blackstone Ave. (corner of Blackstone and Michigan)
Fresno, California
(559) 227-1686

For discussion, we'll talk about the May 19-21 Maker Faire in San Mateo, the preparations for the June 10-11 Pacific Commodore Expo NW, and the latest on the July 29-30 Commodore Vegas Expo. Again, we'll look at the film, "Viva Amiga: The Story of a Beautiful Machine," this time part 4.

In hardware we'll examine the Tramiel/Peddle-autographed C64 which will appear at PaCommEx and at CommVEx; and the Ray Carlsen-refurbished Plus/4, which is set to be modded at CommVEx. Also, we'll have a more detailed look at the Final Expansion 3, Rev. 11, cartridge for the VIC-20. The AmigaOne G4 returns with more installed software.

In software, we'll try out the "CGA emulator" for the VIC-20, Bruce Lee II for the C64, and if we have time, we'll decide on which C64 software package attendees will play in the CommVEx game competition -- Karate Champ or Way of the Exploding Fist or World Karate Championship.

Artfully martial,
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Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm
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Next FCUG meeting - Sunday, May 7

Post by rbernardo »

Happy May Day, C= and Ami aficionados!

The Fresno Commodore User Group has its next meeting from 11 a.m. to 2+ p.m., Sunday, May 7 at --

Bobby Salazar's Mexican Restaurant
2839 North Blackstone Ave. (corner of Blackstone and Michigan)
Fresno, California
(559) 227-1686

The Bay Area Maker Faire is almost here, and we'll be talking about preparations for that show. Also the Pacific Commodore Expo NW is a month away, and we'll be going over the planning of that show.

We'll view the final part of the film, "Viva Amiga: The Story of a Beautiful Machine," and perhaps we'll take a peek of the extra, "Viva Amiga: the Bil Herd Story".

The VIC-20 cartridge, the Final Expansion 3 Rev. 11, returns -- this time with more stuff loaded onto its SD card. We'll also have a crack at Doom for the VIC-20. For the C64, we'll look at the classic Computes' Gazette games -- Crossroads and Crossroads II -- (or even VICrossroads for the VIC-20) and decide if they are worthy for the two-player competition at the July 29-30 Commodore Vegas Expo. For the C64, Plus/4, and C128, we have the new game, Gunfright. For the C64 only, we have new releases -- Matteo's Land, which is a hack improving on the classic Giana Sisters game; Katakis, a game fixed for NTSC; and VVVVVV, a game made famous on other computers. For the C128 only, there is the new demo, MD201704, by Cosine. The AmigaOne G4 returns with more installed software, and/or the Amiga 500 returns, this time with the Trojan Lightpen and its KwikDraw software.

Too much,
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Fresno Commodore User Group
http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm
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Next SCCAN meeting - Saturday, May 13

Post by rbernardo »

Happy Mother's Day, C= and Ami comrades!

The next meeting of the Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network is Saturday, May 13, from 2 to 5+ p.m. at

Panera Bread Restaurant
19662 Nordhoff Street
Northridge, California
(818) 407-9400

We may have a visitor at our meeting -- Jeff B. who wants to convert "text on disks in the Amiga format to Mac readable text, as well as to do the same with some MIDI music files" and also "several Deluxe Paint animations and images...".

Hopefully, Mario will be bringing in his C128DCR and/or his Amiga 1000. I'll have the usual SX-64, Plus/4, Amiga 1200, and AmigaOne G4. I'll be bringing in the JiffyDOS'ed VIC-20 with the fully-assembled Final Expansion 3 Rev. 11 and also the Behr-Bonz cart with its 127 games. For the last few years, we've been using a relatively simple Amiga RGB-to-VGA adapter to connect to the BenQ multi-scan monitor; this time from the same manufacturer, Pavel Vrebec of the Czech Republic, we'll inspect some new, more sophisticated Amiga RGB-to-VGA cables.

Our meeting will be a few days before the Bay Area Maker Faire, and we'll talk about that as well as the June 10-11 Pacific Commodore Expo NW and the July 29-30 Commodore Vegas Expo.

Because I'm going to the Pacific Commodore Expo NW, I'll be passing by Ray Carlsen's place on the way to and from Seattle, so if you have any Commodore 8-bit hardware that needs repair, bring it to the meeting, and I'll give it to Ray to fix.

As always, bring any Commodore or Amiga items you wish to share!

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network
http://www.portcommodore.com/sccan
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Re: Next SCCAN meeting - Saturday, May 13

Post by rbernardo »

rbernardo wrote:Hopefully, Mario will be bringing in his C128DCR and/or his Amiga 1000.
Mario has confirmed that he will be bringing his A1000.

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network
http://www.portcommodore.com/sccan
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Next FCUG meeting - Sunday, June 18

Post by rbernardo »

Happy Father's Day, C= and Ami aficionados!

The Fresno Commodore User Group has its next meeting from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., Sunday, June 18 at --

Bobby Salazar's Mexican Restaurant
2839 North Blackstone Ave. (corner of Blackstone and Michigan)
Fresno, California
(559) 227-1686

Note the changed time for the meeting; we must be out of the room in order for a Father's Day group to take over at 2.

Since our last meeting, two shows have happened -- the Bay Area Maker Faire and the Pacific Commodore Expo NW. I'll have a report and photos from both shows.

For the hardware part of the meeting, we'll examine a Video Toaster board for an Amiga 2000 and an Emplant board for the A2000, the latter board giving you classic Mac emulation when run on the Amiga. Also we'll look at the PAL VIC-20 just modded by Ray Carlsen and the low-cost universal Commodore power supply by Ray. Alex L. may be bringing his hardware for everyone; this what he says, "...C128D... Have GEOS ram expansion, Mini X-Pander, Final Cartridge III or Epyx Fastload, SD2IEC made by my polish friend, Wimodem connected to my cellphone so we can have it connected to BBS on the table in restaurant. Have C=Key for keyboard and by that time I should have it fully connected to LCD for both 40/80 columns. Also possibly I will have my A2000 fully setup with Vampire 500 V2+ that I just received."

In software, we'll look at some of the various C64 and VIC-20 software shown at the two above shows.

Finally, I have a special C= video to show everybody.

Writing from Starbucks in Grants Pass, Oregon,
on the way back to California,
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Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm
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Next FCUG meeting - Sunday, July 16

Post by rbernardo »

Happy CommVEx month, C= and Ami aficionados!

The Fresno Commodore User Group has its next meeting from 11 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., Sunday, July 16 at --

Bobby Salazar's Mexican Restaurant
2839 North Blackstone Ave. (corner of Blackstone and Michigan)
Fresno, California
(559) 227-1686

We are back to our regular meeting schedule, and for discussion the big topic is the July 29-30 Commodore Vegas Expo! We'll get into the last-minute details of the show so that we don't forget anything in the journey from California to Las Vegas. Also we'll look at the auction listing for Admiral Kirk's Commodore PET 2001 from the movie, "Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan!" (I was way outbid!) :)

For the hardware part of the meeting, we'll examine a bulletin board disk that was created on a SFD-1001 disk drive. Naturally, for that to happen, there will be a SFD-1001 disk drive with parallel cable and Telesys IEEE Interface (and if a club member can bring a meter, we could figure out the Batteries Included BusCard II IEEE interface's electrical pins that lead to a certain resistor on the C64). Member Alex may want to bring more of his Commodore or Amiga collection for us to see. Also if the Vampire 500 v2 board (for the Amiga 500/1000/2000) arrives in time, it will be on exhibit for all to see.

We have our usual, ambitious, software agenda to go through. For the VIC-20 -- Meteor Wave, VIChaos, VIC McKracken screenshot, Legend of the Lost Catacombs, and VIC-20 Doom. For the Plus/4 -- Botticelli Bilderdisk 42 (art graphics designed on the art program, Botticelli). For the C64/C128 plus SuperCPU -- RAY, Wolfenstein 3D, and Doom (all released by Mathias "AmiDog" Roslund and the last two being released within the last couple of months).

Truly,
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Fresno Commodore User Group
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Next SCCAN meeting - Saturday, July 22

Post by rbernardo »

Happy CommVEx month, C= and Ami comrades!

The next meeting of the Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network is Saturday, July 22, from 2 to 5+ p.m. at

Panera Bread Restaurant
19662 Nordhoff Street
Northridge, California
(818) 407-9400

I'll be talking a bit about Commodore at the May Maker Faire in San Mateo and the June Pacific Commodore Expo in Seattle. The big topic will be the July 29-30 Commodore Vegas Expo! In fact, by the time of our meeting, my car will be packed with most of the C= goods I need for CommVEx. :)

Though member Mario will be absent, I think Richard will be bringing in his NTSC/PAL-switchable Plus/4. The expanded Amiga 2000 is already off to Vegas, and so I'll have SX-64, Amiga 1200, AmigaOne G4, and PAL VIC-20 (the last two going to CommVEx, too). For the A1 G4, we'll look at a couple of DB9-to-USB joystick adapters from Retronic Designs of Canada. We'll try to connect all through the newish CommVEx projector - a NEC NP-400 with almost all the video inputs we'll ever need. The Vampire 500 board has not arrived in the mail, but if it should arrive by Saturday, then you'll get to see it.

Once again I'll be going up to Pacific NW in mid-August, so if you have any Commodore 8-bit hardware that needs repair by Ray Carlsen, bring it to the meeting (I already have an Amiga 1070 monitor, a Commodore CM-141 monitor, and C64 heavy-duty power supply that need to be fixed.).

As always, bring any Commodore or Amiga items you wish to share!

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network
http://www.portcommodore.com/sccan
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