Thanks! I thought at least the KCS cartridge was popular as well. When I started collecting in the end '90s, I picked up quite a few complete systems and I think I got 2 Action Replay, 2 Final Cartridge 3 and strangely enough., 2 KCS Power Cartridges... and I can find none of them :-( Also picked up one with SpeedDOS. From my own experience back in the days I, one friend and my cousin had Speed DOS. The cartridges became popular a little while after we got that SpeedDOS mod but then everyone who didn't want to mod the C64 got a cartridge. I think the FC3 was more popular, but I also think the AR is more useful to screw around in games like finding trainers and such. We'll see in one of my future videos ;-)
We used to know the Speedload V1.0 here in Finland with the name '30X TURBO' and I had it on almost all of my disks.. That 'IMPORTED BY BKS ODENWALD' sure brings back some memories 😊 Thanks a lot for the thorough video!
I think that was the best software speedloader. Like usual, it came with tons of different names. I wonder why noone hacked their own name into it instead of the 'imported by bkas odenwald'
Back in the days when the anticipation of a game loading was sometimes better than the game itself. And in other games the loading on the C64 was a joy to see and hear (Last Ninja for instance)
I know a couple of tapes where the loading is more enjoyable than the game. Can't remember any loading from floppy that was remarkable, except for GI Joe and Hot Wheels where the game loaded while the C64 was playing an animation an music. Fond that really impressive as a kid.
Great comparison! I used just 1 or 2 of them fastloaders, almost every disk with cracked games came with one, stored on the first place so it could be easily reached by loading asterisk or even there was a fileselector for launching games directly.
Never had any disks with a file selector. I never used those software fastloaders much. I think I only had Hypraload and Ultraload and both didn't seem to be worth the effort. I was a very slow typer pack in the days, so it took me about as long to type in the extra commands to load it as it would save loading the file I actually wanted to load. But I got SpeedDOS pretty soon, so it was just like one of those cartridges: Press F7 to get the directory, then move the cursor to the file you want to load and then press F5 to load it or run/stop to load and start it. It was slower than the Action Replay 5 or 6, but those weren't available yet and SpeedDOS was far more compatible and it also sped up games like Maniac Mansion which load a lot during gameplay.
Oh there are even more options... I probably missed a couple of software speeders and I could not test all of the cartridges, because I don't have an original copy and they are not supported by the Fashcart that I used. Not to mention all the hardware solutions which require to mod the C64 and/or the disk drive. There will probably a followup video to this one eventually
Danke! Ich hatte meinen C64 auf SpeedDOS umbauen lassen damals. Das war zwar nicht so schnell wie z.B. das Action Replay, aber dafür konnte das auch Nachladespiele wie Maniax Mansion beschleunigen. Das macht gerade bei dem Spiel ne Menge aus. Ich muss mal schauen ob ich nicht irgendwie einen meiner 64er und 1541 auf SpeedDOS UND DolphinDOS umbaue(n lasse) wenn das überhaupt geht, beides in der Floppy zu haben. Dann noch Jiffy DOS und im C64 dann noch EXOS und vielleicht ein paar andere, die keine Veränderung in der Floppy brauchen. Mal schauen, wie ich das hinbekomme. Dann mach ich auch ein zweites Video wo ich dann auch das mit den Nachladespielen demonstrieren kann. Mal schauen, wie ich das hinbekomme.
Hi Theshadowsnose. Just a few words from a follower. I 've followed your a couple of years, and it always relaxes me to see the old c64 and amiga movies. So, this way I want to thank you for all your work. I opened a google and youtube account recently. I am not a big fan of all that crap, but since it was the only way to draw you a few lines, I opened a google account for it. There is a question I like to ask. I would like to visit a few of the "retro beurzen" you visit to have retro nostalgia. Just I am not in the facebook scene very much and it is difficult to find the time and location. Kann ich dich irgendwo Kontaktieren dazu ? Grusse aus N13derlande. Bitte geht weiter mit video's.
Dank jij wel! Thanks for going through all the hassle to drop those lines! Contacting me is not easy since I don't have a public email and I'm not an Facebook. You can try twitter, but it may take a long time until I read a message there. If it's only for those Retrobeurzen, visit button-bashers.nl. There is a category 'Beurzen en Evenementen' We get our dates from there as well.
@@Theshadowsnose Sorry for replying late, I never received a hint there was a message waiting. Pity you don't use email.I understand you prefer no direct contact, all-right, I understand., I don't feel comfortable to enter my email in a youtube comment either. I had no alternative to contact you, that's all. I will keep an eye on this button-bashers, I like the name :). There are some c64 questions I like to ask, about the best solution for 1541 alternatives, or in common the best way to keep using the commodore 64 and have fun with it.
Great comparison video:) my brothers and I had a commodore 64 in the 80s as well as an Atari 800xl and an MSX..didn't bother with fastload cartridges then as we weren't in a hurry for the games to load..and alot of the hacked games were fast loading anyway:)
Thanks! Oh, I was really impatient back in the days. Never got one of those cartridges, but I had my C64 modded with SpeedDOS about a year after I got it. One day I will try to do a follow up to this video in which I will test some of the hardware speedloaders. I just have to find out how to get (one of my) C64/1541 modded, so that I can have SpeedDOS and at least one other parallel speeder, preferably Dolphin DOS. I don't know how popular those were outside of Germany or Europe, since most of those parallel speeders appear to be developed in Germany. The Americans had Jiffy DOS, which I hadn't even heard of back in the days. That didn't need an extra cable, but I wonder why not go the extra mile to add the parallel cable if you have to open your devices anyways.
Da ich noch keinen Original-C64 habe ist es zwar nicht mein Thema, aber du hast dir viel Arbeit mit diesem Video gemacht, Respekt dafür ! Meine Freunde, mit denen ich damals auf C64 und C128 gezockt habe, hatten dies nicht, kann mich erinneren dass wir mal The Last Ninja auf C64 spielten und es ewig gedauert hat bis es geladen war, dafür kamen wir aber auch wenigstens...nicht sehr weit im Spiel, war bockschwer 😅 Habe mal das Video von Angry Video gamer zu dem Spiel gesehen, ich habe mich weggelacht. Dabei spielte er es auch dem NES, musste also nicht ewig warten.
Woran liegts, dass du noch keinen Originalen C64 hast? Das erlebnis mit Originalhardware und einem Röhrenbildschirm ist noch was ganz anderes als am Emulator zu zocken. Das Video vom Nerd hab ich auch gesehen... ich fand das war eines seiner schlechteren Videos, wenn ich ehrlich bin. Ich muss aber gestehen, dass ich Last Ninja nie gut fand. Ich war zwar von der Grafik beeindruckt und die Musik ist mit das Beste was je auf dem C64 herausgekommen ist, aber das Spiel selber fand ich kacke. Muss aber auch sagen, dass ich solche "durch die Gegend laufen und aufsammlen" Spiele im Allgemeinen nicht mag. Und Last Ninja war von der Steuerung her praktisch unspielbar. Da hat der Nerd schon Recht, irgendwie. Bei der NES Version fehlt halt auch die geile Musik und die Grafik fand ich auch nicht so beeindruckend.
@@Theshadowsnose Der C64 steht noch auf meiner Wunschliste. Mir fehlt es noch an Platz, um der ganzen Hardware den gebührenden Raum zu geben, Habe vor meinen Speicher auszubauen und da einen Hobbyraum einzurichten. Das ist aber ein grösseres Projekt, das ich mit einer kompletten Dachisolierung kombinieren muss. Der C64C würde mich persönlich noch am meisten interessieren, weil es der war, den meine Freunde hatten. Die Videos vom Nerd sind natürlich bewusst übertrieben dargestellt, aber bei der Szene als er auf das Boot springen soll, konnte ich nicht mehr.
@@AndREDraut Ich konnte gerade die Stelle aber auch gut nachvollziehen. Mir ist es an der einen Stelle wo man auf die Felsen springen muss um über den Fluss zu kommen nicht anders gegangen. Das war dann kurz bevor ich aufgehört hab zu spielen. Heute aufm Emulator mit save states vielleicht, aber auf der originalhardware ohne die Möglichkeit abzuspeichern ist das einfach zu frustrierend.
I dont remember for sure, but I think you can hold one of the buttons on the FC3 when switching on, to go directly to basic. Would you consider doing another one but for turbotapes? :D
Yes you can hold a button pressed to skip the startup menue for both, the Final Cartridge and the Action Replay as well. But I always forget :-) I've already done a Turbotape version years ago ;-) It's just that speed testing is a little pointless since over 90% of the Turbotape programs you can find are Turbotape 64 compatible, so they all load at the same speed. And the ones that aren't compatible with Turbotape64 are so uncommon that it's pointless. Turbotape64 already pushes the good old Datassette to its limit. Anything faster becomes quite unreliable very quickly. So I only tested other aspects like how large can a file be to still work with that Turbo Tape. And the differences between the Turbotapes are much larger in how many blocks they can load that with the floppy speedloaders. I also tested what extra functions they provide, how easy they are to operate... some had to be operated with SYS12345"FILENAME" to load a file! I also looked at the file size since you are likely to load them from the very slow tape. but you can watch yourself... ruclips.net/video/tuFnkh5EqDQ/видео.html
@@Theshadowsnose Ah, yes. I remember now (rewatched it). I've seen the turbotape one long time ago. I miss one though, it was somewhat popular in norway called "R.V Turbo Tape". The screen during loading was the black/red one with the screeching sounds, so I guess it was a variant of the Turbo Tape II that you have - likely someone appropriated it. You ever hear of this one?
I think the Eypx Fastload cartridge was the first fast loader that was available in the USA. I got one and was disappointed to learn that it did nothing to speed up loading original disks. It worked great on cracked, one-file games though (for the time). I later upgraded to the Super Snapshot. I got it mostly for the freeze function and the other features (ML Monitor, screenshot saver, etc). I think Action Replay may have had more features, but at the time, SS was the one that appealed to me. It was a plus that the fast loader was faster than Fastload. Epyx had a software Application called The Vorpal Utility Kit. It wouldn't help with loading normal files, but you could use it to convert single files to a special format and then they would load very fast. It was the same loader that Epyx used on some of their later games like Super Cycle and International Karate. When the 1541 drive is loading, you can hear the head switching tracks. With a plain drive, it's like a minute between track changes. When you use a good fast loader cartridge, it's every 1-2 seconds. With the Vorpal loader, it's about half a second between track changes. I have a Super Snapshot V3 cartridge and as I recall, it came with a similar utility program (on disk, not built into the cartridge) to the Epyx one. You could convert one or two file games into the special format. I THINK they would load without the cartridge, but if you had it plugged in, they maybe loaded even faster. The disadvantage was that such files couldn't be copied by normal methods, you had to use the utility itself to copy them. You could copy the whole disk though. To be honest, I only used it a few times. Like when I was using the freezer function to save my position in a game like Uridium, and I wanted to be able to load it as quickly as possible when I went back to it. I didn't like that the files couldn't be copied by normal methods, but I guess that's the price you have to pay for the absolute fastest disk loading possible on the C64.
I'm not 100% sure if I was aware of the Epyx cartridge back in the days, but I knew about the inablility of 'software' fastloaders to speed up multi load games. When I saw SpeedDOS on my older cousin's C64, I was hooked with that and I desperately wanted a hardware fastloader. SpeedDOS was great. It may not have been the fastest, but it was very compatible AND it did speed up multi load games like Maniac Mansion or Pirates. A nice bonus was 15-sec copy and the Burst Nibbler. The first one copied an entire disk side in 15 seconds and the latter was able to 'clone' copy protected disks. Comparable to 'Clone CD'. This was also before 'proper" cartridge based speedloader were available. The FC III and the AR MK5 came a year or so later and their earlier incarnations were just as fast as the Epyx cartridge. I remember 'Vorpal' and I think I actually played around with ist for a little while, but I did find it too complicated and not worth the effort. Later in the '90s the popularity of hardware speedloaders declined. With the FC III and the AR MK5 and Mk6 they seemed far less attractive. I never had an FC or AR back in the days, but one of my mates had one and I remember that we used it a couple of times to freeze single load tape games to save them to disk to avoid the slow and cumbersome tape loading. I only recently learned about the Super Snapshot cartridge. It seems to be pretty much on par with the Action Replay, but it feels like it wasn't really popular over here in Europe. The Action Replay was a hard competitor and to be honest, I could not find any reason to prefer the Super Snapshot aver the Action Replay.
@@Theshadowsnose Looking at them objectively, the later AR cartridges probably have more features than the equivalent SS carts. AR wasn't as common here in the US, and for whatever reason, I liked the style of SS better. I think maybe it's because even the earlier SS carts had a nice looking menu, while the pictures I saw of the AR just showed a basic looking text menu. I only ever saw the FC once at someone else's house and it booted up that GUI. I didn't like that at all. Long before I got SS, a friend of mine had an Isepic cartridge. It would freeze games, but didn't have any other features. On the plus side, it had a toggle switch that made it completely invisible to software. I borrowed it and used it to make copies of a few games that I had originals of, like Archon and Archon II. I forget what game it was now, but I once found a game that was immune to SS's freeze button. It was already cracked, but I wanted to try and give myself unlimited lives, however when I pressed the freeze button, nothing happened.
@@lurkerrekrul I also hated that GUI from the FC3. It was so useless and a lot of people found it so cool... I never understood why. Considering all features, the AR is a far better Cartridge than the FC. I haven't played around with the SS to judge its features, but at least the fast loader did not disappoint. It really feels like the FC & AR were popular in Europe and the SS in America. Same with SpeedDOS and JiffyDOS. I haven't heard about JiffyDOS until I started collecting again in the late '90s, early '00s. There were obviously reviews in magazines over here, but either I never read them or they were released after I got my Amiga. Didn't read too much about new developments on the C64 after that 🙂 I bet there aren't many people in America who heard of SpeedDOS ;-) I remember the 'Isepic' Logo from some 'backups' that I had back in the days. They were usually frowned upon, because there was no scill involved to 'crac' a game with Isepic and they also often had some glitches. Never seen an Isepic cartridge in person.
@@Theshadowsnose Over here, I feel like we only really heard about JiffyDOS. I think it was fairly expensive, which is why I never got it. Also, I think by the time it came out, I was already looking forward to the Amiga, although I could be wrong about that. I liked Super Snapshot, although there were features I wished it had. For example, I wish they had added some RAM to it, so that it could copy an entire disk in one pass, rather than having to swap disks. It had a sort of quicksave or rewind function for games, but it never seemed to work that well. I don't think mine had a trainer maker, but that's something I wanted. I think later versions may have had that. I also hated that to upgrade, you had to send in your old cartridge and then wait for them to send the new one. I wish they would have let you order the upgrade, then send in the old one once you got it, so you didn't have to be without the cartridge. That was if you were upgrading. You could of course just buy the new version, but that was quite a bit more money. I had a lot of fun with the screenshot option. I used to make slideshows of game title screens. I even had some of them playing in a local computer store for a while. I had quite a few Isepic games back then. There was a little bit of skill in using it, or any freezer cartridge, in that you had to freeze the game at just the right instant so that you didn't do it too soon while it was still loading, or too late and cut off the start of any title screen music. I remember that when I did Archon, it took 2-3 tries before I hit it perfectly at the end of the load, but before the title music started. I always tried to make the frozen copy as complete as possible. A couple games had title screens that showed before the game loaded and I would add a small loader to display them before loading the game. Usually this had to be a separate file as I didn't have the skill to combine it with the snapshotted game file.
Thanks! I also use both Cartridges. One day I like the FC3 more, the other day I like the AR more. But now I want to go to the next level and mod one of my C64s and my 1541s with multiple Fastloaders including parallel ones. I would like to have Dolphin DOS, Speed DOS, Jiffy DOS and if possible some others, but I'm not sure if that is possible. SpeedDOS and JiffyDOS is no problem. The parallel cable doesn't bother Jiffy DOS, and SpeedDOS is nothing more than a different ROM and that parallel cable. But Dolphin DOS is more. And I'm still trying to figure out what exactly ;-) Playing around with VICE sort of gives me an idea, but VICE is driving me nuts! I don't know if it's because I'm using Linux, but something just doesn't work right if you use multiple different settings... if things like selecting the same rom file you have already selected fixes stuff, you have to do some serious meditation to avoid snapping ;-) But that's a project for the mid future. The next one is going to be an ordeal, I think. I want to test the freezer functionality of those cartridges and the other functionalities like disk copy or assemble monitor as well. That means I probably have to read the manuals and learn how to operate them. And at least the Action Replay also has cheat funktions like poke finder and collision killer, etc. That will be a fun test as well. Also a good opportunity to test my 'Game Killer' cartridge :-)
I'm not completely sure what is being tested here but i assume it's how fast it will load a game. I had the FCIII and i remember you could use it to load a game normally and then use the FCIII to make a copy that would load much faster. I only had cassette and the limitation was that if it was a game that first loaded the game and then when you progressed it loaded some more, it could not make a fast copy. Only games that loaded and then that was it.
Yes, I'm testing how fast different fastloaders load the games from Disk. Using tape, copying the game with the Final Cartridge can speed up things because it uses the TurboTape64 format that is usually faster than the fastloader the publishers use. We used that to save games to disk that would usually load slow from tape. Of course if the game would continue to load from tape at some point you're screwed
You can type LOAD "...",8: (with a colon at the end) instead of erasing the PRG after the filename. Also works with RUN (RUN: instead of clearing the screen). Makes life a little easier I guess :)
I know, but I don't use it often enough to remember when I'm sitting in front of the machine. I always either use SpeedDOS on my old C64 that I got in '85 when I work with real floppy disks, or I use the Action Replay when I use the Pi1541. I think, you can also press SHIPT+ run/stop instead of RETURN after that colon to have it load and autostart afterwards
@@Theshadowsnose Spoilt by the fastloaders :D I usually run emulators and use the built-in speedload so no shortcuts there either. When I am done with my "retro corner table" I will also be using hardware again. Getting an Action Replay (or using it virtually) might be the way to go then. Shift+Run/Stop... I had forgotten about that. 👍
The best speedloader when you use real hardware through and through is probably a parallel one, if you are able to solder it in yourself or have someone who can do it for you. But it of course won't benefit any more modern device like SD2IEC or even the Pi1541. The next best would probably be Jiffy DOS. Yhou only have to replpace the ROM chips in both the C64 and the floppy, but it dos work with both the SD2IEC and the Pi1541. Which cartridge is the most useful totally depends on what you are going to use. If you don't want to use the SD2IEC, the Action Replay cartridges are the ones to go for... period ;-) If you do want to use the SD2IEC, the FCIII is the one you probably want. There is a modern remake of the FC3, the FC3+ which, as far as I know already has some tools included to make your life with the SD2IEC easier and you can buy it new for not too much money. And of course you can always use an Easyflash³ or the Kung-Fu Flash to 'emulate' the FCIII or the AR if you can't find them for a decent price. You can get the original cartridges for MUCH less money than I stated at the end of the video if you are patient and/or lucky as I demonstrated in my recent pick up video :-)
I use the fast loader from my Action Replay MK 6 cartridge. If the file doesn't work I use Gigaload and TNT Fast Load which are also 15 times faster like Action Replay fast loader.
I also use the AR fastloader in every day life. If that doesn't work, I load at normal speed, but that's for less than 5% of all games. When I use real floppy disks, I still use my original setup which is modded with SpeedDOS
@@Theshadowsnose I've read that the Final Cartridge 3 Speedloader in combination with SD2IEC is about 20 times faster. Is that true? The funny thing is that the PET from 1977 has a parallel floppy connection and VC-20 and C64 only serial.
Sadly the Expert Cartridge doesn't work with my Kung Fu Flash and I don't have an original copy. But I think, the Action Replay gets the maximum out of the serial interface. And to be honest, that's fast enough. I don't crave for faster loading when I use the Action Replay. Even when I use the FC3 it's fine. Waiting 10 or 15 seconds for a game to load is totally tolerable. Especailly compared to one and a half to two and a half minutes! The stock 1541 is ridiculously slow! I prefer the AR because it's faster, but I like the F-Keys on the FC3 more, so I use both. But none of those cartridges speed up the loading in multiload games like Maniac Mansion. Don't know if Jiffy DOS does, but I know from my own experience that SpeedDOS does. So the next mission is to get some sort of hardware speeder to speed those games up as well. Would be great if Jiffy DOS would do the trick because that will work with my Pi1541.
LOL! Better than the loading times on ANY playstation! And there is no Action Replay for them where you can speed up the loading 15 times by inserting a cartridge!
Ich wusste garnicht, dass es Space Taxi für den Atari gibt. Ist wohl ein neuer Homebrew... aber immerhin scheint das auf einem 64k Rechner zu laufen. EIGENTLICH mache ich ja im Moment keine Vergleichsvideos, aber das könnte ich tatsächlich mal probieren. Dann halt ohne Sprache auf dem Atari. Dann nehm ich nen C64c mit dem neuen SID, dann hab ich auf dem C64 auch keine Sprache ;-) Mal schauen. Ich kann nichts versprechen.
Ja, ist ein neues Homebrew. Wusste gar nicht, dass Du nur 64KB Ataris hast. Noch nicht einmal ein AVGCart? Das hat ja mit der aktuellsten Firmware auch gleich eine Speichererweiterung dabei. Oder Du nimmst es gleich zum Anlass und kaufst ein SUBAVGCart, das hat neben ATR und CAR-Funktionalität eben auch die gewünschte Speichererweiterung UND noch eine Stereo-POKEY-Emulation dabei und alles ohne löten. Aber ein Vergleichsvideo auf einem 64K-Atari und C64 geht auch, ich finde Deine Vergleichsvideos immer mega unterhaltsam.
So glad you're gradually coming back bro. Love your videos👍
Thanks!
@@Theshadowsnose Now make some new Midnight Club 3, and Test Drive Unlimited videos! ;)
Every C64 I saw in the Netherlands, had FCIII in it. Great times. Good to see you again.
Thanks!
I thought at least the KCS cartridge was popular as well.
When I started collecting in the end '90s, I picked up quite a few complete systems and I think I got 2 Action Replay, 2 Final Cartridge 3 and strangely enough., 2 KCS Power Cartridges... and I can find none of them :-(
Also picked up one with SpeedDOS.
From my own experience back in the days I, one friend and my cousin had Speed DOS. The cartridges became popular a little while after we got that SpeedDOS mod but then everyone who didn't want to mod the C64 got a cartridge.
I think the FC3 was more popular, but I also think the AR is more useful to screw around in games like finding trainers and such.
We'll see in one of my future videos ;-)
Great to see you return 😀
Thanks!
Best white T-shirt ever. This is a good comeback also Shadow.
Thank You!
We used to know the Speedload V1.0 here in Finland with the name '30X TURBO' and I had it on almost all of my disks.. That 'IMPORTED BY BKS ODENWALD' sure brings back some memories 😊 Thanks a lot for the thorough video!
I think that was the best software speedloader.
Like usual, it came with tons of different names. I wonder why noone hacked their own name into it instead of the 'imported by bkas odenwald'
good to see you back
Thanks!
Back in the days when the anticipation of a game loading was sometimes better than the game itself. And in other games the loading on the C64 was a joy to see and hear (Last Ninja for instance)
I know a couple of tapes where the loading is more enjoyable than the game.
Can't remember any loading from floppy that was remarkable, except for GI Joe and Hot Wheels where the game loaded while the C64 was playing an animation an music.
Fond that really impressive as a kid.
Great comparison! I used just 1 or 2 of them fastloaders, almost every disk with cracked games came with one, stored on the first place so it could be easily reached by loading asterisk or even there was a fileselector for launching games directly.
Never had any disks with a file selector.
I never used those software fastloaders much. I think I only had Hypraload and Ultraload and both didn't seem to be worth the effort.
I was a very slow typer pack in the days, so it took me about as long to type in the extra commands to load it as it would save loading the file I actually wanted to load.
But I got SpeedDOS pretty soon, so it was just like one of those cartridges: Press F7 to get the directory, then move the cursor to the file you want to load and then press F5 to load it or run/stop to load and start it.
It was slower than the Action Replay 5 or 6, but those weren't available yet and SpeedDOS was far more compatible and it also sped up games like Maniac Mansion which load a lot during gameplay.
Awesome did not know there where so many different options 😁
Oh there are even more options... I probably missed a couple of software speeders and I could not test all of the cartridges, because I don't have an original copy and they are not supported by the Fashcart that I used.
Not to mention all the hardware solutions which require to mod the C64 and/or the disk drive.
There will probably a followup video to this one eventually
Schön, mal wieder was zu sehen. Diese Speedloader haben uns das Zocken doch etwas erleichtert.
Danke!
Ich hatte meinen C64 auf SpeedDOS umbauen lassen damals.
Das war zwar nicht so schnell wie z.B. das Action Replay, aber dafür konnte das auch Nachladespiele wie Maniax Mansion beschleunigen. Das macht gerade bei dem Spiel ne Menge aus.
Ich muss mal schauen ob ich nicht irgendwie einen meiner 64er und 1541 auf SpeedDOS UND DolphinDOS umbaue(n lasse) wenn das überhaupt geht, beides in der Floppy zu haben. Dann noch Jiffy DOS und im C64 dann noch EXOS und vielleicht ein paar andere, die keine Veränderung in der Floppy brauchen.
Mal schauen, wie ich das hinbekomme.
Dann mach ich auch ein zweites Video wo ich dann auch das mit den Nachladespielen demonstrieren kann.
Mal schauen, wie ich das hinbekomme.
Hi Theshadowsnose. Just a few words from a follower. I 've followed your a couple of years, and it always relaxes me to see the old c64 and amiga movies. So, this way I want to thank you for all your work. I opened a google and youtube account recently. I am not a big fan of all that crap, but since it was the only way to draw you a few lines, I opened a google account for it. There is a question I like to ask. I would like to visit a few of the "retro beurzen" you visit to have retro nostalgia. Just I am not in the facebook scene very much and it is difficult to find the time and location. Kann ich dich irgendwo Kontaktieren dazu ? Grusse aus N13derlande. Bitte geht weiter mit video's.
Dank jij wel!
Thanks for going through all the hassle to drop those lines!
Contacting me is not easy since I don't have a public email and I'm not an Facebook.
You can try twitter, but it may take a long time until I read a message there.
If it's only for those Retrobeurzen, visit button-bashers.nl.
There is a category 'Beurzen en Evenementen'
We get our dates from there as well.
@@Theshadowsnose Sorry for replying late, I never received a hint there was a message waiting. Pity you don't use email.I understand you prefer no direct contact, all-right, I understand., I don't feel comfortable to enter my email in a youtube comment either. I had no alternative to contact you, that's all. I will keep an eye on this button-bashers, I like the name :). There are some c64 questions I like to ask, about the best solution for 1541 alternatives, or in common the best way to keep using the commodore 64 and have fun with it.
Great comparison video:) my brothers and I had a commodore 64 in the 80s as well as an Atari 800xl and an MSX..didn't bother with fastload cartridges then as we weren't in a hurry for the games to load..and alot of the hacked games were fast loading anyway:)
Thanks!
Oh, I was really impatient back in the days. Never got one of those cartridges, but I had my C64 modded with SpeedDOS about a year after I got it.
One day I will try to do a follow up to this video in which I will test some of the hardware speedloaders. I just have to find out how to get (one of my) C64/1541 modded, so that I can have SpeedDOS and at least one other parallel speeder, preferably Dolphin DOS.
I don't know how popular those were outside of Germany or Europe, since most of those parallel speeders appear to be developed in Germany.
The Americans had Jiffy DOS, which I hadn't even heard of back in the days. That didn't need an extra cable, but I wonder why not go the extra mile to add the parallel cable if you have to open your devices anyways.
The only one we had access to was called "Superdos", I wonder how it stacks up to the ones on test.
with a quick search I could not find "superdos", so I honestly can't answer that question.
Was it a program, a cartridge or a kernal replacement?
Da ich noch keinen Original-C64 habe ist es zwar nicht mein Thema, aber du hast dir viel Arbeit mit diesem Video gemacht, Respekt dafür ! Meine Freunde, mit denen ich damals auf C64 und C128 gezockt habe, hatten dies nicht, kann mich erinneren dass wir mal The Last Ninja auf C64 spielten und es ewig gedauert hat bis es geladen war, dafür kamen wir aber auch wenigstens...nicht sehr weit im Spiel, war bockschwer 😅 Habe mal das Video von Angry Video gamer zu dem Spiel gesehen, ich habe mich weggelacht. Dabei spielte er es auch dem NES, musste also nicht ewig warten.
Woran liegts, dass du noch keinen Originalen C64 hast?
Das erlebnis mit Originalhardware und einem Röhrenbildschirm ist noch was ganz anderes als am Emulator zu zocken.
Das Video vom Nerd hab ich auch gesehen... ich fand das war eines seiner schlechteren Videos, wenn ich ehrlich bin.
Ich muss aber gestehen, dass ich Last Ninja nie gut fand.
Ich war zwar von der Grafik beeindruckt und die Musik ist mit das Beste was je auf dem C64 herausgekommen ist, aber das Spiel selber fand ich kacke.
Muss aber auch sagen, dass ich solche "durch die Gegend laufen und aufsammlen" Spiele im Allgemeinen nicht mag. Und Last Ninja war von der Steuerung her praktisch unspielbar. Da hat der Nerd schon Recht, irgendwie.
Bei der NES Version fehlt halt auch die geile Musik und die Grafik fand ich auch nicht so beeindruckend.
@@Theshadowsnose Der C64 steht noch auf meiner Wunschliste. Mir fehlt es noch an Platz, um der ganzen Hardware den gebührenden Raum zu geben, Habe vor meinen Speicher auszubauen und da einen Hobbyraum einzurichten. Das ist aber ein grösseres Projekt, das ich mit einer kompletten Dachisolierung kombinieren muss. Der C64C würde mich persönlich noch am meisten interessieren, weil es der war, den meine Freunde hatten. Die Videos vom Nerd sind natürlich bewusst übertrieben dargestellt, aber bei der Szene als er auf das Boot springen soll, konnte ich nicht mehr.
@@AndREDraut Ich konnte gerade die Stelle aber auch gut nachvollziehen.
Mir ist es an der einen Stelle wo man auf die Felsen springen muss um über den Fluss zu kommen nicht anders gegangen.
Das war dann kurz bevor ich aufgehört hab zu spielen.
Heute aufm Emulator mit save states vielleicht, aber auf der originalhardware ohne die Möglichkeit abzuspeichern ist das einfach zu frustrierend.
I dont remember for sure, but I think you can hold one of the buttons on the FC3 when switching on, to go directly to basic. Would you consider doing another one but for turbotapes? :D
Yes you can hold a button pressed to skip the startup menue for both, the Final Cartridge and the Action Replay as well.
But I always forget :-)
I've already done a Turbotape version years ago ;-)
It's just that speed testing is a little pointless since over 90% of the Turbotape programs you can find are Turbotape 64 compatible, so they all load at the same speed. And the ones that aren't compatible with Turbotape64 are so uncommon that it's pointless. Turbotape64 already pushes the good old Datassette to its limit. Anything faster becomes quite unreliable very quickly.
So I only tested other aspects like how large can a file be to still work with that Turbo Tape. And the differences between the Turbotapes are much larger in how many blocks they can load that with the floppy speedloaders.
I also tested what extra functions they provide, how easy they are to operate... some had to be operated with SYS12345"FILENAME" to load a file!
I also looked at the file size since you are likely to load them from the very slow tape.
but you can watch yourself...
ruclips.net/video/tuFnkh5EqDQ/видео.html
@@Theshadowsnose Ah, yes. I remember now (rewatched it). I've seen the turbotape one long time ago. I miss one though, it was somewhat popular in norway called "R.V Turbo Tape". The screen during loading was the black/red one with the screeching sounds, so I guess it was a variant of the Turbo Tape II that you have - likely someone appropriated it. You ever hear of this one?
No, I haven't heard of it.
It could also be a variant of the ABC turbo (?). That one hat white flashing bars and that screaming noise as well
I think the Eypx Fastload cartridge was the first fast loader that was available in the USA. I got one and was disappointed to learn that it did nothing to speed up loading original disks. It worked great on cracked, one-file games though (for the time). I later upgraded to the Super Snapshot. I got it mostly for the freeze function and the other features (ML Monitor, screenshot saver, etc). I think Action Replay may have had more features, but at the time, SS was the one that appealed to me. It was a plus that the fast loader was faster than Fastload.
Epyx had a software Application called The Vorpal Utility Kit. It wouldn't help with loading normal files, but you could use it to convert single files to a special format and then they would load very fast. It was the same loader that Epyx used on some of their later games like Super Cycle and International Karate. When the 1541 drive is loading, you can hear the head switching tracks. With a plain drive, it's like a minute between track changes. When you use a good fast loader cartridge, it's every 1-2 seconds. With the Vorpal loader, it's about half a second between track changes.
I have a Super Snapshot V3 cartridge and as I recall, it came with a similar utility program (on disk, not built into the cartridge) to the Epyx one. You could convert one or two file games into the special format. I THINK they would load without the cartridge, but if you had it plugged in, they maybe loaded even faster. The disadvantage was that such files couldn't be copied by normal methods, you had to use the utility itself to copy them. You could copy the whole disk though.
To be honest, I only used it a few times. Like when I was using the freezer function to save my position in a game like Uridium, and I wanted to be able to load it as quickly as possible when I went back to it. I didn't like that the files couldn't be copied by normal methods, but I guess that's the price you have to pay for the absolute fastest disk loading possible on the C64.
I'm not 100% sure if I was aware of the Epyx cartridge back in the days, but I knew about the inablility of 'software' fastloaders to speed up multi load games.
When I saw SpeedDOS on my older cousin's C64, I was hooked with that and I desperately wanted a hardware fastloader.
SpeedDOS was great.
It may not have been the fastest, but it was very compatible AND it did speed up multi load games like Maniac Mansion or Pirates.
A nice bonus was 15-sec copy and the Burst Nibbler.
The first one copied an entire disk side in 15 seconds and the latter was able to 'clone' copy protected disks. Comparable to 'Clone CD'.
This was also before 'proper" cartridge based speedloader were available.
The FC III and the AR MK5 came a year or so later and their earlier incarnations were just as fast as the Epyx cartridge.
I remember 'Vorpal' and I think I actually played around with ist for a little while, but I did find it too complicated and not worth the effort.
Later in the '90s the popularity of hardware speedloaders declined. With the FC III and the AR MK5 and Mk6 they seemed far less attractive.
I never had an FC or AR back in the days, but one of my mates had one and I remember that we used it a couple of times to freeze single load tape games to save them to disk to avoid the slow and cumbersome tape loading.
I only recently learned about the Super Snapshot cartridge.
It seems to be pretty much on par with the Action Replay, but it feels like it wasn't really popular over here in Europe.
The Action Replay was a hard competitor and to be honest, I could not find any reason to prefer the Super Snapshot aver the Action Replay.
@@Theshadowsnose Looking at them objectively, the later AR cartridges probably have more features than the equivalent SS carts. AR wasn't as common here in the US, and for whatever reason, I liked the style of SS better. I think maybe it's because even the earlier SS carts had a nice looking menu, while the pictures I saw of the AR just showed a basic looking text menu. I only ever saw the FC once at someone else's house and it booted up that GUI. I didn't like that at all.
Long before I got SS, a friend of mine had an Isepic cartridge. It would freeze games, but didn't have any other features. On the plus side, it had a toggle switch that made it completely invisible to software. I borrowed it and used it to make copies of a few games that I had originals of, like Archon and Archon II. I forget what game it was now, but I once found a game that was immune to SS's freeze button. It was already cracked, but I wanted to try and give myself unlimited lives, however when I pressed the freeze button, nothing happened.
@@lurkerrekrul I also hated that GUI from the FC3.
It was so useless and a lot of people found it so cool... I never understood why.
Considering all features, the AR is a far better Cartridge than the FC.
I haven't played around with the SS to judge its features, but at least the fast loader did not disappoint.
It really feels like the FC & AR were popular in Europe and the SS in America.
Same with SpeedDOS and JiffyDOS.
I haven't heard about JiffyDOS until I started collecting again in the late '90s, early '00s.
There were obviously reviews in magazines over here, but either I never read them or they were released after I got my Amiga.
Didn't read too much about new developments on the C64 after that 🙂
I bet there aren't many people in America who heard of SpeedDOS ;-)
I remember the 'Isepic' Logo from some 'backups' that I had back in the days.
They were usually frowned upon, because there was no scill involved to 'crac' a game with Isepic and they also often had some glitches.
Never seen an Isepic cartridge in person.
@@Theshadowsnose Over here, I feel like we only really heard about JiffyDOS. I think it was fairly expensive, which is why I never got it. Also, I think by the time it came out, I was already looking forward to the Amiga, although I could be wrong about that.
I liked Super Snapshot, although there were features I wished it had. For example, I wish they had added some RAM to it, so that it could copy an entire disk in one pass, rather than having to swap disks. It had a sort of quicksave or rewind function for games, but it never seemed to work that well. I don't think mine had a trainer maker, but that's something I wanted. I think later versions may have had that. I also hated that to upgrade, you had to send in your old cartridge and then wait for them to send the new one. I wish they would have let you order the upgrade, then send in the old one once you got it, so you didn't have to be without the cartridge. That was if you were upgrading. You could of course just buy the new version, but that was quite a bit more money.
I had a lot of fun with the screenshot option. I used to make slideshows of game title screens. I even had some of them playing in a local computer store for a while.
I had quite a few Isepic games back then. There was a little bit of skill in using it, or any freezer cartridge, in that you had to freeze the game at just the right instant so that you didn't do it too soon while it was still loading, or too late and cut off the start of any title screen music. I remember that when I did Archon, it took 2-3 tries before I hit it perfectly at the end of the load, but before the title music started. I always tried to make the frozen copy as complete as possible. A couple games had title screens that showed before the game loaded and I would add a small loader to display them before loading the game. Usually this had to be a separate file as I didn't have the skill to combine it with the snapshotted game file.
Welcome back
Really interesting comparison. Actually I use my FC III with the SD2IEC and the AR VI with my 1541.
Thanks!
I also use both Cartridges. One day I like the FC3 more, the other day I like the AR more.
But now I want to go to the next level and mod one of my C64s and my 1541s with multiple Fastloaders including parallel ones.
I would like to have Dolphin DOS, Speed DOS, Jiffy DOS and if possible some others, but I'm not sure if that is possible.
SpeedDOS and JiffyDOS is no problem. The parallel cable doesn't bother Jiffy DOS, and SpeedDOS is nothing more than a different ROM and that parallel cable. But Dolphin DOS is more. And I'm still trying to figure out what exactly ;-)
Playing around with VICE sort of gives me an idea, but VICE is driving me nuts!
I don't know if it's because I'm using Linux, but something just doesn't work right if you use multiple different settings... if things like selecting the same rom file you have already selected fixes stuff, you have to do some serious meditation to avoid snapping ;-)
But that's a project for the mid future.
The next one is going to be an ordeal, I think.
I want to test the freezer functionality of those cartridges and the other functionalities like disk copy or assemble monitor as well. That means I probably have to read the manuals and learn how to operate them.
And at least the Action Replay also has cheat funktions like poke finder and collision killer, etc.
That will be a fun test as well.
Also a good opportunity to test my 'Game Killer' cartridge :-)
I'm not completely sure what is being tested here but i assume it's how fast it will load a game. I had the FCIII and i remember you could use it to load a game normally and then use the FCIII to make a copy that would load much faster. I only had cassette and the limitation was that if it was a game that first loaded the game and then when you progressed it loaded some more, it could not make a fast copy. Only games that loaded and then that was it.
And when i said "had" i mean have. I never threw anything out from the C64.
Yes, I'm testing how fast different fastloaders load the games from Disk.
Using tape, copying the game with the Final Cartridge can speed up things because it uses the TurboTape64 format that is usually faster than the fastloader the publishers use.
We used that to save games to disk that would usually load slow from tape.
Of course if the game would continue to load from tape at some point you're screwed
You can type LOAD "...",8: (with a colon at the end) instead of erasing the PRG after the filename. Also works with RUN (RUN: instead of clearing the screen). Makes life a little easier I guess :)
I know, but I don't use it often enough to remember when I'm sitting in front of the machine.
I always either use SpeedDOS on my old C64 that I got in '85 when I work with real floppy disks, or I use the Action Replay when I use the Pi1541.
I think, you can also press SHIPT+ run/stop instead of RETURN after that colon to have it load and autostart afterwards
@@Theshadowsnose Spoilt by the fastloaders :D I usually run emulators and use the built-in speedload so no shortcuts there either. When I am done with my "retro corner table" I will also be using hardware again. Getting an Action Replay (or using it virtually) might be the way to go then.
Shift+Run/Stop... I had forgotten about that. 👍
The best speedloader when you use real hardware through and through is probably a parallel one, if you are able to solder it in yourself or have someone who can do it for you.
But it of course won't benefit any more modern device like SD2IEC or even the Pi1541.
The next best would probably be Jiffy DOS. Yhou only have to replpace the ROM chips in both the C64 and the floppy, but it dos work with both the SD2IEC and the Pi1541.
Which cartridge is the most useful totally depends on what you are going to use.
If you don't want to use the SD2IEC, the Action Replay cartridges are the ones to go for... period ;-)
If you do want to use the SD2IEC, the FCIII is the one you probably want.
There is a modern remake of the FC3, the FC3+ which, as far as I know already has some tools included to make your life with the SD2IEC easier and you can buy it new for not too much money.
And of course you can always use an Easyflash³ or the Kung-Fu Flash to 'emulate' the FCIII or the AR if you can't find them for a decent price.
You can get the original cartridges for MUCH less money than I stated at the end of the video if you are patient and/or lucky as I demonstrated in my recent pick up video :-)
I use the fast loader from my Action Replay MK 6 cartridge. If the file doesn't work I use Gigaload and TNT Fast Load which are also 15 times faster like Action Replay fast loader.
I also use the AR fastloader in every day life.
If that doesn't work, I load at normal speed, but that's for less than 5% of all games.
When I use real floppy disks, I still use my original setup which is modded with SpeedDOS
@@Theshadowsnose I've read that the Final Cartridge 3 Speedloader in combination with SD2IEC is about 20 times faster. Is that true? The funny thing is that the PET from 1977 has a parallel floppy connection and VC-20 and C64 only serial.
FC III Is my favourite. But the fastloader that came with the Expert Cartridge from Cat & Korsh was faster.
Sadly the Expert Cartridge doesn't work with my Kung Fu Flash and I don't have an original copy.
But I think, the Action Replay gets the maximum out of the serial interface. And to be honest, that's fast enough.
I don't crave for faster loading when I use the Action Replay.
Even when I use the FC3 it's fine.
Waiting 10 or 15 seconds for a game to load is totally tolerable. Especailly compared to one and a half to two and a half minutes!
The stock 1541 is ridiculously slow!
I prefer the AR because it's faster, but I like the F-Keys on the FC3 more, so I use both.
But none of those cartridges speed up the loading in multiload games like Maniac Mansion. Don't know if Jiffy DOS does, but I know from my own experience that SpeedDOS does.
So the next mission is to get some sort of hardware speeder to speed those games up as well.
Would be great if Jiffy DOS would do the trick because that will work with my Pi1541.
Better load times than a PlayStation 5 😅
LOL!
Better than the loading times on ANY playstation!
And there is no Action Replay for them where you can speed up the loading 15 times by inserting a cartridge!
Hi! Ich mag Deine Vergleichsvideos.
Du solltest mal von "SpaceTaxi" auf dem C64 und Atari XL ein Vergleichsvideo machen.
Ich wusste garnicht, dass es Space Taxi für den Atari gibt.
Ist wohl ein neuer Homebrew... aber immerhin scheint das auf einem 64k Rechner zu laufen.
EIGENTLICH mache ich ja im Moment keine Vergleichsvideos, aber das könnte ich tatsächlich mal probieren.
Dann halt ohne Sprache auf dem Atari. Dann nehm ich nen C64c mit dem neuen SID, dann hab ich auf dem C64 auch keine Sprache ;-)
Mal schauen. Ich kann nichts versprechen.
Ja, ist ein neues Homebrew.
Wusste gar nicht, dass Du nur 64KB Ataris hast. Noch nicht einmal ein AVGCart? Das hat ja mit der aktuellsten Firmware auch gleich eine Speichererweiterung dabei.
Oder Du nimmst es gleich zum Anlass und kaufst ein SUBAVGCart, das hat neben ATR und CAR-Funktionalität eben auch die gewünschte Speichererweiterung UND noch eine Stereo-POKEY-Emulation dabei und alles ohne löten.
Aber ein Vergleichsvideo auf einem 64K-Atari und C64 geht auch, ich finde Deine Vergleichsvideos immer mega unterhaltsam.
DOOD!
'promo sm'