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Welcome to the kernal64 wiki!

Software

The Kernal64 emulator can execute programs taken, mainly, from four types of devices:

• D64,G64 1541 disk format
• TAP/T64 tape format
• PRG files
• CRT, cartridges

Here a list of sites where you can find games, applications, utilities, etc:

• http://www.cbm8bit.com/
• http://www.elysium.filety.pl/tools/cartridges/pack.2/%3D%3D%3Dindex.html
• http://www.haddewig.de/nogames64/tools.html
• http://www.c64.com/
• http://csdb.dk/
• http://www.lyonlabs.org/commodore/onrequest/geos.html
• http://old.c64warez.com/

Connecting to a BBS

Yes, it's possible, still today, to connect to an old Bulletin Board System. For a list of BBS see http://cbbsoutpost.servebbs.com/

To connect to the external world, the RS-232 interface is used: Two ways are possible, the User Port and the Expansion Port. The first one was used, mainly, for the old Commodore modems. The RS-232 Kernal routines work on this implementation but are limited to 1200/2400 baud. The latter one was used by cartridges, like SwiftLink and can run up to 38400 baud.

To activate an RS-232 implementation go to the Settings Menu, and select RS-232. Here you can choose the available implementations. For SwiftLink, choose "SwiftLink $DF00" (if you want to put it on IO2) or "SwiftLink $DE00 + REU" to install a SwiftLink on $DE00 + 512K of REU on $DF00. Then it asked to type the configuration string: here you can type the bbs server and port, to connect immediately, or you can type 'modem' to postpone the connection. If you postpone the connection remember to connect inside your terminal program: in the terminal type ad host:port + RETURN. I suggest you to use NovaTerm v9.6 as a terminal program. Remember to select the SwiftLink RS-232 driver.

Here some examples:

Drive issues

Some games used sophisticated fast loaders: it can happen that the default settings are not able to permit those software to run properly. Try to change the drive speed (Settings -> drive -> 1541 speed) from about 0.9 MHz to 1MHz. I found some demo scene software to run only with this speed.

Another settings to change can be the drive auto-sleep: disable the auto-sleep (Settings -> drive -> 1541 can go sleep): I found this useful, for example, for the Nostalgia games (https://www.n0stalgia.org/)

How to enable JiffyDOS

To enable the JiffyDOS edit the kernal.bat (or kernal.sh) script and add to the java command the -Djiffydos.

For example: javaw -server -Djiffydos -Xms128M -Xmx128M -cp %CP% -Djava.library.path=%LIB% ucesoft.c64.C64

How to use custom roms

To load custom roms edit the kernal.bat (or kernal.sh) script and add to the java command the following switches:

• -D1541kernal=1541 kernal file name
• -Dkernal=C64 kernal file name

Both file must be placed inside the roms directory of the main installation.

For example, suppose you want to install the Dolphin DOS 2, with the custom roms

• DD_2_C1541.rom for the drive's kernel
• DD_2_Kernal.rom for the C64's kernal

1. Put the roms above under the roms directory.
2. Modify the kernal.bat (or kernal.sh) script, setting the -D1541kernal and -Dkernal variables as explained before.
3. Run the emulator: you will see the welcome screen with the Dolphin DOS message.
4. Go to Settings -> Drive and select Parallel cable enabled
5. Go to Setting -> Drive -> RAM Expansion and select the range $8000 - $9FFF
6. Reset the emulator

CP/M support

Yes, there is a support for the old (and probably unuseful) CP/M cartridge. Under the Settings -> I/O menù select the CP/M item: now you're ready to use the wonderful world of Z80 processor. In order to get ready with CP/M you have to download the Commodore CP/M boot disk (ftp://www.zimmers.net/pub/cbm/demodisks/c64/cpm/index.html) and run it. For further reading see also http://www.z80.eu/c64.html

Here you can see the emulator running the MBasic from Microsoft:

To make CP/M disks, please visit https://github.com/mist64/ctools