Discovering Chameleon-commodore 64

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Don't Panic. Please wash hands.

    Hi there,


    I was looking around since sometimes for a super cpu for Commodore 64, and discovered what seems to be an alternative with Chameleon.


    I have mostly one scope, is to play some games such as Metal Dust, mario bros or sonic with super cpu.


    Is there anything I should know before considering purchasing a Chameleon solution?


    I use a c64 breadbin, modified with a kawari II.


    Thanks!


    Gloupy

    The most important thing for you to know is probably that, while the Chameleon is an accelerator, it is not a SCPU (nor compatible with it). That means that things that absolutely require a SCPU will not work. Fortunately that list would be small (regarding games, it is only Metal Dust that would not work, i think) - also see http://wiki.icomp.de/wiki/Chameleon#Turbo

    Hey big thanks for all the information. I can live without metal dust, the accelerator function is appealing, i ve seen the game listing, it's quite cool. I ll definitely consider Chameleon. There seems to be much more about than just an accelerator .

    Quote from GloupX

    There seems to be much more about than just an accelerator

    That's quite an understatement, yes :-)


    Originally, Chameleon started off under the name "VGA64", as I wanted to use cheap monitors on my C64. This has of course remained in the product, but while developing, one thing lead to another, and before you know it, it's a universal cartridge that contains all the carts that were ever made, plus a bit, emulating up to two 1541 drives with their full CPU/RAM subsystem (=fastloader compatible), letting you use PS2 keyboard/mice and a CDTV remote control.


    The name Chameleon came up when we started adding all the freezers, and people even started sending me hardware for reverse-engineering. Since "Swiss army knife" is already taken as a name for a piece of software in the PC world (video transcoding if I remember right), we just left it at "Chameleon" and created a visual contrast with the bright yellow case. Also, the "swiss army knife syndrome" is considered more of a negative thing, and I believe we've managed to keep the thing very usable with all the features, thanks to the menu system with it's built-in help system, which I frequently have to use because I don't remember all the key combinations.


    Jens

    Hi Jens, thank you again for all the information. It's great to aee how much passion is put in this project.


    Allow me one more clarification. Does the Chameleon host an sd card such as a kung-fu flash system to play some games like crt files ? ( especially the games requiring ram extension). Apologies if my queries seems naive

    Hi Jens, thank you again for all the information. It's great to aee how much passion is put in this project.


    Allow me one more clarification. Does the Chameleon host an sd card such as a kung-fu flash system to play some games like crt files ? ( especially the games requiring ram extension). Apologies if my queries seems naive

    Hi Jens, thank you again for all the information. It's great to aee how much passion is put in this project.


    Allow me one more clarification. Does the Chameleon host an sd card such as a kung-fu flash system to play some games like crt files ? ( especially the games requiring ram extension). Apologies if my queries seems naive

    Chameleon does indeed host an SD card and supports CRT files. The only CRT file it will not support is Gmod2 as far as I remember. It also supports D64, PRG, T64 and G64 (probably missed some). It will not support D81 or TAP files. And it also supports RAM extension (REU). I believe it is up to 16MB.


    With the latest menu build it even supports auto saving directly to easy flash CRT files.

    I'd like to add that I went the extra mile and used a full-size SD card slot. It was tempting to use a micro-SD card, as that would have been a lot easier to route, but I wanted to have something that is easier to handle.


    GMod2 support would be doable if it wasn't for the EEPROM where Highscores are saved. Emulating that would be something that would have to be added to the FPGA core, and there's hardly any space left. We should use the available space for fixing the final CPU/VIC bugs instead of opening more construction sites :-)


    Jens

    Quote from Jens

    I'd like to add that I went the extra mile and used a full-size SD card slot. It was tempting to use a micro-SD card, as that would have been a lot easier to route, but I wanted to have something that is easier to handle.


    GMod2 support would be doable if it wasn't for the EEPROM where Highscores are saved. Emulating that would be something that would have to be added to the FPGA core, and there's hardly any space left. We should use the available space for fixing the final CPU/VIC bugs instead of opening more construction sites :-)


    Jens

    I wouldn't have imagined that a saving option would be such a complication. But nevertheless, Chameleon is a piece of art. Now you need to re create a super cpu 😄😄.

    Quote

    The only CRT file it will not support is Gmod2 as far as I remember.

    It is actually not the only one by far - here is a more or less complete list. So the right thing to say would be that Chameleon supports all "common" ones (except gmod2) :)