Elite (Firebird) NTSC d64

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Avro707A
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Elite (Firebird) NTSC d64

Post by Avro707A »

Hello,

I've downloaded a few d64 versions of Elite (Firebird, Bell+Braben) but I think they must all be PAL. The intro music is very fast and when I put the files in Vice on a PAL setup the intro music sounds like I remember. I have searched for and cannot find an NTSC d64 file. Does anyone know of one? There was one that was supposed to be at https://csdb.dk/release/?id=69472 but I tried it and no luck. I did see there was a g64 NTSC file on archive.org but I can't (as far as I can figure out) run that from an SD2IEC. I think from what I've read the Ultimate II+ can run g64 files (might be wrong on that) but can't find any of those available for sale at the moment. I have the US released "Gold" version of Elite but no longer have a drive.

If no NTSC d64 file, I have a short board C64C and have seen a blog post and a YouTube video on replacing the VIC-II chip with a PAL version but really hadn't contemplated going that far... however the Euro demos and some other games would be nice to experience again. I've just gotten back into the C64 so I apologize in advance if I'm off on some things. In the 80s, my friend had a PAL breadbin and I cut my teeth on that before I ever got my own C64, thus the obsession and question above.

Many thanks for reading,

Chris


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eslapion
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Re: Elite (Firebird) NTSC d64

Post by eslapion »

Hi Chris,
Although not specifically about Elite I have a similar problem to yours but the other way around.

First, please know the most recent versions of WinVICE will allow you to set your emulated system to NTSC then you can choose 'True Drive Emulation' and attach a G64 disk image and see if this will perform in the way you expected.

My own problem is that I have a 1541 Ultimate cartridge which does support G64 images and I can play copy protected games including Elite but I can't transfer them back to a real floppy as they have copy protection which either requires RAM added in the destination disk drive or a parallel cable in order to be copied to a real floppy. My original disk of Super Cycle has become faulty and I can't generate a new one from the available G64 image.

The only way I know to transfer a G64 to an actual floppy disk from a PC is by using a XUM1541 interface with the NibTools set of utilities and these has failed. I wasted more than 22 hours of effort trying to get these to work.

If you're willing to use Gideon's products to get Elite or any other software that's on a G64 disk image format to run then know all 1541 Ultimate carts (I/II/II+) will do it and the Ultimate 64 too. The Ultimate 64 has the added amazing ability to run at 48 times the speed of an original C64 and a bunch of other wonderful features.

The Ultimate 64 boards are here: https://ultimate64.com/Ultimate64

The 1541 Ultimate carts are here: https://ultimate64.com/Main_products

The carts are presently out of stock because some parts can't be sourced.
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rmzalbar
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Re: Elite (Firebird) NTSC d64

Post by rmzalbar »

Chris, I've never seen a US version of Elite that has corrected title music playback. Chatter I've found indicates there were no main code changes to the NTSC version, and that even the music was left as it was. I was an NTSC user as a kid and the music runs as I remember it.

However, if you have such a thing, consider lending the disk to someone so it can be imaged. If you do that, the image can be made available to the cracking community and you will likely end up with a version that can be used with your SD2IEC in short order.

I have SCP, Kryoflux, Zoomfloppy etc. and a collection of well-maintained drives and can image the disk. My cracking skills however are very limited.

I'm attaching a good .d64 and .g64 of the GMA85 version of Elite. I patched out the disk copy protection and there's no Lenslok or cracker intros. It is a true image from an original except for the removal of the protection. It works absolutely fine on SD2IEC if you select no fastloader when prompted.

However, the music does play faster on NTSC than on PAL so this may not gain you what you desire. I've never seen any different, even back in the day.
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Zippy Zapp
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Re: Elite (Firebird) NTSC d64

Post by Zippy Zapp »

There are 2 versions in the C64 Preservation archive. They are NIB files but there is also G64 versions in the archive too. One is the version with Lenslok and 1 is the version that has, according to C64preservation.com GMA, extra tracks 36-40.
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