C64 on PC?

[milinko959]

Hi, I just popped in to ask if you guys had any knowledge of if it is possible to hook up a C64 1541 5 1/4" drive to a PC and then play some of the games right on your PC. I am also interested in the same setup for an Apple 5.25 drive used on an Apple II GS. Thanks

[Kid Ice]

Yes it is possible...you need a special cable to connect the 1541. I don't exactly remember what it's called (Star Commander?) IIRC it connects to the serial port so I hope you have an older PC.

I've never tried it and if you ask me it's easier to just download disc images. Flack has a nice guide to C64 emulation. (http://www.robohara.com/?p=364)

[milinko959]

Lucky for me, I do have serial ports on my computer! Hopefully someone can give me the correct name for this cable though. I really didn't want to use emulators since I already have a ton of software and the drive itself. Thanks for the info.

[Kid Ice]

Lucky for me, I do have serial ports on my computer! Hopefully someone can give me the correct name for this cable though. I really didn't want to use emulators since I already have a ton of software and the drive itself. Thanks for the info.

If you are not using an emulator how are you going to get the games to work on your PC?

[Flack]

The old cable was called an x1541 cable, but those pretty much only work on older computers in DOS. For newer machines you'll need an xe1541 cable -- they also sell xa1541 cables for laptops. And actually, these all connect to your computer's parallel port.

Using this cable plus additional software (Star Commander is the most popular program), you can transfer your original disks over to your PC in .D64 format. But, like Kid Ice mentioned, you'll need to use an emulator like WinVice to play those .D64 files on a PC.

In the near future I'll add the transferring of Commodore software to my little FAQ I wrote up.