Rediscovering MASTEROM 64

[@jimfarewell409]

Great video. I actually developed a ROM back when I worked at Sprite Computers (A commodore dealer) in Surrey BC and called it Masteraid. It was mostly machine language routines taken from Transactor magazine that i would spread it around inside the C64 rom wherever there was some zero byte pockets. I would just fit pieces of the code in where I could then use the jmp routine to go to the next memory address. I actually don't remember all it did though i do remember F1 would list files on the disk drive. To be clear i did not write any of the routines, they were published in the magazines, I just edited the kernels binary with a hex editor and burned the EPROMS. I also built a reset tube for the computer and its diskdrive as an accessory. It was a small grey tube with 2 push buttons. The one closest to the pc would reset the C64 and the other would reset the drive. Anyways thanks for the walk down memory lane. Sold a small amount of both but I couldn't take it forward with the advent of the Commodore 128.

[@MindFlareRetro]

Hi Jim. Thanks so much for commenting. Your info filled in some gaps in the timeline. So, the *Masteraid* *64* I show at 10:41, is that your "Masteraid"? If so, Gus recalls purchasing the Masteraid code from someone in BC -- I can only assume that was you. Is that correct?

[@8_Bit]

Welcome back, and thanks for including me in the MASTEROM fun!

[@MindFlareRetro]

Thank you very much. And that _you_ for agreeing to help me explain this find.

[@rivards1]

Robin, would you do a followup comparing Masterom to Masteraid, its apparent predecessor?

[@8_Bit]

@@rivards1 I'll see if it has enough interesting differences to warrant a video!

[@michaelheltne979]

I just stumbled across both your videos, excellent work, both of you, this is just the sort of stuff that's needed to preserve the history of this great and defining piece of computer history, i admire it, and love to know more of the backstory, would Gus appear for an interview? (For instance)

[@MindFlareRetro]

@@michaelheltne979 I am glad you found us and I am happy to hear that you enjoyed videos. Interestingly, I had spoken with Gus a few times about possibly making an appearance at local retro computer event (for example, World of Commodore) or sitting down for an interview with me, however, he prefers not revisit the past anymore. He really has no interest in his pastr life as a C64 developer and software business owner. I keep in touch with him, so I will keep asking him for time to time to reconsider.

[@murray_henderson]

Very good! This brings back so many memories. I wasn't aware of the MASTEROM project, but I was at the World of Commodore shows in the eighties and nineties when it was at the International Centre in Toronto. I remember Wilanta Arts as "The Decender ROM People." They marketed a replacement ROM for the Commodore MPS 801 printer. I escaped Canada after the nonsense started and left all my Commodore hardware behind. I was happy to find that I could put the MASTEROM KERNAL image in Vice emulator directory and play. Thank You for the video and for sharing.

[@MindFlareRetro]

Thank, Murray. I am happy to hear that you enjoyed this video.Yes, the World of Commdore shows were fun, for sure. They do carry on every December, albiet a much smaller event, thanks to TPUG. There's one coming up on Dec 3-4 -- www.tpug.ca/world-of-commodore/world-of-commodore-2022/.

[@game_whisperer1606]

Awesome job , so great this is out there for the world to rediscover and preserve for the future, thanks for letting me come along for the ride.

[@LeftoverBeefcake]

Excellent detective work on your part! Thumbs up for you, sir!

[@MindFlareRetro]

It would have been a really short ride without your help. 🙏

[@MaidenAriana]

Wonderful persistence paying off! The originator of MASTEROM living so close to you resulting in items shared with the community is such a happy ending.

[@MindFlareRetro]

Thanks! Yes, there were a lot of happy coinidences along the way. Thanks for watching!

[@BertGrink]

Giving permission for MindFlareRetro to share the ROM dump and the scanned Manual is a very noble gesture IMO. Respect to Mr. Gus! P.S. I came from Robin's Channel, but have now subscribed here too. 😀

[@MindFlareRetro]

That's great. Thanks for watching and for commenting -- and... thanks for subbing! Yes, Gus is great guy and was happy to share MASTEROM 64 with the retro computer community.

[@Breakfast_of_Champions]

An interesting find. There were a few kernals with similar features in the 64's golden days when the Amiga had already taken over. You can only fit so much into the cassette and some other memory spaces. The best I found so far is the Jiffy/Dolphin-DOS hybrid, that one is a very mature hack.

[@rager1969]

I watched Robin's video last night and YT was kind enough to recommend your video today.

[@MindFlareRetro]

Haha. That's great! I am happy you found me. Welcome!

[@tommyovesen]

Ahh so nice to see you back in business Mark. And what a delight to see you are a friend of Robin. Hope to see more of you in the time coming.

[@MindFlareRetro]

Thanks very much Tommy! It's nice to be back in business. Yes, Robin is wonderful person. I am pleased to know him and very happy that he could help me with this video.

[@stephendouglas684]

Welcome back and thanks for sharing!

[@MindFlareRetro]

Thank you very much. And thanks for watching and for commenting. 🙂

[@walterpalladino1965]

Thank you for sharing it!!!

[@thomascan3354]

Fantastic story !!!

[@MindFlareRetro]

Thank you very much. I am glad you enjoyed it.

[@sylvainbeaulieu5340]

Thanks a lot for sharing, this was a very interesting and fascinating bit of history. I loved to hear about your journey into retro computing, and I feel I'm right now where you were a couple of years back. Happy to hear there's a vibrant community in the Greater Toronto area too. Looking forward to more videos in the future!

[@MindFlareRetro]

Merci Sylvain! Are you in the GTA, as well?

[@TheRattlebunny]

Great as always, glad to have you back.

[@MindFlareRetro]

Very kind of you to say. Thank you very much.

[@TheMalMeninga]

Hey, welcome back! Great vid, too.

[@LeftoverBeefcake]

Thank you for this fun bit of history from KZbin's Canadian retro tag team, thanks to Gus for allowing his work to be shared among us C64 fanatics, and it's always wonderful to see another video from my knowledgeable northern neighbors. :D

[@MindFlareRetro]

Thanks LB! It was a surprising little find and great fun to have the help of @8BitShowAndTell to analyse the inner workings.

[@FullMetalFab]

Looks like I have a little backlog of your videos to watch, not sure if this is KZbin's doing or my absentmindedness but ..... YAY video !!!

[@MichaelDoornbos]

Great video. Always good to see a collaboration with Robin too.

[@MindFlareRetro]

Thanks very much. Yes, my first collab with Robin. He's a great guy -- I feel fortunate that he was able to help me.

[@painkillergko]

Interesting film. Tonight I will play with Masterom :)

[@MindFlareRetro]

Thanks! Have fun with it.

[@suvetar]

You all did a great job!! Thank you so much for archiving this awesome bit of history!

[@MindFlareRetro]

Thanks very much, Russ. Yes, it was fortunate that all these coincidences occured and we were able to piece together the history of MASTEROM 64.

[@ChrisCromwellHP]

First time discovering your channel and video, from Robin Show & Tell. I just downloaded the MasterRom file to my PC, for a future Commodore 64 build I would like to do someday. As far as I know, I might be the first or very few people in the USA to have this MasterROM; especially in Kentucky USA! Looking forward to loading the ROM's into my next Commodore 64 build and experience it first hand! Initially I was going to build my own C64C computer completely from scratch, with a parts kit, new motherboard, chips, case, etc. Unfortunately, that would quickly run way out of my price range. So I found an alternative DIY Commodore build I can still do for half the cost; but still quite expensive locating all the custom chips and shipping costs from Europe. But will see how it all goes once I have the money for it. I would guess Commodore themselves never knew about the MasterROM Kernel released back then. The developer being so obscure in the deep wooded cold frontier of the Great White North eh! 😃👍

[@MindFlareRetro]

Hey Chris. Happy to hear that you found my channel and this MasterROM video. Yes, it's a pretty obscure piece of C64 history. I hope you manage to get your DIY Commodore 64 build happening soon than later. It would be cool to see MasterROM running on it. Keep me posted.

[@ChrisCromwellHP]

@@MindFlareRetro thank you for your kind words! It’s definitely a special project I would like to assemble sometime. Have my very own brand new C64C with mostly old custom chips! Loads of original games and music through the physical hardware; not emulated. Unfortunately, it will run a good $300-400+ for everything including shipping. But if it eventually happens, I’ll let you know! Maybe I might make a video of it on my channel. 🙂

[@RetroBoxRoom]

Thank you to all involved. Very interesting!

[@MindFlareRetro]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@merman1974]

Fascinating stuff, always great to find something out about the C64!

[@MindFlareRetro]

Thanks! And I have a feeling there are other C64 treasures out there waiting to be rediscovered.

[@KrautRockt]

hey, good clip, and a very interesting for computer freaks (returnees-dude), like me !a good 2023 all retro freaks.and thanks for upload.!

[@MindFlareRetro]

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it.

[@gklinger]

Thank you for preserving this and generously sharing it will al. Well done, sir.

[@MindFlareRetro]

Thanks Golan. I was stoked to come across it, dig up some more history on it, and of course, be able to share it. Good to see you yesterday, tbw. :)

[@gklinger]

@@MindFlareRetro The pleasure was mine. It's wonderful to see you posting videos again. Much appreciated.

[@Charleshawn66]

True to your word last week! YOUR BACK!!! I missed your great videos as I'm sure many other have also!! Great Video gives me a reason to finally buy a EPROM burner!

[@MindFlareRetro]

Thank you, sir! And yes, everyone should have a EPROM burner. 😉

[@JulioE1984]

Great to have you back. Interesting video. :)

[@MindFlareRetro]

Thank you Julio. I am happy you liked it.

[@BilisNegra]

A piece of obscure Canadian third party C64 hardware history? Definitely fascinating! Greetings from somewhere in southern Europe.

[@donaldwiller9238]

Grate job!

[@MindFlareRetro]

Thanks very much, Donald!

[@negative1307]

THX,great! 😍😍😊😊👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@MindFlareRetro]

Thank you too, for watching and for commenting. It's nice to hear from people to let me know they enjoyed the content. Much appreciated.

[@curiousottman]

It is ok to take a break. Good for you. Mental health first.

[@MindFlareRetro]

Yes. Very true. Thanks for your understanding.

[@RudysRetroIntel]

Yay, you're back!! Glad to see your video and thanks for sharing! I get an error when trying to download the file and manual. Hopefully it's still available

[@MindFlareRetro]

Thank you very much. Error! Oh! That's not good. Try this alternate DL link, bit.ly/masterom-64-alt-dl.

[@bitoxic]

Great to see you back again! More videos please!

[@MindFlareRetro]

Thank you very much. I am working on a couple, as we speak. 🤞

[@75slaine]

Great video and great to have you back making them 👍

[@MindFlareRetro]

Cheers, Glen.

[@tarstarkusz]

I have decided that henceforth, this file will be known as "The CANUCK KERNAL" The avatar will be an icecube also known as Canadian Water.

[@MindFlareRetro]

*The* *CANUCK* *KERNAL* ... I like it!!!

[@NicklebackPleaseDie]

Welcome back 👍👍

[@MindFlareRetro]

Thanks bud. 🍻

[@tecfixed2840]

time to add another kernel to the old 64 :)

[@MindFlareRetro]

It has some handy features. Enjoy!

[@gundam654]

I'm glad your back. Like the vid.

[@MindFlareRetro]

Thank you very much! I am glad you liked it.

[@leesmithsworkshop]

So good to see a video from you again, I hope it's not long before the next.

[@MindFlareRetro]

Thanks Lee! New videos are in the works. It just takes me a while to edit them to my satisfaction.

[@tarstarkusz]

Is the artist and the masterom guy getting money from the sale of a t-shirt?

[@MindFlareRetro]

A great question. The short answer is no, and the long answer is... 1. Gus' now defunct company was the sole owner to the rights of the artwork, which the company commissioned. Gus is still in posession of the original artwork. Regardless, I did ask Gus and he gave me permission to use the image (he provided my with the scans) to promote MASTEROM 64 freely to the Retro community, as well as to copy and post the BIN for other to enjoy. 2. The t-shirt sales I do are barely marked up. And in the case of the MASTEROM tee, I marked it up only $3.00 to cover the cost when Teespring has the occasional site-wide 10% off coupon code promotion. I do not expect many, if any, sales of this shirt at all. There are zero sales as the the time of this reply. Thanks for your question.

[@tarstarkusz]

@@MindFlareRetro Thanks for taking the time to answer.

[@MindFlareRetro]

@@tarstarkusz No problem. A fair question.

[@Wes8761]

Just rewatched your SepTandy video and was waiting for you to upload again! Is that a new keysight scope I see??

[@MindFlareRetro]

Hey Wes! Thanks for watching (and re-watching the CoCo 2 Part 12 video). Part 2 is in the works, but that CoCo 2 has been kinkin' my butt. Yeah, I actually won the new scope in 2020 when Keysight did their WAVE 2020 event in the spring. Just super lucky, I guess.

[@fhussain44]

How many were sold? What did Gus do after c64 died?

[@MindFlareRetro]

Hi Faraz. Thanks for watching. Those are good questions. I imagine not too many were sold - I will be sure to ask Gus when I speak to him again. Gus wmoved on to create and run a business called CHT; they develop a wide collection of productivity tools and code enhancements for developers of the Clarion programming language (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarion_(programming_language). CHT has been in business, with Gus as its Chief Engineer, for over 26 years.

[@louiselynge2763]

Hi MindFlareRetro. Would you by any chance have a keyboard for a Commodore 8032-SK PET? BTW great video, thank you and keep them coming :-)

[@MindFlareRetro]

Hi Louise. Thanks for your kind words - I'm glad you enjoye dthe video. Regarding the keyboard, no, I'm sorry, I do not have that one. However, do you happen to be on Twitter? If so, I could reachout to people there.

[@macdonalds1972]

I can tell you everything about Masterbait 64.

[@MindFlareRetro]

😳

[@gotsteem]

Can we get the option of having the 'MASTERROM' image printed on the back of the tee shirt, where it belongs?

[@MindFlareRetro]

Sure. Anything on the front or just the back?

[@Charleshawn66]

I was thinking about that wall of sixteen 1701's & 1702's and how I could hide all those from my wife!!! lol What's the wall of 1902's & 1084's look like? Are they mixed together because their case are almost the same or do they each get their own area?

[@richardblack5710]

Would you be able to convert this to a crt file and post it? Backbit and Kung Fu Flash support crt files but not bin files. I don't have an EasyFlash.

[@MindFlareRetro]

Hi Richard. Unfortunately, a C64 Kernal cannot be loaded as if it were a program on cartridge (.crt file). The KERNAL file must be exactly 8192 bytes and be in plain binary format (.bin file when dumped from a ROM IC) without a load address. Kung Fu Flash can only load program/game file formats -- it cannot execute Kernal binaries. From the Kung Fu Flash user documentation: "Long story short, it's an Easy Flash 3 on steroids, with a few notable weaknesses. It can't load kernels (jiffy dos, dolphin dos etc..)" BackBit is in a similar boat, but can load Kernal BIN files with optional accessories. From the BackBit user documentation: "The KERNAL override functionality requires a PLAster chip replacement with the jumper set for KERNAL Override (see Optional Accessories). To set up, select an 8K BIN file which contains a KERNAL." The other option is to burn or have someone burn a new EPROM with the MASTEROM BIN for you and install that directly into the C64 at U4. Or, as you already know, obtain an EasyFlash 3 cartridge. EasyFlash 3 has been designed specifically to be able to execute a Kernal binary in liu of the one physically installed on the C64. Jim Brain at RETRO Innovations still produces and sells EF3 cartridges, store.go4retro.com/easyflash-3/. I hope this helps.

[@richardblack5710]

@@MindFlareRetro Thanks for the info. I spoke with Evie and she said that Backbit Pro with Plaster V2 can do Kernal Rom replacements similar to Easy Flash. I have Backbit Pro, so I am ordering a PLAster V2.

[@MindFlareRetro]

@@richardblack5710 Perfect. Let me know how get on with it.

[@urbanizirano584]

Hulk Hogan for the poor 😁😂😂😂😂

[@MindFlareRetro]

🤣

[@mikeme9938]

Another C64 video OMG...

[@MindFlareRetro]

_OMG_ ... _that's_ _awesome_ I hope you meant. 😉