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  • The Loadstar Compleat archive is still available for purchase and download from Fender Tucker! It includes disk issues 1-199 for C64/128 and disk issues 1-42 for C128 in both D64 & D81 disk images.

    You can place your order to download the entire collection for $15 USD here, and please tell Fender LoadstarCE sent you!

Alternate Image Versions of Issues 45-74

Hello Everyone!

About a month ago I got the Fender Tucker archive of Loadstar. I've been spending hours every evening perusing the disks, reading the articles, playing the games, using the applications, etc. I'm running it on one of my C64Cs using the Ultimate II+L cartridge. Loadstar is more fun than the tens of thousands of C64 games I have!

I thought Loadstar ended at #199, but have come to learn it went on for another few years. A quick search of the internet and forums brought me here. I guess I'll download the archives now. Thanks for your work and if I could be of some assistance with archiving, please do let me know!
 
gumpy said:
Welcome! Loadstar is very special - but sadly underrated.

Unfortunately, Fender's archive isn't perfect (someone changed the menu system on issues #45-74).

Get fixed images of these issues here:
archive.org

Loadstar 45 through 74 Fixed Commodore 64 : Loadstar : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

This is a collection of Loadstar issues #45-#74 restored to original format.For some reason, the menu (presenter) on these issues was changed on TheCompleat...
archive.org
Click to expand...
Thank you! I will.

I have a question, is there no issue #200? As you know, Fender's archive leaves off at #199 and your archive here begins at #201.
 
With Fender's permission, I have put up the files of the Compeat Loadstar on itch.io, at https://rodneylives.itch.io/loadstar

I see this as a nice place where someone can get issues 1-199, all of Loadstar 128, and all the other extras that were on the CD in one place. I have not given up my ambitions to create a nice explorer program and list of highlights, although the fact that I'm running Linux now is a little bit of an obstacle perhaps.

The 1851 files in the collection have not been corrected for the REL/USR copy bug mentioned earlier in the thread. I need to fix those!
 
rodneylives said:
I have not given up my ambitions to create a nice explorer program and list of highlights, although the fact that I'm running Linux now is a little bit of an obstacle perhaps.
Click to expand...
If Linux is a problem, perhaps I can help out. I've spent my entire career developing on and for Linux. Some of my code is in the kernel and many other projects.
 
It's not a problem, it's more of a complication?

It means including two different emulators, one for the Windows package and one for the Linux package. Maybe one for a Mac package too. The explorer program will be written in Python and hopefully will be cross-platform enough to run on all three.

But help would be appreciated in any case! It's only a matter of time before I run smack into an issue and get distracted again....
 
In the absence of comment from gumpy, I've taken his uploading the fixed issues to the Internet Archive as a default permission to include the fixed versions in the itch.io compilation of the files. I've put them in their proper place in its files, and moved the old broken disks into a separate folder. I've included gumpy's readme in with the old versions, with an explanatory note from me.
 
mk5734 said:
I have a question, is there no issue #200? As you know, Fender's archive leaves off at #199 and your archive here begins at #201.
Click to expand...
Greetings. We started off with just offering the Dave Moorman years of issues 201-250 since we had received his permission first and then we started adding the additional original 1-199 issues from Fender after talking with him but I got disrupted by some life things.

Honestly, one of the things that really slowed me down was working on going through each issues to create an index of what was on each issue since I couldn't figure out a way of extracting the data directly from the disk image files. You can see what I was going for by viewing the entry for Uptime Magazine issue #21 below.

Uptime Issue 21 V2N9 Loadstar CE

Uptime Issue 21 V2N9

Uptime Magazine issue #21 for the Commodore 64 & 128.

Since I got behind I was thinking of going ahead and doing a bulk add of all of the issues and then going back retroactively to add the index description, just haven't had time to do it yet. "Time is the fire in which burn..."
 
Greetings to you as well! 🙂
Kevin said:
Greetings. We started off with just offering the Dave Moorman years of issues 201-250 since we had received his permission first and then we started adding the additional original 1-199 issues from Fender after talking with him but I got disrupted by some life things.

Honestly, one of the things that really slowed me down was working on going through each issues to create an index of what was on each issue since I couldn't figure out a way of extracting the data directly from the disk image files. You can see what I was going for by viewing the entry for Uptime Magazine issue #21 below.

Uptime Issue 21 V2N9 Loadstar CE

Uptime Issue 21 V2N9

Uptime Magazine issue #21 for the Commodore 64 & 128.

Since I got behind I was thinking of going ahead and doing a bulk add of all of the issues and then going back retroactively to add the index description, just haven't had time to do it yet. "Time is the fire in which burn..."
Click to expand...
As I mentioned to rodneylives in a direct message last night, all of the text files from issues 30-199 have already been extracted, formatted, and delineated nicely in the archive Fender shared with me in March. I'll include what I wrote to rodneylives:

In the archive there exists a folder Compleat LOADSTAR/LS Texts which contains a text-file of text-files for each issue 30-199. Each file is formatted to include delineations of each text file from that issue. The subfiles begin with a heading like FROM LS FILE:"T.DARWIN'S BOOT" and continue until either it reaches another heading or the end of file. Please note, though each file does end with **** End of Text **** that string is present in the text viewer within Presenter. I've found it very useful to see rather than looking at the line # of # lines indicator.
Click to expand...
 
mk5734 said:
As I mentioned to rodneylives in a direct message last night, all of the text files from issues 30-199 have already been extracted, formatted, and delineated nicely in the archive Fender shared with me in March. I'll include what I wrote to rodneylives:
Click to expand...
When I get back home I'll have to take another look; I was aware of those files but at the moment I don't recall what issue I ran into with trying to extract the data from them.

If I'm remembering correctly (big "if"), I used the text files to get the basics (issue #, category, title, creator) but they don't include the description that can be easily grabbed and I've been working on standardizing the creator's name since they weren't consistent (eg: the same creator could show up several times with deviations of their name). Part of what I was working on was standardizing the name (so somebody could search for all Loadstar works by creator X) and adding a description like in the example I linked.

EDIT: I don't have access to the archive where I'm at right now (the archive is sitting on my SAN at the house and I'm on the road) but there are similar files from the Dave Moorman issues up to at least issue 239. I think for the Dave issues it's an on-screen application that you can use to keep an index of the issues and I ended up using VICE to redirect the printer output to a text a file to capture the data.
 
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Kevin said:
Greetings. We started off with just offering the Dave Moorman years of issues 201-250 since we had received his permission first and then we started adding the additional original 1-199 issues from Fender after talking with him but I got disrupted by some life things.

Honestly, one of the things that really slowed me down was working on going through each issues to create an index of what was on each issue since I couldn't figure out a way of extracting the data directly from the disk image files. You can see what I was going for by viewing the entry for Uptime Magazine issue #21 below.

Uptime Issue 21 V2N9 Loadstar CE

Uptime Issue 21 V2N9

Uptime Magazine issue #21 for the Commodore 64 & 128.

Since I got behind I was thinking of going ahead and doing a bulk add of all of the issues and then going back retroactively to add the index description, just haven't had time to do it yet. "Time is the fire in which burn..."
Click to expand...
I managed to extract that information, it's the foundation of my gigantic spreadsheet of Loadstar items! Do you want a copy? If you want to get the information yourself, the key is the FEATURES file in every issue from 45 on. FEATURES is in earlier issues too, but at some point they were using files named things like FEATURES11 and FEATURES21, for different menus. The format from 45 on seems more consistent.

I think the way it works is, FEATURES lists a title for each item, a description for the Presenter, a primary filename that t. or p. is added to for documentation, and three numbers, like 100. The first digit is 0 or 1 if the item can be Read, the second if it can be Run, and the third if it can be Copied. The Presenter uses the primary filename to construct the appropriate filename for the documentation. Note, however, that the doc files were compressed starting with issue 124 (they begin with p. instead of t.), that's what I'm trying to figure out now.
 
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