1541 Ultimate-II
1541 Ultimate-II | |
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Type: | - |
Producer: | Gideon’s Logic Architectures |
Price: | N/A |
Released: | 2016 |
Discontinued: | - |
Processor: | - |
Memory: | - |
OS: | - |
Info: | Ultimate-II+ |
The Ultimate-II (Ultimate-II+ since 2016) is a Commodore 64 plug-in hardware device from Gideon’s Logic Architectures that emulates a Commodore 1541 dual floppy disk drive and a host of C64 cartridges. It allows programs and games to load from standard USB memory sticks / external hard disks, but it also features 3 USB ports, Ethernet, integrated speaker, flash upgrading, and dual-SID.
Description[edit | edit source]
The Ultimate-II+ supplies lots of handy features:
Filesystem
- .D64 and .G64 formats
- Licensed JiffyDOS ROM
- Configurable ROM (1541/1541C/1541II or custom)
- Load .TAP files to C64
- Capture tape data from C64 to .TAP file
- Capture tape data from a datasette and store it as .TAP file
- Write .TAP files back to tape, using a Commodore tape deck
- FAT/FAT32 support, with sub-directories and long filenames
- ISO9660 support with Joliet, for reading .ISO files and access external CD/DVD drives through USB
- Command Interface module with UltimateDOS
- Includes a licensed JiffyDOS ROM file installed from Retro Innovation, giving the same loading speeds a real JiffyDOS modded 1541.
Audio
- Stereo audio output
- Dual SID implementation, optionally 8 voices each
- Up to 7 voices of sampled audio simultaneously
- Built-in SID player
Cartridge
- Final Cartridge III
- Action Replay
- Retro Replay
- Super Snapshot
- Turbo Assembler w/ Codenet
- Epyx Fastloader
- Custom 8K/16K carts
- Custom Ocean / System3 carts (up to 512K)
Hardware
- Battery-backed up Real Time Clock
- Serial port
Memory
- RAMBOard memory expansion (up to 40K)
The three top-mounted buttons supply additional features:
- Left: Freeze
- Middle: Disk access
- Right: Reset
The colored LED lights display status:
- Red: Drive status
- Yellow: Cartridge activity
- Green: Storage activity
Models[edit | edit source]
The Ultimate has passed through four development stages, each adding extra features: Ultimate (2008), Ultimate II (2010), Ultimate II+(2016), Ultimate-64 (2019), which completely replaces the C64 mainboard inside the case and supplies HDMI for direct connection to modern monitors.