SEND64 - a simple file transfer program for Commodore 64
What is it? A simple program for sending individual files from a Commodore 64 system to your modern computer for backup, or just easy transfer.
Latest changes
On the sending side:
- Now displays send progress (i.e. Block 2 / 8)
- Prompts for sending additional files without re-launching
On the receiving side:
- New curses-based terminal UI
- Shows history of received files, including whether there was a checksum error
- Allows repeat connections without relaunching
Limitations and notes
On the sending side:
- Only supports connecting with a WiFi modem attached to the userport, set to 2400 baud.
- Only supports sending from whatever the last-accessed drive was (you can always POKE the drive you want to use to memory address 186, i.e. POKE 186,9 before running to send a file off of drive 9, or using JiffyDOS I just hit CTRL-D until it’s on the drive I want.
- In case of error, you just need to RUN/STOP-RESTORE
- Can only send files up to 40k (~160 blocks) due to memory limitations of the C64.
On the receiving side:
- No re-sending of bad blocks if checksum failure detected, just flagged in transfer history.
- In case of error, you just need to CTRL-C
Yikes! So that sounds like an unreliable mess, right? Well not really… Given the network transfer is being done over TCP which has its own validation and retry mechanisms it handles a lot of the issues. However, if it turns out to be a problem I may look at adding more redundancy and error handling. In dozens of tests I’ve yet to have a problem, and honestly I made this for me. I just like sharing my little tools with the world in case others can find value also.
See a simple demo here:
Download the PRG file (sent to this system with SEND64) here
Get the matching receive script for anything that runs python from my github