These days we take high-speed networking for granted, but it can be difficult to get vintage computers talking to modern machines. To help solve this problem [jaime] came up with Meatloaf which can provide files to a Commodore regardless of their location or medium of storage.
Meatloaf is an ESP32 device at its core, which plugs in to any of several Commodore computers through their IEC serial port. Many similar systems exist to bridge the gap between the modern world and the now-retro one, but this one connects to a dedicated service which points towards files no matter where they’re stored. There is some local storage, but it can also retrieve files from any active URL, and Meatloaf retrieves the files and then sends them to the Commodore over that serial link.
Part of what makes this unique is that the user doesn’t need to configure Meatloaf in any particular way, everything is done from the Commodore as long as the URL is known to the user. The system can even parse nested files like archive file types and send them along to the computer just like it would if they were on a period-correct floppy drive. There’s a GitHub project page as well for anyone looking to get into the weeds of this serial data interface.
It uses ESP32-S3, which is different from ESP32 mentioned in the article.
I’d say an ‘S3 is “an ESP32 device”, just like a ‘C5 or the plain-Jane ESP32’s, sometimes called ESP32S. Blame Espressif for confusing nomenclature.
Seems like the one thing it doesn’t do is emulate a 1551 for those folks with C16 and Plus/4’s and such. Otherwise, it’s a hell of a hack!
You forgot the new s31 or the p4 forget that last one I ment the p4x you can have high bandwidth. Or graphics or Linux or top tier radio. Not all at the same time. What, are you crazy?
It’s similiar situation as with Arduino, I think.
There’s the Arduino (Arduino Uno R3 and prior; ATmega328p and older ATmega168) and “Arduino” (various models from AVR to ESP32-S3; Uno R4 has the latter)..
But I won’t do that.
I would have gone with “Bits out of Hell” or “Two out of three ain’t baud.”
RIP Meat…
If there’s an unsupported file type or serial speed, I hope it responds with, But I won’t do that.
I Love you both
I see in the photo direct connection from the ESP32 pins to the IEC port that should be at 5V levels.
ESP32 pins are 5 V tolerant, and C64s are just fine with the logic levels.
Also, for another commenter, Meatloaf is fairly closely linked to the Fujinet project.
Sounds similar to the FujiNet project which although started on Atari, is also for Commodore 64 and many others, and also includes multi-player games over the web, cross-platform.
Interesting comparison but makes sense.
The difference is that the concept of FujiNet isn’t being understood by many users, or so it seems.
I admit, the homepage of FujiNet doesn’t have a simple enough introduction, either, it seems.
Products intended for Commodore users are simpler to grasp, naturally. Ahem. 😇