Comments on: Fast Hack’em: The best C-64 disk copier?

By: TheRealAnubis

TheRealAnubis — Fri, 10 May 2024 00:04:24 +0000

It’s been waaay long enough that I’d say they shouldn’t be worried about it. Mike has hero status in the Commodore community, he should come out and share some stories with us!

By: havok757

havok757 — Thu, 09 May 2024 23:40:53 +0000

In reply to Dave Farquhar. Of course. It's just part of the legend. I was kinda happy to hear it again yesterday when I read your article.

By: Dave Farquhar

Dave Farquhar — Thu, 09 May 2024 02:11:16 +0000

In reply to havok757. I do want to make it clear those rumors of the Basement Boys being in jail was pure speculation by people who had no way of knowing.

By: David Simmons

David Simmons — Thu, 09 May 2024 01:51:42 +0000

I am very sad to say that Bruce Hammond (Di-Sector) passed away a few years ago.

However, someone else who was around Starpoint at that time, and worked on StarDos, as well as something he did before Starpoint called 1541 flash, was Bryce Nesbitt. This is their linked in page:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/brycenesbitt/

By: havok757

havok757 — Wed, 08 May 2024 22:24:03 +0000

Fantastic article! I’ve long been curious about Mike J Henry’s whereabouts and was surprised to learn about his involvement with Hiler as Chip Level Designs, after being one half of The Basement Boys. Back in those times I often recall hearing MJH was on the run, though this is the first I’ve heard of any jail time—urban legends at play, I suppose. Nonetheless, it’s reassuring to know they managed to profit from Nintendo’s ventures in the end.

By: beethead

beethead — Wed, 08 May 2024 20:37:52 +0000

It’d be cool if you could dig up some info and pictures of Chip Level Designs’ Super NES development kit. Part of the software that came with the kit was written by Brian Niessen of Pirate Busters. The members of Pirate Busters were involved in copy protection software while CLD/Basement Boys were into breaking copy protection. How did these two come to collaborate on the software?

By: Dave Farquhar

Dave Farquhar — Wed, 08 May 2024 14:55:34 +0000

In reply to TheRealAnubis.

I don’t know how so many Commodore-related companies ended up in and around Portland, but I keep finding them.

As far as Fast Hack’em not working with the SD2IEC, it’s because of the disk turbo routines. SD2IEC works with specific fastloaders by emulating their protocols, and Fast Hack’em presumably is using different methods than any of them. I’m sure it would be possible to modify one or the other of them so they could work together but that’s definitely a project for someone with more skills than me.

By: TheRealAnubis

TheRealAnubis — Wed, 08 May 2024 14:33:24 +0000

I loved this program back in the day! Mike J. Henry and the Basement Boys provided an excellent program that worked great. I’d love for him/them to take a crack at the SD2IEC’s and make it work correctly to nibble an original disk from a 1541/1571 to a blank disk image on the SD2IEC, and vice versa.
I’ve attempted to do this to backup or write an original disk, but the copy never starts – likely due to the SD2IEC not being an actual 1541/1571.
Anyway, interesting info, and it’s funny but back then I had this idea that Mike and the Basement Boys were from N.Y.