The Epyx Fast Load is a

floppy disk A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, or a diskette) is an obsolescent type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined w ...

fast loader A fast loader is a software program for a home computer, such as the Commodore 64 or ZX Spectrum, that accelerates the speed of file loading from floppy disk or compact cassette. Floppy disks Fast loaders came about because of a discrep ...

cartridge Cartridge may refer to: Objects * Cartridge (firearms), a type of modern ammunition * ROM cartridge, a removable component in an electronic device * Cartridge (respirator), a type of filter used in respirators Other uses * Cartridge (surname) Ca ...

made by American software company

Epyx Epyx, Inc. was a video game developer and publisher active in the late 1970s and 1980s. The company was founded as Automated Simulations by Jim Connelley and Jon Freeman, originally using Epyx as a brand name for action-oriented games before rena ...

in 1984 for the

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...

home computer. It was programmed by Epyx employee Scott Nelson, who was originally a programmer for

Starpath Starpath was a U.S. company known for creating the Starpath Supercharger in August 1982. The company was founded under the name Arcadia Corporation in 1981 by Alan Bayley, Robert Brown, and Craig Nelson. It changed its name to Starpath shortly a ...

The Dot Eaters - Epyx , The Dot Eaters
''Scott Nelson, one of the former Starpath programmers, had created a decathlon game for the Supercharger called Sweat!, but when the company merges with Epyx the project is shelved.'' and later designed the Epyx Vorpal fastloading system for the company's games.

Description

Epyx Fast Load allows programs to load from the

Commodore 1541 The Commodore 1541 (also known as the CBM 1541 and VIC-1541) is a floppy disk drive which was made by Commodore International for the Commodore 64 (C64), Commodore's most popular home computer. The best-known floppy disk drive for the C64, the ...

disk drive at 2,500 bytes per second, approximately five times faster than the normal speed. Since it is stored on a

, and thus provides instant access without requiring any hardware modification of the C64 or the disk drive, the Fast Load quickly became a very popular

peripheral A peripheral or peripheral device is an auxiliary device used to put information into and get information out of a computer. The term ''peripheral device'' refers to all hardware components that are attached to a computer and are controlled by the ...

among C64 users. In addition to disk acceleration, the cartridge also provides a built-in version of the Commodore DOS Wedge. This dramatically reduces the number of keystrokes needed to load or save files or perform disk operations, and makes the cartridge even more convenient. Epyx Fast Load incorporates a machine language monitor. Although it does not include an

assembler Assembler may refer to: Arts and media * Nobukazu Takemura, avant-garde electronic musician, stage name Assembler * Assemblers, a fictional race in the ''Star Wars'' universe * Assemblers, an alternative name of the superhero group Champions of A ...

, as most "standard" C64 ML monitors do, it includes a wide array of powerful debugging tools. These include

disassembly A disassembler is a computer program that translates machine language into assembly language—the inverse operation to that of an assembler. A disassembler differs from a decompiler, which targets a high-level language rather than an assembly lan ...

, single-stepping, and an automatic machine code relocator. A crude

disk editor A disk editor is a computer program that allows its user to read, edit, and write raw data (at character or hexadecimal, byte-levels) on disk drives (e.g., hard disks, USB flash disks or removable media such as a floppy disks); as such, they ...

is also included with the cartridge, which displays raw data from floppy disks in classical hex+

ASCII ASCII ( ), abbreviated from American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is a character encoding standard for electronic communication. ASCII codes represent text in computers, telecommunications equipment, and other devices. Because of ...

split screen Split screen may refer to: * Split screen (computing), dividing graphics into adjacent parts * Split screen (video production), the visible division of the screen * ''Split Screen'' (TV series), 1997–2001 * Split-Screen Level, a bug in the vid ...

mode. Among other things, the disk editor can be used to enter

cheat code Cheating in video games involves a video game player using various methods to create an advantage beyond normal gameplay, usually in order to make the game easier. Cheats may be activated from within the game itself (a cheat code implemented by ...

s and do the home computer equivalent of

ROM hacking ROM hacking is the process of modifying a ROM image, ROM image or ROM file of a video game to alter the game's graphics, dialogue, levels, gameplay, and/or other elements. This is usually done by technically inclined video game fans to improve an ...

. In the unusual case of software that doesn't work with the Fast Load, the cartridge can be disabled via a menu command, thus avoiding the need to physically remove and reinsert it. While the original 1984 version of the Fast Load will not work with the SD2IEC floppy drive emulation system, newer variants of the cartridge do support it.

Reception

In a review of three Commodore 64 fast loaders, ''

Ahoy! ''Ahoy!'' was a computer magazine published between January 1984 and January 1989 in the US, focusing on all Commodore color computers, but especially the Commodore 64 and Amiga. History The first issue of ''Ahoy!'' was published in January 198 ...

'' wrote that ''Fast Load'' "is surprisingly transparent to all the forms of commercial copy protection we have looked at ... In terms of greatest convenience and speed, we place our bets on" it. A review of five fast loaders in ''

Commodore Microcomputers ''Commodore Power/Play'' was one of a pair of computer magazines published by Commodore Business Machines in the United States in support of their 8-bit home computer lines of the 1980s. The other was called ''Commodore Interface'', changed to jus ...

'' found that "''Fast Load'' performed well during testing" and approved of its ease of use and documentation. However, the table included in the article showed that the cartridge only significantly sped up loading times for four of nine applications and games, not benefiting the others.

References

External links

{{Commonscat, Epyx Fast Load Cartridge
Epyx Fast Load instruction manual
from Project64
RUN MagazinIssue 56 Exploring Epyx Fast Load for the Commodore 64
1984 software Home computer peripherals Commodore 64 software Commodore 64