MEGA65 Welcome Guide
10.5 Converting a D64 to a D81
You can find almost every game and application written for the Commodore 64 online in the form of disk images.
However, these disk images are typically in the D64 format, which represents a 5-1/4” floppy disk. If you want to try
running a C64 application on your Mega65 in its C64 mode, you must first convert the D64 image to a D81 image.
(The D81 image represents a 3-1/2” floppy disk.)
One way to do this is with the cbmconvert command line tool. This requires your PC (Windows, Mac, or Linux) and
familiarity with the command line (Terminal).
cbmconvert is only available as source code, so you will need the ability to compile software on your PC. Linux users
typically already have compilation tools installed. Mac users can install such tools with the command:
xcode-select --install
To build the cbmconvert tool:
1. Download cbmconvert-2.1.2.tar.gz. (See the download site for links to other versions.)
2. Expand the archive: tar xvfz cbmconvert-2.1.2.tar.gz
3. Change to the expanded directory: cd cbmconvert-2.1.2
4. Build the tool: make -f Makefile.unix
1. Windows users with a POSIX-compliant build environment, use make -f Makefile.win32
The cbmconvert tool is now present in the directory. You can put this directory on your command path, copy the
cbmconvert file to somewhere on your path, or use the path to this directory when running the tool.
To use cbmconvert to convert a D64 file to a D81 file:
cbmconvert -v2 -d filename.d64 -D8 filename.d81
Copy the new D81 file to your microSD card, then return the card to your MEGA65. Open the Freeze menu, then select
the D81 image for drive 8. At the MEGA65 BASIC prompt, enter GO 64 and type YES to confirm. The disk is now
available on drive 8 from C64 mode.
Note: Not all D64 disks can be converted to D81, especially software with copy protection.
Note: C64 mode is known to not be compatible with all C64 software. If you are experiencing difficulty, try using the
Freeze menu to switch from NTSC to PAL video mode or vice-versa (assuming you have a monitor that can show it).
Tip: Remember that the C64 core (not C64 mode) supports D64 disk images directly without needing to convert them
to D81 images. See The C64 core.
10.5. Converting a D64 to a D81 55
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