MouSTer and OpCoders Store

This is my first blog post of 2025. It's been a while, but I assure you, lots of stuff has been happening!

The "Whats New!" page has been around since C64 OS v1.04 was released in June of 2023. The Whats New! page has taken the place of blog posts for stuff that's just news. What I'm doing right now, talking to you like I'm a human being, is a tone reserved for the blog. What's New! gives you updates on the latest software releases and other news in a succinct format but with a marketing or promotional tone.

The welcome page also got some nice updates with a bold new header section that rotates through the top new things. As of this writing, it's rotating through announcements about:

• The release of C64 OS v1.07
• The release of the new Image Search App, and
• The availability of mouSTer from OpCoders.

And that last one is a main topic for this blog post.

OpCoders Store

C64OS.com has evolved over the years. In 2017, when I first created this site, it was all on one page. It eventually evolved into the rather large website that it is today. In fact, C64OS.com is the largest website I've ever personally overseen, including the sites for other companies I've worked for.

For a long time the top 5 tabs were: Welcome, Weblog, Buyer's Guide, C64 OS, C64 Lug. The C64 Lug tab was for my C64 Luggable project. I love that project and I bring my luggable with me to shows like World of Commodore, but it's mostly finished. I'm no longer sinking hours of labor into building it. So, the project isn't gone and all of the pages I wrote detailing its creation are still available, but you get to that section of the site from the middle of the welcome page instead of the top navigation.

In its place, I've introduced a new top-level section: the OpCoders Store.

This year I expanded from selling just C64 OS. The OpCoders Store finally brings a proper shopping cart, allowing you to add multiple items to your cart before checkout. You can also adjust quantities and remove items from your cart.

This is a nice step up in the shopping experience and gives me the ability to sell a wider variety of products. I'm pretty happy with this.

Goodies and Extras

First I added some "Goodies and Extras." These include a high-quality iron-on of the humorously awesome 6502 CPU promo graphic done in the style that Apple uses for its hardware promos for M1 and M2 processors, and so on.

When I first posted this to Twitter in 2022, it quickly became my most popular tweet ever. It's been retweeted 483 times and viewed 234,000 times.

I got inspired by #WWDC22. #C64 #6502CPU #RetroComputing #atari What do you think? pic.twitter.com/KZgIYQin4f

— Gregorio Naçu (@gregnacu) June 10, 2022

This great info-graphic is now available for purchase. I decided to go with an iron-on because keeping stock of T-shirts of different styles, sizes and colors is way beyond the scope of my operation. The iron-on is high quality; it glues onto the T-shirt like it was put there in a factory. Plus you can apply it to other surfaces like mouse pads, hoodies, gym bags, etc.

The white blocks are individual sections. I.e., if this were applied to a red T-shirt you'd see the red showing between and around each of the white blocks. The graphic as a whole is 6" wide and 3.3" high.

In the two examples below left, they're not ironed on, they're just showing ideas of how they might look in context. On the right is how it looks when it's actually ironed on, and my lovely wife is showing off her chest... err.. I mean, her love of all things C64. Anyway, these things are really fun to put on a T-shirt that you can wear to your next classic computer festival.

Order now for just $5 CAD.

Another popular one is the white vinyl "READY." decal for your window.

The gradient background, below, is just so you can see the white letters, which would otherwise disappear against a white background. Each individual letter and mark is a separate vinyl piece, attached to a strip of paper to keep the positions of the pieces properly spaced and aligned.

First clean and dry a window surface. Then peel off the backing, position and straighten the decal and rub on from one side to the other. Slowly peel off the back sheet and the individual letters and marks are transfered to the window perfectly spaced and aligned with each other.

It looks pretty great on the back of a car window. I had a "READY." one on my old car. On my new car I got one that says LOAD "*",8,1 READY. RUN. I decided to produce the READY. version for the OpCoders Store because it's just the right size to fit in a package alongside a C64 OS User's Guide.

The decal measures 8" wide by 3" high. The above image is just a mock up, it might not be shown in the correct size relative to the size of that stock car photo. But you get the idea. These also look really cool! Nice way to spread the retro-computing message to your local community. Drive around with one of these and you'll awaken the nostalgia for 8-bit computers in everyone who sees it and remembers the '80s.

Order now for just $8 CAD.

mouSTer: USB Input Adapter

More recently, I've taken the plunge and gotten into selling hardware. I've started with mouSTer for a couple of reasons:

• It's small and easy to ship
• It's a great companion to C64 OS
• It has wide appeal on multiple platforms

In case you've been living under a rock, I'll tell you what mouSTer is. It's a very compact adapter in a beautiful black 3D printed enclosure that has a slim DE-9 connector on one side and a USB-A port on the other.

The DE-9 connector is nearly ubiquitous on retro computers and many game systems for input controllers. Commodore 8-bit computers, Atari 8-bit systems, Amiga, and even the ZX spectrum with the common Kempston Interface.

mouSTer lets you hook up modern USB mice, joysticks and other HID game controllers to most of these classic systems. Plus, mouSTer is fully customizable and firmware updatable in an easy way, making clever use of that USB port.

The price of $55 CAD is competitive. Plus, OpCoders is offering a special bundle deal, if you purchase the C64 OS v1.07 Standard Bundle together with a mouSTer, the mouSTer is 15% off. You can't find a deal like this anywhere else.

Order mouSTer now for just $55 CAD.
Order C64 OS + mouSTer now for just $110 CAD.

That's $64 for C64 OS (the usual price) and only $46 CAD for mouSTer.

mouSTer via OpCoders

You get a few nice bonuses when your order mouSTer from the OpCoders Store. I've produced a nice User's Guide, printed and folded, that covers everything you need to know about supported systems, LED blink patterns, how to configure mouSTer and update its firmware. The User's Guide also includes listed settings for use on a C64 with C64 OS.

The User's Guide cleans up the english a bit making it eaiser to understand and giving you more confidence in your first use experience.

mouSTer via the OpCoders Store ships directly from Canada and it comes pre-configured for use on a C64 (breadbin, C64c, SX-64, Ultimate64 or compatible reproduction) or C128 (flat, C128D, or compatible reproduction.) This means it's ready to be used out of the box with any USB mouse in C64 OS.

Updating Settings and Firmware

OpCoders ships mouSTer ready to be used as a 1351 mouse adapter for the Commodore 64, but mouSTer is capable of much more. Configuration is dead simple.

• Plug mouSTer into a compatible computer's control port
• Plug a USB flash drive into mouSTer's USB port
• Power up the computer
• mouSTer writes its current settings to a mouster folder on the drive
• Unplug the USB flash drive and plug into a Mac or PC
• Open the settings file in a text editor
• Read the notes about options and values, edit and save the changes.
• Plug the USB flash drive back into mouSTer
• Unplug the USB flash drive, plug in a USB mouse, joystick or controller.

Updating firmware is just as easy. Put the new firmware on the USB key in the mouster folder using a Mac or PC. Power down the computer that mouSTer is connected to. Plug the USB key into mouSTer and power up the computer. mouSTer reads and updates its firmware automatically.

It's really simple. And it has a ton of options, and supports mice and controllers for all of these systems:

mouSTer and C64 OS — a match made in heaven.

mouSTer in C64/128 mouse mode emulates a 1351 mouse. This is extended to support the MicroMys mouse wheel protocol. And the wheel is supported right down in the core of C64 OS.

The Mouse Utility in C64 OS has options for adjusting the direction of the mouse wheel, classic like it works on Windows or natural like it works by default on macOS. It also has options to adjust the wheel's scrolling speed.

Mouse tracking speed can be adjusted in the Mouse Utility too, but for some very high resolution USB mice if you find the pointer whizzes all over the screen too quickly, you can also adjust the microstep in mouSTer's own configuration to bring it down into a more standard range.

The wheel on your USB mouse (wired or wireless via a USB dongle) can be used anywhere in C64 OS where there is a scroll bar. With mouSTer and a wheel mouse you can scroll through directories in File Manager, scroll through help content in the Help Utility, browse Wikipedia articles with ease, scroll through image results in Image Search.

mouSTer totally changes the experience of using C64 OS. And C64 OS is the first (and to my knowledge) the only Commodore 64 software package that makes use of the mouse scroll wheel.