MEGA65 Welcome Guide

Hello! You’ve reached the MEGA65 Welcome Guide. This Guide is intended for new owners of the MEGA65 personal computer. It contains answers to common questions, and recommends best practices for continued enjoyment of your new computer. It was written as an unofficial supplement to the MEGA65 User’s Guide included with the computer.

As of February 2024, most of this information has been added to the MEGA65 User’s Guide, 2nd edition. You can download the PDF, or purchase a professionally printed copy. The updated edition of the User’s Guide will be included with future MEGA65 shipments. I will try to keep this Welcome Guide up to date, especially with short-lived tips and advice that won’t be in the print guide.

I’m Dan, known as dddaaannn in the MEGA65 Discord. If you notice anything in this guide that needs updating, please report an issue. Thank you!

The contents of this Welcome Guide:

• Welcome!
  • Why a Welcome Guide?
• Things you’ll need
• Try this first!
  • Connecting peripherals
  • On-boarding
  • The reset button
  • Demonstration menu
  • The Freezer menu
  • Disk images
  • Loading and running a program from disk
  • Commodore 64 mode
  • Configuring your MEGA65
• Important concepts
  • SD memory cards
  • Cores
  • ROMs
  • The Hypervisor
  • PAL and NTSC
• Determining the versions of things
  • The MEGA65 Information screen
  • The MEGA65 core version
  • The MEGA65 ROM version
  • Bundled releases
• Opening the MEGA65 case
• Accessing the MEGA65 Filehost
• Setting up the microSD card
  • Preparing the microSD memory card
  • Restoring the Intro Disks
  • A note about file fragmentation…
• Updating the core firmware
  • Downloading the latest release package
  • Upgrading to the v0.96 release
  • Upgrading slot 0
  • The C64 core
• Transferring files
  • M65Connect
  • Setting DIP switch #2
  • Enabling network listening
  • Transferring files with M65Connect
• Using disks
  • Listing a disk directory
  • Using the SD card from BASIC
  • Using 3-1/2” floppy disks
  • Booting from a disk
  • Using an external disk drive
  • Converting a D64 to a D81
• Using the JTAG connector
  • Acquiring a JTAG adapter
  • Installing the JTAG adapter
  • Using M65Connect over serial
  • The m65 command line tool
  • Finding other JTAG tools
• Joining the community
• Video display compatibility
  • HDMI (DVI)
  • VGA
  • 4:3 flat panel displays
  • Video capture cards
  • Resolution and aspect ratio
  • A List of Monitors
• Recently added features
  • New features
  • New BASIC commands
• Known hardware issues
  • The Real-Time Clock doesn’t advance the time
  • Failure to boot, and keyboard lights glow when off
  • Case fit issues
  • Keyboard slouching and sticking Help key
  • Jammed floppy disk pathway
  • Boot failures with blinking blue LED lights
• Questions and answers
  • Does the cartridge port work?
  • Does the Ethernet port do anything?
• Resources