this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2026
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One question:
"On your first computer, how did you open a program?
Load "*",8,1 ✅
program.exe ✅
Double click the icon ✅
"Program? Is that like an app?" ❌
Load "*",8,1 - However, this would not open a specific program, just the first file on the specified drive (if I remember correctly). For a specific program, you would have to name the program.
I seem to recall that if the disk had copy protection you could also use this to simulate an earthquake as the 1541 threw its heads against the stops with all its might...
Happy days!
Ah yes, C64 floppy drive "headbanging".
IIRC this is because rather than ship a design with a limit switch or any position sensing at all, the drive software just rapidly slaps the read head home a bunch of times to ensure it's properly aligned with track zero. I have a hard time believing this was to reduce part count, because the drive itself is a whole-ass 6502 computer; the sale price also reflected that. Instead, I think it's a software fix for a "sometimes an issue" hardware problem.