Austrian investigators working on the Natascha Kampusch kidnapping/sexual abuse case have encountered an unusual technical challenge: the perp, Wolfgang Priklopil, relied exclusively on a very old Commodore 64 for all of his computing needs. The investigation team retrieved the device from the home where Kampusch was held captive in a subterranean pit for over 8 years. Snip:
It was hoped that the computer might contain information which might shed more light on the decision of Priklopil, 44, to snatch Ms Kampusch, when she was aged 10, in March 1998. However, Major General Gerhard Lang of the Federal Criminal Investigations Bureau, told reporters the computer would complicate investigators' efforts to transfer files for closer examination.
There are emulators available which can make a modern PC capable of running Commodore 64 programmes but Maj Gen Lang said it would be difficult to transmit the data from Priklopil's machine to a modern computer "without loss".
Priklopil killed himself by jumping in front of a train within hours of the escape of Ms Kampusch, now aged 18, on August 23 this year. He had mostly kept her in a tiny, secret, windowless room under his garage at his house, in suburban Strasshof, just north-east of Vienna.
Link (thanks, Chris Findlay)
Reader comment: Gordon reminds us that…
You can NOT store files on a C64. The C64's brain is contained within the Keyboard, but it's data storage was done solely on 5.25" floppys and cartridges plugged into the back. There is no hard drive, so taking the C64 will do the police zero good.
And Ari Pollak adds,
… but you can still store files on floppy disks, which police
could still use if they confiscated them (the article didn't say). There
were also external hard drives made for the C64, just google for "CMD HD."
Jason Brown says,
One of the major formats for Commodore storage was standard cassette tapes using the Datasette drive. The cops could have actually taken the CPU but set aside the data stored on innocuous looking tapes….
Jinkster says,
I am a C64 junky; with its silky ability to do textmap rotation and the ubercool analog synth sounds with an insane dynamic frequency range under the ease of the SID. But on top all that with the ease of 8 bit assembly code running at a lightning quick 10Mhz.
Anywhos, the Star Commander allows one to transfer files from PC to C64's 1541 disk drive, it just requires a little homebrew XE1541 cable that connects your PC's parallel port to the serial port on the back of the C64.
IvyMike says,
Jinkster's comment has a typo: the C64 didn't run at a "lightning quick 10Mhz", it ran at a 1Mhz. Which was still lightning quick, at least to the nine-year old me. (To prevent another followup, the processor speed was actually slightly less or more than 1Mhz depending on if you had a PAL or NTSC version…) But if this series of followups proves anything, it's that there are still plenty of C64 nerds who would be willing and able to help the authorities.
Mincus says,
The C64 could also run at 2MHZ in "fast" mode, but the screen would blank out until it went back to "slow" mode. How many geeks are digging through their attics and basements to find their old commodore now?
