Clean Print Shop on the Ultimate 64 – Why Good .d64s Will Matter Even More Soon

Hey All,

I’ve been having a lot of fun (for years actually) using Print Shop (along with Print Shop Companion and the Graphics disks) and now want to use it on my Commodore Ultimate 64. It’s one of those programs that really makes the machine feel useful and creative again — not just for games, but for actually making things. The combination of the Ultimate 64’s reliability with classic Print Shop will be very enjoyable.

The big news is that Commodore has said they’re adding USB printer support to the Ultimate 64, with compatibility expected to follow the Epson FX-80 standard like in the  current PNG Printer Output File in the current firmware. This is a significant development. Once this feature is available, the Ultimate 64 becomes much more than a game machine — it opens up real practical and creative uses again, and I think Print Shop is one of the program suites that will benefit the most.

That said, I keep running into the same issue when trying to get these packages working properly:

Most of the .d64 images available in the usual places are heavily polluted. Cracked intro screens, added noise, broken file structures, and printer configuration problems are very common. A lot of them simply don’t print correctly because the printer setup was never properly configured on a clean image that was archived.

The copy protection on these 40-year-old disks is still surprisingly robust, which makes creating clean dumps more difficult than it should be. As a result, finding good, original-feeling versions without all the later-added junk has been frustrating.

I’ve been slowly working through my own collection and creating clean versions where possible. As I get solid, working .d64s of Print Shop, Print Shop Companion, and the Graphics disks, I’ll be uploading them to the 8-bitboyz downloads section so other people can have a better experience. Look for the files soon; I'll update this thread as I add them.

I’m paying special attention to printer configuration on these clean images. My real printer is the rare Commodore MPS 1270 inkjet, and getting Epson FX -80 emulation working properly makes a noticeable difference. Once the Ultimate 64 gets native USB printing, having properly set up clean disks will let people actually use Print Shop the way it was intended instead of fighting with broken images.

This kind of functionality is exactly what can help the Ultimate 64 appeal to people who want more than just games from their machine. Clean software preservation becomes more important as the hardware gains new real-world capabilities

If anyone else has clean, working dumps of Print Shop or the Companion or especially Graphics disks that you’ve verified on real hardware or an Ultimate 64, I’d love to hear about it. Same goes if you’ve already figured out reliable printer setups for these programs.

I’ll keep adding what I can clean up or find. Hopefully we can get some solid, unmolested versions available for everyone before the USB printing support arrives.

Thanks!

— Sutehk

P.S.

I want to be clear that this isn’t about piracy. Print Shop and its related disks are now over 40 years old. Even if someone wanted to purchase these programs legitimately today, they simply can’t — the software has been out of print for decades with no official re-releases or modern versions available.

The original Broderbund that published the C64 Print Shop has been gone for nearly 30 years.

People who originally bought these titles back in the day have long since lost or damaged their disks due to age, failing drives, or just the passage of time. The original copy protection was quite robust, which made it difficult or impossible for owners to make working backups even when they wanted to. What I’m trying to do is help people who legitimately owned these programs (or would have bought them if they were still available) get clean, working versions again so they can actually use them on their Ultimate 64 without all the cracked junk and noise that usually comes with old cracked disk images found in the archives.