The Epyx FastLoad is a floppy disk fast loader cartridge made by American software company Epyx in 1984 for the Commodore 64 (C64) home computer. It was programmed by Scott Nelson who later designed the Epyx Vorpal fastloading system for the company's games. A floppy disk is a data storage device that is composed of a circular piece of thin, flexible (i. ... In a variety of electronic equipments, a cartridge (in video game terms, cart, game pack, or Game Pak) can be one method of programming different functionality, providing variable content, or a method by which consumables may be replenished. ... Epyx, Inc. ... 1984 is a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Commodore 64 (C64, CBM 64) was a popular home computer of the 1980s. ... The home computer is a consumer-friendly word for the second generation of microcomputers (the technical term that was previously used), entering the market in 1977 and becoming common during the 1980s. ...

The FastLoad allowed programs to load from the Commodore 1541 disk drive five times faster than the normal speed. Being one of the first easy-to-use, ROM based fast loader systems, and not requiring the user (or a service shop) to install internal chips in the computer and/or disk drive, the cartridge quickly became a very popular peripheral for the hottest selling 8-bit home computer. The Commodore 1541 (originally called VIC-1541), made by Commodore Intl, was the best-known floppy disk drive for the Commodore 64 home computer. ... Rom is also the name of a toy and comic book character Rom (Spaceknight). ... An s to digital microwave ovens. ... A peripheral is a type of computer hardware that is added to a host computer, in order to expand its abilities. ... 8-bit refers to the number of bits used in the data bus of a computer. ...

A well-integrated complementary feature of FastLoad, to go with the accelerated loading, was its so-called disk wedge: a collection of practical one-or-two-character shortcut commands to access the disk—effecting tasks such as displaying a disk's directory; loading, saving, copying, and deleting files; and formatting disks (some of those commands being notoriously cumbersome in the native BASIC user interface of Commodore DOS). This article is about the computing term. ... Formatting a hard drive using MS-DOS Disk formatting is the process of preparing a hard disk or other storage medium for use by an operating system or a user. ... Commodore DOS, aka CBM DOS, was the disk operating system used with Commodores 8-bit computers. ...

In addition to the file load and access facilities, FastLoad included a machine language monitor. Although not as full-featured as a typical 4 KB MLM, it was instantly accessible and therefore a great convenience. The cartridge also included a disk editor which displayed raw data from floppy disks in classical hex & ASCII split screen mode. Among other things, the disk editor was used to enter cheat codes and do the home computer variant of ROM hacking. A machine code monitor (aka machine language monitor) is software built-into or separately available for various computers, allowing the user to enter commands to view and change memory locations on the machine, with options to load and save memory contents from/to secondary storage. ... A kilobyte (derived from the SI prefix kilo-) is a unit of information or computer storage equal to either 1024 or 1000 bytes. ... A disk editor is a computer program that lets the user read, edit, and write the low-level raw data on a disk drive (a hard disk or floppy disk drive). ... Hex Workshop, a hex editor for Microsoft Windows A hex editor is a type of computer program that allows a user to manipulate binary (normally non-plain text) computer files. ... The computer graphics technique called split screen display consists of dividing graphics and/or text into non-movable adjacent parts, typically two or four rectangular areas, in order to allow the simultaneous presentation of (usually) related graphical and textual information on a computer display. ... Cheat codes are codes that can be entered into a computer game to change the games behaviour. ... Screenshot of Zelda Challenge: Outlands, a hack of The Legend of Zelda ROM hacking is the process of modifying a video game ROM image to alter the games graphics, dialogue, levels, gameplay, or other things. ...

In the uncommon case that a software program wouldn't work with FastLoad, the cartridge could be totally switched out of operation via a menu command, thus avoiding the need to physically remove and reinsert the cartridge. The overall quality and transparency of this peripheral made it so easy to use and unobtrusive that many users left the cartridge in continuously, never removing it from their C64 in the entire lifetime of the machine.