This video does a fairly deep technical dive into exactly what the Epyx Fastload cartridge does on a Commodore 64 to make loading from a Commodore 1541 disk drive faster. I use a logic analyzer to trace the signals on the bus and explain what's going on every step of the way, comparing Epyx Fastload wire protocol to the standard Commodore serial bus wire protocol.

To learn how Epyx Fastload works, I did a complete disassembly of the Fastload kernal load routine (not the entire cartridge ROM), including the code that is uploaded to the 1541 disk drive by Fastload. These files have been uploaded to zimmers.net.

Epyx Fastload Kernal Load routine source (relocated to $C000):
http://zimmers.net/anonftp/pub/cbm/c6...'>http://zimmers.net/anonftp/pub/cbm/c6...'>http://zimmers.net/anonftp/pub/cbm/c6...'>http://zimmers.net/anonftp/pub/cbm/c6...

Epyx Fastload 1541 Disk Drive disassembled source code:
http://zimmers.net/anonftp/pub/cbm/c6...'>http://zimmers.net/anonftp/pub/cbm/c6...'>http://zimmers.net/anonftp/pub/cbm/c6...'>http://zimmers.net/anonftp/pub/cbm/c6...

If you'd like to run Epyx Fastload from disk instead of cartridge, I created a d64 of my assembled, relocated code:
http://zimmers.net/anonftp/pub/cbm/c6...'>http://zimmers.net/anonftp/pub/cbm/c6...'>http://zimmers.net/anonftp/pub/cbm/c6...'>http://zimmers.net/anonftp/pub/cbm/c6...

I said I would do some benchmark tests using Epyx Fastload, but the video got long on me, so I'll do some benchmark testing later.

Thanks for watching!!!