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Welcome and System Requirements

Welcome to HyperLink 2.5!

HyperLink is a full-featured hypertext environment for your Commodore 64 or Commodore 128 in 64 mode, allowing you to unite graphics, text and presentation elements into an easy to use interface for navigating information.

HL2.5 introduces mouse support, faster disk access routines, a document cache to allow previously referenced documents to be fetched from memory, and the ability to allow documents to accept queries and make intelligent responses. HL2.5 is 100% backwards compatible with all HL1.0 and 2.0 scripts.

Also new in HL2.5 is Internet access! Using HL2.5 and a Unix shell account, you can now access Web pages and graphics on a Commodore without a SuperCPU. Using the new HyperLink Parsing Proxy (HLPP), web pages and images are distilled down to HyperLink-compatible elements and displayed for you using the same familiar HL interface.

Version 2.5a takes all the features in 2.5, and adds REU support and fixes several important bugs, as well as introducing new groundwork for more sophisticated HLPP features to come. We suggest that all users of the original 2.5 upgrade to 2.5a, except if you are using the original 2.5's unsupported 1200bps mode as this is now completely removed from 2.5a. You can find out what version you are using by pressing the = (equal sign) key in HyperLink. If you are using 2.5a, it will display its version number in the lower right corner.

A note on piracy

HyperLink 2.5 and all previous HyperLink versions are distributed as shareware. Feel free to use the free unregistered version as long as you like, and to make copies of the free unregistered version for anyone interested. If you're satisfied with the free version, you don't have to pay for using it. Enjoy! However, should you decide to purchase a registration key and register the software, we unlock additional features: registered users can go directly to URLs and files by typing them in instead of clicking through pages, and receive priority support from us with technical issues.

Please don't illegally copy or distribute the registered version. While odds are we can't stop you, you'll be putting small companies like us that still support the Commodore 8-bit platforms out of business that much sooner. Please, don't pirate!

System requirements

HyperLink 2.5 requires these minimum system elements to boot:

For Internet access through HLPP, these elements are additionally required:

For cache support, HyperLink 2.5 supports the VDC memory in all Commodore 128 systems (up to 64K, depending on model), and all geoRAM-compatible RAM expansion units (128K minimum required). REUs and 100% compatible REU clones are also supported if you are using version 2.5a (128K minimum required). CMD SuperCPU SuperRAM, Quick Brown Boxes and CMD RAMLinks are not presently supported as cache devices. Cache support significantly decreases the time required to load previously viewed web pages and disk files, but is not required to boot and use HyperLink 2.5.

The CMD SuperCPU is supported and allows faster screen display and system responsiveness, but is in no way required to boot and use HyperLink 2.5.

HyperLink 2.x's memory requirements make it incompatible with the IDE64 extension. It has not been tested with the Xetec Lt. Kernal. It is 100% compatible with the Epyx FastLoad cartridge.

For those wishing to run HyperLink 2.5 on an emulator, it has been tested 100% compatible with C64S (2.0 and higher), Power64 (3.0 and higher) and VICE. 1541 emulation is not required for operation. We would appreciate information about any compatibility issues with other emulators.