Commodore 64 emulators

r3nu4l

Hi all,

I've tried various emulators for the C64 including CSS 64 and Frodo but always have a problem loading the games. Last Ninja 2 hangs on the first screen and I can't control the character.

I see a step-by-step guide to Amiga emulators, anyone willing to do one for C64?

My key questions are, after installing, how do I load the games and then how do I control the character in the game? I think CSS 64 has a joystick calibrator but that didn't work for me. Is it different for each game? Are there commands to use on the screen before loading he game?


Any advice appreciated, links etc. but a step-by-step would be great.

Trode

Have you tried WinVice? It's a version of Vicehttp://www.viceteam.org with a nice Windows-style GUI. Dead easy to set up and use, has decent compatibility,and most of the features you would want from an emulator(turbo mode, save states, joystick compatibility etc). Most of the things you're talking about can be done with one or two menu options. Give it a go.

Also, re the joystick thing, you do remember that most C64 games worked off of joysticks in port 2 , not port 1, right? I couldn't get a joystick to work for a while until I thought to swap the virtual joystick ports.

r3nu4l

Hi Trode, thanks for your help, I installed the VICE emulaor and loaded up a ghosts n' goblins disk image *.d64 and the file loads fine

EDIT: Sorry, got it working in the end - should have had gamepad plugged in before starting VICE. Played great game of Ghosts N Goblins last night Will be playing Last Ninja 2 tonight

LoGiE

Ah it's been to long since I played Last ninja 2. An absolute gem! As regards a guide to setting up WinVice why not write one yourself:P

r3nu4l

Steady on! I've barely had the thing installed a couple of days, haven't even played with the settings yet Not really quallified to write a proper step by step guide but this is what I did and only works for files that have been downloaded as filename.d64 (disk image64 files)

Here's what to do for basic setup (Wot I did;))

Download the VICE emulator and install using the installer provided.

If you want to use a joypad with games ensure that it is plugged in and recognised by Windows prior to running VICE.

Run VICE emulator from Windows by clicking on the c64.exe file.

Open "File" menu and click "Attach Disk Image" (only if files end in extention .d64)

• In the sub-menu attach the disk image to drive 8
• Leave all other settings alone
• Click "OK" to return to C64 emulator screen

At the cursor prompt type LOAD "*",8,1

The C64 will now serach for the attached file and begin to load it into memory.

After a few moments the cursor prompt will display "READY"
Type RUN and hit the Enter key.

When the game has finished loading click the "settings"menu and select "Joystick controller".

As Trode reminded me in the initial post, ensure that you select joystick port 2, leave the settings in joystick port one as they are.

So select Joystick port one and change from key settings to your joystick, which will be listed providing the jopad was plugged in before starting VICE.

Play game:D


Do remember that to get an asterisk (*) symbol in the VICE C64 emulator you press the (]) key. Also, C64 is automatically set in uppercase so the LOAD and RUN commands should be typed without pressing the Shift key.


Not a great guide but I have only successfully loaded one game so far.

Trode

Glad you got it up and running. 8-bit goodness for all!

r3nu4l wrote:

Open "File" menu and click "Attach Disk Image" (only if files end in extention .d64)

• In the sub-menu attach the disk image to drive 8
• Leave all other settings alone
• Click "OK" to return to C64 emulator screen

At the cursor prompt type LOAD "*",8,1

The C64 will now search for the attached file and begin to load it into memory.

After a few moments the cursor prompt will display "READY"
Type RUN and hit the Enter key.
...
...
Do remember that to get an asterisk (*) symbol in the VICE C64 emulator you press the (]) key. Also, C64 is automatically set in uppercase so the LOAD and RUN commands should be typed without pressing the Shift key.

Alternatively, if you're willing to sacrifice authenticity/lazy, simply select Autostart Disk/Tape Image(or some similar sounding option) from the File menu, navigate to the folder your games are in and double-click the game you want. It'll run disks(.d64) and tape(.t64,.z64,.tap(?)), but they can't be in a zipped format. Saves messing about mounting disk images and so on.
Most games you'll find will be cracked, so as well as often having selectable cheat modes and trainers built in, the load times will be a lot lower than hte originals. If they're still too slow for you, alt+w will activate the warp(really high speed) mode.

r3nu4l

Thanks for that All of the files I've gotten so far are disk images so I figured that was the fool proof way to load them up but it's good to know my options if I get any other file types