Ideas of making C64 emulation easier
Martin Brunner
Consoles (for example the GP2X).
While playing C64 Games on the PC works quite well but still can be
tricky for unused users, you hardly will use emulators on devices which
do not have a keyboard for following reasons:
It's often difficult to pass the intro screens and hit the right keys
for starting the game! Sometimes you have to figure out if you mapped
the joystick keys on a key you need in the game. It's easier to have
Gameboy games emulated there because they always use the same keys.
This made me think of the following idea:
How about having a standard for a setting file where you can specify
settings for the C64 games? Either have it as extra file, or have an all
in one file with the settings and all disc images you need for the game
included.
There you can specify following settings:
1.) Set the settings for the Joystick ports or keys that will be used
for Player 1 and 2. That way you don't have to fool around with Joystick
settings anymore, just set "Joystick Player 1" and "Joystick Player 2"
in your emulator once and since it has the information it automatically
will map them to the correct joystick port or keys the game needs.
2.) Mapping the buttons you need to Buttons A-D used bye the emulator:
That way you can make sure that you can pass the Intro screens, start
the game (often there is F1 = one player game, F3 = two...) or use extra
functions with always the same buttons on your device.
3.) Having a text info screen before the game starts, so that you know
what to do (for example" Button A = Joystick Button, Button B =
Activating Ghost Battery (for Ghost Busters), Button C = Start one
Player game)
4.) Set the information if you need true 1541 emulation or not.
5.) Set the information/command for loading and starting the game, so
that you don't have to type it in on your device.
Creating some standard there would make it much easier and more
comfortable playing you C64 games on phone devices, game consoles or you
would be able to tinker some Arcade machines or Multimedia Stations you
connect to your TV with "C64 inside".
You can handle all games like the same (no more figuring out whith keys
to use, how to start, how to pass the intros), and you can play them on
devices withouth keyboard.
Additionally there should be used two more buttons for
a) swapping through the disk images specified in the settings file or
included in the archive (so that you can easily change disk if needed)
b) inserting a keyboard like the C64 DTV does for entering names or
levelcodes when needed
Sorry I'm not a developer of an C64 Emulator and can do this myself, but
since I have a C64 emulator installes everywhere but hardly use it
(except on the PC), I was thinking about what is the reason and how you
can improve it. So maybe someone likes my ideas and can actually use or
improve them. I think maybe I already bought the GP2X for using it as
C64 console if I wasn't thinking of hunding through complicated
emulations menus instead of just playing the games.
Such a standard would make things much easier, what do you think about?
Is it possible?
iAN CooG
> 3.) Having a text info screen before the game starts, so that you know
You are confused, you are thinking about gabeboy or Mame.
The C64 is not a game console but a computer.
--
-=[]=--- iAN CooG/HokutoForce+HVSC Crew ---=[]=-
RAM DISK is NOT an installation procedure!
Joe Forster/STA
serious emulator frontend and game database.
Martin Brunner
> Martin Brunner <kon...@tin.at> wrote:
>
>> 3.) Having a text info screen before the game starts, so that you know
>
> You are confused, you are thinking about gabeboy or Mame.
> The C64 is not a game console but a computer.
This is true, but I like the idea of the C64 DTV and it would be still
useful if you are able to play your C64 games on some devices easily.
Martin Brunner
> I think you should have a look at http://www.gamebase64.com for a
> serious emulator frontend and game database.
I have it installed on the PC but for some reason you still need a
keyboard for that frontend. ;)
By the way: Good to see you are alive, I tried to contact you but you
mail address does not work. Wich is the correct one, or could you mail
me? Thanks.
Joe Forster/STA
mail address at my work place is working, as both c64.org as
c64.rulez.org are still down.
David Simmons
>...
>This made me think of the following idea:
>How about having a standard for a setting file where you can specify
>settings for the C64 games? Either have it as extra file, or have an all
>in one file with the settings and all disc images you need for the game
>included.
>Such a standard would make things much easier, what do you think about?
>Is it possible?
I've been thinking the same thing, which is why I decided to peek into
this newsgroup. It would be nice if a user could just double-click on a
desktop icon to launch a C64 game or application, and it would also make
the programs gadget-friendly.
Here are my thoughts on what a standard C64 "bundle" format might look
like:
1. The bundle itself could simply be a zip file. Zip files are well
understood and easy to work with. You could even use some other
extension -- i.e., .c64 instead of .zip -- to make it obvious that it's
a zip with special contents, and so desktop environments would know to
run the emulator instead of a zip program. (There's precedent for
this -- in the Java world, libraries and applications are bundled as
zips, but use the .jar extension and define a certain structure for the
contents.)
2. The zip file would contain disk/tape/cartridge images, icon images,
documentation, and a metadata file which ties it all together.
3. The metadata file could be an XML file (or some such) which
references the available disk images, indicates which disk should be
loaded first, contains information on how to launch the program,
keyboard/joystick mappings, RAM expansion and multi-drive
characteristics, and a variety of other hints. The first thing a
bundle-aware emulator would do is look for this file at a well-known
filename within the zip archive.
I haven't tried the GameBase64 stuff. It looks like it's Windows-only
and I don't have a Windows machine handy.
Along similar lines, I've also been wondering if it would be practical
to have an "auto-warp" feature for emulators like VICE, which would
accelerate the emulation based on certain disk I/O thresholds. This
wouldn't be reasonable for some programs, but bundle metadata could
provide hints about this to save the user from waiting three minutes for
their program to load.
Any thoughts on these ideas?
David
--
David Simmons
http://davidsimmons.com/
"Today is a fine day for science!" -- Dexter
Rudolf Harras
> Any thoughts on these ideas?
I also like it, I think the only chance of getting C64 stuff to work on
Phones etc. would be if you could make it easier to actually use the
games. You also could build a C64 mame machine etc etc.
But the C64er seem to use more windows emulation nowadays and doing
scene-demos instead of games...