Help getting started with C64 gaming

[Oldbitcollector]

You might find the stuff I've been posting to http://commodore64.80sisland.com handy. It's a "Getting Started" resource from an NTSC point of view.

 

Jeff

[Keatah]

Can we talk about emulation at all? Has anyone purchased the license for C64 Forever? I've tried the demo version, but without the ability to scale or full screen, it's hard to gauge the experience. Others have pointed out that one difficulty with games for the C64, is that there seems to be a lack of consistency in the controls. I don't know that having real hardware versus emulation is that great of an advantage with regard to this issue.

 

Emulation! Except for some specific PC titles (and even then I'm doing some DosBox), all of my classic gaming is done through emulation. And sure the purists might argue about the classic LCD vs. CRT and the original-ness and authenticity of the 30 year old hardware - cutting corners in that area is a fair tradeoff when you consider reliability and ability to play anywhere on any display at any time.

 

Well to the point. I strongly dislike the inconsistency in Joyport-1 or Joyport-2, wtf do you use? I'm afraid emulation only makes that a little better, a little. You can map both ports to one set of controls. And in trade-off you have to set up a controller on the PC side of things. Overall it's a situation I can live with.

 

For C64 emulation I'm doing VICE -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VICE

 

IMHO emulators are a double-edged sword.

On one end they will provide access to the original programs used on these aging platforms for many many years to come. You get to enjoy a new level of reliability never achieved (or achievable) with the original hardware. And the hardware the emulators run on can be found in dumpsters and recycling centers today! All of this can be replaced and upgraded.

 

On the other end, many emulators are still difficult to configure. Difficult because they offer so many options in attempt to cover multiple systems from one line-up, e.g. C64, C128, VIC20. And to top it off, there's even more variances on the PC side with problems coming from display sizes, controller interfaces, keyboards, processing speeds, graphics cards. There's literally hundreds and thousands of parameters to tweak.

 

It my firm standing belief that setting up an emulator is an art as much as it is an 8-bit old-school skill. You need to have a thorough understanding of each setting (and every emu is different) and how it relates to both sides of the equation: Original Machine = Modern Day PC. How do you balance it out?

 

It is also my belief that the advantages of emulation are beginning to outweigh the original hardware in a few areas. File organization is a big one for me. And of course the clutter/hoarding factor. No matter how nicely you display a gaming collection, it still takes up a large area.

 

The lady likes a traditional New England home through and through. And the only place I'm allowed to hoard retro-electronics is in the basement. So I keep my Apple II material and laboratory there, nearly 3 garages of material altogether. I have focused on that system exclusively, and everything else is emulation. The beauty part of emulation is it allows me to "sneak" a Vic-20 or Atari-800 into the arboretum or theater room via laptop or USB jumpdrive.

[TMR]

Can we talk about emulation at all? Has anyone purchased the license for C64 Forever?

 

People have, but it's just a commercial version of a previous update of VICE with their own disk image container standard and front end grafted on; the latter makes it a bit easier to use, but VICE supports drag and drop on images so, as long as True Drive Emulation is enabled when a D64 is dropped onto the window, not much easier.

 

Others have pointed out that one difficulty with games for the C64, is that there seems to be a lack of consistency in the controls. I don't know that having real hardware versus emulation is that great of an advantage with regard to this issue.

 

In VICE, just set a PC joystick up as port 2 (because that'll work for most games) and hit alt and J to swap the ports over if port 1 is needed. On a real machine it's either a case of keeping two joysticks plugged in or swapping the cable over; i do the latter but can't think of a single game i play regularly that isn't using port 2.

[Keatah]

Commercial version? Wrong. There is no pay-ware version of VICE.

[Keatah]

Oops my bad, you are right of course. My email scrolled by too quickly and I replied too quickly. A deadly combo!