thetick1 Posted April 21, 2019 Share Posted April 21, 2019 (edited) Curious: since joysticks mode can be set by the file name, why the hacks? If I recall correctly these hacks we done before the file name convention was implemented in a new firmware release. Edited April 21, 2019 by thetick1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted April 22, 2019 Share Posted April 22, 2019 Roger. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UHATEIT Posted June 3, 2019 Share Posted June 3, 2019 (edited) The price dropped to $29.99 at Gamestop last week, so I am about to go pick one up shortly from my local store. I am wanting to mod and ad as many games as possible. Does anyone have the most simple instructions of what to download and what to do??? I have searched around and see some stuff that sounds way too complex to me. I literally was hoping I could just find a huge file with over 1,000 roms on it, put it on a flash drive, plug it in, and then have it show up. Is that not the case with this? Really need the simple straight to the point instructions for it if someone has that. I have seen links to pages with multiple downloads of games but not one with a large 1,000 game file or larger. Also is there a firmware update or something you have to do for them to show up? Edited June 3, 2019 by UHATEIT 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinphaltimus Posted June 3, 2019 Share Posted June 3, 2019 (edited) Can't answer all the other questions but I found this pretty large collection here - https://archive.org/download/C64_Preservation_Project_10th_Anniversary_Collection The main page for the collection is here - https://archive.org/details/C64_Preservation_Project_10th_Anniversary_Collection Edited June 3, 2019 by Sinphaltimus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UHATEIT Posted June 4, 2019 Share Posted June 4, 2019 Can't answer all the other questions but I found this pretty large collection here - https://archive.org/download/C64_Preservation_Project_10th_Anniversary_Collection The main page for the collection is here - https://archive.org/details/C64_Preservation_Project_10th_Anniversary_Collection Awesome thanks for the help! I bought the C64 yesterday and havent opened it. I will download one of those large files with the 1000+ games on it. I guess then you have to do something to the C64 mini as well for them to register. That will be my first project. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+save2600 Posted June 4, 2019 Share Posted June 4, 2019 Awesome thanks for the help! I bought the C64 yesterday and havent opened it. I will download one of those large files with the 1000+ games on it. I guess then you have to do something to the C64 mini as well for them to register. That will be my first project. Here's the link for the firmware upgrade (improves performance, allows the addition of games, etc.) with instructions: https://retrogames.biz/support/upgrade/ 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UHATEIT Posted June 4, 2019 Share Posted June 4, 2019 Sounds simple enough! I will start the process on that tonight to tomorrow and and then hopefully will have a success. Thanks again for the help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+save2600 Posted June 4, 2019 Share Posted June 4, 2019 Sounds simple enough! I will start the process on that tonight to tomorrow and and then hopefully will have a success. Thanks again for the help! Cool, let us know how it goes and what you think of it! I bought one recently too. Wouldn't have bothered at $80, but for $30 - what the heck. If nothing else, the box looks nice among the other mini systems at least. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thetick1 Posted June 4, 2019 Share Posted June 4, 2019 (edited) Yea I'm buying a few more to hand out as Christmas presents. I'll create custom USB sticks for the lucky recipients. Edited June 4, 2019 by thetick1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UHATEIT Posted June 4, 2019 Share Posted June 4, 2019 yes 100% I was waiting for it to drop to a reasonable price. $20 would have been ideal but for $30 its a nice looking box and something I'll dabble with. When I found that out last week I decided to scoop it up but was worried it would be too complex to modify. But sounds like you download that firmware update, load it from the flash drive, then download that 1000+ game file and then when you plug it into the unit it should show up. Hoping it is that simple! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted June 5, 2019 Share Posted June 5, 2019 I picked up two in the beginning, just because I generally do things in pairs so I can go nuts with one and keep the other in stock condition. I like the idea of grabbing more for Christmas gifts. I would have to put together a kind-of starter kit, though, with hub, USB stick, and keyboard. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinphaltimus Posted June 6, 2019 Share Posted June 6, 2019 (edited) Just ordered one. The original price tag was a bit high but for $30 and the new firmware upgrade I couldn't resist. Fear of them selling out and becoming hard to find at a reasonable price I suppose. Hopeful it will keep me satisfied until my U64E arrives sometime in August. This entire topic convinced me (mostly the latest posts). Thanks all. Edited June 6, 2019 by Sinphaltimus 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UHATEIT Posted June 6, 2019 Share Posted June 6, 2019 Alright so I finally hooked it up and did some playthrough and have a simple question. First off the download of the firmware thanks to that link was super easy, you then plus it into the C64 and then a select the "wrench" and choose firmware and then it tells you there is a USB drive plugged in and asks if you want to update, I clicked apply and then it did its thing and restarted, then at the bottom there is a USB icon and you can click it and see the games I have downloaded. My question is: Of the 3000+ game si downloaded it will only show those with the .d64 files and from the group I downloaded there were only 57 of those and the other 3000+ are all.nbz format. Is there a way to get it to show all the NBZ ones too or swould I have to change the format/relabel them all to .d64??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+wongojack Posted June 6, 2019 Share Posted June 6, 2019 I also just ordered one of these for $30. I already have almost everything C64 that I could ever want, but $30 was too good to pass up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinphaltimus Posted June 7, 2019 Share Posted June 7, 2019 (edited) Didn't realize the format difference. No, you can't just rename the nbz files. They are exact replica of original disks (with copy protection in tact). This is the tool to use to convert. Not sure if it does batch conversion. I'll be looking into it myself sometime over the weekend... More Info https://github.com/markusC64/nibtools Where I actually found a download link: http://commodore.software/downloads/download/80-disk-file-transfer-tools/8024-nib-tools OK also this: https://csdb.dk/release/?id=128899 Copy nib convert to the same folder you extracted nibtools in. run nib convert and drag and drop nbz files into the app (doe batch, I dunno how many are good to try - I tried 20 or so at once) and nib convert will convert the nbz file to g64 files and save them in the same directory as the nbz files leaving the originals in tact. Also, that big collection i downloaded for the U64E well before being convinced to get the C64mini. I know G64 files work with the U64E. I don't know about the mini tho'. However, nibtools is supposed to be able to convert G64 to D64. Let me know hoe it works out for ya... Alright so I finally hooked it up and did some playthrough and have a simple question. First off the download of the firmware thanks to that link was super easy, you then plus it into the C64 and then a select the "wrench" and choose firmware and then it tells you there is a USB drive plugged in and asks if you want to update, I clicked apply and then it did its thing and restarted, then at the bottom there is a USB icon and you can click it and see the games I have downloaded. My question is: Of the 3000+ game si downloaded it will only show those with the .d64 files and from the group I downloaded there were only 57 of those and the other 3000+ are all.nbz format. Is there a way to get it to show all the NBZ ones too or swould I have to change the format/relabel them all to .d64??? Edited June 7, 2019 by Sinphaltimus 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted June 7, 2019 Share Posted June 7, 2019 Hm, I honestly had no idea that there were thousands of nibtools files floating around. No wonder so many people have issues with simple devices like SD2IEC, if they come across such libraries of original disks that won't load. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinphaltimus Posted June 8, 2019 Share Posted June 8, 2019 It arrived today. I updated the firmware. Tomorrow I'll load up a bunch of d64 files and try them out. First 2 on my list are Castles of Dr Creep and Lode Runner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinphaltimus Posted June 8, 2019 Share Posted June 8, 2019 OLDCS1 - Your blog is awesome. Thanks for that. I'm converting all 3000+ nib files so it's going to be awhile before I start playing in depth. I did load up me d64 images I had but only Lode runner worked. and DrCreep joystick did not work. After reading your blog, I see some file renaming may fix these issues. Will give it a go when conversations are completed. Been running for little over an hour now and about 1/3rd of the way through. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+save2600 Posted June 8, 2019 Share Posted June 8, 2019 You guys with all the .nbz files or whatever... are you only downloading the first .zip file from the archive site? https://archive.org/download/C64_Preservation_Project_10th_Anniversary_Collection ...Think the third file down has the .d64 and .g64 files that have already been converted. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UHATEIT Posted June 8, 2019 Share Posted June 8, 2019 You guys with all the .nbz files or whatever... are you only downloading the first .zip file from the archive site? https://archive.org/download/C64_Preservation_Project_10th_Anniversary_Collection ...Think the third file down has the .d64 and .g64 files that have already been converted. Yeah I'll go through and delete the first set then download the 3rd one and unzip it and ad it. Should work. None of the .nbz show up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinphaltimus Posted June 8, 2019 Share Posted June 8, 2019 I didn't even notice the one with the G64 images. I'm a Data collector anyway so having the nib archived is something i'd do anyway but I think the 3rd zip will a least curb the hours of conversion (even though it's a batch convert of all nbz files it is still taking hours...) You guys with all the .nbz files or whatever... are you only downloading the first .zip file from the archive site?https://archive.org/download/C64_Preservation_Project_10th_Anniversary_Collection...Think the third file down has the .d64 and .g64 files that have already been converted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinphaltimus Posted June 8, 2019 Share Posted June 8, 2019 (edited) So I got to do some gaming on this today and it works great for me. No controller lag or anything of the sort. if things don't work it sems i only have to do some reading and trial and error to get things working. Much like OLDCS1 said in his blog post. So far so good. A little bit of readin, a little bit of searching and you can find all the answers you need. I'm only going to talk about games I downloaded and tested. So far 2 games. Lode runner downloaded worked straight away. No adjustments needed.The Castles of Dr. Creep (CODC) took some trial and error. First issues, after loading some 3000+ games on the root of the USB stick, the USB Game Loader screen will only display a max of 256 entries including files and folders. I could not see COTD until I split up all the directories by alpha/numeric ordered folders. But my C folder still had too many so I had to further subdivide that into the first half of the alphabet and second half folders.The game now loaded but the joystick didn't work. After some reading I discovered the usb joystick gets set as JOY2 by default and several games (CODC being one of them) requires only one joystick and it must be set as JOY1. I had to add J1 to the end of the file name and it still didn't work. Then I realized I needed an underscore before game specific switch so i added _J1. It works! But the file name only supports 8-10 characters I think (forget which 8, 9 or 10) so I renamed the file to CODC_J1.d64 and I was back to not being able to find the file. I noticed all other game titles were in lower case so I renamed the filed to codc_J1.d64 and that worked! OK game loading and joystick now working. The game ran all the way through the tutorial but crashed on game level loading. CODC has a built in option to use fast loader, the c64mini is set to use fast loader by default but the game was crashing, it crashed worse when I set in game to not use fast loader. A bit more reading meant I needed to add AD to the game switches in the file name. I renamed the file to codc_ADJ1.d64. AD disables fast loader on the c64mini and uses a more accurate disk emulation mode. I also needed to disable fast loader in game. The game takes a few minutes to load for the first time but it works flawlessly now. And with 4 game state save slots as part of the c64mini options, I no longer have to load the game from the beginning which means instant loading from now on.With over 3000 titles to play with, this thing will keep me busy when bored, at least until my Ultimate64Elite arrives. Then it will become my Portal c64 solution while at home I will use the real deal U64E. Edited June 8, 2019 by Sinphaltimus 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted June 10, 2019 Share Posted June 10, 2019 Glad to be of help. Have fun! It is a rather neat little device. BTW, that character limit on the file names: did you format it FAT16? I used FAT32 and all my files names are long. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UHATEIT Posted June 10, 2019 Share Posted June 10, 2019 Glad to be of help. Have fun! It is a rather neat little device. BTW, that character limit on the file names: did you format it FAT16? I used FAT32 and all my files names are long. I too wonder on this. Of the 3000 game file they are all stupidly long names and it would take a while to edit and compress the names for them all. When I downloaded the Ransom Rom pack (273 games) they are all nicely labelled and organized alphabetically and I would like the 3000 games to look the same in the menu but not have to edit all of them! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+wongojack Posted June 11, 2019 Share Posted June 11, 2019 Don't sweat it, you've just started your new volunteer career as a "ROM curator." You'll apply this valuable experience when tackling future projects like "MAME cabinet builder," or "Flashcart Aficiando." 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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