[Auto Hotkey Scripts]

Alright y'all, I'm beating my head against a wall with this and it's probably something simple, but I cannot get this to work. The section in green works fine so long as the section in red isn't present. If the section in red is there none of the section in green works. If I put the red section in second it doesn't work. I've tried placing the WinWaitClose through ExitApp portions within each sub function underneath the hotkeys but if I do that it runs through the entire sequence as soon as I press the hotkey despite the fact that Retroarch hasn't closed (it closes CDisplay and itself at that point). I've tried using if/else statements and didn't have any more luck with that either.

All I need is a hotkey combo that flips between two windows (Retroarch and CdisplayEx in this case) and that part works fine, but I also need it to watch and close CdisplayEx and itself once Retroarch closes and at this point I'm getting one or the other but not both no matter what I try.

SetTitleMatchMode, 2
WinWait, RetroArch VICE
WinWaitClose
Process, Close, Cdisplayex.exe
ExitApp

Hotkey, ~NumpadSub & NumpadEnter, Function1
Return

Function1:
SetTitleMatchMode, 2
WinActivate, Cdisplayex
  Hotkey, ~NumpadSub & NumpadEnter, Function2
Return

Function2:
SetTitleMatchMode, 2
WinActivate, RetroArch VICE
  Hotkey, ~NumpadSub & NumpadEnter, Function1
Return
 

[C64 Dreams (massive curated C64 collection)]

9 hours ago, maschine said:

Kaiser is one of my all time favorites:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiser_(video_game)

Thanks for considering

Kaiser's actually in the collection already

[Would you pay for a plugin?]

Countless people have contributed in large and small ways to this scene for many years. Contributions which you have undoubtedly reaped the benefits of no small number of times. If you've downloaded a single piece of media or metadata you have. None of that stuff just appeared out of the ether. It's a scene made up of a wide array of different people good at various bits and bobs that all come together to make a better whole, and it's all niches within niches. That's the nature of the hobby (or any hobby, really). You either enjoy it or you don't (and, if you don't, why the hell are you doing it?) You're either willing to put the time and energy in for the benefit of that hobby or you're not. If you're not, my suggestion would be to stop. If you need to stick your digital coffee cup out into the crowd in order for it to be worth it to you, you might want to take a moment to consider why you're doing what you're doing.

I've spent literally thousands of hours on various projects for this scene, and continue to do so to this day, without receiving penny one. Hell, I spend money every year on these projects. And I'm married, have a mortgage, and a full time job. You enjoy the hobby or you don't. If you don't, stop spending your free time on things you don't enjoy.

My two cents.

[C64 Dreams (massive curated C64 collection)]

50 more done. That puts it at 2300 currently! I've made it through all of "I" as well.

Spoiler

3-D Skramble
Andy Capp
C64 Snail Maze
Elevator Eric
Ewe Woz 'Ere
Fallen
Indoor Soccer
Indoor Sports
Indy Heat
Inertiania - Land of Motion
Infection
Infinite Inferno
Infinity Worlds in the Space
Infodroid
Ingrid's Back
Inherits of the Throne
Inner Space
Inner Space Plant Attack
Insanity in San Francisco
Insects in Space
Inspector Gadget
Interceptor Base
Interchange
Intergalactic Cage Match
International 3D Tennis
International 5 A-Side
International Basketball
International Ninja Rabbits
International Speedway
International Sports Challenge
International Team Sports
International Truck Racing
Interview
Into the Nature
Intrigue!
Intruder - The Game
Intruder - The Space Quest
Invader
Invasion
Invasive Action
Invasor
Invert
Invest
IQ
Island of the Dragons
Iznogoud - The Grand Vizir
Run Demon Run
Snake-A-Space
Successors of the Throne, The - War for the Crown II
Survival Messenger Adventure

I've also made a new generic bezel (with a couple variations) which people might like.

I'm still making my way through and adding music to text adventures (and a few other games that just have no sound).

[Would you pay for a plugin?]

Does it give Launchbox horse armor?

[C64 Dreams (massive curated C64 collection)]

3 hours ago, Mozzers101 said:

Hi @Zombeaver, I'm watching this collection come together and it is really amazing the work you are putting in. It's things like this that enrich this community and it is fantastic. I will be adding the project into my setup when it is further along but have used the standalone version and it is great. Many thanks for all your hard work.

You're very welcome!

3 hours ago, Mozzers101 said:

I have a request for a game if I could be so forward? It is Andy Capp by Mirrorsoft.

Absolutely! Things are moving along nicely with the next version but there's still room for requests (which I always encourage). I'll add it into the next batch.

[Zombeaver's PCSX2 Configs / Simple 1-Click Installs With PCSX2 Configurator]

On 11/3/2020 at 1:05 PM, Nocta said:

If you are still accepting requests @Zombeaver, here are mine:

Crash Nitro Kart

Homura

Jak & Daxter/ Jak III / Jak X

Ratchet & Clank Going Commando / Ratchet & Clank Up your arsenal / Ratchet Deadlocked

I am but it'll be a while as I'm in the middle of another project at the moment.

3 hours ago, McJhonns said:

the pcsx2 release that u uploaded on the main post is the one u recommend the better or which version u using now?

1.6.0 (stable) is what was used for the current configs.

[C64 Dreams (massive curated C64 collection)]

Another 50 done:

Spoiler

Accolade Comics
Around the World in 80 Days
Hunchback - The Adventure
Hunchback at the Olympics
Hunt for Bubber's Bathtub
Hunt for Red October, The
Huntress of Midgard
Hybrid
Hydra
Hydrax
Hypa-Ball
Hyper Active
Hyper Circuit
Hyper Space Warrior
Hyper Viper
Hyperbowl
Hyperion II
Hyperrace
Hyperspeed
Hyperthrust
I Play 3D Soccer
I Play 3D Tennis
I-Alien
I-Ball
I-Ball II - The Quest for the Past
Ice Island
Ice Palace [Creative Sparks]
Ice-Mania
ICUPS
Ihanpaska
Ikari III - The Rescue
Ikari Warriors II
Ikarus
Iketa
Ikkiuchi
Illgen
Illusions
Imagination
Imaginator
Imperium
Imperoid
Implosion
Imshi
Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade
Lord of Dragonspire, The
Mars
Mean Streets
Munsters, The
Shadow Over Hawksmill
Snap Snake

 

[The Big Ol' Retroarch Shader Thread]

Glcore doesn't support cg, so that means you'll need to use cores that support regular gl. The non-HW Beetle PSX core should still work (and would be my recommendation anyway since the shaders are designed for native resolution anyway). That's likely the only thing out of the bunch that might throw people off, since in the past you could still use the HW core and have it use gl if you set it to software mode.

Kinda stupid change imo but shouldn't change much as far as support - some cores never supported gl to begin with.

[C64 Dreams (massive curated C64 collection)]

1 hour ago, maschine said:

Thank you for all your efforts and for keeping us posted  @Zombeaver

Looking forward to the next release. The latest version is still 0.20, or did I miss something?

Yes, v0.20 is still the current version. The next update will be v0.25.

I'm in the process doing some auditing because a number of things changed with updates to the core, so that's slowed things down a bit but it needs to be done.

I'm also in the process of testing out and adding autowarp where applicable - the current core now has this as an option and it's essentially the core's implementation of CCS64's "Maximum 1541 Speed" feature, which warps when it a disk attempts to load data. It only works when TrueDrive is enabled but that's the only time you'd really need it anyway so that's okay. It's a great feature and was basically the only remaining thing that CCS64, up to this point, held as an advantage. With that said, it's not something you can just use across the board since there are times where it's problematic - some games are in an almost constant state of loading, so you can't use it there and in cases where a game has frequent short loads and music you don't want to use it because it mutes the game while it warps (so it makes it sound like the audio is skipping). That said, there are a lot of cases where it's immensely beneficial. For example, there are a number of text adventures that have still images for each area that tend to take several seconds to load each time you move to another area - games like The Brew for example - and they have no music or sound (other than the SID music which I'm now piping in in the background with libsidplayfp, which is unaffected because it's external to Retroarch) - in these cases you're talking about going from 5-10 seconds per screen change to it happening virtually instantaneously. There are of course plenty of other good use scenarios for it as well, but testing is needed in all cases to verify that it doesn't screw anything up or make the game behave oddly.

[C64 Dreams (massive curated C64 collection)]

40 new games since the last batch. 2200 total.

Spoiler

Endless
Greystorm
Hall of the Things
Halley Mission, The
Halls of the Dwarven Kings, The
Happiest Days of Your Life, The
Helicopter Mission, The
Helm, The
Hermitage, The
Heroes of Karn, The
High Mountains, The
Holiday Games
Hollywood or Bust
Hollywood Squares
Holo
Holocaust
Hong Kong Phooey
Hook
Hopeless
Hopper Copper
Hopping Hoodlum, The
Hopto
Hostages
Hot Pop
Hot Shot
Hot Wheels
Hotel Alien
House Case
House of Usher
House, The
How to Be a Complete Bastard
Human Race, The
Humanoids
Hummdinger
Killed Until Dead
Metal Dust
Newcomer
Soko-Ban
Test Drive
Test Drive II - The Duel

 

[Zomb's Lair - Reviving Old Classics]

Black Dahlia has now been added to Zomb's Lair.

[C64 Dreams (massive curated C64 collection)]

Read the performance section of the opening post.

[C64 Dreams (massive curated C64 collection)]

Found some more tracks that are appropriate for text adventure background music. It still doesn't quite cover everything I want, but between these and the previous ones it's a good start anyway.

Astral Travel by G-Fellow

Catalyst by Jammer

Downward by Kruthers

Illbient by Jammer (can't find a video of this one)

Lighthouse in a Storm by Mibri

Lost in the Night by MCH (I really love this one; added it to The Curse of Rabenstein and it's just so much better)

Street of My Soul by Jammer

[C64 Dreams (massive curated C64 collection)]

7 minutes ago, mordroc said:

Thank you for the advice.  I used Notepad++ to made those changes (not forgetting the space before " (web version).url", which worked successfully.  I checked and double-checked the new .xml and everything was updated to the .vbs.  Unfortunately in LB the launch link is still the URL.  For some reason even though the .xml has been updated, LB still wants to point to the .url.  I am going to just fix the link for each magazine manually one by one in LB, which I know will solve the problem.  No big deal.  A small amount of time to take compared to the 1000's of hours you've clearly spent setting this up.  And I actually just finished.  Took about 10min.

That's strange because I tested it and it worked fine here. Glad you got it sorted at least.

[C64 Dreams (massive curated C64 collection)]

I had an interesting idea the other day while talking about text adventures on the Zomb's Lair Discord - many of them have no sound or music, so the thought occurred to me that maybe I could sortof pipe in my own appropriate background SID music to help set the mood a bit better. I found a nice tiny SID player that runs directly from CMD called libsidplayfp so I can basically start this as part of a game's .bat, tell it to start a specific SID track (which loops), use an AHK script to watch for Retroarch to close and then close it and the AHK script. I already have this working, at this point it's just a matter of getting tracks picked out. I've found four so far that I like and would be appropriate (below). I'll be looking for more and am open to suggestions. I want stuff that's 1) relatively slow and low-key/atmospheric and 2) are original compositions not from game soundtracks. If anyone wants to help look for more and make any suggestions, a good place to start is the Unepic SID Channel which has over 50,000 SID tracks (!) uploaded, which you can go through in a single playlist if you go here.

Stars Are Us by Jammer

Stolen Properties by TDM

Ghosts by SIDwave

Neon Haze by The Solution

[C64 Dreams (massive curated C64 collection)]

On 10/22/2020 at 8:35 PM, denmiclaw said:

Thank you very much for your work on this, it's great!

1 hour ago, mordroc said:

This is truly amazing what you've done.  Thank you for sharing all your hard work.

You're very welcome!

1 hour ago, mordroc said:

1.  In LB, I can see that for each magazine it's pointing to the .url link you've set up.  I can see the .bat and .vbs there.  Looks like they call up the actual magazine file (if it's there).  If I put the magazine files in the same folder structure, how do I tell LB to launch the vbs instead of the url?

Yeah I make the web version the default since the magazines are now a separate module. If you download the local versions you can right-click on an entry in LB and choose [Magazine Name] (Local) to launch them. If you wanted to make them the default launch, that's easy enough to do. You can do this on an individual basis by editing them, going to additional apps, selecting the local version and choosing "make default". If you wanted to do this en masse, you'd probably want to use something like Notepad++ and then open up C64 Dreams\C64 Dreams\Data\Platforms\Magazines.xml and do a find and replace all for " (Web Version).url" with ".vbs" Make sure you include the space before (Web Version). I would recommend backing up your .xml before doing this to be safe.

1 hour ago, mordroc said:

2.  I am running C64 Dreams off my C drive.  I'd like to put the magazine files on my D drive.  Can you instruct me how to fix the launch links to each magazine in LB?

You would need to again open up C64 Dreams\C64 Dreams\Data\Platforms\Magazines.xml in Notepad++ and do a find and replace of: 

<ApplicationPath>C64 Dreams\Magazines

with

<ApplicationPath>[your new path]\Magazines

Everything is setup with relative paths so the Magazine folder will work unaltered so long as you've got everything included (i.e. everything in the folder including !CDisplayEx, the .bats, etc.). In other words, just make sure that you move the Magazines folder in its entirety (not just the .cbrs by themselves).

[C64 Dreams (massive curated C64 collection)]

Aaaaaand the sweep through the GB64 H folder is done. Phew!

17,761 screenshots parsed between # and H...

[C64 Dreams (massive curated C64 collection)]

50 new games since the last batch. This brings the current total to 2160 (I removed 2 games from v0.20 that were duplicates with alternate region titles - Coil Cop and Bad Dudes vs Dragon Ninja).

Spoiler

Aliants - The Desperate Battle For Earth
Beer Belly Burt's Brew Biz
Brubaker
Chameleon
Heavy Metal - Modern Land Combat Vol. I
Heavy Metal Deluxe
Hektic
Hektic II
Helden
Heli Rescue
Hell for Leather
Hell Zone
Hell Zone II
Hellfire
Hellraid
Helsings Hunt
Hero 2020
Hero Quest
Hero Quest II
Hero Time
Hero Time II
Heroes of Midgard
Hideous
Hideous Bill and the Gi-Gants
Hidihood
High Frontier
High Rise
Highland Games
Highlander
Highway Encounter
Hillsfar
Himalayan Odyssey
Hit and Run Baseball
Hive
Ho! Ho! Ho!
Hobbit, The
Hobgoblin
Hockey Mania
Hocus Focus
Hole-in-One
Holiday Cops
Human Killing Machine
International Ice Hockey
Slam Dunk
Zork - The Undiscovered Underground
Zork I - The Great Underground Empire
Zork II - The Wizard of Frobozz
Zork III - The Dungeon Master
Zork Quest I - Assault on Egreth Castle
Zork Quest II - The Crystal of Doom

 

[The Big Ol' Retroarch Shader Thread]

Whatever you're loading there, it isn't one of my presets. I don't load anything from 199X or Analog Shader Pack version 3 paths. It's all self-contained in its own folder (Zombs Shaders), but your screenshots show paths external to that. It looks like you're loading a 199X preset. Those are not mine. Those were made by Birm. Retroarch's shader path format has changed since those were first made (relative to loaded preset location, not relative to Retroarch location) so they probably don't work anymore.

The newest version of my presets are in this post and don't have any external dependencies.

[C64 Dreams (massive curated C64 collection)]

45 new games since the last batch:

Spoiler

720 Degrees
Archon II
BC's Quest for Tires
Curse of Ra
Flax
H.A.T.E.
Hangman's Hazard
Hans Kloss
Happy Gardening
Happy Hacker
Harald Hardtooth
Hard Work
Hardsync
Harrier 7
Harrier Attack
Harrier Combat Simulator
Harvey Smith Showjumper
Hassle Castle
Hatchet Honeymoon
Haunted Hill
Haunted House (Planet Rock)
Haunted Inn
Haunted Mansion
Havoc (Players Premier)
Hawk
Hawk Mission
Hawk Mission II
Hawk Mission III
Hawk Patrol
Hawkstorm
Head Start
Head The Ball
Head to Head Karate
Head-On (Compute)
Headache
Make My Day
Michael Jordan vs Larry Bird - One on One
Rambo III
Sector Patrol
Shamus
Side Arms
Super Nova
Sword of Fargoal
Temple of Apshai Trilogy
You Had One Job

Current full list of new titles (112 games total):

Spoiler

2438 The Return
720 Degrees
Ace of Aces
Adventures of Tronic
Age of Heroes, The
Alien Bleed
Archon II
Aviator Arcade II
BC's Quest for Tires
Birdie Bird
Bobby Bearing
Centric
Curse of Ra
Cybo-Cop
Deadly Thunder
Death Battle 2200
Drol
Dungeon of Rott
Escape to Murky Woods
Flax
Forever Extending Hungry Snake, The
Game of Harmony, The
Ghost of Genghis Khan, The
Ghost Town 64
Golden Pyramids, The
Guild of Thieves, The
Gun City
Gun Runner (Mnemonic Productions)
Gun Runner (The Power House)
Gunboat
Gunfighter
Gunfighters
Gunfright
Guns 'n' Roses
Gunslinger (Datasoft)
Gunslinger (Virgin Mastertronic)
Gunstar
Gutt Blaster
Guzzler
H.A.T.E.
Hades Nebula
Hagar The Horrible
Halcyon
Halloween
Halloween Police
Halls of Death
Hammer Boy
Hangman's Hazard
Hans Kloss
Happy Gardening
Happy Hacker
Harald Hardtooth
Hard Work
Hardsync
Harrier 7
Harrier Attack
Harrier Combat Simulator
Harvey Smith Showjumper
Hassle Castle
Hatchet Honeymoon
Haunted Hill
Haunted House (Planet Rock)
Haunted Inn
Haunted Mansion
Havoc (Players Premier)
Hawk
Hawk Mission
Hawk Mission II
Hawk Mission III
Hawk Patrol
Hawkstorm
Head Start
Head The Ball
Head to Head Karate
Head-On (Compute)
Headache
Hercules - Slayer of the Damned
Jumpman Junior
Kobo64
Left 2 Die
Left 2 Die Part 2
Magical Girl Mary vs E.V.I.L.
Make My Day
Mancala
Mega Tank Blasta
Michael Jordan vs Larry Bird - One on One
Mirage
Old West World, The
Outlaw
Project FX-64
Rambo III
Ring of Power, The
Rudy Hammer
Sector Patrol
Shamus
Side Arms
Sizzler
Sooper Froot
Space Mission
Space Swarm 64
Stellar Wars
Storm Chase
Summer Games
Super Nova
Survival Messenger
Sword of Fargoal
Tai-Pan
Temple of Apshai Trilogy
Toilet Paper Stacker
Winter Games
You Had One Job
Zambeezi

 

[Zomb's Lair - Reviving Old Classics]

Rocket Jockey has now been added to Zomb's Lair.

[The Big Ol' Retroarch Shader Thread]

17 hours ago, cooljojo said:

it's probably some green_boost / luminance

Feel free to adjust my presets as you see fit. Color boost and luminance are both available in the shader settings. Be careful with the latter though - it's easy to get blowout if you push it up too high (i.e. it wouldn't take much of boost from what I'm already using for that to happen).

17 hours ago, cooljojo said:

do you mind giving me a few advice or guidance that would put me on the right track in order to obtain this look, please ?

As I said, most of what you're seeing there - and I'm not sure how I can make this any more explicit than I have already - has nothing to do with (and is not replicatable) via shaders. No shader that you're going to throw on top of Streets of Rage 2 is going to spontaneously give the game dynamic lighting or high res textures, which is the majority of what makes it look the way it does. The only thing on top of that is scanlines, bloom, and grain which the presets have already. You can boost the green if you want, and maybe increase contrast and saturation. Those are about the only things that are within the confines of shaders that would make it look closer.

17 hours ago, cooljojo said:

if you know a "RetroArch shaders guide" somewhere, I'd be happy to learn from it?

The only advice I can give you there is "play around". That's all I've ever done. I just looked at what others had done - namely Birm's 199X presets - and poked and prodded and fiddled around with them for hours and hours until I ended up with something I liked. All I can say is play around and experiment. 

17 hours ago, TakaraMiyuki said:

it would have side-effects; for example, it would make the UI slightly greener as well, and would make all the light pixels (for example, the ones in the fighters' names) appear to glow more. If you wanted only certain parts of the image to look green or glow, it would require some sophisticated AI.

Not necessarily. It depends on whether you're doing it through Retroarch or Reshade. With Reshade you can use a mask layer that won't apply any effects to the areas that you indicate in the mask. I use this to make it not affect my bezels, but you could do it for whatever you want, including the UI (which is what it's actually designed to accommodate). You'd have to make a different mask for every game though...

There's no real equivalent to that in Retroarch though, to my knowledge. So in that scenario the shaders are going to affect the entire screen, yes.

[The Big Ol' Retroarch Shader Thread]

Well, it depends on what exactly you're trying to replicate. There are scanlines, grain, and bloom - all of which are present in the presets already. Most of what you're seeing that's giving that a unique look comes down to the assets themselves and what looks to be some kind of additional lighting engine, none of which is stuff that shaders have any control over - that's based on the content. In other words, if you stripped away the scanlines, grain, and bloom from that picture and gave it to me, I could add a shader on top that would make the end result look similar (probably better even, honestly), but I can't make a preset that will cause content to spontaneously develop dynamic lighting or replace textures 

Glad you're enjoying the shaders!

[Zomb's Lair - Reviving Old Classics]

Take No Prisoners has now been added to Zomb's Lair.