Zombeaver

I'm currently working on a video about C64 Dreams that's meant to serve as a project overview, feature demonstration, tutorial, etc. You can find the current script/written guide here. I did notice while working on it that somehow the custom controller mapping for Aquaplane and Spellbound Dizzy were missing in their .bats. I'm not sure how/why that's the case but the below fixes them. I'll be reuploading the whole collection to Mediafire including the fix once I upload it to Archive.org, but that will be after the video is complete. 1-29-22 Hotfix.7z

I made some tweaks to all three uploads above, so if anyone grabbed them already please do so again. I forgot that the internal mapping for PgUp is Restore, which causes some (not all) games to reset when pressed, so I changed the default Start/Stop record button in OBS from PgUp to Numpad 7. The ffmpeg script for adding in a fade animation wasn't using the correct duration calculation if the video was over a minute long, it was only using the seconds - i.e. if a video was one minute and three seconds long it would start to fade out at the three second mark. I fixed this so that it now calculates it correctly even if it's over the minute mark. It doesn't account for videos that are over an hour long but that won't be an issue for the purposes of this project. I made a few additional tweaks to the color correction shader as there were a few scenarios where it didn't look right. It should be squared away now.

So, I've done some work testing things out and have come up with a fairly simple setup that's yielding pretty good results for anyone that's interested in recording video snaps for C64 Dreams. 1) Download a portable pre-configured copy of OBS here and extract anywhere you want 2) Download ffmpeg here and extract anywhere you want 3) Download an updated version of the color corrections shader here and place in C64 Dreams\C64 Dreams\Retroarch\shaders\Zombs Shaders\C64 and overwrite the existing one (this step is no longer necessary with current downloads of the set) 4) Open up C64 Dreams\C64 Dreams\Configurator.exe and in "Overlays" set it to "Blank (controller / notes overlay still accessible)" 5) In "Shaders" set it to "No Shader (color corrections only)" 6) Start the Config Editor shortcut at the bottom of the Configurator 7) Paste the below lines at the bottom of the config and save. Once you're no longer going to be doing any recording either delete these or comment them out with a ; at the beginning of the line. video_fullscreen_x = "1280" ; used for video snap recording, otherwise disabled video_fullscreen_y = "720" ; used for video snap recording, otherwise disabled 8 ) Start OBS in OBS\bin\64bit\obs64.exe 9) Click "Game Capture" in the source section 10) Go to File > Settings > Output and set the "Recording Path" field to wherever you want to save the videos, press Apply, then OK 11) Start up a game and press Numpad 7 when you want to start and stop recording; note that videos should be a minimum of 30 seconds, and upwards of a minute 12) Take all your recordings and move them to ffmpeg\bin, select them all, and drag them onto Fade.bat. This runs a batch job which will add a 1 second audio/video fade in and a 1 second audio/fade out and place the resultant file(s) in the "Converted" subfolder. You can do up to 100 videos at a time. Everything should "just work" if you follow the above steps but if anyone tries it out and has any issues please let me know. Anyone that participates will, of course, be credited in the next version's update notes and, if you care about such things, get a special title on my Discord server. If you want to work on this either PM me or hop on Discord and I'll send you the shared google sheet to keep track of what is and isn't done (so people don't duplicate work). Bruce Lee.mp4

I appreciate the offer but, as I said, I'm not interested in assembling a bunch of clips from various places. They're going to be created, from scratch, for this collection using a unified set of parameters. I've had a few people ask about helping on that front so I wanted to open it up here as well because I know there are people here who have the skills to do it and there are plenty of premium users that would use them if they were at their disposal.

Thanks, much appreciated! 👍

I wanted to take a moment to mention that I've had a couple people ask me about recording video snaps for C64 Dreams for use in Launchbox. This is something that I've been interested in for a while but, given that they can't be used in the free version of Launchbox which is what I have to use for distribution purposes, it's been a lower priority for me. That said, I have to imagine that most people here already have premium and would use them if they could. With that in mind, because there's been some interest in the idea I've added a new channel to my Discord for discussing that project and getting volunteers. To be clear, the purpose is not to gather videos from Emumovies, youtube, etc. - that will be a mish mash hot mess - the purpose is to create entirely new snaps using a unified set of parameters so that everything looks nice, uniform, and correct across the board. If anyone is interested in participating in that, I'd encourage you to hop on my server and join the discussion. You can find it here.

Would you care to share these? I pull them from our DB and then check against Screenscraper for whatever's left after that. There are still gaps of course though. I add the clear logos to the spine of the 3D boxes so it helps for those as well.

Looks like for Planet X2 I'm actually using an Easyflash version. Put the attached in the Planet X2 folder and overwrite and you should be good. I don't know if the disk version requires TrueDrive or not. If it does, I can walk you through how to enable that. Planet X2.7z

Yes, and in some cases I do exactly that. It's not exactly ideal though for a few reasons, not the least of which is that anytime VICE (as in mainline/upstream VICE) releases a new version, it breaks all states from previous versions (which is why I had to remake them all in this update, as I mentioned in the update notes), so I don't rely on them when there are other options. The core has an autowarp function that automatically detects when data is being loaded, engages warp while it loads, and turns it off once complete. This is a better option in most cases but it too isn't foolproof as it doesn't always work in an ideal way depending on the game. I use whatever makes the most sense on a case by case basis. The .bats are used because the collection is entirely frontend-agnostic. Manual swapping, custom music for text adventures, additional custom control mapping, etc. are all functional with or without a frontend / in any frontend. It was designed like this from the get go so that if someone theoretically wanted to use something other than Launchbox there's nothing mechanically stopping them from doing that because nothing's reliant on Launchbox to function. As far as Launchbox or any frontend is concerned they're basically Windows shortcuts. Everything's handled with a combination of batch and AHK scripting.

That's doable. What's there is accurate though. It doesn't use the "VICE" palette, it uses a custom one. What's used is a combination of custom palette and shader settings to produce the resulting appearance. Pay particular attention to the skin color below. VICE Palette with no shader: Radioactive neon garbage. This is totally and completely wrong. Colodore Palette with no shader: Significantly better, clearly, but still not quite right. They're still a bit too pink. Internal/Custom Palette with CRT-Easymode-Halation-C64 shader (CRT-Easymode-Halation with customized saturation, contrast, and color values): You can of course change things to taste but they won't be "correct". The easiest way to make changes would actually be through the shader, rather than palette settings. The palette is specified in the core options, which are saved to retroarch-core-options.cfg if a game doesn't have its own .opt file, but there are 800+ opt files for specific games where it's specified as well. You could do a mass find and replace with something like Notepad++ though. The shader applies to everything across the board though so that's an easier place to start. There are saturation, contrast, and individual color settings that you can adjust there.

They're not any more work than the games. In fact, they're significantly less, that's what I'm trying to explain. The most time-consuming part of that process is just finding things that I feel strongly enough about that I want to add to begin with (which actually does take quite a bit of time). I could have five to ten times the number of them that I have now and spent less time on it than I have if I just threw in a haphazard array of things that I stumbled upon. The stuff that I come across that seems worth including gets added, the stuff that doesn't... doesn't. If there's specific stuff that you, or anyone else for that matter, want to see added for demos or SID tracks, then by all means, name them and I'll add them in (that certainly makes my life easier than digging through this stuff blind). I actively encourage people to do that every single update and it never fails that someone says they wished X or Y game was included after nary a peep about it in the months (or an entire year in this case) that led to release, while I've been repeatedly telling people to send in their requests. I've never refused a user request for games so I wouldn't do that for music or demos either. But what it mostly sounds like to me is that you have some arbitrary number in your head of how many you think there should be, without any real justification upon which to base it, and then when you see there are less than that arbitrary number you consider it disappointing - that's setting yourself up for failure from the start. The existence of thousands of demos and tens of thousands of SID tracks doesn't mean that anywhere near that number are actually interesting enough to be included. There are 4000~ (non-one-file) demos on csdb and if I'm generous I'll say that when all is said and done I might include 10 percent of that. There are 55,000 SID tracks in HVSC and I'll probably end up including about 2% of that. I can't say for sure of course because I haven't gone through them all, but I think that's a fair estimate. That's good. Fair enough then. Fair enough. Just keep in mind that when someone tells you that they've spent years and thousands of hours of their life on a project and your response contains the phrase "quite disappointed" that's not likely to be received particularly well by anyone in any context. If you'd said "Hey, I like what you have so far. Could you add X, Y, and Z demo/SID? Those are some of my favorites and would love to see them included here." then I'd happily oblige; and appreciate the genuinely helpful feedback. As it is though, it comes across as vague complaining just for the sake of complaining. If there's something specific that you want, say so and I'll make it happen. If you think that the number should just be larger because reasons that's not a good justification for anything. Curation is one of the central goals of the project so I'm not going to undermine that. I don't think you meant any harm by it. I'm not upset, I just find that kind of response frustrating.

...why? It takes the same amount to time to import all of them as it does just the games, assuming you followed the import instructions. And if you didn't (and did something like importing the games from scratch into LB like a few people have suggested here previously, wrongly), then you're literally removing huge portions of work for no apparent reason and wasted your time. There are additional apps for about half the games, from optional mouse modes, to codewheels, to audio recordings for games like Valkyrie 17, to the 1600+ Zzap reviews that were incorporated in 0.45. On and on and on. I'm not sure what this is supposed to mean but I think you may be confused. The SID and Demoscene are curated just like the games are. I probably listen to 50 SID tracks for every one that I actually add to the collection. Things like HVSC are at your disposal if you want everything ever, but I have no more desire to include all that than I do the 28,000+ games in GB64. Not filling it with crap is kinda the point. There are thousands of demos out there but there will never be thousands of demos in C64 Dreams, by design. Even when all is said and done and I reach v1.0 if I had to wager a guess I would say there will probably be something like 700-800 SID tracks and maybe 300 demos. The point with the music and the demos, just like the games, is that it's all stuff that's worth your time, because not everything out there is. There are 26000+ one-file demos on csdb that, if you actually watch them, are largely things like... a spinning cube while some music plays. That's neat and all, but that's never going to be in here. For demos I focus primarily on things that were used in demo competitions - I pay attention to the latest competitions that are taking place and then pick several out from the mix that I think are worth including (usually the higher-placing ones). For music I normally load up Unepic SID Channel on Youtube and let it play - and I'll often listen for an hour before I come across something that I actually want to include in C64 Dreams. All of it is curated. As far as the magazines, I'm not sure what you're expecting exactly. As of v0.45 there are 10GB of magazines in the collection, including the entire run of Zzap!64 and Commodore Force. All but the last 7 issues of Commodore Format are included. There are really only a handful of C64-specific magazines that I consider worth including at all, and those are all the big ones. There are some big German-only magazines for C64 stuff but those will never be included as, well, I don't speak German (at least not well) - this is an English-focused project. Things like Computer & Video Games will likely never be included because those are not C64-specific - they cover things like Spectrum, CPC, etc. alongside C64 and as result aren't entirely relevant. There are also some magazines out there like Commodore User and Your 64 that honestly just... aren't that great. I will likely end up including both of those eventually but again you're not missing a whole lot. You'd have to ask the theme author for any specific theme support but in general you have to first set a button that changes views via Big Box's options menu and then press that button when you're on the screen where you want to change the view. Normally Big Box themes have several different options for any given view, whether it be Clear Logos, Boxes, 3D Boxes, etc.

Did you copy/overwrite the xmls, images, etc.? Updating the parents and platforms xmls on its own won't do anything. You still have to copy over the xmls from Data\Platforms and Data\Playlists as well as the images. They're specified in C64 Dreams\C64 Dreams\Docs\Files to Import.txt

Blog post for v0.45 on Zomb's Lair Download C64 Dreams v0.45 Download local magazine module (optional but recommended) Game Details Spreadsheet Version 0.45 of C64 Dreams is now available! It features 500 new games and a ton of improvements and new features! Just like last time, this update ended up being a significantly larger undertaking than I realized when I started. It's the result of 9+ months and 1000+ hours of work. The primary new feature this go round is the integration of Zzap!64 reviews so that now, any games that were reviewed in Zzap can be right-clicked in the library and you can start a shortcut to jump directly to the Zzap review for that game, either on the web or in the optional (but recommended!) local copy of the magazine (the local magazines now have a randomized playlist of SID tracks that play while reading as well). I think this provides an interesting context to these games and serves as something of a time capsule. I really hope this is something that will be of interest to people because it entailed a massive amount of work to get functioning the way I wanted. First I had to go through and create my own index of what games were reviewed on which pages in what issues, then I had to take that information and turn into something that I could actually use. The index itself ended up being 2500+ lines long... Despite there only being 90 issues of Zzap, in some cases they would review 30+ games in a single issue and sometimes they would review the same game multiple times months or even years apart (usually for a budget re-release but sometimes just seemingly for the hell of it) which, of course, I've included as well. The funny thing is, having spent so much time getting intimately acquainted with the magazine during this process, it made me realize just how much and how frequently I find myself disagreeing with their reviews haha. I do find them very entertaining regardless and consider them absolutely worth including and preserving, but I frequently found myself at odds with the opinions on display - they were regularly very harsh on games that I would consider to be some of my favorites (a 58% for Master of the Lamps?) and on many occasions strangely positive about games that have, in my estimation, very few redeeming qualities (a 92% for Hercules (CRL) are you actually insane?). They clearly were having a ton of fun though which makes them an enjoyable read just the same, and I find their takes consistently interesting whether I agree with them or not. Because of the altered focus on Zzap!64 this time, unlike past updates where I continued my ongoing mission to parse through all of GB64, this go round I made a concerted effort to include games that were reviewed in Zzap. This has meant that there are a fair few instances of new games added that I might not have gravitated to otherwise, but I think they're worth including even if they're not to my personal taste - I'm not really a fan of most strategy or flight sim games on the C64 but I know there are people out there who are, and even among those there were some that I found pleasantly surprising like Solo Flight. That said, there's a good mix of new stuff here that should provide something for everyone. Something that was particularly interesting to me was a game called Deus Ex Machina which is, to my knowledge, one of the earliest is not the first cases of a game-as-art title. It was designed to be played in tandem/sync with an audio cassette that narrated the story of what was happening on screen. It's some seriously artsy fartsy weido stuff... which is right up my alley. It took a bit but I got the audio recording working quite nicely with the game, which starts automatically, can be paused, resumed, and sides changed while in-game via keyboard keys (consult the notes overlay in game via Numpad Minus + Numpad Plus or Back + Menu on a controller for details). Since the-eye.eu is still in limbo, this is going to be uploaded to Mediafire for the initial release and I'm going to give it a week so that if there are any last-minute issues that people encounter I can make any needed adjustments before uploading it to Archive.org. I'm not anticipating any based on earlier testing that was done but it's a bigger to-do to make changes on Archive than it is to a standard file locker so I just want to include that slight buffer. If anyone has any issues, please let me know! So, without further ado, let's get to it! New: Added Zzap! 64 review integration so that you can now right-click on a game and, if it has a review, you can jump right to the review, either via web or local copy (if you have the magazine module installed) Added all Zzap! 64 reviewed games to their own playlist in Launchbox so that you can quickly access all relevant games at once Added a randomized playlist of SID music that plays whenever you start magazines or specific Zzap! 64 reviews - this can be disabled via the Configurator.exe if so desired; please note that this only works for the local versions of the magazines currently; while playing, you can display the music player via Numpad 8, hide it via Numpad 2, pause/resume via Numpad 5, change to the next track via Numpad 6, and change to the previous track via Numpad 4; pressing Escape will close both the reader and the music player Added optional lightpen (mouse) launch option for Shadowfire (highly recommended!) Added optional mouse control launch option for Operation Wolf (highly recommended!) Added additional app (accessible via the right-click menu in Launchbox) for an audio recording of the background story of Doomdark's Revenge Added interactive codewheels for The Bard's Tale III, Chip's Challenge, Curse of the Azure Bonds, Demon Stalkers, Hillsfar, Legacy of the Ancients, Mars Saga, Neuromancer, Pool of Radiance, Rocket Ranger, and Sorcerer (Infocom); these are accessible via the right-click menu for each game or by starting the [Game Name] Codewheel.vbs files in the game folders Version Updates: 3-D Skramble - replaced with OneLoad version 4th & Inches - replaced with OneLoad version 8Bit-Slicks - replaced with 1/26/21 version by Triad A.M.C. - Astro Marine Corps - replaced with +4M version by Commo Bam Actionauts - replaced with OneLoad version Advanced Dungeons & Dragons - Champions of Krynn - replaced with Easyflash version by Nostalgia Advanced Dungeons & Dragons - Curse of the Azure Bonds - replaced with Easyflash version by Nostalgia Advanced Dungeons & Dragons - Death Knights of Krynn - replaced with Easyflash version by Nostalgia Advanced Dungeons & Dragons - Pool of Radiance - replaced with Easyflash version by Nostalgia Adventures of Basildon Bond, The - replaced with OneLoad version Alien (CP Verlag) - replaced with +3 version by Dynamix Alien Kill - replaced with Bros version Alien Kill 2 - replaced with Bros version Alternate Reality II - The Dungeon - replaced with +MDF version by Fairlight Aqua Racer - replaced with OneLoad version Arac - replaced with OneLoad version Arachnophobia - replaced with +6DFIR version by Nostalgia Archon II - replaced with OneLoad version Atomic Robo Kid - replaced with +12DH version by Hokuto Force Axis Assassin - replaced with OneLoad version Badlands - replaced with OneLoad version Bagitman - replaced with +2 version by Atheist Ball Game, The - replaced with OneLoad version Barbarian - The Ultimate Warrior - replaced with +2D version by Remember Batalyx - replaced with OneLoad version Batman - replaced with +6FDHRI Easyflash version by Nostalgia Beer Belly Burt's Brew Biz - replaced with OneLoad version Big Deal, The - replaced with OneLoad version Bigtop Barney - replaced with OneLoad version Bionic Commando - replaced with +7DFHIR version by Nostalgia Blade Runner - replaced with OneLoad version Blue Max - replaced with OneLoad version Blue Max 2001 - replaced with OneLoad version Blue Thunder - replaced with OneLoad version Boulder Dash - replaced with OneLoad version Boulder Dash III - replaced with OneLoad version Buck Rogers - Countdown to Doomsday - replaced with Easyflash version by Nostalgia Bulldog - replaced with OneLoad version Bump Set Spike - replaced with OneLoad version Burger Time - replaced with OneLoad version Captive, The - replaced with OneLoad version Castle (Protocol Productions) - replaced with +4DG version by Excess Castle Master - replaced with OneLoad version Castle Master II - The Crypt - replaced with OneLoad version Castlevania - replaced with +8DIR version by Nostalgia Caveman - replaced with +3DG version by Army of Darkness Chameleon - replaced with OneLoad version Championship Jet Ski Simulator - replaced with OneLoad version Championship Sprint - replaced with OneLoad version Chimera - replaced with OneLoad version Choplifter - replaced with OneLoad version; added alternative jewel version by ROLE Citadel of Corruption - replaced with GB64 version Clean Up Time - replaced with OneLoad version Co & Co - replaced with OneLoad version CORE - replaced with OneLoad version Countdown to Meltdown - replaced with OneLoad version Cybernoid II - The Revenge - replaced with +6 version by Scouse Cracking Group Dam Busters, The - replaced with OneLoad version Dan Dare - Pilot of the Future - replaced with OneLoad version Decathlon - replaced with OneLoad version Dig Dug - added alterative jewel version by ROLE Doctor Who and the Mines of Terror - replaced with OneLoad version Donald Duck's Playground - replaced with OneLoad version Doriath - replaced with OneLoad version Drak - replaced with OneLoad version Duel, The - replaced with OneLoad version Elektraglide - replaced with OneLoad version Ellak's Tomb - replaced with OneLoad version Endless - replaced with OneLoad version Enigma Force - replaced with OneLoad version Evil Crown - replaced with GB64 version Fast Break - replaced with OneLoad version Fire Track - replaced with OneLoad version Flash Gordon - replaced with +8DIR version by Nostalgia Floyd of the Jungle - replaced with OneLoad version Floyd the Droid - replaced with OneLoad version Flying Shark - replaced with Remember version Football Manager - replaced with OneLoad version Forbidden Fruit - replaced with OneLoad version Fury, The - replaced with OneLoad version Game Over - replaced with OneLoad version Garrison - replaced with +11DFIJ version by Nostalgia Hacker - replaced with OneLoad version Hacker II - replaced with OneLoad version Harvey Smith Showjumper - replaced with OneLoad version Herobotix - replaced with OneLoad version How to be a Complete Bastard - replaced with OneLoad version Howard the Duck - replaced with +8DIR version by Nostalgia Humanoids - replaced with OneLoad version Hypa-Ball - replaced with OneLoad version Ice Palace (K-tel) - replaced with OneLoad version Imagination - replaced with GB64 version Infection - replaced with OneLoad version International 3D Tennis - replaced with OneLoad version International Basketball - replaced with OneLoad version International Tennis - replaced with OneLoad version It's a Knockout - replaced with OneLoad version It's Only Rock n' Roll - replaced with OneLoad version Jewels of Babylon - replaced with OneLoad version Jinks - replaced with OneLoad version Jocky Wilson's Darts Challenge - replaced with OneLoad version Jonah Barrington's Squash - replaced with OneLoad version Katakis - replaced with +5HDF Easyflash version by Hokuto Force Kayleth - replaced with OneLoad version Kentilla - replaced with OneLoad version Kikstart II - replaced with OneLoad version Kromazone - replaced with OneLoad version Main Frame - replaced with OneLoad version Metagalactic Llamas - Battle at the Edge of Time - replaced with OneLoad version Microprose Soccer - replaced with OneLoad version Midnight Resistance - replaced with +8DFHR version by Nostalgia Mig Alley Ace - replaced with OneLoad version Movie Monster Game, The - replaced with +2DIR version by Nostalgia Navy Moves - replaced with +7DFHIRW version by Nostalgia Nexus - replaced with OneLoad version Ole! - replaced with OneLoad version Operation Wolf - replaced with +6DFHR version by Nostalgia Poster Paster - replaced with +5DGH version by Raiders of the Lost Empire Prince Clumsy - replaced with +9DH version by Nostalgia Psi Warrior - replaced with OneLoad version Quake Minus One - replaced with OneLoad version Rally Speedway - replaced with OneLoad version Return of the Mutant Camels - replaced with OneLoad version Robocop - replaced with +8DFHIR Easyflash version by Nostalgia Rocket Roger - replaced with +5HDG version by Threshold Scumball - replaced with OneLoad version Seaside Special - replaced with OneLoad version Sentinel - replaced with OneLoad version Shadow Warriors - replaced with +9DF version by Nostalgia Shamus - replaced with +3DH version by Wanderer Shamus Case II - replaced with +3D version by Wanderer Sooper Froot - replaced with OneLoad version Speedball - replaced with OneLoad version Star Raiders II - replaced with OneLoad version Survivor - replaced with +3H version by Wanderer Tetris (Andromeda Software) - replaced with OneLoad version Time Tunnel - replaced with OneLoad version Velocipede II - replaced with OneLoad version Changes/Fixes: Updated to Retroarch 1.9.4 (custom compiled by sonninnos so that cg support is maintained/included!); I've taught myself how to do this as well so I'll be supplying my own custom builds going forward, but seeing as this is what I've been testing with for nearly a year now this is what's included with v0.45 - new versions require additional testing to confirm that everything is still working as it should so I'll be updating to the latest once work on the next update begins - with that said, I've included a custom compiled copy of the current latest version for use if you so choose (in the C64 Dreams\C64 Dreams\Retroarch\!Retroarch Versions\ folder), just be aware that that's not what was used for testing so there may be some unforseen issues / use at your own risk Disabled core info caching in Retroarch as, in 1.9.4 or perhaps an earlier version, it incorrectly saves static path info which can cause issues when attempting to load content through the RA UI (not really a big deal for the collection since everything is handled externally via command-line but it's still an issue) - based on some brief testing this is no longer a problem in 1.9.13 so it could be re-enabled if you update (it's not necessary though) Renamed "Lemans" to "Le Mans" Renamed "But Out 2019" to "BugOut 2019" Renamed "Canals of Mars" to "Canals of Mars, The" Renamed "Evil Wizard 2" to "Evil Wizard II" Renamed "Fire!" to "Fire! (Arlasoft)" Renamed "Ghost Town" to "GhostTown" Renamed "Ghost Town 64" to "Ghost Town" Renamed "Popeye" to "Popeye (Parker Brothers)" because "Popeye (Piranha)" was added Renamed "Thunderbirds" to "Thunderbirds (Firebird)" because "Thunderbirds (Grandslam)" was added Corrected media and metadata for Battle Command which was supposed to be for the 1991 game by Ocean not the 1985 game by Applied Computer Consultants Replaced "Bob Moran - Rittertum" (German release) with "Lee Enfield - Tournament of Death" Replaced "Captain Zzap" (US release) with "Flash Gordon" (European release) Replaced "Espodill" (EBES re-release) with "Celluloid" (original CP Verlag release) Added custom cropping to Pang as the (gigantic) timer at the top of the screen was cropped out previously Adjusted the cropping on Jars' Revenge as some of the top and bottom of the screen were cropped previously - re-enabled bezel because the resultant image now fits within it again Added separate launcher (accessible through the right-click menu) for Part 2 of Bugsy Added separate launcher (accessible through the right-click menu) for side 2 (Docks / Hard) of Championship Jet Ski Simulator Added separate save disks for Castle of Terror, Jahangir Khan Squash, and Imagination Converted Adventureland and Imagination from .t64 (from GB64) to .d64 as the save function wasn't functioning in the original format Changed a few SID tracks to use 6581 instead of 8580 based on the file instructions Slight brightness boost to CRT-Easymode-Halation-C64 (again) to correct very dark colors being completely black (the walls in Asylum being an example) Fixed what essentially amounted to a memory leak with custom music playlists where each music track's .exe would remain open even after switching to the next track and would stay open until Retroarch was closed Unresponsiveness with fire button presses in The Detective Game have been fixed thanks to core updates Remade all 200+ auto-loading savestates because the core change from Vice 3.3 to Vice 3.5 broke all of them... oof I also deleted about 30 of them in the process that no longer seemed necessary with auto-warp enabled Corrected Lily Lander, Magnetoball, Mig Alley Ace, and Rally Speedway to use joystick port 1 Replaced Mars Saga Cluebook with improved scan courtesy of user Manuches (thanks again!) Changed keyboard keys for zooming manuals in and out to use "I" and "O" instead of "+" and "-" in order to accommodate international keyboards (thanks bbneo!) Changed controller inputs for zooming manuals in and out to be handled via Antimicro instead of AHK as the latter has inconsistent/broken joystick input handling, especially in Windows 10 post-Anniversary Update Slightly increased deadzone for right-stick to arrow key inputs in order to avoid erroneous inputs when moving the stick the maximum distance from the center and then quickly releasing (flicking) Improved the startup smoothness when manuals are used and there's now a brief fade in animation on initial boot (may or may not be visible depending on your monitor settings) and the game audio now fades in when switching back to it rather than starting abruptly Updated Launchbox to v12.1 Misc: Parsed through all new media (4000+ files!) in Ultimate Tape Archive v3.0 for missing or upgradable manuals and transformed into usable/conducive format for viewing, resulting in hundreds of new or upgraded manuals and covers! Created hundreds of new and remade hundreds of old 3D boxes Created my own template for fanart boxes where no official box art exists, in the same style as Lassiveran's fanart boxes, and created 400+ fanart boxes that previously were just using screenshots - there are now boxes and 3D boxes for every single game in the collection Renamed all .cbr files to .cbz and updated all references accordingly - as Boris Schneider-Johne rightly pointed out on my discord, they weren't .cbrs to begin with, they were zipped and then just renamed to .cbr afterwards which in reality would make them .cbz Did a lot of additional metadata and media cleanup and linked 37 games that previously didn't have LBGDB entries (thanks as always to all the fine folks that work on the DB!) Color and contrast corrected hundreds of screenshots that had the red tint issue or low contrast present in many screenshots from GB64; and deleted a few duplicate or erroneous screenshots in the process - work is still ongoing for this Renamed all AD&D games to "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons - [Title]" rather than just the game title for consistency (backend) Added a Readme to the Magazines\!XMLs folder to explain how to swap the default launch behavior for Magazines between web and local Upscaled all controls overlays to 1440p and converted from png to high quality jpg - the end result being higher quality images with a smaller filesize footprint Created a universal launcher .bat that no longer requires game-specific references (with the exception of custom music where used and alternate launchers for docs/intros/etc.); this helps simplify and streamline things going forward; not all existing launchers (Game.bat) have been updated to the new format but I'll be gradually transitioning them all over to it over time - there's no negative impact for existing launchers, it's just a backend thing Updated automators to use new universal launcher format Added additional notes to config editor Added sound effects for opening and closing manuals Added Trizbort to the Utilities folder - this is a neat little mapper for text adventures which you may find useful, it lets you quickly create your own maps of areas, naming them, linking them together, etc.; handy if you find yourself getting lost in a sprawling text adventure Removed all emulator entries from Launchbox as none of them are used - everything is handled externally Disabled check for update in Launchbox Created an icon for C64 Dreams New custom note overlays: 3-D Pinball - Pinball Power Advanced Dungeons & Dragons - Pool of Radiance Blood Brothers Castle Dracula Caves of Oberon, The Celluloid Countdown to Meltdown Deus Ex Machina Eddie Kidd Jump Challenge Genius 3 Great American Cross-Country Road Race, The HES Games International Basketball Jet Strike Mission Jewels of Babylon Kentilla Lost Tomb Magician's Ball, The Mask II Midsummer Olympics Might and Magic - Secret of the Inner Sanctum Might and Magic II - Gates to Another World Mindwheel Moonfall Mountain King NOMAD Operation Wolf (mouse) Polar Pierre Powerboat USA - Offshore Superboat Racing Powerplay - The Game of the Gods PP Hammer Rad Ramp Racer Rebel Planet Return of the Space Warriors Revs Rocket Ball Samurai Trilogy Scalextric SDI - Strategic Defence Initiative Shades Shark Shogun Silent Shadow Soccer Pinball Souls of Darkon Super Bowl XX Superkid in Space Tir Na Nog Tour de France Valkyrie 17 Witch's Cauldron, The World Series Baseball Xybots Zone Ranger New games: 4x4 Off-Road Racing 747 Flight Simulator ACE ACE 2088 Acro Jet Advanced Dungeons & Dragons - Secret of the Silver Blades Adventures of Jim Slim in Dragonland, The Airwolf Alice in Wonderland Almazz Altered Beast Alternative World Games Amulet, The Antics APB - All Points Bulletin Arcticfox Ark Pandora Astonishing Adventures of Mr. Weems and the She Vampires, The Atomino Ball Blasta Ballyhoo Barbarian Battle for Midway Battle for Normandy Battle of Britain Battletech - The Crescent Hawk's Inception Beatle Quest Betrayal Better Dead Than Alien! Blizzard! Part I - Commando Libya Blood Brothers Blue Baron Bomb Fusion Bombo Booty BoxyMoxy Brainstorm Brian Bloodaxe Brian Jack's Superstar Challenge Bristles Bulge, The Captain Kidd Castle Blackstar Castle Dracula Caverns of Eriban, The Caves of Oberon, The Chickin Chase Chopper Circus Circus Codename-Mat II Collapse Colossal Cave Adventure Colossus Chess 4 Combat Leader Comet Game, The Cops 'N' Robbers Count Duckula II Crazy Comets Crillion Crossroads II Crusade in Europe Crystal Frog Cylu Dark Sky Over Paradise, A Deactivators Death Wake Decision in the Desert Deus Ex Machina Dicky's Diamonds Dragon Wars Droids Dynamite Dan Eagles Earl the Tomb Robber Eddie Kid Jump Challenge Emerald Isle Empire Strikes Back, The Estra Exploding Fist+ FA Cup Football Faerie Falklands 82 Field of Fire Fighter Pilot Fire One Five A-Side Fix It Felix Jr. Flight Path 737 Flight Simulator II Flyer Fox Force, The Formula 1 Simulator Frogger Galaga Gates of the Ancient GBA Championship Basketball - Two-on-Two Genius 3 Geoff Capes' Strongman Challenge Germany 1985 Gettysburg - The Turning Point Ghosts'n Goblins Arcade Ghouls Glider Pilot Graham Gooch's Test Cricket Grand Larceny Granny's Cleaning Day Graviton Great American Cross-Country Road Race, The Gyroscope HardBall! Head Coach Helter Skelter Herbert's Dummy Run Hercules HES Games Hi Bouncer Ian Botham's Test Match Ice Station Zero Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis Intensity Isle of the Cursed Prophet* Iwo Jima Jet Strike Mission Johnny Reb II Jump Jet Kayak Keys to Maramon, The Keystone Kapers Klax Knight Games II Knight Orc Knight Rider Knight Tyme Knights of the Desert Knockout Kokotoni Wilf Kong (Sputnik World) Lady Pac Lands of Havoc, The Lapis Philosophorum - The Philosopher's Stone Las Vegas Video Poker Last Amazon Trilogy, The Last Duel Legions of Death Lifeforce Little Puff in Dragonland Live and Let Die Lone Wolf - The Mirror of Death Lord of the Rings Lost City, The Lost Realms of Murkasada Lost Tomb Lucifer's Realm MACH - Maneuverable Armed Computer Humans Magician's Ball, The Magnetron Mandragore Mask Mask II Masters of the Universe - The Movie Match Day II Max Headroom Maze Mania Meganova - The Weapon Menace Mercenary - The Second City Merlin Metabolis Metropolis (The Power House) Metropolis (Topo Soft) Miami Dice Midsummer Olympics Might and Magic - Secret of the Inner Sanctum Might and Magic II - Gates to Another World Mighty Bombjack Millenium Warriors Mind Pursuit Mindfighter Mindshadow Mindwheel Mission Asteroid Monster Trivia Moon Cresta Moon Shuttle Moonfall Moontorc Moonwalker Mordon's Quest Motor Mania Mountain Bike Racer Mountain King Mr. Heli Mr. Mephisto Mr. TNT Mugsy's Revenge Murdlok Mystery Voyage Nam NARC Necromancer Neighbours Neutral Zone Neverending Story II, The Nick Faldo Plays the Open Night Knight Ninja Carnage Ninja Warriors, The NOMAD Nonterraqueous Norway 1985 Nutcraka Octoplex Odysseus - Trojan Warrior Odyssey, The Olli & Lissa 3 - The Candlelight Adventure Ollie's Follies Ollo Ollo II Omega Race On-Court Tennis On-Field Football One Bite Too Deep Operation Swordfish Operation Whirlwind Orion Out of this World Out on a Limb Out Run Overlander Pac-Man Paradroid - Competition Edition Parsec Penetrator Percy The Potty Pigeon Perry Mason - The Case of the Mandarin Murder Peter Pack Rat Phantom of the Asteroid Phileas Fogg's Balloon Battles Ping Pong Pink Panther Pipe Mania Pitstop Poker (Duckworth Home Computing) Polar Pierre Pole Position Poltergeist Popeye (Piranha) Potsworth & Co Power Pyramids Powerboat USA - Offshore Superboat Racing Powerplay - The Game of the Gods PP Hammer Predator 2 Price of Magik, The Prison Riot Psi-Droid Psycho Pigs UXB Psycho Soldier Pulse Warrior Quann Tulla Quest for the Holy Grail Questprobe I - The Incredible Hulk Questprobe III - The Fantastic Four Rad Ramp Racer Radar Rat Race Rally Cross (Codemasters) Ramparts Raskel Rats, The Raven, The Realms of Darkness Rebel Planet Red Max Red Moon Red Storm Rising Redhawk Return of the Jedi Return of the Space Warriors Revs Richard Petty's Talladega Ripper! RISK - Rapid Intercept Seek and Kill RMS Titanic Roadwars Robozone Rock Star Ate My Hamster Rocket Ball RodMan Room Ten Rootin' Tootin' Rupert and the Toymaker's Party Rygar Saboteur Saboteur II Saint Dragon Samantha Fox Strip Poker Sammy Lightfoot Samurai Trilogy Santa's Xmas Caper Scalextric Scapeghost Schizofrenia Scoop!, The Scorpion Scorpius Scout Scramble Infinity Scramble Spirits Scroll of Akbar Khan, The Scrolls of Abadon, The Scuba Kidz SDI - Strategic Defence Initiative Seabase Delta Seafox Seas of Blood Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, The Security Alert Serpentine Shades Shark Shockway Rider Shogun Shoot Em Up Short Circuit Sidewalk Silent Shadow Ski or Die Skool Daze Skull & Crossbones Sky High Stuntman Sky Shark Skyjet Slicks Snow Queen, The Soccer Pinball Software Star Solar Fox Soldier of Fortune Solo Flight Solo Flight - Second Edition Sonic Boom Sonic the Hedgehog Sorcerer (Infocom) Sorcery Souls of Darkon Southern Belle Space Crusade Space Panic Space Pilot II Space Shuttle - A Journey Into Space Spartacus - Sword Slayer Speed Duel Speed King Spellbound (MAD) Spellbreaker Spherical Spiky Harold Spitfire 40 Spitfire Ace Split Personalities Spooked Spooks Spore Spy's Demise Star Control Star League Baseball Star Paws Star Trader Star Trek - The Promethean Prophecy Star Wars Droids Starfire Starflight Starion StarRay Steel Steg the Slug Steve Davis Snooker Stix Stop the Express Storm Stormbringer Street Surfer Strider Strider II Stringer Stroke World Stryker in the Crypts of Trogan STUN Runner Stuntman Seymour Subsunk Super Bowl XX Super Dragon Slayer Super Gran - The Adventure Super Hero Super Huey Super Seymour Super Space Invaders Super Tank Simulator Super Zaxxon Superkid Superkid in Space Superstar Ping-Pong Supertrux Supremacy - 30th Anniversary Edition Suspect Tangent Tarkus Tarzan Goes Ape! Task III Taskmaster TechnoCop Terminator II - Judgement Day Terrafighter Terramex Terrormolinos Terry's Big Adventure Thai Boxing Three Stooges, The Through the Trap Door Thunderbirds (Grandslam) ThunderChopper ThunderJaws Tiger Mission Tiger Road Tigers in the Snow Tim Love's Cricket Time Fighter Time Search Time Soldier Time Thief Tintin on the Moon Tir Na Nog To Hell and Back Tom & Jerry Toobin' Top Cat - Beverly Hills Cats Topper the Copper Touchdown Football Tour de France Toy Bizarre Tracer Sanction, The Trap Trap Door, The TRAZ - Transformable Arcade Zone Triaxos Trivial Pursuit Trollbound Tubular Bells Turbo the Tortoise Typhoon Ulysses and the Golden Fleece Uridium Plus Vagan Attack Valkyrie 17 Vampire's Empire Vegetables Deluxe Velnor's Lair Vengeance Very Big Cave Adventure, The View to a Kill, A Vindicator!, The Vindicators Viz Volfied Vortron WAR Warlock - The Avenger Way of the Tiger Web Dimension Weird Dreams Western Games Whirlinurd Who Dares Wins Who Dares Wins II Who Framed Roger Rabbit Wicked Wild Streets Wild West William Wobbler Willow Pattern Wing Commander Winter Camp Wishbringer Witch's Cauldron, The Wizard and the Princess, The Wizard of Id's Wiztype, The Wizard Warz Wizard's Lair Wizard's Pet, The World Cup Carnival World Cup II World Cup Soccer World Series Baseball Xybots Yabba Dabba Doo Zone Ranger Zone Trooper Zybex Zyto Zzzz *this game is still commercially available so the roms are not supplied New Magazines: Commodore Format Issues 35 - 54 Zzap!64 Issues 61-90 (complete!) New Demos: Memento Mori by Genesis Project Gamertro by Lethargy Median by Lethargy Scene of the Living Dead by Atlantis + Delysid Fantomas by Siesta Bromance by Bonzai We Are New by Fairlight Boogie Factor by Fairlight Lash by Fairlight One Million Lightyears from Earth by Fairlight New Diskmags: RapidNews 16-20 New SID: acrouzet - My PALs Must Have a Clue (at This Rate) c0smo - Space Oddity chuinho - In France They Die Young Conrad - Firestarter DAM - Burn Fegolhuzz - The Demosceniors Flex - Helix Flex - Sad Song Flotsam - Honey Flotsam - Prtzl+Kola Jammer - Euro Boogers Jammer - Gliding Gladly Jammer - So Grainy It Hertz Jammer - What The Fuck Is Going On Jangler - Electrostatic Juzdie - Gone Already LMan - Blade Runner Main Titles LMan - The Tuneful Eight (8 SIDs!) MCH - Tequila Shot MCH - Winter Rose Mermaid - Hyperdrive Mibri - I Can't Go On. I'll Go On Mibri - Playa de los Gatos Mutetus - Banaanin Alle Mutetus - Haparanda Systembolaget Mutetus - Rasvaton Mutetus - The Required Fields psych858o - Transformation rytone - Cybernetic Raven rytone - Dazed rytone - Staring Into The Sun Shogoon - Love Your Sample Shogoon - Masquerade Shogoon - Nelly Goes West SMC - Whipped Cream The Syndrom - Bumpy Ride Toggle - Wieselflink Uctumi - Seminare Vincenzo - Baaaaah Vincenzo - Mirrored Inverse Fragments I also want to once again thank all the people that helped contribute to this update in various ways. Thanks again, I appreciate the support! sonninnos for continually working with me and improving the VICE Retroarch core, being a sounding board for ideas, and helping me work through unusual issues @boohyaka for helping to get me started in the right direction on the new universal launcher StatMat for his awesome OneLoad64 project which you can check out here - this is a great project and you'll likely notice that many of the updated games came from this collection The folks at The Museum of Computer Adventure Game History and the Ultimate Tape Archive Everyone who contributes time and energy on improving the LBGDB with media and metadata! As a final note, I haven't forgotten about the RG351V/Pi/etc. version, but seeing as this has been a seemingly never-ending update that was quickly approaching a full year since the last one, I wanted to get this out as that can come separately later. I'm also planning to make a video showcasing the collection, features, usage, etc. as I realize that there's a number of things going on here that people may not be entirely accustomed to or know about if they haven't read all of the opening post / usage instructions. That's going to take some time though so I didn't want to hold this up until that was done. Anyway, that's it for now. Have fun!

I think setting it to... lemme just do some quick math here... carry the... divided by... Okay. Looks like if you set it to 3.275 that ought to do it.

The same concept applies. Arcade cabinets spanned 25+ years of games so the technology varied, was created by differing manufacturers, and changed over time.

If that's your goal, which according to you it is, then yes. Alternatively you could just try them out and say "I think this one looks best," like most people.

There are many different types of CRTs using different technology/techniques that, subsequently, look very different from each other. Whether it be an aperture grille, shadow mask, varying video connection types, different amounts of curvature... there's a huge amount of variance depending on the TV and scenario. I have three different CRTs and every one of them looks different from the other. The concept of "accuracy" in an otherwise non-descript void is essentially meaningless. There are different shaders that replicate different CRTs with varying degrees of accuracy but there is no one CRT so there is no one accurate shader, it just depends on what TV it is that you're trying to replicate. Because no one really knows what it is specifically that you want to see other than you only you can actually figure out which one is the best. Thankfully retroarch makes this extremely simple as you can just browse through and try them out for yourself.

You should just hold off for the time being. I'm aiming to release v0.45 this weekend.

The guy in Discord was getting the same error as you, followed the instructions, and it fixed it, so I don't know what to tell you beyond that.

I haven't messed with it personally but someone on my Discord has. I posted the instructions from the eXoDOS Discord and he said it worked fine with C64 Dreams:

Quick status update on pending stuff for the release of v0.45. ✅ = complete 🅿️ = pending/WIP ✅ Finalize list for the last 100 games ✅ Source the last 100 games ✅ Source and edit manuals for the last 100 games ✅ Import the last 100 games into LB, pull metadata and media and verify accuracy ✅ Create fanart boxes for any of the last 100 games that don't have covers ✅ Create 3D boxes for the last 100 games ✅ Add in Zzap!64 reviews where present for the last 100 games in LB, and add those to the Zzap!64 playlist ✅ Update spreadsheet with info for the last 100 games 🅿️ Add in any remaining second and third Zzap!64 reviews in LB (about 30% complete) 🅿️ Test and configure the last 100 games 🅿️ Create and incorporate any new notes overlays as needed I've also added in some failsafes for edge cases: @Wally's case where the music was still playing when SumatraPDF was closed via clicking the x rather than pressing Esc - you would never see that x to begin with ordinarily (it starts in fullscreen and exits/closes with Esc) but if you were to put the magazines in the wrong place or if you were to accidentlly start the local review shortcut without having the magazine module installed you would, so now the music closes either way once SumatraPDF exits. In the newest version of the Manuals script the audio from Retroarch smoothly fades back in when switching back from a manual to the game, but in the event that you were to switch back to Retroarch and then immediately exit, the volume for Retroarch would be permanently reduced (at the level it was at when it was closed while fading in) until you adjusted it back up in Windows' volume mixer. I've added in a function to always restore it back to 100% when a new game is launched. I can't imagine many people ever running into this (and in fact no one has actually reported it, it was just the result of my own testing / intentionally trying to break things) as you sortof have to go out of your way to make it happen, but this way there shouldn't be an issue regardless.

There are bugfixes in later versions of Retroarch that are necessary for some things to work as they should, yes. You could try the included copy of 1.9.13 that's in the Retroarch\! Retroarch Versions folder. 1.9.4 is what was tested with v0.45 but I included a compiled version of 1.9.13 (which includes .cg support) in that folder. It's untested but should be fine. I would not recommend using 1.7.6 as you will eventually run into problems.

I just asked on my Discord if anybody uses DS4Windows and someone said that they used SCPToolkit instead and didn't have any issues with C64 Dreams.

That sounds like an issue with DS4Windows and not necessarily something in C64 Dreams to me, especially if it's something that's taking place after quitting a game. Once a game exits, any scripts that are launched at startup are closed - they're not doing anything to your keyboard, mouse, or anything else at that point. There's not a whole lot I can do if DS4Windows doesn't like Antimicro, Retroarch, or some combination thereof.