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Zombeaver

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Posts posted by Zombeaver

    C64 Dreams (massive curated C64 collection)

    in Emulation

    Posted

    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.

    • Like 10

    C64 Dreams (massive curated C64 collection)

    in Emulation

    Posted

    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.

    C64 Dreams (massive curated C64 collection)

    in Emulation

    Posted

    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.

    C64 Dreams (massive curated C64 collection)

    in Emulation

    Posted

    You should also be aware that changing palette settings across the board isn't that simple - that's something that's handled via the core options, and there are hundreds of those for various games. Simply changing it in retroarch-core-options.cfg will only affect games that don't already have their own .opt files in config\VICE x64. For those you'd have to open them all in a text editor and do a mass find and replace.

     

    C64 Dreams (massive curated C64 collection)

    in Emulation

    Posted

    I should also mention that if you want to change the default volume across the board, that's listed in the config editor as well. If you change the volume value there it'll apply to everything. Note however that there are a handful of games that have this value specified in overrides, namely ones that have something weird going on with their audio like audio samples that are extremely loud by default.

    C64 Dreams (massive curated C64 collection)

    in Emulation

    Posted

    5 minutes ago, JoJoJuJu59 said:

    It turns out the issue was hardware related.  I had installed C64 Dreams to one of my USB 3.0 Ext  drives and I was also downloading to it at the same time.  External USB drive bottlenecks  have always had strange effects on my system, causing massive OS instability.  I now have C64 Dreams on one of my SSDs in a place of honor.  Question:  how do I bring up the retroarch menu while in-game?  I want to customize a couple of things like volume levels and C64 color palettes; strictly for my own use, of course ;) 

    I'm really relieved to hear this, you had me kinda worried there haha

    You can pull up the RA UI via either Numpad Minus + F1 or Back + Xbox on an Xbox controller. I picked up an 8bitdo Pro 2 recently and have noticed that RA doesn't recognize the home button in place of the Xbox button so I may end up changing it to Back + L3 as a default, just to be able to account for a wider range of controllers. I have a note about this in the config editor - if you open up the Configurator.exe and then start the Config Editor shortcut at the bottom the button in question is listed on line 9. The default value of 10 is for the Xbox button, 8 would be L3.

    image.thumb.png.bec4b233db062bb8ca71f0d8a5a25bce.png

    • Like 1

    C64 Dreams (massive curated C64 collection)

    in Emulation

    Posted

    The scripts don't really change much on the keyboard barring a handful of exceptions like Lords of Midnight that add in some custom keyboard controls to the NumPad. That and adding in the manual swap function. They don't do anything with the mouse at all. You can check for yourself if they're still running afterwards by looking in your systray, they have their own icons. There's also a StopAll.exe in C64 Dreams\C64 Dreams that forcibly kills any of the running scripts. Unless something bizarre is happening on your system though, they should always close themselves automatically when you exit a game. I don't know if you're using any third party AV software but if so you may need to add C64 Dreams to your exception list as they don't always like compiled AHK scripts. If that still doesn't work you could try changing out the manual swapper for the one that was in v0.35 which is included in the Retroarch folder in the !Manual Switcher subfolder. That's the only script that's undergone major changes. V1 is what was used in v0.35. V3 is the default in v0.45.

    C64 Dreams (massive curated C64 collection)

    in Emulation

    Posted

    25 minutes ago, marcosgaming said:

    I hope that you finish soon this fantastic collection complete of cover and video snaps and ready to import in Launchbox. It's my dream! 😍😍😍😍😍😍😍

    The covers are complete for everything. That's what I spent the last several weeks doing. Every game in the collection has a cover/3D box now. As far as video snaps that's way, way off at this point since that's a premium-only feature and, as result, wouldn't be usable in the version that I distribute. It's something I'll get around to eventually but very low on the priority list since I'm not super motivated to dedicate the time to that that would be necessary only for them to be unusable without a premium license. That's energy that would be better directed elsewhere for the time being since there's no shortage of work left to do. As far as importing into your own Launchbox library, that's doable, and has been since the beginning. I wouldn't recommend it for the current "beta" but once v0.45 proper is out in a couple weeks, go for it.

    If by "finish" you mean v1.0, however, well you're going to be waiting a while. I'm 3+ years in at this point and likely have about that same amount of time left to go before everything I want to do is "done". This is something that will likely never be truly finished as new games, demos, and SID tracks are released all the time, but the main goal is to at least parse through 100% of GB64 and I'm currently about halfway there.

    • Thanks 1

    C64 Dreams (massive curated C64 collection)

    in Emulation

    Posted

    1 hour ago, Wally said:

    Thank you! Works like a charm

    Good deal 👍

    I realize the C64 Dreams\C64 Dreams folder name convention may be somewhat unintuitive but it's because that first folder is actually just Launchbox - you can name it whatever you want but since it's usable as a standalone thing it's named C64 Dreams. The C64 Dreams subfolder is where all the real meat and potatoes are - it can be pulled out and used without a frontend at all, imported into an alternate frontend of your choice, or, as most people will likely do, imported into your own version of Launchbox, at which point you'll have Launchbox\C64 Dreams\Games etc.

    @MikeDeltaHH I've added Mediafire mirrors to the earlier post.

    • Like 3
    • Thanks 1

    C64 Dreams (massive curated C64 collection)

    in Emulation

    Posted

    @Wally the path shown is correct. That's where they should be. C64 Dreams\C64 Dreams\Magazines\[Magazine Name]. You need to merge in the Magazine folder with the one in C64 Dreams\C64 Dreams\Magazines. If you're a seeing what you're seeing it means you've put them in the wrong place.

    You need to press Esc to exit the reader/close the music.

     

    • Like 1

    C64 Dreams (massive curated C64 collection)

    in Emulation

    Posted

    @bundangdon @RetroX Thanks guys! This update's been a really long and difficult road but I'm finally in light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel territory now. It makes me fairly uncomfortable to have 9 months and 1000+ hours of work since the last update without any kind of testing feedback from others though - I don't want to dust my hands off after all that and then have some weird issue pop up out of nowhere that I didn't account for; so I'm hoping the next couple weeks will give folks some time to dig in and report any problems so I can address them before the proper release of v0.45. I try to be as thorough as I possibly can but I've learned that's never enough on its own since ultimately I can only account for so many scenarios, so many combinations of hardware and software, etc. @bbneo's international keyboard issue exemplifies that perfectly.

    • Thanks 2

    C64 Dreams (massive curated C64 collection)

    in Emulation

    Posted

    Alright y'all, all the remaining fanart boxes are now done and all 2900 games in the current WIP are tested and good to go, which means it's time to do the public test. If anyone has any issues, please let me know so I can address them (if possible) before the actual release of v0.45. I'll be working on the remaining 100 games for the update in the interim so that should give you guys some time to beat on it. I would not recommend importing this into an existing Launchbox library since you'll have to do it all over again in a few weeks once the final release is out. I'll save the exhaustive changelog (which is quite massive at this point) until the actual release of v0.45 but some points of interest are below:

    • The primary new feature in v0.45 is 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)
    • All Zzap! 64 reviewed games are in their own playlist in Launchbox so that you can quickly access all relevant games at once
    • A randomized playlist of SID music 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
    • Most of the second and third Zzap! 64 reviews (cases where they reviewed a game more than once) aren't in LB currently (they will be on the final release) but are still accessible by either going to the individual game's folder, accessing the Zzap Review subfolder, and then starting the url or .vbs (for web or local versions) for the second/third reviews or by going to the C64 Dreams\C64 Dreams\Magazines\Zzap! 64\!Reviews Index folder and then accessing them by either the separate issue folders or from the combined folder - all of the reviews spanning all Zzap! 64 issues are available here, even the games that aren't currently in the collection, but only the web versions are available in cases where the game isn't in the collection
    • Interactive codewheels have been added 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
    • There are now sound effects for opening and closing manuals; I've also 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
    • The keyboard keys for zooming in and out in manuals have been changed to use "I" and "O" instead of "+" and "-" in order to accommodate international keyboards (thanks for bringing this to my attention @bbneo!)
    • The controller buttons for zooming in and out in manuals are still LB and RB but this is no longer handled by AHK - I've shifted that over to Antimicro as I've found AHK's joystick button handling to be inconsistent/broken especially in Windows 10 post-Anniversary Update, I've had no issues with it via Antimicro
    • One game that I'd like people to mess around with (at least briefly) because it's a unique case is Deus Ex Machina - this is a very strange and interesting game-as-art title (perhaps the first of its kind) that was designed to have an audio cassette played alongside the game, and has to be synced up at the beginning of the game - I have this setup and functional but would appreciate others trying it out for themselves - you'll need to consult the note overlay for the audio controls (pausing and resuming, changing from side A to B etc.)

    Latest 100 games added:

    APB - All Points Bulletin
    Battletech - The Crescent Hawk's Inception
    Betrayal
    Blue Baron
    Colossal Cave Adventure
    Count Duckula II
    Dark Sky Over Paradise, A
    Dragon Wars
    Eagles
    Earl the Tomb Robber [Not in the DB]
    Exploding Fist+
    Helter Skelter
    Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
    Klax
    Kokotoni Wilf
    Little Puff in Dragonland
    Live and Let Die
    Lone Wolf - The Mirror of Death
    Masters of the Universe - The Movie
    Match Day II
    Maze Mania
    Meganova - The Weapon
    Midsummer Olympics [Not in the DB]
    Mighty Bombjack
    Millenium Warriors
    Moonfall
    Moonwalker
    Mr. Heli
    NARC
    Neighbours
    Neverending Story II, The
    Ninja Warriors, The
    Olli & Lissa 3 - The Candlelight Adventure
    Out Run
    Paradroid - Competition Edition
    Phileas Fogg's Balloon Battles
    Pipe Mania
    Potsworth & Co
    Powerboat USA - Offshore Superboat Racing
    PP Hammer
    Predator 2
    Prison Riot
    Rad Ramp Racer
    Rally Cross (Codemasters)
    Red Storm Rising
    Return of the Jedi
    Robozone
    Saint Dragon
    Samurai Trilogy
    Santa's Xmas Caper
    Scapeghost
    Scramble Spirits
    Security Alert
    Shark
    Silent Shadow
    Ski or Die
    Skull & Crossbones
    Sky High Stuntman
    Soccer Pinball
    Sonic Boom
    Space Crusade
    Spooked
    Star Control
    Star Trek - The Promethean Prophecy
    Starflight
    Steg the Slug
    Strider
    Strider II
    Stryker in the Crypts of Trogan
    STUN Runner
    Stuntman Seymour
    Super Seymour
    Super Space Invaders
    Super Tank Simulator
    Superkid
    Superkid in Space
    Supremacy - 30th Anniversary Edition [Not in the DB]
    Tarzan Goes Ape!
    TechnoCop
    Terminator II - Judgement Day
    Terry's Big Adventure
    Thunderbirds (Grandslam)
    ThunderJaws
    Time Soldier
    Time Thief
    Tintin on the Moon
    Tom & Jerry
    Toobin'
    Top Cat - Beverly Hills Cats
    Turbo the Tortoise
    Uridium Plus
    Vindicator!, The
    Vindicators
    Viz
    Volfied
    Warlock - The Avenger
    Who Dares Wins
    Wicked
    Wild Streets
    Xybots

    You can also find an updated game details spreadsheet for the current set here. All the new games for v0.45 are at the bottom after Zynax 3 (line 2504+).

    C64 Dreams v0.45 Public Test Download

    C64 Dreams v0.45 Magazine Module Download

    C64 Dreams v0.45 Public Test Download (Mediafire mirror)

    C64 Dreams v0.45 Magazine Module Download (Mediafire mirror)

    • Like 2
    • Thanks 3
    • Game On 1

    C64 Dreams (massive curated C64 collection)

    in Emulation

    Posted

    8 minutes ago, sharkytowers said:

    Real quick...  maybe a dumb question, but I don't want to screw something up...  should I replace 

    .\C64 Dreams\C64 Dreams\Magazines

    with the entire Magazines directory from the add-on?  Or should that live somewhere else?  Sorry if that's been answered...  I can't find it.

    You drop it in and merge with (not replace) that folder. By default only the web versions are included, the magazine module just adds in the local magazine files themselves.

    Afterwards if you want the default launch behavior in Launchbox to be with the local versions of the magazines rather than web you'll need to go into the Magazines\!XMLs folder and then copy the Magazines.xml from within the "Default Local" folder and replace the one in C64 Dreams\Data\Platforms. If you ever want to reverse this behavior you can do the same but use the xml located in the "Default Web" folder.

    C64 Dreams (massive curated C64 collection)

    in Emulation

    Posted

    15 hours ago, SmashinGit said:

    Thanks Zombeaver for all your hard work and dedication. Hope you and your family have a very happy christmas and new year.

    Thank you! I really appreciate that. :)

    8 minutes ago, sharkytowers said:

    Does anyone know of anything like this for other demo scene content or DOS stuff?  Really anything at this level?  I wouldn't expect so.

    Thanks @Zombeaver!  This is truly something special.

    There are the eXo projects (eXoDOS, eXoWin3x, and eXoScummVM). I'd highly recommend those. You can find more info at https://www.retro-exo.com/ That's the only other close equivalent for other platforms that I know of.

    The plan is to eventually do Amiga Dreams in the same format but that won't be until C64 Dreams is closer to what I would consider "complete" so likely still years off.

    C64 Dreams (massive curated C64 collection)

    in Emulation

    Posted

    To let people know what's going on since I intended to post a progress update earlier, I've gone down another black hole of work, because of course I would.

    I've been in the process of creating fanart boxes for every game in the collection that doesn't have a box currently and then creating 3D box versions as well. The 3D box part luckily I can automate but the fanart boxes, hoo boy is that some tedious-ass time-consuming work. I've been working on them for days now and I'm currently sitting at 218 complete with 211 to go. In fairness, a decent chunk of time was dedicated to just creating the template in the first place, mimicking those originally created by Lassiveran of which there are no shortage already in the collection, and then inevitably making revisions and improvements and then having to go back through and re-create the ones I'd already done (multiple times over). They're slightly smaller than Lassiveran's by design because those are sized in such a way that the screenshots are scaled by an uneven integer which results in some blurring. These are sized so that the screenshots are exactly 640x400 i.e. 2x scaled with nearest neighbor scaling. I'm pretty happy with the end result but it's a time-consuming process because these require a lot of by-hand attention for each one, even after streamlining things as much as possible. I'm hoping to have the rest finished within a week. The ultimate goal being that once all of them are done there will be no games in the collection that are only using screenshots for covers. This is something that's bugged me for quite a while so it'll be nice to have that squared away.

    Once that's all done I'll be getting back to business as normal. I have 2882 of the current 2900 games tested and done. My plan once I finish going through all 2900 is to release a public test as a fair bit of backend stuff has changed since v0.35 and I want people to beat on this as much as possible and report any issues before I do a proper release.

    Anyway, that's it for now. More to come (hopefully) soon!

    592570702_FroggerArcade-01.thumb.png.d352672e568275415fd6842dce453d0e.png

    302937687_FroggerArcade-01.thumb.png.b7ac17e70143a4331a7276f807440b02.png

    EDIT: Oh, and I almost forgot. Just for good measure I've been going through and color and contrast-correcting the screenshots in the collection as large portions of GB64's screenshots have a bizarre red-tint or low-contrast where black is gray... yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay :|

    image.png.e2bb9b93d2378df1b9ba149b738de329.png

    image.png.93461a734b58ac6dd27b9eaae58ab7c5.png

    • Like 4
    • Thanks 3

    C64 Dreams (massive curated C64 collection)

    in Emulation

    Posted

    On 12/10/2021 at 6:24 AM, Wild Siren said:

    I don't intend to mess anything up. I just want to add many custom fields to the existing games. And to do that, the names have to agree. I don't even need to change the names. Just match them and add metadata so that it is consistent with the rest of my collection (other platforms) etc.

    So long as that doesn't involve renaming, moving, or changing, well, basically anything within the main C64 Dreams folder (C64 Dreams\C64 Dreams (this one) ) that's fine. As soon as you do any of those things, however, you will break things. It's built upon layers and layers of scripts that use relative pathing and configs that are predicated on specific filenames.

    C64 Dreams (massive curated C64 collection)

    in Emulation

    Posted

    It doesn't use any one database for naming. It's a combination of GB64, Mobygames, LBGDB, etc. The titles are (almost) all PAL (i.e. Thing Bounces Back rather than Coil Cop) but there's going to be some slight variation from any one database.

    I would highly discourage you from attempting to strip out/merge this with anything else. I've spent literally years of my life getting this stuff setup in such a way that it provides as ideal an experience as possible for each game. They are not designed to be pulled out like that. If you have existing games that you want added to C64 Dreams, my suggestion would be to provide a list of what it is that you want and I can add them in. If it's something you want to play, chances are it's something someone else will want to play.

    And in the interim, I provide the option to add in your own games with the included automation tools (C64 Dreams\C64 Dream\Utilities\Creation Tools). You just drag your .d64s, .t64s, etc. onto the Automator and then it'll create things as needed, you just have to move the resultant folders to the Games folder and then start the .vbs file within. You may still have to set them up to change the joystick port, enable truedrive, or adjust cropping however, but that's not too difficult.

    • Like 3
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