Emulating the Commodore 64 - LaunchBox Tutorials

[gizmo]

hi i have found no intro roms for this system , i have gone through the video and even set the Default Command Line Parameters: -quickload -autoload , but when i try and play a game nothing happens apart from it saying ready, any advice would be great thanks

[Zombeaver]

I'm not a big fan of Hoxs personally, I found it to be a bit unwieldy. I would recommend either CCS64 or Vice for C64 emulation. Personally I use CCS64 because I've found it to be the only one that actually works over Steam in-home streaming (via Steam Link). It's also a little easier to setup than Vice. I don't recall needing to use any command line parameters for it, but it's been a while since I set it up so I'll have to verify that when I get home. What format are your roms? Are they disk or tapes? What's the actual file extension?

[gizmo]

hi thanks for your reply i have got some tapes but not sure what i am using at the time of trying to play i had a look at the file extension and it says crt but they are all zipped up thanks

[Zombeaver]

"crt" is cartridge format. I actually don't have much experience with those - that's not to say that they would necessarily be problematic, but I've never used them. All of mine are in d64 format, which is a floppy disk format, and they've always worked great in any emulator I've used. I don't know about Hoxs, but I know that CCS64 does not support zipped roms. You may want to try extracting a few and seeing if they work. C64 roms are tiny so it really doesn't make any difference as far as HDD space is concerned.

[Izzy]

I use the x64sc.exe file from Vice to emulate C64 games, without any command line parameters. Works with both .T64 (Tape) and .D64 (Disk). Don´t really know if i have any games in .crt.

[SentaiBrad]

Hey everyone, thanks for the input, but I selected Hoxs64 because it's being actively developed and recommended for use. It's also Cycle accurate. Gizmo, unzip your games and try again. A lot of emulators don't like games being archived. As for the file extensions I use, I have .tap for Tapes and .nib for Cart's.

[gizmo]

many thanks for your replys i have tried CCS64 and Vice, i have unzipped and looked for d43 , tap , cart, still cannot get all games to load , can anyone advise on what games to look for as i have only got mame and wii , which is easy to set up thanks

[Zombeaver]

I looked at my CCS64 emulator entry in LB this morning and there are no special command line parameters necessary. I do have the "hide console window" box checked but I don't think that's actually necessary; it doesn't hurt anything though. One thing to keep in mind is that, not unlike other platforms, there are bad rips floating around for some games. If you have trouble with one, try another - d64s in particular will often have about 4 or 5 different rips listed on the same site, simply because there were so many different ripping groups, and because some rips have optional trainers (cheats) built in. For the game Times of Lore, for example, you might see "Times of Lore (Ikari)", "Times of Lore (NBI)", "Times of Lore (Ikari)+Trainer" or some such. If one doesn't work, try something else. CCS64 is compatible with prg, p00, t64, tap, d64, g41, g64 and crt formats but, again, nothing that's zipped.

SentaiBrad said Hey everyone, thanks for the input, but I selected Hoxs64 because it's being actively developed and recommended for use. It's also Cycle accurate.

There's nothing wrong with Hoxs64 per se, but it doesn't work via Steam Link (or at least didn't when I last tried) so it's a no-go for me. I'm not sure how actively developed CCS64 is at this point, but the last update was less than a year ago, which isn't too unusual even for "actively developed" emulators. Apparently it's had some issues with W10, but a recompiled version using Visual Studio 2015 was released February of this year and it's supposed to fix the compatibility issues. Also, as a pretty diehard C64 fan with a working real C64, I can tell you the whole "cycle accurate" thing is basically a nice-sounding bullet-point that means almost nothing in reality, at least when it comes to the C64. I'm not saying that it's literally useless, just that it's a term that gets tossed around a lot and, in the case of the C64, isn't going to be particularly noticeable to nearly anyone. There may be some fringe case example where it's actually necessary for compatibility but I've never encountered such a case personally. CCS64, Vice, and Hoxs64 are all fine - it's primarily a matter of personal preference based on features, UI, and ease of use; the only one that I can't recommend is Frodo because it has (or at least had, it's been a few years since I last used it) some noticeable compatibility and accuracy issues.

[SentaiBrad]

It's not out of the question for me to make an update to tutorials, I did one for the Atari Consoles recently with Atari 5200. If there is a big enough reason for me to show off others then so be it. So far the Steam Link thing does suck, that is a pretty big feature to have issues with.

[outletmaul]

Has anyone other then me had problems with T64 files not working through launchbox but playing fine if loaded directly through CCS64 ?. 

[Zombeaver]

T64s work okay for me. The vast majority of my games are D64, with some G64s and a small number of T64s, but all three work with CCS64. If a game isn't working when started through Launchbox I would advise taking a look at your filename for it - I've had an issue with a few filenames when launched through LB - ones that use commas, apostrophes or multiple parentheses/brackets or other special characters can sometimes cause issues for C64 games directed to CCS64 via Launchbox (even if the files themselves work fine when used in CCS64 alone).