c64 C64 Dreams (massive curated C64 collection)

[Zombeaver]

9 hours ago, EthanFox said:

This project is so great - thanks for all your effort on this.

Quick question - the only issue I have is that I've imported everything into a previous LB setup; my LB has the controller's start/stop buttons mapped to exit the emulator.  Your configuration has the same combo mapped to display the controller map png file.  So, I'm unable to view the file without exiting the emulator.  I'm super novice when it comes to RetroArch - how can I remap your project's controller buttons to remedy this?  I was hoping to change select/LB to show the png file and eliminating the start/stop combo so the LB mapping won't interfere.  Can't quite figure it out, didn't see the combo in the retroarch.cfg file. 

If you open up retroarch.cfg you'd need to change the following:

input_exit_emulator_btn = "4"

to

input_exit_emulator_btn = "nul"

and

input_overlay_next_btn = "6"

to

input_overlay_next_btn = "4"

[EthanFox]

Thanks!  Saw those entries.  For some reason I was expecting to see a button combo - Appreciate the help, works perfectly.

[Zombeaver]

No problem.

The way Retroarch handles combos isn't via two buttons/keys mapped to one function, it's via enable_hotkeys (in this case that's assigned to the back button) which functions as the combo button which you have to hold down in combination with any other hotkey. In this case the "exit" and "next overlay" hotkeys.

[Zombeaver]

Blog post for v0.35 on Zomb's Lair

Download C64 Dreams version 0.35
Download local magazine module (optional)
Download Torrent
Download v0.35 Hotfix 2/6/2021

Game Details Spreadsheet

Version 0.35 of C64 Dreams is now available! It features 500 new games (for a new total of 2500!) and a ton of improvements and new features. This update has been an absolutely monumental undertaking. This will likely sound ridiculous but I can say in all earnestness and without exaggeration that nearly all of my free time over the past 3 months has been poured into this project (and sporadic work in the 6 months before that). It ended up becoming a much more significant endeavor than I remotely anticipated going into it, not because of the new games that were added this go round, but because of a number of peripheral elements that ended up exploding into a huge project all to themselves.

The most significant of these was the development of a new system which allows you to quickly toggle back and forth between the game and the manual. I had to write the code to make this happen, which took a fair bit of experimenting (and a bit of additional coding help by Launchbox users @jayjay and @JoeViking245, thanks again for that!) but finally came up with something that I'm quite happy with.

Manuals have become a thing of the past these days, but they were once an integral part of the experience. Very often the background story was entirely relegated to the manual. In some cases - like some Infocom games for example - vital information for the completion of the game was contained in the manuals, along with artwork, maps, all kinds of wonderful treasures. So the single most significant addition in this update is incorporating as many manuals as possible in as high a quality as possible.

This leads to the largest task of them all - sourcing the manuals to begin with. I scoured many, many, resources, and even got some additional help in this undertaking by @TimberlAndRE and Smiling Spectre of the eXoDOS project (thanks again!). Then, just to make things more difficult (because why not) and go the extra mile, I went through the process of converting nearly all of these from pdf to cbr format to improve the experience. There are several reasons for this - the most obvious is that they simply display more cleanly in the incorporated viewer (CDisplay) but this also allowed me to clean them up, divide them up in order to make them more easily readible, and add additional materials (maps, reference cards, etc.) into one combined document. All of this entailed a huge amount of by-hand work, but I think it's absolutely been worth it in the end. The current grand total is 1068 manuals incorporated into the collection, which means that 43% of the games have toggleable manuals. This is actually much more than I ever anticipated when I began.

All of this was the outcropping of an earlier goal for this update - to show some love for text adventures. I know that these are not everyone's thing. I get it, I really do. That's why I wanted to see what I could do to make the experience a little bit more enjoyable. Manuals are definitely a huge part of this - especially in the case of Infocom titles which would regularly have extensive and extravagant documentation - but another issue is that many of these games are entirely silent. The thought occurred to me - there's an ocean of user-made SID music out there... why not try to incorporate some of that and help make the experience a little more atmospheric. The first task was figuring out how to even implement that, but after a fair bit of digging and experimentation I came up with a pretty nice end result which incorporates sidplayfp and mpg123 (depending on whether the music is in native .sid format or .mp3). The next task was finding music that was actually appropriate which ended up being a lot more difficult. I listened to thousands of tracks in the High Voltage SID Collection and on Youtube to find things that actually fit the tone that I was looking for. Low-key atmospheric/ambient music isn't exactly something that's typical for a lot of SID music, even though the chip is completely capable of it. I ended up finding a decent number of tracks that were what I was looking for, though I'm certainly not done on that front. There are some games that I have on the agenda to add some music to that I just didn't find anything I was quite happy with, so I'm still on the lookout. That said, I think you'll be happy with what I've come up with. In the vast majority of cases I've arranged the music into playlists of similarly-themed music that would be appropriate for the game they're assigned to. Each track loops infinitely until you tell it to change to the next. I did this essentially to allow you to change things up if you get tired of a given track.

You can see an example of both the custom music and the manual features in the video below:

 

With new features come the necessity for new controller and keyboard mappings. You can see the updated controller reference here (all existing notes overlays were updated accordingly):

Updated keyboard controls:

8456 on the numpad = Up, Left, Down, Right
Left Alt = Fire
Left Ctrl = C= Key
ESC = Runstop
Numpad asterisk = swap joystick ports
Numpad minus is the combo key
Numpad minus + Numpad 0 = Eject/Insert Disk
Numpad minus + Numpad 9 = Next Disk
Numpad minus + Numpad 8 = Previous Disk
Numpad minus + Space = Fast Forward (can also hold down PgDwn to activate warp mode)
Numpad minus + Numpad plus = toggle controls/notes display
Numpad minus + Numpad return = toggle manual
Numpad minus + ESC = Quit
Numpad minus + F2 = Save State
Numpad minus + F4 = Load State
Numpad minus + F7 = Next State
Numpad minus + F6 = Previous State
Numpad minus + Up arrow = show info on current custom music track
Numpad minus + Down arrow = show info on current custom music track
Numpad minus + Right arrow = play next custom track (if in playlist)
Numpad minus + Left arrow = play previous custom track (if in playlist)

On top of all this, I made a very concerted effort to improve the media and metadata in Launchbox. I upgraded hundreds of covers, added tons of logos, screenshots and other images, and filled in as many gaps as I could. Incorrect matches have been fixed, genre and production info added, and alternate names implemented (Coil Cop / Thing Bounces Back) for quite a few titles (so searching for either will display the corresponding game). It's still not perfect, but it's significantly better than in the previous version.

I also created close to 700 3D boxes and unified the 3D box format across the collection. 3D boxes are now the default view for games. It creates a nice clean look. Thankfully the process is quite quick and simple so I can create more or upgrade existing ones quite easily, assuming I have something appropriate to use as the cover.

All of this work combined became quite the grueling slog but will make things easier going forward. None of these things would have been overly taxing, on their own, if they were only required for new additions - it's the fact that so much of the work encompassed the entire collection - all the manuals, media, and metadata in one sweep. Phew! It was well worth it in the end though, and I'm quite proud of the result. It should be noted that all of this has had a very tangible impact on the filesize of the collection - the previous version was about 5GB without the local magazines and 10GB with them. It's now about 13GB / 19GB! I want to thank -Archivist for agreeing to host C64 Dreams on the-eye.eu and @eXo for pointing me in the right direction on that front!

As a quick update on the progress of the collection itself, I've made it through 46% of Gamebase64, parsing through 19,575 out of 42,718 screenshots in that collection. I'm currently making my way through "K". While I certainly still have a long way to go, determining that I'd made it through almost half of GB64 made me realize that I was actually further along than I initially thought. That combined with the newly implemented manual and music systems in this update drove the decision for the larger than normal version bump this go round. In the last update I included a list of my favorite new additions to the collection, but since I focused more heavily on text adventures this time than normal, I thought I'd take a moment to provide some recommendations since this is a genre that I know many are mostly or entirely unfamiliar with and don't know where to begin.

The most obvious answer is "anything by Infocom". There's a reason why they were so famous in this arena, and it's well-earned. You can't go too wrong with any of those (though I certainly prefer some over others). That said, so as not to be a complete cop-out, I'll provide some specific recommendations (and not limited to Infocom). If there's a single game that I can emphatically recommend as the best starting point for anyone new to the genre, however, it's Zork I: The Great Underground Empire. It's wonderful; and very easy to get into even if you're not a text adventure aficionado thanks to the excellent parser that makes the experience about as frustration-free as it can be. The single greatest difference between a good text adventure and a bad one is the quality of their parser and how that interacts with the puzzle design. Some games are extremely strict about what they'll accept, both in the method to achieve your goal and the specific way in which you phrase that method. Something that Zork manages better than many others is making all of that feel natural. You try something that seems like it might make sense and it often works and, if not, you'll at least usually get a humorous response that shows the developers already anticipated what you tried to do. I really can't recommend it enough as a great introduction to the genre. If it's something that's totally foreign to you, I would just encourage you to keep an open mind. Read the manual and try to immerse yourself in the worlds that they've created. And remember to examine everything! I'd recommend taking a look at this page too if you want some general pointers on how text adventures typically function if you're a beginner. Once you've dipped your toes in and want to go looking for more, these are some other recommendations:

The Curse of Rabenstein
Eight Feet Under
Enchanter
Escape from the Shire
Federation
Hibernated 1: This Place is Death
Jack the Ripper
Jewels of Darkness
Kayleth
The Lurking Horror
Silicon Dreams
Starcross

There's a lot of other great ones out there (and some not so great ones, to be fair). I created a new playlist entirely for all the text adventures in the collection, so check that out as well!

So, with all that out of the way, let's get on with the full changelog. It's a doozy.

New:

• Added a new category for Diskmags, with 25 associated mags
• Added ability to quickly swap between the game and manual for many games - these are listed on the details spreadsheet in the new Manual column; can switch by pressing Numpad Minus + Numpad Enter or Back + R3 on a controller; manuals can be navigated with keyboard (arrow keys to navigate and -/= keys for zoom), controller (right stick to navigate and LB /RB to zoom), or mouse (scroll wheel to navigate and ctrl + scroll wheel to zoom)
• Sourced and converted to .cbr format (and often cleaned up, adjusted, and split into separate pages) over 1000 manuals for use with the new manual feature. Phew! This means that 43% of the games have a toggleable manual (which is better than I initially anticipated). Thanks to @jophran, @TimberlAndRE, and Smiling Spectre for helping find some of these!
• Added custom SID background music with libsidplayfp (and occasionally mpg123 when the .sids don't loop properly) to a number of text adventures (and a few other games) that oridinarily have no music or sound, detailed on the custom music tab of the game details spreadsheet
• Added some configuration options for custom SID background music to Configurator, including the ability to disable it if so desired
• Enabled new autowarp feature for games that use TrueDrive wherever possible (cases where it doesn't cause issues) - this dramatically reduces load times and can be particularly useful in games that have very frequent "short" loads but no audio/music (because it mutes the audio when it activates) - a perfect use scenario for this are certain text adventures that have graphics for each area that under normal circumstances might take 10 seconds to change locations and are now essentially instantaneous (games like The Brew are a good example of this)
• Added a new generic (not game-specific) bezel with three variations, accessible via the Configurator; V1 is now the default
• Reshade support is now included, accessible via the Configurator; once enabled it can be toggled with Numpad / and the Reshade menu can be toggled with Shift + Numpad /; note that it does increase hardware requirements and startup times slightly
• Added a new shader (selectable via the Configurator) that only makes color correction adjustments in case you want to disable shaders altogether but still keep the color corrections (I would recommend using Esper though if your hardware supports it)
• Added an alternate SuperCPU version of Rescue on Fractalus (right-click / additional apps menu); highly recommended!
• Enabled mouse support for Cabal, Deja Vu, and Uninvited (with separate launchers via the additional apps menu)
• Created custom joystick controls for Ultima II
• Created custom joystick controls for Jungle Trouble
• Added a new dynamic playlist for text adventures (any game in the collection with the "Text Adventure" genre tag)
• Created separate xmls which can be imported into Launchbox (overwritten) to change the default launch behavior for magazines - the xml that is used by default uses the web versions as the default launch. If you install the local versions and want to use those as the default launch, simply copy the xml from C64 Dreams\C64 Dreams\Magazines\!XMLs\Default Local and replace the one in C64 Dreams\Data\Platforms\ with it. If you ever want to change it back just use the one from the Default Web folder instead.

Version Updates:

• Asterix and the Magic Cauldron - replaced with +7DHG Easyflash version by Excess
• Bucket Wars - updated to v1.3
• Card Sharks - replaced with Easyflash version by Excess
• Combat School (Boot Camp) - replaced with +3D version by Lurid & Tricycle
• Crack Down - replaced with Easyflash version by The Joker
• Creatures II - replaced with +10DFIR Easyflash version by Nostalgia
• Creatures - replaced with +10DFIR Easyflash version by Nostalgia
• Curse of Rabenstein, The - updated to v11 by Laxity
• Dig Dug - replaced with Remember version
• Dominator - replaced with Easyflash version by Master
• Empire of Karn - replaced with +DMW version by Hokuto Force
• Frightmare - replaced with +3DG version by Hokuto Force
• Infiltrator - replaced with Infiltrator Collection (Easyflash) version by Nostalgia
• Infiltrator 2 - replaced with Infiltrator Collection (Easyflash) version by Nostalgia
• Italy '90 Soccer - replaced with "New Version" by Fantastic 4 Cracking Group
• Knight Games - replaced with Easyflash version by The Joker
• Mayhem in Monsterland - replaced with +10DFIR Easyflash version by Nostalgia
• Shinobi - replaced with +3D Easyflash version by Mayday!
• Spy vs Spy - replaced with Remember version
• Turbo Outrun - replaced +8DHF version by Excess
• Dark Side - replaced with The Dominators version
• Chance in Hell, A - replaced with a Super CPU version and included an altnerate standard C64 version with added music
• Driller - replaced with 2000 A.D. version
• Dracula - replaced with West Coast Crackers version (has all 3 parts on 1 disk)
• Down at the Trolls - replaced with GB64 version (by Elite)
• E-Motion (The Game of Harmony) - replaced with +3 version by Triad

Changes/Fixes:

• Updated Retroarch to 1.9.0
• Updated to latest version of the core which now supports, among other things, per-pixel horizontal and vertical cropping, an updated SID engine (ReSID-fp), and automatic load warp for TrueDrive enabled games. Thanks to @Pixelpiper for the work on his BC core which prompted the per pixel-cropping implementation.
• Added or adjusted custom cropping for 2000 Kung-Fu Maniacs, Abyssonaut, Alcon, Alien Syndrome, Another World, Ballblazer, Bangkok Knights, Bear Essentials, Beyond the Forbidden Forest, Brainway, C64 Snail Maze, Delta, Dominion, Donkey Kong (Oxyron), Draconus, E-SWAT, Forgotten Forest, Fortress of Narzod, Game Over II - Part 1, Gemini Wing, Genesia, Ghostbusters II, Hans Kloss, Harrier 7, Heatseeker, Hyperion II, Interchange, It's Magic, It's Magic II, It's Only Rock n' Roll, Kobo64, The Last Fight, Mega Phoenix, No Mercy, Outlaw, Paperboy, Phobia, Planet Golf, Powerglove, Run Like Hell, Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles, Tiger Claw, Turbo Outrun, Wizball, Wolfling, Worm, and Zolyx. Now everything involving cropping is handled through core options - Retroarch's video output settings are untouched. This means that no manual adjustment should be necessary regardless of your monitor's resolution or aspect ratio! Woohoo!
• Adjusted the vertical and horizontal crop settings on Frogger Arcade
• Corrected the horizontal crop settings on Jars' Revenge (uses horizontal overscan space)
• Made first overlay image for Ballblazer transparent as the game is zoomed in (and the bezel would cover it)
• Made first overlay image for Jars' Revenge transparent as the game uses the horizontal overscan space (the overlay was disabled entirely previously, but now you can still access the control overlay while the bezel image is unused)
• Switched to new ReSID-fp audio engine (more accurate)
• Replaced Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles with correct game (was the Coin-Op)
• Dragon Ninja and Bad Dudes vs Dragon Ninja are the same game, removed "Bad Dudes vs Dragon Ninja"
• Coil Cop and Thing Bounces Back are the same game, removed "Coil Cop"
• Guardian and Stargate are the same game, removed "Stargate"
• Changed "Daley Thompson's Decathlon" to "The Activision Decathlon" in LB, as it was matched incorrectly previously
• Renamed Summer Games to The Games: Summer Edition and Winter Games to The Games: Winter Edition, and added in Summer Games (1984) and Winter Games (1984)
• Renamed "Ice Palace" to "Ice Palace (K-Tel)" because "Ice Palace (Creative Sparks)" was added
• Renamed "BC II - Grog's Revenge" to "B.C. II - Grog's Revenge"
• Renamed "Dan Dare II" to "Dan Dare II - Mekon's Revenge" and "Dan Dare 3 - The Escape" to "Dan Dare III - The Escape"
• Renamed "Demons Kiss" to "Demon's Kiss"
• Renamed "Judge Dredd" to "Judge Dredd (Melbourne House)" because "Judge Dredd (Virgin Mastertronic)" was added
• Renamed "Deadline" to "Deadline (Visualize Software)" because "Deadline (Infocom)" was added
• Renamed "Frankenstein" to "Frankenstein (Zepplin Games)" because "Frankenstein (CRL)" was added
• Renamed "Haunted House" to "Haunted House (Alligata Software)" because "Haunted House (Planet Rock)" was added
• Renamed "Boom" to "Boom (567 KByte)" 
• Renamed "Bomb Jack 2" to "Bomb Jack II"
• Renamed "E-Swat" to "E-SWAT"
• Renamed "Cyberworld" to "Cyber World"
• Renamed "3D Golf" to "Hole in One"
• Renamed "Castle" to "Castle (LK Avalon)"
• Renamed "Sinbad and the Throne of Falcon" to "Sinbad and the Throne of the Falcon"
• Renamed "Earth Orbit Station" to "Earth Orbit Stations"
• Renamed "Experimental Traxter 7" to "Experiment Traxter 7"
• Renamed "Bignose's USA Adventure" to Big Nose's American Adventure"
• Renamed "Captain America and The Doom Tube" to "Captain America in The Doom Tube of Dr. Megalomann"
• Renamed "The Catacombs" to "Catacombs"
• Renamed "The Game of Harmony" to "E-Motion" (European title)
• Renamed "Boot Camp" to "Combat School" (European title)
• Renamed "F40 Pursuit" to "Crazy Cars II" (European title)
• Duplicated all the game overrides and option files into the x64sc folder so that that core can be used instead if so desired. It should be noted, however, that this requires a mass find and replace in the game .bats to change the references to a different core - this is easy enough with Notepad++ (or equivalent) though. There is a possibility that x64sc will be used by default in the future, but in my experience the benefits are minimal while the drawback is higher hardware requirements and slower warp/fast forward speeds.
• Changed default frame delay value to 0 and a few other backend settings to help with lower end hardware performance
• Corrected Black Magic, Combat School, Cycle Knight, Drag Race Eliminator, The Great Escape, Jack Attack, Kikstart II, The Pit, and V - The Computer Game to use port 1
• Changed F1 GP Circuits filter mode from 2 to 1
• Fixed an error in the Steel Ranger [commercial] .cmd
• Removed -autostart x64 from .cmds as it's no longer necessary; this also helps facilitate easier swapping from x64 to x64sc if so desired
• Added some additional code to .vbs files to help with rare focus issues
• Configured NTSC games to use custom palette settings; default settings are way too dark, Colodore looks better than the default for NTSC but it's still too dark and looks terrible for PAL (saturation is way too high)
• Reduced contrast of CRT-Easymode-Halation-C64 shader slightly because it was unintentionally turning very dark greys solid black (the trainer menu for Alienworld is a good example)
• Replaced BZRPlayer with libsidplayfp for standalone SID tracks as it's significantly more accurate and sounds much better in a number of cases
• Moved CDisplayEx to Utilities folder and updated magazine .bats accordingly
• Added addditional map overlays for Alternate Reality - The City, Alternate Reality II - The Dungeon, The Legend of Blacksilver, The Magic Candle, Pirates!, Ultima I, Ultima II, Ultima III, Ultima IV, Ultima V, and Ultima VI
• Changed Kayleth to use the SuperCPU core running at 48% speed (100% is too fast; crashes RA if below 48%) because the animation sequences make the game run very slowly (making typing difficult/slow) which can be resolved with the SuperCPU - this also has the added benefit of making area changes/loading much faster
• Added alternate launch options for A Chance in Hell, Dark Side, The Eidolon, Koronis Rift, and Rescue on Fractalus to use the SuperCPU to make them run faster
• Increased deadzone slightly for right-stick to arrow keys, this helps prevent erroneous inputs either by straying diagonally or by stick release flipback
• Changed Boom (Brainstorm Amazing Software) to use SuperCPU (supported by the game natively)
• Added autoloading savestates to multi-game Easyflash carts so that the correct game is loaded on start rather than loading to the game selection menu - this had already been done previously for games that didn't require any in-game saving but wasn't used in cases where in-game saving was possible because doing so would (at the time) break those saves - this has since been patched!
• Added alternate name data to Launchbox (typically for alternate region titles ex. Coil Cop vs Thing Bounces Back) for about 70 games

Miscellaneous:

• Updated and cleaned up Automator code a bit
• Added additional notes in the Config Editor
• Audited all per-game core option files to correct any instances of incorrect (legacy) values for SID resampling or missing values for color adjustments due to core updates
• Created a startup watchdog app that waits 15 seconds for Retroarch to start, and if it hasn't started by then it closes any running scripts/apps that were launched - I thought this was prudent since there are a number of scripts and apps that are launched in conjunction with Retroarch now to facilitate the manuals and music - these ordinarily close upon Retroarch closing but, in the event that something weird happens and for some reason Retroarch doesn't start to begin with, they don't have that trigger and will otherwise remain open; the watchdog is essentially a failsafe for this so that you don't have a bunch of stuff still running in the event that Retroarch doesn't start correctly for whatever reason; if Retroarch is open once the 15 seconds are up (and it certainly should be, that's plenty of time) the watchdog closes itself; in case your PC is just an absolute potato and it takes it longer than 15 seconds for Retroarch to start, I've included an alternate version that waits 30 seconds in C64 Dreams\C64 Dreams\Retroarch\!Startup Watchdog - it takes about 2 seconds on my PC and it's about 7 years old now so I can't imagine many/any people needing this but you never know. I've also included a StopAll.exe in C64 Dreams\C64 Dreams which kills everything instantly just for good measure.
• Created clear logos for Diskmags, Magazines, Best Of Vol. 5, and Text Adventures
• Created nearly 700 3D boxes and unified the format for all 3D boxes in the collection. 3D Box is now the default view for games. Thanks to @Z3R0B4NG for assembling a collection of the boxes to point me in the right direction and to @marcoooo and @edgemundo for their contributions in helping to create many of the other 3D boxes in the collection.
• Changed CDisplayEx versions to one that's completely portable (previous version wrote some settings to an external local path)
• Lots and lots of media and metadata additions/cleanup in Launchbox; it's still not perfect (and realistically never will be) but it's significantly better than it was in the past
• Submitted several tickets for various core issues, all of which have been resolved thanks to the excellent support of sonninnos, the core maintainer:
   
  •     Remember Current Disk When Loading a State For Multi-Disk Game
  •     Per-Content vicerc Loading
  •     Toggleable Virtual Device Traps Core Option
  •     Make [Quick Menu > Restart] Revert to First Disk in .m3u
  •     Specify PRG When Loading From .m3u
  •     Manual Warp Not Working When Automatic Load Warp Is Enabled
  •     Stereo SID Support
  •     Savestates Break Easyflash Saving

New games with multitap (3-4 controller) support:

• Hockey Mania

New custom note overlays:

• Alternate Reality - The City
• Alternate Reality II - The Dungeon
• Angel of the Hell
• Asylum
• Ballblazer
• Below the Root
• Bushido - The Way of the Warrior
• Centauri Alliance
• Evil Prince, The
• Fall
• Fallen
• Galleon, The
• Garrison
• Hydrax
• Jonny Quest in Doctor Zin's Underworld
• Jungle Trouble
• Kayleth
• Maniac Mansion
• Omega - Neural Cybertank Design & Simulation
• Questron
• Questron II
• Shadow Over Hawksmill
• Shamus Case II
• Spelunker
• Tangled Tales - The Misadventures of a Wizard's Apprentice
• Ultima II - The Revenge of the Enchantress!
• Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders

I also created a couple generic note overlays that apply to multiple games. One of which is a note that you need to press F1 to start the game. This has been added for the following games:

• Big Trouble in Little China
• Bop'n Wrestle
• Devil's Gallery
• DragonHawk
• Ghostbusters
• Jetboys
• Juice!
• Pastfinder
• Pitfall II - The Lost Caverns
• Zenji
• Zeta-7

Another generic overlay was created to cover the saving and loading procedure for all Infocom games. This has been added for the following games:

• Deadline
• Enchanter
• Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
• Lurking Horror, The
• Moonmist
• Planetfall
• Seastalker
• Starcross
• Suspended
• Zork I - The Great Underground Empire
• Zork II - The Wizard of Frobozz
• Zork III - The Dungeon Master
• Zork - The Undiscovered Underground

New games:

2438 The Return
3-D Skramble
720 Degrees
Accolade Comics
Ace of Aces
Adventureland
Adventures of Tronic
Age of Heroes, The*
Aigina's Prophecy
Aliants - The Desperate Battle For Earth
Alien (Argus Press Software)
Alien Bleed
Amazon (Telarium)
Andy Capp
Archon II
Army Moves
Around the World in 80 Days
Aussie Games
Autoduel
Aviator Arcade II*
Avoid
B.C.'s Quest for Tires
Balakon Raider
Beer Belly Burt's Brew Biz
Birdie Bird
Bobby Bearing
Book of the Dead
Breakthru
Brubaker
C64 Snail Maze
Centauri Alliance
Centric
Chameleon
Chomp!
Crush, Crumble & Chomp
Curse of Ra
Cybo-Cop
Darkhorn
Davy - King of the Wild Frontier
Deadline (Infocom)
Deadly Thunder
Death Battle 2200
Death Saw Challenge
Declem
Demon's Winter
Destruct
Drol
Dungeon of Rott
Elevator Eric
Enchanter
Endless
Escape to Murky Woods
Ewe Woz 'Ere
Eye of Horus
Fall
Fallen
Flax
Forever Extending Hungry Snake, The
Frankenstein (CRL)
Game of Harmony, The
Garrison
Gateway to Apshai
Ghost of Genghis Khan, The
Ghost Town 64
Golden Pyramids, The
Greystorm
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
Halley Mission, The
Halloween
Halloween Police
Halls of Death
Halls of the Dwarven Kings, The
Halls of the Things
Hammer Boy
Hangman's Hazard
Hans Kloss
Happiest Days of Your Life, The
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 Patrol
Hawkstorm
Head Start
Head The Ball
Head to Head Karate
Head-On (Compute)
Headache
Heavy Metal - Modern Land Combat Vol. I
Heavy Metal Deluxe
Hektic
Hektic II
Helden
Heli Rescue
Helicopter Mission, The
Hell for Leather
Hell Zone
Hell Zone II
Hellfire
Hellraid
Helm, The
Helsings Hunt
Hercules - Slayer of the Damned
Hermitage, The
Hero Quest
Hero Quest II
Hero Time
Hero Time II
Heroes of Karn, The
Heroes of Midgard
Hideous
Hideous Bill and the Gi-Gants
Hidihood
High Frontier
High Mountains, The
High Rise
Highland Games
Highlander
Highway Encounter
Hillsfar
Himalayan Odyssey
Hit and Run Baseball
Ho! Ho! Ho!
Hobbit, The
Hobgoblin
Hockey Mania
Hocus Focus
Holiday Cops
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 Killing Machine
Human Race, The
Humanoids
Hummdinger
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
Hyper-Hen
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
I-Wizard
I-Xera
Ice Island
Ice Palace (Creative Sparks)
Ice Temple, The
Ice-Mania
ICUPS
Ihanpaska
Ikari III - The Rescue
Ikari Warriors II
Ikarus
Iketa
Ikkiuchi
Illgen
Illusions
Imagination
Imaginator
Imperium
Imperoid
Implosion
Impossible Game, The
Imshi
Incredible Laboratory, The
Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade
Indoor Soccer
Indoor Sports
Indy Heat
Inertiania - Land of Motion
Infection
Infinite Inferno
Infinity Worlds in the Space
Infodroid
Ingrid's Back
Inheritance, The
Inheritance, The - Chaos in Scotland
Inheritance, The - Panic in Las Vegas
Inherits of the Throne
Inner Space
Inner Space Plant Attack
Insanity in San Francisco
Insects in Space
Inspector Gadget
Institute, The
Interceptor Base
Interchange
Intergalactic Cage Match
International 3D Tennis
International 5 A-Side
International Basketball
International Ice Hockey
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
Iron Horse
Island of Dr. Destructo, The
Island of the Dragons
ISS - Incredible Shrinking Sphere
Issuar
It's a Knockout
It's Only Rock n' Roll
Italy 1990
Iznogoud - The Grand Vizir
Jack and the Beanstalk
Jack Bullet
Jack Charlton's Match Fishing
Jack Nicklaus Championship Golf
Jack The Ripper
Jackal (Imagine)
Jackal (Konami)
Jackal II
Jahangir Khan Squash
Jai Alai
Jail Break
Jail War
Jailbreak (Michael Lalonde)
Jam It!
James Bond
JANI
JANI 2
Jara-Tava - The Isle of Fire
Jasg
Jason of the Argonauts
Java Jim in Square Shaped Trouble
Jaws (Box Office Software)
Jaws (Outlaw-Emix Software)
Jaws (Screen 7)
Jax
Jed's Journey
Jeep Command
Jeep Command II
Jeffy
Jessy the Worm
Jet Power Jack
Jet Set Willy
Jet Set Willy II - The Final Frontier
Jet-Boot Jack
Jetan - Martian Chess
Jetboys
Jetsons, The
Jewel Thief
Jewels of Babylon
Jewels of Darkness
Jihad - Raid Over Baghdad
Jimbo
Jinks
Jinn-Genie
Jinxter
Job Race
Jocky Wilson's Darts Challenge
Jocky Wilson's Darts Compendium
Joe (CP Verlag)
Joe Dick - Private Investigator
John Elway's Quarterback
John Lowe's Ultimate Darts
Jolly Roger
Jonah Barrington's Squash
Jonathan
Jonny Quest in Doctor Zin's Underworld
Josh
Journey to the Centre of the Earth, A
Judge Dredd (Virgin Mastertronic)
Juice!
Juke Box
Julius Caesar
Jump Machine
Jumpin Jack
Jumpin' Jimmy
JumpJets
Jumpman Junior
Jungle Drums
Jungle Jack
Jungle Patrol
Jungle Quest
Jungle Raid
Jungle Trouble
Junkyard
Junkyard Jalopies
Juno First
Jupiter Mission 1999
Jupiter's Electrician
Kabura
Kacper
Kaiv
Kami-Kaze
Kamikaze Duck
Kangarudy
KAOS
Karamalz Cup
Karate Champ
Karate Chop
Karnov
Karting Grand Prix
Kat Trap
Katapult
Kayden Garth
Kellogg's Tour 1988
Kennedy Approach
Kentilla
Kernal's Chaos
Kettle
Key Finders
KGB Agent
KGB Superspy
Kick Box Vigilante
Killed Until Dead
Knax
Knights of Legend
Kobo64
Last Fight, The
Left 2 Die
Left 2 Die Part 2
Lord of Dragonspire, The*
Lurking Horror, The
Macbeth
Magical Girl Mary vs E.V.I.L.
Make My Day
Mancala
Mars*
Mask of the Sun, The
Maxwell Manor - The Skull of Doom
Mean Streets
Mega Tank Blasta
Metal Dust*
Michael Jordan vs Larry Bird - One on One
Mini Golf
Mirage
Moebius
Moebius - The Orb of Celestial Harmony
Monopoly Deluxe
Moonmist
Muncher Eats Chewits, The
Munsters, The
Muppet Adventure - Chaos at the Carnival
Neptune Lander Elite
Newcomer
Nightwalker
Ninja Rabbits
Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less
Old West World, The
Omega - Neural Cybertank Design & Simulation
Outlaw
Over The Net
Phantasie
Phantasie II
Phantasie III
Pilgrim
Planetfall
Project FX-64
Puffy's Saga
Quest of the Space Beagle
Questron
Questron II
Rally Speedway II
Rambo III
Ring of Power, The
Robin of Sherwood - The Touchstones of Rhiannon
Robots of Dawn
Rogue
Rudy Hammer
Run Demon Run*
Saracen
Seastalker
Sector Patrol
Sentinel Worlds I - Future Magic
Shadow Over Hawksmill*
Shadows of Mordor, The
Shamus
Shamus Case II
Side Arms
Silicon Dreams
Silicon Warrior
Sizzler*
Slam Dunk
Slurpy
Snake-A-Space
Snap Snake
Soko-Ban
Sooper Froot
Space Mission
Space Swarm 64
Standing Stones, The
Starcross
Stellar Wars
Storm Chase
Successors of the Throne, The - War for the Crown II
Summer Games
Super Nova
Survival Messenger
Survival Messenger Adventure
Suspended
Sword of Fargoal
Tai-Pan
Tangled Tales - The Misadventures of a Wizard's Apprentice
Tau Ceti
Temple of Apshai Trilogy
Test Drive
Test Drive II - The Duel
To Be On Top
Toilet Paper Stacker
Uchi Mata
Ultima I - The First Age of Darkness
Ultima II - The Revenge of the Enchantress!
Ultima V
Ultima VI - The False Prophet
V.I.O.S.
Where in Europe is Carmen Sandiego
Where in the USA is Carmen Sandiego
Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego
Windwalker - A Tale from Moebius
Winter Games
Wizard's Crown
Wolfman
You Had One Job
Zambeezi
Zombie Party
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

 *these games are still commercially available so the roms are not supplied

New Magazines:

Zzap!64 Issues 51-60
Commodore Format 26-34

New Demos:

5 Shades of Grey by Lethargy
Diagonality by Genesis Project
Dream Travel 100% by Samar Productions
In A Hurry by Padua
Nothing But PETSCII by Genesis Project
Out of Contex by Artline Designs
Pagan's Mind by Dream
Remains by Booze Design
Rocketry by Chorus
Snakepit by Delysid

New Diskmags:

Attitude 15-20
Dawn 1
Propaganda 25-29
Recollection 1-3
Vandalism News 61-70

New SID:

Ain't Seen Nothing Yet by Shinobi
Bomba by Flex
Cold War Generation by Linus
Danger Dawg by Steel & Stinsen
Ed in His Lib by Jammer [with SFXExpander/YM3812 support]
Electric City by Flex [2SID]
Elusive Groove by Flex
Empty by Jojeli
Foregone Destruction by Jammer
Hawkeye 2018 by Flex
I Dug Some Graves You'll Never Find by Linus
Keine Music by Taxim
La Mer by LMan
Les Cathedrales by Shogoon
Lundia by Flex
Mainstream Lamestream by Mr. Mouse
Midnight Kisses by Mibri [with SFXExpander/YM3812 support]
Mini by Fegolhuzz
Miss You! by Juzdie
Mission Solaire by Flotsam
Mutants Revisited by Jason Page
No Conocida by Zardax
Odyssey by Jammer [2SID]
On The Waves by psycho858o
Player by psych858o
Rastaline Dub by LMan
Red Herring Caught Red Handed by Jammer
Robot Sensuality by LMan
Smile to the Sky by Geir Tjelta
Snowcial Distancing by Fegolhuzz
Sockerbeat by Qdor
Something Squared by Xiny6581
Spacebar by MCH
Squad Signal by Dave
Stay Strong, My Friend by Jammer, chuinho, GH, LMan, MCH, Mibri, psych858o, Shogoon, and Wiklund
Stomp by Jammer
Thus Spoke the PC Speaker by lft
Turbo Killer by Noplan
Vandal by Heart by TDM
Vortex by LMan

Finally, I just want to once again thank all the people that helped contribute to this update in various ways. Thanks again, I appreciate the support!

sonninnos
@Pixelpiper
@Z3R0B4NG
@edgemundo
@marcoooo
@jayjay
@JoeViking245
@jophran
@TimberlAndRE
Smiling Spectre
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!

So, that's it for now. I'm in dire need of a nap.

Have fun!

 

 

[jophran]

Thank you! Awesome and increíble work.

[maschine]

This is just incredible. Thank you so much @Zombeaver!

Tough the manual files are present in the respective game folder, I can not read it by right-clicking on the game, since "view manual" is greyed out. Any ideas on that?

Is there a way of easily migrating C64 into existing LB libraries?

Thanks again!

 

 

Edited February 1, 2021 by maschine

[Zombeaver]

2 hours ago, maschine said:

Tough the manual files are present in the respective game folder, I can not read it by right-clicking on the game, since "view manual" is greyed out. Any ideas on that?

They wouldn't be viewable via the right-click > view manual option even if they were in LB's manuals folder because 95% of them are not in .pdf format. They're .cbr. You could make scripts to launch them in CDisplay and then add those as additional-apps, if you were really adamant about it. That would be fairly redundant, however, since the manuals are all immediately accessible when you're going to actually need them - while playing the games.

2 hours ago, maschine said:

Is there a way of easily migrating C64 into existing LB libraries?

Yes, follow the instructions in this post.

[maschine]

4 minutes ago, Zombeaver said:

 since the manuals are all immediately accessible when you're going to actually need them - while playing the games.

 

Thank you for your quick reply! This may be a super-dumb question, but how do I access the .cbr manuals during emulation?

[Zombeaver]

Back + R3 (right stick click) or Numpad minus + Numpad enter.

The controller mapping overlay has also been updated to reflect the new functions. This information is in the update post.

[maschine]

That function is just awesome, thank you!

[Zombeaver]

1 hour ago, maschine said:

That function is just awesome, thank you!

You're welcome

Just as a quick update, I've gotten a few reports of direct downloads periodically stopping so I've contacted -Archivist from the-eye to see if we can figure out what's going on there, but as an added measure I've added a link to the torrent for the set in the update and opening posts in case anyone's having issues with that.

[nearvanaman]

Wonderful stuff, Zombeaver. This is remarkable work. I have successfully completed an import in to my existing Launchbox. But just wanted to let you know that "Shadow Skimmer" shows up as being missing. It's just that there's a space in the file path in the xml. 

 

[Zombeaver]

Crap, thanks @nearvanaman, good catch. I remember fixing the filename (to remove the space) for that game when I added the manual for it, but I guess I forgot to update the path in LB. I'll make a list of things that need hotfixing and will release a patch for whatever shakes out this week over the weekend. So if anybody else runs into any other weirdness like this just let me know and I'll add it to the list. Hopefully it's just this.

In the meantime, this can be easily fixed by editing the game entry in Launchbox (clicking on it and then pressing Ctrl+E or right-click and select "Edit") and then going to the "Launching" tab and removing the space before ".vbs".

[bbneo]

Loving the package so far! Thanks a bunch. FYI - I spotted a "path" error on the SID named "Echofied 6581".  All other SIDs work fine. (Yes I heard them all :D)

[Zombeaver]

1 hour ago, bbneo said:

Loving the package so far! Thanks a bunch. FYI - I spotted a "path" error on the SID named "Echofied 6581".  All other SIDs work fine. (Yes I heard them all :D)

Yep, you're right. Good catch. I've added that in for the hotfix this weekend.

[bbneo]

Another little thing I noticed - Once in the manual booklet, I can successfully  "Zoom out" with the LB (left shoulder button) but "Zoom in" with the RB does not work. Tried all buttons and there is no way to Zoom In.

[Zombeaver]

Not sure what to tell you there, other than some issue with your controller/external software. It's working fine here on both 360 and XB1 controllers (official). If you're using something other than those (which I don't recommend), it's possible that what AHK sees as your RB is called something different than "Joy6".

You can check the specific name of the button by going into C64 Dreams\C64 Dreams\Utilities\AHK Script Compiler\Other and starting Joystick Test Script.exe. Then when you press a button on your controller it'll say what button it is. If it's something other than "6" then you'd need to update the manual script accordingly. It's in C64 Dreams\C64 Dreams\Utilities\AHK Script Compiler\Completed\Manuals-Animated-V10.ahk Open that up in a text editor.

Starting at line 147 you'll see a section starting with "Zoom()". For every line that says "1Joy6", "2Joy6", etc. you'd want to replace the 6 with whatever button it is on your controller.

Once you've changed it, use Ahk2Exe.exe in the AHK Script Compiler folder, direct it to that script, point it to Docs.ico as the icon (in the same folder), and save it as Manuals.exe. Then copy that and replace the Manuals.exe that's in C64 Dreams\C64 Dreams\Retroarch

[Zombeaver]

Okay, here's the hotfix for the two issues that have come up.

Fixes:

Incorrect path for Shadow Skimmer
Incorrect path and missing files for Echofied 6581

The folder structure follows that of the v0.35 download (C64 Dreams\C64 Dreams\etc.) so if you're using the set as-is just copy, merge, and overwrite. If you're using it with your primary LB setup, just copy the C64 Dreams subfolder, merge, and overwrite.

[bbneo]

22 hours ago, Zombeaver said:

Not sure what to tell you there, other than some issue with your controller/external software. It's working fine here on both 360 and XB1 controllers (official). If you're using something other than those (which I don't recommend), it's possible that what AHK sees as your RB is called something different than "Joy6".

You can check the specific name of the button by going into C64 Dreams\C64 Dreams\Utilities\AHK Script Compiler\Other and starting Joystick Test Script.exe. Then when you press a button on your controller it'll say what button it is. If it's something other than "6" then you'd need to update the manual script accordingly. It's in C64 Dreams\C64 Dreams\Utilities\AHK Script Compiler\Completed\Manuals-Animated-V10.ahk Open that up in a text editor.

Starting at line 147 you'll see a section starting with "Zoom()". For every line that says "1Joy6", "2Joy6", etc. you'd want to replace the 6 with whatever button it is on your controller.

Once you've changed it, use Ahk2Exe.exe in the AHK Script Compiler folder, direct it to that script, point it to Docs.ico as the icon (in the same folder), and save it as Manuals.exe. Then copy that and replace the Manuals.exe that's in C64 Dreams\C64 Dreams\Retroarch

I  found my problem which was due to my keyboard layout. I do not use a US QWERTY keyboard and obviously the symbols on my keyboard do not match those on the ahk script. So I followed your steps and compiled a new script with "my keyboard" shortcut keys. I also update the new keys on the CDisplayEx settings. That did the trick.

I think there will other non-US friendly keyboard people that may run into this issue but it is not too difficult to solve thanks to your guided steps.

[Zombeaver]

Ah, I see! That makes sense. What type of keyboard is it, if I may ask? If you want to upload your updated script and a copy of your CDisplayEX folder I can include them as an alternative for others to use if they have the same type of keyboard.