JoJoJuJu59 Posted January 21, 2022 Share Posted January 21, 2022 (edited) 1 hour ago, SiriusVI said: Besides, one can add C64 Dreams AND a complete C64 Collection in the same Launchbox setup. No problem at all. Even if you want *all* C64 games ever made, there is still a huge value in this carefully crafted curated collection. I know there are people that simply MUST have every old game ever made and I myself suffer from this terrible syndrome, but I'm trying to fight it because I believe that digital hoarding is as real a mental illness as physical hoarding lol I have pretty much every C64 game/app release that was available or archived on the internet in a great big sloppy ball of disorganization in my old Hyperspin collection bit it feels like a world of difference from this nicely curated package with all the bells and whistles and enhancements. I'm proud to have it in my hoard Edited January 21, 2022 by JoJoJuJu59 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeemanDev Posted January 22, 2022 Share Posted January 22, 2022 Wow, very impressive. I too went down the emulation rabbit hole 7 years ago, trying to tame the beast. I wrote code for about a year to automatically configure Hyperspin/Rocketlauncher, match up artwork, audit everything, rename, write config files. Though it worked, and was very fast, after much optimisation, it was too awkward to use for a public release and abandoned once I'd used it to auto set up about 140 emulators. One day I'll revisit but in C# (preferred language) not powershell, which I (mistakenly) thought would be fun to learn at the time, which it was but just ends up messy and hard to maintain + no front end. Out of curiosity (and probably ignorance) can you not just use (memory/register) snapshots to avoid truedrive on c64? As well as dropping straight into the game? (been contemplating this for Spectrum games where Kempston needs turning on + key presses to get into game) What was the need for batch files for every game? sounds convoluted. I managed to tame the few Spectrum games by saving .opt files from Retroarch to save specific emulator settings per game, mainly to map gamepad to specific keys. I forsee in the quest for the holy grail of one front end to rule them all, it will end up having to be web based version of a (skinable) Big Box/Attract Mode front end. Then using filters or say loading a 'C64 Dreams 'playlist to self-curate from your favourite curators. I know there are web sites like thegamesdb that index games but afaik they don't have a nice web based UI or a way to launch games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zombeaver Posted January 22, 2022 Author Share Posted January 22, 2022 5 hours ago, BeemanDev said: Out of curiosity (and probably ignorance) can you not just use (memory/register) snapshots to avoid truedrive on c64? As well as dropping straight into the game? (been contemplating this for Spectrum games where Kempston needs turning on + key presses to get into game) 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. 5 hours ago, BeemanDev said: What was the need for batch files for every game? sounds convoluted. 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoJoJuJu59 Posted January 23, 2022 Share Posted January 23, 2022 Speaking of bat files, I know that some of the newer c64 games in C64 Dreams require that you obtain the roms yourself because they're still being sold, and i've had success obtaining them then running the Install Real Config.bat file after renaming the roms to disk1.d64 etc per your instructions, and everything works; the games install and run, except for one - Planet X2. Nothing happens when I click the bat file, and running the game in launchbox shows the c64 "Loading" prompt for a second, then it stops at that screen. It's the only game where this happened. It's a very minor niggle but I just wondered why it happened. Maybe some type of protection? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zombeaver Posted January 23, 2022 Author Share Posted January 23, 2022 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 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoJoJuJu59 Posted January 23, 2022 Share Posted January 23, 2022 2 hours ago, Zombeaver said: 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 483 B · 1 download No need. It worked perfectly with your fix in the file attachment. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeadVoivod Posted January 25, 2022 Share Posted January 25, 2022 I went through the whole TOSEC, Gamebase v16, Stadium 64 (I love sports games), OneLoad64 and C64 Heaven when I created my own C64 favorites set, took me about 3 months and I ended up with only 2260 games. I also created around 600 clear logos for them, as they were not existing and I'm using mainly clear logos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zombeaver Posted January 25, 2022 Author Share Posted January 25, 2022 1 hour ago, DeadVoivod said: II also created around 600 clear logos for them, as they were not existing and I'm using mainly clear logos. 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zombeaver Posted January 25, 2022 Author Share Posted January 25, 2022 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. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeadVoivod Posted January 25, 2022 Share Posted January 25, 2022 Here you go. They're not all perfect but suit my needs to have at least one. C64 Clear Logos.rar 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoJoJuJu59 Posted January 25, 2022 Share Posted January 25, 2022 (edited) I don't use emumovies because I think their recurring billing system without notifying you is a rip-off but volunteers getting together and creating and sharing video snaps for C64 Dreams is a worthy cause. I have about 500 video snaps of C64 games but a lot of them are just slideshows, but some are actual game play videos. Since I acquired them for my old Hyperspin collection a few years ago and then transferred them to C64 Dreams I can't remember where I got them from. Would certainly be willing to share. Edited to add: removed slightly humorous typo when I originally wrote above "volunteers getting together and creating and sharting videos" lol Edited January 25, 2022 by JoJoJuJu59 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zombeaver Posted January 25, 2022 Author Share Posted January 25, 2022 10 minutes ago, DeadVoivod said: Here you go. They're not all perfect but suit my needs to have at least one. C64 Clear Logos.rar 7 MB · 2 downloads Thanks, much appreciated! 👍 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zombeaver Posted January 25, 2022 Author Share Posted January 25, 2022 4 minutes ago, JoJoJuJu59 said: I don't use emumovies because I think their recurring billing system without notifying you is a rip-off but voltenteers getting together and creating and sharting video snaps for C64 Dreams is a worthy cause. I have about 500 video snaps of C64 games but a lot of them are just slideshows, but some are actual game play videos. Since I acquired them for my old Hyperspin collection a few years ago and then transferred them to C64 Dreams I can't remember where I got them from. Would certainly be willing to share., 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opeth2112 Posted January 26, 2022 Share Posted January 26, 2022 11 hours ago, JoJoJuJu59 said: I don't use emumovies because I think their recurring billing system without notifying you is a rip-off but volunteers getting together and creating and sharing video snaps for C64 Dreams is a worthy cause. I have about 500 video snaps of C64 games but a lot of them are just slideshows, but some are actual game play videos. Since I acquired them for my old Hyperspin collection a few years ago and then transferred them to C64 Dreams I can't remember where I got them from. Would certainly be willing to share. Edited to add: removed slightly humorous typo when I originally wrote above "volunteers getting together and creating and sharting videos" lol Or you could just get their lifetime pass, which is reasonable compared to subscriptions prices, in my opinion. Pretty much par for the course these days to offer a subscription you will never be reminded of - just like gym memberships. You think it's the power lift dudes keeping the lights on? Nope - it's the many couch surfers auto-paying and never going in lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zombeaver Posted January 27, 2022 Author Share Posted January 27, 2022 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 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zombeaver Posted January 27, 2022 Author Share Posted January 27, 2022 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zombeaver Posted January 29, 2022 Author Share Posted January 29, 2022 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 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zombeaver Posted February 1, 2022 Author Share Posted February 1, 2022 I'm still finishing up work on the video but wanted to put out a combined hotfix for a couple things. I've made a new bezel designed specifically to accommodate 16:10 aspect ratios as this is something I've seen come up a couple times. It's accessible in the updated Configurator. I've also added "Icons Only" bezels as well as improved a couple manuals. The main collection download will be updated with these changes soon, but for existing users just grab the below and merge/overwrite. Once the video is finished I'll be uploading the collection to Archive.org as well. https://www.mediafire.com/file/t63puiwb1qrbpia/1-31-22_Hotfix.7z/file Update notes: -Fixed missing custom controller mappings for Aquaplane and Spellbound Dizzy -Improved the "Color Corrections Only" shader -Improved manuals for 10th Frame and Fire King -Added a new bezel option for 16:10 aspect ratio monitors -Added a new "Icons Only" bezel for both 16:9 and 16:10 which only displays the note/keyboard icons where relevant but is otherwise transparent/blank 5 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zombeaver Posted February 1, 2022 Author Share Posted February 1, 2022 Thanks to a couple users on my Discord I realized there was a problem with the code for the local Zzap reviews such that, if you didn't have AHK installed already, they weren't working correctly (and it would prompt you to choose a program to use with an .ahk file). The collection will be updated to include the previous hotfix and to address this as well, but for users that downloaded it already simply grab the below, put it in C64 Dreams\C64 Dreams\Games and start Review Fixer.bat and it'll take care of the rest. Sorry about that y'all. I guess either most people already have AHK installed or they haven't messed with them lol Review Fixer.7z 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiriusVI Posted February 1, 2022 Share Posted February 1, 2022 Thanks for cranking out these fixes so quickly. You're awesome, man! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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