c64 C64 Dreams (massive curated C64 collection)

[Sintax69]

anyone know what thisa error is after trying to inport Dream to my own launch box

 

Windows cannot find '. .\Retroarch\Controller.exe Make sure you've typed the name correctly, then try again.

[Zombeaver]

16 hours ago, Sintax69 said:

anyone know what thisa error is after trying to inport Dream to my own launch box

 

Windows cannot find '. .\Retroarch\Controller.exe Make sure you've typed the name correctly, then try again.

The only reason that would be happening is if you didn't copy the C64 Dreams folder into your existing Launchbox folder structure. This is step one in the instructions.

[oniotaku]

Where do I put this "Joyride-1.6"?

[Zombeaver]

On 8/5/2023 at 3:17 AM, oniotaku said:

Where do I put this "Joyride-1.6"?

I'm not sure why you're asking, you don't need to put it anywhere/do anything with it. It's something that I used for testing purposes but is not relevant to end-users.

[bigBOSS97]

On 3/15/2019 at 12:34 AM, Zombeaver said:

Thanks!

I'm sure most of us can relate to having that crappy experience of coming across some game that looks like it'd be awesome but then turns out to be complete trash. When I was a kid, we used to rent a game for the weekend, typically for the NES, and of course some of them sounded like they'd be awesome but then you play them and they turn out to just be completely awful... but you're stuck with it for the weekend That sort of situation is even more likely with C64 stuff because there's just so much of it. As you said, the good games are really good, it's just a matter of separating those from all the junk.

I appreciate the offer! I should be okay, it's just going to take time. Considering videos don't even work in the free version of LB, I'm just not in a particular hurry on that front. My biggest priority for those is actually to get the ones for the "Best of" playlists done, then move on to the collection as a whole. I have about 80 done right now.

Thanks!

No problem! I went through the forums and looked around at who was posting in various C64 threads haha.

Yep, definitely a common situation with C64. I tell people about tons of great C64 games all the time, but most of the time if they have C64 in their library at all (which they often don't, because a lot of people just don't want to put up with the hassle to begin with), they've got a giant mess of stuff and have no idea where to even begin or whether or not what they have will actually work.

Cool!

So, in order to pull it into your existing library, you'll need to:

1) Copy the C64 Dreams subfolder (below) into your root Launchbox folder.

2) In that folder you'll see 3 text files. "Files and Data to Import.txt" will show you what files/folders you will need to copy out of the Launchbox folder that you download and into your existing Launchbox setup. Ignore the "Adjust paths in platform xmls to make it an internal folder" bit on line 1, that's already done. This is what you'll need to copy over:

 

3) Here comes the "tricky" part. You need to copy the contents of "Parents XML Insert.txt" into your Data > Parents.xml at the bottom of it, one line above </Launchbox> and then do the same thing with "Platforms XML Insert.txt" in your Data > Platforms.xml. PLEASE backup your xmls before you do this. Also, you will want to use Notepad++ to make sure the formatting comes through correctly.

As far as your screen, yeah we'll need to do a bit of adjustment. 16:10 is actually the same aspect ratio as the C64's, which means we'll need to turn off the overlay (bezel) first of all. Go into the C64 Dreams > Retroarch > config > VICE x64 folder and open up VICE x64.cfg. Change the input_overlay_enable on line 14 from "true" to "false".

Now load up a game and see what you get. Chances are it'll still be wrong, I don't know what your native resolution is. Using the BASIC screen is a good way to sort out the screen adjustment.

This is what it should look like on a 16:9 monitor. On a 16:10 monitor, it should look like this but the edges of your screen should be the inner (non-bezel) portion of this (16:10 is narrower). You'll want the dark blue background to cover your entire screen. Just beyond the screen that's visible here is a lighter blue color - that's the overscan space that we're going to crop out.

So to help with testing, the first thing you can do is go into C64 Dreams > Games and then go into any of the games subfolders. I'll pick 1942. You'll see a file named "Disk1.d64". Rename that to anything else. "Disk10.d64" or something. The reason we're doing that is if the name changes it won't find what it's looking for and will just sit on the BASIC screen. After you've renamed it, start 1942.bat (or whatever [game name].bat is in the folder you picked) and you should be staring at the BASIC screen. Once we're done here, rename the file to "Disk1.d64".

So, if the screen doesn't look like the inner/non-bezel portion of the above screenshot for you, we'll have to adjust some numbers. The controls here are a bit weird so bare with me. Press Numpad - and F1, then you'll see the Retroarch UI. You can move up, left, down, and right with numpad 8456. You can make a selection with left click and go back with right click. You need to go to Settings > Video and then scroll down until you get to "Custom Aspect Ratio X Pos."

The X Pos, Y Pos, Width, and Height are what will need to be adjusted. The background is semi-transparent, so you should be able to still see the BASIC screen behind it. You need to adjust these four fields until the light blue box around the BASIC screen is just offscreen. If you need to switch back to the normal screen without the Retroarch UI to be able to see better, just press Numpad - + F1 to switch back and forth.

Once you get these figured out, shoot me the numbers that you used and I'll make a new config for it and add a new resolution adjustment .bat for it.

I followed the instruction above to copy the files to my LaunchBox. Now it seems to be working. But why haven't my games got thumbnails? Do I have to download them?

[Zombeaver]

6 hours ago, bigBOSS97 said:

I followed the instruction above to copy the files to my LaunchBox. Now it seems to be working. But why haven't my games got thumbnails? Do I have to download them?

Did you refresh? You may need to select all the games and press F5 to refresh media. If that doesn't work it means you didn't do something right (like not copying over the images).

[bigBOSS97]

17 hours ago, Zombeaver said:

Did you refresh? You may need to select all the games and press F5 to refresh media. If that doesn't work it means you didn't do something right (like not copying over the images).

I noticed that for some reason my copied folder "C:\Users\bigboss97\LaunchBox\Images\C64 Dreams\Box - 3D" didn't contain any images. Now I've re-copied "C64 Dreams" and can see plenty of 3D box images. But even after F5 refresh I still can't see image of the games.

[Zombeaver]

Then, again, you've done something wrong. Presumably you didn't copy the screenshots (and potentially other image folders) over just like the 3D boxes. You need to copy them all.

[bigBOSS97]

Forgive me I'm very new in LB.

I've been toggling around different views (under Image Group) before. Today I just noticed there are some images in Screenshot view started popping up. Then I switched to 3D boxes. Voila! all good 🙂

Thank you so much for all your hard work. It's super great!

I'm using a handheld console with built-in game pad. I can see that I can launch a virtual keyboard. Is there a shortcut to close the emulator and go back to LB?

[bigBOSS97]

I don't see images for other categories (e.g. Demoscene, Diskmags etc.). Are images for games only or have I done something wrong again? 🙂

[bigBOSS97]

42 minutes ago, bigBOSS97 said:

Forgive me I'm very new in LB.

I've been toggling around different views (under Image Group) before. Today I just noticed there are some images in Screenshot view started popping up. Then I switched to 3D boxes. Voila! all good 🙂

Thank you so much for all your hard work. It's super great!

I'm using a handheld console with built-in game pad. I can see that I can launch a virtual keyboard. Is there a shortcut to close the emulator and go back to LB?

Oops, I found it. My SELECT button is corresponding to the Combo button.

[dsync89]

Really appreciate this great effort @Zombeaver ! I'm able to integrate it perfectly with my existing LB library. I've never setup C64 before and this C64 Dreams project of yours really is a plug-and-play solution! I've originally thought of downloaded the No-Intro sets for PP and Disk, but I reckon even setting those up will be difficult and not something like `Retroarch.exe <game>`.

Since I'd like the platform to display as the original system name `Commodore 64`, I did the following changes:

- Renamed `C64 Dreams\Data\Games.xml` to `Commodore 64.xml`

- Renamed `C64 Dreams\Images\Games` to `Commodore 64` to match with the platform names.

 

Several questions that I had in mind:

1) I've set the Hotkey to another key, e.g. F1 in RetroArch but somehow holding it along with other Hotkey doesn't seems to trigger the hotkey function. Not sure if I'm missing anything here.  Turns out that Function key does not work as Hotkey Enabler, the default `-` works.

2) Is there any way to disable the trainer/cracks to show up at the beginning? Not sure if using PP or Tapes version will get rid of it. AFAIK PP is the direct dump of the original game which might be copy protected.

Thanks again for this amazing effort and looking forward for the next alpha/beta build!

Edited August 19, 2023 by dsync89
hotkey enabler

[orac31]

omg i tried this when the first version came out but then life etc got in the way etc.

 

I download the latest version and wow thank you its fantastic.

 

and the best think most games can be played and enjoyed with gamepad.

 

thank you so much @zombeaver but 3500 + games where is bmx racers the worse £2 i ever spent as a kid lmao we did not have the good usa version.

 

now to try and complete ring of power after about 40 years  

[OkieDoke]

Thank you for this. I have had a lot of fun trying out C64 games that were nearly impossible for me to set up previously

[Gatt9]

Zombeaver,

I've run into something that has me stumped and wondered if you'd encountered it before?  When playing MULE with two players, the game recognizes one or both X-box controllers as keyboard at times.  When reloading from a saved state, sometimes one or both of the controllers don't work.  I think what's happening is that when the computer shuts down, then starts up later, the game is recognizing the controllers as different joysticks or keyboard inputs and the saved state doesn't match the current inputs.

Have you seen this before?  Do you know of a way to change what inputs are assigned (joystick/keyboard)

[blackthunderx4]

Legit, as a 50+ year old who adored his C64, this is absolute GOLD!!!!! I Love what you have done. It's made me not want to move from my pc in 6 hours... Bless you!!!!!

 

I'm truly thankful!

[blackthunderx4]

Ok I hope this wasn't asked 100 times already, if so I apologize. I am fairly new to this. When playing games with multiple disks, how do you change disks? Example: Microleague Wrestling. If I wanted to select a different disk, how would I do that? (I clicked everything I think and only made things worse lol)

[launchretrogirl2562]

5 hours ago, blackthunderx4 said:

Ok I hope this wasn't asked 100 times already, if so I apologize. I am fairly new to this. When playing games with multiple disks, how do you change disks? Example: Microleague Wrestling. If I wanted to select a different disk, how would I do that? (I clicked everything I think and only made things worse lol)

starts at 21:30

[blackthunderx4]

4 hours ago, launchretrogirl2562 said:

starts at 21:30

Well I guess reading a bit would have helped. Thank you for pointing that out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I screenshot the 2 control screens to keep them up during play because I'm a terrible multi-tasker lol

[frank70]

Very generic joystick with very generic USB adapter didn't work - found a fix.

Many thanks to Zombeaver for this fantastic project! I had downloaded it about a week ago and hoped it would work with my old Kraft joystick that I'd used for many years on the C64 back in the day; it is interfaced to Windows via a USB adapter called the Retro Fun made by electronica4u. But though it works fine in VICE and Launchbox, it didn't work in emulation mode . Instead, it gave the following error at the bottom of the screen:

100%: e4you Retro Fun (1155/36869) not configured

After about a day's experimentation, looking at other files, and many trial-and-error attempts, I came up with the following solution which I suspect will work (with minor modification) for any generic Atari-style joystick interfaced to Windows via a USB adapter:

In the directory "C64 Dreams\C64 Dreams\Retroarch\autoconfig\dinput", I added a file called "Retro Fun.cfg" which is a text file containing these 9 lines:

input_driver = "dinput"
input_device = "e4you Retro Fun"
input_vendor_id = "1155"
input_product_id = "36869"
input_b_btn = "0"
input_up_axis = "-1"
input_down_axis = "+1"
input_left_axis = "-0"
input_right_axis = "+0"

The meager documentation here: https://www.retroarch.com/index.php?page=controller-autoconfig doesn't give a lot of clues to the meaning of the first line and the last 5 lines in this file. Why "dinput"? Why in the "dinput" directory and not one of the other ones (which do not work)? Why "0" for input_b_btn (it turns out that the string can be literally anything and it still works)? What is this axis stuff? All pretty confusing, but I'm glad I stumbled upon this solution since I can now actually play the games that require a joystick.

Anyway, I hope this info will be of benefit to anyone who wants to use C64 Dreams like it was a real C64 rather than with a buttons-up-the-wazoo modern-day game controller that could have never been interfaced to a C64.

 

Edited November 14, 2023 by frank70
Fix incorrect digit