c64 C64 Dreams (massive curated C64 collection)

[oniotaku]

Can I merge this c64dreams  with my current launchbox build? When I merge it with my build the pictures will not display. How can I fix this issue. Thanks

[launchretrogirl2562]

10 hours ago, Cloudster said:

I have a 65" 4K TV in my living room which is in another part of the house and I use it as my media/gaming/entertainment space. I stream the games from my office PC using steamlink to the Apple TV 4K in my living room. I would like to know what's a good Big Box/Launchbox theme to use for C64 Dreams so that I can easily read everything and navigate easily and access all of its contents with ease? I'm currently using 'Colorful' for Big Box, and it looks very nice, but looks terrible with C64 Dreams.

 

I dont think this has anything to do with the theme you are using. This looks like you are streaming a spanned (1 and 2) screen.
can u not disable one screen and only show LB or BB on your second screen (65" TV)?
Cause that doesn't look correct at all.

Also, when u use a second screen, like a 4K TV, it is always best to set the scaling of that screen to atleast 250%

Edited January 28 by launchretrogirl2562

[launchretrogirl2562]

1 hour ago, oniotaku said:

Can I merge this c64dreams  with my current launchbox build? When I merge it with my build the pictures will not display. How can I fix this issue. Thanks

Yes ofcourse that is possible.
All the details and how to achieve this are in the first pages of this forum thread.

 

[launchretrogirl2562]

@Zombeaver : Are there any status updates on C64 Dreams progress? Much obliged 🙇‍♂️

[bionicgeekgrrl]

On 4/18/2025 at 9:52 PM, launchretrogirl2562 said:

@Zombeaver : Are there any status updates on C64 Dreams progress? Much obliged 🙇‍♂️

Doesn't look like he's been active here (this thread) since May last year and not visited the site since February.

Life might just have gotten in the waẏ oḟ him working on it, we'll just have to be patient unless someone else fancies forking/carrying on his work i guess, which would be a big undertaking.

[NLS]

Every time we asked, when he finally replied, he said that the project is not dead.
He has indeed RL things to manage (which is of course priority for all of us), but also with whoever I discussed it, looks like he also lost interest.
Maybe someday he wakes up a different way and goes forward with the project.

Since there IS little progress after last release, I asked to release maybe a WIP, but he said no.
In practice the project is dead. I mean how do you call a project versioned by the creator himself 0.XX (where 1.0 is the target to go through all the letters of GameBase64 - plus anything else he adds) that hasn't got an update since exactly TWO years ago (May of 23). I mean we are not a group of Highlanders, two years is a measurable portion of human life.

That said, his work remains remarkable, could very well be the best curated C64 collection and pre-1.0 or not, it still works fine as is.
I would love if someone could clone (or again find interest himself) and evolve this with the same attention to detail.

If anybody is listening I would love two things for a future version:
1) BigBox (i.e. videos etc.) to get some love. I started a sub-project about this, but I also abandoned it (I didn't see much interest).
2) A config "switch" to turn C64 borders back on. Because some (most?) of us love the C64 AS we remember it, with the big borders around it. We have discussed it with Zomb and I understand his reasoning, but still would love a "switch".

 

[Zombeaver]

Neither I nor the project are dead. Anyone who says otherwise has no idea what they're talking about and does not speak for me.

Work has not stopped since the last version. It has slowed at points because of significant IRL issues which I've neither the obligation nor the inclination to share because they're frankly no one's business but my own. What I can say is that, despite that, I've continued to work on it. The reason that the next version hasn't been released yet is a combination of those issues and, more significantly, that there are major changes/improvements that will be coming in the next version that require massive amounts of time to complete. There have been significant feature additions in the past like manual swapping that caused delays and the changes in this version require multiple times more work than that. It's a process, a tedious and time consuming one, but it's a process that needs to be done. Again and again and again and again and again and again... and eventually I'll come out of the hole, blink at the sun, and be done. But I'm not there yet. And I won't compromise the quality or standards of the project for anyone, just because they want it sooner. If that's too much to ask, that's unfortunately, as they say, tough shit. I don't report to or work for anyone. I have a vision that will be maintained. I have not dedicated years of my life to this project to either throw it away or let anyone else dictate how I should use my own skills and my own efforts and my own time.

Gamebase64 has been around for 20+ years. CSDb.dk has been around for 30+ years. The library itself spans 40+ years because they're still being made and released to this day. I have to take all of that, gather it all in my arms, dump it in a pile, and turn it into something manageable, into something presentable, and into something usable, while maintaining the high standards that I hold myself to. And I have to do that, essentially, by myself. There are a number of very significant contributors in this space that this project would not be what it is were it not for their efforts - that cannot be overstated - and I am immensely grateful to those people. I try to name them by name - people like StatMat, sonninnos, the Ultimate Tape Archive team, everyone at GB64 and CSDb and more - and thank them as often as I can because I know firsthand the tedium and the effort that is required for these sorts of projects. But C64 Dreams, itself, is largely a one-man show. That can of course be a disadvantage at times because it means that it takes longer because 99.7% of the work is on my shoulders, but it also means that the end result is exactly what I want it to be. And people are, thankfully, generally pretty positive about that. Even people that have no idea what all work it actually entails (which is to say, essentially everyone), often one of the first things they say is "Wow... this must have been a lot of work." That would be an accurate assessment.

I've worked on a number of emulation-related projects over the years that I've released to the public (C64 Dreams of course being the most significant of these) and, in every single case, they were endeavors that I undertook, ultimately, for myself - because I wanted things to be a certain way, because I wanted the experience to be better. But I decided hey, you know what, I'm putting in all this work for things that others might also appreciate, I might as well put this out into the wild. But the other part of that statement is the fact that I've also not released things publicly numerous times over the years for no other reason than just not wanting to deal with everything that entails. When I read comments like this, I feel completely justified in that decision. Not only is it not helpful in any way, not only does it actively undermine your own stated intent of seeing faster progress given the fact that it aggravates the one person that's actually putting in that work, but it also discourages anyone else that might consider for a moment whether or not they should publicly release projects like this. Why would anyone want to deal with that? Why would anyone see this kind of entitled attitude and say to themselves "Yeah, I want to use my time, my money, my mental energy, my sleep, my skills, and the cost of not using those things over the course of years of my life for myself, my family, and my friends... for this guy."

When it's done, it'll be released. Until it is, it won't be. Period.

[dragon57]

Zom, IRL issues always should trump other things. My contributions here as far as uploading various art related archives have basically stopped because of my own RL issues. I still try to weigh in on Bezel related questions because I still am a member of The Bezel Project team, but that too has slowed down.

Try not to let users get you down. Thanks for all you do and have done in the past. We are all the better for those things.

[NLS]

Thank you for the much needed clarifications.

Since we are into clarifications:

1) I don't think anybody spoke "for you".

2) I mentioned your take literally in the first statement: "Every time we asked, when he finally replied, he said that the project is not dead."

3) Nobody (AFAIK) questioned RL priority or pushed in any way. Second statement in post above "RL things to manage (which is of course priority for all of us)".

4) I did add that some discussions were made, not publicly (so I won't disclose others unless they do it themselves), that some people (inc. me) felt you lost interest also. This is not speaking "for you", it is the feeling some people got. Which is fine.

5) As you get yourself from the people that used your project, your work is greatly appreciated by everybody. I do it all the time, including my post above: "work remains remarkable, could very well be the best curated C64 collection and pre-1.0 or not, it still works fine as is".

6) If I am the person (or one of the persons) in the derogatory closing statement, I think it is unjust. I am (and people can verify) one of the people that keep promoting C64 Dreams as the de-facto organized collection for C64 for someone that wants to "click and go" and not miss important titles of C64 history (like most other collections) and all the time suggest to builders that make multi-system collections to talk to you to incorporate your C64 build instead of quick-n-dirty jobs. So I feel this reaction was unjust. I can positively say that there are people that actually know the project because of my "advertising".

In the end, if it triggered all this new info in your post, so be it (I took the first line of fire), people I am sure are happy to know that your are well and the project not dead.
Now I won't bother this thread more with any "intrigue" (I hate intrigue and personal friction, esp. between people not competing in something). Cheers, keep up the great work.

 

[stigzler]

Annyywhooos...

Just revisited this @Zombeaver + again - fab bit of work. Installing it on my 'final' emu machine. 

I've had a poke around as I'm trying to dovetail C64D's controls with those I've globally configured across all other retroarch systems. Is there any way to choose a different hotkey? I'd like to change it from Back to [what is essentially] the Guide button (long story short PS4>DS4Windows>Xbox Controller). Route irrelevant: shows in retroarch as button 10 rather than button 7 (Back). 

Changing it in C64D retroarch doesn't change the hotkey. I notice you have some AHK scripts working alongside other utility apps, so rather than guess what's inside the black box, thought I'd ask first! Unfashionable of me, I know!

Also had a quick search on this topic - couldn't find anything - although it may be buried deep in the details somewhere. 

EDIT: Nemmind - found it - you do this via C64Dreams/Configurator.exe>Config Editor.

Edited 6 hours ago by stigzler
SOLVED

[stigzler]

Does anyone know how to add your own C64 games to this collection. I'm guessing you add it to the C64Dreams/Games folder, but given they all seem to follow a cutom format (with a folder for each game and also other bat files etc) - I didn't want to do this via Launchbox Import File process as it asks for an emulator etc. Search on this long topic wielded too many results to be helpful. 

[launchretrogirl2562]

47 minutes ago, stigzler said:

Does anyone know how to add your own C64 games to this collection. I'm guessing you add it to the C64Dreams/Games folder, but given they all seem to follow a cutom format (with a folder for each game and also other bat files etc) - I didn't want to do this via Launchbox Import File process as it asks for an emulator etc. Search on this long topic wielded too many results to be helpful. 

Just add a new folder in c64Dreams/Games with the name of your own game.
Let's say you added Zeppelin
For ease of use, download your zeppelin game, extract it...rename it to 'Disk1.d64'

Now in C64Dreams\Games\Zeppelin...

Put the Disk1.d64

Choose another game. For my example I choose Zatacka and Yie Ar Kung-Fu
You will notice Zatacka and Yie Ar Kung-Fu use slightly different ways of launching the game using the game.bat

You have to choose yourself which kind to use. Most likely both will work.

For ZATACKA example :
copy over all files that are in there (the .bat, the .cmd, the .vbs) and copy them to your C64Dreams\Games\Zeppelin folder

Just rename the cmd and the vbs to the name of your game.
Then in Launchbox just import roms for your C64dreams platform and add the game by searching for the vbs file :  \Launchbox\C64 Dreams\Games\Zeppelin\Zeppelin.vbs

For Yie Ar Kung-Fu example :
copy over all files that are in there (the .bat, the .cmd, the .vbs) and copy them to your C64Dreams\Games\Zeppelin folder
Here also a manual is directly called in the bat file
..\..\Utilities\Cdisplayex\Cdisplayex.exe ".\Yie Ar Kung-Fu Manual.cbz"

And if u don't have a manual...u have to delete that line in your zeppelin game.bat

So I mostly use games which are configured like ZATACKA...to try and add games.

 

Edited 5 hours ago by launchretrogirl2562

[stigzler]

38 minutes ago, launchretrogirl2562 said:

Just add a new folder in c64Dreams/Games with the name of your own game.
Let's say you added Zeppelin
For ease of use, download your zeppelin game, extract it...rename it to 'Disk1.d64'

Now in C64Dreams\Games\Zeppelin...

Put the Disk1.d64

Choose another game. For my example I choose Zatacka and Yie Ar Kung-Fu
You will notice Zatacka and Yie Ar Kung-Fu use slightly different ways of launching the game using the game.bat

You have to choose yourself which kind to use. Most likely both will work.

For ZATACKA example :
copy over all files that are in there (the .bat, the .cmd, the .vbs) and copy them to your C64Dreams\Games\Zeppelin folder

Just rename the cmd and the vbs to the name of your game.
Then in Launchbox just import roms for your C64dreams platform and add the game by searching for the vbs file :  \Launchbox\C64 Dreams\Games\Zeppelin\Zeppelin.vbs

For Yie Ar Kung-Fu example :
copy over all files that are in there (the .bat, the .cmd, the .vbs) and copy them to your C64Dreams\Games\Zeppelin folder
Here also a manual is directly called in the bat file
..\..\Utilities\Cdisplayex\Cdisplayex.exe ".\Yie Ar Kung-Fu Manual.cbz"

And if u don't have a manual...u have to delete that line in your zeppelin game.bat

So I mostly use games which are configured like ZATACKA...to try and add games.

 

Great response, thanks retrogirl. I suspected from looking at the files that it would be constructing the folder structure right with the right files in etc. Just started expanding my C64Dreams Importer to automate this process. It's the edge cases that'll get me (all the bats and vbs' looked the same, for example - but I bet there are edge cases that require different code somewhere). I know @Zombeaver is super busy so likely doesn't have time,. but if anyone knows these edge cases let me know!