c64 C64 Dreams (massive curated C64 collection)

[Zombeaver]

What?

[MacGuyver]

Thanks again Zombeaver for the INSANE amount of careful work you continue to put into these updates.     All the new features, the new shader, the updated core with improved SID emulation,  new bezels, better zoom settings, all the game version updates, the new overlays, and especially the next set of curated games, it's a dream come true for the fans of this platform.   We're not worthy!

Truly awesome.

[Zombeaver]

You're very welcome!

[bundangdon]

9 hours ago, Zombeaver said:

I don't quite follow. You need the LB folder and then the C64 Dreams subfolder. The LB folder is also named "C64 Dreams" by default but it can be named anything. The subfolder does need to stay as "C64 Dreams" but the base folder name doesn't matter.

Yep, you're right. Delete the C64 Dreams\C64 Dreams\Games\Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles folder and replace it with the attached, then you'll be set. It'll be in the next update.

Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles.7z 179.82 kB · 1 download

They're in this post.

No worries. What I meant is that the main folder for all of the contents, including the programs LaunchBox/BigBox must be named "C64 Dreams" or it won't work. I've tested this a few different ways last night. Certainly not a deal-breaker, but if anyone tries to change the name of the folder which contains all of the files, LaunchBox will not start up, so just a heads-up that and something you might want to include that in the readme/instructions.

Also, I found a game listed in LaunchBox which loads up an incorrect title. The 1984 title "Summer Games" when selected, loads up the 1988 title "The Games". Is there any way I can manually fix this?

[Zombeaver]

45 minutes ago, bundangdon said:

No worries. What I meant is that the main folder for all of the contents, including the programs LaunchBox/BigBox must be named "C64 Dreams" or it won't work.

No, it does not. If that's happening then it's something specifically on your end.

Here's a screenshot of it running from a path of E:\Thingamajig

It starts, games start, it works as you would expect.

There is no name requirement for the main folder. The only name requirement is for the subfolder within it of C64 Dreams.

[bundangdon]

4 minutes ago, Zombeaver said:

No, it does not. If that's happening then it's something specifically on your end.

Here's a screenshot of it running from a path of E:\Thingamajig

It starts, games start, it works as you would expect.

There is no name requirement for the main folder. The only name requirement is for the subfolder within it of C64 Dreams.

Yep, I guess you're right. It was just some weird name issue on my end, since my other launchbox install was in a different, yet similar named folder. Thanks again!

[Zombeaver]

Launchbox itself (which is all the main folder is) is portable so long as your computer has the necessary dependencies and can be named whatever you want (in this case I just changed it from "Launchbox" to "C64 Dreams"), so the same thing applies here. If it's behaving differently then I'd suggest mentioning it to Jason as it's something weird going on with LB at that point (although I can't replicate it here).

[mohanned85]

On 4/2/2020 at 5:59 PM, Zombeaver said:

What?

i intalled this but i asking how can i remove it of my setup as i delete some consoles i dont play sorry

[Zombeaver]

I don't exactly know what you're asking. It's literally just a folder. If you want to get rid of it, delete the folder. Nothing is "installed" with this.

If you want to remove it from your LB you'd delete the C64 Dreams platform category. You should be able to do that through the LB UI, I've never tried though. Worst case scenario I guess you could delete the corresponding xmls for it.

[SiriusVI]

Thank you so much for this amazing update @Zombeaver. Just one question: How can I integrate the offline Magazines module?

[Z3R0B4NG]

Just for information, don't take it as criticism please,  

i decided, after i integrated the games from this set into my own launchbox, to go over the metadata and images once more (i'm a bit more obsessive about that stuff than i should be) and noticed a few things.  

- you have not scraped videos from emu movies, i assume you did that to keep the package size small, i just didn't expect having to scrape those myself, if it wasn't mentioned in the documentation you maybe want do that or i missed it (it actually found quite a lot of videos, didn't expect that, totally worth it).  
- i noticed there are a LOT more 3D boxes in the LBDB with actual spine art by now than last time i checked, so i've been going over that stuff a lot.  
- i noticed you have pictures that should be in "screenshots - game title" in the "box - front" folder for many homebrew titles or stuff without covers, that isn't needed for them to show up as cover if you just set the priorities in the Launchbox options right. I GUESS you did that because the free version doesn't allow to change those priorities (i'm not sure right now how the free version handles that)? Either way i manually moved them for my own install into the correct folder.  
- C64 has cartridges, Casettes and Floppy Discs, i noticed in the LaunchBox DB people have been uploading all of those in random categories a lot, Cartridges and Cassettes should be "Cart - Front" and Floppys should be "Disc" both folders are a total mess of both, i corrected some of the tags in the LBDB that i've stumbled over but no way i get that cleaned up on my own, but i've moved the pictures locally into the correct folders (so i can prioritize if i want to see casettes/cartridges or floppys or fan-art discs in the loading screens)  
- i added a lot of "Fan Art - Disc" images to the LBDB over the past days, make sure to scrape for that category next time, i'm still at it actually and i fill in 3D Boxes from the Emu Movies set where there are holes in the LBDB... as many as i stumble over anyway but most of the more accurate 3D boxes are NOT in C64 Dreams, i really would suggest a fresh scrape on those with LaunchBox DB as the priority, and EmuMovies as a second scrape without overwriting anything existing.  
- i've seen one other guy who went heavy at C64 stuff in the past few days while moderating changes. ...so what i'm saying is, you probably want to do a complete new scrape of everything by the time for the next release because a lot of work is put into the DB right now and your release triggered that work.  

Most of this stuff should naturally trickle down into the next release anyway, i just wanted to mention it so it doesn't go under.  

Edited April 11, 2020 by Z3R0B4NG

[neil9000]

1 minute ago, Z3R0B4NG said:

- you have not scraped videos from emu movies, i assume you did that to keep the package size small, i just didn't expect having to scrape those myself, if it wasn't mentioned in the documentation you maybe want do that or i missed it (it actually found quite a lot of videos, didn't expect that, totally worth it)

Distributing emumovies videos would be a big no no, as they are for premium subscribers only.

[Z3R0B4NG]

@Zombeaver

bug report: "Dragon Ninja" and "Bad Dudes vs Dragonninja" are the same game, but different hacks (not sure which version is better)  
both link to "Bad Dudes" https://gamesdb.launchbox-app.com/games/details/24795 and that DB entry actually has both titles listed as alternate names, so it is indeed supposed to be the same game  

the "Bad Dudes vs Dragonninja" variant has the gamepad also on the wrong joystick port (need to press Y select JOY and Y again so you can move in-game)  

Edited April 11, 2020 by Z3R0B4NG

[Zombeaver]

On 4/10/2020 at 2:33 PM, Z3R0B4NG said:

- you have not scraped videos from emu movies, i assume you did that to keep the package size small, i just didn't expect having to scrape those myself, if it wasn't mentioned in the documentation you maybe want do that or i missed it (it actually found quite a lot of videos, didn't expect that, totally worth it).  

Obviously I can't do this for reasons Neil mentioned. They wouldn't be usable in the free version anyway.

On 4/10/2020 at 2:33 PM, Z3R0B4NG said:

- i noticed there are a LOT more 3D boxes in the LBDB with actual spine art by now than last time i checked, so i've been going over that stuff a lot.

Yes, and they've been added in the time since they were originally scraped in the collection. I don't always go back through and rescrape, because that can kindof be a nightmare for some of these. There are some cases where there's no entry for the game at all or you might be dealing with one of like five different games that are all called "Castle" or "The Castle" or whatever and it thinks they're all the same thing (and it turns out none of them are what it thinks it is), it matches them incorrectly, and now you've got a big mess. For games that have an existing and correct match, rescraping them will pull new media as able, but ones that aren't currently matched are going to be a problem, because the majority of those are left unmatched on purpose (because the correct game/media doesn't exist on the LBGDB, and in some cases there's something close, which matches incorrectly, downloads incorrect images, metadata, and so on).

On 4/10/2020 at 2:33 PM, Z3R0B4NG said:

- i noticed you have pictures that should be in "screenshots - game title" in the "box - front" folder for many homebrew titles or stuff without covers, that isn't needed for them to show up as cover if you just set the priorities in the Launchbox options right. I GUESS you did that because the free version doesn't allow to change those priorities (i'm not sure right now how the free version handles that)? Either way i manually moved them for my own install into the correct folder

As you said, it's because it's distributed with the free version, and you can't set image priorities in the free version.

On 4/10/2020 at 2:33 PM, Z3R0B4NG said:

- C64 has cartridges, Casettes and Floppy Discs, i noticed in the LaunchBox DB people have been uploading all of those in random categories a lot, Cartridges and Cassettes should be "Cart - Front" and Floppys should be "Disc" both folders are a total mess of both, i corrected some of the tags in the LBDB that i've stumbled over but no way i get that cleaned up on my own, but i've moved the pictures locally into the correct folders (so i can prioritize if i want to see casettes/cartridges or floppys or fan-art discs in the loading screens)

There's nothing I can do about that. That's on the LBGDB moderators to remedy. I don't have any intention of making changes there as I don't have the time. I do agree though, that's kindof a mess. Honestly, in most cases I just remove them from the images altogether.

On 4/10/2020 at 2:33 PM, Z3R0B4NG said:

i've seen one other guy who went heavy at C64 stuff in the past few days while moderating changes. ...so what i'm saying is, you probably want to do a complete new scrape of everything by the time for the next release because a lot of work is put into the DB right now and your release triggered that work.

I believe that, and I've seen it to be the case in instances where I've done some rescraping. That just... comes with its own complications as I said. It's going to need to be done, I don't debate that, but there's a lot more work involved in that than you might think. It's not as simple as selecting everything and just rescraping. That would create a gigantic mess.

On 4/10/2020 at 2:39 PM, Z3R0B4NG said:

bug report: "Dragon Ninja" and "Bad Dudes vs Dragonninja" are the same game, but different hacks (not sure which version is better)  
both link to "Bad Dudes" https://gamesdb.launchbox-app.com/games/details/24795 and that DB entry actually has both titles listed as alternate names, so it is indeed supposed to be the same game  

the "Bad Dudes vs Dragonninja" variant has the gamepad also on the wrong joystick port (need to press Y select JOY and Y again so you can move in-game) 

Okay, I'll address that in the next version.

[Zombeaver]

On 4/10/2020 at 10:43 AM, SiriusVI said:

Thank you so much for this amazing update @Zombeaver. Just one question: How can I integrate the offline Magazines module?

Just download it, extract and merge with the C64 Dreams\C64 Dreams\Magazines folder. The magazines all have the local option as additional-app links in LB.

[SiriusVI]

Ah thank you I didn't check for additional apps. Works perfectly now. Any way to make the local files the default option?

[Z3R0B4NG]

this is gonna be another long one... i'll try to format a bit after topics

---
bug reports/feedback: 

"Coil Cop" and "Thing Bounces Back" are the same game (US and EU versions).  

note: "Battlefield" is "Battle-Field" with the dash it will find the correct id https://gamesdb.launchbox-app.com/games/details/88182 

---
I asked about 3D boxes a few days back, well, i kept digging...  time to report my findings.  

best find first: 

link to "7200" of these: 

those boxes look great!!! "Generic" still not "accurate" to the real thing, but these are as good as it gets for generic boxes.  
It is not a perfect set, quite a few boxes have errors, like having the complete cover (back+spine+front) in the front... so don't just dump it all in your 3D box folder it does need some cleaning up, 
I think marcoooo scraped a ton of covers, didn't bother to crop anything and just send it all through a script, i've send him a direct message to see if he is still around and willing to update it or if he maybe updated it already and just didn't share it here (i mean he got ONE reply to his post and a few icon presses)...  

I just think its weird that this set isn't on Emu Movies or anywhere where people would actually find it (or where LaunchBox would be able to scrape it)... no one has added any of these to the LBDB yet (except for me, but those are 7000+ boxes, i'm happy if i get the holes for the C64 Dreams set plugged over time ...this is gonna take days as it is, so if anybody wants to jump in and add more of these to the LBDB, be my guest!).  ...when i'm done and happy with this in my own LaunchBox i'm gonna put these back into the C64 Dreams version and send them to you Zomb so you can integrate them in the next version, ...i mean, if you want, without as much hassle so you can keep doing what you're doing.  
Whenever i'm done and happy with it. I mean i got time to kill, this seems like something "productive" to do.  

He also made some SIMPLE Fanart Tapes (Fanart - Cart - Front), nothing insane but good enough to plug some holes in the database if nothing else exists.  
---  
Next one is a long shot and will most likely lead to nothing... but OMG ... LOOK AT THAT

thread: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3868/8-bit-computers-snapshots-and-covers  

That is what i imagine 3D boxes for Tapes should look like, he shared a .psd template for this crystal case but then the thread (2016!) just fizzled out,
i don't think that this ever resulted in anything or these boxes would have shown up somewhere by now,
I've left a reply on that thread at the off chance that he gets a notification and reacts, but i'm not expecting anything to happen there.  

BUT He did share a .psd file ( https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BwdzHtv3rOY1ajJNbzlybXNna3c )  
...if anyone with Photoshop Skills (not me, i got none) wants to take a stab at this, that would be dope.  

I mean compare that stuff to these old things...

better than nothing, but ...not really thaaat great.  
I mean a FULL set of these would still look good in the Frontend, but right now its like swiss cheese, full of holes.  

Welp, that is what my digging through the depths of the internet has resulted in.  

I know you've said you're not a fan of 3D boxes, but if you don't mind i'll dig through that pile and prep a folder for you. Just a question of weeks until i'm done ?  

----  

one more thing...  

I'm seeing a lot of Euro titles instead of the US names that LBDB uses as primary, like Hero Turtles instead of Ninja Turtles.  
Is that intentional or coincidence?  
I'm mostly asking because it bothers me a tiny little bit that the region tag is not set in LaunchBox for these games, which means the region tags in the LBDB are a bit more useless than usual, so i'm wondering what the reason for this is and if there is intent behind a lot of it being Euro releases instead of US. I guess that the Euro C64 scene is still very active and US is not? Or that it isn't always clear what the source of a cracked release is to begin with so you don't bother with it.  
Just curious... not asking to change anything.  

[Zombeaver]

1 hour ago, Z3R0B4NG said:

bug reports/feedback: 

"Coil Cop" and "Thing Bounces Back" are the same game (US and EU versions).  

note: "Battlefield" is "Battle-Field" with the dash it will find the correct id https://gamesdb.launchbox-app.com/games/details/88182 

Okay, I'll fix that in the next version.

1 hour ago, Z3R0B4NG said:

I asked about 3D boxes a few days back, well, i kept digging...  time to report my findings.

Cool find on the 3D boxes. While I don't care much about them myself, I'm not opposed to adding them in if you'd like to prep a media folder for me to merge in. That's no problem at all. And I'd appreciate it!

1 hour ago, Z3R0B4NG said:

I'm seeing a lot of Euro titles instead of the US names that LBDB uses as primary, like Hero Turtles instead of Ninja Turtles.  
Is that intentional or coincidence?  

It's intentional because I'm going for PAL versions, specifically, from the get-go. PAL is always preferred.

1 hour ago, Z3R0B4NG said:

it isn't always clear what the source of a cracked release is to begin with

There's also this. In some cases games are only PAL-fixed not really PAL per se. There is of course a difference between the compatibility of the game and the actual origin, and I'm not necessarily going to know one way or the other on the latter. The only point between those that actually matters to me is that it works on PAL. It's worth noting that most of the biggest/best cracking groups are from Europe.

All of that said, what's listed in the field in LB is a level of minutia that I honestly just don't care about. If you want to make adjustments to them, feel free. I can tell you that there are only 3 games in the collection that are specifically NTSC - Death Bringer, Donkey Kong (Atari), and Masquerade - if that helps.

[orac31]

wow this is fantastic hope to put it into my launch box build whan i feel brave enougth

[SiriusVI]

23 hours ago, orac31 said:

wow this is fantastic hope to put it into my launch box build whan i feel brave enougth

It's pretty easy. Just make sure you Backup your Data folder so you can always go back to your previous setup if something goes wrong.