Mulitdisk Commodore games?

[deleted user]

What are some of the methods you have used to address games with multiple disks?

[deleted user]

In case someone googles and finds this.

There is a feature in vice called fliplists. There is a header, and a list of paths/images. I've not figured out how to make it portable as of yet, as ../ doesnt work.

exampled of command line to add: -fliplist "Z:\Retrowares\Commodore 64\Ultima\ultima4.vfl

In this example we have a flip list that associates 2 images with one drive, and 2 with another.
filename = ultima4.vfl

# Vice fliplist file

UNIT 8
Z:\Retrowares\Commodore 64\Ultima\ULTIMA4A.D64
Z:\Retrowares\Commodore 64\Ultima\ULTIMA4B.D64
UNIT 9
Z:\Retrowares\Commodore 64\Ultima\ULTIMA4C.D64
Z:\Retrowares\Commodore 64\Ultima\ULTIMA4D.D64

If I work out how to use ../ -vs- the true path and make this portable I will swing back around and post how. If anyone knows how please let us know.

I've created and implemented fliplists for the multi-disk Ultimas, lode runner, mail order monsters, deamonstalkers, and a few programs. This makes it so you just hit alt-n for the next disk -vs- manually doing it from a menu and taking you out of full screen mode.

I'm also planning on making a 'collection' fliplist that would allow someone to just explore a collection like they would have back when. Add fastload cartridge or the wedge so they can pull directories.

[Wally]

or use the RetroArch VICE core and work with standard m3u files

Also my request here would make our life easier 

[Gooster]

If you'd like to be able to specify portable names in the fliplist (i.e. just specify the file names without having to hardcode the entire drive/directory), please vote for this one: https://bitbucket.org/jasondavidcarr/launchbox/issues/6915/emulator-option-to-set-current-directory

[stebella9]

In general those games worked by splitting data between the discs based on where in the game story its needed. A lot of data will be duplicated on each disc, if it's something that is needed wherever you are in the game. For example the models/textures for characters. It's generally things like video and audio for story dialogue that are split between the discs because they are only needed at a specific point in the game. I know that with the Final Fantasy games, pretty much the entire game is on every disc, except for the FMVs. On an actual PS1 you can take out the disc and put the wrong one in while you're playing the game and it will work up to the point it has to play an FMV. There might be some other stuff (maybe some background images) that's not on every disc though, I can't say I have tested every single part of them. The problem is this approach doesn't work for non-linear games. If you have a big game world that's too big to fit on a single disc, you don't want the player to have to switch discs every time they cross some arbitrary point in it. So some Xbox 360 games have an install disc and a play disc. Games don't directly use data from the disc. They load it into RAM first and use it from there. That's why you can switch discs at the appropriate point and the game keeps running. Everything loaded into RAM at that point is still relevant. The game is just coded to expect that it can't read anything from the disc while you're at the switch point.

[cassandra789]

2 hours ago, stebella9 said:

In general those games worked by splitting data between the discs based on where in the game story its needed. A lot of data will be duplicated on each disc, if it's something that is needed wherever you are in the game. For example the models/textures for characters. It's generally things like video and audio for story dialogue that are split between the discs because they are only needed at a specific point in the game. I know that with the Final Fantasy games, pretty much the entire game is on every disc, except for the FMVs. On an actual PS1 you can take out the disc and put the wrong one in while you're playing the game and it will work up to the point it has to play an FMV. There might be some other stuff (maybe some background images) that's not on every disc though, I can't say I have tested every single part of them. The problem is this approach doesn't work for non-linear games. If you have a big game world that's too big to fit on a single disc, you don't want the player to have to switch discs every time they cross some arbitrary point in it. So some Xbox 360 games have an install disc and a play disc. Games don't directly use data from the disc. They load it into RAM first and use it from there. That's why you can switch discs at the appropriate point and the game keeps running. Everything loaded into RAM at that point is still relevant. The game is just coded to expect that it can't read anything from the disc while you're at the switch point.

Hey Stebella. I am really thankful to you for sharing such an informative post. I have been wandering to collect the info on same topic, and here it is. A bundle of thanks.

Edited December 23, 2022 by cassandra789