C64 - Frodo games compatibility

[frolik]

I've been painstakingly going through my favourite c64 games and checking if each of them work in Frodo.

I have constructed a list of folders named after the publisher (thalamus, system3, ocean, us gold etc.) And all the disks inside will have been checked working and I have appended a "1541" to the end of the filename if it requires 1541 drive emulation enabled...

So my question is, can I distribute it as a zip so that others can benefit from the work I've done? I notice Atari ST disk images are deemed "acceptable" here and C64 download sites are ten a penny....

cheers

frolik.

 

[CeNTauR2]

Hi frolik,

I think it shouldn't be a big problem. C64 games are widely available,
and I don't think any publisher will suffer any loss from the distribution
of these.

I would love to see your work.

Sebastian

 

[Magic Knight]

geezer, i'm up for this - but there is a standard, the highest on the internet for retro...

you need to check stuff with the gamebase 64 collection. these are the ultimate versions of all c=64 games, over 15,000 analysed and scrutinised - better than mame.... you should check stuff against these versions first - and then - 'downgrade' with stuff from arnold or elsewhere....

that is the way to go. random stuff from versions you have downloaded from 'somewhere' are untraceable/too difficult to get even/i dont think much of these c=64 compatible lists so far......

 

[Bohica]

Frolik - all I can say is thank you very much. Can't wait to get my mitts on it.

 

[papapopalung]

yeah... a 'C64 - best of for gp32 frodo' zip file is a good idea...


do you include ghostbusters on there?

...you'd have to host it on your own site though, probably... (i can't see it being hosted here...)

 

[frolik]

can a mod let me know if this is ok - don't want to get kicked off for posting the address to board members. I can provide ftp access for those that are interested but probably won't make it public.

magic night - I've not used gamebase before, have just had a look and not really sure what benefit it will be - they don't host any files. I have an enormous collection of d64/t64/prg files and am using these, different versions of a game are usually just from different crack groups

see if I can find a good ver of ghostbusters now...

 

[Dozer]

if its not so big u could put it on emule then hav a site with emule links. ud b allowed to post that address here i think

 

[Ringo]

(This may be a bit of topic, but it does address the legality of c64-games)

I just bought a CD with 3000 c64 games, at a local bookstore. It was priced at about 5£ and seems legit and all.
The make a point out of saying (qoute): "Full games are Included with permission from the original authors or publishers. No publisher listed is associated with this title. No claims to ownership are made. All trademarks are acknowledged."

I'm not sure, but this may meen that a number of c64 releases are released by their copyrightholders, and thereby legit to download and use. This may very well be, since a great number of releases for the Amiga are legally downloadable at "Back To the Roots"...

anyway here is a link to a picture of what I bought:

link

 

[LeeT]

Basically that CD is illegal to sell - A number of this type of CD were sold in certain shops such as HMV about five/six years ago, usually called something like 'C64 Classics' or 'Speccy 99' and they would try and cover themselves by saying that the games were old and in the public domain. Plus a lot of the C64 games are bad cracks/ incompatible with either CCS64 or Vice.

Now that GameBase64 has been released, there is only one collection to go for!


As for Frolik, can you pm me with the details?....

 

[frolik]

I've had a bit of a breakthrough with the games that don't load in frodo :rolleyes:

Using CCS64 and a dump of an action replay rom, I can load up a game and freeze it then drop a savestate to a virtual disk. There are 3 options, standard doesn't seem to work, turbo does, and warp*25 only works if you have an action replay installed. Once you transfer this disk to your smc, select the filename you saved to using the dir browser.

So far I've saved a state of Creatures 2 and it works fine when loaded up in Frodo, only I haven't checked that using the original disk to load the next level works yet.

Has anyone else tried this? What were the results?

 

[frolik]

Well I've just tested playing Turrican 1 - OMG what a game! and it was only meant to test if levels loaded ok but I got up to level 3-2 and was sooooooo gutted when my batteries died, I reckon I coulda completed the lot!!

So anyway, it seems to work - if anyone has any games they can't get running on frodo, let me know what they are and I'll see if I can get it working

 

[Magic Knight]

frolik mail me your address and i'll send you the gamebase cds... you will change your mind matey.. you can set it up on the pc to test stuff via frodo pc (as in, the pc version)... this is handy and saves a lot of time, if it works on gamebase/frodo then it has a good chance on the gp.... doesn't always work out and maybe it should ? but from there.. with gamebase as completely definitive, you can then start messing about with 'version xyz' from some other collection, be it the original disk, or a hack from whoever... know what i mean ? i do think it's better to build from the best, it will save soooo much time, there are over 15,000 c=64 games and maybe 10 versions of some of them.....

creatures with the save states is interesting, i havent tried it. this sounds like it could be good for single file games which dont work on the gp. worth considering.

and that emulators cd is still in hmv, it's been there for years. they are full of shit proclaiming that stuff is out of copyright as a lot of the authors and musicians have signed copyright deals for their work then right now... good case would be Rare who were previously Ultimate Play The Game, total quality - i'm not aware they've given up their rights... musos certainly not..

 

[Bohica]

good case would be Rare who were previously Ultimate Play The Game, total quality - i'm not aware they've given up their rights... musos certainly not..

Rare have denied permission to distribute any of the old Ultimate titles. Unsurprising, as several of their old 8-bit brands are making a comeback.

M.

 

[frolik]

Cheers for the offer magicknight, I've pm'd you and had no response yet...

Can I assume that there's not many c64 lovers left these days, SNES seems to have nicked all the attention! :angry:

Well anyway, I've had some good results with saving back games that don't load in frodo :rolleyes: ; here's what I have got working (that weren't before)

Summer Camp
Winter Camp
Creatures 2
Turrican
Retrograde
Nobby

And here's the ones that I still can't get going (yet?!)

Creatures (damn I wanna play this)
Catalypse
Mayhem in Monsterland

frolik

ps. I got a working ver of Ghostbusters... good game!

 

[Sdw]

This seems nice, I have problems running many of my old favorite games. Most of the times it seems to be the cracker intro that causes the game not to work, so by using the "right" version I think many games would run.

I also think it would be nice to find as many non-multi-load games as possible in .T64 (tape) format. This way they will not take up as much space on the SMC. With the D64 format the file size is always a full disk (170k) for each game, even if the game itself is no more than 30k or so!

 

[Axeman]

Unfortunately, it is still shakey legal ground here, and it's something that we're keeping our noses clean concerning. I would have to say then, that it's better for you not to post it here. Why not just make a list instead. C64 games are so easy to get hold of and so small, that a list makes as much sense as zipping them up for people to download.

Sorry!

Mr. Mod.

 

[frolik]

No worries, didn't want to get flamed so was trying to be polite!!

the problem with making a list is that there are many versions of each game and various ones do not work - it's not easy to differentiate versions, like a 'remember' crack of turrican... you just can't pick and choose when you're downloading..

well I'm sorted, at last I don't have the frustration of wasting time with games that don't work...

Anyways, here's a few hints for the Frodo-friendly among us:

if prompted for fast loader, always choose no or disable it

many of the more recent games require 1541 cpu emulation as the loaders are more complex, if a game stops dead when it should be loading, try this

if a game does not load by choosing "start first program" you should use the dir browser and choose the letter corresponding to the game file, the "first program" is not always the game file

if the fire buttons don't respond on a game title screen - you're stuffed - happens on a few games (turrican/mayhem in monsterland)

don't try to load games using frameskip and/or disabling limit speed - it will often bug out

 

[digestivedunker]

Just a follow up to this thread.

I have spent the best part of this weekend getting a collection of images of the top 50 games of all time as nominated by the 80's/90's C64 mag, Zzap!64. Check out the following link for further info;

The Burrow

Here is a list of those titles from the above that I have managed to get working with Frodo on the GP32;

1. Paradroid
2. Wizball
3. Elite
4. Impossible Mission
5. The Sentinel
6. International Karate
7. Mercenary
8. Head Over Heels
9. Boulderdash
10. Thrust
11. Great Giana Sisters
12. Dropzone
13. The Last Ninja
14. Bubble Bobble
15. Uridium
16. Ghosts 'n' Goblins
17. Archon
20. Bruce Lee
21. World Games
22. Maniac Mansion
24. Laser Squad
25. Last Ninja 2
26. Tetris
27. Turrican 2
28. Krakout
29. Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders
30. Zenji
31. Montezuma's Revenge
32. F19: Project Stealth Fighter
33. Hunter's Moon
34. Leaderboard
35. Armalyte
36. Buggy Boy
40. Spindizzy
41. California Games
42. Gribbly's Day Out
44. MULE
45. Skool Daze
46. Psi-5 Trading Company
47. Toy Bizarre
48. HERO
49. Kickstart II
50. Winter Games

Those not working are as follows;

18. Defender of the Crown
19. Pirates!
23. Bard's Tale Trilogy
37. Creatures
38. Creatures 2
39. Space Taxi
43. Mayhem in Monsterland

If anybody does know of working images of the those titles that I have been unsuccessful in getting to run under Frodo, please let me know.

The compressed file size of the working images is just under 3Mb's, so if anybody wishes to get hold them, drop me an email.



dd

 

[Magic Knight]

hey frolik, no address email showed here ? wanna try again ?

guys.. gotta get this versions thing sorted..

 

[dreamwarbird]

Does anyone have this zip file?

Cheers