Homebrew [Release] Vice3DS (C64 Emulator)

[Badda]

Some more observations:

• The C= key cannot be mapped. It just alternates the keyboard. This is an issue because a lot of games utilize that key for something actionable.
• I would love to abuse the home, start and select button for mapping. Home can't be selected, but start and select can. However this will confuse the hell out of some people. Also, when start is mapped to something that's not start, the rearrangement of soft buttons can't be saved. The select button function can also be found on the top left of the lower screen so this is tolerable, and the start button function to exit the emulator can also be found in the main menu. Is the home button blocked for good or can you release it? I know this totally messes with basic 3DS layout but I'm hoarding every piece of real estate that's available for customization of games, for future mass releases of CIA's . I would probably remap the volume slider if I could, or even the hinge movement. Hell, I would remap my grandmother if this helps usability.
• CTRL removes all letters from the keyboard, so I can't press combos. In Elite you must press CTRL+H for a galactic hyperjump
• New keystrokes like run/stop+restore cannot be defined, and cannot be mapped. Just like in Elite, there are plenty of games where this is desirable. Similar to being able to map pre-defined commands.
• It looks like speed settings are excempt from being included in the snapshot save.
• The little real estate where the version number is bottom left could be mapped to trigger the keyboard hiding. Text can just stay as is.

Will post Elite settings shortly.

Good input, will check how I can easily cater to these requirements in 2.0. By the way, before remapping your grandmother, you might want to think of a way how to utilize the other two input technologies, a 3DS actually has: an Accelerometer and a Gyroscope
One more thing: You can press CTRL-H by pressing CTRL and then the key where 'H' used to be. Will change the keyboard images to make this easier.

 

[Elwyndas]

...before remapping your grandmother, you might want to think of a way how to utilize the other two input technologies, a 3DS actually has: an Accelerometer and a Gyroscope ...

For Summer Games?

 

[Elwyndas]

I'm trying to make the milestone game Thrust work, which can only be controlled by keyboard, but I can't map Shift to buttons. Just like C= and Control, they don't register when trying to assign.

This important game cannot be played right now, as it is. The shift key is causing the thrust, and I don't see any workaround.

I'm going to look into more games like that.

Also, it will be necessary eventually to allow a description of sort to be added to key assignments. For example, in Thrust you want to add "Thrust" and "Fire" next to the key pressed, so when people pull up the help screen (which is awesome btw) see right away which button is causing what (you can ommit the redundant "key" string in order to save screen real estate). This is so important because every game is different. I'm even thinking about allowing to add a custom help doc/screen that includes instructions on how to use a certain game, ideally connected/included in the settings file. This challenge I realize is quite unusual compared to other systems. It's owed to the open design of the C64, where game designers could do anything they want with not just the joystick inputs, but also the keyboard. And while we have a virtual keyboard on the 3DS, it's useless in gaming, for obvious reasons. The convenient assignment of keys to physical buttons, and making it self-explanatory, is crucial on our quest to make your work not just perfect, but even better than that.

 

[Badda]

I'm trying to make the milestone game Thrust work, which can only be controlled by keyboard, but I can't map Shift to buttons. Just like C= and Control, they don't register when trying to assign.

This will be fixed soon.

Also, it will be necessary eventually to allow a description of sort to be added to key assignments. For example, in Thrust you want to add "Thrust" and "Fire" next to the key pressed, so when people pull up the help screen (which is awesome btw) see right away which button is causing what (you can ommit the redundant "key" string in order to save screen real estate). This is so important because every game is different. I'm even thinking about allowing to add a custom help doc/screen that includes instructions on how to use a certain game, ideally connected/included in the settings file. This challenge I realize is quite unusual compared to other systems. It's owed to the open design of the C64, where game designers could do anything they want with not just the joystick inputs, but also the keyboard. And while we have a virtual keyboard on the 3DS, it's useless in gaming, for obvious reasons. The convenient assignment of keys to physical buttons, and making it self-explanatory, is crucial on our quest to make your work not just perfect, but even better than that.

That is actually already on my ToDo list, but I cannot promise for v2.0. Right now (at least for soft buttons), you would have the workaround to create a custom icon: Create a 40x40px PNG image, place it into the "config" folder of the romfs and name it e.g. "ICON_Key_Q.png" for the Q-Key. Anyways, including all the support functionality for directly starting C64 games (which I would consider this to be a part of), only makes sense if you can save your games (e.g. the disc image is writeable) and different simultaneous game installations do not interfere with each other. Right now, the sdl-vicerc on the SD-card always overrides the one in romfs - even if it belongs to a different installation.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Also, when installing it, it takes over the title position of Vice 3DS and overwrites it.

This can be fixed by changing the title ID before you pack the CIA.
Edit title ID with extracted NCCH header and ExHeader (thank you @ihaveamac).
But - as stated before - you have to be careful because right now, if another installation of vice3DS has custom settings stored on the SD card, they will override the settings of all other vice3Ds installations. To fix this, is on the ToDo list as well - not for 2.0 though.

 

[Elwyndas]

I'm working through a long list of games that I remember as being cumbersome to play because of the keyboard being involved.
One of the worst examples is Gateway to Aphsai. It requires constantly accessing the keyboard. This otherwise great game is borderline unplayable because of this.
For example, you need to press F5 repeatedly for actions like search, find traps etc, then press fire to activate it, and then press F7 to return to fight mode.
I can already greatly improve this by assigning F5 and F7 to X and Y buttons, but ideally I would like to utilize a pre-defined sequence of actions. Very much like the pre-set list of BASIC commands you already have, but more like along the line of a Macro. Perhaps the commands function can simply be opened to store key strokes like Function keys, and the fire button. Right now they would not register because they don't produce a character.
In addition, this new macro system would allow to execute simultaneous inputs, for example Joystick down and fire pressed at the same time. All of a sudden you could drop a bomb in Blue Max without going kamikaze.
When this is achieved, and I can also assign commands to buttons, I will create the first truly playable installment of Gateway to Apshai.

 

[Badda]

Here comes v2.0. Changes to RC3 are:

• enhancement: configurable key combos
• optimization: smooth scrolling scroll bar in menu, file and imgfile dialog
• optimization: speed reducion/speedup ranges in slider adjusted
• optimzation: passing end/beginning in file/imgfile dialog wraps the cursor to beginning/end
• bugfix: fixed crash when closing the 3ds lid, home button works now
• multiple other small enhancements, optimizations and bug fixes

https://github.com/badda71/vice3ds/releases

OP will be updated soon ...

Have fun!

 

[Elwyndas]

This is great. I'm going to report back with some small issues, but two actions I have identified that cause a total system crash:

- switching back between full screen and "regular" multiple times causes a freeze. Rosalina can still be activated. I believe this was already identified as a bug before. It doesn't happen on the first attempt, only after switching back to regular a 2nd time.

- similar thing happens when you try to "Restore default settings" more than once. You can restore once, but the second time it will cause an ARM11 exception.

 

[Muxi]

I also can't save settings in v2.0 anymore because the custom settings are reset after each restart (even if the 3ds/vice3ds folder has been deleted before).

 

[Badda]

I also can't save settings in v2.0 anymore because the custom settings are reset after each restart (even if the 3ds/vice3ds folder has been deleted before).

Hm, I don't understand. If the folder 3ds/vice3ds is not there, the default settings are applied anyways. What error message are you getting when trying to save the settings? Is a sdl-vicerc file created in folder /3ds/vice3ds/config?

 

[Muxi]

I don't get an error message. Everything is output correctly - only if I restart Vice3DS afterwards, all settings are reset (with or without deleting the 3ds/vice3ds folder).

Is a sdl-vicerc file created in folder /3ds/vice3ds/config?

Yes, this file is there.

Edit:
The quickest way to test this is to deactivate the help button and save it in the settings. After a restart the button is back. The same is also true for other things, like the assignment of the soft buttons. (Tested on 3 different consoles)

 

[Badda]

Ok, I published a quick bugfix release v2.0.1. These bugs are fixed:

• Crash when switching to fullscreen multiple times
• Crash when restoring default settings multiple times
• sdl-vicerc on SD card does not override the default settings

https://github.com/badda71/vice3ds/releases

 

[Elwyndas]

Not sure what went wrong, but the crashing bugs I reported are still present.

 

[urherenow]

OMG! This (EDIT: *this* == the C128 version... wish there was an easy way to move this to the proper thread) plays my file perfectly! Attach the disk image and:

LOAD"A. BOOT",8
RUN

And remember, I was pretty young when I did this

It's not even compiled, so you can see all of the code, and also see how easy it is to program music in BASIC for the 128. The gibberish at the beginning (of the music code... not the mouse thing) is just to set up the sound/voices. You also have to keep in mind that I transposed this directly from sheet music, so I had to do the best I could, using only 3 voices. I don't know the voodoo real programmers used to take control over the system beep, to gain a 4th...

@Badda you really are my hero

 

[Elwyndas]

I'm testing the new key combo feature.
It works, and I can assign the combo to a button (by pressing R while hovering over the entry in the menu), but it appears that the combo is being executed indefinetely. For example I want the combo joystick down + fire in Blue Max, to drop bombs, but it keeps on going down and pressing fire.
By default it should only be executed once. As an additional option you could add a way to keep it pressed for a certain amount of time.

Workaround: I assign RESTORE to D-PAD down, and RUN-STOP to the B button, and then assign Y to the existing RUN/STOP-RESTORE soft button. Voila! Dropping bombs now only takes a minimum of decrease in altitude. However, the machine gun stops working if the B button is being pressed (or auto fire - doesn't matter.) You need to released that button, and press again, to make use of the machine gun. I'm not exactly sure why this is.

The ideal custom solution would look like this: I can create a key combo that triggers [Joystick down + fire for just a split second] then [releases] that right away, and it's being followed by [Joystick up] in the same key combo, to counter the idiotic (unrealistic) drop in altitude. So not just simultaneous combos, but sequential. I know this sounds weird, but I have messed with Blue Max a lot now and if we can get this done it will become an amazing arcade game - as it should have always been. This feature will also benefit other games.

Basically the idea is that the C64 emulator on the Nintendo 3DS can make games shine the way they were intended to be, and only because of terrible hardware limitations (like no second joystick button, or having to execute weird kamikaze moves, or accessing the keyboard while using the joystick - ugh) weren't able to back in the day. I'm revisiting countless C64 games now, and everything that was annoying me back then can now be fixed, without cracking games. It feels like a robotic engine that messes with the original hardware. A 2nd layer, but it maintains the original thing.

Emulation 2.0?

 

[Elwyndas]

I would like to propose a couple of changes to the default controller settings.

The underlying reasoning is this: Obviously, the 3DS is not a device where you can actually have two people playing simultaneously. This is a crucial difference to the device we are emulating. It's a flaw, but on the other hand we gain so much.

The only way to pull off two (or more) people playing simultaneously is through Rosalina input redirect, utilizing a 2nd controller on Windows. You could even stream the screen action to Windows, but this is a bizarre scenario. If you want to play, let's say M.U.L.E. with 2+ people, the 3DS is for sure the last gadget choice you would consider. You would just launch VICE on Windows and be done with this. And hell, you could even use the 3DS as a controller on Windows!

I certainly have never found myself in the position where I wanted to use both joy ports simultaneously on the 3DS. Anyone? However, it has caused a great deal of confusion that there ARE two live joysticks by default, and having to re-configure them.

In other words, there is almost no scenario where two live ports are needed. Of course for the rare case where you want it, you should keep the option as a possibility (basically the way it is now).

Suggested changes:

• When swapping joystick ports (soft button, or in settings) you actually don't swap anything, and instead you activate as live joystick port either joy1 or joy2. Whatever input is assigned to the "ruling" joystick, will come live. It might be necessary to create a new default entry in the menu, "Settings of live joystick".
• The other port is disabled then. This will remove the annoying issue of joy1 interferring with keyboard inputs for good. If you really want both joy ports live for some reason, you need to change it in settings.
• As a result of this, we free up a couple of hardware buttons. There is only one fire button (A) for both joy1 and joy2. Furthermore, there is only one auto fire button (right shoulder). In an ideal future scenario (a GUI that has pre-defined settings for each game) you don't even think about this, because the game launches with the ideal settings, incluing correct joy port.
• The real issue, what a user wants to mess with ALL the time, is switching between the directional pads (C-Pad / D-Pad). Sometimes this feels better, sometimes the other. By default, D-Pad should remain as active because it feels most like a C64 joystick. The other pad should be activated by a different NEW soft button.
• (A) becomes the fire button, no matter which joy port is being used.
• (X) becomes (UP) for Joystick port 1 and 2. UP is the desperate attempt of the C64 to make "up" for the pathetic lack of a 2nd controller button (JUMP). I have tried it and it works well.
• Auto-Fire is fixated to the (R) shoulder button. There is no need anymore to waste precious real estate on the (never used!) auto fire button from the other port.
• The main two directional pads/joysticks on the left side will have an active joystick assigned to one of them, while the other one should be re-assigned to non-joystick default keyboard functions (like [Y]es or [N]o, or just be empty and available for re-programming. If you switch active joystick assignments, those other assigments would switch as well.
• The C-Stick (only available on N3DS) should definitely stay the way it is, as cursor input.

As a result, we would free three hardware buttons (B, Y and ZR) in exchange for one additional soft button. In addition, the non-joystick directional pad on the left side can be utilized with four inputs, and all this can be swapped between the two locations. I call that a win, especially since this is increasing user friendliness. The free buttons should be assigned to something by default. Space (B) comes to mind. Return (Y) could be another one. Run/Stop (ZR) because it's so commonly used. There is also the issue of tons of cracker intros forcing you to go through a dialogue where you have to say yes or no to various cheat options. This is a particular issue with all the cracks done by the German group "Remember". Their versions are always first choice. Fantastic creations, but they did not think about the limitations of the Nintendo 3DS (LOL).

 

[Badda]

I would like to propose a couple of changes to the default controller settings.

The underlying reasoning is this: Obviously, the 3DS is not a device where you can actually have two people playing simultaneously. This is a crucial difference to the device we are emulating. It's a flaw, but on the other hand we gain so much.

The only way to pull off two (or more) people playing simultaneously is through Rosalina input redirect, utilizing a 2nd controller on Windows. You could even stream the screen action to Windows, but this is a bizarre scenario. If you want to play, let's say M.U.L.E. with 2+ people, the 3DS is for sure the last gadget choice you would consider. You would just launch VICE on Windows and be done with this. And hell, you could even use the 3DS as a controller on Windows!

I certainly have never found myself in the position where I wanted to use both joy ports simultaneously on the 3DS. Anyone? However, it has caused a great deal of confusion that there ARE two live joysticks by default, and having to re-configure them.

In other words, there is almost no scenario where two live ports are needed. Of course for the rare case where you want it, you should keep the option as a possibility (basically the way it is now).

Suggested changes:

• When swapping joystick ports (soft button, or in settings) you actually don't swap anything, and instead you activate as live joystick port either joy1 or joy2. Whatever input is assigned to the "ruling" joystick, will come live. It might be necessary to create a new default entry in the menu, "Settings of live joystick".
• The other port is disabled then. This will remove the annoying issue of joy1 interferring with keyboard inputs for good. If you really want both joy ports live for some reason, you need to change it in settings.
• As a result of this, we free up a couple of hardware buttons. There is only one fire button (A) for both joy1 and joy2. Furthermore, there is only one auto fire button (right shoulder). In an ideal future scenario (a GUI that has pre-defined settings for each game) you don't even think about this, because the game launches with the ideal settings, incluing correct joy port.
• The real issue, what a user wants to mess with ALL the time, is switching between the directional pads (C-Pad / D-Pad). Sometimes this feels better, sometimes the other. By default, D-Pad should remain as active because it feels most like a C64 joystick. The other pad should be activated by a different NEW soft button.
• (A) becomes the fire button, no matter which joy port is being used.
• (X) becomes (UP) for Joystick port 1 and 2. UP is the desperate attempt of the C64 to make "up" for the pathetic lack of a 2nd controller button (JUMP). I have tried it and it works well.
• Auto-Fire is fixated to the (R) shoulder button. There is no need anymore to waste precious real estate on the (never used!) auto fire button from the other port.
• The main two directional pads/joysticks on the left side will have an active joystick assigned to one of them, while the other one should be re-assigned to non-joystick default keyboard functions (like [Y]es or [N]o, or just be empty and available for re-programming. If you switch active joystick assignments, those other assigments would switch as well.
• The C-Stick (only available on N3DS) should definitely stay the way it is, as cursor input.

As a result, we would free three hardware buttons (B, Y and ZR) in exchange for one additional soft button. In addition, the non-joystick directional pad on the left side can be utilized with four inputs, and all this can be swapped between the two locations. I call that a win, especially since this is increasing user friendliness. The free buttons should be assigned to something by default. Space (B) comes to mind. Return (Y) could be another one. Run/Stop (ZR) because it's so commonly used. There is also the issue of tons of cracker intros forcing you to go through a dialogue where you have to say yes or no to various cheat options. This is a particular issue with all the cracks done by the German group "Remember". Their versions are always first choice. Fantastic creations, but they did not think about the limitations of the Nintendo 3DS (LOL).

Sounds great, but I believe this should be a part of a fan-project to create the ideal sdl-vicerc configuration :-)
The nice thing about vice3DS is, that everybody can configure the keys the way they want it.
However, next version will contain some changes that will make it easier to customize stuff and to build "own" C64 games for the 3DS.

 

[Badda]

Here comes v2.1. Changes to v2.0.1 are:

• enhancement: Online-Updater (slow but works)
  
• enhancement: Key mappings now support multiple target keys, key combos are obsolete & removed
• enhancement: "Settings management" menu - added option to hide menu button on bottom screen
• enhancements for building custom vice3ds games:
  • if file romfs:/prefix.txt exists, changes default directory on SD card to /3ds/vice3DS-C64/<contents of file>
  • added "ChgRootDirectory" resource to change root of file selection dialog
  • added "AutostartImage" resource to specify exact location of autostart image
  • at startup, all files in directory romfs:/autocopy will be copied to default dir without overwriting existing files
  • Custom help texts for keys (configurable in in menu "Help")
• some other small enhancements, optimizations and bug fixes

https://github.com/badda71/vice3ds/releases

Will post another step-by-step guide on how to create custom C64 games for the 3DS soon ...

Have fun!

 

[urherenow]

Well, that’s a curious notion. To make C64 games, you simply type out the code, and save it to a blank disk image. Easiest to do in WinVice, and vice3ds will happily mount, load, and run said image. ‍

 

[Elwyndas]

Well, that’s a curious notion. To make C64 games, you simply type out the code, and save it to a blank disk image. Easiest to do in WinVice, and vice3ds will happily mount, load, and run said image. ‍

Very funny
What Badda is referring to is customization of inputs for existing games, so they can be played on the 3DS. As I have shown in this thread, the main challenge of emulating C64 games on a portable device is that any game that requires more than a joystick controller is going to be cumbersome, and actually rendering many games unplayable.

It definitely requires convenient mapping of key strokes to hardware buttons on the 3DS (or smart phones, or Sony Vita, but these all lack the second screen, so I don't care much about those platforms).

The beauty of this challenge is that, once solved, many C64 games will be improved because of the additional human digits (keyboard inputs re-assigned to 3DS buttons). I already have proof of concept for major classics like Ultima IV, Elite, Head over Heels, and Gateway to Aphsai. Some titles become playable for the first time, thanks to Badda's work.

Kudos to Badda for implementing all this.

 

[Badda]

Here is a new step-by-step approach how to create custom C64 games for the Nintendo 3DS using vice3DS.

Tools needed
You need the following tools avaiable in your $PATH:

• ctrtool & makerom (https://github.com/jakcron/Project_CTR/releases)
• bannertool (https://github.com/Steveice10/bannertool/releases)
• 3dstool (https://github.com/dnasdw/3dstool/releases)

Apart from this, a hex-editor is needed (e.g. HxD for Windows, Hex Fiend for Mac or Bless for Linux)

Preparations

• files needed:
  • original vice3DS-C64.cia file
  • the game D64, T64, VSF or CRT file(s)
  • a new icon image (48x48px PNG-file, filename icon.png)
  • optionally, files for a new banner (256x128px PNG-file & WAV-audio max 3 seconds, filenames banner.png & banner.wav)
  • optionally, a customized vice3DS settings file (sdl-vicerc)
• info needed
  • Product Code (CTR-P-V*** - * can be any uppercase character)
  • Unique ID (any 24-bit hex number between 000300 and 0F7FFF)
  • Short Name (e.g. "vice3DS-C64")
  • Long Name (e.g. "vice3DS-C64 - Vice C64 emulator for Nintendo 3DS")
  • Publisher (e.g. "badda71 <[email protected]>"

Put the vice3DS-C64.cia, all icon and banner files in a temporary directory, open a shell and cd to this temporary directory.

Unpack CIA
execute the following commands

ctrtool --contents=contents vice3DS-C64.cia
mv contents.0000.* contents0.bin
ctrtool --exheader=ExHeader.bin --exefsdir=ExtractedExeFS --romfsdir=ExtractedRomFS --logo=LogoLZ.bin --plainrgn=PlainRGN.bin contents0.bin --exefs=ExeFS.bin --romfs=RomFS.bin
mv ExtractedExeFS/banner.bin ExtractedExeFS/banner.bnr
mv ExtractedExeFS/icon.bin ExtractedExeFS/icon.icn
mv ExtractedExeFS/logo.bin ExtractedExeFS/logo.darc.lz
3dstool -xvtf cxi contents0.bin --header HeaderNCCH0.bin
3dstool -xvtf exefs ExeFS.bin --header HeaderExeFS.bin

Change UID and Product Code
Use a hex editor to insert the new Product Code and Unique ID at the following locations

• Product Code:
  • set in file HeaderNCCH0.bin at offset 0x150
• Unique ID - insert the bytes in reverse order (e.g. FF 7F 0F for 0F7FFF)
  • set in file HeaderNCCH0.bin at offset 0x109 and 0x119
  • set in file ExHeader.bin at offset 0x1C9, 0x201 and 0x601

Insert custom icon (recommended)
execute the following command, replace the angle brackets with the respective information

bannertool makesmdh -s "<Short Name>" -l "<Long Name>" -p "<Publisher>" -i icon.png -o ExtractedExeFS/icon.icn

Insert custom banner (optional)
execute the following command

bannertool makebanner -i banner.png -a banner.wav -o ExtractedExeFS/banner.bnr

Include game / configure autostart

• create file ExtractedRomFS/prefix.txt, contents should be the Unique ID (no other characters like space or newline)
• put all game files in new directory ExtractedRomFS/autocopy/game
• (optional) copy custom sdl-vicerc into directory ExtractedRomFS/config
• add the following lines to file ExtractedRomFS/config/sdl-vicerc (replace angle brackets with the respective information)

ChgRootDirectory="/3ds/vice3DS-C64/<Unique ID>/game"
AutostartImage="/3ds/vice3DS-C64/<Unique ID>/game/<game file>"

• (optional) apply other romfs customizations, like custom icons in ExtractedRomFS/config or custom background.png

Repack CIA
execute the following commands

3dstool -cvtfz exefs CustomExeFS.bin --header HeaderExeFS.bin --exefs-dir ExtractedExeFS
3dstool -cvtf romfs CustomRomFS.bin --romfs-dir ExtractedRomFS
3dstool -cvtf cxi CustomPartition0.bin --header HeaderNCCH0.bin --exh ExHeader.bin --exh-auto-key --exefs CustomExeFS.bin --exefs-auto-key --exefs-top-auto-key --romfs CustomRomFS.bin --romfs-auto-key --logo LogoLZ.bin --plain PlainRGN.bin
makerom -target t -rand -ignoresign -f cia -content CustomPartition0.bin:0:0x00 -o CustomVice3DS-C64.cia

The new CIA is called "CustomVice3DS-C64.cia", all the other files can now be deleted.