Homebrew [Release] Vice3DS (C64 Emulator)

[rsx]

Noticing a lot of flicker (gyruss, gumshoe), is there a way to adjust this?

 

[Badda]

Noticing a lot of flicker (gyruss, gumshoe), is there a way to adjust this?

I noticed flickering when trying to run games made specifically for NTSC on a PAL machine and the other way around. You can try to switch machines and see if that gets rid of the flickering. Are you using N3DS or O3DS?

 

[MarioKartFan]

@Badda You know how much I love your emulator. But I noticed something “off” today. When comparing games running in your port of Vice64 to the same games running in the PSP Vice64 port, the frame rate in the PSP port of Vice64 was much more fluid. It almost seemed like the difference between seeing a game run at 30fps be 60fps. Both work great but wondering what would account for the difference.

Wondering if this has to do with running PAL machine rather than NTSC. Switching machine mode to NTSC improves the smoothness but breaks down into hitching after a few minutes on my New 2DS XL.

 

[Deleted User]

Thank you for this.

Have been using this to play Adventure Genre games on my New 3DS XL USA and it works even better than on PC.
The actual Vice 64 Emulator has a poor time with mice and apparently the 3DS is the best place to play these games with this Emulator available.

Much appreciated.

 

[Elwyndas]

Have been using this to play Adventure Genre games on my New 3DS XL USA and it works even better than on PC.

Would you mind sharing some of the titles you are playing?

 

[rsx]

I noticed flickering when trying to run games made specifically for NTSC on a PAL machine and the other way around. You can try to switch machines and see if that gets rid of the flickering. Are you using N3DS or O3DS?

New 3ds xl. Using a usa system.

 

[Badda]

New 3ds xl. Using a usa system.

Did you switch machines (PAL <-> NTSC) and did that help?

 

[rsx]

Did you switch machines (PAL <-> NTSC) and did that help?

Tried it with a few pal and ntsc settings. No luck. There's also the issue of "Press play on tape" making a significant number of games unplayable. Load "The heist" to reproduce this error.

 

[Badda]

Tried it with a few pal and ntsc settings. No luck. There's also the issue of "Press play on tape" making a significant number of games unplayable. Load "The heist" to reproduce this error.

Ok, I would like to reproduce your issue - could you please give me a step-by-step guide? Also on your mentioned "press play on tape" issue ...

 

[rsx]

Ok, I would like to reproduce your issue - could you please give me a step-by-step guide? Also on your mentioned "press play on tape" issue ...

Just go to your built in gamebase database. Find "Heist, The" and load it. It'll give a press play on tape error.

As for the flicker, gamebase and look for "Gumshoe". Load it and walk round, go up and down the stairs.

Gyruss is another one, lot of flicker. These are the few games I've tested.

 

[Badda]

Hm, if I load "The Heist", I get the following screen messages:
"press play on tape", "ok", "searching", "loading ..." and the game starts correctly. Is there anything you do before you start the game with the gamebase64 launcher?
I also checked "Gyruss" - this game is actually an NTSC game, but gamebase64 database states that it is PAL. This kind of error I already found many times in gb64 database The gb64 launcher actually relies on this information to be correct because it switches to the right kind of machine depending on the type of game you want to start. You can, however, work around the issue like this:
- Start the game in gamebase64 launcher
- Open VICE menu and switch to "C64C NTSC" under "Machine Settings"->"Model settings"->"C64 model". This will reset the emulation but the game disk is still in the emulated floppy drive
- Exit vice menu
- Press the 'load"*"...' soft button

This way, you load the game with the NTSC machine. I really wonder how to fix this issue. I could take out the convenience function in gamebase64 launcher that switches to the right machine - but that would "break" other games.
Any ideas on this?

 

[Elwyndas]

I can also load The Heist without problems. Have you tried resetting everything to default?
The PAL/NTSC flicker problem with Gyruss is krass. When you go here:
http://www.gamebase64.com/game.php?id=3370
The game is listed as "PAL(+NTSC?)"
I actually remember playing this game on my PAL system back in the days, and the flickering of the enemy ships seemed normal. Now I play it on NTSC and the flickering is gone. I also checked the REMEMBER crack of the game. It's a German cracker group, and this version also flickers on PAL. These talented guys would have fixed it if they noticed a problem with PAL. I really wish I could test this game now on a real PAL machine, but alas it's across the ocean.
I was only able to test this on Vice3DS and WinVICE.

 

[krak]

Thanks for the GB feature Badda.

There's a guy who's gradually curating a list of, subjectively, decent c64 games, although they are configured to work via a piece of Windows software called Launchbox I wonder if there's an easy way to link the list to the Gamebase db?

Forums launchbox-app com topic 49324-c64-dreams-massive-curated-c64-collection/

 

[Badda]

Thanks for the GB feature Badda.

There's a guy who's gradually curating a list of, subjectively, decent c64 games, although they are configured to work via a piece of Windows software called Launchbox I wonder if there's an easy way to link the list to the Gamebase db?

Forums launchbox-app com topic 49324-c64-dreams-massive-curated-c64-collection/

I checked his collection before making the decision to move to gamebase64. The collection is indeed impressive and well curated, but it aims mainly at Windows PC users. The launch files and optimized input mappings are for PC, there is only one huge .7z-file to download the whole collection and the google spreadsheet where all games are listed is missing a lot of important information. In the end, it was easier to integrate with gamebase64 because they distribute a machine readable database which can be easily integrated with.
If someone would convert the c64-dreams collection into a database that I can integrate with, I would be more than happy to do that. I would need the following fields in the database:
- Game name
- Release year
- Genre
- Publisher
- Cracker
- Language
- Comments (e.g. instructions on how to play/start)
- Link to screenshot image(s)
- Download link (to a zip archive that contains all the game images)
- Game image to start
- Machine Type (PAL or NTSC)
- True Drive Emulation required (yes or no)
- Joystick Port Nr (1 or 2)

I could even think of more data, like vicerc-settings that could be imported before the game is started (this way, you could define the ideal key mappings for a game). The possibilities are endless ...
Building such a database is quite some effort though and it has to be an ongoing effort because the author is planning to continously extend the c64-dreams game list.
Maybe someone is up for the job?

 

[krak]

Hah, no takers even during this quarantine period!

I guess it was too niche of an idea.

I checked his collection before making the decision to move to gamebase64. The collection is indeed impressive and well curated, but it aims mainly at Windows PC users. The launch files and optimized input mappings are for PC, there is only one huge .7z-file to download the whole collection and the google spreadsheet where all games are listed is missing a lot of important information. In the end, it was easier to integrate with gamebase64 because they distribute a machine readable database which can be easily integrated with.
If someone would convert the c64-dreams collection into a database that I can integrate with, I would be more than happy to do that. I would need the following fields in the database:
- Game name
- Release year
- Genre
- Publisher
- Cracker
- Language
- Comments (e.g. instructions on how to play/start)
- Link to screenshot image(s)
- Download link (to a zip archive that contains all the game images)
- Game image to start
- Machine Type (PAL or NTSC)
- True Drive Emulation required (yes or no)
- Joystick Port Nr (1 or 2)

I could even think of more data, like vicerc-settings that could be imported before the game is started (this way, you could define the ideal key mappings for a game). The possibilities are endless ...
Building such a database is quite some effort though and it has to be an ongoing effort because the author is planning to continously extend the c64-dreams game list.
Maybe someone is up for the job?

 

[rvtr]

I seem to be having some trouble running Gamebase64. I download it, and then I get a message saying "Cannot read gamebase64 database." Any suggestions?

 

[Badda]

I seem to be having some trouble running Gamebase64. I download it, and then I get a message saying "Cannot read gamebase64 database." Any suggestions?

Your gamebase64 database file seems to be corrupted - delete file /3ds/vice3DS-C64/default/gb64.db on your SD card and download again. Or if everything fails, just delete the whole /3ds/vice3DS-C64 directory ...

 

[rvtr]

Ok. I've already re-downloaded it, so I'll try replacing the folder.

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Still get an error.

 

[Badda]

Ok. I've already re-downloaded it, so I'll try replacing the folder.

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Still get an error.

could you create an empty file called /3ds/vice3DS-C64/default/vice.log, start vice3DS again and post the errors in this file after trying to open gamebase64?

 

[rvtr]

Alright. I'll try.

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Error - Could not allocate memory for database