WHDload C64

[Marcuz]

the following exchange happened previously on IRC (so you'll see what you loose not partecipating to the channel!)

[19:12] marco: i was wondering,
[19:12] marco: right while i was getting out of the shower, earlyer today,
[19:13] marco: if it would be possible to code a whdload program for commodore games
[19:13] StingRay: O_O
[19:13] StingRay: what's that supposed to be?
[19:13] marco: running on amiga, even, who cares, if it would be easier to do
[19:13] marco: listen the idea:
[19:14] marco: you have some amiga libs which are in fact a C64 emulator
[19:14] marco: and whdload points to that as it would on amiga kickstarts or something like that
[19:14] marco: then you write installs that make the program run the c64 stuff without swapping atc
[19:15] marco: magic!
[19:15] marco: mostly because i do not know how it would work
[19:15] marco: but still, if it was possible, it would be a great idea
[19:15] Belgarath ejects marco off into space
[19:15] marco: hahhahahaha
[19:15] Belgarath kicked marco: Belgarath


don't mind Belgarath' kicking me out, it's his way to show appreciation...
seriously, while swapping the worda "stuff" and "something like that" in my technical description above with some more techy one (or ones), these 2 following things would be possible?

1) emulating a virtual HD of some sort, on which the C64 games, could be kind of installed? that would be a scripting problem?

2) rely the emulation on libraries that would be practically the main c64 emulator, and would be this way an invisible layer between amiga and the emulated game?

3) (of sorts) will this cause me being banned?

[Belgarath]

global mod has been PM'd and I've just given you an infraction

It's for your own good you know...I'm only doing this because I care..

:nuts

[Marcuz]

Edison too would have received infractions, if he would have posted on a board !
i'm an unappreciated genius.. :spin

[musashi5150]

:) Ok... I'll humour you.

So you want to run C64 games from icons in WB? How would your C64 WHDLoad system differ from an emulator running a .D64?

[Marcuz]

well that would be like emulate from pc... i thought more of a way to make the emulation not apparent, and mostly to avoid disk swapping or c64 commands for the people like me that don't know any of c64...

[musashi5150]

Ok, I get it. It's kinda neat in a way, but I don't see it happening..... EVER :)

I think it better for you to learn:

LOAD "*",8,1

:great

[Marcuz]

heh, it's ok, it was just an idea :)

btw, what does it mean the ",8,1" part? a mem location?

[cosmicfrog]

sounds fun and nice could you do it for game boy and sega genisis oh and the master system too .... :)

other c64 cmd`s to learn

load"$",8
list

hehehehehhe
lar lar land here wee come agine

[TheCyberDruid]

btw, what does it mean the ",8,1" part? a mem location?

',8' stands for the first floppy drive, so ',9' would be the second.
I however forgot what ',1' means...

[StingRay]

,1 means to load it to the memory address it was saved to instead of the basic start at $0801. As for the rest, WTF? (someone had to do it :D)

[Retro-Nerd]

,1 is needed to load machine code programs like the most games. Without it loads only into the Basic mem area, iirc.

[TheCyberDruid]

Thanks guys :D

[musashi5150]

sounds fun and nice could you do it for game boy and sega genisis oh and the master system too .... :)

Now now cosmic, that's just crazy talk :crazy:D And besides, when is the last time you had a console game on 2 carts? ;)

[gklinger]

1. It's a goofy idea but there is no technical reason why it couldn't be done.
2. I would like some of what marco has been drinking/smoking/applying to his body in the shower.

@TCD

Small clarification. Device #8 does not necessarily denote the first physical IEC (serial) device on the bus. It's just a number.

[TheCyberDruid]

IIRC only the numbers between 8 and 11 could be used for floppy drives. Is that right? I remember other numbers were used for printers and so on.

[vroom6sri]

Would another option be to convert .D64 images into cartridge images (if such a thing is possible) and then run it as a cartridge?

[Marcuz]

2. I would like some of what marco has been drinking/smoking/applying to his body in the shower.

buddy, do praise your heaven that you don't read italian recounts of my dreams (with which i abuse blogs of other people) :cheese

[Marcuz]

IIRC only the numbers between 8 and 11 could be used for floppy drives. Is that right? I remember other numbers were used for printers and so on.
isn't VICE in which you can attach 4 disks all together? would those be 8 9 10 11 ? or would they be attached one at time?

[TheCyberDruid]

Yup, they would be 8 - 11. I don't know if all games are capable of recognising the drives. Maybe VICE has it's own logic for managing them.

[turrican3]

I like the idea marco, i like too when everything is transparent. :great
Perhaps they will think about it when every amiga games will have a slave.
I thougt about the msx but i will have to wait they finish all amiga + c64 games, i will be rip befor it happen.

[cosmicfrog]

yup the c64 can have 4 disk drives 8,9,10 and 11 all @ the same time oh and a tape drive

Is`t this why we have a libs: draw just so we can call the functions as and when we need them.

I think its a crackin idea marco just get the seemless intergration of the c64 done first then we can move on to the Gameboy,Genisis,Snes and nes latter on hahahhahah

just whos gona do it, if i could i would

[r.cade]

well that would be like emulate from pc... i thought more of a way to make the emulation not apparent, and mostly to avoid disk swapping or c64 commands for the people like me that don't know any of c64...


This has existed for some years.

See http://gamebase64.com

[Marcuz]

This has existed for some years.

See http://gamebase64.com

so has Gamebase amiga, along with whdload: one doesn't overlap the other. :)

yet with Gamebase 64, some game needs manuaal swapping...

anyway, i know it's something huge and with a very little use, i just think it's cool, it makes my lazyness feel cozy...

[StingRay]

Would another option be to convert .D64 images into cartridge images (if such a thing is possible) and then run it as a cartridge?

You would still have to patch them (custom loaders etc.).

[Retro-Nerd]

There are already (C64)HD patched multi part/multi disk C64 games, a lot the them runs even directly from a SD/MMC card, in converted DFI images.

I assume this was a lot of hard work. Running C64 games via WHDLoad doesn't make no sense for me.

Get a NES console or something, Marco. :p ;)

[Marcuz]

There are already (C64)HD patched multi part/multi disk C64 games,
really? are they available in Gamebase64? i don't seem to find them... i really would like to play Elvira on C64 :)

[Retro-Nerd]

I meant patched for real C64HD drives or DFI images for the MMCReplay/1541U.

WinVice supports virtual hd emulation, but i never tried if this hd patched games works with it.

[StingRay]

really? are they available in Gamebase64? i don't seem to find them... i really would like to play Elvira on C64 :)

Check CSDB (http://noname.c64.org/csdb/), you should find almost everything C64 related there. :)

[Marcuz]

woah what a great resource StingRay, thank you! :)

[Rixa]

,1 is needed to load machine code programs like the most games. Without it loads only into the Basic mem area, iirc.

The first two bytes of a file tell the location where its to be placed if loaded with ",1". Otherwise the bytes are ignored and the file loaded to $0801 where basic programs start.

But a lot of programs load into $0801 anyway to put in a one-liner of basic that jumps into the actual machine code. This way you can RUN what you just LOADed, and then it doesn't matter whether you loaded it with ",1" or without.

Loading with ",1" is usually a good bet. Sometimes there is trickery like loading programs where they overwrite system vectors and autostart themselves without a RUN command, or things like that.