Atari ST game collections, menu disks and C64 emulators

[Bloodwych]

I've been setting up a Retro laptop to take around friends houses and play some classics. A few questions have popped up as I haven't downloaded emulators in years (apart from MAME and WinUAE). zSNES and Fusion seem decent for the SNES and Megadrive, but a few seem to be lacking for other formats.

I've noticed the Atari ST seems to have all its games on menu disks, so you have to refer to a library to show what's on each disk to find a game. Or do ST emulators have libraries built in?

Are there game collections for the ST that are on seperate disk images like they are for the Amiga? Or a good frontend for choosing games?

Also noticed C-64 emulators for the PC are a little basic. CC64 and WinVICE can't even load ZIP images, well WinVICE can when you add unzip to the directory but it doesn't always seem to work. Are there any up to date emulators for the good old C-64?

Thanks guys!

[Retro-Nerd]

WinVice and Micro64 are up to date emulators, more than that. Maybe they don't support zipped games directly, but of course via frontends like Gamebase.

[Bloodwych]

Gamebase - forgot all about that. The built in GUI's seem basic and it seems strange not having ZIP support out of the box, so it looks like I need frontends then.

[s2325]

Many Atari ST single disk game packs are on http://thegamearchives.com/

[Bloodwych]

a2325, nice link. So the ST does have separate disk images for games available. All I've ever had from the past are the menu disks.

Looks like I'll have to get some frontends setup also and screenshot packs.

[Retro-Nerd]

Grab the Gamebase 64 v9 Collection via torrent. Thousands of games, preconfigured with screenshots, SIDs etc.

[Bloodwych]

Will do Retro-Nerd, thanks for the advice.

[Kitty]

Bloodwych WinVice is awesome imo, I didn't know about the zip thing though, although tbh how much bigger is the file unzipped eh, cmon

CCS64 is a very good/accurate c64 emulator too.

The multi-pack games for ST are by DBug and Automation if I recall, I have single games too though, they are about you just need to google harder

For Snes I use SnesX9 and the great Zsnes and for Megadrive I use Kega Fusion.

Btw WinVice has nightly build updates here http://vice.pokefinder.org/

Micro64 I didn't get on with, didn't like it.

[Retro-Nerd]

CCS64 is really outdated, especially the SID emulation and video rendering. Vice and Micro64 are the best atm, and maybe Hoxs64 (not that many extra options, but a great compatibility.) CCS64 is good for slower PCs. If want accuracy you should use the others, though you need a modern PC for them. Not a 5-6 years old machine.

[s2325]

I'm using WinVice on Thinkpad 233MHz without any problems.

[Retro-Nerd]

Probably a really outdated Vice version i assume.

[s2325]

I don't remember which version.

[Bloodwych]

Thanks for the suggestions Kitty. Yeah, it's not about space more that I was lazy and used to zipped roms just loading straight up in EMUs these days. Took it for granted I guess.

Can't wait to go around a few friends houses with the laptop and USB pads and joysticks. Some of them haven't played old school games since they were 16. Should be a good trip down memory lane for them.

[Retro-Nerd]

You can't run WinVice 2.4.1 properly on a 233MHz Thinkpad. If you mean the WinVice 1.21 version from Planetemu. This version is from 2007 and really pointless now.

For Snes emulation: Higan (formerly known as bsnes). Needs a really fast PC, but the accuracy and compatibility is pretty much 100%. ZSNES works with speed hacks, SNES9x is outdated too. Both are plagued with sound and graphic issues, sometime speed problems.

[BarryB]

I've got the LGD (Little Green Desktop) CD1 which had most if not all of the Atari ST Automation/Pompey/FOF/Medway compact disks on it. The disks are all zipped but STEEM can load them zipped anyway!

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by Retro-Nerd

CCS64 is really outdated, especially the SID emulation and video rendering. Vice and Micro64 are the best atm, and maybe Hoxs64 (not that many extra options, but a great compatibility.) CCS64 is good for slower PCs. If want accuracy you should use the others, though you need a modern PC for them. Not a 5-6 years old machine.

Really? A modern machine to run a C64 emulator?????

[Retro-Nerd]

Yep, the reSID emulation with different authentic filters is a real CPU sucker. And there's a second exe now, called x64sc. Which needs even more power since it's more accurate in any way.

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by Retro-Nerd

Yep, the reSID emulation with different authentic filters is a real CPU sucker. And there's a second exe now, called x64sc. Which needs even more power since it's more accurate in any way.

Haha, thats just crazy. I know the little breadbox was a cool little machine back in the 80's, but that just blows my mind that a PC needs to be so powerful to emulate it properly!

[Retro-Nerd]

It's all about accuracy these days. No more compromise since we have the PC CPU power now. Cycle accurate CPU, cycle based & pixel-accurate VIC-II emulation, authentic SID sound (muuuch better than years ago) graphic filter/pixel shader etc.

[Avanze]

For Snes emulation one could try SnesGT 0.218b7, which was the last version released. Very accurate and fast, probably slightly ahead of Snes9X in that department, and has by far, the best Satellaview emulation of the pack. If that is of interest.