Commodore 64 Thread

[chip]

What is .D81 ?

And .G64 ?

[Retro-Nerd]

d81 = 3,5" disk image for the 1581 drive

g64 is a 1:1 copy from an original game with everything intact.

[chip]

Hey, thanks !

Just the last one: .D71 ?

[DamienD]

What do you think chip?

It's disk images for the 1571 drive...

[Devo]

The VICE x64 core for RetroArch is great! Now that I got flipfiles figured out and everything is automatically configured for DS4/Xbox controllers C64 emulation with disk swapping and proper joystick/keyboard support is now actually feasible without massive headaches. I use a Logitech bluetooth K810 KB for emulating the C64's old ugly noisy twangy KB Only wish disk speeds were faster but Warp can handle that... most of the time. Ideally I'd like to configure JiffyDOS with VICE x64 but I doubt it can be done. One issue though is that the VICE x128 core is buggy and can't be used to launch command lines needed for flipfiles. So, no Ultima 5 with the music on C128. But other than these issues the VICE x64 libretro core is turning out to be a near perfect C64 emulation experience for me. Cheers.

[Retro-Nerd]

The Vice Core works pretty good. But lacks a lot of features from the standalone version. Mostly i miss the fast floppy load via virtual device traps. At the moment only "True Drive" emualation works (original loading times). But i avoid this via EasyFlash game versions/ game compilatations. I asked for external color palettes a few month ago. I'm glad that they've implemented it.

[Devo]

Originally Posted by Retro-Nerd

The Vice Core works pretty good. But lacks a lot of features from the standalone version. Mostly i miss the fast floppy load via virtual device traps. At the moment only "True Drive" emualation works (original loading times). But i avoid this via EasyFlash game versions/ game compilatations. I asked for external color palettes a few month ago. I'm glad that they've implemented it.

Hello there, Retro Nerd. Speaking of external color palettes for VICE x64, is there anything that's truly comparable to the Sony NTSC pepto palette for PAL? That's one other thing I'm not crazy about in c64 emulation - the PAL color palette looks very dull and washed out compared to Sony NTSC. However, I've had success with using the Sony palette for PAL in RetroArch which improves the color saturation A LOT but it's still not as bright and color-vibrant as the Sony palette in NTSC. Reds aren't really reds in PAL but kind of a bright reddish-brown. If I could just get PAL working with the same color saturation as Sony NTSC this would be the prefect C64 emulation experience for my needs.


Also, though both PAL and NTSC are in the same aspect ratio on my config, PAL seems slightly stretched from side to side. Is this normal?

[Retro-Nerd]

The old Pepto was always wrong. He fixed this "issue" with the newer Colodore palette some time back. This is the most authentic look, which looks very close to everything i've connected my PAL C64. I wrote something here a few days ago, with a screenshot comparsion.



http://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=1306416&postcount=2

PAL seems slightly stretched from side to side

Haven't checked it yet, since i always use PAL. PAL has more TV lines hence the higher resolution. But it shouldn't look stretched though.

[Devo]

Originally Posted by Retro-Nerd

The old Pepto was always wrong. He fixed this "issue" with the newer Colodore palette some time back. This is the most authentic look, which looks very close to everything i've connected my PAL C64. I wrote something here a few days ago, with a screenshot comparsion.



http://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=1306416&postcount=2



Haven't checked it yet, since i always use PAL. PAL has more TV lines hence the higher resolution. But it shouldn't look stretched though.

Alas, I just tried running the colodore palette in VICE x64 with both PAL & NTSC and all I get is a black screen. Wondering if it's a bug. I imagine it might be since the VICE cores are relatively new. Using the latest cores with the latest official Retroarch, btw. With the Sony pepto NTSC palette on PAL it looks okay but there sure is room for improvement.

Regarding the slightly off-kilter aspect ratio on PAL vs. NTSC in my config, here's a post I recently made over on Lemon with screen shots and detailed info. It's stretched but not terribly stretched. Still, looks "off" though. I'm still rather new to all this.


A palette for PAL (VICE) that looks like Sony pepto-NTSC?

[Retro-Nerd]

Colodore works fine for me. vice_x64_libretro.dll from 03.02.19. Retroarch 1.7.5 64bit. No problems. Check my attached colodore.vpl file.

This is how Dragon Wars looks on my 1080p monitor. The Vice core lacks the C64 border settings and getting a proper Image size, with the image geometry still intact (with integer scaling enabled), isn't that easy on a 16:9 display. I use a custom aspect ratio with a 4x/4x size = 1536x1088.

[Devo]

Originally Posted by Retro-Nerd

Colodore works fine for me. vice_x64_libretro.dll from 03.02.19. Retroarch 1.7.5 64bit. No problems. Check my attached colodore.vpl file.

This is how Dragon Wars looks on my 1080p monitor. The Vice core lacks the C64 border settings and getting a proper Image size, with the image geometry still intact (with integer scaling enabled), isn't that easy on a 16:9 display. I use a custom aspect ratio with a 4x/4x size = 1536x1088.

Hmm. I get a black screen with colodore even with an earlier build of Retroarch. Using the Vulcan driver (for some reason GL crashes my Retroarch when I go to load a C64 rom) . What VICE model are you using in your RA config? I use C64MODEL_C64_NTSC and C64MODEL_C64_PAL.

[Retro-Nerd]

Vulcan driver seems broken to me since early 2018. I use OpenGL. Though Direct3D can use the slang shaders too, if you have problems with OpenGL.

[Devo]

Yeah, for whatever reason, I just get a black screen (the game audio works, however) when I load that colodore external palette though all the other palettes work. I even did fresh installs of the latest builds of both the 64-bit & 32-bit versions of Retroarch. Am I possibly missing an asset of some kind that needs to be installed? Is that vpl file you attached above suppose to be injected into Retroarch?

Here's my retroarch-core-options.cfg:

vice_C64Model = "C64MODEL_C64_PAL"
vice_Controller = "keyboard"
vice_Drive8Type = "1541"
vice_DriveTrueEmulation = "enabled"
vice_ExternalPalette = "colodore"
vice_JoyPort = "port_2"
vice_mapper_b = "RETROK_ESCAPE"
vice_mapper_l = "RETROK_KP_PLUS"
vice_mapper_l2 = "RETROK_KP_MULTIPLY"
vice_mapper_l3 = "RETROK_TAB"
vice_mapper_r = "RETROK_KP_MINUS"
vice_mapper_r2 = "RETROK_ESCAPE"
vice_mapper_r3 = "RETROK_F5"
vice_mapper_start = "RETROK_KP_DIVIDE"
vice_mapper_x = "RETROK_RETURN"
vice_mapper_y = "RETROK_F9"
vice_RetroJoy = "enabled"
vice_SidModel = "6581F"
vice_Statusbar = "disabled"
vice_UserportJoyType = "none"

[Retro-Nerd]

My retroarch-core-options.cfg looks similar.

vice_C64Model = "C64MODEL_C64_PAL"
vice_Controller = "keyboard"
vice_DriveTrueEmulation = "enabled"
vice_ExternalPalette = "colodore"
vice_JoyPort = "port_2"
vice_mapper_b = "RETROK_ESCAPE"
vice_mapper_l = "RETROK_KP_PLUS"
vice_mapper_l2 = "RETROK_KP_MULTIPLY"
vice_mapper_l3 = "RETROK_TAB"
vice_mapper_r = "RETROK_KP_MINUS"
vice_mapper_r2 = "RETROK_ESCAPE"
vice_mapper_r3 = "RETROK_F5"
vice_mapper_start = "RETROK_KP_DIVIDE"
vice_mapper_x = "RETROK_RETURN"
vice_mapper_y = "RETROK_F9"
vice_RetroJoy = "enabled"
vice_SidModel = "8580RD"
vice_Statusbar = "disabled"
vice_UserportJoyType = "none"


I assume you've copied the colodore.vpl to Your path:\RetroArch\system\data\C64\ ?

[Devo]

Haha, yeah, that was the problem. I suspected I had to install that vpl file somewhere in Retroarch just wasn't sure where. Wow, that is a bright color palette! Might be too bright for my taste, and reds and fleshtones seem a little on the pinkish side but at least it's not the reddish brown that the Sony pepto palette has. I'll try it for awhile to see if it grows on me but I think I might prefer the sony pepto palette, especially in NTSC. Thanks for the file and your guidance.

[Retro-Nerd]

Pepto is wrong. No matter what Sony NTSC palette you load. You can change the saturation or contrast settings inside Retroarch if you think it's to bright/saturated.

You can also create you own Colodore settings, save it as PNG and use a tool like Colorpicker to get the hexvalues for the .vpl.



https://www.colodore.com/

edit: Use a text editor and open the .vpl. Maybe you like this Red values better.

# Red
85 1f 02 4

[Devo]

Originally Posted by Retro-Nerd

Pepto is wrong. No matter what Sony NTSC palette you load. You can change the saturation or contrast settings inside Retroarch if you think it's to bright/saturated.

You can also create you own Colodore settings, save it as PNG and use a tool like Colorpicker to get the hexvalues for the .vpl.



https://www.colodore.com/

edit: Use a text editor and open the .vpl. Maybe you like this Red values better.

# Red
85 1f 02 4

Thanks again for all your help. It seems a lot of work but I have such intense nostalgia for the C64, having owned one in the late 80s/early 90s and discovering that it was my favorite computer of all-time, that I'm willing to play around with it until I get it just right It's great that Retroarch & colodore has so much configurability. I was playing a game or two last night after I logged off here and I have to admit, it does look a whole lot less bland and more colorful, like I remember my old 64 on my old Zenith TV looking. I prefer a more orangey red to pink so, yeah, might just mess around with it.

[Retro-Nerd]

The C64 looks much better via S-Video cable on a decent CRT TV/monitor, no doubt. That's what Colodore is trying to mimic. And it looks pretty good. A higher saturation and contrast setting is a matter of your own preference
but the rest is always spot on. Well if we talk about PAL.

[Anubis]

WTH is colodore??

[Retro-Nerd]

A newer color palette for C64 emulators.