lr-vice: Drive Emulation, Mapping Keyboard Strokes

DarishZone · 6 Jun 2018, 17:17

I've tested lr-vice extensively and can manage mostly all extension file types. Crt is the cartridge format, it has no loadings at all but the library is limited (mostly educational stuff, but Ocean invested a lot on format), D81 can merge two disks in 1 file, Easy Flash is the most powerful, you can get huge collections or special dumps on a single file, like Project Firestart, which was on 4 disks originally. Loadings also are non existent, much like a console experience :)

DarishZone · 6 Jun 2018, 17:29

@darkuni said in lr-vice: Drive Emulation, Mapping Keyboard Strokes:

@darishzone said in lr-vice: Drive Emulation, Mapping Keyboard Strokes:

@darkuni Multi disk is not big of an issue honestly, you can easy get crt, easy flash and D81 files around and get rid of the problem.

I would like to know more. So you're saying in lr-vice I can use a sort of "easy flash emulator", get a game like say The Legend of Blacksilver (6 disks), put all these files together into a 1581 disk image, mount and use that within the Easy Flash emulator? Am I on the right track?

You don't have to mount anything on lr-vice, simply run a rom :) just make sure u get the correct file type.
I also suggest you T64 files (not "tap"), they are tape dumps specially made for emulators, there's not loadings at all (or very mild), very good if you searching for cassette games.

mediamogul · 6 Jun 2018, 17:43

@darishzone said in lr-vice: Drive Emulation, Mapping Keyboard Strokes:

You don't have to mount anything on lr-vice, simply run a rom

Technically mounting and execution is done at launch, which is also the behavior of the standalone VICE. It's just done transparently to the user in both. I've been meaning to take a look at lr-vice, but I've been waiting to see if the code base will be updated to version 3.x. I could live without the missing features in lieu of the other bonuses that come with a libretro port, but I'm concerned that some of the games with non-standard launch commands won't work. Is it possible in lr-vice to boot into BASIC and launch a game manually? Better yet, can a BASIC command be issued as a launch command from Emulation Station like with the standalone VICE?

DarishZone · 6 Jun 2018, 18:08

Core developing is a little obscure to me, dunno why lr-vice is always on experimental sections, seems to me very stable, previous version was impossible to move cursor in every way. I don't like at all Vice, i don't wanna use it, so i hope libretro version dev will go on.

mediamogul · 6 Jun 2018, 20:46

@darishzone said in lr-vice: Drive Emulation, Mapping Keyboard Strokes:

i hope libretro version dev will go on.

I'm sure lr-vice will continue to be developed. I've just read that it is in fact based on the 3.x code base, albeit a bit older. If it had a working subsystem for issuing BASIC commands at launch, I could see myself switching from VICE. It definitely looks promising.

darkuni · 6 Jun 2018, 21:16

I grabbed a Legacy of the Ancients + Legend of Blacksilver "easy flash" CRT image and it popped right into LR-Vice with ZERO issues.

Seems like the way to go! Not a ton of these out there, but a lot of the biggies like Summer Games and such have these CRT images.

Pretty neat. Didn't know this sort of thing existed.

rsn8887 · 6 Jun 2018, 22:39

@darkuni said in lr-vice: Drive Emulation, Mapping Keyboard Strokes:

@darishzone I got that solved in the video. Check it out. It works.

Now I'm down to trying to figure out how to swap disks in LR-Vice. I've read everything I can find and I'm still confused on how to get it to work.

I gave the stand alone VICE another go. It has definitely improved since I saw it last. Still liking LR-VICE more at this point.

But, if I can't figure out how to deal with multiple disks? I may have to supplement with the stand alone.

Is there a way to save ALL configuration options and "tie" it to the game that loads? It isn't very straight forward in VICE like I feel it is in LR-VICE.

I have successfully changed discs before in the Vice core. I am pretty sure I simply used Quickmenu->Disk Control to do it.

EDIT: As usual, Retroarch uses an extremely obtuse approach.

DarishZone · 6 Jun 2018, 23:10

@darkuni said in lr-vice: Drive Emulation, Mapping Keyboard Strokes:

I grabbed a Legacy of the Ancients + Legend of Blacksilver "easy flash" CRT image and it popped right into LR-Vice with ZERO issues.

Seems like the way to go! Not a ton of these out there, but a lot of the biggies like Summer Games and such have these CRT images.

Pretty neat. Didn't know this sort of thing existed.

Yeah, it's cool. Very close experience to C64 Mini, but with so much games :)
Crt file are hard to find, you can get some around but the library is the same, just because cartridge format was not so popular. Easy Flash on other hand are fully customizable (they are also called crt however), so you can get way more interesting titles and compilations, good search :)

darkuni · 7 Jun 2018, 12:56

@darishzone Thanks! I've been able to find EasyFlash CRT images of almost everything I wanted. With one exception; Ultimate Wizard from Electronic Arts. It is a 2 disc game. Google searches appear to be fruitless.

Do you know if this happens to exist? How hard is it to MAKE these sort of multiple disk compilation CRTs?

DarishZone · 7 Jun 2018, 14:12

@darkuni said in lr-vice: Drive Emulation, Mapping Keyboard Strokes:

@darishzone Thanks! I've been able to find EasyFlash CRT images of almost everything I wanted. With one exception; Ultimate Wizard from Electronic Arts. It is a 2 disc game. Google searches appear to be fruitless.

Do you know if this happens to exist? How hard is it to MAKE these sort of multiple disk compilation CRTs?

I will take a look, can you indicate me some heavy multidisk titles? I did not know Legacy of the Ancients, very nice catch.

darkuni · 8 Jun 2018, 03:25

@darishzone Alter Ego (Male and Female versions are each like 6 disks each) ... Elvira. There are a bunch of flippers like Ultimate Wizard, Transformers (wasn't G.I. Joe a flipper?) ... I'd LOVE to have Psi-5 Trading Co. done into CRT ... Adventure Construction Set would be great.

I'd have to think on it to come up with some more. I think a lot of EA folio games were flippers too.

DarishZone · 8 Jun 2018, 11:04

Oh, the only GI Joe i remeber is a fantastic tie-in by Epyx. Well... everything Epyx touching became gold so :D
I suggest to get this game on single d81 file, worth the effort.

darkuni · 8 Jun 2018, 12:55

@darishzone So I did some digging around and found a handful of .D81 images that fill some more of my requests! :D

I am still hunting for Ultimate Wizard. I wonder if I could make these myself? Tutorial or links to get started you recommend?

darkuni · 8 Jun 2018, 13:01

@darishzone Interesting. RetroPie doesn't seem to scan .d81 files. Probably buried in a config somewhere. See what I can dig up.

DarishZone · 8 Jun 2018, 13:29

@darkuni said in lr-vice: Drive Emulation, Mapping Keyboard Strokes:

@darishzone So I did some digging around and found a handful of .D81 images that fill some more of my requests! :D

I am still hunting for Ultimate Wizard. I wonder if I could make these myself? Tutorial or links to get started you recommend?

Dunno, but dnt think is too complicated make a dump on you own, lots of great community out there, do a search.
You mean the internal scraper? I suggest you to use Skraper .net, which heavy use screenscraper servers and got impressive results with c64 files.

darkuni · 8 Jun 2018, 19:43

@darishzone Not the scraper. If that were the case? The items would be there with no metadata. RetroPie acts like it doesn't understand the extension .d81 and certainly not in the context of C64.

More research ...

mitu · 8 Jun 2018, 19:47

@darkuni If you're sure the emulator can run the ROM file, then add the extension to the es_systems.cfg file and restart ES to have the ROMs appear in the list of games.

darkuni · 8 Jun 2018, 19:59

@mitu THANK YOU! Saved me a lot of looking around. I will try and report back.

I see using some basic tools, you can create a .d81 image of a lot of "loose files" and possibly handle a "flipper" where standard DOS is being used (aka, you can just copy all files from all disks to the same .d81 and launch the sort of bootstrapper file).

What I'm curious of is how those making CRT images featuring non-DOS disk sets like Legacy of the Ancients. Ultimate Wizard might be straight DOS - but something like Psi-5 has custom stuff.

DarishZone · 8 Jun 2018, 20:13

Dunno understand the issue however... You mean ES not showing .d81 files? That's very odd.

mediamogul · 6 Aug 2018, 21:38

@darishzone

.d81 files are not currently on the list of extensions that Emulation Station will pick up on by default and must be added manually. I'm guessing yours are seen because they're zipped and .zip is a recognized extension. The es_systems.cfg file mentioned above can be found at /opt/retropie/configs/all/emulationstation/es_systems.cfg and the .d81 extension can be added under the 'c64' system entry.