Getting controls working on Archon

tslayer71

So Archon is one of my favorite games on c64. I can get one player working, but not two and it's killing me! I have been in the VICE menu and made sure both joysticks are turned on. I have mapped both joysticks and that seems to be working. When I go to play a two player game, moving one joystick around is moving both players at the same time. If someone could point me in the right direction to get this configured, i'd appreciate it. I'm using the following:

Emulation station v2.7.5 RP
VICE-x64
X-Arcade joystick in mode 4 (Retropie see's it as two Xbox 360 wireless controllers)

dudleydes

@tslayer71 The first thing I would check is whether you can play other 2 player simultaneous games such as Barbarian - The Ultimate Warrior or Bruce Lee.

If this does not work, then could you post the contents of the the joystick mapping filesdl-joymap-C64.vjm file that can be found in /opt/retropie/configs/c64?

tslayer71

Hey Dudleydes, thanks for the reply! So I tried two player in Bruce Lee and it's doing the same thing. I looked in /opt/retropie/configs/c64 and their wasn't a file named 'joymap-c64.vjm' so I'm hoping as it relates to my problem that's a good thing. I saw your previous post where you give an example joymap-c64.vjm located at https://pastebin.com/93iVpBUT. So should I copy that and paste in notepad and save as 'joymap-c64.vjm' ? Then copy into /opt/retropie/configs/c64 and then remap both joysticks using the VICE menu?

rkoster

An alternate approach: it works out of the box on the Atari 8 bit emulators in RetroPie, either lr-atari800 or Atari800. It's nearly identical to the C64 version.

sirhenrythe5th

@rkoster another alternate: the NES Version is also very playable.
I guess the Amiga Version of Archon + Archon II:Adept are also great using Amiberry, but i never tried it myself.

dudleydes

@tslayer71 Manually editing VICE config files is far from straightforward so it should be left as a last resort.

If you have mapped both joysticks. it seems strange, then, that there isn't a joymap file. Did you save after mapping your joysticks? (The full file name is sdl-joymap-C64.vjm btw, part of it may have been cut off if reading on mobile. )

I used the video below to map my joysticks - start at 3:00 as the video begins with installing VICE. Can you confirm that you followed a similar process outlined in the video?

Also, when you say " both joysticks are turned on", do you mean that you have joystick device 1 and 2 set to joystick in the VICE UI - see 4:07 in the video for reference?

tslayer71

Sirhenry, checked out the NES version and graphics were a little different but works great - thanks! Rkoster don't have an atari 800 emulator installed yet, but will check out if I can't get c64 version working - thank you! So dudleydes, here's where I'm at.... I followed video and set everything up like Sir Randal did. I'm now closer to having it working. Now in Archon the two player controls are separated (moving one joystick doesn't move both players). The only thing not working is that when I move joydevice 1 right, it goes into 'chose autostart image' in the VICE menu system. When i hit 'esc' on the keyboard the joydevice 1 player then constantly moves right until I go another direction. I found 'sdl-joymap-C64.vjm' in a different place. It was in /home/pi/.config/vice. Here's what it looks like:

VICE joystick mapping file

A joystick map is read in as patch to the current map.

File format:

- comment lines start with '#'

- keyword lines start with '!keyword'

- normal line has 'joynum inputtype inputindex action'

Keywords and their lines are:

'!CLEAR' clear all mappings

inputtype:

0 axis

1 button

2 hat

3 ball

Note that each axis has 2 inputindex entries and each hat has 4.

action [action_parameters]:

0 none

1 port pin joystick (pin: 1/2/4/8/16 = u/d/l/r/fire)

2 row col keyboard

3 map

4 UI activate

5 path&to&item UI function

!CLEAR

Xbox 360 Wireless Receiver

0 0 0 1 0 8
0 0 1 1 0 4
0 0 2 1 0 2
0 0 3 1 0 1
0 0 4 1 1 8
0 0 5 1 1 4
0 0 6 1 1 2
0 0 7 1 1 1

0 1 0 1 0 16
0 1 1 4
0 1 2 3
0 1 3 1 0 16
0 1 4 5 Quit emulator
0 1 5 4
0 1 6 5 Machine settings&Joystick settings&Swap joystick ports
0 1 7 5 Machine settings&Joystick settings&Swap joystick ports
0 1 8 3
0 1 9 4
0 1 10 3
0 1 11 1 1 16
0 1 12 1 0 16
0 1 13 1 0 4
0 1 14 1 0 8
0 1 15 1 0 1
0 1 16 1 0 2

0 2 0 1 0 1
0 2 1 1 0 2
0 2 2 1 0 4
0 2 3 5 Autostart image

Xbox 360 Wireless Receiver

1 0 0 1 1 8
1 0 1 1 1 4
1 0 2 1 1 2
1 0 3 1 1 1
1 0 4 1 0 8
1 0 5 1 0 4
1 0 6 1 0 2
1 0 7 1 0 1

1 1 0 1 0 16
1 1 1 4
1 1 2 3
1 1 3 1 1 16
1 1 4 1 1 16
1 1 5 4
1 1 6 3
1 1 7 1 0 16
1 1 8 1 1 16
1 1 9 4
1 1 10 3
1 1 11 1 0 16
1 1 12 1 1 16
1 1 13 1 1 4
1 1 14 1 1 8
1 1 15 1 1 1
1 1 16 1 1 2

1 2 0 1 1 1
1 2 1 1 1 2
1 2 2 1 1 4
1 2 3 1 1 8

dudleydes

@tslayer71 Thanks for posting your sdl-joymap-C64.vjm file.

The only thing not working is that when I move joydevice 1 right, it goes into 'chose autostart image' in the VICE menu system.

This is a straightforward fix. You can change the line 0 2 3 5 Autostart image to 0 2 3 1 0 8 in the joymap file. I believe mapping your D-pad in the VICE UI should work as well.

When i hit 'esc' on the keyboard the joydevice 1 player then constantly moves right until I go another direction.

I don't see anything in the joymap file that could be causing this. The RUN/STOP key is mapped to the ESC key on a PC keyboard. I don't know if this has anything to do it. Which game are you referring to?

tslayer71

Woo Hoo! The controls are now working for Archon and all the other c64 two player games. Dudleydes you're the man - Thank You!