English Version.

Latest update: Monday 6 March, 2000

1. About

This FAQ is maintained by Andrea Musuruane. The latest version is available in both Italian and English at http://www.oocities.org/musuruan. The English version is also posted regularly on comp.emulators.cbm.

2. Emulators

What's the best emulator?

It really depends on your taste. CCS64, Frodo and VICE are capable of running most games. They have an excellent emulation of the 1541 drive, of the VICII graphic chip and of the SID (Sound Interface Device) chip. They are very user friendly too.

Peter Weighill maintains a COMPLETE list of the 8 bit Commodore computer emulators. It is available at http://members.xoom.com/cbm_files/.

How do I load games?

If you have never used a C64, I recommend you to read the C64 User Manual, available at Project 64. Here is a brief summary.

To load a game from tape you must type LOAD. When the FOUND message appears, you must press the C= (Commodore) key. To load a game from disk, you have to type LOAD"program name",8,1. If the program doesn't start automatically, type RUN when the READY. message appears.

To find out which programs are on a disk, type LOAD"$",8. When the READY. message appears, type LIST.

Cartridges start up automatically.

3. Software

Is it legal to download the games available on the net?

Many authors, like  Jeff "The Yak" Minter, and some software houses, like Melbourne House, have taken the decision to distribute their old games according to the rules of Public Domain. In this case, there is nothing wrong.

Partial lists are available at www.emulation.ch or in the Author Freeware Sites section of the Find-It FAQ that appears regularly on comp.emulators.cbm.

Unfortunately, most of the games are still copyrighted and they will be for a long time (copyright lasts 70 years in Europe, 75 years in the USA). However, it seems that distribution of software that is no longer commercially available is tolerated by software houses.

You have to keep in mind that the c64 market is not dead yet; therefore it is not a good idea to distribute something that is still commercially available or that  was just a little time ago. If you do, you risk to suffocate that little part that remains of the commercial scene, with worse consequences for all of us.

Which are the main game sites for the C64?

The ones that have more games are Arnold, Digital Dungeon, C64 Game Guide, C64 Internet Archive (CIA) and Lemon's C64 Game Source.

On comp.emulators.cbm it is periodically posted the Find-It FAQ that lists many more sites.

Where can I find C128 games?

They are available at Arnold.

Does someone sell CD-ROMs with C64 software?

Sure! A list of them is available at 8-Bit-Universe: http://www.8bit.com/bkcmain.htm. Unfortunately it's written in German :-(

I would like to play with .... Where can I find it?

You can use a search engine such as C64 Games Database or Commodore FTP search.

There are also sites that are exclusively dedicated to rare and difficult to find games: JEZ and Laner's Lost & Found page.

Where can I find GEOS?

GEOS is still being sold by CMD. Therefore it is very lame to download it from the Internet (if you're so lucky to find a copy).

If you have an original GEOS disk, you can make a working disk image by following the instructions found in the transferring programs section of this FAQ.

I can't remember the name of a game. How can I find it?

Two excellent sites with many game screenshots are The C64 Game Guide and IENA's C64 Gallery. Here you'll surely find what you're looking for.

4. Formats

What file types are used by the emulators?

Most emulators use files in .d64 and .t64 formats. D64 files are basically a sector-for-sector copy of a 1541disk. T64 files are simple archive files. They are just like .zip files, but they are not compressed.

New file types were introduced to overcome the limitations of these two formats: .tap files that represent the sampling of tapes, .crt files that are cartridge dumps, and .g64 that represent a low-level disk image (GCR encoded).

.d71 and .d81 formats were also introduced. They are disk images of the 1571 (5 "¼, 340Kb) and 1581 (3 "½, 800Kb) floppy disk drives.

I have downloaded a game that has .lnx extension. How can I use it with an emulator?

It's a LYNX file; its structure is very similar to a .t64. You can use Star Lynx, part of the Star Utilities, to convert it to .d64 format.

In the game I have downloaded the files begin with a number, followed by an exclamation mark (eg: 1!archive, 2!archive, 3!archive and 4!archive). What's that?

It's a disk image in ZIPCODE format. To convert it to .d64, you can use Star Zip, one of the Star Utilities.

In the game I have downloaded the files begin with a number, followed by two exclamation marks (eg: 1!!archive, 2!!archive, 3!!archive, 4!!archive, 5!!archive and 6!!archive). I suspect that it's something similar to the previous.

Yes! The disk image is in ZIPCODE SIX PACK format. You can convert this image to .g64 using s2g.

I have downloaded a game and I have found a file with extension *.p00, after unpacking the zip archive.

The format .p00, introduced by Wolfgang Lorenz, author of PC64 (RIP), is a c64 program file (PRG) with a header containing an identification string and the original name. To transfer the file from .p00 to .t64 or .d64 you must use the Star Commander.

I would like to know more about the formats used by emulators. Are there any references available?

Go to http://www.fairlight.to/, then click on DOCS and download formats.zip

5. Manuals, Solutions, Maps, Snapshots

Where can I find the User Manuals? And those of the games?

At Project 64 you can find the text version of many manuals (in English). iDOC has many manuals written in different European languages, in different formats (text, WinWord and PDF).

Where can I find an adventure game solution?

The C64 Adventure Game Solutions and Walkthrough Site is entirely dedicated to C64 game solutions. The Classic Adventures Solution Archive! is a site dedicated to the solutions of text adventures for 8 bit computers (mainly Spectrum, C64, Apple II and Amstrad CPC). If the solution is not there, I recommend you visit the Interactive Fiction Archive.

Where can I find a game map?

Great Games For The C64 and The Classic Adventures Solution Archive! have many maps.

I want to freeze the game in its current state. How can I do it?

VICE, CCS64 and Frodo can make a snapshot of the emulator state, then load it back in again later.

This option is not present in the shareware version of CCS64 (that is limited), but it is available in the betas of version 2.0. You can download the latest from http://www.computerbrains.com.

NOTE: Remember that before loading a snapshot, you have to insert in the virtual drives the same disks that you had in when you freezed the state!

6. Joystick

Is there a way to use a c64 joystick with a PC?

There are at least two interfaces that do this.

The first one uses the joystick port of the PC. In this way, the digital joystick is remapped to analog values. All the programs that allow the use of an analog joystick support this interface. The schematics are available at Joystick interfaces and projects. A similar project, complete with PCB layout, is available at http://www.students.tut.fi/~k150585/joyport-en.html.

The second interface uses the PC parallel port and it is easier to make than the previous one. The main disadvantage is that you need to use a win 9x driver. You will find the schematics and the driver at the official DirectPad Pro '98 site.

I use Linux; is there something that I can use?

The most recent version of the driver, supporting many types of analog and digital joystick, is available at http://atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~vojtech/joystick/

NOTE: Not all Linux emulators and games support this driver.

7. Transferring programs

7.1. Disks

Can the 5"¼ PC disk drive read floppies written with a 1541 disk drive?

It's impossible. Unless you use a controller like Catweasel.

Can the 3"½ PC disk drive read floppies written with a 1581 disk drive?

Yes. Get either READ81S (available from Funet) or 1581 Copy.

Well, how can I make an image of a disk written with the 1541?

Get the Star Commander, and make a cable to connect the 1541 disk drive to the parallel port of your PC.

SC has an interface that resemble the one in Norton Commander, and allows you to copy files and disk images between the 1541 and the storage peripherals of the PC and vice versa.

NOTE: Read the instructions CAREFULLY!

I can't build the cable myself. Is there anybody that sells them?

Yes. The X1541 Shop sells all the cables at very reasonable prices.

I have some games that are not available anywhere on the Internet. What should I do?

Upload them to Arnold.

The original GEOS disk is copy-protected. How can I make a working disk image?

Make an image of the original disk using Star Commander. Load an emulator and patch this image using either Maverick (available at Arnold) or GeoHacker (available at Funet).

NOTE: You are legally entitled to do this only if you own an original GEOS disk.

7.2. Tapes

How can I transfer C64 games from tape (datasette 1530) to PC?

There are three ways to make a .tap file.

You can use the soundcard input line to sample the cassette, making a .WAV or a .PCM file with your preferred sampling program (e.g. Windows' sound recorder). Then this file should be converted to a .tap file using either Tomaz Kac's 64Utilities or Andreas Matthies's TAPE64.

Otherwise you can use the LPT64 interface (whose schematics are bundled with the C64S emulator archive). It allows you to directly connect the c64 datasette unit (the famous C2N) to the PC. You can use Markus Brenner's mtap to make the .tap file.

Richard Storer has written TAPLOAD, which can use both methods.

If you still own a C64, you can also connect it to the PC using the X(E)1541 cable. Then load and run the small TAPSERV program on the C64 and use mtap on the PC to sample the tape from the C64 side.

NOTE: Getting good results with these programs is often difficult, and you need to make MANY attempts.

7.3 Cartridges

How can I dump a cartridge?

The instructions on how to make a cartridge dump and the program to create the corresponding .crt file are available at Markus Brenner's  site.

8. Turbo

On my 486, VICE and CCS64 run slower than the original c64. What can I do?

You can try to use an emulator of the preceding generation. They don't emulate as accurately, and therefore some games (like Creatures) won't work, but they're faster. I recommend you try PC64 and C64S.

How can I get faster load times?

Some emulators have options to make the emulator go as fast as possible. With VICE you have to press the Bloc Scroll key; with CCS64 you must press ALT+3. The gain in speed depends on how fast your computer is.

What does the option "disable/enable TRUE 1541 Emulation" stand for?

The 1541 is a computer in its own right, much like the C64. It has a 6502 microprocessor, some RAM and ROM. Using TRUE 1541 Emulation, all this hardware is emulated, getting a faithful reproduction of the original 1541 behaviour. This option needs a powerful CPU. If instead TRUE 1541 is disabled, the functions of the 1541 are merely simulated in an approximate way. While the simulated functions are faster, they are also less faithful to the original, and even then, not all of the functions are available.

9. SID Players

What is a SID Player?

A SID Player emulates only the Sound Interface Device (MOS 6581, also known as SID) and the MOS microprocessor 6510 of the C64. Therefore it can execute Commodore 64  machine language programs that reproduce tunes or sounds but not games or any other type of programs.

Where can I find SID Players?

Peter Weighill's site, http://members.xoom.com/cbm_files/, has a list of all the available SID Players.

Where can I find the tunes?

I recommend two excellent collections: the High Voltage SID Collection and The BlueNine C64 Module Collection.

I want to burn an Audio CD with my SID favourite tunes. How can I convert a SID file to a WAV?

Using SIDPLAY for Windows, set the length of the WAV file that you want to make, using the Settings-Wav menu. Then, from the Save as menu, choose the wav format.

How can I extract a SID tune from a game or a demo?

Read the SIDPLAY Home Page at the INFO voice.

But what's so exceptional about the SID?

The SID was the first sound chip worthy of this name. It was so revolutionary that BYTE magazine has listed it among the 20 Most Important Chips of all time.

10. Recommended readings

If you want to know more, I recommend that you read:
 

As well, I recommend you visit COMMODORE WIRE regularly. It has the latest news from the Commodore world (emulation included).

11. Thanks

I would like to thank all the people who helped me to realize this FAQ.  A special mention goes to: