Frodo C64 emulator ported to Wii

**SimonKagstrom** · January 6th, 2009, 15:23

Hi!

I've ported the Frodo C64 emulator by Christian Bauer to Wii:

The port is playable with sound and both joysticks available. Source and binaries can be downloaded from http://frodo-wii.googlecode.com and the wiibrew wiki has some more usage instructions at http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Frodo

It has only been tested in 480i mode on a PAL TV (the 50Hz mode gives me a headache), and there are some sound glitches and probably some other minor bugs.

Usage
Put .t64 or .d64 files in /apps/frodo/images on your SD card. The in-game menu allows you to insert disks/tapes, load them and configure the display, joystick ports etc. Saves will be stored on the SD card and the preferences are stored persistently. Wiimote 1 is by default the joystick in port 1 and wiimote 2 the joystick in port 2, but you can swap this.

v2 new

The main improvements are:

Slightly faster emulation speed
Improved keybindings to the controllers (more keys, also works more like a real keyboard)
Support for the classic controller (although this is untested since I don't have the hardware)
Support for loading .prg, .p00 and .s00 files. Only .prg tested.
Misc smaller bugs have been fixed

Untar the binary archive on your SD card to install. Note that there are some new helper files/dirs compared to the first release, so simply copying boot.dol is not enough.

V3 Whats New

I've released version 3, which fixes the embarassing classic controller problem and some other issues. I simply went and bought one and tested it, and not everything worked as I thought :-) (Thanks also to the various people who reported problems with the classic controller)

A note about the speed: I've fiddled a bit more with that here, and the issue is (obviously) not that the Wii is too slow to emulate a C64. I think SDL_GetTicks() and/or SDL_Delay() behaves strange somehow, so I've replaced that particular part of the implementation. Speed is also configurable now

v4
Merged with the Frodo trunk and build the "SC" version. This should improve emulation somewhat (although there are cases where it's the other way around!). The palette also changes because of this.
Save prefrences together with the C64 state when saving snapshots. This is useful e.g., to have game-specific keybindings
More menu options to type common key sequences, turn on 1541 CPU emulation etc
Link with Yohanes version of SDL-Port, which perhaps brings USB keyboard support. I haven't tested, so please test and fix the code.
Fixed some key binding bugs
Misc smaller improvements here and there

v5
Fixed a truly embarassing bug with the HOME button on the wiimote. Unfortunately,
... It no longer links with Yohanes SDL version, which for some reason broke the menu code with the wiimote (but not the classic controller!). It's probably unrelated but I can't have it like that. Further investigation pending.

version 6

It has two user-visible features:

- A virtual keyboard that can be used to do the key bindings and type stuff
- When loading files from d64 disks, zero-sized files are skipped. This allows some more games to load with LOAD "*",8,1. You would have got "File not found error" for these cases before.

There are also some small bug fixes and quite a bit of internal restructuring, but you have to look at the sources to see that :-)

version 7

I've made another update to Frodo, version 7 with the following changes:

* Make binding joystick directions to other buttons as well (to be able to jump with e.g., 1)
* The direction buttons can also be bound to keyboard keys
* Exit with SYS_RETURNTOMENU to make WAD's work
* Some restructuring and minor bug fixes here and there
* Lots and lots of new code which won't get executed :-)

v8
The Nunchuk and Classic analogue controllers now work as joysticks as well (thanks to Aaron Morris)
Some key binding problems have been corrected
Lots of networking implementation. Won't work yet...

Downloads attached - Give feedback

**Stainy** · January 6th, 2009, 16:39

Whoa! craaap! [downloaded] see ya in a few hours!!

**Sektor** · January 6th, 2009, 18:50

Nice port! It was fun playing some of the classics again. The interface works well with just the wiimote.

**Stainy** · January 6th, 2009, 19:58

Nice... it plays some stuff... and I know this is only the first version... it can`t handle samples and music ingame slows it down somewhat..

But man!! I`m excited with this

can`t wait for more features...

**WhizzBang** · January 6th, 2009, 20:02

Excellent news! Thank you very much.

**SimonKagstrom** · January 6th, 2009, 20:10

Originally Posted by Stainy

Nice... it plays some stuff... and I know this is only the first version... it can`t handle samples and music ingame slows it down somewhat..

Yep, I know the sound is a bit problematic. However, having it slowing down games is a bit unexpected. Do you have an example where this happens?

Anyway, the code is simple to hack on, so please feel free to submit patches to me if you fix something ([email protected])

**Stainy** · January 6th, 2009, 20:13

Bombjack was running ok till a few more enemies appeared!! also Way of the Exploding fist was a nightmare!

There seems to be a noise over the top of the sound effects/music in most games as well...
Probably wrong to say it was the music slowing it down.. what I probably thought was that the music slows down in games as it seems to struggle.. Like I mentioned with Bomb jack!

good work though... I`ll be keeping all my eyes on this one!

**SimonKagstrom** · January 6th, 2009, 20:34

Originally Posted by Stainy

Bombjack was running ok till a few more enemies appeared!! also Way of the Exploding fist was a nightmare!

There seems to be a noise over the top of the sound effects/music in most games as well...

The way of the exploding fist issue is known, but that's a Frodo emulation problem (it sounds the same on the host) so I can't do very much about that except recommending International karate :-).

I know about the noice, and that's a real issue. Maybe I'll be able to find it someday, I'm not sure.