FrodoDS(c64) page added

Hi all!

GPF, thanks for porting Frodo to the DS. I highly appreciate this, as I spent some years of my youth with this machine. And it turned me on to computers.

However, as I see some of you experience problems with loading games, well the reason is simple.

In the past, we had some tools to change the appearance of the directories just to make the directory look cool and to show off. Some entries weren't referring to files.

So

LOAD"*",8,1

won't work in all cases.

Try the following.

Load the directory first:
LOAD"$",8

Examine the directory with
LIST

and then load file you want, e.g.

LOAD"URI*",8,1

RUN of course will run the program.

The numbers before the program names in the directory show the block size of the file on the disk.

You might want to try some of the following just for fun:

10 FOR I=1 TO 255
20 POKE 53281,I
30 NEXT
40 GOTO 10
RUN

SYS 64738 also a timeless classic.

However, there are some issues with Frodo I would like to mention.

1. Distorted sound, poor SID. How I would LOVE to use cybertracker on the DS! :eek:

2. Sound is out of sync (lag). It can be experienced in uridium's reaction game part.

3. Characters are badly readable, probably due to a scaling issue.

However: Great! :thumbup:

Thank you, thank you for making this C64 emulator - please don't slow down or give up! I'm originally from Ireland, and like WATTS, I grew up on the C64 and reading ZZAP64. Might I add to WATTS, that you are a legend for having the Zzap sizzler as an avatar!!! Did you kow about the ZZap fansite where you can read the previous magazines?

I'm having the same issue as WATTS, with more or less identical specs. I have a DS lite, an R4 cartridge, and a 1gb Sandisk microSD.
I purposely have chosen games to try that I've seen others have gotten going, by screenshots earlier in the forum. Paradroid for example. So, I got the llatest FrodoDS, used DLDI to make it R4 compatible, put the rd directory in the root,with my selected roms in there (10 at most).

It loads Frodo fine, gives me the list of games, and perhaps three of them work (Ghosts and Goblins, Aztec Challenge and Ghostbusters). Paradroid, Monty on the Run, Auf Weidersen Monty, Last Ninja, and just about every other game I've tried has not worked. When I select any other game, even ones people have said they have gotten working, it goes back to the C64 Basic screen, ad when I press the right trigger it returns

Code:

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LOAD"*",8,1

SEARCHING FOR *
?FILE NOT FOUND ERROR
READY.
RUN

READY

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I noticed in a more recent post than WATTS, someone has suggested manually seaching through the games via basic, and I'll give that a shot, but other than that - please, if anyone else knows a cure, or if anyone has the same issue let us know! :thumbup:

Quote:

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I noticed in a more recent post than WATTS, someone has suggested manually seaching through the games via basic, and I'll give that a shot, but other than that - please, if anyone else knows a cure, or if anyone has the same issue let us know! :thumbup:

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The cure simply is to LOAD and LIST the directory and then load the program you want.

LOAD"*",8 always tries to load the first entry in the directory, but this is not necessarily a PRG (programm).

Thanks gho, I just tried your method and it certainly got further - Paradroid loaded up, but in the end did not work. I think thats a different story though, and at least the trickier games are individually loadable for me through your suggestion. WATTS, give it a shot!


Edit: I just tried one or two other games there, and they are found, and load up, but crash soon after, before I can get to start them. I'm sure I've followed all instructions so far, and can only think that perhaps the M3 Simply/R4 version is very troublesome

Quote:

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Look like a good idea, unfortunetly I don't know how to do that :( I'll look into though.

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I just hope i can be of some help. If you need any help with icons or anything realted to possibly skinning frodo or adding icons then let me know and i will gladly help out where i can.

Quote:

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Maybe its the particular version of dldi patcher that you are using?

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Version says its 03.2.00 in the properties of the dlditool32.exe file.
Is this the correct dldi to be using? If not is there a link you could provide to one that is verified with dldi patching with frodo?

Quote:

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I spent my childhood with the vic-20 and c64 and that was the reason I decided to port this, I love the c64 :)

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The Vic20 was my first ever computer, you remember those games you could write code / basic straight into the computer? I had a list of some code i typed in once for some kind of space game which had some errors on it but i managed to get it working eventually.
Then i was going to get the Commodore 16 one christmas after looking at one in a department store with my parents but i did prefer the CBM 64 next to it with ghostbusters running on it but my parents surprised me after all and i ended up getting the CBM 64 anyway. Thank god for that!!

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Technically the way it should work is you start Frodo, it list the d64 files on your card, you select the file with the a button. C64 starts, you either type load"*",8,1 and it should load the disk. Or you can press the right trigger to automate the type of that.

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Well i get everything working correctly apart from the last step.
When i press the right trigger to run the game once at c64 desktop i get:

LOAD"*",8,1

SEARCHING FOR *
?FILE NOT FOUND ERROR
READY.
RUN

EDIT:
hmm i got bruce lee working now seems to be working fine. Must of been an isolated issue but its sorted itself out now.
Problem was with the right shoulder button setup/code was just exiting straight to error.
after pressing right shoulder button.
now its putting a space after you choose a game and then when you press the right shoulder it works fine.
Very weird but hey its now working!!
Just going through some roms now and they seem fine.

However i have noticed on one of your earlier releases that i am using 20-00-80 version? that where my pointer is and the game i select is different to what loads up.
Not to worry though because i am going to try the newer version.

Thanks for the help!! ;)

EDIT2: Some games are not working and possiby the version of the game i have could of been the issue?

Just thought i would add to it because it may help others who experience a similar issue.

Thanks.

Hi chimpwithalimp,

Glad to see others around the world grew up with a similar common buzz with the C64 as a kid! ;)

I have been back to the official zzap fan site from time to time to remenice at the gool old days. ;)
Back in the days of the CBM64, computer gaming was relatively new (well apart from the ATARI system) and because it was my first proper experience it just seemed magical. The WOW factor was much more than your DX10 fancy graphics you have today. Its hard to explain because today the graphics look totally dated on the C64 but back then i think i got absorbed into the game so much that i was in that C64 universe and it didnt really matter anyway.

Oh those were the days.

Im at work now but i will try the suggestions above later and from the sounds of it i should be able to get the other games working fine.

Troy do you thing what gho pointed out can be fixed in frodo to stop it happening again in the future?
Frodo DS needs to be fully workable with 0 erors out of the box so to speak.
I have a 6 year old son but he wont know how to press load, LOAD"URI*",8,1 run etc.

I would love him to be able to choose a game and load it no problems and know that the games he is playing are the very same i did as a kid around his age (think i was 8 though).

Thanks.

Ok i tried the newer version with the scrollable list but it seems worse in the following respect:

flashing C64 cursor is gone.
keyboard doesnt work all the time (even after pressing start)

Same loading of game issues as previous releases.

Havn't tested:

Load the directory first:
LOAD"$",8

Examine the directory with
LIST

and then load file you want, e.g.

LOAD"URI*",8,1

RUN of course will run the program.

As per previous question can you not look into this loading of games properly troy?

Quote:

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As per previous question can you not look into this loading of games properly troy?

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What troy is doing is porting an emulator. We loaded our games on the C64 like I described above, so the way it is, is the "proper" way.

Putting in extra functionality to load a disks directory and subsequently a program is superfluous from an emulator point of view. I find the sound issue much more critical.

Just load the games the way you did when you were using the real thing.

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Just load the games the way you did when you were using the real thing.

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Shift + Run/stop
"Press Play on Tape"

That was about as tricky as it got for me. :)

I understand that the roms we're using are d64 not t64, but still I wonder what the ratio of games that work vs ones that don't work is, due to the right trigger automating code that looks for the PRG file as the first entry.

Its 2am here, and personally I can't think of a better way to do it than Troy is doing it right now, and even if I could, I certainly couldn't code it. Don't think for a moment I'm unhappy - the complete opposite is true. This is easily the best homebrew project out there in my opinion.

However, if there was a decent, simple method to get the right trigger loading automation working then there would be less confused folks wondering if they were doing something wrong, or if the game rom was incompatible, or if their card supports FrodoDS at all.

Are T64s simpler to load? Am I barking up the wrong tree here?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gho

Putting in extra functionality to load a disks directory and subsequently a program is superfluous from an emulator point of view. I find the sound issue much more critical.

Just load the games the way you did when you were using the real thing.

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While i agree the sound issue is a serious issue (as for my love of the SID chip) i also have to confess that a rock solid stable way of loading the games is also a must.
Not everyone that is into homebrew or is exposed to it can figure out some of the simpler stuff.
for example my 6 year old son would love to play Frodo DS but there is no way he can grasp the process involved of loading games if he has to start typing stuff in. Not forgetting kids attention spans nowadays is limited to about 30 secs then frustration sets in. (kinda like me with transformers on the C64! grrrr :)

I like chimpwithalimp only had the tape system and never tried out the disk drive back in the day.

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However, if there was a decent, simple method to get the right trigger loading automation working then there would be less confused folks wondering if they were doing something wrong, or if the game rom was incompatible, or if their card supports FrodoDS at all.

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Im with you on this one.

Im sure something could be slightly tweaked to get round this problem and have the games load up no problems when using left shoulder, click button then right shoulder.

All T64s are is the tape equivilent of the game.
Basically the data is pulled from the tape and saved in that format.

Im sure someone will add or correct to this if i am wrong.