Talk:C64-network.org

Issues

Network

What's the network code for?!?

http://simonkagstrom.livejournal.com/37663.html, but it will be a while until that works on the Wii. --SimonKagstrom 18:07, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

Thanks! I wondered because I don't find any appearance of the word "net" or something alike here in the discussion or in the wiki article.

Loading Games

---

I dont know if to add it here at the beginning or at the end of the load-block ... In v 8 I got often after playing a game and inserting a new .d64-file after "Insert key-sequence" of 'Load"$",8,1:Run' an error because Frodo types 'Lqad"$",8,1:Run' :-( I have to reset Frodo a few times before I get the right typed "Load"-command ... :-( 15.03.09 18:05 knitax

Usually you should be able to try again with the same load command without resetting. It's a slightly tricky timing issue (silly, I know) --SimonKagstrom 19:17, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

---

Hi Simon,first thing I want to thank you for your fantastic work. I'd like to share something I accidentally discovered:I just downloaded v.5 and tried to run some of my favourite games (Creatures 2, Zack McCracken, Turrican 2, Myth) but they all failed to load, just like in previous versions of your emulator. I then turned "1541 emulation" on and tried again, but after a long waiting it gave me an "out of memory" error. So I thought to try another game but forgot to "insert" it, basically I just re-loaded the same game(Turrican 2) without resetting and... surprise! It loaded. Creatures 2 and Zack McCracken run fine too (except no intro for Zack) but Myth did not get past the trainer. Just wondering if this can be of any help to you. Another thing, with the new interface I cannot load tapes anymore but only disk images. Thanks again and keep up the good work! Tetsuo 22:28, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

Check that you have the /apps/frodo/tmp/ directory, which is needed for tape loading. --SimonKagstrom 08:13, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

Yes the tmp directory was there, but no tape loading option. Btw, with my method I successifully loaded another game that didn't start previously: Buggy Boy --Tetsuo 13:52, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

There is no tape loading option - Frodo treats everything as disks, so just insert the tape and run LOAD "*",8,1 and it should start. The reason tmp/ is needed is that tapes are first extracted to a temporary file (a "disk") and then loaded as a disk. .prg files work more or less the same way --SimonKagstrom 16:08, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the explanation. I tried but they're not working, I get "?file not found" error everytime. However disabling 1541 emulation makes them run fine(Ghosts 'n goblins, Mr Mephisto)--Tetsuo 17:13, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

When trying to load any .d64 images and then pressing load, it will only result in Device Not Present Error, so far out of 15 games, only 1 loaded, with messed up GFX. Also a suggestion, maybe add a autoload feature so that when you pick the game you wanna play, you can push a button to make it automatically load instead of visiting the menu again. -Corey89

Strange. What games were that? I have not got that error message in any game I've tested (although some fail for other reasons). --SimonKagstrom 19:52, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

Hello Simon, Here are some examples of games that don't work: download d64 from here: [1] [2] [3] Spec 19:18, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

I run H.E.R.O at least. There can sometimes be multiple copies of the same game, some work and some don't. Last Ninja is like this for example.

Well i tried alot of random, but some specifics i remember were High Noon, Terminator 2, Action Biker, World Games, Paperboy, Turrican and Bazooka Bill. The game that loaded was AAAAAh! or something -corey89

At least paperboy works here, I haven't tried the others. Are you sure you didn't press 1 while selecting a game? (A or 2 selects in the menu). Having no disk inserted will give that error message --SimonKagstrom 20:59, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

Yeah pressed A or 2 as mentioned on this site. I'll try to redownload some of these to see if it's the games themselves. But as i mentioned, maybe you should make one of the buttons a autoload button?

Well, I personally think the buttons are more needed as keyboard input, and it's also only three keypresses to start loading :-). Anyway: The source code is available, so please write patches if you have anything you'd like to change! --SimonKagstrom 06:11, 7 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for a great app, games that work are great. Although I too have tried a lot of games from c64.com and most don't work. Is there something special about their d64 images? Ghostbusters and Bubble Bobble work, Arkanoid, Paperboy, California Games and Beach-head do not work. All downloaded from c64.com. I get the same "device not ready" message. Is there anything that can be done to fix this, or is it just a quirk of how the d64 images are made and how the Wii executes the code? --Wilsoff 08:38, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

Probably an emulation issue, what you could try is to enable 1541 emulation (from v5 onwards), but if that doesn't work I'm afraid there is little I can do. In the subversion trunk, I've fixed a special problem with some d64 files, but that would be seen as "File not found". As has been said in other parts of this page, try a different version of the game if it doesn't work. Paperboy works for me for example, haven't tried the others you mention. --SimonKagstrom 17:57, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

I've tried a number of c64.com games and very few work on v5. However these all seem to work on v6 so thank you! I've also tried a lot of games from a torrent of gamebase 64 v03 and everything has worked so far. There does seem to be some lag on the controls though - v05 worked fine on all the games that worked, but v6 is somewhat unresponsive. For example Park Patrol (from c64.com) the d-pad works as a joystick, but can be a bit slow to respond - I hope this can be fixed! I'm glad you like the icon - once again thank you for a c64 emu!!!--Wilsoff 11:01, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

OK, good to hear. Then apparently the zero-size-skip option helps in more than corner cases which I thought it would be. The d-pad problems surprise me a bit though, I haven't changed very much there. Is speed otherwise as before? If it works better in v5, it can be fixed, --SimonKagstrom 17:29, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Sorry it was the wiimote batteries, controls are fine in v6. Thanks for this great emu!

What about USB keyboard support or onscreen keyboard support ala VC's emulator? -corey89

Yes, I've thought about adding an on-screen keyboard (also usable to select keys to bind), but I've not started implemented anything yet. As for USB keyboards, I think they should be supported through SDL. Frodo already has support for this, I just don't know if it works on the Wii (or if the Wii/gamecube SDL port supports it). I have no USB keyboard so I don't have the means to test it or work on it.

Anyway, I use the emulator mostly to play games, so an USB keyboard to type in BASIC programs is not my highest priority ;-). Thanks for the comments by the way! --SimonKagstrom 16:51, 7 January 2009 (UTC)

---

Got the games loading finally, had to get a different disk file. Also another problem i'm having is the game selection screen, it's way off center, the names are so far left that at times, it only shows the last letter of the game and the file extension. Any idea how to fix it? I use a normal NTSC tv, no HD or anything. -corey89

Good to hear that you got it loading! As for the centering issue, that's a bug triggered by the home-grown menu implementation on long filenames. I'll fix that for next release.--SimonKagstrom 17:27, 7 January 2009 (UTC)

---

Sound

Are the sound bugs being worked on, or is it the emulator itself that just can't emulate the sound properly? -corey89

I've tried to fix those, but I haven't managed to find what the problem is, so don't expect anything soon. It's not the emulator - it sounds fine when compiled on the host. The sound drivers are not the same, but quite similar. This is an area where I'd like other people to contribute :-) --SimonKagstrom 17:53, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

You should ask Tantric or eke-eke for help in that area, they are really good at coding emulators on Wii. I really appriciate your work on this emu though, i spend my whole free time playing old childhood favorites now :) -corey89

The sound implementation is taken from FCEU, so they have been good help already :-). But anyone is free to fix the sound issue of course! --SimonKagstrom 20:29, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

I noticed an overall speed improvement in v.8 (didn't try v.7), which is good, however the music plays too fast. If I reduce emulation speed to 95% the music seems to be at the correct speed but it's distorted. --Tetsuo 16:39, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

Keyboard

I would SO download this if it had USB Keyboard support...I like doing BASIC! Also, I kinda like having to type "LOAD" and "RUN" and the like... --Atariangamer 19:19, 7 January 2009 (UTC)

It would also be nice to have a real keyboard on text adventures such as The Hulk - corey89

wait...this new version has keyboard support? DOWNLOADING. --Atariangamer 19:34, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

Well, it maybe had. Version 5 is out now, which removes this support because of a (rather grave) bug it caused. But I'm still interested in hearing out if it worked in version 4! --SimonKagstrom 19:59, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

ah...well, i'll try to load it up today (was away from wii) and tell ya how it goes... EDIT: I couldn't find the archive! you couldn't link to v4, could ya? --Atariangamer 12:36, 22 January 2009 (UT

Sure, it's here: http://frodo-wii.googlecode.com/files/frodo-wii-bin-4.tar.gz. I've been told that the keyboard works except for shift, so it's probably not very useful anyway. --SimonKagstrom 20:36, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

ah, thanks...I'll try both versions (4 'n' 5). But depending on how I like the keyboard, I'd still like for that to eventually become a feature. Now, to download and play! --Atariangamer 22:39, 22 January 2009 (UTC) -- if only I could...It seems to not want to load anything...--Atariangamer 02:08, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

I tried v4 and my USB keyboard !!!WORKED!!! All of the normal keys works worked at the opening screen. I could type my name and type "load" etc, so basic worked. However if I tried to hold down shift the number keys still came out as numbers, not !@#$%^&*()_+:" etc, so still not fully compatible, but a huge step forward. A shame adding USB keyboard support caused other problems, but at at least you know it works in theory. --Wilsoff 10:41, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Yep, someone else reported that as well. It's probably an SDL issue though since the same code works fine on the host. But as I said before, I'd really like someone else to implement this :-) --SimonKagstrom 17:29, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

I know Simon isn't interested in implementing keyboard support, but can anyone else with a bit of experience in C have a go? There are some keyboard (USB and virtual) libraries in List of development tools, inparticular libusbkbd looks like it might be fairly straight forward to implement. Would this go in main.cpp or somewhere else? If someone can give me a bit of guidance I'm willing to have a go. Although I only have a couple of hours of experience with C (I did a small amount of programming at uni, not much in C though). I've found a lot of games need key presses to start and it's painful having to bind specific keys just to get into the game.--Wilsoff 23:30, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

It should be even easier than that - Yohanes SDL used in WiiApple contains keyboard support. The task should be mostly to compile SDL and SDL_ttf from his svn archive and then link with it. And thereafter figure out why shift doesn't work and why the menu exits when home is pressed (I'm suspecting that the Yohanes SDL joystick support for the wii controller might be responsible for that). Frodo is probably easiest to build under Linux, which is what I use, but with luck it might work out of the box on Windows as well. Base your work on v6 since the current trunk doesn't build on Wii yet --SimonKagstrom 16:43, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

Since v10 the USB keyboard has to be plugged off and in again to work ... :-( 18:05 26.04.2009 @LoganA: Let my entry untouched as I, the author, it intended to be! Knitax) 16:05, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

Really? I have not heard this from other testers. v10 links with a new SDL, but I don't see how this particular problem would occur. Anyway, good that you found a workaround! --SimonKagstrom 16:32, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

Whats the status at the keyboard-front? I was very very happy to find this port for my BASIC-exercises, but my keyboard isn't working :( (it does in the DOSBox-port). A Homecomputer without keyboard-support? ;) But of course: Thanks for your work Simon! --Poeder 17:44, 1 August 2009 (UTC)

Try the workaround above, I don't know why it's needed. I haven't worked on Frodo in quite a while now, but maybe someone else is looking at this (and other issues) --SimonKagstrom 07:58, 9 August 2009 (UTC)

Command errors

When I insert a disk, I do "LOAD '*'8,1 and RUN". However, it takes a good while to do the loading, then usually mistypes RUN (usually doing " UN" or " N"). I even noticed this when trying to type it out in V4 (which sux about the shift). It just wont load...(oh, and does anyone know a why all disk images have annoying "IMPORTED BY:" screens? ><) --Atariangamer 20:06, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Well, try again - it typically works the second time. I'm working on improving this a bit for the next release.

Emulator crash bug

Its no biggie but I thought I'd report that I found a bug on the v6 version.

If you go into the emulator option 'other options' and press the plus button on the wiimote it goes to a black screen and crashes everytime and you then have to manually power down the wii. I can replicate the bug everytime I load the emulator.

Its not a big problem but if you press the plus key by mistake its a pain having to reboot the wii each time.

Other than that this version is running great! The game 'North & South' now plays fine so I'm happy. ...I'd still like a usb keyboad in the future - but I guess it not really essential. baboon

Enhancements

Resume

Please add a menu option to allow resume. Once you press home on the WiiMote it is sometimes difficult ot resume the game. You generally have to change a key bind to get back to the game. It would be great if there were an option on the menu to resume the game.--Wilsoff 11:27, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Try pressing the 1 key, that acts as "abort" and exits from the menu.

WiiMote 2

The second player WiiMote sort of works for Bubble Bobble. It can move 2P left and right and fire occasionally, but often WiiMote2 does nothing. Can this be fixed please?--Wilsoff 11:27, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Does it work better in v5? It sounds a bit like the other d-pad issue, but I don't know. --SimonKagstrom 17:29, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, non-issue, turned out to be low batteries in the wiimote.

Good to hear! Less entries in the TODO list now :-) --SimonKagstrom 08:39, 31 January 2009 (UTC)

Joystick Bindings

Would it be possible for you to implement the binding of Joystick directions to buttons? I'm asking this because in almost all games jumping is done by pushing Up on the Dpad, which isn't very comfortable. Using the 1 button to jump would be a great feature, and an improvement over a real C64 too. --Tetsuo 20:11, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

That's a good idea actually, using 1 for keys just feels awkward anyway. I've added it to the TODO list. --SimonKagstrom 19:28, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. You are my hero :) --Tetsuo 11:42, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

---

Now with support for the nunchuk and the classic analogue controller it would be great if key bindings where possible for the new buttons (c and z on the nunchuk and x,y,zl,zr,R and L on the classic analogue controller). Is it anyway already possible to bind two diffrent keys to eg. a-button on the wiimote and another key to "a" on the classic analogue controller? 15.03.09 18:15 knitax

Everything is possible, it's software :-). I thought about this as well, but didn't think anyone would like to do that :-). Might come in a later version. --SimonKagstrom 19:17, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

If someone uses the nunchuk or the classic analogue controller he/she for sure wants to use its buttons instead of the buttons from the wiimote - not only the stick. ;-)

UPS! That is already built in! But "only" for the classic controller. As said it would be great to be able to bind keys to c and z from the nunchuck! :-) 21.03.09 18:49 knitax

GUI Update?

Now with the new MSX emulator, Tantric's Nintendo emulators and Eke's soon to be released Gen-Plus we're seeing a huge update in GUI approach, with anything from screenshots to 1-button disk switches. Any plans of updating the Frodo\UAE GUIs? The color schemes are a bit hard on my eyes. Maybe make the game directories editable with XML to add info and sorting? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Corey89 (talk • contribs) 13:14, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Well, I'll admit that I've started looking into using libwiigui for Frodo. My main problem with it is that it's not using SDL, so it's not possible to build on the host currently. That makes development much more time-consuming than it should be, so I've so far been put off by that. Help needed as always!

I'm currently working on networking improvements for Frodo, and expect to have something usable for that fairly soon (then again - who knows!) SimonKagstrom 08:19, 3 November 2009 (UTC)

Ah, I figured it was able to blend in with SDL since DosBox uses libwiigui. --Corey89 17:34, 3 November 2009 (UTC)

It's certainly able to blend in - it's just that the build would then be wii-only, so no more development in Linux in that case. SimonKagstrom 20:39, 3 November 2009 (UTC)