Flack
01-05-2004, 05:13 PM
If I had to pick my favorite gaming system of all time, it would be the Commodore 64. From 1984-1991, this was my gaming platform of choice. While searching the web late last night, I ran across "PS2 DC64", written by BigBoy. DC64 is a Commodore 64 emulator for the Dreamcast, which has now been ported to the PS2 (and XBox, apparently).
Getting the emulator to run is fairly easy, although it will require some leg work and a mod chip (or other booting method of your choice). The first step involves downloading the emulator (under 300k) and unzipping its files to a directory on your hard drive. Inside that directory, you must create a sub-directory named GAMES. This directory is where you will put your C64 game images (not technically "roms", since most of them came from diskettes). While T64, PRG, and P00 formats are supported, D64 (probably the most popular formats used in C64 emulation) is not. D64 images are complete disk images, while the others are images of single games. Once you have unzipped all your images into the GAMES directory, you must now create a text file named GAMES.TXT which points to each game. For example, line one might read "GAMES\pacman.p00", line two might read "GAMES\donkeykong.p00", and so on and so forth. Games can be organized in multiple directories if so desired. I ended up scripting a quick program in Perl to do this for me, as I didn't feel like manually typing in 500 filenames. The readme.txt file does a good job of walking users through each step of the process. Fortunately, this only has to be done once.
Once the groundwork is done, simply burn the CD (instructions for doing so with Nero are also included in the readme file). Now you're ready to enjoy some classic Commodore 64 action on your Playstation 2!
The C64's graphics and sound, while good, are no match for the PS2's power. The Playstation 2 emulates the C64 perfectly, running at full speed with full sound. The lack of a keyboard is circumvented by building lots and lots of common keystrokes into the emulator. Run Stop/Restore, F1-F8, and many other common C64 keystrokes are built into joystick combinations. This makes getting the games up and running a snap. I wouldn't want to try a text adventure with it, but it solves the problem of having to press F1 to start a game. Another convenience is the space bar is mapped to the O key on the PS2 controller. The C64 used Atari 2600 compatible joysticks, and many games which used a second button used the space bar (in Commando, space bar throws grenades, for example).
Overall, I felt the games played pretty true to original form. There were a few sound effects that sounded off to me, but I haven't played some of these games in 10-15 years, so it could be the playee and not the emulator whose memory is a bit off. Games like Yie-Ar Kung-Fu, Ghostbusters, and Bubble Bobble loaded up and played perfectly. Due to the lack of D64 file support, I could not get multidisk and multifile games to play. No California Games for me. :(
Final Verdict: PS2 DC64 does a good job of allowing you to play most of the old C64 classics on your PS2. The lack of D64 support and a virtual keyboard will keep you from playing all the classics, but for flopping down and spinning a quick game of Impossible Mission, Barbarian or Wizball, it's not bad. It's not a replacement for any of the PC based C64 emulators (which in turn aren't a replacement for a C64 itself!), but the games it does play, it plays well.
Note: DC64 is also available on the Dreamcast and has been ported to XBox as well, although from what I understand Frodo-X and Vice 64-X are both more advanced C64 emulators for the XBox.
Getting the emulator to run is fairly easy, although it will require some leg work and a mod chip (or other booting method of your choice). The first step involves downloading the emulator (under 300k) and unzipping its files to a directory on your hard drive. Inside that directory, you must create a sub-directory named GAMES. This directory is where you will put your C64 game images (not technically "roms", since most of them came from diskettes). While T64, PRG, and P00 formats are supported, D64 (probably the most popular formats used in C64 emulation) is not. D64 images are complete disk images, while the others are images of single games. Once you have unzipped all your images into the GAMES directory, you must now create a text file named GAMES.TXT which points to each game. For example, line one might read "GAMES\pacman.p00", line two might read "GAMES\donkeykong.p00", and so on and so forth. Games can be organized in multiple directories if so desired. I ended up scripting a quick program in Perl to do this for me, as I didn't feel like manually typing in 500 filenames. The readme.txt file does a good job of walking users through each step of the process. Fortunately, this only has to be done once.
Once the groundwork is done, simply burn the CD (instructions for doing so with Nero are also included in the readme file). Now you're ready to enjoy some classic Commodore 64 action on your Playstation 2!
The C64's graphics and sound, while good, are no match for the PS2's power. The Playstation 2 emulates the C64 perfectly, running at full speed with full sound. The lack of a keyboard is circumvented by building lots and lots of common keystrokes into the emulator. Run Stop/Restore, F1-F8, and many other common C64 keystrokes are built into joystick combinations. This makes getting the games up and running a snap. I wouldn't want to try a text adventure with it, but it solves the problem of having to press F1 to start a game. Another convenience is the space bar is mapped to the O key on the PS2 controller. The C64 used Atari 2600 compatible joysticks, and many games which used a second button used the space bar (in Commando, space bar throws grenades, for example).
Overall, I felt the games played pretty true to original form. There were a few sound effects that sounded off to me, but I haven't played some of these games in 10-15 years, so it could be the playee and not the emulator whose memory is a bit off. Games like Yie-Ar Kung-Fu, Ghostbusters, and Bubble Bobble loaded up and played perfectly. Due to the lack of D64 file support, I could not get multidisk and multifile games to play. No California Games for me. :(
Final Verdict: PS2 DC64 does a good job of allowing you to play most of the old C64 classics on your PS2. The lack of D64 support and a virtual keyboard will keep you from playing all the classics, but for flopping down and spinning a quick game of Impossible Mission, Barbarian or Wizball, it's not bad. It's not a replacement for any of the PC based C64 emulators (which in turn aren't a replacement for a C64 itself!), but the games it does play, it plays well.
Note: DC64 is also available on the Dreamcast and has been ported to XBox as well, although from what I understand Frodo-X and Vice 64-X are both more advanced C64 emulators for the XBox.