How to swap disks with the new VICE Commodore64 core?

Libretro Cores
#1

Hi,

Thanks to all involved for the great VICE Commodore 64 core, enjoying it very much.

After a morning of trial and error I’m left with the following issue though:

how do you swap a disk with the current VICE C64 core?

On the forums there is some scarce information by r-type on how to swap disks for multidisk games using fliplists with retroarch / VICE core. I can’t get it to work in any way unfortunately.

Apparently is it supposed to work by doing the following (example game “Creatures 2”, which has two disks):

I’ve created a fliplist with standalone WinVice. It results in this file “creatures2.vfl”, of which the content is:

# Vice fliplist file
UNIT 8
Z:\Software\C64\Creatures_2_a.d64
Z:\Software\C64\Creatures_2_b.d64

Next step I load the VICE core via commandline, with the “-flipname” parameter, like this:

retroarch -L “cores/vice_x64_libretro.dll” -c “config/vice_x64_libretro.cfg” “z:\Software\C64\Creatures_2_a.d64” -flipname “z:\Software\c64\creatures2.vfl”

Unfortunately this doesn’t work (it just loads a seemingly empty disk, ending up in the blue C64 basic screen).

So what is going wrong with the above? Hopefully someone can shed light on this topic.

#2

fliplist work fine for me :slight_smile: But you don’t use the correct syntax for cmdline. first you have to pass core_name to cmdline like.

 retroarch -L "cores/vice_x64_libretro.dll" -c "config/vice_x64_libretro.cfg" "x64 z:\Software\C64\Creatures_2_a.d64 -flipname z:\Software\c64\creatures2.vfl "

else you can use an cmdfile like wasteland.cmd with

x64 -autostart ./Master1.d64  -flipname ./wasteland.vfl
#3

Hi r-type,

Thx for answering :slight_smile:

Unfortunately your first suggestion of passing the core_name doesn’t work for me, as it makes retroarch crash (I’m using retroarch on Windows 10)

To absolutely minimize possibility of error I have now put the two d64 files in retroarch root folder and the .vfl file also.

I’ll tell step by step what works and what not:

Doing this works:

retroarch -v -L "cores\vice_x64_libretro.dll" "x64 creatures_2_a.d64"

it makes the first disk load normally (works fine, game opening starts).

But doing this makes retroarch crash:

retroarch -v -L "cores\vice_x64_libretro.dll" "x64 creatures_2_a.d64 -flipname Creatures_2.vfl "

The content of the Creatures_2 vfl is:

# Vice fliplist file

UNIT 8
C:\Users\Admin\Emulators\Retroarch\Creatures_2_b.d64
C:\Users\Admin\Emulators\Retroarch\Creatures_2_a.d64

The last part of the log that is shown before the “Retroarch stopped working” is:

0  x64
 1  creatures_2_a.d64
 2  -flipname
 3  Creatures_2.vfl
main:early cmdline(argc:4)
main:archdep_init(argc:4)
bootp:(C:\Users\Admin\Emulators\Retroarch\system\data)
bootp:(C:\Users\Admin\Emulators\Retroarch\system\data)
HW scale not available, forcing to disabled
main:ui_init(argc:4)
HW scale not available, forcing to disabled
main:initcmdline_check_args(argc:4)
initcmdline_check_args (argc:4)
initcmdline_check_args 1 (argc:4)
initcmdline_check_args 2 (argc:3)
Extra arguments on command-line:  -flipname Creatures_2.vfl

Do you have any idea why it is not working?

Further I do not understand your second suggestion (with the wasteland.cmd file) of what I need to do / how to start it. Could you please take me through it step by step, preferably with the Creatures_2 example above?

Last question is (if and when we get this to work) are the hotkeys for swapping the disks “ALT+N” and “ALT+B”? Can these then be pressed during the running game, or does the Nuklear GUI first need be opened?

#4

sorry for delay!

So for vfl in command line you have to launch with (adapt to your need and path)

my vfl file

# Vice fliplist file

UNIT 8
.\Creatures_2_b.d64
.\Creatures_2_a.d64

the command line

retroarch  -L vice_x64_libretro.dll "x64 -autostart ./Creatures_2_a.d64  -flipname ./creature2.vfl"

or using a cmd text file like creature.cmd with content

x64 -autostart ./Creatures_2_a.d64  -flipname ./creature2.vfl

and then launch with

retroarch -L vice_x64_libretro.dll creature2.cmd

and in log you should have something like

RetroArch [INFO] ::     keyboard
 0  x64
 1  -autostart
 2  ./Creatures_2_a.d64
 3  -flipname
 4  ./creature2.vfl
main:early cmdline(argc:5)
main:archdep_init(argc:5)

notice the -autostart before the d64 file.

For fliplist next/prev for now you have to use virtual kbd (F9) in page 2 to use F+ or F- . in log you will notice something like

(F+) pressed! (6,4)
d0 -> .\Creatures_2_b.d64

or with true keyboard KP_PLUS /KP_MINUS for fliplist next/prev

1 Like
#5

Sorry to necro this discussion, but is there an easier way to do this? like a way to do it in-game via a menu or something?

#6

Hi

I’d like to know how to set this up for the XMB menu system to. I did try the M3U playlist option as used for PS1 etc, but it didn’t seem to work. Frank

#7

I can’t create my own topic yet, so I am asking my questions about VICE C64 here. I can’t seem to “disable” the RetroArch hotkeys when running VICE C64. the Game focus toggle : scroll lock does not do anything; eg:spacebar still does fast forward toggle. I have not yet tried setting a hotkey for Enable hotkeys because I do not understand how to use it: do you have to hold the hotkey down; or does it toggle enable / disable hotkeys? Another issue is that when the VICE C64 core starts running, there is no “top” menu (file, snapshot, options, settings, help) like in this picture:

Vice_options_swap_joystick

I tried “Alt+D” and “Alt+Return” which is supposed to toggle fullscreen in VICE C64, but it just typed a regular D in the C64 “screen”. Any help with these issues would be greatly appreciated.

#8

Hotkey-enable is a hold function.

#9

Have you tried / used it? Does it work compared to game focus toggle not working?

#10

I’ve been able to get flipfiles to work but I can’t get anything to launch if I use long file names with paths of C64 roms if there are spaces in them, even if I enclose it in “”. Here’s a sample of one that won’t launch:

retroarch -v -L “cores/vice_x64_libretro.dll” “x64 -autostart “H:\ISOs & ROMs\Commodore 64\Neuromancer (USA) (Disk 1 Side A).D64” -flipname H:\Temp\Neuromancer.vfl”

Are cmd lines for flipfiles just not supported for long filenames with spaces? Is this syntax correct? It works fine if I use shorter filenames with no spaces.

#11

Update: answering my own issue, and it’s solved. I discovered you can just use the short filenames & paths if you have spaces in your filenames and paths. I use a great program called “Path Copy Copy” which even lets you select a group of files in a folder and it will give you the short filenames and paths, which work fine in Vice x64 command lines when launching flipfiles to swap disks. Just thought I’d post this discovery for others who may be having trouble with cmd lines, VICE x64 flipfiles and long filenames and/or paths with spaces.

1 Like