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c64 forever
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2023-02-26
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u
*************************************
C64 Forever
Reviewed by Commodore Free
*************************************
After the hugely successful Amiga
forever, Cloanto have finally
released a "C64 forever" and as you
can guess this title is amid at the
world's best selling computer the
Commodore 64.
What is C64 FOREVER?
C64 forever is emulation software
designed to run on the Microsoft
Windows platform. Upon running the
software you are presented with a
neat little menu system
Where you can
- Play the emulation from the disk so
you don't need to install anything
- Run the installer and install the
software to your machine
- Look at the documentation
- Browse the disk
- Or visit two website
- C64 Forever homepage
- Retroplatform Home Page
We start as all eager beavers by
running the software or "playing from
the Medium"
Once the software initialises you are
presented with the main screen
The main screen show 4 tabs across
the top with the options of
Games
Demoscene
Applications
Gallery
The default state is Games, scrolling
down the list of games shows a small
screen shot of the game and the stats
are updated for each game with
publisher, game name, year and genre
so sports shoot-em up etc scroll down
the list to find the game you want to
run and click the big > this starts
an emulator with the application
running
When running there are a number of
option on the right hand side
1 x will set the screen to the
standard Commodore size (small)
2 x will set the screen to 2 times
the Commodore screen size
And the arrow star shape toggles full
screen to return back from full
screen hold ESC key, in full screen
mode I lost the left and right
borders of the Commodore screen.
The last icon a camera takes a
snapshot or picture of the running
Commodore Screen
Closing the screen gives a small menu
to save the current state, Remember
the choice and don't show this menu
option again
Looking at the help file all
copyright holder are mentioned as can
be expected from Cloanto all the
files are licensed to use, rather
disappointing is the use of Cracked
versions of the software, with the
crackers intros where you see a mini
demo then usually have to press space
key to continue. Maybe the originals
should have been used and just the
copy protection removed. (of course
these are my personal thoughts)
The main player looks well and
suitability styled with various
information and a screen shot of the
game more about this later
I couldn't find any Llamasoft or Jeff
Minter games as these are not listed
in the menu and from Jeff issuing a
no copyright hassles are stated if
you distribute or copy any of his
older games, this seems odd. Jeff
minter and Llamasoft are one of my
hero's I find this a little
disappointing. I will also comment
here that I feel TMR (Jason Kelk{SHIFT-*}s)
(COSINE) games would have been
welcome too because of the
playability aspect, but you could go
on an on, what about xyz adding games
is however easy and will be explained
later in this review)
The next tab along Is Demoscene,
again a list of demos to select and
run with information about the date
and Demo coders
Moving to the next tab is
Applications; this is just a front
end to run the various emulators for
example to run a Commodore 64
emulator or vic20 emulator or pet
emulator etc.
The Final tab is entitled gallery,
here are PDF versions of the Computer
magazine from 1982 covering the
Commodore 64 a picture in JPEG
version of the Commodore 64 the old
breadbox version in a stylised pose
the Commodore 64 SID Patent
documentation and finally an MPEG
version of the tool box audio tape
about Commodore that was presented
with some compilation boxes
"congratulations you are now the
owner of the worlds most popular home
computer" it starts
I am sure Cloanto could have bundled
more photos and information about
Commodore and the Commodore 64. Maybe
part of the Amiga forever series of
videos could have been bundled with
this like the Jay miner interview and
inside Commodore for user who haven't
seen or purchased the Amiga forever
version. Also the death bed vigil and
David Hyne interviews. Although Die
hard Commodore users will have seen
these the more casual user will not.
Options exist to import to and from
the Native rp2 format if converting
to RP2 format and you drag the file
to the menu you receive the following
information dialogue
Creating a file for conversion to rp2
format involves the following process
Making a folder with the relevant
details for example Arkanoid would be
Arkanoid - Revenge of Doh (Imagine,
1988, C64)
The folder would then contain 3 or
more depending on how many disk
images were needed files
The D64
arkanoidrevenge.D64
the PNG preview picture
rp2-preview.png
and a text file or html file with the
help text inside
rp2-help-en.txt
Arkanoid for example contains the
following text
"Inspired by one of the most famous
arcade games in history. Use the
paddle and the bouncing ball to
destroy the walls and collect bonuses
At the crack intro screen press the
spacebar to continue. Then press H or
T to enable High Score saver or
Trainer. The game is
joystick-controlled."
There are two versions available of
c64 Forever a plus version
downloadable and on CD and also an
Express version, these are
purchasable straight from the Cloanto
website.
From the manual
"Manual Playback of RP2 and other
Media Image Files
C64 Forever includes support for RP2
(from RetroPlatform Player), which is
a file format designed to "wrap" all
disk and other media images that may
be part of an application into a
single ready-to-run archive. RP2
files are already compressed, and may
contain multiple media images, so it
is not necessary to further store
them into ZIP archives for storage or
distribution.
When C64 Forever is installed on
Windows, it becomes possible to
double-click RP2 and other popular
disk and tape file images (e.g. a
downloaded game on one or more .d64,
.t64, etc. files) to play the
content. After the Manual Playback
Options dialog appears you can
drag-and-drop additional disks, and
rearrange them if necessary.
For additional information, please
refer to:
RP2 File Format Information
http://www.retroplatform.com/kb
/15-122
Commodore Free:
The emulation seems to be a
customised version of VICE
Running version 2.1.1
Looking on the CD in the private
\windows folder shows a vice folder
From the main screen selecting help
about- plug-in reveals
Viceplugin.dll version 2.0.3.0
Again from the Help File
"Top Benefits
C64 Forever shares the same
RetroPlatform family player, database
and content management components as
the very successful Amiga Forever
series. As such, it also embodies
more than 12 years of experience and
refinements and a tradition of
innovation and long-term continuity
and support.
Compared to other solutions for
different systems, C64 Forever stands
out for features which include the
following:
Smooth setup: it takes only a few
mouse clicks to install and run (no
additional downloads required)
Intuitive, simple and refined user
interface, in which player, content,
database and search are seamlessly
integrated (not a "front end" that
launches an external emulator)
Built-in RetroPlatform Library
database featuring thousands of
titles, with online updates
As some projects kept adding options
year after year, C64 Forever strived
to keep options to a minimum, as
RetroPlatform components take
sophisticated decisions behind the
scenes
If you know how to use Amiga Forever
you are instantly familiar with C64
Forever, and vice versa
Support for revolutionary RP2 format
(one click to play, one file per
title, no need to zip or unzip games
or manage multiple disk images, etc.)
Support and recognition of other
popular disk, tape, cartridge and
save state formats, with options to
identify un-catalogued similar
variants (not a simple "checksum"
approach)
Built-in search-as-you-type for
installed content and custom
one-click internet search for games
and demo scene productions
Tested on Windows 7 (bothx86 and x64)
Features of C64 Forever include:
* Emulation of C64 hardware (allows
you to run C64 software on your PC)
* Additional emulation of related
systems: PET 2001, CBM 3032, CBM
4032, CBM 8032, VIC 20, CBM 610,
C16, Plus/4 and C128
* More than 200 pre-installed games
and demo scene productions
* One-click play support for
thousands of downloadable C64 and
other 8-bit games, demos and
applications
* Retro Platform Library includes
title and configuration data for
more than 5,000 C64 games, with
online updates
* RP2 Manager to convert between RP2
and other popular formats (D64, T64
etc.)
* Preconfigured and enhanced VICE
emulation engine with auto-updates
* Special features and gallery of
items of historical interest
Commodore Free
A nice approach to the Commodore
Emulation scene, the new file format
is interesting especially for
transportation however you would need
to convert the file back to native
d64 format to enable you to play the
games on a real machine.
The vice emulation seemed to be very
stable for me during testing even
with the "unstable" version of the
software, I would have liked to see
more files included in the version
and maybe a walkthrough to convert
the file to the new format For new to
emulation users this could be a
welcome purchase but to old time
Commodore users who will already own
a copy of vice then I feel there is
little to entice you to part with
your hard earned cash. I feel the
product will sell to the more casual
users and if more games are available
for free or small charge download
then the product could do well.
As expected it's a slick presentation
from Cloanto, however I don't feel
the same energy went into this
product as did the Amiga forever
version. Of course Hardcore Commodore
users will stick to using the real
machine rather than Emulation that
never works as well as the real
machine. "
=====================================