![]() ![]() I say unit here because all of my game files are zipped into one-game-one-zip-file. So obviously, there should be no other content than C64 games in the directory. So instead, I am going to pick option 3, Manual Scan, which will not check against the database but will add each and every unit found as a game. Rather, it seems simply to show that the Amiga fanbase is still going strong while C64 nostalgia is just that: nostalgia for times gone by, not an active scene. I don’t think that 1:15 relationship reflects the true proportion of the two games libraries. Strengthening this suspicion is the fact that the binary database file for C64 is 46 kb against a 706 kb database for the Amiga. ![]() Most of the games I found in the list were obscure educational games, and there just weren’t that many games in it to begin with. If this representation of the database contents is to be believed, though, I think the answer sadly is that the database for the C64 is just not very good. I say “I think” because I haven’t seen it work yet, despite the database file for the Commodore 64 being present and correct. This – I think – has the advantage of adding thumbnails and metadata and generally making your library more appealing. There are three ways to do this, the first two of which match files against a database. Now, to add the files I go to Import content on the main left hand menu. If, for instance, you accidentally go to Settings > File Browser instead, you will find the option to have the file browser start at the last used directory. Understanding why some options are under one heading and others under another will seem to require memorization, routine and immersion rather than strict logic. This also serves as a neat introdution to a recurring experience in my time with RetroArch: A very confusing settings hierarchy. The setting for default starting point is found under Settings > Directory > File Browser. If I need to use the file browser multiple times, navigating to a specific spot from root over and over again gets annoying. The easiest way to build and maintain a games library in RetroArch is to have it scan a directory containing game files and have the discovered games added to your library, ideally associated with the correct core.įirst, I want to set the default directory in file browser settings. Since it worked, I never investigated further. As will be apparent in what follows, I just picked the first in the list. The VICE DLC adds multiple cores covering multiple Commodore models, including the VIC-20, Commodore 128 and even the PET (!) But there are also at least three cores covering the C64 in what appears to be slight build variations on the same codebase. I say core = DLC but that’s not quite true. In order to play Commodore 64 games, I added the RetroArch – VICE DLC to my “purchase” (it’s free, like RetroArch itself) under the CONTENT FOR THIS GAME DLC list on RetroArch’s Steam Store page. ![]() RetroArch also has it’s own distribution of cores and other modular parts for use when not installed through Steam, though I would advise against mixing the two. When installing from Steam, cores are DLC that should be added in Steam. And as indicated by the name of the component, the underlying emulator engine is the same.Ī core, in RetroArch parlance, is a game interpreter. Once you get set up, Retroarch is so much more Deck friendly than the VICE project’s 圆4 program that very much presumes mouse and keyboard. Why RetroArch and not just plain VICE? The short answer is UI. I found it easier getting used to RetroArch and it’s user interface while sitting at a desktop setup, so I definitely recommend at first either hooking the Deck up to a mouse, keyboard and external display – or trying this out on a regular gaming computer first. the emulator needed for C64 games, in general but with a particular emphasis on making it work for the Deck’s controls and Steam Input. This post is going to detail how to run and configure the VICE component of RetroArch, i.e. The Steam Deck feels very much of that same spirit. It was packaged so as to be accessible – also if all you wanted to do was game on it – but it was a computer, open to tinkerers, not a locked down console. In the 1980s the Commodore 64 was the home computer that took the fight to console town. How apposite to link the Steam Deck up to the Commodore 64. Even after putting an ungodly amount of hours into Hades, discovering the joys of The Swapper and replaying Portal, getting Boulder Dash – a modest home computer hit in the 80s, but a childhood obsession of mine – to run seamlessly on the Steam Deck, felt like peak Deck. ![]()
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