[HowTo] Bookworm: Play Commodore 64 (C64) games with VICE

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#1 Post by **Hallvor** » 2024-02-01 18:10

What is VICE?

VICE is a program that runs on a Unix, MS-DOS, Win32, OS/2, BeOS, QNX 4.x, QNX 6.x, Amiga, Syllable or Mac OS X machine and executes programs intended for the old 8-bit computers. The current version emulates the C64, the C64DTV, the C128, the VIC20, practically all PET models, the PLUS4 and the CBM-II (aka C610/C510). An extra emulator is provided for C64 expanded with the CMD SuperCPU. However, in this howto we'll just focus on setting up VICE for Commodore 64 (C64).

Note: This howto will require installing some files from a third party repository.

Installation

Become root (or use sudo for all commands with #).

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$ su -

Install VICE

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# apt install vice

We'll need a few extra files. Enter the /usr/share/vice directory

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# cd /usr/share/vice

Make a temporary directory for the files we are downloading

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# mkdir temp

Enter the new directory you just made

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# cd temp

Get the necessary files

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# wget http://www.zimmers.net/anonftp/pub/cbm/crossplatform/emulators/VICE/vice-3.8.tar.gz

Extract the tar.gz file

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# tar vzxf vice-3.8.tar.gz

Enter the ROM directory

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# cd /usr/share/vice/temp/vice-3.8/data/C64/

Copy the ROM

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# cp basic-901226-01.bin chargen-901225-01.bin kernal-901227-03.bin /usr/share/vice/C64/

Enter the drives directory

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# cd /usr/share/vice/temp/vice-3.8/data/DRIVES/

Copy the the drives ROM

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# cp d1541II d1571cr dos* /usr/share/vice/DRIVES/

Enter the printer ROM directory

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# cd /usr/share/vice/temp/vice-3.8/data/PRINTER/

Copy the printer ROMs

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# cp cbm1526-325341-08.bin mps801.bin  mps803.vpl nl10* /usr/share/vice/PRINTER/
Delete the temp directory

Delete the temporary directory

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# rm -rf /usr/share/vice/temp

Launch VICE

Open a terminal and type in the following

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$ x64

You should now be greeted by the familiar C64 screen

Configuring controls

Being on a PC, you may not have a joystick available. However, using the keyboard works fine.

In the lower part of the screen, you can see "Joysticks". Make sure that "Allow keyset joysticks" is checked, and then click "Configure joysticks".

Most games will use "Joystick #2" as default, so you can select "Keyset B" in the dropdown menu and then click the "Configure keyset B" button.

Click on each button and select keys on your keyboard for at least North (up), South (down), West (left) and East (right), and at least one fire button. Then click OK.

If the control doesn't work in a game, check the "Swap joysticks" button.

Using a joystick

Plug in a USB joystick before launching VICE, then configure it as joystick 2 in the joystick settings. It should be automatically detected. If it doesn't work, click the "Swap joysticks" button.

Launching a game

From the menu, click "File" -> "smart attach..."

Then choose any of your D64/T64/CRT/TAP/PRG files.

Select "Autostart"

This should auto load the game and run it.

One of my favorite games

Configuration
This page has a little quick and easy info on configurations:
https://www.c64-wiki.com/wiki/WinVICE

This manual is very comprehensive:
https://vice-emu.sourceforge.io/vice_toc.html

Finding games
There are tons of web pages offering downloads of abandonware C64 games, so take a pick.