This document is for people who have downloaded the PC64 emulator and are not sure what to do next.
What is PC64The PC64 emulator as it suggests, emulates a C64 on an PC. It can then be used to play C64 games on a PC or anything else you want to do with a C64.
The first thing to do is to run it, so unzip it, go to the directory you put it in and run PC64. If all goes well you should now be in PC64. If you just see a yellow screen and a toolbar at the top click on manager and select new. This brings up a manager screen where just like in windows explorer you can navigate your hard drive and run games, as well as doing other tasks. The next thing to you will want to do is to play a game.
To play a game the first thing you have to do is download some from the games section. Games come in four main types:
D64, P00, T64 and PRG
So to show you how to play each game you must download ( or already have ) one of each type. Download Last ninja 3.zip this is a D64 file type, download into the eagles nest.zip this is a P00 file, download terror of the deep.zip this is a T64 file and finally download hacker.zip this is a PRG file.
Unzip the games into a games directory (preferably not your PC64 directory ) this makes it easier to browse through your games and select the one you want to play. Then run PC64, then using the manager navigate to the directory that you have put your games in. use the cursor keys press left to move up the directory continue until you are at the drive selection, press cursor down to select the drive on which you have stored your games, then press cursor right to examine that drive then scroll down using down and right. Navigate your way to your games directory. When you press cursor right when you are in your games directory you should see the games that are in D64 format ( they are disk Images )
select LN3_1.D64 Press down and up to move between them. When you have selected it, it will have a grey bar on it. Using your mouse Click on the right pane ( the large black section to the right of the directory ) or just press the tab key, this takes you into the other window, which is inside the disk (just like if you had loaded the directory and viewed it in real life ) usually the game can be played by running the first program in the list. For last ninja 3 this would be L.Ninja +3/flt always ignore the
LLLLLLLLLLLLL or similar as this is just a boarder and will not do anything. So double click on L.ninja +3/flt with your mouse. Or move the arrow down ( using the cursor down key ) until it is pointing to L.Ninja +3/flt Then press enter. You are now loading and running the game. You should see the familiar blue screen and see it start to load. Wait while the screen flashes then you will see a lot of text bouncing and scrolling across the screen. This is a demo and informs you as to who copied this version of the game. Press the space bar to continue loading the game. You should now see the message insert side 2 and press run-stop. What this meant in the old days was to turn over the disk in your disk drive. Now it means you have to switch to the second disk image. How do you do that simple press F9 this brings up a menu of the available disks it is highlighting the one you are currently using LN3_1.D64 now you understand what the 1 means it stands for side 1 you now want side 2 so move the bar down so that it highlights LN3_2.D64 this is side 2 of the last ninja 3 disk. Then press enter this will take you back to the game. You now have inserted side 2 all you have to do now is press run-stop, this is the tab key on a PC keyboard. Press the tab key and you will now go to the cheats menu ( not all games have this ) select the cheats you want then press the space bar the game will load and you can now play it. ( see game play )
not all d64 games will work buy running the first program if it doesn’t work with the first program then look from a program called boot, loader or main. These must be run first then run the program for you.
Also while in the main any other files below the first program or loader will not work when you run them as they are internal parts of the game, so cannot be used by you. But sometimes they are extra programs. This is the case for last ninja 3, they second program is actually the intro, try running it by double clicking on it ( using the same method as when running the game ) you should now see the intro load and then start to play. The third one is the instruction manual. As stated above not all games will have extra programs but look for names that make sense or are descriptions ( they say something like game picture or game instructions ) or are the name of another game as some disks contain more than one game.
Make sure you have Unzipped Into the eagles nest.zip into the games directory. Then run PC64. Navigate to the games directory ( as above ) but only go to the games directory i.e. if you can see the list of D64 games press cursor left so that the grey box is around the games directory. Now using your mouse Click on the right pane ( the large black section to the right of the directory ) or just press the tab key, this takes you into the other window. This lists all your games in P00 format in that directory you should see a file called eagles nest move the arrow until it is pointing at it. Then press enter. Or just double click the file eagles nest. This will load and run the game. Wait until it is fully loaded then you can play it. ( See game play )
These file types are more difficult to run with PC64, as they are not directly supported by PC64. The solution is to convert it from a T64 file into a P00 file. To do this find the file called t64top00.exe in your PC64 directory. copy this to your games directory, then run it. This program then converts all of the T64 files into P00 files. When the program has finished look through the directory, you should see new P00 files with the same name as the T64 file. You can now run the P00 games as described in the above section.
These files do not immediately work with PC64 but you can get them to work using the following method. Firstly unzip hacker and place it in your games directory. Start PC64 and navigate to your games directory. Then click on the manager menu then select disk image and click new. Now type the name of the disk for our example it will be Hacker, so type this into both boxes the dos name is what you will see in dos and can only be 8 characters long but the C64 name is what you see in PC64 and can be up to 16 characters long and can include spaces. When you have finished click on ok. You have now created a blank disk image with the name Hacker. You now have to find this new disk, so press cursor right to list all of you D64 images. Then press down until you highlight Hacker. Click on the other window or press tab. You are now inside the disk. It is of course empty, you now have to click on the manager menu then import. You now have to navigate to your games directory. Then find the file hacker.prg and click on ok. Now click on ok again. You should now see the conversion process take place when complete you should now see the hacker program in the hacker disk. All you have to do now is double click on it or select it and press enter. The game will now load and run you can now play it ( See game play )
Once you have loaded your chosen game you can now play it. The first thing you have to learn are the controls.
When you are running a game press F10 this will pause the game and take you to the joystick port selection menu. You can emulate a joystick ( with a PC joystick or keyboard ) in either port of the C64.
Use the numpad with the following controls.
Up = 8
Down = 2
Left = 4
Right = 6
Fire = right control key
Or plug an analogue PC joystick into your computer and use as usual.
To select either joystick or keyboard, when in a game press F10 then in either port one or two select keyboard for keyboard input or analogue for joystick, or none to disable joystick emulation for that port.
For those of you who don’t know or can’t remember the C64 came with two joystick ports ( one and two ) the default joystick port for games was port two. So most games will only work with the joystick emulated to port two. This is done by pressing F10, selecting keyboard or joystick for port two and click on ok. If the joystick doesn’t work try selecting the other port.
Also some games will freeze when you have both joysticks emulated at the same time, or if the game pauses when you press fire. Then switch either port to none. If the game still doesn’t work select the other port and turn the opposite port to none.
The PC keyboard is used to emulate the C64 keyboard therefore pressing e on your PC keyboard is the same as pressing e on a C64 keyboard and
F1-F8 on the PC keyboard are the same as F1-F8 on the C64. There were also certain special keys on the C64 keyboard that are not present on a PC keyboard. These have been mapped onto certain keys of the PC keyboard as follows
C64 key PC key
CBM ALT
Shift Shift
Caps Lock Caps Lock
Run-Stop Tab
Restore F12
DEL Backspace
Home Home
£ Insert
The PC64 emulator has an in-built save game facility. This function is incredibly useful as you can also save and load your games in a fraction of a second. Allowing many tries at the same part without tedious loading times in-between. It cannot be stressed to much how much easier and what new possibilities are opened up when this facility is used to it’s maximum.
When you are playing a game and wish to save it, what ever point you are at, hold Shift and press F11. This takes you to the naming dialogue box. If you wish to change the name of your saved game type it in the box, also you can select where on your hard drive you want to save it. When you have finished your selections click on OK. You have now saved your game. Press F5 to return to your game. Now that you have saved your game if you wish to re-save it, all you have to do now is hold shift and press F11. You will notice the screen flash, your game has now been saved and overwritten the previous saved game. This makes it easy and fast to save and update game saves. Meaning you can quickly save your games after every level or before and after a particularly hard section.
As pressing Shift + F11 overwrites your previously saved game you may want to keep that save but also save your game now, to do this press Escape this brings you back to the emulator manager. Now open the File menu and select "Save as…" you can now save your game under a different name. When you have finished saving your game press F5 to return to your game. Now pressing Shift + F11 will overwrite the saved game of the name you saved as. ( not the first saved game ) you can do as many save as’es as you like. Also you can resave over a previous save game by using "save as.." and selecting the previous save game for the name. You will be prompted if you wish to overwrite it. If you do select yes and you will overwrite that save game with your current game status.
Please note that if you exit PC64, without exiting your game first (without closing the game window in manager) the current status of your game will overwrite your saved game.
If you actually wish to save a game using the SAVE command in a game that has this function you will only be able to save to disk as tapes are not supported in PC64. To save to disk you will need to have created a blank disk, to put your saved games in. ( see creating a blank disk ) when you have done this, you have to start the save game progress in the game when prompted select disk you will now have to insert your save game disk press F9 select you save game disk and press ok. Save your game now if your game is a D64 image press F9 and select the game disk and press ok, you can now resume your game. Loading is of course the same process.
If you wish to reload a game that you have already saved. Press F11 you will then see a dialogue box asking you if you wish to reject the current changes? ( everything since you last saved the game ) what it really means is, do you want to reload your last saved game? If you do select ok. If not press cancel. If you clicked ok, the game will automatically restart at the point at which you saved it.
If you have just started PC64 and wish to load a saved game open the file menu and select "open" now find and select the saved game you want select ok, then press F5 to play your saved game.
Esc Leave game and return to PC64. You will have to press it twice if an error has occurred.
F5 Return to a game from PC64.
F9 Access change disk menu.
F10 Access joystick options.
Ctrl + F4 Close the highlighted window
Alt + F4 Exit PC64
Shift + F11 Save game.
F11 Load game
Shift + F5 Run game and record protocol.
F4 Scan protocol for errors.
Creating a blank disk
Start PC64 and navigate to your games directory, or the directory you wish your blank disk to be. Then click on the manager menu then select "disk image" and click "new". Now type the names you want to call your new disk into both boxes the dos name is what you will see in dos and can only be 8 characters long but the C64 name is what you see in PC64 and can be up to 16 characters long and can include spaces. The names do not have to be the same but it makes sense to name them similarly to aid locating the disk in either dos or PC64. When you have finished click on ok. You have now created a blank disk image with the name you entered.
if there is a problem loading a game, load the game as usual, if you see a screen where it starts to run the game but after a few minutes nothing has happened. Press Esc to return to PC64. If nothing happens when you press Esc try it a second time. If you are now back to PC64 after pressing escape twice, it means it was stuck in a endless loop and so it is very unlikely you will be able to play this game using PC64. But please try the methods below if you want to, as they sometimes work but don’t get your hopes up.
Press Shift + F5. PC64 will now switch back to the game and record what happens, wait for about a minute then press Esc until you are in PC64. You will see the normally blank window of the game is filled with text. With this window highlighted press F4. This will search the text for errors. These show up as red or yellow coloured text. If an error is detected ( you will see a red coloured sentence explaining what the error is) Then unfortunately you can not run this game using PC64, another emulator must be used. If you do not find any errors, open the run menu and select "clear protocol" this will remove the text. Next press F5 to resume the game. As there are no errors, the game should load. Try pressing the space bar or press enter, next try pressing the fire button ( make sure you try it in both ports ) if nothing happens after all this wait a little longer and the game should load if it doesn’t the game it self may be at fault and another version of the game should be tried.
Some games will first load some scrolling text or other graphics ( known as a demo ) whilst some games continue to load while these are on screen most games will only load the game when you stop these demos. To do this press the space bar or the joystick fire button (Right Ctrl). The demo should now stop and the game proper should now start to load. If all else fails make sure the file you are trying to load is the actual game and not an intro or manual.
If you get any sort of error from the C64 and not the emulator then the game itself is faulty or will not work with PC64. If the C64 screen displays something like a blank screen with a flashing cursor. Try typing run then press enter if you end up with anything like sys344645 ( sys being the important bit ) press enter at the end of that line. You should not have to move the cursor. If this doesn’t work the game will not run with PC64 and another emulator will have to be used.
Press Esc this will take you back into PC64 now close the game window by holding Ctrl then pressing F4. You are now free to start a new game.
If you are in a game press Esc then hold Alt and press F4 or open the emulator menu and select exit.
by Richard Mace 2001