How to play our Commodore 64 games


On a real Commodore 64

In order to transfer our games to a real Commodore 64, a modern storage device like the SD2IEC, 1541 Ultimate or similar is needed. This makes it possible to copy our games' PRG or D64 file to a modern storage medium, like e.g. SD Card or USB thumbdrive.

Also, in order to play our 4-player games, you need a 4-player adapter as mentioned in the "about joystick ports" section.


On a PC or Mac

Our games can also be played on an ordinary PC or Mac using various available C64 Emulators like VICE, etc. There are many other emulators available as well, though not every emulator supports the use of 4 joysticks for our 4-player games, so make sure you find one that supports this.

When using VICE, simply drag and drop either the PRG or D64 file of the C64 game with your mouse into the VICE screen, and it will be automatically launched.

To setup joysticks in VICE, go to "Joystick settings" and choose whether to use either the keyboard's Numpad, or one of two user-definable "Keysets" (A and B), or a previously connected USB joystick/gamepad for each of the relevant joystick ports (see "about joystick ports" section for explanation). In case of playing one of our 4-player games, make sure the option "Enable userport joysticks" is activated.

Note: Make sure to configure the "keysets" as they might not be configured by default.

Note: Make sure to connect USB joysticks or gamepads before starting the emulator.


On a TheC64 Mini or Maxi

Of course, our games can also be played on a TheC64 Mini, Maxi, or TheVIC20 by Retro Games Ltd. For this, a USB thumbdrive is needed. Also, to be able to use 4 joysticks for our 4-player games, the latest firmware has to be installed on the device.

In order to play our 4-player games on one of these machines, the easiest way to set up the support for 4 joysticks is to simply rename the PRG or D64 file like this:

frogs_J1JA.d64

The "J1" part tells the TheC64 to use joystick 1 as the default port, and the "JA" part tells the TheC64 to also emulate the "4-Player Joystick Adapter".

For your convenience, you can download our 4-player games right here already correctly renamed:

Note: For more information about how to run external games on TheC64 Mini, Maxi, TheVIC20, and on how to perform the firmware update, check out the official manuals on their support page.


On a Raspberry Pi or similar device

There are many software projects like Recalbox or RetroPie that allow to play games from various old game consoles or home computers on a Raspberry Pi. In order to play our C64 games on such a system, they need to be copied onto the storage device, usually into a folder named "c64".

In most cases, the emulator VICE is used on these systems, however, the settings menu looks a little bit different than on the PC/Mac version. To set up joysticks and especially to be able to play our 4-player games using 4 joysticks, enter VICE's settings menu (usually by finding the correct button on one of your connected gamepads/joysticks or by pressing F12 on a connected keyboard), go to "Machine settings", then "Joystick settings" and map/configure joysticks for port 1, 2 and both "extra" ports. Also make sure to enable the "Extra Joystick Adapter" and set its type to "CGA/Protovision".


Some general words about joystick ports

The Commodore 64 has two joystick ports. However, in contrast to many other home computers or game consoles, port 2 is usually considered to be the "standard" port, i.e. most single-player games (including our game Shadow Switcher) use port 2 as the port for controlling the player. This might lead to some confusion when setting up the games on a modern system using emulation, so keep that in mind.

Our 4-player games use an extension called "Classical Games 4-Player Adapter", sometimes just called "4-Player Adapter", "CGA", or "Protovision 4-Player Adapter", which allow 2 additional joysticks to be connected to the C64's Userport. As our 4-player games are usually meant to be played by at least two players, the joystick ports for players 1-4 are mapped to ports 1-4 (ports 1-2 on the C64 and ports 3-4 on the 4-Player adapter) for simplicity.


Some general words about PRG and D64 files

A PRG file is a progam file, e.g. the game itself, a D64 file is a disk image, i.e. a file containing one or several program files.

As for our games, we offer downloads in both formats. In most cases, it doesn't matter which one you choose, however in case of the game Shadow Switcher, highscores are saved on disk, in which case using the D64 file might offer less problems in most scenarios.







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