CCS64 V2.0 BETA, SUPPLEMENTAL USER INSTRUCTIONS.
(C) STUART JOHN TOOMER, 2000 - 2003.
1. CCS64 V2.0 BETA – DOWNLOADING :
Go to http://www.computerbrains.com and download the latest CCS64 V2.0 BETA from there. To do this, go to this web site, click on the Download link at the left-hand side, and then scroll down the right-hand side frame, until you get to the "Download" text section, which has a table of links to updated versions of the emulator. Then download the appropriate version of the emulator.
2. CCS64 V2.0 BETA – INSTALLING :
Installation is simple. Create a new folder on your hard drive and, using WinZip or a similar package, extract all files in the downloaded archive to the new folder previously created. You must extract all files (i.e. the System ROM files and the executable program file); otherwise, the emulator will not work correctly, due to missing System ROM files.
Note that before attempting to use CCS64 V2.0 BETA, it is recommended that you read the HTML instructions that are included in the CCS64 V2.0 BETA archive, which give you vital information in the use of the emulator itself.
3. CCS64 V2.0 BETA – USER INTERFACE :
In CCS64 V2.0 BETA, which is developed solely by Per Hakan Sundell, the user interface is as follows :
"1541 Device 8-11..." are the disk drives. "1541 Device 8..." is the standard disk drive. You can browse for games and demos to play and to create new disk files for saving programs and data (use the arrow keys for browsing and use the function keys for performing actions).
"Tape Device 1..." is the tape drive. You can browse for games and demos to play (use the arrow keys for browsing and use the function keys for performing actions).
"Printer Dev. 4-7..." are the printers. Printer Device 4 is the standard printer device. You can enable or disable printer support and you can also save printed text in MS-DOS text files.
"Cartridge..." allows you to insert and use CRT-file emulated cartridges.
"Special..." allows you to display emulation information and allows you to set maximum disk drive speed.
"State..." allows you to save and load the state of the emulated C64 to and from an MS-DOS file (this is useful when playing difficult games).
"Reset C64" allows you to reset the emulator.
"Options..." contains the configuration settings. This is the most important sub-menu. Refer to Section 4 below for configuration instructions.
"Quit" allows you to exit from the emulator back to MS-DOS or Windows.
"Continue" allows you to continue with your game or demo.
4. CCS64 V2.0 BETA - CONFIGURATION METHOD :
You get to the top-level menu by pressing the F9 key when in the emulator (all intelligible actions are performed from within this menu system).
Go into the "Options..." sub-menu, and I recommend the following settings for the input method in the "Input..." sub-menu (I prefer to use the keyboard for control, as I think that the response is quicker) :
Joystick 1 - Key-Set 3 :
UP = Up Arrow
DOWN = Down Arrow
LEFT = Left Arrow
RIGHT = Right Arrow
FIRE = Left Alt
Joystick 2 - Key-Set 1 (Num Lock ON) :
UP = Keypad 8
DOWN = Keypad 2
LEFT = Keypad 4
RIGHT = Keypad 6
FIRE = Right Alt (Alt Gr)
The definition of the "key set" to use (i.e. which sets of keys you define to be the different joystick actions) are in the "Define Joystick Key-Set..." option in that sub-menu (you scroll along to change the settings in the different key sets in the emulator). Note that some games require the use of the cursor keys (i.e. the arrow keys) for selection, so for these games, the definition of the Joystick 1 key-set will need to be changed.
Then, the sound needs setting-up, in the "Sound" sub-menu in the "Options..." sub-menu. With the MS-DOS version, you need to have a Sound Blaster sound card and you will also need to have the Creative Labs MS-DOS sound card drivers loaded at boot-time. With the Windows version, you should select the Primary Sound Device (Windows DirectX, this is recommended), the appropriate sound card driver, or the Windows MCI WaveOut sound driver. Then, select the other things, in order to give the overall quality that you want or your sound card can handle. Note that I do not recommend sound over-sampling, since this does not actually improve the sound quality produced and places much more load on your CPU. Note further that the Windows MCI WaveOut sound driver is faster and louder, but is more sensitive to changes in system activity (causing popping noises to be heard or the sound to appear garbled or out-of-sync for a little while - this is perfectly normal).
Then, the graphics needs setting-up, in the "Video" sub-menu in the "Options..." sub-menu. The settings to use here depend upon your graphics card and your monitor and how synchronised they are. Note that you have to "apply" a screen mode for it to be active. You can also "test" a screen mode before applying it (this is recommended). You have to set whatever your graphics card and your monitor can both handle and whatever looks right for you – note that lower resolutions will fill more of the screen area.
Then, in the "Options..." sub-menu, in the section called "1541 Emulation", set the option called "Saving" to Continuously. This means that the emulator will save to disk whenever it is requested to do so, instead of either not at all (Disabled) or only whenever the inserted disk is changed (Ask At Disk-Change).
Then, in the "Special..." sub-menu, there is an option called "Maximum 1541 Speed". Turn this ON to make the loading of disk games much quicker. Note that some games DO NOT like this option to be turned ON.
5. CCS64 V2.0 BETA - FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS :
(1) I have set something and now my CCS64 looks corrupt or is behaving strangely. What should I do ?
Exit from the emulator and then delete the C64.CFG file in the CCS64 installation directory. Re-start the emulator and then set-up all of the settings again.
(2) When a game or demo asks me to turn over the disk, what should I do ?
Press the F9 key to go to the main menu, and then go in to the disk drive (usually this is the "1541 Device 8..." sub-menu), then browse for the D64 file using the arrow keys. When you are highlighting the file name of the D64 file, press the F4 key to Select Disk (this will now make the selected disk the inserted disk). Now escape-out of the menu system fully, until you get back to your game or demo. If the game or demo does not automatically detect the disk change, then you may need to press the SPACE BAR key, the RETURN key, or FIRE on a joystick, to signal to the game or demo that you have turned over the disk. The game or demo should then continue, as per normal.
(3) How can I create a blank disk ?
Press the F9 key to go to the main menu, and then go in to the disk drive (usually this is the "1541 Device 8..." sub-menu), then browse down, until you are highlighting the "(Dir) ." option in the directory, then whilst highlighting this, press F1 to Create New D64. You need to give it a file name.
(4) How can I save a BASIC listing in an MS-DOS text file ?
Make sure that, in the "Printer Dev. 4-7..." sub-menu, you have "Dev 4 Emulation" set to File and "Filename" set to Printer4.txt. Then, make sure that you have your BASIC program in C64 memory, and whilst in C64 BASIC, enter the following C64 BASIC commands :
OPEN 4,4
CMD 4,"TEST LISTING"
LIST
PRINT#4
CLOSE 4
And the Printer4.txt file will be in the CCS64 directory (it has black squares in place of carriage-returns).
(5) When I use Load (Fast) to play a game, it crashes. What should I do ?
You should use the Load (Normal) option instead. Some games do not like to be fast-loaded. If that does not work, which is highly unusual, re-set the emulator, then when at the READY prompt, type LOAD"*",8,1 and press RETURN, then when at the READY prompt again, type RUN and press RETURN, to load and run the game manually. The manual method of loading a game should always work. If it does not, for a particular game, then e-mail Per Hakan Sundell, informing him of the game you are trying to play and how it behaves exactly within CCS64, so that he can fix the relevant problem.
NOTE : You should not generally use the Load (Fast) option with demos, because you may miss out on some of the demos' action.
(6) How can I save my game position, as the game does not have "load game / save game" options within it ?
You can cheat by using the QuickLoad/QuickSave State or the Load/Save State options in the "State..." sub-menu. If you use the Load/Save State options, remember the file name used, for future reference.
(7) The colours do not seem to be correct, or are too bright, or do not look like the television. What can I do ?
You are using a Standard Graphical Mode. This gives faster graphical rendering, however, the colours appear to be bright and some colours do not appear to be correct. Instead, you should use a PAL TV Graphical Mode to give correct colour rendering and an authentic TV-feel to the graphics – note that this will be more CPU-intensive.
The various graphical modes in CCS64 are of the following form :
Standard : wwww x hhhh
PAL TV : wwww x hhhh PAL cc
Where "wwww" is the width in pixels, "hhhh" is the height in pixels, and "cc" is the colour depth of the pixels in bits-per-pixel. Note that any increase in the value of any of these settings will make it more CPU-intensive.
If you are using a PAL TV Graphical Mode, then it is also recommended to use the PAL TV Filter, which gives the authentic PAL colour palette. To do this, in the "Options..." sub-menu, in the "Video..." sub-menu, in the "PAL Filter..." sub-menu, set the PAL Filter option to ON. You will notice that the colours have changed. In this sub-menu, you can also set the Export PAL Palette option to ON, which will duplicate the PAL colour palette settings (which are fixed internally) into the custom colour palette.
If you want to use your own settings for the colour palette, instead of using the PAL Filter, then you can customise the colour palette. To do this, in the "Options..." sub-menu, in the "Video..." sub-menu, in the Palette Index section, change the RGB values of the 16 different C64 standard colours to the new values required.