New X11 Launcher for MacVICE

VICE on Macs is currently an application bundle that launches X11 and the X11 version of VICE. I added a new launcher script for the next VICE release that allows to drop files on the app icon. Each dropped file is autostarted when opening the emulator. Furthermore, you can run the launcher from the command line in your terminal and pass arbitrary arguments. In this case, no xterm for VICE input/output is opened but the terminal is used.

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WarpCopy64 on Macs

Graham’s WarpCopy64 is *the* tool if you want to copy some of your real c64 disks directly via ethernet to your host. The initial release was windows only, but j0x did a really nice job of porting the host code as a command line tool to linux.

So I thought, why not run this little gem on my MBP (as it is a well-behaved un*x-system, too)…
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The Final Replay on VICE

The Final Replay (TFR06) is a ROM replacement for the Retro Replay cartridge. It supports the network adapter RRNET very well and provides nice networking features like the codenet or WarpCopy64 (a high speed disk transfer tool).

Unfortunately, TFR06 does not run on the current version (1.20) of VICE. It simply hangs the emulator after a reset cycle if the RRNET emulation is enabled. Here is how to fix it:

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My DTV64 Mod

The DTV 64 is essentially a retro-style Joystick with a hardware emulation of a Commodore 64 embedded inside. It is shipped with a flash ROM that contains 30 Games. Many people on the net have transformed the C64 from a joystick retro toy into a really usable C64-clone with keyboard connector, 2 joystick ports and a IEC port for a 1541 floppy. Recently, I did the same mod to my DTV 64.

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X11.app Preferences for MacVICE

VICE on Macs runs in the X11 Window Environment and thus on the X11 Display Server provided by Apple called X11.app. It will be automatically launched if you click on a VICE application icon.

The X11.app will run in the menu bar if VICE is active. The Preferences.. in the Apple Menu have some settings that help you to simplify the usage of VICE:

  • Emulate three button mouse: This setting is required if you have a single -button mouse or trackpad on your mac. It enables the standard shortcut Option + Mouse Click = Right Mouse Button. Use this inside a VICE Window to open the Settings Menu.
  • Use the system keyboard layout: This feature automatically maps all keys set in your language setting on macs (The flag icon in the menu bar) to equivalent X11 keys. This setting is required for the symbolic key mapping in VICE. In this mode the symbol labeled on your keys is sent to the emulator.
  • Enable keyboard shortcuts under X11: If enabled the Command/Apple key is handled directly by X11.app and not sent to any X11 application. Thus pressing Command+Q will quit X11.app! For VICE I disable this setting. Now pressing Command+Q is sent to VICE to quit the emulator but not X11. Furthermore all other VICE shortcuts work with the command key, e.g. Command+A is a Smart Image Attach

VICE 1.20 Mac Problems

Unfortunately, the new release 1.20 of VICE has some problems on Macs. In this post I will summarize the ones we have found.

  • Crash on Settings Loading: There is a (endianess) bug that will crash VICE on start up. Currently, the only workaround is to not save any settings at all. If you already have saved settings then remove the file $HOME/.vice/vicerc.
  • Keymap selector does not work: The menu entry Keyboard settings/Keyboard mapping type/Positional mapping (US) is non functional and loads the symbolic mapping again.

Both bugs are already fixed and will be gone in the next release.

MacViceBuilder replaced by VICE 1.20

For those who didn’t know it already: The build scripts that create a universal mac binary of VICE called MacViceBuilder are now completely integrated in the current VICE release.

I removed the download link from my page and updated the site’s contents.

PS: All patches found there are also integrated in the current VICE release.

Welcome to my blog!

Hi everyone,

welcome to my blog!

This blog will contain notes about the personal projects I am working on. The main focus will be my favorite hardware namely the Commodore 64 and Apple’s Macs and the emulation of the first one on the second machine.

As I am the current maintainer of the Mac port of the VICE Commodore Emulator Suite, you will find here in depth information on running this software.