Quick App: C64 Commodore 64 Emulator for iPhone — Can Hack Basic!
C64 ($4.99 – iTunes link], a Commodore 64 emulator for the iPhone (and iPod touch) is now available from the App Store, despite having been previously rejected by Apple. FCC spotlight? Phil Schiller intervention? Simple change of heart? Sounds more like a slight change of code, says the C64 blog:
Ultimately, BASIC has been removed for this release; however, we hope that working with Apple further will allow us to re-enable it.
(If you’re dying to get your BASIC on, however, reader Stooovie let us know you can still access it by enabling “always show full keyboard”, starting a game, paging over to the EXTRA keyboard, and then tapping RESET. Boom, dropped into BASIC with a ready-prompt — though we clearly don’t remember enough C64 BASIC to see if it actually does anything or just sits there blinking. Commenters?)
But, as they say, who cares about BASIC, C64’s focus is games and it ships with Dragons Den, Le Mans, Jupiter Lander, Arctic Shipwreck and Jack Attack. More games will be available in the future (via in-app purchase, we believe).
The interface is gorgeous, the passion level obviously high, and the C64 is a classic (as is the Amiga, cough, want-it-next, cough), so for fans of any of those qualities — or more likely all of them — check it out and let us know what you think.
Demo video and more screen shots after the break!
[Thanks Stooovie for the tip!]
September 6th, 2009 at 7:38 pm
LOVE IT….LOVE IT….LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bought instantly…now where are those old Compute Magazines!!! HAHAHA
??????
September 6th, 2009 at 8:21 pm
well, i followed a youtube video and made basic type “**** you” on a loop
September 6th, 2009 at 8:21 pm
How long does that last?
Apple has a policy about executing code that was not part of the app itself, such as downloaded programs or keyed in ones. I bet they can’t get their next update thru till they plug that hole.
September 7th, 2009 at 5:03 am
The point is, the sole reason Apple didnt approve it tthe first tme was the BASIC intrpreter. But now, itīs still there. Theres no hack involved, no plit editing, itīs all in the GUI. What is the point off the approval process, then?
September 7th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
10 FOR A=1 TO 35 20 PRINTSPC(A) A 30 NEXT A
September 7th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
10, 20 and 30 start their own lines (which the comment form seems to omit)
September 7th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
Very nice app. Works nice. Basic works too. I wonder if you can upload games to it on a jail broken phone?
September 7th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
Quicker method to get to BASIC: Launch Jack Attack, and hit RUN/STOP while it’s still at the load screen.
September 7th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
10 PRINT “TKO WAS HAIR! “;:GOTO 10
September 7th, 2009 at 7:08 pm
Better than just hacking basic people. I have the emulator running any disk image I want. I have installed a whole pile of games and can direct launch them from the ‘My Games’ screen.
September 7th, 2009 at 9:10 pm
TKO where is the ; and : ?
Zaxon how did you get the games onto the iPhone? Mine isn’t hacked but I’m guessing there would be apps to add stuff to the iPhone.
September 7th, 2009 at 9:13 pm
try this:
10 X=PEEK(53266):POKE53280,X:GOTO10
September 7th, 2009 at 9:37 pm
You need to use iPhoneBrowser and yeah it needs to be Jailbroken.
September 8th, 2009 at 12:18 am
As of 9/7 10:17 pm PT, I get a “not available” error when I try to buy this app. Did Apple notice the ability to break into BASIC (perhaps via this article) and pull the app?
September 8th, 2009 at 12:36 am
good job getting the app pulled
September 8th, 2009 at 2:32 am
Zaxon, what do you need to add to the games folder for this to work? i have added disk images to this, and although they show up in the “games” menu in the app, they dont run
September 8th, 2009 at 2:41 am
Yeah it’s gone from the Store here in Australia. Got it just before. Touchy lot the Apple people over such an old thing.
September 8th, 2009 at 2:49 am
Be wary of updates as it will probably stop your ability to go into BASIC
September 8th, 2009 at 4:59 am
itsolittle I can tell you what you need to do to get the images working.
Put them in their own folder in the install directory.
Get a copy of the “gameinfo.plist” file from one of the other folders and open it in notepad.
for example i’ve used the one from the dragonsden folder.
There will be a line in the file which reads as follows.
“DRAGONSD.D64″
All you need to do is edit that to read whatever the name of the image is you are trying to run. Copy it back accross from the PC to the appropriate folder on the iphone and you can then run the game
September 8th, 2009 at 7:23 am
Not at all surprised it was pulled. Still, the working BASIC was a next to useless toy, so I wont really miss it when it’s locked up again.
September 8th, 2009 at 10:09 am
I bought this under the impression that I’d be able to play that karate game they show in the video. I was duped! Where the hell is that game!?
September 8th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Yes it works, see the screen flashing writing this short program: 10 FOR I = 1 TO 16 20 PRINT “HELLO WORLD!” 30 POKE 53281,I 40 NEXT I you may only need to enter RUN and that’s all!
September 8th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
Aftershock, thanks for the tip… i’ve managed to get it working. however, some games .plist didn’t have a .d64 file in them, only a .state file, and that was throwing me off. on mine, only one game had the .d64 file, so i just copied that .plist and it works
September 9th, 2009 at 4:12 am
Good Stuff. I still cant get some images to work.
International Karate for example I get an error message saying “Enable full 1541 emulation”. I will have to do some more digging around.
September 9th, 2009 at 4:23 am
Found it,
“make sure to change the string Emul1541Proc in the gameinfo.plist from false to true to support full 1541 usage”
Happy days.
September 9th, 2009 at 7:03 am
AHh well done Aftershock… I saw that in the plist file… didn
t think much of it... my version of Exploding fist doesnt work, hope thats why… also the png I put in there doesnt appear.. I made it the exact same size ( 113x140x24bpp ) I think.. doesnt appear.. Any ideas?September 9th, 2009 at 8:10 am
http://www.xsellize.com/showthread.php?t=60900
read that tread, its all explained in there as well as links to some ready made downloads. You will have to join the forum first but its well worth it.
If you dont want to join here is a link to 65 ready made folders of games all set up correctly.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=S9SO9UXQ
Enjoy!
September 9th, 2009 at 8:55 am
Anyone know how to make a original tape game tap image to load on this? Renamed the tap to .t64 and altered the plist file and put 1541 to true, but just says cant find file error
September 9th, 2009 at 9:38 am
I had that error a couple of occasions and it wss because I was using a capital “D” on the “d64″, extension. I’ve not tried it with and tape images though, but it may be a similar issue.
September 9th, 2009 at 9:47 am
Tried renaming file to all sorts, maybe this emulator just does not support loading a game from tape in its original format, or there is something else you have to do in the plist or to the file itself to be compatible?
September 9th, 2009 at 9:55 am
have you tried just passing it off as a d64 image?
I know its not but it may be worth a go.
September 9th, 2009 at 10:34 am
Can you make a .t64 a .d64 ? I
m sure theres a prog for converting tape images to disk images.September 9th, 2009 at 2:35 pm
As I read this app is based on Frodo 64, I downloaded the mac version of that and getting the same error, so it seems this app wont load original tape games, and have to be in whatever format or tape loader version that Frodo accepts, shall have to look into it more.
September 9th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
Seems downloading .D64 games work, although some that work in Frodo wont work in the iphone version, it would have been nice to see some of the old tape loaders, some used to be pretty good, maybe we might see that in the palm pre or android phones, or maybe via Cydia for those who have jailbroken there phones at some stage
September 9th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
Graz, is your file .t64 ? Three of the games included with this are .t64 files… And I think they were also the ones whose .plist referenced the .state files instead of the .t64 files. Does frodo run your game? If so, could frodo be used to create a .state file? Just some thoughts…
September 10th, 2009 at 1:57 am
AHH my C64 app just bombs back to springboard! I was adding games last night fine!.. must admit I was looking at the other plist files… when you view them in winscp if copies them locally to view.. so by me viewing them I don
not sure what to do now… can`t re-get it from the appstore !!
t think Ive broken it that way… well Ive done something
thought that I might of added too many games... but I read that some guy has added 17 ! Ive only added 6.September 10th, 2009 at 2:34 am
Hmmm I put a demo on the phone.. think that was the last thing I did before it stopped working.. I changed the plist file from game to demo in the type STANZA I think… maybe that has something to do with the app now not working..
September 10th, 2009 at 3:27 am
I’ve got about 60 games on mine, see the megaupload link in one of my posts above.
Stainy if your phone is jailbroken just grab it again from http://appulo.us/appdb/
September 10th, 2009 at 5:41 am
Aftershock.. I bought it.. I have got it from appulous.. but my mate says it doesn
t work.. he clicks on a game and it boots him back to desktop... Im not sure whether I can install the dodge version over the top of my legit version.. or remove it and try and install the dodge vers…September 10th, 2009 at 7:26 am
I tried RiverRide game (RiverRide.D64) and it worked but the screen is all flickering!, any idea?
September 10th, 2009 at 9:28 pm
I meant RiverRaid game (RiverRaid.d64)
October 22nd, 2009 at 8:25 am
HELP !!!!!!! I added games to the app games folder when i start the emu i go to my games none of the ones i added appear just the ones that come with it HELP !!!!!
October 24th, 2009 at 9:43 pm
10 PRINT “Hey Apple, stop being such a control freak on the apps.” 20 PRINT “Let us have a BASIC interpreter. You won’t go bankrupt by letting it happen.” 30 CLS //Before Steve reads this and has a cow
October 25th, 2009 at 3:21 am
I wanted to hack ASM on it, attaching a cartridge image.. but nooooo.. If I might not access the basic, I can figure out how well attaching a cartridge will work.
So, why why is apple not allowing an Emulator for a 64K machine? .. How could that compete in any way. Apple you are all losers!
November 20th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
Just stopped by to let you all know that I have been working around the clock on this project and have posted details on my site on how to get Custom Games and Basic working as well as enabling the keyboard & more.. in the NEW version 1.1.11
I’ll have some tools up as soon as possible to make everything easier. Screen Shots & Video on the site.