Posted By
StarshipUK
on 2013-04-10
00:28:18
|  C16 Plus4 SD2IEC Game Project
I have been working on a project to gather all Plus 4 games and format them so they can be more easily identified and loaded on a SD2IEC with a real Plus 4.
The download is at: http://www.ride-the-music.com/plus4/Plus4v20.rar
Extract fb16.prg to the sdcard first. To load type dload"*" and then run, and the menu program loads.
Also included is DriveSort for the PC to sort everything alphabetically, after the RAR has been extracted to the SD Card.
sys.txt contains any known SYS files which may need to be entered after loading to get the game to run.
I have now completed all letters from 0 to Z. All filenames are 16 characters or less and lowecase with spaces, underscores, pluses and any other non letters and numbers removed. The SD2IEC and FB16 menu loader does not need the .PRG extension to load .PRG files and removing it allows for an extra 4 characters in the filename to help ID the game name. Only .D64 files need the extension added to be properly identified, which have been kept as .D64
Some games are only available in .TAP format which the SD2IEC does not support, and these have not been included.
Old contains most popular english commercial releases from the small Gamebase collection. Foreign contains games in funny languages which are probably not playable to an English person (text games etc) and foreign games which generally looked quite crap from the screenshots. Cracks contains the cracks and hacks contains the italian hacks and level edited versions. It could probably do with more sorting to get rid of the really crappy games, and if anyone wants to take the project over from me to do this you are most welcome!
Feedback (and any problems) is appreciated.
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Posted By
RobertB
on 2013-04-10
01:28:17
| Re: C16 Plus4 SD2IEC Game Project
Very nice! Thanks!
Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
July 27-28 Commodore Vegas Expo v9 -
http://www.portcommodore.com/commvex
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Posted By
siz
on 2013-04-10
04:03:40
| Re: C16 Plus4 SD2IEC Game Project
Nice work! I've purchased an SD2IEC recently and was thinking about the same. But lack of time prevented it so I'm glad that someone else did it. 
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Posted By
StarshipUK
on 2013-04-10
04:15:01
| Re: C16 Plus4 SD2IEC Game Project
Thanks for the kind comments. TBH it took me bloody ages and not the most exciting thing I have ever done in my life! Especially the letter S with 400+ games in that letter! I downloaded each game one at a time in order to sort them into relevant folders. Then I extracted the .ZIPs one at a time in order to make sure the contents had the correct game name. Then I went through renaming them one at a time (cheating a bit using Oscar's Renamer) - but someone had to do it, and I have a lot of love for the Plus 4!
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Posted By
MIK
on 2013-04-10
05:27:43
 | Re: C16 Plus4 SD2IEC Game Project
A SD2IEC is on the wish list, might have to get me one now!
Cheers, I've taken a copy for when that time comes. Thanks again.
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Posted By
RobertB
on 2013-04-10
14:37:56
| Re: C16 Plus4 SD2IEC Game Project
Yes, you have done a lot of hard work.
Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
July 27-28 Commodore Vegas Expo v9 -
http://www.portcommodore.com/commvex
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Posted By
AndyGarton
on 2013-06-14
10:10:18
| Re: C16 Plus4 SD2IEC Game Project
I'm getting an "internal server error" for the link in the first post, is it available anywhere else please, or could somebody possibly mirror it for me?
Thanks,
Andy
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Posted By
AndyGarton
on 2013-06-15
07:24:09
| Re: C16 Plus4 SD2IEC Game Project
Thanks hugely
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Posted By
corpsicle
on 2014-12-11
23:34:26
| Re: C16 Plus4 SD2IEC Game Project
Im gonna try this when i get my Princess.
Seeing as the Princess actually DOES support .tap games, is there a list over games that _only_ exist on .tap ?
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Posted By
Luca
on 2014-12-12
02:05:48
 | Re: C16 Plus4 SD2IEC Game Project
Mmmm not really, I think the TAP support has been implemented unregarding particular needings due to a supposed uniqueness of certain TAPs (which is quite a rare case indeed, in the very end).
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Posted By
retroscener
on 2014-12-12
04:40:36
 | Re: C16 Plus4 SD2IEC Game Project
That reminds me, I need to finish off my .tap project.
Unfortunately with that though, I cannot remove the .tap extension which limits us to only a 12 character limit
which will prove tricky naming many games adequately, many reaching over 12 characters has the  symbol
within the filename on CBM File Browser and looks messy. Suggestions on how to get around this are most welcome.
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Posted By
MIK
on 2014-12-12
07:34:09
| Re: C16 Plus4 SD2IEC Game Project
This is also true for PRG's using something like Star Commander and some emulators even require the prg as part of the total length of the name, reduced to a max of 16 characters in total... we managed to cope with it up until now so I'm sure your be fine.
The nature of PC, Mac & Amiga have always allowed us to have the file names in full, perfect for the person downloading so they had everything they needed to know, but then it was up to that person to rename the file as they wished for whatever they were going to use it for. There are many emulators and ways to copy stuff to a real machine so goes without saying...
Don't forget some programs also had SYS and G codes added to them so you knew how to start them when the start of Basic memory was full of machine code data. 
Either use a note book or any site that contains the covers if you need reminding that a game needs to be loaded with LOAD"",1,1 and any SYS codes such as Daley Thompson's Star Events, no need to add this is there unless your just sticking with emulation...
Your manage, but if you get really stuck... instead of using an A-B folder system, how about software house folders. That way you can have a mercenary.tap and secondcity.tap in the same folder, like you did with the C64 tap images on Lemon64.
PS. Maybe add a BASIC text.prg file to a folder that will then show you the non-standard loading info for a .tap, as a reminder of how too. Your always have a copy handy then.
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Posted By
retroscener
on 2014-12-12
08:57:36
| Re: C16 Plus4 SD2IEC Game Project
I did think about doing it by Software House. But then it would likely take more than the 27 alphabetical/numerical folders with maybe only a few games in many of them. I think it's worthwhile for a few of the larger C16 Software Houses though such as Mastertronic, Gremlin & Tynesoft.
It would be better to have notes which I can view within CBM File Browser without having to load anything rather than having to load a prg file itself first, like with .txt Files which you can view via the Ultimate-II on the C64 without it affecting memory. Either might work though.
I have just thought of one idea as I'm typing. It might seem a bit daft really, and not sure if I can pull it off anyway. That is to put any notes within a .d64 directory listing to be viewed within the file browser. Nothing needs to be loaded then, and you can just flick through it. It miiiiight work. Could be especially useful for those .prg files which require a Gxxxx command to start, or any LOAD""1,1 info for tap images. I could put a dash just before the game filename to indicate to read the disk info first.
Anyway I'll have a think, see what I can come up with. Nothing much I can do until I get home at the end of the year anyway.
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