If
you are actually reading this, congratulations, you are a true nerd
and probably born around 1975 or before. (Don't worry, present company
is included). One of my favorite childhood games of all time was Raid
Over Moscow. I loved the game and played it frequently
on my father's Commodore 64. I can still remember typing Load "*" ,8,1 on
the pale blue screen to start the game each time. A few years later
we got a Nintendo and the Commodore was sold at a garage sale for
$12 with a box of giant floppy disks full of games. I didn't care
at the time, but now i regret it.
Although I can't go back
in time and prevent my old C64 from being sold, I can use
an emulator to play old Commodore 64 games. To
play any game with an emulator, you will need two key pieces of software:
an emulator application and a game ROM. Brilliant
programmers with a passion for old computer systems and gaming consoles
have made software emulators for all sorts of devices, including
the Commodore 64.
NERD
NOTE: The computer company called Commodore is
dead as you might remember it. Commodore declared
bankruptcy and sold off all their assets in 1994. A
series of poor business decisions, corporate scandals and
corruption as well as competition from Apple and IBM
ultimately destroyed the original company. Since 1994, several
companies have bought and sold the Commodore name.
Who knows, you might be able to buy the name yourself on
eBay right now. If you want more information about the Commodore
computer company there's a book you should check out called
called On
the Edge: the Spectacular Rise and Fall of Commodore.
Ready to play an old Commodore
64 game like Raid
Over Moscow? Here's how:
1.
Find and Download a Commodore 64 Emulator Program If you are a Macintosh user, head on over to the official
Power64 homepage and
download a Commodore 64 emulator
called Power64. It is available for both Macintosh OS X and OS
9. You may also want to download any extra files listed on the
page including sound enhancer's, screen shots, sample games and
instruction manuals. A kind sole named Roland Lieger wrote Power64
for the Mac so remember him while you are playing all those old
games. If the Power64 page is down for any reason, download Power64
at Emulation.net.
They are a great resource for all types of Emulators and definitely
worth checking out anyway.
PC users should look
up a program called CCS64. It can be downloaded
here.
You can also do a Google search for "commodore
64 windows emulator" and find plenty of Windows
compatible C64 emulators.
2. Uncompress and
Organize Your Files
After you download Power64, you may need to uncompress it unless
your web browser is configured to do it automatically for you.
Mac and PC users should just double-click on your downloaded
files. They should decompress and mount on your computer's Desktop.
Depending on what C64 Emulator you downloaded, you make have
to install it. If your downloaded Power64, it should be a Macintosh ".dmg" disk
image file after you uncompress it. Double-click on this ".dmg" file
and a virtual disk image will mount on your computer. Open the image
and copy the Power64 folder to your Desktop.
3. Find Game ROMs
Now that you have the C64 emulator all setup, you need to find
some games. Go to The
BBC Lives! and
do a search for the game you are looking for. In this case I'll
be searching for Raid Over Moscow.
If you strike out
at The BBC Lives!, do a Google search for "commodore
64 game roms" and you should find some good stuff.
Always download multiple
copies of game ROMs because sometimes they might be corrupted.
4. Open
the Emulator From here on, the directions in this tutorial will be for
Power64. But you can follow along and apply the general concepts
to any emulation program.
Double click on the
Power64 icon. You will be prompted to register Power64. It's
a $25 registration fee. Anytime you find a Shareware application
useful, always pay the programmer to encourage them to make
updates and reward them for making great software. You can
still use Power64 without paying the registration fee but you
will have a 10 minute time limit.
After you open Power64,
a new Commodore 64 blue window should open up. You can also open
a new emulator window by selecting New from the File menu.
5. Load Games into
the Emulator
Next, you need to load a game into the emulator. From the
Devices menu, select your game. ROMs come in a number of different
type and flavors like ZIP, tape, floppy, etc.
You have two options.
You can either load the games into the emulator one at a time
like this:
(Devices > Disk Drive #8 > Attach
ZIP Archive > Select ZIP-Archive)
Or
make a games folder. I prefer to put all my games into one
folder called something like "c64
games" and then drag that folder into a new emulator window.
Try it. Open a new emulator window and drag a folder full of C64
games into the window.
6.
Select the Game
After you drag
and drop your games folder into a blank emulator window,
a new window will appear listing all you files. Just double click
on a game and it should launch. If it doesn't, you may have a corrupted
file.
As
you can see from this screen shot, I have three copies of Raid
Over Moscow. Guess what? Only one of them works...
the d64 file. Remember in Step #3 when I said "Always
download multiple copies of game ROMs because sometimes they
might be corrupted." This
is why.
7.
Setup Your Emulator Preferences. (Coming soon)
8.
Thank you. Still reading this? You probably got something out of this
tutorial. Please consider dropping a $1 into our digital Beer
Fund cup. Thanks and happy retro gaming.
If you want to learn more
about Commodore 64 and Amiga emulation
on the Macintosh, you should check out http://www.thinkcommodore.com.
They have a very active forum too.
Raid
Over Moscow Back in the early 80's, the Commodore 64 was the most powerful
personal computer on the planet and the United States and the Soviet
Union were locked in a bitter Cold War. Raid
Over Moscow played right off these fears and concerns
and became one of the best Cold War video games ever made.
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If
you are actually reading this, congratulations, you are a true nerd
and probably born around 1975 or before. (Don't worry, present company
is included). One of my favorite childhood games of all time was 
NERD
NOTE: The computer company called 
If you are a Macintosh user, head on over to the 
