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Review: Frodo Commodore 64 emulator for Palm OS Most (older) gamers likely have owned one: A Commodore 64. After it’s appearance in 1982 it soon became a popular game(computer) that sold worldwide over 20 million times. It was one of the first and most successful 'Personal Computers' of the 80's. 20 years later, the c64 became a museum relic, and very few people still have one at home today. But the c64 didn't completely disappear: Since then various emulators have been developed, making it possible to experience the nostalgia again without the need of the old, bulky c64 hardware. Frodo is one of them. This emulator, originally developed by Christian Bauer, has found it's way to various platforms like Windows, Mac, Unix, Playstation, Dreamcast and Pocket PC. Recently a conversion by Johan Forstberg took place, adding the PalmOS to the list of compatible systems. Logically, this means the emulator does run on the Zodiac platform. With it's ideal gamecontrols, the Zodiac looks to be what is the ultimate portable platform for retro-gaming. Controls & Compatibility Because the current version of Frodo is not optimized for the Zodiac there is no fullscreen support (480*320) yet. The keyboard and joystick the c64 was equipped with are found back “virtual” in the bottom of the screen. Both can be controlled with the stylus, so games are controlled in the same way. The console or “basicscreen” also supports handwriting. The virtual joystick can be assigned to the c64 screen so it can also be controlled on screen with the stylus. A much better option however is the Zodiac’s joystick. Fortunately, Frodo offers support: the controls can be easily configured so the joystick can operate as a regular 4 directional D-pad. With the c64’s “firebutton”assigned to one of Zodiac’s actionbuttons on the right, the gamecontrols are perfectly set and they work like a charm. Games There are thousands of c64 games to choose from. All of them can be found on internet, thanks to their age: most of them are so old they are considered abandonware, which more or less means the copyrights have expired. A wide choice of games which are only a few Kb’s in size, so dozens of them fit on your handheld at once. Before playing the games need to be converted with the java-tool Pippin which comes with the emu. This very easy to use converter creates a .pdb file that can be hotsynced to the device. It’s also possible to convert multiple games at once in one pack. After that the games appear in Frodo’s filebrowser from where they can be loaded into the memory as a “virtual floppy”. Now they can be started through the console with the infamous “Load” and “Run” commands. The progression in a game can be saved at any time, a functionality that wasn’t on the original c64, and comes in real handy now. Not all games work. Not all rips are the same and some turn out to work while others do not, so it’s advisable to try different version of the games to make sure. Some games though, cause consistent crashes on the Zodiac, forcing you to soft-reset. Unfortunately, not only does this results in a loss of control-configuration, it also makes the gamefile vanish. Hence, the controls need to be setup again and the game has to be re-synced. Obviously this is a bug that needs to be fixed. Sound The c64 was notorious for its SID soundchip. Musicians re-discovered it in the nineties and the SID’s deep, raw sound was often heard in several techno records. Kernkraft for instance scored a worldhit with “Zombie Nation” in which they used a tune from the game Lazy Jones, from the hand of the famous c64 composer David Whittaker. No better game to test Frodo’s sound and it sure does sound good through it’s built-in stereo speakers. In general the sound is very good, although some games experience distortion. Tapwave Tapwave announced that several c64 gamebundles will become available at their webstore. Due to the fact that Frodo is free and may become Zodiac-optimized in the future (fullscreen), it’s quite unlikely this will be a success. Future The future of the emulator is uncertain. Johan Forstberg seems to have disappeared from the scene and it’s very unlikely there will be an upgrade from his hand. But hope remains: Frodo is opensource and the sourcecode is included. Hopefully it will be picked up by somebody else who will make Frodo take full advantage of the Zodiac’s hardware. Links Frodo, free c64 palmOS emulator: http://frodopalm.sourceforge.net/ Games: http://www.c64.com http://www.c64unlimited.net Tapwave c64 games: http://www.tapwave.com/titles/retro_c64.asp |
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