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Ymgve
Registered: May 2002
Posts: 84 |
Release(?): Elite Systems C64 games on iTunes
Some years ago, Elite Systems released an emulator with some C64 games on iTunes. You were able to buy "game packs" in-app, but all the games were contained in obfuscated form within the .ipa file (Actually several more games that were unreleased in their app too).
The curious thing is that almost all of the games were .crt files instead of the normal disk and tape images you'd expect - it seems like Elite did a lot of work converting old games to work from an emulated cartridge. They sadly also added emulator-specific opcodes to trigger on-screen keyboards etc, so most carts don't work directly in a standard emulator like VICE.
I had almost forgotten about all of this - I shared a collection of carts with some folks but never did a public release - but then there was news about Alternate Reality finally having a good crack and being converted to cart format - which is a bit ironic, since Elite themselves actually converted it to cart format almost a decade ago!
I guess this might be of interest to some people, so here's a zip with all the games (Including some ZX Spectrum stuff I haven't looked into at all) - some actually work straight out of the box with VICE:
https://mega.nz/#!gZEC0CxQ!mFEa0zdIh4cW9yOnVQVR_8d1vAOsbq_62jcq.. |
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chancer
Registered: Apr 2003
Posts: 343 |
Ymgve , wasn't sure if you were aware. but they delayed royalty payments from some zx spectrum programmers who they licensed stuff off. Some well known names, who joined together regarding this matter. Elites owner himself was unhappy about the free "marvin" emulator for spectrum , you could play spectrum games on.
Elite are also behind the recreated spectrum , keyboard.. which wasn't greatly supported.
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/01/31/80s_zx_spectrum_game_d..
so I don't feel they have won any fans , due to recent years actions. |
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Bacchus
Registered: Jan 2002
Posts: 154 |
I see the CRT files have a $50 byte header and then there is a normal cart start, but how doo yo normally run them? Feeding then to VICE didn't work at least...
/Bacchus |
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Ymgve
Registered: May 2002
Posts: 84 |
For some strange reason the files don't work in later versions of VICE. 2.4 runs them, though. Did cartridge handling change a lot in later versions? |
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Krill
Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 2851 |
The .crt files work fine here with an older VICE 3.1 on Linux: drag'n'drop, no problem.
That said, a VICE option to treat KILs as NOPs (similar to the 65C02) would be neat. |
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Ymgve
Registered: May 2002
Posts: 84 |
Yeah, something changed between version 3.1 and 3.2 - tried finding out what, but not that familiar with the VICE code base so hard to navigate |
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zzarko
Registered: Feb 2003
Posts: 66 |
I have tried them in Z64K 1.2.4 on Linux and they do not work there either. |
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chatGPZ
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 11135 |
r33479 works, r33839 does not.... if someone wants to binsearch :)
-> r33565 breaks it. the cartridge relies on wrong initial state of the CPU port.
attach cartridge (i used antiriad)
> 0 3f 3f
g 800a
works :)
this seriously makes me curious now, because this is/was kind of a VICE specific bug. did someone keep the emulator binaries? =) |
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Ymgve
Registered: May 2002
Posts: 84 |
There's a decrypted version of the app available online, like here: https://euroiphone.eu/c64_elite_collection-appdetail-pGdjnA==.h..
From a cursory scan I didn't see any VICE specific strings in the binary though.
edit: Uploaded to my own Mega: https://mega.nz/#!JZMUWQpY!yKxmMkJe-gFyDMkYEeKs7HImgO8UoarpIdWJ.. |
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chatGPZ
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 11135 |
indeed, some things remind me of FRODO (what emu saves .s64 snapshots?). then again, there are some weird strings like "_C64_EASYFLASH_RAM" that dont really support that idea :) |
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Toki
Account closed
Registered: May 2016
Posts: 5 |
This document from Elite’s website (near the bottom, page 74) lists ‘James McKay’ as developer of their apps, if that helps any:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eOeZOclEkS0kuJG1IHBm7cuH7wjohC.. |
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