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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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jcompton
Registered: Feb 2006
Posts: 70 |
!!!!
I'd scouted around to see if anyone had ever ripped and published the Alternate Reality releases from that app, but apparently never asked in range of you! |
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Krill
Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 2839 |
Quoting YmgveThey 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. Do you remember which opcodes those were? Sounds like they went the evil route and repurposed the halt-and-catch-fire KILs/JAMs/HLTs ($x2) rather than using the benign illegal NOPs, or something. |
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Krill
Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 2839 |
Ah, $02 it is, evil indeed. Found in the Leaderboard cartridge, but i went through 10-20 cartridges that seemed fine. :) |
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Krill
Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 2839 |
But a nice touch is that the games seem quite complete. All loading screens and intros appear to be present, and Creatures 2 even features tape loading screens with scroller and PETSCII art which were altogether missing in the disk original. |
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jcompton
Registered: Feb 2006
Posts: 70 |
Looks like there are a lot of stories to be told about this process, including the de-branded "Tales of the Unknown" (Bard's Tale I with all Bard's Tale logo graphics removed!). Are the identities of the people who did this work still unknown? |
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Ymgve
Registered: May 2002
Posts: 84 |
The company that publishes/published the apps is http://www.elite-systems.co.uk/ so I assume they were the ones that paid for the conversion.
Sadly their C64 emulator and games haven't been updated since 2014, so none of them work on modern iPhones which only allow 64bit software now. They've updated their ZX Spectrum titles to 64bit, though. |
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jcompton
Registered: Feb 2006
Posts: 70 |
Right, I know Elite Systems was the publisher. I'm curious about the individuals behind the conversions. It feels like even odds or better that it would be someone who has spent some time here...
In any event, thank you very much for extracting and sharing these. |
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chancer
Registered: Apr 2003
Posts: 342 |
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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