VICE, a fantastic Commodore 64/128 emulator for your Linux PC

VICE, Commodore emulator

I am not revealing any secrets when I say that computing has not always been as we know it. When I had my first computer we were already on Windows XP, I didn't use Linux because I didn't even know it existed, but being smaller I did use (with my brother always watching, since it was his) a Commodore 64. That was just another world , worse, of course, but with its charm. If, like me, you met that "great" computer, you have to know that you can enjoy it again with VICE, an emulator available for Linux.

VICE is a 2-in-1 emulator. Once installed, what will appear in the applications menu are two icons: one for the Commodore 64 and another for the 128k. The operation of the emulator / s is similar to that of other more popular emulators: once started, we will enter the user interface and we can start using the system. Obviously you have to know how those computers worked and I'm going to show you what little I remember to run programs and games at VICE.

How to Play Commodore Games on VICE

The first thing we will have to do is install the snap package from VICE. To avoid confusion, I am going to detail the steps to follow:

  1. We install the emulator with the following command:
sudo snap install vice-jz
  1. We open the emulator. In this example, I'm going to use the one from Commodore 64.
  2. Once inside the emulator, the next step is to use it. If you remember any command, you can try it. I remember rather little. In the third step we have to look for the ROMs, although in this case they are also called "Tape". Due to a copyright issue, we cannot add any links.
  3. Once the ROM or "Tape" is downloaded, we have to insert it. We have probably downloaded a .zip file and we are interested in what is inside. For this example I am going to run a game called "Strider", more specifically "Strider (Europe) .tap". To put the "tape." we click where it says "Tape" and choose "Attach tape image ...".
  4. We choose the file «Strider (Europe) .tap.
  5. Already with the "tape" inside, we are going to load it: we write "load" without the quotes and press enter ("Return" was called).
  6. We will see the text "PRESS PLAY ON TAPE" and that is what we have to do. We go back to the "Tape" menu and click on "Start" (it would have been easier if the option put "Play", but ...).
  7. Two things can happen here:
    • If it works, we wait and, once loaded, we could play.
    • If a message appears saying that you have found something, we will probably have to put load »strider» just as I have written it.
  8. We wait.
  9. If you ask us to reset the tape account, we do. We will have to press "Fire", which was once the fire button on the joystick.
  10. We wait for it to load and play.

Touching on the options we can configure the controls and other parameters of the emulator. What do you think of this trip back in time?

You have this and more information here.

Dreamcast
Related article:
Redream: a Dreamcast emulator with Linux support

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  1.   Hernán said

    How beautiful the Commodore was. Thanks for bringing her back. ;)