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Plus/4 | C116



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Frequently Asked Questions and Help
This page has been setup as a quick reference to some of the questions you may have. I would also like your input on any idea's, answers and questions that may help others in the scene. Thank you for your support.


Can I play these C16/Plus4 games on my Amiga or PC?
Yes, you will need one of the many emulators available on the site. An emulator is a programme that makes your Amiga or PC think it's a different computer. In this case a Commodore Plus4.


I have downloaded an emulator and cant get it to work?
Please read the manual for the emulator you have downloaded. Many of your answers will most likely be found there. Help is also at hand from the friendly Message Board. Post your question's and people should reply. Remember your questions may help others also.


How do the emulators know if it's a C16 or Plus4?
The main difference is that the C16/C116 has 16KB of memory, Plus/4 has 64KB. There is also different ROMs, as the Plus/4 has a built-in editor-spreadsheet-database software package, but this is irrelevant to playing games.


The emulators always emualate a Plus/4 or C16 with 64KB memory expansion, so you can run any game with any emulator (if the particuar emuator supports it - not every emulator emulates all hardware quirks correctly).



My browswer trys to read (.PRG) files and wont down load them?
I have seen with Netscape and Ibrowse Web Browsers this does happen and there is a way to download them. Hold down the Left or Right SHIFT key and at the same time click on the file you have requested. With-in moments your browser will ask you where you would like to save the file.


Why dont I ZIP or LHA the files?
Many of the file's are small, I also support 2 computers and not every one has ZIP or LHA on there systems. Some file's have ZIP or LHA depending on which system would be best suited to the larger files. If your having problems downloading file's please see ( My browser try's to read (.PRG) files and wont download them ?).


Some games do not run correctly with my emulator?
All emulators handle some Plus4 emulation better than others. Please try a different emulator for your system. Remember all these games have been taken from the real machines.


Do I make any money from this web site?
No. All the work that has gone into making this web site is with out question unpaid for ! The banners are here to cover the cost of the bandwidth and diskspace used from my hosts. For more info on how this site is hosted please check out http://emucamp.com.


Game Info
Games that are just a name eg. ( monty on the run.prg ) You just need to enter RUN and press RETURN once the game has been loaded into the emulator.


If a game is named eg. ( kikstartsys8192.prg ). The SYS**** is the startup code for these games. Once the game is loaded just enter the SYS code and press RETURN eg. ( SYS8192 ).


If a game is named eg. ( mayraid_g3d72.prg ). The G**** is the startup code for these games. Once the game is loaded just enter the built-in machine code monitor and enter the G code and press RETURN eg. ( G3D72 ). You can find some more info on loading files into the montior below.


Long File Names:
The Plus4 family of computers can only read 16 letter file names. As with WinEMU, Minus4Dos and Flamingo these all can load games in from a directory on your harddrive. Sometimes you will find long files named games you have downloaded
eg.( REACH_FOR_THE_SKY.PRG). This is a 21 letter file name including the .PRG and the underscores ( _ ). Rename the file so it is a 16 letter file name including the .PRG with in the name. Also remove any of the underscores ( _ ) as these will show as a ? with in the file name from your emulator.


Help with loading more games
myriad
Myraid.prg


Below I have setup a small 3 step walk through showing how to load more games into your emulators that may not run. This does'nt mean all games will work because not all games run on each emulator, but is intended to help and give you a better idea if you have never loaded games in from the built-in machine code monitor.


This is mainly targeted at Flamingo using an Amiga-Directory to load games in, but also WinEMU, Minus4 and CP4 users can also benifit in the same way when using D64 images if you have any problems loading files in that you may have? Dont for get WinEMU and Minus4 can also load games in from a PC-Directory so again the same rules apply.


To make it easyer Myraid.prg runs on all the emulators you can download from this site and I will use this game as an example. What I'm also about to show you is nothing new or added by the emulators, but the correct way to load this version Myraid.prg into a real machine if it was on tape or disk! Read on and your find out why the game has to be loaded in this way.


Step 1
screen1 With Flamingo, make sure you have your PRG files directory set. This folder will become a floopy disk for your emulator and works in the same way as the real drive. You can see the name of the folder as "MY PRG FOLDER" in the screen grad, this is only an example. Minus4 Dos uses the same directory where the emulator is held so place myraid.prg in this folder. Now the emulator has a so called floppy disk you can now access the directory with-in the emulator by typing DIRECTORY and press return. This will now list your games directory as shown in the grab.


Step 2
screen1 Beacuse mayraid.prg was saved to disk from the machine code monitor the game will have to be loaded back in to memory the same way. This will load myraid.prg back into it's correct memory loaction. Next up, now type MONITOR and press return. Looking at the screen grab you can now see you have entered the built-in machine code monitor. To load the game from here you will need to type the following: L"MAYRAID.PRG",8 and press retrun. Once the game has loaded into memory the flashing curser prompt will appear.


What does L"MAYRAID",8 mean ?
L is the load command. The load command causes a file to be loaded into memory. The starting address is contained in the first two bytes of the file (mayraid.prg). In other words the load command always loads a file into the same place it was saved from. "MAYRAID.PRG" is the file name and ,8 loads the file from disk.


Step 3
screen1 You would of seen Mayraid was named 'mayraid_g3d72.prg'. As with games that have an SYS code in the file name this is the startup code to run the game. G**** codes are always started in the machine code monitor. The 'G' means GO/RUN program. The number eg.(3D72) is the starting memory address. In short SYS codes do the same thing but from basic. As you can see in the screen grab all thats left to do is type in the G**** code. With Myraid enter G3D72 and press return. The game will now run.


Remember there is'nt anything wrong with this routine of loading some games into the emulator. As with the real computer this would be the only way to load Myraid in correct from disk. This routine can also work with some games on D64 images you may have if your emulator is unable to load the game in the normal way. Some emulators make life easyer buy doing this routine with-in the emulator code when selecting games. eg.(CP4, Minus4 and WinEMU). Once Myraid is loaded into memory you only need to enter the 'G' code. In time you will learn how each game should be loaded. I hope this gives you a better understanding and has helped you load more of your fav games in.