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Having some retro fun with my RG405M and a C64 Emulator while my girlfriend is playing Anno 1800 on her PS5.
(feddit.de)
Just sharing a cozy moment.
this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2023
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SBC Gaming
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SBC Gaming is for Single Board Computer aimed to play video-games, also called Retro Handhelds
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There is an option to enable an overlay keyboard on the display if needed but to be honest: This is a terrible solution. For now it works OK but I will order this little keyboard next week: http://www.riitek.com/product/214.html and connect it via bluetooth. I hope it will work as expected. I grew up with homecomputers (Atari 65 XE, C64 and Amiga) and these are my favourite Systems but without a keyboard it's sometimes really difficult.
The new C64 games I bought on itch.io work much better on this device/VICE. I think the developers know this problem and develop them the way they don't need (so many) keyboard interaction. I've spent this month more than 120 EUR only for C64 games. 🙄
Thanks for the great reply! I also love itch! I have gotten a lot of amazing software (mostly games, but a lot of great books and other pdfs) from there for very good prices.
Agreed on the keyboard overlay. I know the simplest/easiest solution is to just emulate any computer on another keyboard-enabled device, but there is still a fascination (for me at least) to running Apple/C64/Mac gen1/2 era software on a retro handheld. I think if I had to use any keyboard overlay to play a game, I’d probably not want to play that game. That’s just based off of every one that I’ve ever seen. Maybe there is a decent one to use that I haven’t seen yet…
A few questions for you, if you don’t mind. Are you emulating via RetroArch or using a standalone C64 emulator? If so, which one?
The reason I ask is I’m not sure if a bluetooth keyboard/mouse combo (I have one myself; not the same, but a slightly smaller one that I’ve had for years) will work in the way that you want it to. I’ve never tried this before on RetroArch, but I’m going to assume a BT kbm would be recognized by RetroArch in the same way that a BT controller would be.
If that’s true, then you would not be able to use the controls of your device at the same time as the BT kbm. They would be marked as device 0 and device 1, and I don’t think you could merge them (to use the buttons from the handheld alongside the keys of the kbm). I think, by default, that the handheld would be set as Player 1 and the kbm would be set as Player 2. You could swap back and forth during a game by just going into the RetroArch menu (then Settings, then Input, then Player 1, then change input device), but that could get very messy. You’d have to have shortcuts for any features you need (at least a way to return to the RetroArch menu, and maybe save/load states and other things) that would be compatible across both control methods. That would be fine for just the RetroArch menu (as they even give you two hotkey combo entries, one for controllers and one for keyboard) but the other features would likely not be able to be used by both sets of controls.
Just something to think about. As I said, I’ve never tried that before. Someone more versed at this might be able to agree or disagree with what I’ve said.
Oh yes, itch is really fantastic! :)
For now I'm using the C64.emu by Robert Broglia. But there are Systems/Games I would love to emulate where I can't download any emulator from the Playstore for Android 12, for example Amiga and Atari 800. I'm probably dependent on RetroArch for that. But to be honest: I still haven't figured out how RetroArch exactly works. For example: Yesterday I tried to emulate River Raid on the Atari 800 core. Everything works fine, the game is booting and running but the controls aren't working. I'm not sure what to do. I think I will need some time to read about it.
The point about the keyboard is a very good clue, thanks for that! :) This will probably save me a lot of time and nerves if I try and it doesn't work. Usualy, when I'm trying something and it's not working and always think this is my fault and than I try the dumbest solutions for hours, wasting my time. ;) I hope then that it will at least work with the other emulators.
I hope you see this! Please let me know if you do, and if my tip helps you!
Sorry it took so long to get back to you. I’ve been pretty busy the last few days. Anyways, I just got around to trying River Raid for the A800. It’s been a bit since I’ve used any Atari device, so I didn’t know which cartridge option to pick, so I just chose the first option.
After choosing that option, I did see the “demo crawl” of the game running, but, probably like you, I couldn’t do anything.
The fix, for me at least, was going into Quick Menu (boot up River Raid first, then hit your RetroArch menu button, and you should already be in the Quick Menu; if not, back out as far as you can, choose Main Menu, then Quick Menu will be the top option). Once in Quick Menu, choose Controls, then Port 1 Controls, then in the first option “Device Type” change this to “Atari Joystick”. Make sure you scroll down and have keys or buttons set to every possible keypress, but really as long as you have directional controls, “fire”, and “start”, you can probably play this game just fine!
I forgot how much fun this one was (though I never had an A800, I think I played this on an Atari console or maybe my C64 or Apple IIe)?