Commodore OS Vision 2.0 Forum

The popular Vice and FS-UAE emulators are used for Commodore 8-bit systems and Amiga emulation respectively. They provide a GUI where multiple disk images can be attached and keyboard and joystick settings can be configured.

Commodore and Amiga computer emulators are available from menu:
Applications ---> Commodore Emulators

To quickly run classic single disk C64 and Amiga games and demos you can click the Commodore logo in the dock. This opens a file browser where classic software can be launched by simply clicking on their disk files. You will also find an assortment of Amiga MOD and C64 SID music.

You may wish to include your game ROMs, MOD and SID files in the folders where Commodore OS does:
/usr/share/commodoreos/systems
Note: A symbolic link is automatically created for users which can be accessed within most emulators.

Free open source system ROMs are included with Commodore OS to provide C64 and Amiga emulation as the original Commodore system ROMs are not free for distribution. System ROMs for other CBM machines could also not be included. As these Open Source ROMs are not 100% compatible with all classic software you may want to obtain the original system ROMs from Cloanto, who own the distribution rights.

Cloanto's C64 Forever software (for Windows only and cannot run under Wine) includes the original system ROMs for Commodore's 8-bit machines. A purchasable and free Express edition can be found at:
https://www.c64forever.com

Cloanto's Amiga Forever software for Windows(only) includes the original Kickstart system ROMs for Commodore's Amiga 16/32-bit machines. Plus and Premium editions as well as an affordable Value edition can be found at:
https://www.amigaforever.com

Instructions on how to obtain and integrate the original System ROMs for Commodore's 8-bit and Amiga machines can be found here:
System ---> Commodore OS ---> Cloanto Commodore ROM Setup

Emulators for other classic consoles and computer systems have also been included but their configuration is beyond the scope of this document.

Keysets are used to map each of the joystick actions to keys on the keyboard.
Each keyset is mapped to a different joystick port by default.

Controllers need to be mapped to a joystick port if you have them.

You may discover, if you are attempting to type within an emulator that the WASD keys and cursor keys aren't working.
This is because they've been used in a keyset and mapped to joysticks in each emulator, due to the majority of people likely being more interested in running games than using BASIC. If you wish to use BASIC seriously you will need to either deselect those keysets or modify their keys.

The emulators are set to the following by default.
Cursor keys and right shift(fire button) for Joystick 1
WASD and left shift(fire button) for Joystick 2
(Incidentally it's ALT-J to switch joystick ports.)

You can go into each 8-bit emulator and modify the keysets to you liking or disable them altogether.

The reason for pre-configuring the emulators this way is because many people don't actually have joysticks at the ready, yet expect to be able to play games on their keyboards, thus it was set up by default.

If you have joysticks they have to be configured manually inside each emulator.
As there are many different types of joysticks it wasn't possible to pre-configure them.

Your controllers will present as options in the dropdowns along with the keysets.

You will typically find the keysets(or joystick/controller selector) by entering each Commodore 8-bit emulator
and either:

1. Selecting the System --> System menu and then navigating the menu tree to Input Devices and selecting Joysticks.
Or
2. Right clicking on the Joystick section of the VICE emulator windows in the bottom right and selecting to Configure Joysticks.

You will then see dropdowns to select your connected controller or the preferred keyset to use for each joystick port.
There will also be buttons to configure each keyset if you desire to.

ALT-Q will cause the Commodore emulator to close.

If the emulator goes full screen, double left mouse clicking on the emulator will cause the emulator to go back to being a window.

Unfortunately, for whatever reason, you may find that the title bar of the emulation window will go so high that it is no longer be visible.
For this reason, there are arrows on the extreme left and extreme right of the top menu.
Clicking on either of those arrows will hide and display the menu so that the emulator window can be recovered and dragged down.