news board vc64web the C64 emulator for iPad iPhone, Android and the web.

News

13.07.2024 run ahead and ram expansion

supports run ahead, which is an effective technique to reduce input lag.
run ahead is an emulation technique that essentially pre-computes the emulation a few frames ahead. When the user makes an input, the emulation can immediately respond by adjusting the pre-computed frames accordingly, thus reducing the perceived input delay.
supports various types of RAM Expansion (REU, GeoRAM)
uses the latest virtualC64 v5.0 emulation core.

27.06.2024 supporting different emulation cores

To ensure optimal preparation for the upcoming 5.x emulation core, vc64web now supports parallel installations of various versions of the VirtualC64 emulation core.
Snapshots created with a series 4 emulation core are incompatible with upcoming version 5. To run these snapshots, you can now select an older installed version of the core in the settings dialog.
When a new version of vc64web is released, you will receive an in-app notification allowing you to choose whether to install the update or skip it.

11.06.2024 VIC-II revisions NTSC 60 Hz, PAL 50Hz

added support for switching between different VIC-II revisions NTSC 60Hz / PAL 50Hz via settings.

05.06.2024 pencil support, showing and hiding action buttons

added support for controlling the app with a pencil (e.g. Apple Pencil)
added system action 'toggle_action_buttons' for hiding/showing all other action buttons. That's particularly useful when a game has different views: for example, a game view where you want to display all your buttons, and another view, such as instructions or a map, where you want to hide the buttons.

14.05.2024 iOS / iPadOS - reconnect audio device after longer suspension

after reviving from longer app background suspension AudioContext got sometimes stuck on resuming and reported "Failed to start the audio device"
when this happens we now close the broken AudioContext and create a new one, which brings audio back :-)

16.01.2024 reworked virtual keyboard, improved xbox controller analogue sticks

the virtual keyboard has been restyled and technically completely reworked. It is now css grid based which allows for automatic scaling on different screen sizes.

Besides a scaling factor the user can now add a margin to the bottom. This is especially useful to not let the keyboard interfere with the home indicator (this is is the thin bar that sits at the bottom of the iPhone screen).

key stroke sound feedback and also vibration feedback

transparency of the keyboard when using the host device in landscape, so that you can see the whole c64 screen even if the keyboard is on top of it

all analogue sticks on a external controller should be recognized and work properly now. Tested with wireless xbox controller on iPad.

12.09.2023 covers iPhone notch and dynamic island, redesigned virtual joystick and keyboard mappings

the screen space around the notch and the dynamic island on modern iPhones is perfectly usable now.

redesigned the virtual touch joystick with various different selectable types and a configurable deadzone.

define your own custom key board mappings even for non Commodore 64 keys Meta+R => Runstop, Alt+J => swap joystick ports, Alt+S save snapshot

31.07.2023 wake lock and fullscreen feature

added a setting to prevent dimming or auto off on supported browsers... very useful for viewing demos

added a fullscreen button to the menu bar on supported browsers

15.07.2023 more csdb chart entries and .prg file bug fix

added a setting to increase the number of scene browser entries for each chart category.

fixed a bug when mounting .prg files which contained basic programs (#188)

24.02.2023 various bugfixes and browser requirements

sending app to background and re-entering will reset keyboard buffer.

fixed certain key combinations which did not work properly on desktop browsers

fixed a integer overflow by linking with BIGINT support. The minimum browser requirement is now Chrome 68, FF 68 and Safari on iOS 14

20.09.2022 floppy drive sounds and track display

vc64web makes the 1541 sound when the floppy head moves on... the current track number of the floppy drive is shown in the HUD

16.05.2022 virtual keyboard update

the virtual keyboard forwards now the exact duration of a key press to the C64 (before duration was a fixed value of 100ms) ... thanks to this games which rely on long keyboard presses like flight simulation "FighterPilot" do work now using solely the virtual keyboard ... the duration of the key press is animated with a nice background white LED glow effect

technically spoken the virtual keyboard has been freed from default gestures which were often conflicting (e.g. text selection, drag and drop, context menu popup gesture)

on touch screens the virtual keyboard has got the following three different touch implementations which can be selected in the settings dialog.

exact timing autorepeat and simultaneous keycap presses (disables default scroll gestures on keycaps, scroll gesture possible only on gaps around the keys)
smartphone like native scroll gestures on keycaps (press starts after finger is lifted from keycap for a duration of 100ms)
mix of both tries to mix both worlds... i.e. exact timing and simultaneous presses but also scrolls keyboard when swiping the finger on keycaps. disadvantage: also does a keypress when only scrolling was intended

07.04.2022 vc64web can now share its snapshots

in snapshot gallery you can now export individual snapshots by clicking the export button in the right bottom corner and transfer them to another device. E.g. start to play on iPhone and continue the game on a desktop computer. Or you could send them to a friend ...

24.12.2021 vc64web got petscii keyboard

vc64web got a nice virtual petscii keyboard in its latest update

26.5.2021 vc64web moved to a new address

update your existing installation on your phones homescreen by deleting the installation from the old address and re-add from https://vc64web.github.io