Don't you just love when things "just work"? Behold, the first real game is now playable in FC64 - The Commodore 64 Emulator for Flash Player 9.
You can play the game, Matrix by Llamasoft, at http://codeazur.com.br/stuff/fc64/. (Flash Player 9 required).
To start the game, type "RUN" (minus the quotes) and press enter. When the title screen appears, press space to start the game. Use your number pad to control the ship:
Up: Keypad-8
Right: Keypad-6
Left: Keypad-4
Down: Keypad-2
Fire: Space
By the way, there are no legal issues with distributing the game in this manner. It was released into the public domain by it's creator.
FC64 is really starting to take shape now. I'm actually pleasantly surprised that we haven't been finding more bugs than we have.. the core parts of the system all seem pretty solid / reliable, even though some of them were just hacked together as proof of concepts. By no means is FC64 bug free as I'm sure things are broken somewhere (and there's still a lot more to do), but so far we've been doing alright. I love when things "just work" like this.
We should really put a roadmap in place for this project so people know what's going on. Currently Claus and I are working on a Flex shell (since FC64 is an ActionScript-only project at the moment). The shell will provide a robust debugger, and most importantly the ability to load roms directly instead of us having to pre-load them in memory. It will also provide support for changing keyboard mappings, and will probably do some other stuff that we haven't thought through yet.
More to come!
ActionScript, ActionScript 3, Flash, Commodore 64, C64, Emulator
7 Comments
WOW! I just love you guys! Great work!
Posted by: Jensa | May 22, 2006 9:19 AM
So sweet!
Thanks!
Posted by: aSH | May 22, 2006 9:39 AM
I'd be happy to try this but ever since macromedia was acquired by adobe, new versions of Flash haven't been released for the GNU+Linux system. Very little software has ever been released by adobe for GNU+Linux. The latest version of Flash that can be run on GNU+Linux is Flash 7.
I take this personally. Claiming not "supporting" GNU+Linux with Flash, is a passive way of saying "we don't respect the users who have the priorities GNU+Linux users do (freedom speed and security), and we will not help those users open flash (a standard across the world wide web) files by compiling the Flash player for this system".
I'm sorry guys, but I don't have my priorities crooked, I'd like to try your game but no game (no matter how great it is) could convince me to surrender the advantages of this OS and move me to another. Please write to adobe in a tangible ink and paper letter, tell them that you developers need and would appreciate them to compile the latest versions of Flash for GNU+Linux because you have users who use that OS and these users are just as important to you as the other users (or so I would at least hope).
Posted by: Jon | May 25, 2006 3:41 AM
It's not the way you think it is. I undersatnd you're frustrated, but Adobe is not out to stick it to the Linux users.
For a bit of background about why it's not so easy to just port the Flash Player to Linux, see here: http://www.kaourantin.net/2005/08/porting-flash-player-to-alternative.html
Adobe is not saying they don't want to support Linux, they're actually saying they're looking for top-notch Linux developers to help bring the Player to Linux as it's not a trvial task. If you know anyone up to the challenege, I think the job is still available (but this may be an old link): http://www.adobe.com/macromedia/hr/reqs/engineering/2907br.html
There is no Flash 8 for Linux (Linux is still at 7, whereas Win + Mac are at 8 with 9 in beta right now). The reason for Linux still being at Flash 7 is that they decided to go right to Flash 9 directly to try and close the gap that currently exists. Read about that here: http://www.kaourantin.net/2005/12/flash-player-8-for-linux-update.html (The article mentions 8.5 as the next version, but 8.5 is actually 9 now).
When Flash 9 is released officially for Win + Mac, a Linux version is going to be close behind... at which point, I hope you'll take the time to visit FC64 again and see what we've been able to do with it.
Posted by: darron | May 25, 2006 6:39 AM
Hmmmm the controls don't seem to be quite as advertised here. At least not for Galaga.
From what I could make out
space = shoot + go left
right = go right
right twice = go right while shooting
Posted by: Smokinn | May 25, 2006 1:36 PM
Smokinn, choose joystick as control, use Numpad 4 and 6 to navigate and space to fire.
Posted by: Claus Wahlers | May 25, 2006 5:20 PM
Interesting timing, the Flash Player Product Manager (Emmy Huang) just posted an update about Flash Player 9 for Linux here: http://weblogs.macromedia.com/emmy/archives/2006/05/yes_virginia_th.cfm
And there's a new Flash Player 9 for Linux weblog here from Mike M. at Adobe: http://blogs.adobe.com/penguin.swf/
Posted by: darron | May 25, 2006 9:03 PM