Home Page Forums MAME MAME .d64 files get stuck on loading

Hello,

I am trying to load a particular d64 file into mame:
I then load it with
mame then gets stuck on LOADING forever.
The same image works with vice. Am I missing something? Or is c64 emulation having some issues? Thanks.

yes, the c64 1541 emulation in mame still has quite a few problems.

Same goes for the 1571 in the c128 emulation part of mame,

I tested down to Mame 0.236, and no luck, something is broken with this disk in mame.

To be fair, the image i downloaded and tested is not the same you are using, and the one i have is not even working in the vice version that i have on my disk.

tbh my QA experience with c64.cpp in general is pretty poor, like even carts have strong issues when loading.
I'm not even sure why it's considered a working driver ...

I tested 2 versions of this game also in mame.

Here are the sha1sums of the tested disks :
27af3e753c40e6a481496248f98beca4bc4b5105 Chwat_1996_Timsoft_cr_F4CG_t_2_F4CG.d64
1aaa5904a6207041185416fb17217873536cc64e Chwat_1996_Timsoft_pl_cr_Therapy_t_2_Therapy.d64

Both disk versions didn't work, testing them both on MAME, using the c1541 or the c1570 drive.
Also tested them with different reversions, without success.
Seems that both drivers indeed have issues.

Also I can confirm that they both work on VICE and lr-vice.

I found that VICE includes a CLI program called 'c1541'.
With this program you can "attach" the disc image and later "extract" the files.
The disc contains a file called "Chwat+", a 'prg' file.
After extracting you can exit 'c1541' with "exit".
Then rename the file to Chwat+.prg.

I did it like this :

xx@xxxxx:~$./c1541
c1541 (VICE 3.7.1 SVN r44618)
Copyright 1995-2022 The VICE Development Team.
C1541 is free software, covered by the GNU General Public License, and you are
welcome to change it and/or distribute copies of it under certain conditions.
c1541 #8> attach Chwat_1996_Timsoft_cr_F4CG_t_2_F4CG.d64
c1541 #8> dir
0 "ass presents: "
187 "chwat+" prg
477 blocks free.
c1541 #8> extract
c1541 #8> exit
xx@xxxxx:~$mv Chwat+ Chwat+.prg

A prg file can be loaded directly with the '-quik' option.
Now the game works over here.
Don't forget the type "run" ;-)

Once loaded into the c64, you might want to try and save the prg file to a newly created disc image.
Perhaps that will work if you really want it to load from disc.
Although I would recommend loading prg files because it is much quicker.

I was trying with the following image:
I have completed the game in VICE in the meantime.
I have also tried c64_flop_orig:impmiss from the software list. While it loads, it seems to get stuck on the loading screen too (or it takes VERY long to load).

ETA: it does take long time to load. Game loaded eventually.

Bisecting delivered the commit b2c399c from where the disk issues began for me on the C64. I noticed that the 1541 first seems to load the catalog or the program, then does a restore, then hangs.

That commit has been an unmitigated disaster. Why haven’t we just reverted it yet?

It’s been reverted. Hopefully floppy formats will be a bit more stable again.

Thanks, I can load the game now.