VICE Wishlist

[xlar54]

Lets talk this.  What would you like to see included in VICE?  Here's what I have for the now:
 

1 - 2MHZ C128.  Yay.  The patched x128 will stay right there with my official x128.exe.  In fact this thread is being started after I saw what was done. Incredible work.

2 - Real-time access to RAM via TCP/IP.  I already coded this for x64.exe, and one of the folks on the team showed an interest.  Hope they include it or something similar.  Not a monitor, but something in real time. Allows for all sorts of interesting PC->x64 or 128 interface projects.

3 - Full RS-232.  Dunno how, or even if its possible, but compatibility with BBS software was one of the first things people looked at when VICE's RS-232 emulation came out.

4 - One glaring thing missing from VICE is 1660/1670/Aprotek, etc modem emulation.  Probably goes hand in hand with #3.  

5 - LT Kernal or CMD harddrive emulation.  Conceptually I cant see this being extraordinarily difficult. But, I could be wrong.

6 - SCPU emulation?

7 - Imagine using a real 3 1/2" drive as a 1581 under the emulator.  Of course the 3 1/2" disk is really a plain ol PC disk with a D81 file on it, but the emulator could automatically mount any PC 3 1/2" disk with a D81 file on it.  Could be extended to D64s and D71s also, but they would still be on 3 1/2" disks (unless you are truly a retro guy and have a 5 1/2 drive in your PC).

8 - C65 emulation.  MESS has it, why not VICE? Maybe we could "finish" the C65

Most of these ideas are out of scope for VICE really, but hey, its just a wish list.  Get creative and tell us what you'd like to see.  With more folks hacking at the code, who's to say none of this will ever happen?

[hydrophilic]

The RS-232 does not work?  I've been meaning to try that.

I do not think most PCs will interrupt when a floppy is inserted so VICE could not automount.  But even if it could, if you're just storing D81 (or D64/71) image then isn't that same as just reading a file from your HD?  The only differences I see is it would be noisy and slow.  Very badly slow.  But if you just want noises, I have a silly hack that does that.  Commie fans love it.  The sound comes from the PC/motherboard speaker, not the audio speakers.  So people think it really is a disk drive  I like games with fast loaders -- those make neat sounds.  But the head banging 41/71 doesn't sound quite right...
Or use a real 1541/71/81 and a cable to your PC.  That's what OpenCBM is for, no?

I always wanted something like a desktop.  It would show the monitor, and the Commie/keyboard, and the disk drives and joysticks/mouse, and box of disks (when not in full screen mode).  You could drag disks from your box and stick 'em the drive.  Turn the drive on/off, unplug it, whatever.  Same for joysticks and printers.  And best of all, you could click on the keyboard to bring up an on-screen keyboard so you can find the graphic keys you need.  If you're a Commie die hard you probably already know how to get the symbol you want for your favorite machine, but if you try out a different machine, it can be a headache!  This would help.

Also, the ability to read other disk formats would be nice.  The 1571 and 1581 can really read other formats but VICE doesn't allow this.  I started a patch to allow this, but right now the 1571 drive code of VICE is too buggy to allow me to finish it.   Maybe next release I might try again...

[Golan Klinger]

Most of these ideas are out of scope for VICE really, but hey, its just a wish list.

Actually, I think all your suggestions are both good and reasonable. I have one that isn't so reasonable. I would like C64DTV/Hummer emulation with the extra colours and such so that development of DTV projects would be easier. Realistically though, I would like to see 128 emulation improved as well as a general improvement of the way VICE handles NTSC emulation. With the developers being mostly (if not all) from Europe, it's understandable that PAL should be ahead of NTSC. Mostly though, I'd like to see better communication facilities. I think that having more people running and connecting to bulletin boards and Q-Link would be good for the community.