DreamFrodo is the Dreamcast port of the Commodore 64 emulator Frodo. The original version of Frodo was written by Christian Bauer, and it was ported to Dreamcast by Tolga Abaci. Free tools (gcc and KOS) were used for development (i.e. absolutely no devkits/libraries from Sega or Microsoft).
DreamFrodo comes in two flavours: The standard version and the "precise cycle" version. The former is a bit faster, but the latter is more compatible. (The original Frodo has a third flavour, the "single cycle" version, which is not included in DreamFrodo due to being too demanding for the poor Dreamcast :). Source code and binaries for both versions are available at this site.
DreamFrodo v0.94 released
Third beta for DreamFrodo, this version fixes some bugs and implements some new features:
All video-related instability and corruption issues have been fixed.
"Limit Speed" option has been removed. Now, DreamFrodo is perfectly synchronized with the TV display frequency, which also means that you'll only get the "true" readings of 100%, 50% or 25% from the speedometer.
CTRL key on the Dreamcast keyboard now works properly.
The (compressed) C64 state can be saved to VMU.
Options can be saved to VMU as well.
B and Y buttons and the triggers on the first DC controller can be mapped to any C64 key.
DreamFrodo v0.94 - binary "standard".
DreamFrodo v0.94 - binary "precise cycle".
The binaries above are not SBI. You can find Marcus Comstedt's scramble utility here.
Mostly full speed emulation of a PAL Commodore 64 (when the 1541 processor is turned off).
... at 640x480 resolution (PAL/NTSC) with 44.1 Khz, 16bit audio.
User interface for loading disk/tape images and altering emulation settings.
Saving/restoring of the C64 state to/from VMU.
Assigning of C64 keys to buttons/triggers on the DC controller.
Autostart feature and on-screen keyboard for people who do not own a Dreamcast keyboard.
DreamFrodo binaries come with required ROM images (kernal, BASIC, etc.) built-in, so you just need to burn a CD-R that contains a DreamFrodo binary together with the disk/tape images of programs you would like to use. Please check out the readme file that comes with the binary distributions. You may find instructions on making a Dreamcast-bootable CD-R on the net (Note that the provided binaries are unscrambled).
During emulation:
Pressing the start button on the first connected controller brings up the menu
Holding the start button down for approx. a second will "cold reset" the C64.
Button Y brings up the on-screen keyboard.
Up to two controllers connected to the Dreamcast can be used as joysticks, in which case button A acts as the fire button.
If a Dreamcast keyboard is connected, it can be used as the C64 keyboard.
In the menu:
Button A selects and button B cancels.
When using the file selector, pressing Y will take you to the parent directory, and you can use the analog stick to scroll faster.
To improve speed, either turn off the sound or the 1541 processor emulation (both are in options/emulation). Fastloaders in certain images require the 1541 emulation to be on (off by default) to work properly. You may also increase the amount of "frame-skip", however, this will make the emulation less smooth.
Since Frodo emulates a PAL C64, running the emulator in PAL display mode (if available on your TV) will result in smoother emulation.
You can turn on the "Borders" (options/display) setting to have the full C64 screen displayed on your TV, without a noticeable performance hit.
The autostart feature fails to automatically "RUN" the program if the loading part takes a long time.
... and images may take a long time to load if the 1541 processor is turned on.
Special thanks to
Christian Bauer for the original Frodo.
BOOB! for hosting.
Dan Potter, Marcus Comstedt, Roger Cattermole (and others) for their contributions to the Dreamcast amateur dev. scene.
Anyone using this program (DreamFrodo) agrees to incur the risk of using it for himself. In no way can the authors be held responsible for any damage directly or indirectly caused by the use or misuse of the program.
The rights on the source code remain at the authors. It may not - not even in parts - be used for commercial purposes without explicit written permission by the authors.
Before you report a problem, please check with other versions of Frodo to see if the problem is DreamFrodo specific.
Contact Tolga Abaci for suggestions, comments, questions, and bug reports.
Last updated: 26/07/2003