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Post by kjetilf on Feb 7, 2023 10:25:50 GMT
I like to create my own backups of games I've purchased, and this includes pre-installed games from different mini consoles. Since I have a C64 Mini, I'm wondering if it's possible to do? As far as I have understand, this thing is running Linux, so as long as I can connect it to a computer and brows and copy files from the system this should be possible to do. So what is the easiest way to connect a C64 Mini to a computer, so I can have a look at the files?
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Post by jj0 on Feb 7, 2023 11:07:19 GMT
I like to create my own backups of games I've purchased, and this includes pre-installed games from different mini consoles. Since I have a C64 Mini, I'm wondering if it's possible to do? As far as I have understand, this thing is running Linux, so as long as I can connect it to a computer and brows and copy files from the system this should be possible to do. So what is the easiest way to connect a C64 Mini to a computer, so I can have a look at the files? One way would be to run THE64 on-screen command line shell and copy whatever you want to a USB stick. Or check out PCUAE it has backups of the Mini already I believe. And it has a Network mode that allows you to SSH into the Mini with the right USB2Ethernet adapter.
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Post by c64stuff on Feb 7, 2023 11:51:57 GMT
If you have any mini consoles or other gaming devices that use a SD card or USB stick for storage you can also read the Linux formated storage device by plugging it into a Windows PC and using software that supports reading Linux formats. Or, if you've got a PC you're running Batocera on, which is a Linux based retro gaming front end you can even boot directly into from an external USB stick or hard drive, you can press F1 and bring up a file browser to read anything plugged into the PC.
Batocera booted from a USB stick or external drive won't alter a stock PC running windows, which is real nice if you want a self contained gaming setup you can run on any PC. Simply hit the function key at boot required to get into the bios on your computer and change boot priority to the external device to permanently set it, or do the temporary boot from menu option to boot from it one time. Once you unplug your external device (and reset the bios boot priority to whatever internal storage it was set to if you changed it permanently) your pc is back to normal.
I'm a RetroPie fan on the Raspberry Pi, but just tried Batocera on a PC/monitor all in one computer I got at a garage sale for $2 and must say I'm pretty impressed with it. The PC won't show it's hard drive in bios or boot so I threw Batocera on a USB drive, changed the bios to assign boot priority to the USB stick, and now I have a monitor/pc I'm going to throw into an bartop arcade cabinet I'm building. This Asus PC/monitor is about 10 years old and has an Intel Core i3 and 4 gigs of ram. According to the specs I looked up online it should have an internal 500 gig hard drive and wifi by neither show up in bios, so I threw a wifi dongle on it and a USB 3.0 thumb drive into one of the USB 3.0 ports, which makes it pretty fast to boot and run Batocera.
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Post by kjetilf on Feb 7, 2023 12:21:40 GMT
THE64 on-screen command line shell seems promising. So this basically boots up to the Linux command line, so I can just browse and copy whatever files I want from the Mini to a USB drive. Guess I need to figure out what commands to use (don't really know Linux). I guess they are fairly common ones. Will this alter my Mini in any way or is this just a temporarily installation?
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Post by kjetilf on Feb 7, 2023 13:14:22 GMT
Haven't heard much about Batocera, but it seems like nice and easy way of playing retro games.
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Post by c64stuff on Feb 7, 2023 14:36:04 GMT
Yeah it's great. If you've set it up on a USB stick or external drive you can literally run it on any PC, without altering the PC in any way, simply by hitting whatever key your PC calls for at boot to get into bios. Then simply pick the USB stick to boot from temporarily. Next time you power up the PC it's back to normal. This makes it handy to simply bring the USB stick over to a friend's house to do some gaming.
I've been binge watching Batocera how to content on ETA Prime and Batocera Nation and it's a pretty amazing retro front end that's real easy to setup. Other cool thing is it can even run emulators up to playstation 2 or 3, XBox, and steam stuff if your PC is powerful enough, although I don't care about anything newer than the 8 and 16 bit computers, consoles, and arcade of that era. Anything from the first playstation era or newer I have almost no interest in. All the systems start to look the same by then.
Batocera can even run many Linux utility programs and other software. In fact it comes with a built in file manager you can access by hitting F1, which makes it easy to surf any storage media you have to move things around.
Another nice feature is Batocera has a downloader built into the GUI with tons of free shareware games for various systems you can download as well as a built in GUI theme downloader with things like new bezels and artwork. They also have versions of Batocera for single board computers such as the Pi, so if you like using it on a PC you can use it on pretty much any single board computer without having to relearn a whole new retro front end setup.
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Post by jj0 on Feb 7, 2023 15:31:19 GMT
THE64 on-screen command line shell seems promising. So this basically boots up to the Linux command line, so I can just browse and copy whatever files I want from the Mini to a USB drive. Guess I need to figure out what commands to use (don't really know Linux). I guess they are fairly common ones. Will this alter my Mini in any way or is this just a temporarily installation? It's 100% temporary. Also, by default the root filesystem of the Mini is mounted read-only, so you should be unable to change anything permanently. If you want to use a GUI instead there's THEC64 X-Windows Mod. That one does remount the rootfs read/write though so you have to be slightly more careful.
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Post by kjetilf on Feb 7, 2023 22:07:16 GMT
Thanks for the reply. I'll give the on-screen command line a go then, and see if it works. Read-only is always preferable for someone like me who isn't to well versed in Linux command lines to begin with.
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