New Linux problem

Work has been slow the past couple of months, due to planning for a trip, and then a family tragedy that cut that trip short. It’s not been good times here.

Attempting to set Loadstar Compleat up on a new install of Linux Mint has revealed, even downloading it on its own (itch’s sandboxing precludes it working from its app) and installing VICE from the repositories, it still doesn’t work with the turn-key simplicity I’d like. Now the problem has to do with VICE not including copies of the C64 ROMs. The machine was last produced 31 years ago, but still people are standoffish about including copies of the sacred IP, I guess. Welcome to compuhell. I don’t think the problem applies to the copy of VICE included in the Windows version.

The solution, I think, will be to package VICE in an AppImage with the ROMs included, which I’ll need to figure out how to do. Or else, maybe I could find an open-source implementation. But any ROM replacement that isn’t byte-identical will absolutely result in some of Loadstar’s programs breaking, since tons of Commodore software assumed the Kernal and BASIC ROMs would always be present and the same.

Anyway, this means if you use the Linux version, currently it’s up to you to set up VICE correctly and have it in your path (Loadstar Compleat is smart enough to check if it’s there and use it if it’s found), have the ROMs working in it. Sorry about that, hopefully this problem will go away when I figure out how to make an AppImage.