Rob takes a look at a new version of Amstrad CPC emulator Caprice32.That means even more playing of great games for hours on end. Four years later, heres the review if the thing....

Emulator - CCS64
Written By - Per Håken Sundell / Computerbrains
Version Tested - DOS but Windows native version also available. Shareware 30 USD registration fee
Platform Emulated - Commodore C64
Requirements - DOS 5.0 (+) (Dos version), Windows 95/98 (Win version) or NT with SP3, Pentium, Direct X 3.0 (Win version)
We Recommend - P166,Soundblaster, 16Mb, VESA 2.0 BIOS (SDD or similar), Dos version.
Available from - http://www.computerbrains.com/ccs64

I still use my old C64s. Two of them still work (I had four!). Theres something very nostalgic about waiting half an hour for a game to load and then watching it play once then crash inexplicably, NOT! While the C64 had a hell of a lot of excellent games, unless it was my bad luck, they weren't very reliable beasts. You took this at the time but with emulators such as this, those times really are a thing of the past. Ohyes!

CCS64 is jam packed with options. You can set screenmodes to your hearts content, fiddle with control options and also load games in tape,cartridge and disk format. This version will (allegedly) allow you to connect your real C64 disk drive to your PC for loadage of your dusty classics. Sound can be fiddled with and a nifty oversampling option can be used for that true C64 sound even with lower sample rates.

One of the things that I always rant on about is the need of a true 50hz refresh rate for us PAL users along with a real Vsync for the ultimate in silky smoothness, This is especially necessary with the C64 as, while the graphics weren't the greatest, the smoothness of everything was. Most emulators of this creature have juddery scrolling, utterly defeating in my view, the nostalgic feeling initially aimed for. This emulator (on my system of course) runs smoother than Michael Johnson when he's haveing an exceptionally smooth day! Cool!

For a change with the DOS based emulators, the joypad works correctly without continually fiddling with calibration settings. You have only to do this once so with this emulator you can almost just put it on and play away! Even the little used seond and third fire buttons are recognised which is another large brownie point flung its way!. It also emulates Commodores little used C1351 mouse if you can get any software that needs it! Snapshots which can be saved and loaded at any time are a welcome addition to C64 emulation which I found much better than saving games to disk images (it never works right for me!).

There is also a built in C64 Monitor within the emulater which is very useful for hacking around for whatever you feel like (cheats. music,gfx etc.). You can even sample the sound output of the emulator to a file. These two are probably options that I'd never use but it does show the detail that goes into it. Compatability is good, Mayhem In Monsterland (a very harware-hitting) game ran flawlessly but Turrican 1 refused to work which was a shame. Turrican II did though so I was covered in the alien bashing stakes!

Overall, This is a great emulator which is still being updated today. The only gripe I have is with the Registration fee of 30 US Dollars. While I understand the amount of work gone into this, I can't see how this price can be justified when there are free (albeit inferior) C64 emulators out there. This is the same price as the Bleem playstation emulator for gawd's sake. But, of course, if you do use it then give the man the money. He's earned it here.

Coagulus / Rob

9/10 - Loses a point for the fee and compatability but this is the cream of the crop!