| C64 Port |
The physical joystick socket on a Commodore 64. There are two ports: Port 1 and Port 2. Most single-player games expect the joystick to be plugged into Port 2 because Port 1 shares electrical connections with certain keyboard keys, which can cause conflicts. |
| Cache |
LoadC64's two-file system for fast application startup, consisting of library.data (serialized game library) and library-index.toml (fingerprint for staleness detection). |
| Canonical Control Names |
LoadC64's standardized naming scheme for controller inputs, for example dpad_up, button_south, left_stick_x, left_trigger. |
| Controller |
A real hardware input device held by the user, for example a Logitech F310 or Xbox controller. |
| Controller Family |
Reusable controller configuration templates for brands or series of controllers sharing common characteristics. |
| Controller Labels |
A presentation layer mapping canonical logical controls, for example button_south, to display labels, for example "A". Used for configuration prompts and UI only. |
| D-Pad |
The directional pad on a controller, typically a cross-shaped button cluster used for directional input. Operating systems may expose it as either a hat control or as four separate buttons. |
| Device |
The software representation of a Controller as exposed by the operating system. A Device has a GUID, generates Events and is the unit configured by LoadC64. |
| Device GUID |
A globally unique identifier reported by the input subsystem for a Device. LoadC64 uses the full GUID as the stable identity key for a Device configuration file. |
| Device Index |
An integer assigned by a software layer when enumerating connected Devices. Device indices are session scoped and may change between restarts or connection order changes. |
| DirectInput |
A legacy Windows input API that defines how controllers report their button and axis events. Many controllers include a hardware switch to toggle between DirectInput mode (D mode) and XInput mode (X mode). |
| Driver |
The operating system component that communicates with a Controller and exposes it as a Device. |
| Event |
A notification generated by a Device, such as a button press or axis movement. |
| Event Identifier |
The identifier for a specific control within a Device, for example button index, axis index or hat index. |
| Event Value |
The state carried by an Event, for example pressed or released, magnitude or direction. |
| Hat |
A type of input control, typically used for D-pads, that reports directional state. Operating systems expose hats with discrete directional values (up, down, left, right) rather than as continuous axes. |
| Library |
The complete collection of games available in LoadC64, indexed from the games/ directory. |
| LoadC64 Catalogue |
A set of plain-text files maintained by the LoadC64 project that provides ROMSet lookup, game metadata (title, publisher, year, controls), and suggested third-party catalogue IDs. Downloaded as a ZIP from the configured Catalogue URL. |
| LoadC64 Catalogue URL |
The URL from which LoadC64 downloads the LoadC64 Catalogue ZIP. Configured in General Settings. If not set, catalogue features are unavailable. |
| LoadC64 Global ID |
A permanent, globally unique identifier for an abstract game in the LoadC64 Catalogue. Assigned by the LoadC64 Catalogue when a ROMSet is recognised. Games not recognised by the LoadC64 Catalogue have no LoadC64 Global ID. |
| Platform |
A specific Commodore computer system supported by VICE (C64, C128, VIC20, PLUS4, PET). |
| Profile |
A reusable launch configuration that can be applied to one or more games. |
| ROMSet |
A specific set of one or more ROM files that together constitute a playable version of a game. Identified by a ROMSet ID computed from the file contents. |
| ROMSet ID |
A hash computed from the contents of a ROMSet's ROM files. Used to look up the ROMSet in the LoadC64 Catalogue during import. |
| Session |
A runtime context where LoadC64 stores volatile settings that are only valid during the LoadC64 process lifetime. |
| Snapshot |
A VICE save state file (.vsf) that captures the complete state of the emulated system. |
| TOSEC |
The Old School Emulation Center. A retrocomputing initiative that catalogues and preserves software and firmware for retro systems. TOSEC DAT files encode ROM metadata (title, publisher, year, country, dump flags) in a structured filename convention and are used to seed the LoadC64 Catalogue. See TOSEC Naming Convention. |
| VICE |
The Versatile Commodore Emulator. |
| VICE Device Index |
The integer index VICE assigns to each detected Device at startup. |
| VJM |
A VICE Joystick Mapping file generated by LoadC64. |
| XInput |
A modern Windows input API providing a standardized Xbox-style controller layout. |