commodore

Best resource for serious Commodore 64 programming.

What is the best resource for serious Commodore 64 programming? Assume that serious programming on the Commodore 64 is not done in BASIC V2 that ships with the Commodore 64. I feel like most of the knowledge is tied up in old books and not available on the internet. All that I have found online are either very beginner style introduct...

List of Best C64 Programming Books and Courseware

What books and/or courseware should be considered "must read" or definitive on the subject of C64 programming? This question asks about the knowledge that isn't tied up in books. However a sea of C64 programming books and courseware were published that are currently available only via physical media. ...

Draw on screen border in Commodore 64

Ok. I hope it does not get closed because I have this curiosity since 25 years and I would love to understand the trick. In the commodore 64 the border was not addressable by the 6569 VIC. All you could do was to draw pixels in the central area, the one where the cursor moved. The border was always uniform, although you could change it...

Still a future (and a present) for 6502, VIC and SID ?

As a derivative of my previous curiosity question I had a followup curiosity. Is there a future and/or an application for the 6502, the VIC and the SID chips ? I know they are still produced, and used. For example, I remember the 6502 makes a perfect controller chip for small appliances. the SID for sure is still present in some "retro" ...

Variable substitution faster than in-line integer in Vic-20 basic?

The following two (functionally equivalent) programs are taken from an old issue of Compute's Gazette. The primary difference is that program 1 puts the target base memory locations (7680 and 38400) in-line, whereas program 2 assigns them to a variable first. Program 1 runs about 50% slower than program 2. Why? I would think that the e...

Choose For Random Strings In Commodore 64 BASIC

I have this variable declarations on my program: X="MAGENTA" Y="CYAN" Z="TAN" A="KHAKI" Now what I want is to randomly choose one of these and PRINT it. But how to do this? ...