8-Bit Show And TellJoin me as we look through 1980s Commodore programmer Andy Finkel's games and other programs in a search for easter eggs, some of which have never been documented. Commodore policy prevented programmers from claiming authorship, so programmers found ways to hide their names within the programs.
Newly Found 40+ Year-Old VIC-20 Easter Eggs by Commodore Programmer Andy Finkel8-Bit Show And Tell2022-07-22 | Join me as we look through 1980s Commodore programmer Andy Finkel's games and other programs in a search for easter eggs, some of which have never been documented. Commodore policy prevented programmers from claiming authorship, so programmers found ways to hide their names within the programs.
Index: 0:00 Intro 2:42 Car Chase / Biorhythm 5:10 Loan/Mortgage Calculator 9:51 Scott Adams Adventures 15:20 Sargon II Chess 18:22 GORF - Mystery solved? 24:29 More paddle fun 26:58 Omega Race 29:48 Thanks to my patrons!Best Ever VIC-20 Cart? Penultimate+28-Bit Show And Tell2023-07-29 | One Commodore VIC-20 cartridge to rule them all? Tynemouth Software and The Future Was 8-Bit have teamed up to make the Penultimate+2 cartridge which contains over 200 VIC-20 games spanning from the original games made in Japan by Hal Laboratory in 1980 to modern games made in the present day. In addition it contains useful utilities, programming languages, diagnostic tools, flexible software-controlled RAM upgrades and even more. In this first video we have a look at a fraction of the games available. We'll follow up in another video with a detailed look at all the rest of the cartridge's features.
Index: 0:00 Intro, NTSC VIC-20 2:57 Main Menu, quick overview 6:27 Games A-Z, navigation, filters 8:11 Avenger, Demon Attack, Frogger 12:33 Hunchy, Jelly Monsters 18:15 Jupiter Lander, River Rescue 23:37 Splatform 27:43 PAL VIC-20, Avenger revisited 30:24 Games By Category, Scramble, Pink Windmill Blitz 34:52 3D Monster Maze, Tut Tut, Tale(s) of Sara Christina 40:42 Adventure Land (text), Clowns, Vicatone 48:35 Rods Random ROM Runner, Cyclons, Snake Pit 50:55 Boot to Random, Spaceship Minus 1, Forbidden Tower 54:31 Back to NTSC, Super Starship Space Attack, Cosmic Snake 57:33 Conclusion, Links, Thanks!Cracking a C64 Game From Cassette: Livingstone, I Presume?8-Bit Show And Tell2023-07-10 | In a previous video we took a look at the crash in the Commodore 64 port of the Operasoft game "Livingstone, I Presume?", unraveling the cause of the crash and coming up with a live-patch to fix the problem. This time we learn how to "crack" the game from the original cassette so we can patch the game and save it to disk permanently fixed, rather than having to re-patch the game every time it's loaded. Check the video description for links to everything I reference.
Index: 0:00 Intro - last time 2:50 Why not just SAVE? Autostart 4:31 Tape program header modifications 8:33 Examining the loader 16:40 Preventing game execution & loading 19:49 Examining, patching, saving game to disk 24:38 Testing cracked game, two problems 26:14 Crunchers to the rescue 31:14 Does the cheat work now? 33:23 Tape re-mastering? Thanks!Hello World on Commodore 64 in Assembly Language, Machine Code8-Bit Show And Tell2023-06-28 | Today we look at programming the classic "Hello World" program on the Commodore 64. First we show the trivial BASIC version, and then 6502/6510 Assembly Language, Machine Language, and Machine Code variations in different environments: Turbo Macro Pro v1.2, SuperMON by Jim Butterfield, and a BASIC loader, respectively. To keep it interesting, each environment has a slightly different approach to displaying the Hello World text. No ChatGPT was involved in the making of this video.
Index: 0:00 Hello World - not ChatGPT! 2:31 BASIC version 4:11 SnappyROM - starting Turbo Macro Pro 5:48 Assembly Language with TMP 12:29 SuperMon 64: Hello World data 16:20 Machine Language with SuperMon 64 23:19 Machine Code with BASIC loader 31:39 ThanksOne Bad Byte Broke This Game: Commodore 64s Livingstone, I Presume?8-Bit Show And Tell2023-05-29 | "Livingstone, I Presume?" is a puzzle platform adventure that had me entranced as a kid. Unfortunately, the Commodore 64 version I played always crashed at a particular point well into the game. I thought it was a bug in my pirated copy, but later I've learned even the original store-bought version had the bug. Today we take a look at the game and the cause of the crash, and see if we can fix it and get further into the game.
Index: 0:00 Intro 1:48 Loading & reading the manual 4:57 Playing the game 9:00 Intermission: infinite lives patch 10:12 More gameplay 14:02 The crash & Lemon64 game reviews 17:35 Clue: No C64 Infinite lives? 19:53 Hunting for OPERA 24:06 The bad patch 27:02 Comparing with "Livingstone Supongo?" 30:05 Fixing one bad byte 32:38 Finally beyond the crashing bridge 35:57 Summary and future improvements 38:38 Thanks!One-Line Bouncing Ball: Commodore 64 BASIC8-Bit Show And Tell2023-05-21 | Besides the famous 10 PRINT, one of my favourite type-in programs from the Commodore 64 User's Guide is "More Bouncing Balls" in which a ball bounces off the borders of the screen. Inspired by Josip Retro Bits' 2-line version of this program, I attempt to squeeze it down to one line, with some other diversions along the way.
Index: 0:00 The Commodore 64 User's Guide 2:52 Adding a clear screen to 10 PRINT 7:57 More Bouncing Balls 14:32 Josip Retro Bits' 2-line version 22:23 A different approach: what's it doing? 26:41 Implementing a simple oscillator 32:25 POKEing the ball back in! 35:44 The final one-line version 38:00 Potential improvements? 40:25 Thanks to Josip, my patrons, and you!I turned my Atari 2600 into a REAL COMPUTER with a SpectraVideo CompuMate8-Bit Show And Tell2023-04-15 | The SpectraVideo CompuMate is an add-on keyboard and cartridge for the Atari 2600 (formerly Atari VCS) that promises to turn your game console into a Powerful Personal Computer. It includes the BASIC programming language, and modes to allow creation of both art and music. Does it live up to the promise? Can we program 10 PRINT with it?
Index: 0:00 A look around the box 2:50 A look at the keyboard and cartridge 4:38 Installing on "Light Sixer" Atari 2600 6:11 Comparing to ZX81 Part 1 8:12 Power up, Microsoft BASIC? 9:54 Hello World 12:18 Why was this made? 13:30 Graphic Mode aka MAGIC EASEL 18:18 Music Mode aka MUSIC COMPOSER 27:23 10 PRINT? More ZX81 comparisons. 33:19 More CompuMate BASIC quirks 36:18 Slightly good things 38:55 A pretty bad bug! 39:59 More shortcomings - 16K BASIC? 42:50 Buy the SpectraVideo SV-318? 44:17 More? And thanks!My New Favourite C64 One-Liner?8-Bit Show And Tell2023-02-19 | Programmer Ian Witham created a short Commodore 64 BASIC program that procedurally generates a very interesting 3D landscape. We examine how it works, and then focus our efforts on optimizing the program so it can fit in a single 80-column line of code.
Index: 0:00 Running Ian's Original Program 2:58 Code Walkthrough Lines 5-20 7:55 Lines 30- 12:45 Subscribe to Ian's channel 13:29 Abbreviating our way to one-line? No. 17:30 My original one-line attempt walkthrough 24:25 RUNning the first one-attempt, more commentary 28:22 shrydar's random optimization! 32:49 Ian's POKE 199 optimization 36:45 An imperfect 62-character attempt 39:37 Ian's POS() optimization 42:57 A few more speed optimizations 45:25 Thanks!The Tiny Type-In Hiding In A 40-Year-Old Blank Computer Cassette8-Bit Show And Tell2023-01-20 | Is there a tiny type-in program listing hiding inside a Thorn EMI EMITAPE Computer Cassette? I tracked a brand new, unopened C20 tape down, thanks to a tip from viewer EdwardianTeaChest, and opened the early 1982-vintage cassette. There are in fact two listings, one for the Commodore VIC-20, and another for the Sinclair ZX81. Join me as we type these programs in on vintage hardware, and figure out what they do.
The closing credits song can be heard (and watched) in full here: youtu.be/djQ1Qk-9xbo
Title: 0:00 EMITAPE Computer Cassette C20 + Opening 3:40 Examining the cassette and j-card notes 6:46 Fun Program found! 7:46 Commodore VIC-20 Type-In 12:17 Saving program to EMITAPE 13:41 RUNning on VIC-20 15:17 Sinclair ZX81 Type-In 23:04 RUNning on ZX81 25:10 In Conclusion: ThanksCommodore-Inspired Vinyl Records and Compact Discs8-Bit Show And Tell2022-12-31 | Let's take a look at some of my collection of vinyl records and CDs that are somehow inspired by or connected to Commodore computers. One Intelligent Dance Music album is VIC-20 themed and even includes a type-in program that we try! Another is named after the Commodore PET, or my favourite Commodore magazine. Another has a Commodore 64 program hidden on it that promises the greatest Telespeil ever on the next album! Another is a synth record about Kayak Championships published by Commodore that borrows from Phil Collins in a very strange way. Or another song is about using your Commodore 64 for free long distance calls and getting busted by the Feds. Much variety, but all of it is somehow Commodore-connected.
Index: 0:00 Intro & Recap of Commodore-inspired albums 2:28 Transactor by CATfISH 6:48 The Race by VANLUKAS, published by Commodore 11:08 O Cubano by Flucht Nach Vorn 18:34 Successful LOAD 21:41 Talking Is Over - My Worst Purchase Ever? 24:14 Module 2 by Bochum Welt 27:38 VIC-20 BASIC Time! 35:14 Simon BASIC by Barcelona 39:02 The Connectedness of Things - Thanks!Code Review a Novel? C64 BASIC in The Impossible Fortress8-Bit Show And Tell2022-12-08 | The Impossible Fortress is a novel by Jason Rekulak about the (mis)adventures of a 14-year-old Commodore 64 programmer in 1987. Each chapter opens with a snippet of C64 BASIC code from the video game he's writing, with the help of a friend he meets during the story. I get the dumb idea to type in, comment upon, and when reasonable, fix the code from all 34 chapters in one stupidly long video. It's almost like a live stream, but I actually edited out over 30 minutes just to make it less painful. Honest. My editing software says I made 2259 edits, but who would believe that?
Index: 0:00 A Novel 2:14 An excerpt from the novel 6:23 C64 BASIC as a literary device? 8:27 Ch. 1 - Welcome Screen 12:27 Ch. 2 - Establishing Difficulty 15:43 Ch. 3 - Transfer Character Set 18:45 Ch. 4 - Play Theme Music 21:45 Ch. 5 - Introduce Variables 26:51 Ch. 6 - Instructions 29:47 Ch. 7 - Draw Hero Sprite 33:40 Ch. 8 - Draw Guard 1 Sprite 36:07 Ch. 9 - Control Hero 39:10 Ch. 10 - Draw Princess Sprite 41:08 Ch. 11 - Draw Guard 2 Sprite 43:12 Ch. 12 - Advance Countdown 47:25 Ch. 13 - Error Buzzer 50:19 Ch. 14 - Assign Ranking$ 53:18 Ch. 15 - Boost Score 55:14 Ch. 16 - Out of Time 57:24 Ch. 17 - Hero Attacks 1:00:30 Ch. 18 - Bonus Life 1:03:12 Ch. 19 - Victory Screen 1:06:11 Ch. 20 - Victory Theme Music 1:08:44 Ch. 21 - Pause Game 1:10:54 Ch. 22 - Fortress is Breached 1:13:31 Ch. 23 - Alarm Sound 1:15:53 Ch. 24 - Captured By Guards 1:20:53 Ch. 25 - Reset Score To Zero 1:22:41 Ch. 26 - Clear Memory 1:25:42 Ch. 27 - Draw New Hero 1:27:18 Ch. 28 - Start Bonus Level 1:29:45 Ch. 29 - Draw New Guards 1:31:01 Ch. 30 - Draw New Environment 1:34:22 Ch. 31 - Draw New Fortress 1:37:26 Ch. 32 - Repeat Siren SFX 1:41:11 Ch. 33 - Game Over 1:44:11 Ch. 34 - Play Again?? 1:46:55 A Note About The Code & Acknowledgments 1:49:09 The Eternal Castle: Inspired by The Impossible Fortress? 1:56:29 In Conclusion, Thanks, & Credits 2:00:01 The Impossible Fortress GameplaySuper Secret Coded Message (1988) Floppy Disk: Solving Information Societys Puzzle8-Bit Show And Tell2022-11-19 | We take a look at a rare MS-DOS floppy disk containing a Super Secret Coded Message from the band Information Society (INSOC) in 1988. After some initial problems reading the disk, we run the program and figure out the secret code to access The Message, with a bit of help from an ancient Commodore 64 emulator. Suspecting there's more going on, we then examine the helpfully included C source code, and learn of a backdoor code that reveals the true extent of Information Society's plan for the future.
Index: 0:00 About the disk and INSOC 2:43 Loading ATTEMPT #1 - cleaning 6:02 ATTEMPT #2 - copying 8:17 Running INSOC.EXE 11:05 Instructions for obtaining Secret Code and Message 15:22 Using C64S Commdore 64 Emulator to calculate secret code 18:44 The Super Secret Coded Message 20:32 Is there more? Examining C source code 23:57 The Resticted Information. 26:25 Thanks!An Amiga Hiding in a Tower of Power: Commodore CDTV in a 1990s Hi-Fi Stack8-Bit Show And Tell2022-10-27 | Even though it was essentially an Amiga 500 with a CD-ROM drive hiding inside a hi-fi stereo component case, Commodore left the Amiga name off the CDTV because they didn't want it to be considered a computer; instead they wanted it in your living room, hooked up to your high-end entertainment system's television and speakers. In many ways, the CDTV was forward-thinking, but it did not sell well and in the end most surplus units were sold bundled with a keyboard, mouse, and floppy drive, ironically, as Amiga computers. We take a look at the CDTV in its originally intended context as part of a 1990s home theatre, and try some of the many abilities of this device, including playing CDXL digital movies, CD+G CDs, early interactive multimedia encyclopedias, games, the wireless controller, and of course hunt for the Easter Egg hiding in the preferences screen.
Index: 0:00 My 1990s Audio/Visual Stack 0:48 Sony Compact Disc Player CDP-CX355 300 CD Changer 3:07 Kenwood AV Surround Receiver Receiver VR-205 3:57 Pioneer Double Cassette Deck CT-1270WR 4:25 JVC Hi-Fi VCR HR-VP676U 5:23 Commodore Dynamic Total Vision background and front panel 8:45 Commodore CDTV Remote Controller & Preferences 10:33 CDTV Easter Egg!! 12:37 The New Grolier Electronic Encyclopedia 16:48 Power Pinball From KarmaSoft 18:38 Playing a CD+Graphics Audio CD: Information Society 22:38 CDXL Movie: "NASA... the 25th Year" 25:50 Back of the Stack & CDTV Back Panel 28:05 Deluxe Music Construction Set: Booting From Floppy 30:22 More CDTV History to Bach Fugue in G Minor 33:27 A quick look inside: LC6554H, 6500/1 37:16 Thanks, and... sorry!Commodore 64 and 128 TIME: Exploration of TI and TI$8-Bit Show And Tell2022-10-03 | We take our deepest look yet at the TI and TI$ "variables" on the Commodore 64 and 128: how they look like variables but are called functions and how they're not really either, how the clock is implemented, how TI works on both the Commodore 64 and 128,, some bugs and quirks in the implementation, dispelling myths about whether a jiffy is a different length on PAL vs. NTSC, and potential patches to fix the admittedly minor bugs. One byte changed in each of the KERNAL and BASIC ROMs!
Index: 0:00 Another TIME 0:58 Not really variables, not keywords - they're sort of functions! 5:13 TI is derived from the KERNAL jiffy clock 7:17 A Leap Jiffy 11:17 60 jiffies per second - even on PAL machines! 15:08 PAL Commodore 128: Raster driven jiffies! 23:04 Can't assign TI 25:03 Retrieving TI 26:40 Retrieving TI$ 30:33 Assigning TI$, bug exploration 33:42 TI$ assignment algorithm in BASIC 40:06 Patching assignment bug 44:50 Thanks!Project Creators Talk at VCFMW 2022: Meatloaf, Amiga Video, 8-Bit Guy, Giant SX-648-Bit Show And Tell2022-09-28 | Here's some on-the-floor conversations (interviews? demos?) I recorded while at the Vintage Computer Festival Midwest in September of 2022. I talk with: Jaime who is creating the Meatloaf Commodore wifi disk drive emulator; Greg who is getting his Amiga 1200 to display full screen video; David (The 8-Bit Guy) who brought the latest PETSCII Robots releases and the Commander X16 prototype; and finally Eric and his CBM SX-64 Ultimax project. It's a giant door-sized SX-64 keyboard and eventually, a giant matching SX-64 system.
Index: 0:00 Intro: On the floor at VCFMW 2022 1:30 Jaime / Meatloaf: Commodore Drive and Wifi Modem Emulator 13:52 Greg / Amiga 1200 Full-Screen video playback 21:31 David (The 8-Bit Guy) / PETSCII Robots / Commander X16 24:16 Eric / CBM SX-64 Ultimax 32:33 ThanksVintage Computer Festival Midwest VCFMW 2022 - VCFMW178-Bit Show And Tell2022-09-24 | When I said goodbye to my friends after the 2019 Vintage Computer Festival Midwest, I had no idea that I wouldn't be seeing them again for THREE YEARS. Due to the pandemic, the 2020 show was cancelled outright, and ongoing travel restrictions made my attendance in 2021 unfeasible. So it was with great excitement I returned for the 2022 show, which in one form or another has been an annual highlight for me since 1998. Join me as I take a tour around the show, meet some old and new friends, including some faces that will be familiar to many of you. VCFMW 2022
Index: 0:00 Intro 1:49 Jim Happel's display + C64 40th Birthday 3:16 VCFMW History 4:40 Youtube Area 9:47 More Youtube people 11:25 Telephone Time 15:52 Thoughts, Free Pile, Vendors 17:52 Greetings 20:00 Final Announcements + PET Space Invaders 21:44 Thanks!The Great Donkey Kong Junior Hoax - Nintendo on Commodore 648-Bit Show And Tell2022-09-03 | I've loved Nintendo games for decades, ever since I first saw Donkey Kong in the arcade in the early 1980s. Years before the NES, I wanted to play Mario and Donkey Kong games at home, and that was possible for some thanks to Atarisoft on home computers and Coleco for video game consoles. However, one favourite game wasn't available for my Commodore 64: Donkey Kong Junior. Or was it? One day a friend gave me a copied disk that promised to fulfill my dream, but instead it robbed me of 8-bit bliss for hours, days, maybe even years due to a cruel, mysterious, and suspicious password protection scheme. Join me as I use my Super Snapshot machine language monitor to get to the bottom of this mystery.
Index: 0:00 I like Nintendo too! 1:20 Nintendo on Atari, Commodore, etc.? 3:43 Donkey Kong Jr. on C64 in 1984?? 6:10 Using Super Snapshot to solve the mystery 8:55 What's the password? 11:16 Is there a game at all? Sprite investigation 14:34 Looking at the "game code" 19:09 $8C00: some of the weirdest code I've ever seen 22:06 What does this terrible code do? 26:15 Page alignment: this was written in a monitor? 29:51 Mr. SID's Donkey Kong Jr. (2014) 31:19 Thanks!Exploring 1982s Commodore MAX Machine: Commodore 64s Little Brother8-Bit Show And Tell2022-08-27 | In 1982 Commodore launched a system featuring a 6510 CPU, a VIC-II video chip, and a SID sound chip, and it wasn't a Commodore 64. It was the Commodore MAX, a low-end computer / games system intended to compete with the Atari VCS and Intellivision. While it only officially released in Japan, Commodore was very near to releasing it in the USA, Japan, and Germany too. Join me as we look at this obscure system, and compare it to its much more famous (and capable) big brother the Commodore 64.
Index: 0:00 Silver Label Commodore 64 and MAX history 3:10 Many names: VIC-10, VC-10, Ultimax, Max Machine 5:00 Nearly released in the USA 7:03 Comparing MAX and C64 ports, power supply 10:50 Look at Keyboard 16:14 Looking inside, MAX vs. C64 26:20 Powering up to play some games 27:28 Super Alien, Jupiter Lander 33:02 Mole Attack, Bowling 38:10 Kick Man, Wizard of Wor 42:42 Music Machine, Music Maker, Road Race 45:49 Next time: BASIC, and Thanks!Commodore 64 Double Dragon: The Waist Gap (Sprite Multiplexing)8-Bit Show And Tell2022-08-06 | We take a look at the 1988 conversion of Double Dragon for the Commodore 64 which is somewhat notorious for poor playability and the infamous "waist gap" the developers issued a veiled apology for in the game manual. We take a look at the "sprite stacking techniques" (aka sprite multiplexing) used in the game - could this be improved on? Is this even what's really wrong with the game?
Download my work disk: 8bitshowandtell.com/prg/dd.d64 Instructions for use of Sprite Stacking Double Dragon work disk: Use a real or emulated C64 with a REU Mount dd.d64 LOAD"TMP+REU",8,1 SYS 32768 Back Arrow, Shift+R, L, load file: ddsprites load to: $5000 (use delete to remove the default $d000) Back Arrow, L to load one of the following recommended files: dd8 - this is my original solution dd12 - optimized to eliminate gap dd19 - Allows use of keys 1-8 to cycle forward through sprites (shift to go backwards) Back Arrow, 3, S to assemble and start Reset and SYS 320 to re-enter Turbo Macro Pro
Index: 0:00 C64 Double Dragon (1988) 1:57 Waist gap and other flaws 5:20 A Note From The Programmers 7:25 Looking at the sprites 10:18 Quick look at the interrupt handler 16:40 Saving the sprites to disk 18:39 DD8: sprite stacking / multiplexing attempt 21:20 Code walkthrough 24:55 Diversion: skin colour? 26:03 Code initialization continued 32:57 The tricky timing part 35:54 DD12: No waist gaps? 41:24 Conclusion & thanks!39+ Year-Old Commodore 64 Easter Eggs Found!8-Bit Show And Tell2022-07-31 | Join me as we look through more of 1980s Commodore programmer Andy Finkel's games, this time on the Commodore MAX and Commodore 64, in a search for easter eggs, some of which have never been documented. Commodore policy prevented programmers from claiming authorship, so programmers found ways to hide their names within the programs.
Was titled: "New-Found 1982-1983 Easter Eggs: Commodore 64 and MAX by Andy Finkel"
Index: 0:00 Last time: VIC-20 Easter Eggs by Andy Finkel 0:42 Brief Commodore MAX intro 1:42 Music Composer / Music Maker 4:55 Diversion: Scott Adams VIC-20 Adventures on C-64 6:48 Lazarian: my first cartridge game 10:57 Blueprint 15:00 Dragon's Den / DragonsDen 18:08 International Tennis 20:49 Andy Goes Amiga 21:53 Thanks!Making Five-A-Side Soccer for Commodore 64 More And Less Annoying8-Bit Show And Tell2022-07-02 | Back in 1985 (or '86) I bought Mastertronic's Five-A-Side Soccer for the Commodore 64 at the Zellers store and quickly became thoroughly annoyed with my new game. Or did I? I recreate the C64 game of my memories, and then set about modifying it to fix its major flaw. Along the way I learned a little about the game's system of digital sound sample playback, and have a few laughs as well.
Index: 0:00 Buying and playing Five-A-Side Soccer in 1985? 2:54 I hope they have a new song... 5:19 Memories vs. Reality 7:19 What was I remembering? Anirog vs. Mastertronic 9:07 Hockey vs. Soccer 10:23 Soccer vs. Football - origin 11:14 Modifying the game 13:11 Player Initialization 16:30 Sample tables 18:56 Sample playback loop 24:35 Goofy, unnecessary code 25:35 Original Voicemaster playback code 29:00 Patching to skip sample playback 31:04 Testing the patch 33:00 Conclusion & thanksThat Blank Space Before Numbers in Commodore 64 BASIC8-Bit Show And Tell2022-06-14 | When positive numbers are converted to strings for printing or manipulation in C64 BASIC, there's always a blank space in front. While minor in the grand scheme of things, it can make precise formatting annoying. What can be done about it?
Error!! Thanks to my patron Jarno Mielikäinen I've learned that the ROM fast copy routine I demonstrate at 16:09 cannot generally be used from BASIC. Locations 95 and 96 (the start address of the copy) are also used by BASIC as temporary work space and get reset to 0, which means the copy start address always begins at location $0000. When copying in place as I demonstrate in this video, it works though $A000 bytes are copied in place unnecessarily. But if we were trying to copy (for example) $A000-$BFFF to $A001-$C000 (shift it up one byte) it would actually shift all of RAM from $0000-$BFFF up by one byte, surely crashing the computer. A short machine language program will need to be used to solve this, unfortunately.
Index: 0:00 What's with that leading space when numbers are printed? 2:06 Cursor work arounds 4:42 Diversion: Embedded delete 6:57 Using RIGHT$() 8:42 Using MID$() 10:27 Patching BASIC 16:09 THIS IS WRONG - SEE VIDEO DESCRIPTION 20:11 Thanks39-Year-Old Pac-Man Bug (Partly?) Fixed: Commodore 648-Bit Show And Tell2022-06-03 | I like playing Pac-Man on my Commodore 64, but it's always seemed strange to me that the title screen is so ugly. It appears to be caused by a bug in the code. Let's look into what's wrong with it, and attempt to fix it live on the C64. Even if it's not a perfect fix, it'll probably be educational and hopefully fun too!
Index: 0:00 C64 Pac-Man Title Screen Bug 5:44 Cart Convert to PRG 7:50 Fix Attempt One: Enable Multicolour mode 11:02 Fix Attempt Two: Raster Interrupt 18:08 Testing Attempt Two: Heads Get Bent 19:46 Fix Attempt Three: Colour RAM Initialization 26:19 Testing Attempt Three: More Yellow 27:37 Making it RUNable: Exomizer 31:04 Thanks!A Real Computer? Exploring the Bally Computer System aka Astrocade8-Bit Show And Tell2022-05-21 | I was surprised to see the fairly obscure Bally Home Computer System video game console listed as a home computer in the 1979 Popular Science Buyer's Guide. Is it really a legitimate computing platform? Known by many names, including the Professional Arcade, and the Astrocade, we explore the system both as a video game console, and by attempting to program the famous 10 PRINT using its Astro BASIC videocade cassette cartridge.
Index: 0:00 The many names of Bally's console: some history 2:35 A real home computer? BASIC, newsletters, 3rd party 5:48 Videocades, cassettes, cartridges? 8:39 A tour around the system: keypad, ports, expansion 11:29 Specifications + product number 13:13 Controllers + Gunfight + Checkmate 17:26 Calculator + Scribbling 19:07 Space Invaders / Astro Battle 2009 22:05 10 PRINT in Astro BASIC? 28:30 Conclusion: great manual! 30:27 Thanks!Commodore 64 SID Oscillator Behaviour (Especially Noise)8-Bit Show And Tell2022-05-04 | Let's explore how the Commodore 64 SID (Sound Interface Device) oscillators behave, with special attention to the noise ("random") oscillator. We attempt to simulate the 23-bit Linear Feedback Shift Register with a BASIC program, and then fiddle with the SID's test bit to reset the oscillator and make it match the simulation. Robin From The Future also shows up to let you HEAR what these waveforms sound like on a real C64. The original cut of this video didn't have any SID audio!! Kinda weird experimental stuff!
Optimal taps to choose for different length LFSRs on Page 5. NOTE: the bit numbers in this document are 1-based while I've used 0-based bit numbers in this video. Subtract 1 from the numbers in the document for use in my BASIC program. xilinx.com/support/documentation/application_notes/xapp052.pdf
Index: 0:00 SID Oscillator 3 Output Program 3:42 Triangle Waveform 5:45 Robin From The Future 8:38 Sawtooth Waveform 10:07 Pulse Waveform 13:48 Noise Waveform 16:31 Internal 24-bit Oscillators 18:48 BASIC SID LFSR Simulation output 21:40 BASIC code walkthrough (section 1) 24:30 Explaining the taps 28:38 BASIC code walkthrough (section 2) 31:50 SID Test Bit: Resetting the oscillator 35:35 Is this riveting or what?? Trial & error. 41:49 Future ideas: SuperCPU? 45:00 Thanks!Ten Great Commodore 128 BASIC Improvements Over The C648-Bit Show And Tell2022-04-27 | As great as the Commodore 64 is, there were a lot of complaints about the lack of features in its built-in BASIC 2. The Commodore 128's BASIC 7 improved upon it in many ways, and today we'll take a look at some of the best.
Index: 0:00 Intro 1:33 1. Screen Editor 4:41 2. Sprites 9:16 3. Music 11:58 4. Graphics 16:46 5. Windows 18:30 6. Less Spaghetti 24:14 7. Utilities 25:39 8. Debug 30:40 9. Monitor 35:59 10. Disk Commands 41:40 The cost of BASIC 7: Speed 43:25 Thanks!Printing Binary in BASIC and Assembly on Commodore 648-Bit Show And Tell2022-04-04 | I wanted to print binary numbers on the Commodore 64 from BASIC. When I didn't find a ready-made solution, I made my own in BASIC. Then I tried to optimize it for speed. Then I coded it in 6510 assembly language on a real C64. But will it benchmark faster?
Index: 0:00 Why I want to print binary values 2:25 BASIC1: The BASIC benchmarking framework 12.52s 5:11 BASIC2: e5frog's algorithm 52.95s 7:52 BASIC3: Fixed output 58.78s 8:40 BASIC4: Decimal pretending to be binary 96.85s 11:20 BASIC5: "Cheating" with precalculations 35.97s 15:28 BASIC6: Direct to characters 35.93s 17:10 BASIC7: Eliminate a comparison 31.43s 17:47 BASIC8: GOTO optimization 28.4s 18:35 BASIC9: Leading zeros "optimization" 33.63s 21:54 BASIC10: Precalc all strings! 20.78s + 13.17s 25:02 Turbo Macro Pro time: binary.s walkthrough 32:12 BASIC11: Benchmark assembly from BASIC 13.68s 34:50 Joystick time - thanks Carsten! 37:30 Thanks1979 Home Computer Buyers Guide: Apple II, Commodore PET, TRS-80, and The Very Obscure!8-Bit Show And Tell2022-03-22 | Let's take a close look at the Home Computer Buyer's Guide that Popular Science published in their March 1979 issue. Their top concerns were: what programming language did each computer ship with, did they have enough RAM (you need more if you're loading the language from cassette or disk rather than running it from ROM!), and did it allow for later add-ons via ports and slots? Computers considered include the well-known "trinity" of Apple II, Commodore PET, and TRS-80, and many more machines that range from rare to completely forgotten: Compucolor, VideoBrain, Sol, Heath, Interact, Bally, Sorcerer, RCA VIP, PeCos One, Challenger. Which one would you purchase?
A few clips in this video were taken from my previous video "Vintage Computer Festival Midwest 14 - Video Montage Tour" from 2019: youtu.be/kdYQbRnL2Ug
I'm pretty sure there's proof in that video that I *have* seen more of these computers in-person before, but I've just forgotten!
Index 0:00 Intro - Popular Science, March 1979 2:37 Check before you buy 5:07 Pictures: Apple II, Compucolor, VideoBrain 9:22 Processor Tech Sol, Commodore PET, Heath 10:24 Interact Computer, Bally Astrocade, Exidy Sorcerer, RCA VIP 11:47 APF PeCos One, Ohio Scientific Challenger 14:48 Memory 19:24 Add-ons 20:54 Manufacturers List 21:23 PS Buyer's Guide To Home Computers 29:07 Which would you have bought? And thanks!Simple Commodore 64 Disk Protection: Copy that Floppy, Remove Anti-Piracy Measures8-Bit Show And Tell2022-03-09 | The "I Am The C-64" tutorial programs for the Commodore 64 have anti-piracy disk copy protection, despite being written in BASIC, and it's enough to thwart simple "fast" disk copiers. We go through the steps of making a copy of the disk on a real 1541 and KAO 5.25" floppy disk with the help of Maverick's disk nybbler, and then go a step further and "de-protect" the program so a nybbler is no longer necessary.
Index: 0:00 Demonstrating the copy protection 1:56 Making a backup with Maverick Data Copier 7:58 Making a working backup with GCR Nybble Copier 13:07 De-protecting the program 18:48 Testing our "crack" 20:29 Thanks!Epyx 1984 Preview Disk -or- What Is A Chromadisk?8-Bit Show And Tell2022-02-20 | The Epyx 1984 Preview Disk is one of the most interesting disks in my Commodore 64 collection. Not only is it a very early example of a video game company releasing playable, cut-down, or time-limited preview versions of its games, which later became an industry standard, but it's also a rare example of a Chromadisk, a unique manufacturing process that allowed full-colour printing directly on a disk jacket. This process, developed by a San Jose, California company called Memron, allowed each disk to potentially be a work of art, rather than just another black disk with a label stuck to it. In this video we'll uncover the story of Memron, and then look at the preview game demos on this particular Chromadisk, which include Epyx's smash 1984 hits Impossible Mission and Summer Games, along with some other lesser-known games. Finally, we break out the Super Snapshot machine language monitor and attempt to disable the 90 second playable time-limit on Break Dance.
Index: 0:00 Why this diskette is interesting 1:58 What is a Memron Chromadisk? 5:27 A few Chromadisk examples: Memo, Imagineering, MusiCalc 9:11 Memron Australia, costs, patents? 12:18 Epyx 1984 Preview Disk Instructions, Rebate 13:57 1. Break Dance 17:24 2. Impossible Mission 20:14 3. Puzzle Panic 23:10 4. Silicon Warrior 25:14 5. Summer Games 27:27 6. World's Greatest Baseball Game 35:06 Removing Break Dance's 90 second limit 39:21 Break Dancing Without Limits 41:45 Conclusion and ThanksThe VIC-10 & VIC-30: Commodore UKs Cancelled Computers8-Bit Show And Tell2022-02-11 | In 1982, Commodore UK was planning a full range of home microcomputers to meet every budget. The VIC-20 was a success, and they wanted to add a VIC-10 at an even lower price point, and a 16K VIC-30 to sit below the upcoming top-end VIC-40, CBM-64 or VIC-64, which ended up being called the Commodore 64. But rapidly changing market conditions, led by the release of the ZX Spectrum, meant there was ultimately no place for the VIC-10 (aka Ultimax or Commodore Max Machine) in the UK, and the VIC-30 was quietly shelved. We'll look through several UK-based Commodore magazines from 1982 to figure out the story behind these little-known computers that were cancelled, relegating the Commodore VIC-30 to vapourware and the Commodore VIC-10 / MAX to only the Japanese market.
Index: 0:00 The VIC-20 is a second-rate computer? 1:10 Your Computer: Commodore blitz market with Vic-10, Vic-30, C-64 6:55 VIC Computing: Whither Vic? 9:44 Popular Computing Weekly: Vic-10 and Vic-30 at Hanover Fair 11:44 Vic-30 discreetly shelved 13:58 Why was the VIC-30 cancelled? 17:32 Thanks!8-Bit Book Club: Tool Kit: BASIC and Kernal by COMPUTE! for Commodore 64 and VIC-208-Bit Show And Tell2022-02-02 | I bought a box of Commodore books. After having a look at the unusual postage (my dad's a philatelist, eh?) we take a look through the box contents, and then focus on two books in particular. They're the Tool Kit series by Dan Heeb, which are very in-depth looks through the BASIC and KERNAL ROMs, with a focus on making use of these routines in our own machine language programs for both the Commodore 64 and VIC-20. This video was originally the Patreon exclusive for May 2021.
Index: 0:00 Stamp time! 2:00 What's inside the box? 6:10 Tool Kit: BASIC 9:56 Table of Contents & Preface 18:20 Part One 21:44 Part Two: Detailed Descriptions 25:10 Appendices 26:55 Tool Kit: Kernal 29:21 Table of Contents, Foreword, Preface 32:51 Chapter 1-4: Interrupts & System Reset 36:26 Chapter 5-7: Kernal, Misc., Screen Routines 41:10 Chapter 8-10: Serial, RS-232, Tape I/O Routines 45:58 Appendices, Index 47:32 Summary & Thanks!How To Use a 6502 Machine Language Monitor: TEDMON in the Commodore Plus/48-Bit Show And Tell2022-01-29 | Today we'll look at TEDMON, which is a machine language monitor built into the Commodore Plus/4. But it has almost everything in common with monitors from throughout the Commodore 8-bit family, from SuperMon on the PET, to the Commodore 128's built-in monitor, to the machine code monitors in the Commodore 64's Action Replay and Super Snapshot. We'll go through every single command with examples of how they can be used, along with some insights into the relatively rare Plus/4. This video is made in conjunction with retroCombs' video series walking through the entire Plus/4 manual, check out the playlist link in the video description.
RetroCombs' Plus/4 Encyclopedia video (I make an appearance!): youtu.be/zWa1s4q4I0s
Index: 0:00 RetroCombs, monitors, TEDMON introduction 2:44 How TEDMON got its name: TED and MON 4:48 MONITOR: start from BASIC 5:49 A: Assemble 7:56 G: Go 9:06 D, M: Disassemble, Memory 13:09 Greater Than Symbol: Modify memory 14:22 R, ;: Display and modify CPU registers 18:22 F: Fill memory 20:13 T,C: Transfer, Compare memory 22:49 H,X: Hunt through memory, eXit 26:56 S: Save 28:33 L,V: Load, Verify 30:06 Location $7F8: 0: Show ROM, $80: Show RAM 31:45 Thanks to RetroCombs, and my patrons!WAITing for BASIC on the Commodore 648-Bit Show And Tell2022-01-21 | How can we make Commodore 64 BASIC pause for a specific time? We take a look at three techniques, including their strengths and weaknesses: 1) FOR/NEXT loops which are simple but somewhat inaccurate and not very CPU-accelerator-friendly, 2) polling the TIME variable which might be the best general approach, and 3) Using the esoteric WAIT command to watch particular bits in the C64's jiffy counter. Thanks to patron grymmjack for the question, and to Dr. Craig S. Bruce, Emily Christ, and Jarno Mielikäinen for their insight and help with the answers.
End credits song is "Park Patrol" by Bedford Level Experiment. Check out the music video here: youtu.be/pA1MR3PuHxU
Index: 0:00 Question: how to sleep/pause/wait in BASIC? 0:23 1. FOR/NEXT loop 7:18 Why not linear? 11:55 2. Polling TI 16:04 A bug in the TI technique 20:50 3. WAIT 162,64 24:26 Why not WAIT 162,60? 29:50 Another WAIT approach 30:59 Conclusion and thanks!Machine Language 10 PRINT Size-Optimized for Commodore 648-Bit Show And Tell2022-01-14 | Can we write a machine language version of the famous 10 PRINT BASIC program for the Commodore 64? How short can we make it? Thanks to viewer Peter for prompting this episode.
End credits song is "53280" by Bedford Level Experiment. Check out the music video here: youtu.be/lHOxmXCSqAs
Index: 0:00 10 PRINT again?? 2:01 ML1: Machine Language 10 PRINT 7:57 ML2: Some optimizations 10:32 Cheating with Carry? 12:47 ML3: Random ROM? 18:14 ML4: Raster Register Randomness 20:48 ML5: CIA Timer 23:00 ML6: Further failed optimization ideas 25:59 Thanks to Peter, Patrons, and YouRAM Scan 64 - Early 1980s Glitch Art Code?8-Bit Show And Tell2022-01-03 | We take a look at the short "Ram Scan 64" program from the first issue of Transactor I ever bought, way back in 1984. I don't think I've seen it in action since I was 11 or 12, but was reminded of it in a strange dream after reading "Be an Interplanetary Spy" books before bed. After typing it in and running it, I attempt to disassemble (and understand it) on camera which may not have been a great idea, but I mostly get it figured out. Glitchy fun!
End credits music is "Bit Pair" by Bedford Level Experiment. Check out the animated Tron-style video for the song by Darren "GrooTube" Foulds: youtu.be/Appmg64tZB0
Index: 0:00 Intro - Ram Scan in Transactor 2:04 Typing it in 6:27 Done typing now RUN it 10:37 Some strange behaviour 12:37 Finally... disassembly 20:23 The short version 21:15 Playing with it again 25:44 Some thoughts 27:16 ThanksA Very Commodore 64 Christmas Special8-Bit Show And Tell2021-12-24 | Join me as I share some of my favourite Christmas-themed Commodore 64 demos & games, and also show the 3 C64 Christmas song videos I've made over the years, with some behind-the-scenes info. As always, this video is indexed with chapters so you can skip over stuff you don't like! Merry Christmas to all my viewers; thanks for helping make 2021 better than it would have been otherwise.
Index 0:00 Commodore 64 Christmas Variety Show? 0:43 Commodore 64 Christmas Album (Demo) - 1982 5:24 Quick look at the BASIC code 7:22 A Commodore 64 Christmas (Song) 10:33 C64 Christmas behind-the-scenes 12:45 Jingle Disk (Demo) 18:54 Jolly Old St. Nicholas (1541 Upgrade version - Song) 21:09 Jolly Old behind-the-scenes 23:11 Ash & Dave: Snowball Sunday (Game) 27:13 A Procedurally Generated Christmas (Song) 29:53 A Procedurally Generated behind-the-scenes 33:32 FREEZE64 (Game) 36:15 Wrap-Up 37:21 Credits & Silent NightTI-99/4A Cassette Fun: TI BASIC Tutorials and Games8-Bit Show And Tell2021-12-18 | It's cassette time on the TI-99/4A! We look at a donation from viewer Kevin of a GE tape deck and cable, along with a tutorial cassette. We learn about OLD and some other TI BASIC oddities, create some kind of pixel guy, and revisit the so-called optimized BASIC program from a previous episode. Finally, I put out a call for information about MAXXAM:KARATE and then finally try a car battling game I've owned for years but have been unable to play. And somewhere along the way, tragedy strikes when the Function key is misused.
End credits music is "Steps Creaked (World 2)", recorded on a real NES, from the Super Splatform OST by P1XL Games: p1xlgames.bandcamp.com
Index 0:00 Computer Program Data Recorder 4:00 Hooking up the TI-99/4a 6:35 Loading BASIC Tutor: Lesson One cassette 9:47 LISTing 10:52 RUNning Lesson One 23:05 Loading and RUNning Lesson Five 27:14 Pixel Time: Auto Character Definition 29:35 Revisiting that Sketch program: Edits, Optimization 35:43 A Terrible Mistake 37:56 Help wanted: MAXXAM:KARATE 39:28 Cars & Carcasses II: Run Down Monsters! 46:27 A good run: finally getting the hang of it 49:08 Thanks!One-Line PET Emulator for Commodore 648-Bit Show And Tell2021-12-02 | We take a look at a single line of BASIC from Jim Butterfield, published in The Transactor magazine in 1984, that re-configures the Commodore 64 to be able to run some Commodore PET software. We type it in, test it out with a few PET games, and figure out how it works.
Index: 0:00 Intro - The Transactor Volume 5 Issue 1 1:05 Typing it in (with some explanation) 4:00 RUNing and $ weirdness 6:10 Testing Dungeon 9:48 Testing Blackjack 11:56 Testing Everest 15:05 Testing Space Invaders 16:40 How does the "emulator" work? 21:30 Improving - and a challenge 24:10 Testing Yahtzee 25:39 Conclusion & thanks!Commodore 64 Game on Vinyl: We Are Stardust8-Bit Show And Tell2021-11-26 | LukHash's new record "We Are Stardust" contains some great Retrowave music, but also has a Commodore 64 game by Megastyle stored in the vinyl grooves. We look at how to load this game on a real Commodore 64, and give it a play.
Index: 0:00 About LukHash and "We Are Stardust" 1:46 Today's items: ION turntable, MP32C64 adapter, PAL C64, the record 3:34 Robin of the Future LOADs the game 6:21 Megastyle Proudly Presents... We Are Stardust 7:55 More gameplay, some trivia, QR Code/Hall of Fame 9:58 Some production info from Programmer Jamie Fuller 11:28 Does it run on NTSC? Yes, mostly 14:32 Thanks!Optimizing Line Count in TI BASIC: Type-in Fun with the TI-99/4A8-Bit Show And Tell2021-11-18 | Thanks to a generous donation of TI-99/4A programming books from viewer Greg, we type in and try to improve upon the TI version of my favourite etch-a-sketch style program that I've been fascinated with since 1983.
Index: 0:00 Mystery Solved: TI-99/4A Power Supply Recall 1:53 Programming book donations from Greg 2:32 COMPUTE!'s First Book of TI Games 4:59 36 Texas Instruments TI-99/4A Programs for Home, School & Office 8:41 101 Programming Tips & Tricks for the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A Home Computer 12:11 Using & Programming the TI-99/4A: Including Ready-To-Run Programs 15:57 Typing "Drawing Sketches": Lines 10-90 20:44 Lines 100-200 24:00 Lines 210-410 27:32 RUNning Drawing Sketches 29:25 GOTO Cleanup: Optimizing line count 37:30 Reducing 41 lines of code to 7: Boolean Logic 44:11 Conclusion and thanksCommodore DAC-612 from 1969: Inside and Out8-Bit Show And Tell2021-11-12 | We take a look at a mostly-but-not-completely functional Commodore DAC-612 desktop calculator based upon the Casio 122 first produced in Japan in 1969; this particular unit was likely made in 1970. It uses Elfin display tubes and many components from a family of parts from NEC and Hitachi.
Index: 0:00 Mini Commodore History 1:00 A tour around the DAC-612 2:29 About the AC power connector 163 (not quite) 3:54 Casio 122 4:33 DAC-612: What does it mean? Canonical List of Commodore Products 5:20 Power up: Odd Zeroes 6:30 Doing some calculations: Addition, Subtraction 7:30 Multiplication and Division: No longer working 9:43 Decimals & Rounding 12:10 GT (Grand Total?) and double plus 13:42 1970s Towel: Thanks Richard Pepper 14:04 Undersides 15:11 Inside: first look 16:20 Display board: Elfin tubes 17:17 Keyboard 18:23 Power supply & removing the top logic board 20:03 Examining the boards 21:16 Integrated Circuits in a can & JMOS 23:03 Philco SC1772: 48-bit shift registers 24:25 A few other JMOS ICs - madrona.ca 25:37 Thanks!Book Club: Intro to 6510 Machine Language from Chapter 7 of Programming the C648-Bit Show And Tell2021-11-03 | Continuing on with the "8-Bit Book Club" series, it's Part Two of Raeto Collin West's "Programming The Commodore 64: The Definitive Guide". This time we cover chapters 7 & 8. What an epic book! Thanks to Dane for donating this extra-rare second edition of the book. This video was originally the patron-exclusive video for February 2021; thanks to my patrons for their generous support.
Thanks to DLH of Bombjack.org for his excellent work archiving Commodore books! Support his web site: commodore.bombjack.org (link at top of page to donate)
Green Delicious Apple-1 Emulator for Commodore 64 by Aleksi Eeben: https://csdb.dk/release/?id=118857
Index: 0:00 Intro 2:58 My goal with Book Club videos 3:50 Chapter 7: Intro to 6510 Machine Language 8:22 About the 6510 Chip 13:01 6510 Machine Language Techniques 14:50 ML Monitors 22:11 ML Assemblers 26:37 Chapter 8: KERNAL Routines 30:47 BASIC ROM Routines 33:04 Using RAM under ROM 34:28 Modifying BASIC & KERNAL Vectors, Wedges 37:33 Thanks!Steve Jackson: My Favourite Game Designer(s)8-Bit Show And Tell2021-10-27 | Ever since I was a young geek in the 1980s, Steve Jackson's name was on so many of my favourite things: Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, Car Wars, the Sorcery! series, Autoduel, GURPS, OGRE, Warlock of Firetop Mountain board game, and more, published by Games Workshop and Steve Jackson Games. How could one guy be so amazingly prolific??
Index: 0:00 Paper warning 0:17 Steve Jackson made my favourite things 3:12 There are two of them! 4:47 Fighting Fantasy 9:09 Car Wars - Tabletop Game - Steve Jackson Games 12:02 Steve Jackson's Sorcery! 12:59 BattleCars - Games Workshop - Spectrum Next 14:14 Car Wars Gamebooks 15:01 GURPS & AADA Road Atlas and Survival Guide 16:03 The Hacker Crackdown 17:00 Origin Systems: OGRE on Atari ST 18:14 Autoduel on Commodore 64 19:14 Dark Future, TSR 20:20 Jim Burns Art 23:12 Thanks!Speed Cart 64: Slow Down Your Commodore 64, Sometimes8-Bit Show And Tell2021-10-18 | If you've ever found your Commodore 64 runs too fast, maybe you need a Speed Cart 64 which provides a way of slowing down the C64. Sometimes. Sometimes it actually speeds things up, and sometimes it glitches programs in bizarre ways. And sometimes it just crashes.
Index: 0:00 The Speed Cart 64 2:05 Slowing down 10 PRINT 4:14 Testing some games: GORF, Jupiter Lander 6:36 Jumpman Junior, Mountie Mick's Death Ride 11:20 Bruce Lee II, Wizard of Wor 13:53 Examining effect on the TI (jiffies) variable 17:25 Bremse 64 (Brake/Break 64) 18:08 I attempt to explain the circuit... 24:17 Potential improvements, clarifications 26:05 Thanks to my patronsCommodore 64: Opening The Borders (Type-In From Zzap!64 Magazine)8-Bit Show And Tell2021-10-06 | Let's examine a BASIC type-in from the August 1987 issue of Zzap!64 magazine that allows the Commodore 64's top and bottom borders to be "opened" or "removed" or "killed" or whatever you'd like to call it. Thanks to my patrons that support these extra-nerdy monthly videos.
End credits music is an instrumental version of the unreleased "You're My Favourite PET" by Bedford Level Experiment: youtube.com/user/BedfordLvlExperiment
Index: 0:00 Intro: Zzap!64 and more 2:53 Typing In Listing 5:11 Debugging 6:14 The borders are open! 9:30 Sprites in the border 12:40 IRQ setup machine code 16:30 The IRQ code - where the trick happens 21:02 More explanation of how it works 26:40 Thanks!Programming in FORTH on Commodore 648-Bit Show And Tell2021-09-29 | Today we explore 64 Forth for the Commodore 64 with the help of my friend Paul Pridham, aka Madgarden, who uses his own version of Forth to code his hit indie videogames such as Death Road To Canada. Prompted by David Youd, who donated the cartridge and books to me, we try a few Forth variations of the famous 10 PRINT program, starting with one-line versions while working towards a more Forth-like final version.
Kay Savetz's interview of David Maynard: ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-408-david-maynard-electronic-arts-worms 30:08 "Electronic Arts is a lot of early productivity software. So probably the first products I did there were Cut & Paste an editor that ran on Atari, and Apple, and Commodore, written in Forth..." 30:28 "Then I wrote a program called Financial Cookbook . . . and that was all written in Forth" 48:22 "I was technical director on Starflight . . . written in Forth" -- David Maynard
Chipwits: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChipWits David Youd helped confirm that the C64 version is still (at least partially) in Forth. Start the game and look at $1460 and on, or look at file cw.gm.
COMPUTE! SpeedScript: Original version was in forth, but they rewrote it in pure assembly for the various platforms: ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-207-tom-halfhill-compute-magazine 16:26 "So Charles was famous for his word processor that he did. . . that was SpeedScript . . he first showed me a prototype of that, believe it or not that was written in a programming language called Forth . . . later he ended up rewriting it in machine language for the Atari. Then we did homelogs[?] for Commodore 64 and VIC20 and Apple II..." -- Tom Halfhill
Update 2022.11.16: David Youd has also found that Lords of Conquest (EA, 1986) was written in Forth.
End credits music is "Bit Pair" by Bedford Level Experiment: youtu.be/Appmg64tZB0
Index: 0:00 Introductions & Going Forth 2:54 Forth 10PRINT one-liner by David Youd 10:04 Using SID as a random source 14:54 Decompiling the 10PRINT word 16:50 10 PRINT Orthogonal in Forth 26:55 Replacing MOD with AND for speed 29:19 Thanks, links, and more...MASTEROM 64: Rediscovered 1987 Commodore 64 KERNAL Replacement8-Bit Show And Tell2021-09-25 | MASTEROM 64 is a Commodore 64 KERNAL ROM replacement created by Norland Software Products of Milton, Ontario, Canada in 1987. It replaces the cassette ROM routines with other features of more use to disk users. This software was nearly lost and forgotten until MindFlareRetro was able to meet the creator and archive both the ROM and documentation. MFR asked me to take a look at the software which I was very happy to do, especially once I learned of its Canadian roots and connection with Transactor magazine.
Check out MindFlareRetro's video for the story of how MASTEROM was rediscovered and preserved, and for download links: youtu.be/Et7ZM9f1mec
Index: 0:00 Why? 1:54 What is MASTEROM 64? 3:50 How did they fit this new functionality in? 5:22 Running MASTEROM on EasyFlash 3 6:22 Demonstrating new functions 13:45 Showing some of the ROM differences in SuperMon 21:23 Check out MindFlareRetro's video, and thanks!Commodore 64 Programming Joystick-Controlled Sprites in Assembly PART TWO8-Bit Show And Tell2021-09-16 | Finally, the follow-up video to the original "Commodore 64 Joystick-Controlled Sprites in Assembly and BASIC" video from September 2019! We explore a better approach to reading the joystick using the shift method. Also shown: how to display and move all 8 sprites using indexing, changing their colour and appearance, and also a more advanced topic of scaling the ROM character set up by a factor of 3 to turn the Commodore characters into big sprites.
Mount the .d64 in your emulator, or on your real C64, then: LOAD"TMP *",8,1 (note that there's a space after TMP) SYS 32768 Back Arrow L, filename: sprites21 Back Arrow 3, S to assemble and start Joystick in port #2 to move sprite, fire button to change colour Keys 1-8 to choose sprite 1 through 8. Keys A-Z to change current sprite to selected letter. Restore to exit back to assembler
Index: 0:09 Making Lamers Again 2:08 Trying the example (again) 3:35 Code Walkthrough: Initialization and Main Loop 7:30 Initsprites 11:04 Readjoystick 15:30 Readkeyboard 18:31 Positionsprites 22:45 Waitraster 23:50 Makesprites (initialization) 29:35 Makesprites (inner loops) 36:57 Finishing up 39:30 Thanks!Re-typing My 1983 Game Programming Inspiration8-Bit Show And Tell2021-09-07 | In 1983 I got my first computer: a Timex/Sinclair 1000, which is the North American version of the Sinclair ZX-81. There were no game cartridges or disks for it, and I didn't even have the ability to use cassette tapes with it. There was only one way I was going to have any games on it: type them in myself in BASIC. I got a book called "101 Timex 1000 / Sinclair ZX-81 Programming Tips & Tricks" and even though it wasn't a game program itself, it contained many of the fundamental concepts I needed to continue game design.
Index: 0:00 My first computer & TV 2:01 Typing in the "Drawing Sketches" 8:20 Running the program 10:13 Why this program mattered to me 11:35 Modifying the program 14:45 Debugging & RUNning again 17:13 Nostalgic or terrible? 18:10 Thanks!