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Many happy memories of checking out books like this from my public library and trying to get the programs working on the C64. The BASIC dialect never matched ex

Many happy memories of checking out books like this from my public library and trying to get the programs working on the C64. The BASIC dialect never matched exactly.

alisonatwork 1y ago
Me too, except with the CPC. After going through enough of them, I got to a point I could flick through the book in the library and figure out what was going to work ahead of time, what could be adapted and what went way beyond my abilities (usually anything that shoveled machine code into DATA blocks). It was neat imagining the incredible capabilities of computers other than my own and then trying to figure out a way to make mine do something like it too.
kreelman 1y ago
Similar for me in my early teens. I used an Australian machine called the Microbee, https://www.microbeetechnology.com.au/classic-plus-kit-computer.htm https://www.microbeetechnology.com.au/classic-plus-kit-compu... A clever friend of mine wrote BASIC games that he sold back then. I think they had a bit of Z80 assembler built into it too.... Can't remember what names of them were though. The 'hires' graphics mode (511*255, monochrome) were encoded into sprites. There were only 128 characters from memory. There were all sorts of tricks to try and get around that issue. The best games used the sprites plonked into char positions.
- smackeyacky 1y ago
  The ‘bee was how a lot of us Australians of a certain age got into computers. The only real competition it had was the C64 as other things like the Apple II and IBM compatibles were just too expensive in comparison to that $399 intro price. It was a bit weird to program for, as you said the basic was not quite the same as the popular platforms. It did mean you learned a lot about the machine itself, how memory was laid out, how to get those PCG graphics right. It’s funny now to be able to see very similar cultures sprang up around less successful machines in other countries.

Many happy memories of checking out books like this from my public library and trying to get the programs working on the C64. The BASIC dialect never matched exactly.

alisonatwork 1y ago

Me too, except with the CPC. After going through enough of them, I got to a point I could flick through the book in the library and figure out what was going to work ahead of time, what could be adapted and what went way beyond my abilities (usually anything that shoveled machine code into DATA blocks). It was neat imagining the incredible capabilities of computers other than my own and then trying to figure out a way to make mine do something like it too.

kreelman 1y ago

Similar for me in my early teens. I used an Australian machine called the Microbee, https://www.microbeetechnology.com.au/classic-plus-kit-computer.htm https://www.microbeetechnology.com.au/classic-plus-kit-compu... A clever friend of mine wrote BASIC games that he sold back then. I think they had a bit of Z80 assembler built into it too.... Can't remember what names of them were though. The 'hires' graphics mode (511*255, monochrome) were encoded into sprites. There were only 128 characters from memory. There were all sorts of tricks to try and get around that issue. The best games used the sprites plonked into char positions.

smackeyacky 1y ago
The ‘bee was how a lot of us Australians of a certain age got into computers. The only real competition it had was the C64 as other things like the Apple II and IBM compatibles were just too expensive in comparison to that $399 intro price. It was a bit weird to program for, as you said the basic was not quite the same as the popular platforms. It did mean you learned a lot about the machine itself, how memory was laid out, how to get those PCG graphics right. It’s funny now to be able to see very similar cultures sprang up around less successful machines in other countries.