I’m almost done with Mission: Moon (check my last post here). Yesterday I was adding some intro screens, fancy text, etc… When I tried to run it once more, bad things started to happen – things that when you see, you know you are putting code over something important.
After some digging, I realized that the game has grown to big and it was overwriting all my sprite definitions and other stuff. When I first started I put all eight sprites after the address ~15,000 to have enough space, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough. My program has around 12kbytes and the Commodore has around 38kbytes free, right? So it is easy to fix that, right? Move the sprites up, right? Wrong! Read the rest of this entry »
Nowadays, we have plenty of good magazines dedicated to the Commodore family, here in North America and also in UK – I’m talking about magazines in English only.
Compute Gazette is one of my favorites, followed by some British ones, like Your Commodore. They are good because it covers everything, from games and application reviews, type-in programs, BASIC and Assembler articles, etc.
This week, when I went to the newsstand to buy the new issue of The Beaver, I’ve found a magazine called The Transactor. It is not new or anything, but I simply didn’t know it exists. After reading the issue I bought, I’m sold to this magazine. It is very simple-looking but all articles are so deep that I have to say that this is now my favorite magazine. I will probably keep reading the others, but The Transactor is really a source of technical articles about Commodore computers that you won’t find anywhere else.
The Transactor #1
Current Issue
The Transactor actually started not long ago as a 14-page bulletin published by Commodore Canada, but now is a fully-featured 80-pages magazine.
The issue I’m reading is really rich in information, covering things like Subroutine Eliminators, Inside the Commodore 64, Fixing Commodore Keyboards and so on.
If you don’t know about it already, learn more about it accessing this BBS link.
Just few years ago, Commodore released Jupiter Lander, based on (aka cloned from ) the 1979 Atari’s Lunar Lander. As you probably know, the game play is very simple. You have to land your space ship in one of the two flat ground while keeping track of the fuel available. Although Jupiter Lander is very challenging and well done, there is not much else to do after you land. Basically you can repeat the procedure over and over, until you get sick of it!
Commodore’s Jupiter Lander
During an epiphany, I decided that I could do my version of <put your favourite planet here> Lander, with my own sauce. Since I’m still learning the challenges of C64 programming techniques, I decided to use low resolution graphics and all in BASIC.
The project is called Mission: Moon. (suspenseful music here)
The game is also about landing on the moon, but now you have to deploy a beacon for scientific research, and more: you also have to take-off and return to the main ship. Now I’ve got you attention, eh?
The game is still in development, but here there a couple of photos of my monitor to make you even more anxious to play it!
Initial Screen
Lander Sequence
I’m using sprites, and the standard characters. The ground is always random, and there is only one spot where the ship can successfully land.
Stay tuned for new updates, and comment what do you thing about it!
Yesterday, I’ve finished the last new episode of A-Team (The season 3 is better than ever!) and went right to bed thinking on my C64 game and all the hard time to edit the source code using my computer (renumbering lines, search, all very hard!), when suddenly I had a vision from the future (I suppose around 2012/2013) where we could do all our development using a single tool – from coding to debugging to renumbering to sprite and screen design to (add your dream here) – using a all-in-one integrated environment which I’m gonna call Integrated Development Environment, or IDE for short (I wonder if the name will stick, maybe I should register it).
In that epiphany , someone called Arthur Jordison created an application called CBM prg Studio that does all that and even more. Using my KoalaPad and KoalaPainter, I did some sketches of that application and its amazing functions.
KoalaPaint
Here is what it would look like (forgive the sketch, I’m not a very good artist!):
As you can see, it is all window-based – which I believe my subconscious took from an article I read about the new Apple Macintosh, release recently (Jan 1984). CBMPrg Studio wouldn’t run in our current Commodore 64 screen resolution or RAM available, but who knows what Commodore can release in the near future, right!? Anyway, this amazing application would allow you to type your code in one Windows, which would easily allow you to renumber or move your texts around. There would be other windows where you could draw your own character set, sprites or even an entire screen, and with a click of a button, the Basic or Assembler code would be generated for you, ready to be placed on your main window application.
You could also generate the program file to be save on a 5 1/4″ disk to be distributed to your friends.
It is really an awesome application, indispensable for those who want to be more efficient Commodore 64 Assembler or Basic programmer.
(*) This was originally posted by me on Commodore is Awesome. Please visit that site to check all awesome features it has.
If you, like me, just bought an Amiga 500 with the A501 memory expansion, you are probably very excited and ready to start playing with it for hours and hours.
The original memory expansion is installed underneath the computer, accessible by the trapdoor you will see below:
The problem is, that the expansion board, besides the 512K expansion has also a RTC (Real Time Clock) and a battery to power it up. Read the rest of this entry »
(*) This post was originally posted on Commodore Is Awesome. If you don’t know about this site yet, you have no idea what you are missing! Check it out!
This is not an article strictly related to Commodore, but it might be useful if you have CRT monitors for your machines, like I do. With the LCD monitors that we have today, more and more computer furniture is planned to hold these lighter devices, and not heavier ones.
Since my desk isn’t deep enough to fit the C64 and Amiga 500 and their monitors behind it, I decided to build monitor stands to put them over the computers. After thinking a bit about the project, I knew that the stands should be strong enough for the heavy monitors, or in other words, a lot of wood and work in front of me…
With that laziness beating me hard, I decided to google a bit to find this article, which gave me an excellent idea – IKEA!. The problem with the project presented there is that the stand would certainly bend with the monitor weight.
Researching on IKEA website, I’ve found a better option, would give way more strength: theLILLANGEN Leg frame. It costs only 10 Canadian Dollars a piece, and since it is meant to be cabinet legs, they are very well built and steady. I chose the 59cmx32cmx15cm one, which matches almost perfectly with the Ekby Laiva Shelf, which costs another 3 dollars!
Since the legs include all necessary screws in the package, it took me few minutes to assemble it and connect the shelf on top. The shelf doesn’t cover everything, but it is actually perfect for the cables.
The 59cm wide ones are perfect to fit both the C64C and the Amiga 500:
And here the final result, with everything connected and running:
So my advice it, if you have IKEA or any similar store close by, check their catalog, and not necessarily using pieces related to what you want. Being creative can save you some money (to spend in Commodore stuff, of course!)
