[OT] Any die-hard Commodore fans out there?

[Zirias]

If so, this could be interesting for you.

Recently, several android-related projects convinced me to finally abandon subversion and move on to git -- new home for my projects is http://github.com/zirias. In the process of converting anthing I still want to preserve and share, I stumbled upon something I did during my years at university: A C64 demo written in pure 6502 assembly that mimics the AmigaBASIC demo "Music". Back then I thought -- this demo is nice, but even a C64 can do it when coded efficiently, so I started coding It's amazing what you can do with an ancient 8bit / 1MHz machine!

So, finding this old svn repository, I made it build tonight with a recent cc65 toolchain and added the capability of creating a C64 disk image (.d64) directly with "make disk". The result is here, including a ready-to-use .d64 image. The only documented part is the code for drawing lines quickly, using only integer arithmetics. The core plot routine is blatantly stolen from Wollschläger's book about C64 assembly language

So -- what do you think about this (if ANYone even read this far *g*)?

 

[Coldbird]

It's good to see another low level coding veteran here.

I'm proud of you man. In such java (tough) times real programmers like us are difficult to find.

Indeed, I too am impressed what 'weak' hardware can do.

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[Zirias]

It's good to see another low level coding veteran here.

Haha, I imagined there HAS to be someone interested in these kinds of things in a forum that comprises some "hacking" of embedded devices (aka -- phones). In fact: it got me now, I spent some evenings/nights optimizing and completing the code so this demo looks more like the AmigaBASIC original (instead of continuing my newly-started Xiaomi-Mi3 related projects). This low-level stuff is just addictive I'm not quite there, need to code some sprite-multiplexing now to get the fake Amiga screen and window title... wanna help?

I'm proud of you man. In such java (tough) times real programmers like us are difficult to find.

Well, in my day job, I work with .NET, MS SharePoint servers and workflow engines. I think increased abstraction in your tools and coding is actually a GOOD thing in order to handle increased complexity. Still it helps a lot for your general understanding to program a simple machine like the C64 in assembly -- I'd happily recommend to hire anyone who did this, as long as he or she also has a good grip on software engineering principles. Do you agree, what do you think?

 

[Coldbird]

Fully agree on everything you just said here.

As coincidence wants it I also have to program in .net, but also c/c++ occasionally at work.

So I do know my fair bit of abstraction here.

I also maintain a bunch of Android projects and was one of the masterminds behind getting the PlayStation portable properly hacked.

Just Google Coldbird plus PSP.

As for helping you out I would love to but time is limited on my side.

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[mephistozap]

Fully agree on everything you just said here.

As coincidence wants it I also have to program in .net, but also c/c++ occasionally at work.

So I do know my fair bit of abstraction here.

I also maintain a bunch of Android projects and was one of the masterminds behind getting the PlayStation portable properly hacked.

Just Google Coldbird plus PSP.

As for helping you out I would love to but time is limited on my side.

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That's pretty cool about your PSP work. I used to have one and remember making a Pandora battery to downgrade to 1.5 so I could load some cfw. Good times haha.

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[Zirias]

I also maintain a bunch of Android projects and was one of the masterminds behind getting the PlayStation portable properly hacked.

Just Google Coldbird plus PSP.

Sounds very cool Unfortunately, I never owned one of those, so I have no idea ... but generally, finding hacks for "locked" devices is great! I have to admit, I have no idea how I would start there. On a PC, it's not THAT hard, using tools like (very basic) strace or even a disassembler ... but on some locked device? Very nice

As for helping you out I would love to but time is limited on my side.

There's no need any more, got it the way I wanted it -- looking just like an Amiga, even with a custom loader (hybrid, autostart with ",8,1" just RUNable with ",8"). Fixed the last flickering pixels on a real machine right now *g* well, now I need some sleep