SyntaxBomb - Indie Coders

My C64 machine has just arrived.  Anyone know of where I can find a good macro assembler for the machine.

BTW, I have the assembler from Abacus software on a 5 1/4 floppy, but I'm having trouble finding a drive to read 5.25 disks.  Secondly, I'm kind of leery about buying things from Ebay.   There are plenty of 1541 drives on Ebay, but are there any cables to to adapt them USB ports.

I use Turbo Assembler myself. http://turbo.style64.org/

Get yourself an SD2IEC or other drive emulator so you can put your programs on an SD card.

Get rid of the original power supply and buy a decent third party one.  The original power supply is nicknamed "The Brick of Death" for a reason.  They are old and most likely fail soon.  There is about a 30% chance that it will overvoltage when it fails, in which case, it will fry your C64.

You can go to https://www.lemon64.com/ a site dedicated to 8 bit Commodore computers to get any information you need.

Do not power it up unless you know what you are doing and have some basic equipment.
The first test is to use a multi meter to check the +5v power output of the power supply is in the range of 4.95-5.1V, just to test that the C64 works. Don't rely on it as it could fail and cost you more money than buying a modern replacement.

Commodore 64 and Vic 20 power supplies were never the most reliable even when new. The reason why was down to Commodore having the bright idea to fill the things with epoxy, which caused the L7805 voltage regulator to over heat and fail. And with them using epoxy, it made the things un-serviceable without destroying the power supply.

Also, stay away from disk drives. Unless you have the equipment, parts and knowledge to repair them. As TomToad says, "Get yourself an SD2IEC or other drive emulator so you can put your programs on an SD card or USB stick". Original hardware is now getting rare and expensive, and a lot of eBay stuff will come as untested, which you can take as doesn't work.

Thanks for the advice guys!

Another bit of advice I will give is not to use the real hardware to do programming. But instead use one of the C64 integrated development environments and the emulator V.I.C.E. Visual Studio code has a few extensions for 6502 and Commodore assemblers and BASIC.

Darlene


Why use emulators instead of the real thing?

Quote from: Amanda Dearheart on May 11, 2023, 23:01:27Darlene


Why use emulators instead of the real thing?

You use a modern PC and an emulator to develop on. First because it's much faster, second to extend the life of the original Commodore hardware. Getting hold of the custom chips can end up being expensive with the amount of fakes floating around. Once you're ready, it's just a case of transferring the compiled binary over to an SD card.
One thing that I did not mention that should be done, is to get the Commodore 64 serviced. By serviced, I mean that the capacitors and the two internal voltage regulators be replaced. Check out https://www.mutant-caterpillar.co.uk/shop/. I've used their services in the past to repair ZX Spectrums, before I got all the equipment to do servicing my self.

..no intent to derail topic, out of pure curiosity, what do you use these old computers for? I mean, is it retro nostalgia so you turn it on from time to time, or you use it on very frequent basis, and if so, what exactly for, if you dont mind me asking?

Quote from: Naughty Alien on May 12, 2023, 07:39:49..no intent to derail topic, out of pure curiosity, what do you use these old computers for? I mean, is it retro nostalgia so you turn it on from time to time, or you use it on very frequent basis, and if so, what exactly for, if you dont mind me asking?

The answers to that are many, as each individual has their own motives. Some collect them the same way as someone who collects antiques. Some do it for the retro nostalgia, playing old games on emulated hardware just isn't the same. Some just to see it as a programming challenge to see what they can do with old hardware. Some do it to learn how the actual hardware works.

What for ...

there is one advantage when using the old computers.
it is something that is not so obvious.

When you run a game, it is one at a time.

I know how it is to have a windows computer which is able to run youtube/netflix/prime video on one monitor while running a game or doing programming on the other. Multitasking has it's own advantages.

But in reality you can focus your attention only on one thing at a time. 

If you have had the experience of playing on old computers back then and the experience of multitasking, then ask yourself and be truthful when answering this: How was your experience of gaming ? On which system have you felt the joy better ?

dawlane  answers the question best.  (BTW, I apologize for misspelling your name in the previous post. If you're male, no insult was intended)

The 8-bit computers I grew up with were a ZX-81 and commodore 64 & 128. My brother had a Texas Instruments 99/4a.  I had wanted a ZX Spectrum, QL, Amiga, and Atari ST, but by the time those machines came out, I had already been brainwashed by the Windows community.

My main goal is for nostalgia sake, learning machine code, and hobby collections.