#commodore basic

Oh good, that’s working.

Someone Got YouTube Videos To Play on a 40-Year-Old Computer That Can Only Display Green Text

Some of the best hacks don’t solve any real world problems or reinvent the wheel. They’re usually nothing more than an exercise in trying to make something work that is either seemingly impossible or pointless: such as getting YouTube to work on a 40-year-old computer with a hideously outdated display. Read more…

I found some books and game cassette inlays in my parents’ attic (loft) a while back and I think I may try and scan them in. This is the first one I’m thinking of scanning in.

We had BBC Micros in school but we never did any real programming with only simple MODE 4 commands being shown us. This book then, was my first exposure to actually understanding programming.

I spent a lot of time playing games on my Commodore 16, but also in learning how FOR...NEXT loops work!

Here’s the first few paragraphs from the introduction page;

Introduction

Welcome to the programming course for the COMMODORE 16 and PLUS/4. Both these machines are superb for playing games and producing brilliant and exciting pictures and sounds on your TV set; but they are also complete modern computers in their own right.

Computers are extraordinarily versatile; more so, in fact, than anything except a human. Your computer for instance, can be switched to be a teaching machine, a calculator, an aid to the handicapped, a word processor, a machine for financial records and stock control, a monitor for a patient in an intensive care unit, a controller for an industrial process, or a scientific computer used by engineers to design buildings, power stations and aircraft.

Computers and the systems they control are steadily entering into our everyday lives. Already many devices such as traffic lights, cash registers, and banking terminals have computers behind the scenes. This trend will continue for most of our lifetimes. The world is passing through a computer revolution, which will be as profound in its effects as the Industrial Revolution was in its own time.

The Computer Revolution can't be stopped; but all of us can, if we like, have some influence on the way it goes. The world is becoming divided into two sorts of people — the passengers and the pilots. The passengers let it all just happen; they may enjoy using computer based products, or they may hate computers, or both. They often make their views known, but without any real effect —- they can't reach the controls, and wouldn't know how to use them if they could.

The pilots, on the other hand, are in control of the whole revolution, They invent new types of computers, and think up original and useful ways Of using them, The pilots have o heavy responsibility since it rests on them to steer the world towards peace, freedom and plenty, and away from the nightmare society often depicted in Science Fiction,

What sets apart a pilot from a passenger? Only one thing: understanding the way a computer works, Of course there are different levels of understanding. Most people understand how to use an arcade machine even though they couldn't explain the mechanism to you, (Yes --there is a computer inside.) The level I am thinking of is much deeper. It is so thorough and complete that you can make a computer do anything you want it to, in the way of teaching activities, industrial or medical applications, or even  games to amuse you.

To have this power over your computer, to make it into a fast, accurate obedient and willing slave, you must be able to program the machine.

Programming is the key to becoming a pilot.

This course is all about programming. It relates to the 16 and PLUS/4, but once you have mastered programming for these machines you will find it simple to transfer to any other computer, large or small.

The more programming you do, the easier it becomes. Most people can learn how to program if they give themselves a fair chance, and so can you. You do not need to know much about mathematics, but you will find it useful to have a quiet place to read, think and use the computer, and it is best to give yourself plenty of time to complete the course. Don't rush!

The course is split into fifteen 'units'. Each unit will take you one or two solid evenings' work, on average. Most of the units include some reading, some practical work on the machine, some programming, and a 'self-test' questionnaire to measure how well you have understood the unit. Every unit contains some 'experiments' which you should tick off as you do them.

When the units ask you questions, they generally give you spaces to write your answers. Use them. Write with a soft pencil, and have a rubber handy, so that your answers can be rubbed out if you pass the computer course on to someone else. If your copy of the course already has the answers written in, go through it and erase them before you start studying.

Programming is a tight-knit subject in which ideas depend closely on each other. Topics you learn about in earlier units are mentioned and used in the later ones without any further explanation. For example, you won't be able to make head or tail of unit 10 unless you have read and understood all of units 1 to 9. This makes it important that you follow the units in the order they are given.

When you start work on a new unit, begin by reading quickly right through it from beginning to end, You won't get much of the detail, but you will form an idea of the kind of topics you are going to study.

POKE 53280,[0-16] - changes the color of the border

POKE 53281,[0-16] - changes the color of the background

POKE 646,[0-16] - changes the text color

POKE 53272,23 - changes text to lowercase mode