Commodore Retro Magic Dream

calendar Mar 13, 2019 · 2 min read · 6502 c64 python  ·
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When I was young I was able to play with my Vic20/Commodore64. I learned to love programming with these small 8-bit real computers. I was between 11 and 12 years old, and just learning basic English, with only a data-casette to store my stuff.

Now my son is 9 years old, and I was unable to find something like the Commodore computers to teach it.

I do not want a C/64 emulator, because it is too way difficult for a child raised by iPad and iPhone all around; it is crazy. Even audio cassette does not exists any more, by the way...

But I do not want Scratch3 too, because I like the 'PRINT 1+1' of BasicV2: it is real, fast immediate!

Also other retro stuff like Tic80 are too difficult to learn.

Then I stumbled upon this fantastic project https://github.com/irmen/pyc64

created by Irmen de Jong (creator of Python Remote Object framework by the way a nice python library for remote communication 'batteries included' ).

Pyc64 emulator is able to run a C/64 system with minimal dependency and it is also pythonic (it means it is python-aware); the Basic is "python emulated" and so it is much powerful then the original one. Because Pyc64 emulates the character mode too (PETASCII) you should be able to run all the introductory Basic V2 code you find in the C/64 manual!

  1. It emulates sprite pretty well.
  2. Can load and use real C64 ROMs
  3. It is easy to expand
  4. Because of (2) it offers also a 6502 emulation so you can run Basic programs which insert and then call machine language code in memory!

Comment by Irmen on 2019-03-19 20:46:48

Thanks for taking an interest in my project and writing about it! It was fun making it, and I'm glad you like it as well