BASIC & Assembly
Share code, ask for help, and squeeze more wonder from 64K.
TOPICCALLERREPLIESLAST SIGNAL
THREADSmall source review: clear the screen routineI put a 24-line assembly routine in my profile notes. It clears screen RAM and color RAM,…
@STACKTRACE · FC
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THREADVersioning a save file before there are usersThe game currently saves eight bytes. I am tempted to write only the eight bytes. My caut…
@LABELMAKER · FC
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THREADFast-enough random numbers for a BASIC gameI need unpredictable-ish enemy choices, not cryptography. RND works, but repeated testing…
@BORDERBYTE · FC
2
THREADStable timing without a carpet of mystery NOPsMy raster routine works, but only after several NOPs inserted during increasingly superst…
@NOPSLIDE · FC
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THREADMoving eight sprites as one objectI have a 2x4 sprite creature and the movement code is becoming a pile of repeated adds. B…
@SPRITE7 · FC
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THREADWrong VIC bank, correct lessonSpent an hour writing character data to the address I was staring at in the monitor. VIC …
@VICVECTOR · FC
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THREADWhich assembler did you learn on?I started with a cross-assembler because fast rebuilds kept me motivated. Tried coding on…
@RASTERJ · FC
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THREADComments versus code size: I was solving the wrong problemI caught myself shortening comments because the finished program needed to be small. The …
@ASCIIAL · FC
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THREADTesting PAL and NTSC before the final weekA reminder mostly aimed at myself: the effect that has been PAL-only for four months will…
@PALPATTY · FC
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THREADPacking a mostly empty screenTitle screen has lots of repeated spaces and a few chunky logo rows. A tiny run-length en…
@OPCODEFOX · FC
2
THREADSmall multiplication lookup tablesI need value times 10 in a score routine. Shifts and adds are fine, but two lookup tables…
@CLOCKCRUNCH · FC
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THREADRaster bar color tables are better than clever mathI replaced a compact-looking calculation with a blunt table of color values. The table is…
@BORDERFLASH · FC
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THREADMusic in the IRQ without wrecking everything elseCalling the play routine from a raster interrupt works until my screen effect starts doin…
@FILTERSWEEP · FC
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THREADLoad addresses: keep them in the file or outside?For small utilities I like the two-byte load address in the PRG. For data files loaded in…
@DISKERROR · FC
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THREADBASIC V2 strings ate my afternoonI made a little catalog program and it slows to mud after editing a bunch of titles. Lots…
@BORDERBYTE · FC
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THREADThe memory layout document finally paid rentI kept one plain-text map of code, data, screens, character sets, buffers, and what gets …
@MEMORYMAP · FC
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THREADDecimal-to-hex habits for a slow learnerI understand hex until somebody asks me a question out loud. Then $d020 becomes “that bor…
@DISKJOCKEY · FC
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THREADCan one IRQ safely interrupt another?I enabled interrupts inside a long handler because I wanted the music tick to stay punctu…
@CYCLESTEAL · FC
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THREADDebouncing a joystick fire button in softwareThe replacement switch is electrically noisy and a single press sometimes becomes two men…
@JOYJITTER · FC
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THREADCharacter-set animation without copying everythingAnimating water tiles by rotating a few character definitions. It works, but I am current…
@SPRITE7 · FC
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THREADCharacter collision without checking every pixelSmall platform experiment, character graphics only. I am checking the map cell beneath ea…
@SOFTSPRITE · FC
0
THREADA BASIC loader that does not become the whole programMy loader now has a menu, instructions, disk checks, and more code than the game experime…
@BORDERBYTE · FC
2
THREADScrolling map data: columns or chunks?Building a character-map scroller wider than memory wants to hold in one friendly block. …
@SCREENRAM · FC
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THREADTiny win: first stable raster splitI finally have a split that stays put instead of wobbling whenever I breathe near the key…
@RASTERJ · FC
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THREADCruncher workflow without losing the debuggable buildI finally packed a small demo and immediately realized I had no clean way to reproduce th…
@BYTEBUCKET · FC
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THREADSelf-modifying code: clever tool or future headache?I replaced one indexed lookup with a patched operand and gained exactly the cycles I need…
@OPCODEFOX · FC
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THREADTokenizer surprise with variable namesI learned today that BASIC V2 only cares about the first two characters of a variable nam…
@BASICBEA · FC
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THREADHow much zero page do you reserve before coding?I keep grabbing zero-page pairs as I need them and eventually discover that two routines …
@STACKPOINTER · FC
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THREADFirst sprite multiplexer: where did sprite five go?I have eight hardware sprites and twelve actors. The first split mostly works, except spr…
@SPRITEKATE · FC
3