Make a Commodore 64 feel fast and useful | C64 OS
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C64 OS has one goal.
Make a Commodore 64 feel fast and useful in today’s modern world.
It's a very high bar. The C64 was introduced in 1982 and has an 8-bit, 1MHz, 6510 CPU with just 64 kilobytes of directly addressable memory. It has a screen resolution of 320x200 pixels, and a fixed palette of 16 colors. But, it is an incredibly versatile machine. And it enjoys an active userbase and a great variety of modern hardware expansions.
The C64 has had many operating systems written for it, So why write another?
Some of these projects were designed to be experimental, or to demonstrate a point, rather than to solve a problem or to make using the C64 better. Others had good intentions but pushed the machine in ways it wasn't designed for, compromising on speed and usability in the pursuit of features available on more powerful computers.1 The aim of C64 OS is to work with the limitations of the Commodore 64 and enable it to become useful.
WELCOME
C64OS.com has grown from its original purpose as an outlet for me to blog about my adventures in learning to code in 6502 and my progress towards the development of a simple, single–tasking, event–driven operating system. It is growing into a resource for new and returning users of the Commodore 64 and 128 to find out about all the great new things being developed both in hardware and software.
NEWS, EDITORIALS, REFERENCE
In the weblog, you'll find posts that cover news, editorial reviews, programming reference documents, technical deep dives into software and hardware, plus thoughts and progress updates on the development of C64 OS.
Over time my posts have gotten longer and more detailed. These in–depth posts take time research, write and edit. I have been keeping to steady pace of at least one such post a month. It is difficult to get regular readers if new content is not showing up more frequently. To help cope with this, the weblog also has an RSS feed. Subscribe to it, and you'll get new posts in your feed reader as soon as they're published. Or follow me on Twitter, where I announce each new post.
Recent Posts
COMMODORE 8 BIT BUYER'S GUIDE
Commodore hardware is great. The architecture has proven to be very well designed as is still usable and expandable decades later. But in order to take advantage of that architecture design, you need to actually expand it by building or purchasing expansion hardware.
Commodore 8-bit computers have had lots of third–party supporting hardware. And while much of it is no longer commercially available, there are hundreds of modern projects and expansion options that are available and under development today. When I returned from my hiatus, I was amazed by the rich support the C64 still has, from hardware, software and publications. However, I learned about these things in dribs and drabs by haunting IRC channels, message boards and following C64 fans on Twitter.
The Commodore 8 Bit Buyer's Guide is a graphical catalog of all the hardware products, projects and kits I know of that are commercially available today. Product feature pages show high–res photos, link to the homepage, documentation and supporting software, include a mini review and product description and list prices and instructions on how you can buy the product for yourself.
Quick Links
C64 OS GUIDES AND DOCUMENTATION
The site is named for this main and overarching project, C64 OS, which I began developing in the fall of 2016. Its goal is to be simple and streamlined and to work with the hardware limitations. I want to make an authentic C64 OS, rather than trying to ape the behavior of other OS platforms. C64 OS exists to provide consistency and usability advantages for the user, and a more modern development platform for the programmer.
Features
- Event–driven interaction model
- Advanced mouse and keyboard event system
- Hybrid memory manager
- String, Math and File Libraries
- Text screen compositor
- Graphical split screen mode
- Object–oriented widget toolkit
- System–wide pull down menus
- Standardized open and save file dialogs
- Universal cut, copy and paste
- Application launcher and file manager
C64 LUGGABLE PROJECT
In 2000 I acquired my first SX-64 Executive Computer. A luggable C64 with a built in 5" display, 1541 floppy drive and a unified power supply. All with a handle on the top. I heavily modified mine to include a SuperCPU, IDE64, CD-Rom drive, Ethernet adapter and High Speed RS232, all powered by a lightweight AT Power Supply.
But the SX-64 was built for a different time. Its display is a massive CRT block, 1–foot deep. The rest of the internal layout is modeled around this main feature. C64 Luggable is a project to build an all–in–one C64, oriented vertically rather than horizontally. It has a large 15" LCD display and foregoes old tech like a floppy drive, in favor of SD card and USB–based storage. Ethernet is a standard. And so are its front–mounted 4–player controller inputs, and rear–mounted PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports.
I love my Commodore computers and how expandable they are, but they have a tendency to take up a whole desk with sprawling peripherals and multiple power supplies. This is fun its own way, but it makes them inconvenient to take with you. C64 Luggable is a practical project for me, and a reference design for other people to be creatively inspired. It allows me to bring a C64 with me to my friends' houses, to remove the friction of getting them to be able to enjoy C64 demos and multi–player games with me. C64 Luggable helps me share the love of the C64 more easily and with more people.
SUPPORT MY WORK
Dear Commodore 64 enthusiast,
I'm working hard on C64 OS, and I'm building it for you and for the Commodore community. Its combination of a zippy and consistent user interface, essential programming frameworks, and a suite of online proxy services, will give you a new way to enjoy your Commodore 64.
The C64OS.com weblog brings you quality reading material, programming and hardware reference, technical deep dives, product and event reviews, and updates on my progress.
The Buyer's Guide is the best way for you to find out about new and existing, commercially available, products, projects and kits for all Commodore 8-Bit computers. With large clear photos, detailed writeups, and standardized information on price and compatibility, links to documentation, third–party reviews, and specific instructions on how to buy, the Buyer's Guide is becoming the resource of choice for discovering what you want to get next and how to get it.
But, you guessed it. Providing you with all of this great content takes time, effort and money. The good news is that you can help out! You can make a real difference, and support the future of these great initiatives with a helpful contribution.
The easiest way to support my work is to purchase one of the items I am offering. I am currently selling beautiful, high quality, Commodore logo patches. These are available now in the Help Support Me section of the Commodore 8–Bit Buyer's Guide. You'll get a cool logo patch and I'll get a bit of funding to help offset the costs. If you don't want one of the products I'm offering through the site, you can always make a donation, just buy me a cup of coffee. (And, I'm now accepting Bitcoin.)
Thank you so much, for your generous support
Greg Naçu — C64OS.com
Want to support my hard work? Here's how!
To all my supporters:
With Special Thanks to
- Alex Brem
- Louis Giglio
- Saveen Sadanand
- Christian Weyer
For repeated and generous support and encouragement.
Most recent contributors:
- Retro Rewind
- David Kraus
- Antonio Drusin
- Louis Giglio
Earlier contributors:
- Piotr Andrzejczak
- Paul Beel
- Aaron Bell
- Chuck Bell
- Stéphane Blanchonnet
- Jan Blomqvist
- Leif Bloomquist
- Alex Brem
- Thomas Bühler
- Joe Carter
- Nelson Chamberlain
- Deanne Christoph
- CodeSecurity
- Dennis Costa
- K Michael Cullen
- Fabian Danders
- John DiLiberto
- Michael Doornbos
- Steve Dowden
- Jeremy English
- Mitchell Farley
- Roy Fielding
- Scott Finney
- David Gershman
- Sarmad Gilani
- Carl Gonsalves
- Laurence Gonsalves
- Richard Good
- Robert Grasböck
- Alfonso Coronado Guillén
- Steve Haak
- James Happel
- Tim Harris
- Charles Heinle
- Eric Hill
- Marcus Honey
- Immicro
- Employing Innovation
- Josh Johnson
- Rene Kint
- Addy van Ladesteijn
- Philipp Lehmann
- Karim Lounnas
- Nathan Marler
- Brad Marshall
- Brian Marstella
- Sascha Mathejczyk
- Jason McEachin
- Tristan Miller
- Ronald Morrissette
- Laszlo Nagy
- Bernd Neikes
- Christopher Nelson
- Jessie Oberreuter
- Jonas Olsson
- Nicholas Otz
- Themis Papassilekas
- Rayner Pedersen
- Bryan Pope
- Glen Rapoza
- Alan Reed
- Malcolm Reiter
- MindFlare Retro
- Joel Ricci
- Saveen Sadanand
- Carlos Perez Saldana
- Paul Schimmelpfenning
- David Semke
- Northwoods Computer Services
- Keith Shirley
- Josef Souçek
- Jochen Spang
- Lars-Erik Stenholm
- Daniel Stephens
- Martin Studer
- Kent Sullivan
- Markos Themelidis
- Klaus Timmermann
- James Trevizo
- Tomasz Tybulewicz
- Daniel Varga
- Jakob Voos
- Peter Walsh
- Matthew Walworth
- Christian Weyer
- Jimmy Wilson
- David Youd
- Marko Šolajić
✶ Names in bold are multiple contributors. Extra thanks!
Author History
Gregory Nacu
Author and maintainer of C64OS.com
See nacu.ca for a full bio
I've been a Commodore 8-bit user since I discovered my first computer, a broken Vic-20, under the bed in my parents' guest room when I was 5 years old. They had it repaired for $40 and my journey into computing began.
When I was 9 years old, I got my first Commodore 64 for Christmas in 1990. It changed my life. During the mid 90s I discovered Creative Micro Designs and started buying as much hardware as I could afford. I ended up with numerous C64's C64c's, c128's, a couple of Vic-20's, a c128D and an SX-64. I also got a SuperCPU64 and SuperCPU128 both maxed out with 16megs of SuperRam. I got a Turbo232 and a 33.6Kbps modem and started surfing the web via a dialup shell account. My collection of great hardware kept growing to include a smartmouse, a RamLink, a CMD HD and a SID Symphony. I also acquired numerous Commodore disk drives, 1541's, 1541 II's, 1571's and a 1581.
I started to attend Commodore Expos in the United States in 1998 when I was 17 years old. I showed up with a C64 breadbin slung over my back on a guitar strap. I was in heaven. There were so many cool people and so much great activity going on. I started to dabble more seriously into programming in the late 90s. Shortly thereafter I got hold of an IDE64, and discovered that Jolz Maginnis from Australia was working on a preemptively multi–tasking Unix–like OS for the SuperCPU64, WiNGs (née JOS). I worked with him over IRC to help him debug the TCP/IP stack and my life changed again.
With his tremendous help I taught myself to program in C, and began cross compiling WiNGs software on an iMac and FTPing it to my 64. I cut my teeth writing a bunch of software I had only ever dreamed of having on my C64 when I was kid. And I began to give presentations at Commodore Expos showing off such creations as a Movie player and SpiffyPaint, a multi–layer drawing program. It was a fun and glorious time of my life that I'll never forget.
Present Day
Eventually CMD shut its doors, and the SuperCPU sadly became unavailable. We all grew up, got jobs and moved on with our lives. I packed up my equipment when I moved houses and I didn't have the time to pull it back out. I got married, moved again, and now I've got two children.
When I came back to the scene after 8 years away, I found a bustling community, full of life and energy, with many new projects to fill in the gaps where CMD had left off. A high speed RS232 adapter and a 56K modem are no longer relevant to today's world. But now we have multiple ethernet adapters, commercially available. The CMD HD, and RamLink seem woefully ancient, with bulky SCSI spinning harddisks, or 30 pin RAM simms. Instead SD card adapters are now commercially available in sizes that make them much more useable. Plus they make exchanging data with a PC/Mac easier and faster than it ever was in the heyday.
The SuperCPU is not available. But there are lots of C64s and they need our love. So I have forced myself to get used to the feeling and the pace of 1Mhz again. It was hard to go back from 20Mhz, and even harder to go back from 2.5Ghz. But you do get used to it. What the C64 lacks right now, is a platform upon which to write network–based applications. That's what I want to write, but there is very little out there to help me do that. So, instead, I'm writing a simple single–tasking OS, that will provide the essentials to make it easier to write the apps I've got a creative itch to work on; network–oriented with a consistent mouse–based UI.
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