Dan’s MEGA65 Digest Podcast

[Did you know: All issues of the Digest have an audio version! Search for “Dan’s MEGA65 Digest” in your favorite podcast app, or check out the audio player at the top of each issue. — Dan]

There are two methods for making sound and music with the MEGA65, as it is currently implemented. The first method is the four SID chips, programmable devices that generate waveforms with requested parameters using analog electronic components...

Spaceships. Aliens. Marios. Goombas. Bullets. Fireballs. Mouse pointers, text cursors. Any of these could be a sprite, a feature of a computer graphics system dedicated to things that move. The sprite capabilities of the Commodore 64’s VIC-II chip super-charged video games and user interfaces beyond a single screenful of character text or a bitmap image. The MEGA65 includes support for VIC-II hardware sprites, and has sprite-related BASIC commands that make them easy to use in your programs...

It’s time! We have a shipping schedule for the next batch of MEGA65 computers, and a candidate for the next platform release. Everyone is invited to help with testing, so let’s get to it!

Shipping update!

Trenz Electronic has announced that the next batch of MEGA65 computers will ship on June 1st, 2024.

We currently expect that all preorders up to this point will be included in this batch...

Our robotfindskitten adventure continues! In part 1, we introduced the robotfindskitten experience, and described tools and techniques for building an rfk game in BASIC 65. In part 2, we started building a similar toolkit in assembly language, starting with KERNAL routines, memory access techniques, and screen memory registers. This month, we complete the toolkit, and I present my own attempt at an assembly language version of the game...

Last month’s Digest introduced robotfindskitten, a programming exercise that unites several major concepts of game programming: updating the display, reading user input, generating random values, timing events, and including and manipulating large amounts of static game data. I offered examples of each of these tasks in BASIC 65, and proposed that these could be used to make a robotfindskitten experience for the MEGA65...

A new month, a new feature, a new game, a new demo, and a coding exercise that really brings the room together. Let’s dig in!

Available to test: New keyboard scanner

We’re getting closer to having a complete release candidate, with features being finalized and bug fixes piling in. There’s one new feature that’s near and dear to my heart, and I’m thrilled to be able to share it with anyone up for early beta testing...

The MEGA65 Community Survey 2023 is now complete! It opened on August 14, ran for three weeks, and received 509 submissions. A HUGE thank you to everyone who submitted!

Let’s do a quick update, then onto the results!

Release testing update

We do not yet have a formal release candidate for the upcoming v0.96 release, which is intended to be the factory installed release for the next delivery batch. We are still waiting on test hardware for the revision 5 main board to arrive...

Hey all! I’m keeping this issue short, because there’s something more important for you to do instead of reading.

The MEGA65 Community Survey 2023

The MEGA65 Community Survey 2023 is now open. This survey is for anyone even a little bit interested in the MEGA65, whether you own one, have preordered, are still considering it, or don’t intend to order but still enjoy seeing what’s going on. This includes anyone not subscribed to this Digest, so please share this link...

In last month’s Digest, we introduced cross development, the practice of writing MEGA65 programs using a modern PC. We looked at several tools for writing programs in the BASIC 65 language and in 45GS02 assembly language, and we welcomed a new BASIC-like compiled language with MEGA65 support called XC=BASIC.

Let us take one step further into the world of compiled languages...

There’s something wholesome about writing a program on a vintage computer. Such a computer was designed to give equal attention to programs written by their operator and programs written by software companies, and included everything you would need to get started writing such programs. Compared to modern software development, the constraints of on-device retro coding can be comforting and inspiring...