Hi there, folks!
Recently, I've felt the bug to develop an RPG for the C64, something along the lines of the Gold Box SSI games. I'd really like some pointers as to the best methods on programming it. If I have to, I'll make it text(that's actually a brilliant idea for a demo, at least), but I'd ideally like it to have graphics. The scale of this probably wouldn't fit on a single disk, yet I'm still excited to tackle the challenge. If you know anyone willing to assist, please, I'm all ears!
https://retrogamecoders.com/cbm-basic/
Thanks to everyone who kicked the tires as I was squishing bugs and feverishly (not kidding) adding to this, it is now released as v1 aka "make something actually useful". I'm already using it in for simple shell scripts where I might have fought with BASH or wrote Python!
Future work will use this as a base and a jumping off point for cross-platform game development :)
- I got some sort of flu or bug that came and went in waves. Cue Pink Floyd.
I've continued to adapt Chris Garrett's http-get code into a very old idea I've mused over since 2006. The idea of hiding a retro webpages inside of existing ones. Commodore Markup Language. Back in 2006, Retro computer Internet connectivity wasn't nearly as strong as it is now. (Thanks Chris) Anyway, I've got a decent proof of concept working. The existing webpage is located at https://www.gunstar.one This CML page is hidden in the remarked source of that page and is parsed by the Commodore. I'm using Epyx Programmer's Toolkit for a development platform, but at the moment it runs fine in BASIC 2.0. Basic screen, border, text colors, and Hyperlinks are working correctly. Edit: Added direct access to the POKE command, so now sprites and sound are accessible.
More details on on my Github https://github.com/eightbitswide/CML
This isn't a PETSCII screen shot from a Commodore BBS. This is actually my web server sending a PETSCII as my index.htm using Chris's web client from March 2026 Computer Gazette.
Run Commodore BASIC on your modern computer with CBM-BASIC interpreter :D
Letting you lovely folks see this first so you can help me debug and develop it.
https://github.com/omiq/cbm-basic
It's not fully complete yet (for eg. no file handling) and I am not sure what to do about POKE yet, but as you can see from the examples it is working pretty well already and does some stuff that the original did not do (eg. labels can be used instead of line numbers).
Greetings to everyone! I'm Alberto Ferraris and I'm Italian. I'm a fan of 8-bit home computers, especially the Commodore, Amstrad, and Atari lines. I enjoy sharing information with you and learning more about programming and repairing 8-bit computers.
Reading Chris's article in the Feb 2026 volume of Compute Gazette. I'm starting to see a path forward for a decades old idea that has been rattling around my my head: CML: https://jledger.proboards.com/board/2/cml A special markup language and web interface for the Commodore 64. I'm curious of the source code for the server side of this month's CG article is available somewhere? It appears that C= technology has caught up with my idea from 2005. :)
PETVaders now has full alien formation movement and scoring
How would YOU move 50 aliens left/right/down in formation while allowing the player to move and fire bullets, with collision detection, alien kills, and protective bases that you can destroy? All on a 6502 at 1mhz
https://retrogamecoders.com/retro-computer-collection/
I really should stop now ... again ;)
For my series on programming the pet, I picked back up the idea of PETZerk (Bezerk demake) for the Commodore PET but in XC-BASIC instead of C this time around.
Originally I was going to fill the screen but by fitting it into a 20x20 character grid I can also more easily port to Vic 20 with user defined characters 🤓