Hi All,

I'm (mostly) a complete newbie to 6502 computers, but they interest me immensely! The first computer I ever used was a Commodore (not sure which model) with a monochrome green monitor. My elementary school had a lab full of them and used them to introduce the 1st graders to computers; I was the last year that used them, and I wish I could have grabbed one!

I'm mostly a musician, and I've got a basic understanding of electronics from my work on my guitars; I know it's rudimentary compared to computers, but I'm an avid tinkerer and hope to use this site as a guide into the world of vintage computing. My aim is to eventually code my own software, and potentially research musical possibilities using the old hardware.

Thanks for creating such a great resource, and I look forward to share my progress.

-Marc

Welcome!

Hi 6502'ers

I'm an Australian software developer (day job is mostly C++). Grew up with a TI-99/4A (not a 6502) in the early 80's which got me hooked on programming (TI Extended BASIC at that stage) at a young age. Though, I was always slightly envious of my C64 friends at the time (much cooler games).

Didn't do much retro-wise (or hardware-wise) until a couple of years ago when I found Ben Eaters 8-bit CPU series. I decided to build something similar as my first non-trivial electronics project. Got it to the stage I could run Snake on it on a 16x2 character LCD. Being a software guy, I also decided to write an emulator for it (in C). Compiled to WASM and ended up with a web-based assembler and emulator for my breadboard CPU that anyone can run in their browser. You can try Snake if you like, or try your hand at writing your own assembly for it. The computer only has 256 bytes of program memory, so it's quite limited.

I felt that project had reached its potential without major changes, so I decided to build something more useful. In the mean-time, I'd been following the Commander X16 project and got my first taste of 6502 assembly, writing a couple of demos for the CX16, including an (unfinished) Supaplex clone. Source code here: https://github.com/visrealm/cx16-supaplex.

Working on these "games" got me thinking about building a 6502-based project. I also wanted to try my hand at designing PCBs, so started my next project. The HBC-56 (Homebrew Computer with a 56-pin bus). A backplane architecture - initially with a 6502 CPU board. I started that only a few of months ago. So far, I've only designed and ordered the custom backplane and custom proto-cards for it. I've built up 6 of the cards and will eventually design custom PCBs for each. As of today, I have it to a point I can run a simple game on it (Backplane 6502 + TMS9918: Invaders). Have plans for many future additions to this system - stay tuned. HBC-56 on github.

Cheers
Troy

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Cheers
Troy

[My introduction]

Great to see the in-browser emulator and IDE! Thanks for sharing your code, and looking forward to future developments.

Hi, I'm Andy,

I've been developing a browser based 6502/65C02 IDE in order to emulate the Cerberus2080 8-Bit Micro (https://www.thebyteattic.com/p/cerberus-2080.html)

It includes a cycle exact 65C02 emulator, syntax highlighting editor, multi-pass assembler, disassembler and debugger, as well as an emulation of the Cerberus hardware (display and keyboard input).

As a side effect, the code also generates 6502 and 65C02 reference charts:

6502: https://feertech.com/legion/reference6502.html
65C02: https://feertech.com/legion/reference65c02.html

The IDE is here (Chrome or Edge recommended, tested with the latest version of Firefox): https://feertech.com/legion/cerberus.html

And to demonstrate the capabilities, I've written a Manic Miner style game engine, which you can see here:

https://feertech.com/legion/cerberus.ht ... level2.asm

Hopefully some of these tools are of interest? It's very much a work in progress, so feedback is welcome, and I hope to add new features over time.

Welcome Andy, new developments are always of interest. I see you've started a thread here. Thanks for that - a new thread is often a good idea.

Hi!

I am trying to learn ASM on the c64, using ACME.

I'm a software developer by trade, but I do pretty much only web dev. Full stack typescript, react, graphql, postgres and all that good stuff.

Recently I wanted to get back to my roots. I grew up with a c64 in the early 90s, playing pirated games on turbo tape, but I never actually programmed anything meaningful on it.

Hopefully, I will be able to put together a simple snake game or something. I have managed to get some simple unit tests working, and it has mostly been fun so far. https://github.com/geon/c64-tests/blob/master/test.asm

Welcome! Please do start a new thread (or two) for any specific questions. (Or indeed, any specific projects or ideas, like the unit testing.) I'm sure you'll get any help you need.

Hello, all. My first post.

My first computer was an Acorn Atom - with a massive 512 bytes of RAM. Yes, 512 bytes. I bought some 2114s (I think) and upgraded it to 4k, IIRC. I then got a BBC Model B and this really kicked off my love with computing - all the things you could do with a program!

However, I took the red pill and went down the road to civil engineering. I often think, if I'd taken the blue pill (no, not THAT one - it's the Matrix metaphor) whether I could have gone into computing for a living instead.

My electronics knowledge is rudimentary, but I have a 2-channel, 20 Mhz scope and understand digital better than I do analogue electronics. I have been surfing 6502.org from many weeks gaining knowledge on how to approach my 6502 build and have also studied the Ben Eater videos. So, I thought it time to register and come and say "Hello".

I have a triple boot system: Windows, Ubuntu and Arch Linux and use python and Julia to do most of my programming - although I have used the community editions of Visual Studio in the past. I enjoy programming and am approaching 100 problems completed over at Project Euler. I'm far from an expert, having no formal training at all in computer science. I just enjoy it.

Somewhere on 6502.org (or linked to it) someone said that they think in 6502 more than any other language and that really resonated with me as I feel the same. Programs these days seem so bloated. One single application file can be bigger than the entire hard drive capacity of the 286 pcs that my employer had when I started as a graduate back in 1988.

The "simplicity" and brevity of the 6502 environment is appealing and I hope I can boost my skills enough to build my own 6502 homebrew. I have all the parts now. The thought of having a computer unique to me - a one of a kind - wow.

Now, if I can just suss this memory decoding out...

Welcome! 100 Euler problems solved is very impressive. On your homebrew project, once you get going, feel free to start a thread to describe your progress, or to ask a question.

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x86?  We ain't got no x86.  We don't NEED no stinking x86!

Hi all,

I'm not much of a blogger or "message poster" but I thought I might introduce myself and show progress on my 6502 project.
My first computer was an Apple 2 Plus back in the 80's. My friends had ZX Spectrum, Comodore 64 and BBC. I learnt a bit of basic and even tried my hand at some machine code. I ended up with a huge collection of Apple 2 machines, parts and software, but gave it all away in the 90's when I moved out of my parents house. In hind sight I should have put it into storage. I ended up studying Electronic Engineering and always had the idea of building a 6502 or Z80 board of some sort. Fast forward nearly 30 years. After watching some of Ben Eater and others videos on 6502 and VGA the bug bit and I started. This is my version 1 CPU board. The goal was just to get the CPU and memory up and running. I'm not a huge fan of breadboard or perf board so I went straight to PCB. (The mods were needed to solve a glitch in video development)



The right hand side plug in card is the 65C51 (ACIA)



The card slot on the left was dedicated to video.



Video development was a combination of breadboard / plugin prototype perf board and a CPLD module. I'm using the Altera MAX7000 discussed in posts on 6502.org. The MAX7000 is obsolete but the Microchip/Atmel part is still available. I highly recommend these parts. Don't struggle with masses of 74 series logic on breadboards unless you have lots of time and like the pain of reworking things when they don't work. It's much easier to redraw, compile and test (or simulate) schematics. I bought the MAX7000 from suppliers on AliExpress. Here are the CPLD modules I made.



Video card development had gone as far as it could in this manner and it was time for a CPU V2 board.



V2 has the following specs

WDC65C02 (clocked at just over 4MHz...should have been 5MHz but used a cycle for the video)
65C51 ACIA (lower left)
lower CPLD does all address decoding
upper CPLD + 2x 6264 8Kbyte SRAM handles video
video is B&W 256 x 240 native VGA running at 10MHz
There are 2 video pages
1. memory mapped
2. updated as a page and can be turned on or off...overlays memory mapped page (overlay done as a hardware OR)
Memory is 40K SRAM,
512K FLASH in 8K blocks for boot
512K SRAM followed by 512K FLASH in 8K blocks
a 65C22 controls 2x AY-3-8910 sound chips
a 14-pin tiny AVR does serial to parallel for a PS2 keyboard and is memory mapped onto the 6502 bus

So far everything is working. I have played YM sound files on the AY chips and I have fonts and bitmaps working.
I'm using a combination of C (CC65) and assembler to program the 6502.

I will probably go through one more iteration as there are only 1 or 2 minor errors in V2. The main change will be to the plugin slots. I may switch to card edge type connectors as opposed the the current pin type ones.

I have seen the Commander X16 project. It's looking great, but I guess for me and others the goal is to design and build it yourself.
That's part of the journey, wanting to know how they did it back in 1970's.
if I only wanted to write 6502 code then I would be lining up to buy one. (or use a simulator or even buy an old machine)

What I would like to know is, are there any 6502 enthusiasts in Brisbane, Australia? I have spotted a few people in Australia on 6502.org.
Are there enough to start a small user group or something like that?
It would be nice to have people to share the journey with. I know that there are all of you on 6502.org, but it's not quite the same when you can meet people face to face. Just a thought.

Anyway that's where I'm at.
Thanks
Andre

Welcome Andre! (Just might be worth reaching out on this Australian forum too.)

Hello everyone, my name is Chad. I'm a math professor and a hobbyist video game programmer on the side.

Since the year 2000 in high school, I've been programming games/demos in C++, and now also JavaScript. Nothing great to show for my 21 years of labor, but I always hope that "the next one" will become my magnum opus. I lean towards programming non-violent games, and arcade style games. At our annual Math Appreciation Day event at the college, I always have 4 or more of my video games on display for students to play. Tetris, Rogue, and Gradius clones seem to be the most popular.

In the meantime, I have somehow discovered a deep interest in learning about the nuts and bolts of hardware these past 2 months or so. And I have learned a lot! By that, I mean I have made a great amount of mistakes, (so that I will not make those mistakes again hopefully). I love learning! My ultimate goal at the moment is to make my own computer from scratch and have it on display (and playable) at the next Math Appreciation Day event. From there, who knows.

While I was researching and learning, I found Garth Wilson's pages EXTREMELY helpful, and have been using his instructions as my go-to source for how to do any of this. I emailed Garth, and he suggested I join this forum. So here I am!

Thank you all for having me!

_________________
x86?  We ain't got no x86.  We don't NEED no stinking x86!