Hey everyone!

I have been thinking about what types of programs I would want to create for my 6502, and my short list is: Text Editor, Calculator/Spreadsheet, Coding Environment, and System Monitor. Except for the System Monitor, most of those are obsolete given that we can do the rest on any ol' PC now. Besides that list, the only other thing I can think of is games. Lots of games.

So, what do YOU use your 6502 for? Give me some ideas!

Chad

Retro fun/nostalgia.

I started out as a sort of anniversary of my 40th year of first using the 6502 (Hence the name Ruby). I had no real goal other than to make a 6502 system and see where it went, but I sort of had a notion of "How would it turn out knowing what I know now vs. what I knew then" if that makes sense. Wondering if I could improve on what we did back then, and what was done back then.

The reality was that the answer was actually nope. Can't overly improve on it and the BBC Micro was the pinnacle of my own 6502 life. It had a usable operating system, supported paged ROMs, filing systems, network, colour graphics and the fastest BASIC around that also supported modern things like local variables and recursion.

My system started as a sort of nod to the Apple II I first used in 6502 land - with a sort of WozMon like "monitor". Graphics was PAL composite video - 320x240 monochrome resolution which I quickly gave-up on and while I used genuine 65C02, I also used modern "glue" logic to make the build easier - an ATmega initially for video, subsequently for serial, filing system and math accelerator, and a GAL.

I quickly kicked myself many times for writing a somewhat crude "monitor" which would run Applesoft and EhBASIC when I'd used the BBC Micro a few years later - no hex monitor there, but a comprehensive operating system that took the chores of graphics, keyboard, network and filing systems away from the language/application, so my system migrated to that and I ran BBC Basic and BCPL on it.

I'd used BCPL back in the 80's on BBC Micros, so the next step was to look at a better BCPL - again with the idea of what can I do today that I couldn't back then - and stupidly went down the "if an 8-bit Beeb at 2Mhz can run 16-bit BCPL well, then surely a the 16-bit 65816 can run 32-bit BCPL better"... So I built a 65816 system.

The reality isn't quite so but it runs it well enough and I implemented a multi-tasking OS written in 65816 assembler and BCPL which can compile code and run an editor and various utilities.

And that's where it's at today - graphics are via a serial line to a "smart" terminal running on my desktop but it's not the fastest thing in the world, however it did get me back in BCPL, an almost forgotten language which I do think is very well suited to old (and new!) 8-bit systems looking for something else. Of-course C has made great leaps and bounds too, so it's too easy (and lazy) for people to just use C now.

I've ported my BCPL system to a RISC-V platform and it runs on that more or less identically to the '816 system, although much much faster - 2-8x faster clock for clock Hz... As a challenge to this, and to learn RISC-V assembler, I started by writing a RISC-V emulator in BCPL directly on my '816 system. I was able to use it to initially run some simple test C programs and latterly to write the bytecode interpreter that BCPL needs to run and with it I can run my BCPL OS on my emulated RISC-V system running on my '816 BCPL system... It's not fast, but a good proof of concept. I get the equivalent of a 2Khz clocked RISC--V 32IM system which isn't bad for something written in BCPL compiled to a bytecode interpreted by '816 assembler running at 16Mhz...

Fun times!

-Gordon

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Gordon Henderson.
See my Ruby 6502 and 65816 SBC projects here: https://projects.drogon.net/ruby/

To paraphrase Ratty in Wind in the Willows: "Believe me my young friend, there is nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about with 6502."

For me, that's the essence of it, whether it's trying to code something in a mini challenge, or just running some demo or benchmark, or trying to understand some historical OS feature, or working with someone on a new gizmo to add to a Beeb. Perhaps the most rewarding thing is setting a mini challenge and getting ingenious contributions!

Yup. Hard to imagine not relying on DOS/Win/x86. But, back in the day, my homebrew 65xx machines were my only computing platform. And that's what I used to get into microcontrollers -- which were new technology back then!

Heh! Hard to imagine a time when microcontrollers didn't exist! But the Intel MCS48 family was the first, or among the first. I wrote an MCS48 assembler, and -- since the 8741 and 8748 are EPROM-bases devices -- it was necessary to build an MCS48 programmer. (Photos, and more details, in this thread.)

I only ever did four or five MCS48 jobs. Still, it was solid, problem-solving experience. And my homebrew 65xx machines had a lot of other, real-work responsibilities as well (kind of like Garth's workbench computers). Nowadays 65xx is just a hobby for me.

-- Jeff

ps: a previous thread on much the same topic: Why do we do this?

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In 1988 my 65C02 got six new registers and 44 new full-speed instructions!
https://laughtonelectronics.com/Arcana/ ... mmary.html

Well, for me, electronics has always been a huge hobby, cutting my teeth on vacuum tubes in the 60's. Back then it was all about audio gear (Dad's hobby as well). As semiconductors started to become available, I bought some of those for experimentation as well. I still use vacuum tubes for my audio gear however.

I got started with the 6502 late 70's... (I was working on IBM midrange systems back then as well). I always found the hardware and coding interesting and keep my hand in it now to help keep my mind sharp. Designing and building the hardware, then writing some code to make it go can be an interesting challenge. Plus, I've adapted EhBasic and DOS/65 to my latest systems. If I stop having fun doing this, I'll just stop doing it.

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Regards, KM
https://github.com/floobydust

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http://WilsonMinesCo.com/ lots of 6502 resources
The "second front page" is http://wilsonminesco.com/links.html .
What's an additional VIA among friends, anyhow?

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

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

Haha, that's a bingo ;D Mostly it's just gratifying to my inner tinkerer - it's neat that we have ready access to so much raw horsepower these days, but there's a real pleasure in just fiddling around with something small and simple for the hell of it, and the 6502 hits a nice sweet spot of being simple enough that one can keep pretty much all the relevant information in memory while still being reasonably capable. And with newer DIY designs it becomes possible to keep the nice, simple aspects without the baggage that vintage designs had to cope with due to cost concerns or legacy issues...

Do want to actually do a little more with it, though - when I get around to putting together a text editor that suits my tastes, I'd like to use one of my 65C02 systems as a distraction-free writing machine...

This question reminds me of one my wife frequently asks about my electronics projects. I’ll show her my latest triumph, trying to get across how terribly clever I’ve been, and she’ll frown and ask: “But what’s it for?”

“For? FOR? It just is!”

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I like it when things smoke.
Blog – Zolatron 64 project

This is good info! Thank you all. And thank you Jeff for the link, I read that one as well.

For most of my life, I have encountered "computer people" who build these big rigs: many gig's of RAM, dozens of processor cores, video cards I've never even heard of, and hard drives that might as well host the whole internet itself. I ask them, "So, what do you do with it?" Auto response: "Well, I play Fortnite on it sometimes." Great.

So, for most of my life, I had been turned off from "hardware" entirely. Until I came here. And though I still see you and I say things like, "I can run my 6502 at 20 MHz!" it is different. Because we CREATE these computers. Most folks who boast about their new video card just bought it on newegg and then plugged it in to a slot, big whoop. But when folks HERE boast about their new video card, they made it from scratch!

I myself am a video game programmer, so my intention with the 6502 is to create retro video games. Very similar to what Agumander is doing here:

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=5888

That kind of thing is VERY inspiring.

Well, thank you everyone, and if anyone else wants to chime in, you are welcome to!

Chad

Space-optimized 6502 assembly language software is my passion, and it occupies my idle thoughts often.

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Got a kilobyte lying fallow in your 65xx's memory map? Sprinkle some VTL02C on it and see how it grows on you!

Mike B. (about me) (learning how to github)

Something tells me you probably have an original copy of the "Electric Guitar Amplifier Handbook" written by Jack Darr. I still have mine sitting in one of the bookcases in my office. Granted, we're a bit off topic here, but I would agree that the current supply of vacuum tubes leave much to be desired. In my view, the same applies to tube sockets as well. The other stuff like transformers (iron in general), resistors, capacitors, etc. are readily available, and in very high quality as well.

However, I've yet to experience a problem with Hydrogen Infiltration with any NOS tubes in my stash. I have tubes dating back to the late 20's into the late 80's. None have had any such issues. Granted, I lost a classic Mullard EL34 that was wrapped up some years ago... it just lost vacuum and the getter went white. Sadly, it was part of a matched quartet no less. But I have lots of 45, 2A3, 6B4G, 6550, KT-88, 6L6GB/GC, 5AR4/GZ34, etc. and hundreds of 7-pin and 9-pin miniatures... and they are still perfectly good. I've also experienced some terrible tubes with microphonics... old Globe type 45 DHTs are a good example, not to mention the recent EML45 reissue (not really a 45 in my book) are horrible, yet somehow get overly positive reviews.

Prices... well, even the recent Tung-Sol branded stuff from Russia has been pricey, same with everything else in current manufacture. However, you can buy NOS 6550 tubes (GE 6550A or Philips 6550) for $80 a bottle.

https://vacuumtubesinc.com/index.php/6550a-5137.html

Personally, I'd rather buy those than spend similar amounts on the new stuff. Fortunately, I'm well stocked for what I need for the forseeable future. But overall I agree... it's an expensive proposition to build custom gear for other people... an old buddy of mine was doing the same (also a master luthier building guitars) and stopped for similar reasons.

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Regards, KM
https://github.com/floobydust

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http://WilsonMinesCo.com/ lots of 6502 resources
The "second front page" is http://wilsonminesco.com/links.html .
What's an additional VIA among friends, anyhow?

Wife: "Cool! So... what's your goal?"

Me:

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Cheers
Troy

[My introduction]