6502.org

Hello everyone,

I live in The Netherlands and i'm 43 years old.

I was born in 1980 around the time some 6502 based computers came to marked. I did experience some of those 6502 based machines like the Commodore 64 and the NES but mostly for playing games on them. I was about 10 years old when my parents bought a Commodore 64 my father used it for his study at the time. Me and my brothers played a lot of games on it this sparked my interest for computers.

I wanted to develop games back then but as a 10 year old I was more interested in playing games and doing other things then in coding. When I needed to choose what I wanted to do after primary school I wanted to get into IT but my parents talked me out of it because I did not have good grades at school. They thought it wasn't a good career choice either because they thought a career in IT was only for the smartest people. I did not really know what to choose so I ended up in the army and later become a gardener for a while. When I was about 25 years I got into web design and web development as a hobby and when I was 30 years old I wanted to follow my passion so I went back to school to become a software engineer. And that is what I'm doing now for about 14 years.

My first lines of code where on the Commodore 64. I can't really remember what it was that I coded back then but I think it must have been a simple hello world program in Commodore Basic. I dit not code anything after that until I started coding when I was about 25.

As a software engineer I'm interested in everything about how computers work so I first started to learn programming but I also really wanted to know how a computer really works. At school we learned programming and how to create software but not how hardware works only on an abstract level. After some years working as a software engineer I really wanted to figure out how computers work and then I found Ben Eaters excellent video's. That is when I started playing around with electronics. I already had a Raspberry Pi and then bought some Arduino's to play around with Ben Eaters video's on networking between two Arduino's. Later I followed his video's on the breadboard computer and finally on his 6502 based computer.

Now I want to build my own 6502 based computer. I have this crazy idea to build a computer like the early days with an integrated keyboard, controller ports and some sort of video output. It will be quite a challenge as i'm just an electronics hobbyist. I already have most of the parts but I need to figure out how to make it all work and that is why I'm here.

As it will take some time to build my 'dream machine' I wanted have something to play with in the mean time and gain some experience programming in 6502 assembly. So I bought an W65C265SXB SBC (I know it is not a real 6502 computer but I should be able to use 6502 emulation mode). While playing with the W65C265SXB also brought up some questions so you will here from me on that as well.

Welcome! And thanks for sharing your story.

Thank you BigEd

My name's Zach, and I am still a student, going for a BS in EE.

I would say my fascination was started with the NES, especially since our family still had one growing up. Curiosity with it led to me trying to learn more about it, interested how it worked electrically, eventually spiraling into my interest in both EE and the 6502.

Later, Ben Eater's series caught my attention, only strengthening this interest.

That's about all, I thank all of the 6502.org forum for helping me through the troubleshooting needs I've had, even as just an observer.

Thanks!

Greetings and welcome!

Neil

Hi.. This is more of a re-re-introduction, as many years have passed since my last post, so I thought it would be more polite to say something here before start posting away...

Anyway, here are a few things about me: I'm from southern Spain, 54, IT Teacher in a Vocational High School. I generally like "classic technology". My first computer was a Sinclair ZX Spectrum, then an Atari ST, then Macs all the way... although I'm also a Linux user (especially at work).

But I'm not back here with "empty hands"... after so many years of learning, especially from this group and its amazing resources (thanks again!), I eventually was able to create Durango-X, a "fully-fledged" 6502 computer! Today's advantage of having professionally made PCBs for a song has been really helpful. This means I also revisited an old design of mine, Chihuahua, which can be thought of as an old-style Arduino of sorts. But I think I'll talk about my machines on separate threads, as well as about the needed software.

I'm really glad to be here again, and I really hope to keep in touch with all you from now on. See you soon!

Welcome back! I hope you create a thread for your creations!

Hi everyone, I'm Rickey! Big fan of retro-computing and particularly fascinated by the 6502. I recently got my hands on an old Commodore 64, which I plan to restore and tweak. I'm still learning the 6502 assembler, but I'm looking forward to exchanging with you, learning and sharing some DIY projects. I'm glad to be joining such sharp enthusiasts!

Welcome, Rickey!

Neil

Rich here! (Name only!)
I was born and lived a good part of my life on Long Island, NY. I got a chance to learn Electronics Tech at Suburban Technical School, and FWIW, graduated at the top of my class. I guess being in my 30s gave me impetus!
At that point, I had 2 computers: a TS-1000 and a CoCo 2. I was spending break time fooling with Z-80 assembler code (the only way to get the TS-1000 to be more than Turtle Slow) when one of the engineers saw what I was doing. He grabbed me up, and that was my introduction to the 8085.

Over the years at my jobs, I've worked with the 8085, 8051 family, COP-8 family, and the N/S 16083. On my own, I've played with the Z-80,
6502, 8073, 6805, Parallax Propeller & BASIC Stamp, AVR 328, and the M16C. It has been fun!

I retired and moved to North Carolina about a decade ago. My lovely wife and I live just beyond the boonies: find Winston-Salem, head north to just south of the VA border, and there we are.

--Rich

Welcome!