Commander X16

Hello! I recently discovered David's channel on YouTube (the making of videos for Plant X2 and then Planet X3) and following the trail led me to the discovery of Commander X16 (and the vintage computers in general). India was nowhere around on the tech map when these early machines came out (I think the first personal computers here would have been the DOS-based machines in the early 90s, I could be wrong though.) I am finding myself drawn tho the project, and looking forward to being part of the KS when it launches!

On a side note, I want to develop a video game, a metrodivania to be precise. I have no exposure to making games, and though I have tried to look into Godot, Unity etc as starting points, the attempts have been abortive. I want to start off with a game for the X16 - the constraints imposed by the hardware and memory could actually benefit me since the ecosystem could be comparatively easier to understand (I think!). I am reading up on this, and I realise I can either work in BASIC or Assembly -- what should I choose, considering I will be starting from zero on either?

Thanks!

2 hours ago, desvox said:

I realise I can either work in BASIC or Assembly -- what should I choose, considering I will be starting from zero on either?

C is also an option - Some are using cc65 to build binaries for the Commander X16.  Note that I personally have zero experience with this, but it's a tool that continues to evolve.

Namaste [emoji120] I spent some time doing some charity work in a small village east of New Delhi many years ago and traveled all the way up to Jim Corbett park and the Himalayas. Yours is a fascinating and cultured country!   

C is also an option - Some are using cc65 to build binaries for the Commander X16.  Note that I personally have zero experience with this, but it's a tool that continues to evolve.

Thank you, I will check this out.


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Namaste [emoji120] I spent some time doing some charity work in a small village east of New Delhi many years ago and traveled all the way up to Jim Corbett park and the Himalayas. Yours is a fascinating and cultured country!
 
 

Thank you, you’re very kind. The region around Jim Corbett is really beautiful, and the wildlife is amazing -especially the famously elusive tigers! [emoji2] Hope you were able to see one out in the wild!


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I certainly did and it was pretty amazing! [emoji234]

On 8/30/2020 at 9:00 AM, desvox said:

... I realise I can either work in BASIC or Assembly -- what should I choose, considering I will be starting from zero on either?



Thanks!

Namaskaram!  As mentioned above, the C cross-compiler is also an option (cc65 can also assemble 6502 assembly). 

Even though I'm comfortable in C, I've found that I'm prototyping on the X16 in BASIC, then "uplifting" some of that code into 6502 assembly.   

For the X16, I write bits of interpreters using C, but haven't produced anything interesting yet.  It seems that whenever I think about doing that, I end up writing BASIC + assembly language instead.  This is one reason I await a "structured BASIC" for the X16.

 

16 hours ago, rje said:

Namaskaram!  As mentioned above, the C cross-compiler is also an option (cc65 can also assemble 6502 assembly). 



Even though I'm comfortable in C, I've found that I'm prototyping on the X16 in BASIC, then "uplifting" some of that code into 6502 assembly.   



For the X16, I write bits of interpreters using C, but haven't produced anything interesting yet.  It seems that whenever I think about doing that, I end up writing BASIC + assembly language instead.  This is one reason I await a "structured BASIC" for the X16.



 

Namaskaram! 

Thank you, this gives me some food for thought. I am coming from a space where I am trying to make a decision on what I should learn to get started in game dev - made a detailed post about this here. Would be great to get inputs on this!