I'm glad to see Commodore 128 Alive! again. On a related note, I just got my website up and running again. No forums, but some things the C128'er might find interesting are:
- BASIC Encyclopedia (https://www.hydrophilic.net/CBM/BASIC/keywords/keywords.html)
- BASIC 7.80 (https://www.hydrophilic.net/CBM/C128/BASIC_7.80.html) (graphics from BASIC now operate on 80-column)
- SAM 128 (https://www.hydrophilic.net/CBM/C128/SAM_128/SAM_128.html) (speech synthesizer)
Quote from: Hydrophilic on January 17, 2026, 01:51 PM- BASIC 7.80 (https://www.hydrophilic.net/CBM/C128/BASIC_7.80.html) (graphics from BASIC now operate on 80-column)
On a side note, the January 2026 of the new Compute!'s Gazette magazine has a review and comparison of several BASIC enhancements for the C64.
Hmm, how many were there for the C128? :)
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group - http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm
Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network - http://www.portcommodore.com/sccan
Quote from: Hydrophilic on January 17, 2026, 01:51 PMI'm glad to see Commodore 128 Alive! again. On a related note, I just got my website up and running again. No forums, but some things the C128'er might find interesting are:
- BASIC Encyclopedia (https://www.hydrophilic.net/CBM/BASIC/keywords/keywords.html)
- BASIC 7.80 (https://www.hydrophilic.net/CBM/C128/BASIC_7.80.html) (graphics from BASIC now operate on 80-column)
- SAM 128 (https://www.hydrophilic.net/CBM/C128/SAM_128/SAM_128.html) (speech synthesizer)
BASIC 7.80 looks interesting. A couple of notes:
- "Multi-color bitmap modes. The VDC can not display 4 colors in a single cell. You might be able to emulate this with interlace mode."
I recall BASIC 8 used dithering to simulate multi-color. Might be a possibility here, although likely complicated to implement.
- "Split-screen modes. The VDC does not have a raster interrupt. Should be possible with synchronized CIA interrupt."
The problem with doing that is CIA timers are run by the ~1 MHz I/O clock, which cannot be evenly divided to match either of the two possible VDC scan rates. So it would not be possible to generate evenly-spaced timer IRQs that follow the VDC scan rate. You'd have to configure the VIC to raster interrupt at the desired time, as well as the usual time, and wedge into the IRQ handler to trap the mid-screen interrupt. That, however, poses a synchronization issue, since the VDC dot clock is not related to the VIC's clock. While I may be wrong, I'm not seeing a workable solution for this.[/list]
Quote from: RobertB on January 21, 2026, 06:15 PMQuote from: Hydrophilic on January 17, 2026, 01:51 PM- BASIC 7.80 (https://www.hydrophilic.net/CBM/C128/BASIC_7.80.html) (graphics from BASIC now operate on 80-column)
On a side note, the January 2026 of the new Compute!'s Gazette magazine has a review and comparison of several BASIC enhancements for the C64.
Hmm, how many were there for the C128? :)
Other than BASIC 8, I can't think of any.
Ah-ha! By looking at https://telarity.com/~dan/cbm/languages.html , I also see MetaBASIC-128 and VDC BASIC, both for the C128.
Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group - http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm
Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network - http://www.portcommodore.com/sccan