Hello from Australia (Sydney)
Posted: Sun Jun 06, 2021 12:12 am
Thanks for letting me join the board!
My first computer was a Dick Smith Wizzard (which my poor old mum was talked into buying instead of a Vic 20 ) but because of having that computer and having to type in games from the books, I've been a programming (esp games) enthusiast ever since. CV isn't my favourite computer but is certainly a huge nostalgia item.
Sadly I sold my childhood Wiz for $20 in about 1999 - but have since acquired two more for reasonable prices, inc some nice boxed game.
I tried recently making an adapter to replace the keyboard with a PC AT keyboard (using arduino in the middle to do the hard work) - and always only got it 99% working, and have since given up, because got sick of damaging my test CV and having to repair it !
I've also made a development cart and can burn 8k bins onto an eprom for playing bins on a real Wizzard. The short version is I had a dead Sonic Invader, and it turns out it's just a 27c64 (very common 8k eprom) - so dead easy to socket that cart and bob's your uncle. I've actually burned a mouse puzzle bin onto a 27c64 and it works with a real wiz, which is very cool.
I mostly wanted to sign up to post about a game I wrote for CV in C and built with cc65, which was a real challenge since cc65 support for CV feels unfinished, and I had to do a lot of reading of the VDP manual just to figure out how to define chars and plot them on the screen in different colours, which in the end had to be done with pokes & inline ASM. I'll post about all of that in a separate thread, but really wonder if I'm the only person in the world to release a cartridge bin for CV written in C ! talk about code golf ...
I'd love to know/figure out how to run inline assembler from Basic, and also get sprites working in basic (a project I think I started tinkering with ...) I mean a better basic would be sweet. CV hard with IDE hard drive? hmmm. Actually the thing I disliked the most with wiz was the lack of a user port, but I bet that would be a doable project ... just hang a 6522 VIA (the IO chip used by vic20) or maybe another PIA off the cartridge port (have to make cartdige port expander first) .. and then get your CV to run your smart house
thanks everyone
Max
My first computer was a Dick Smith Wizzard (which my poor old mum was talked into buying instead of a Vic 20 ) but because of having that computer and having to type in games from the books, I've been a programming (esp games) enthusiast ever since. CV isn't my favourite computer but is certainly a huge nostalgia item.
Sadly I sold my childhood Wiz for $20 in about 1999 - but have since acquired two more for reasonable prices, inc some nice boxed game.
I tried recently making an adapter to replace the keyboard with a PC AT keyboard (using arduino in the middle to do the hard work) - and always only got it 99% working, and have since given up, because got sick of damaging my test CV and having to repair it !
I've also made a development cart and can burn 8k bins onto an eprom for playing bins on a real Wizzard. The short version is I had a dead Sonic Invader, and it turns out it's just a 27c64 (very common 8k eprom) - so dead easy to socket that cart and bob's your uncle. I've actually burned a mouse puzzle bin onto a 27c64 and it works with a real wiz, which is very cool.
I mostly wanted to sign up to post about a game I wrote for CV in C and built with cc65, which was a real challenge since cc65 support for CV feels unfinished, and I had to do a lot of reading of the VDP manual just to figure out how to define chars and plot them on the screen in different colours, which in the end had to be done with pokes & inline ASM. I'll post about all of that in a separate thread, but really wonder if I'm the only person in the world to release a cartridge bin for CV written in C ! talk about code golf ...
I'd love to know/figure out how to run inline assembler from Basic, and also get sprites working in basic (a project I think I started tinkering with ...) I mean a better basic would be sweet. CV hard with IDE hard drive? hmmm. Actually the thing I disliked the most with wiz was the lack of a user port, but I bet that would be a doable project ... just hang a 6522 VIA (the IO chip used by vic20) or maybe another PIA off the cartridge port (have to make cartdige port expander first) .. and then get your CV to run your smart house
thanks everyone
Max