Hello from Australia (Sydney)

[eggmceye]

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

[MADrigal]

Max
I'm very happy to have you here in this community - you are most welcome!
In relation to the keyboard replacement, there is a long discussion about it, right in this forum - there has been some progress in an identical project, you may want to exchange ideas with the team!
Also you will find more games developed in C and compiled with cc65, still in this forum!
The standard CV BASIC does not allow to create sprites or execute ASM. But you can do that with the CSL module that transforms the CV into an expanded Laser 2001. That's a fantastic development tool!

[cheshirenoir]

Welcome Max.
Your keyboard project sounds... familiar. A whole bunch of us here have been working on something similar here: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=313
(I've finally finished the SciFi convention I've spent 3 years working on, so I plan to pick this up again in the next few weeks again.)
The game looks great and it's impressive to see it fit in 8k.

Cheers!

Chesh

[Scouter3d]

Hi and welcome Max!

Our PS/2 to Creativision keyboardadapter is nearly finished :0) (final testing before a prototype PCB run...)

It is possible (but tricky) to use sprites and Assembler in CV Basic, i seem to remember a post from @username@, where he did exactly that => please browse thru the forum to find it... One interesting Tread is called "Sex with strings"

Cheers, TOM:0)

[eggmceye]

Thanks for the welcome.

Briefly on my keyboard thingy: I'll might write it up properly as a blog/forum post, but in the meantime, after having skimmed that thread, I realise that my project isn't even that useful since YOU CAN actually get DPST keyboard switches! I couldn't find them, and instead went on into making a completely over-engineered keyboard replacement

But because my keyboard replacement uses Adruino+digital logic to simulate keypresses, its one benefit is that it can actually be used to feed text (eg BASIC source listings) from your PC (which plugs into arduino via USB) into the CV, as if you typed them. But I only ever got it 99% working: there was, for whatever reason, at least one key that didn't work. And I gave up annoyed after having damaged my wiz a couple of times (probably from too much hotplugging).

Rather than feeding text via a keyboard replacement, I'd probably rather have a mechanical keyboard + use a basic to wav conversion and load basic off some modern tape replacement (which is dead easy, I have used a digital 8 track to save/load basic)

Max

[cheshirenoir]

I never got around to making the mechanical keyboard, unfortunately. Too many other projects going on.

Hopefully when Scouter3d releases his designs, there'll be code and schematics I can start with. I want to make a box (probably containing a Teensy) that'll take a PS/2 Keyboard and 2 Genesis/Megadrive controllers and completely bypass the original controllers.
I like having the system, but after about 5 minutes with those joysticks, my hands start to hurt

Chesh