C=Hacking

Issue 3 (July 15th, 1992)

Table of Contents

Learning ML - Part 3

In this edition we take a look at reading and writing commands to the disk
drive, including reading the disk directory and error channel. This article
parallels the discussion of the C=128 and C=64 KERNAL jump tables of available
routines.

Craig Taylor

The Demo Corner: Missing Cycles

Everybody knows that there are 63 cycles available to the C64 processor
on each scan line, except for one which only provides 23 cycles. But what
happens when we add sprites and why ?

Pasi Ojala

Kernal 64 / 128

The C=128 and C=64 jump table points to many valuable system routines is
discussed and examined in detail.

Craig Taylor

64K VDC RAM and an alternate GEOS128 Background Screen

Standard GEOS only uses the first 16K of your VDC screen. If you have 64K
of VDC RAM, and want to write an 80-column only application, you can put some
of the additional VDC RAM to use as a replacement for the standard GEOS
background screen. And, in the bargain, you get an additional 16K of
application FrontRAM to use!

Robert A. Knop Jr.

GeoPaint File Format

This article provides an in depth description of exactly how geoPaint stores its graphic images on disk. It examines the concept of VLIR files, how graphics data is laid out on screen (from both geoPaint and the VIC's perspective), and geoPaint's graphics compression techniques.

Bruce Vrieling

Rasters - What They Are and How to Use Them

This article provides an introduction to creating special on-screen effects using the technique of raster interrupts. The basics are examined, including what they are, and how to program them. This article should provide a good starting point for someone wanting to get their feet wet in raster programming.

Bruce Vrieling

BURSTING YOUR 128: THE FASTLOAD BURST COMMAND

This article covers the Fastload burst command of the 1571 and 1581 disk drives. The Fastload command operation and protocol are discussed and a package for using the Fastload command to read regular sequential files at binary program loading speeds is presented. To demonstrate the package, a file word counting utility is implemented and the "commented" code is included.

Craig S. Bruce

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