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Offline nicholas

Re: C64 Basic Upgrade
« Reply #14 on: March 21, 2013, 04:37:28 PM »
Quote from: Darrin;729948
Damn, it really bugs me to find out that computer classes have been dumbed down to that sort of level.  Computer Science was about programming and hardware in my day.  If you wanted to know about Excel and Word then you had to sit in the typing classes with the girls!

One thing that did upset us computer geeks was when they replaced our two Research Machines 380Z machines with 3 brand new BBC Model B computers (for 25 of us to use)... and replaced the 15 manual typewriters in the typing class with 15 BBC Model B computers!

I think my worst memory was having to flowchart my A Level project.  I know the flowchart was worth 5% of the exam total, but I'm sure as hell certain that nobody waded through my sheets of paper to see if it was correct.

I remember the 380Z at primary school fondly. They used to drag it into the classroom on a big trolley twice a week.

The thing looked like a tank! :)

The thing that pissed me off the most is that the kids in the year above me were the last year that did CS. I spent many an hour in the maths lab during lunch playing around with their Model B's and a couple of Masters.  They even had an old PET in there too.

I spent even more time in the music suite when they installed the STe and the A500 though. :)
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Offline Darrin

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Re: C64 Basic Upgrade
« Reply #15 on: March 21, 2013, 06:41:51 PM »
The 380Z was a brick outhouse.  :-)

I still recall having to insert a disk to boot into CP/M and then inserting another one to boot into BASIC.  We had 2 models.  The newer one had a nice feature that would "slow scroll" your program if you hit a key combination.
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Offline nicholas

Re: C64 Basic Upgrade
« Reply #16 on: March 21, 2013, 08:40:22 PM »
Quote from: Darrin;729955
The 380Z was a brick outhouse.  :-)

I still recall having to insert a disk to boot into CP/M and then inserting another one to boot into BASIC.  We had 2 models.  The newer one had a nice feature that would "slow scroll" your program if you hit a key combination.


If memory serves me correctly the version we had at school used 8 inch floppy disks.
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Offline Darrin

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Re: C64 Basic Upgrade
« Reply #17 on: March 22, 2013, 12:58:41 AM »
Quote from: nicholas;729964
If memory serves me correctly the version we had at school used 8 inch floppy disks.


Ours had 5.25" disks.  The older one had a B&W monitor and the new one a nice green screen display.  Sat in the corner was the old teletype they replaced.  I'm glad I wasn't around for that.
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Offline nicholas

Re: C64 Basic Upgrade
« Reply #18 on: March 22, 2013, 09:19:10 AM »
Quote from: Darrin;729985
Ours had 5.25" disks.  The older one had a B&W monitor and the new one a nice green screen display.  Sat in the corner was the old teletype they replaced.  I'm glad I wasn't around for that.


Ooh nasty stuff, coupled up to a remote punch card Redding machine was it?

I could be remembering ours wrong, 87 was a long time ago, it might have had 5.25" disks.
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Offline trekiejTopic starter

Re: C64 Basic Upgrade
« Reply #19 on: March 26, 2013, 01:44:12 AM »
My heart goes out to the Plus/4 but a Basic upgrade for the C64 would have been a better computer. The Plus/4 has Basic 3.5 and the C128 had the 7.0 Basic.
I have the Super Expander on Vice X64 and maybe Simons Basic. I hear that Simons has more memory.
how does Jiffy Dos compare. I guess is gives the C64 better Algorithms for faster disk access ,etc.
Later.
edit
thanks for the links
« Last Edit: March 26, 2013, 01:48:41 AM by trekiej »
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Offline RobertB

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Re: C64 Basic Upgrade
« Reply #20 on: March 26, 2013, 05:43:28 AM »
Quote from: trekiej;730368
I have the Super Expander on Vice X64 and maybe Simons Basic. I hear that Simons has more memory.

Don't forget about Tuned Simons Basic (TSB) which corrects the errors of the original and also gives more commands.  A link for TSB is at

http://rsp.retrocomputacion.com/basic-expansions-and-variants-commodore/

At that webpage above, the relatively new DotBASIC is listed there.  DotBASIC is a very capable BASIC extension.  The official DotBASIC webpage is at

http://dotbasic.cbm8bit.com/about.html

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Offline Jiffy

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Re: C64 Basic Upgrade
« Reply #21 on: March 26, 2013, 07:14:14 AM »
Quote from: trekiej;730368

how does Jiffy Dos compare.

It doesn't. Jiffy DOS is a dos wedge, with fast disk routines and only some minor basic additions, none of them aimed at sound or graphics.
Life sucks. Then you die. Then they throw mud in your face. Then you get eaten by worms. Be happy it happens in that order... My Amiga 1200
 

Offline nicholas

Re: C64 Basic Upgrade
« Reply #22 on: March 26, 2013, 01:08:46 PM »
Quote from: trekiej;730368
My heart goes out to the Plus/4 but a Basic upgrade for the C64 would have been a better computer. The Plus/4 has Basic 3.5 and the C128 had the 7.0 Basic.
I have the Super Expander on Vice X64 and maybe Simons Basic. I hear that Simons has more memory.
how does Jiffy Dos compare. I guess is gives the C64 better Algorithms for faster disk access ,etc.
Later.
edit
thanks for the links

The Plus/4 was my first computer back in 88, I have such fond memories of it.

If CBM had put a SID chip on the motherboard it would have been a much better machine than the c64 I reckon.

It still has an active demoscene with some pretty nice releases.
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Offline Linde

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Re: C64 Basic Upgrade
« Reply #23 on: March 26, 2013, 01:29:40 PM »
Did the Plus/4 even have hardware sprites? It's pretty neat, but I think hardware sprites would have been more of an upgrade than a SID chip. There were of course SID expansions for the Plus/4 anyway.
 

Offline nicholas

Re: C64 Basic Upgrade
« Reply #24 on: March 26, 2013, 01:46:42 PM »
Quote from: Linde;730397
Did the Plus/4 even have hardware sprites?

No, but it had 60k of accessible RAM and could display 128 colours onscreen. The c64 had less than 40k of usable RAM and 16 colours so it's a fair trade. :)

edit: Faster CPU, serial port and floppy drive too.

Quote
It's pretty neat, but I think hardware sprites would have been more of an upgrade than a SID chip. There were of course SID expansions for the Plus/4 anyway.
Yeah, there are quite a few demos that use them.
« Last Edit: March 26, 2013, 01:53:16 PM by nicholas »
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Offline trekiejTopic starter

Re: C64 Basic Upgrade
« Reply #25 on: March 26, 2013, 07:13:37 PM »
I got a text file for the C64 Super Expander and I like it better than Simons Basic.
I could not get Sim' Basic to go into high res. I do not know how to run it well I guess.
I guess there is no replacement rom for the C64 to give it a better version of Basic.
A cartridge with a better basic and more memory would be great. (128k)
Later.
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Offline Nostalgiac

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Re: C64 Basic Upgrade
« Reply #26 on: March 26, 2013, 07:54:00 PM »
I'm sorry I can't remember the name, but 64'er (german mag) published a basic extension that provided something invaluable at the time: a way to store arrays in the memory under the roms, thereby extending or in fact nearly doubling working memory.

For me, that was a killer extension at the time !

Tom UK
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Offline trekiejTopic starter

Re: C64 Basic Upgrade
« Reply #27 on: March 26, 2013, 08:06:24 PM »
Interesting.
An REU with a rom socket and/or cart. port would be cool.
I think CMD had a socket for rom/ram.
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Offline trekiejTopic starter

Re: C64 Basic Upgrade
« Reply #28 on: March 28, 2013, 08:29:39 PM »
Solution:
A Basic Compiler on disk.
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Offline nicholas

Re: C64 Basic Upgrade
« Reply #29 from previous page: March 28, 2013, 09:26:05 PM »
Quote from: trekiej;730655
Solution:
A C compiler on disk.


FTFY. Basic is for 10yr olds. ;)
“Een rezhim-i eshghalgar-i Quds bayad az sahneh-i ruzgar mahv shaved.” - Imam Ayatollah Sayyed  Ruhollah Khomeini