BASIC in 2020 - DIY microcomputer w/ early 90's graphics - Colour MaxiMite 2 (build/test)

[@bamdadkhan]

don't wanna nag but you still alive mate? miss your content.. always makes me feel like i'm back in the '90s but in a good way..

[@dettenavn7652]

He is semi active on twitter at ctrix64

[@bamdadkhan]

@@dettenavn7652 good to know, thanks for the info : )

[@rickjames3034]

top notch content, youre an absolute legend mate

[@squirlmy]

He's a brick.. Howwwwse! Sorry. Obligatory Rick James joke!

[@stefankrause5138]

I said: "Do you speak BASIC-language?", and he just smiled and showed me MaxiMite-Assembly." And he said: "I come from a land down under..."

[@CommodoreGreg]

Ha!!!!

[@Kylefassbinderful]

I just love how fast it runs basic. i would've killed for this when I was a kid in 80's

[@antonnym214]

I started coding in BASIC on the TRS-80 in 1977 and went to z-80 and 8080 assembly, APL, Pascal, and a few other languages, even coding professionally on the Control Data Corp. Cyber mainframes later; but have a special love for interpreted BASIC. Super impressive and hyper-interesting. Thank 8-Bit Guy for sending me here. I LOVE your work and video and appreciate all of it. I immediately subscribed! Keep it coming!

[@DrSpring]

The only build video I have watched without forwarding through in a long time. Great mix of hardware and software design knowledge. Seeing the sourcing of parts - as well as diversity of manufacturer sourcing - was also really nice.

[@Miscast]

This channel is fantastic, your charisma is incredible, I understand nothing, but I can't look away!

[@Duncanlance]

Damn you should have done all the music for all the games back in the days haha absolutely awesome

[@TheSulross]

Amiga-like 16-bit 2D graphics married to high-level, interpreted BASIC as primary programming language - pretty much the wet dream of a 1980s home computer enthusiasts. Just took over 30 years to finally see it realized

[@_Helm_]

You are a lovely person with a great energy you're bringing to your audience. Thank you for doing this thing, this way you're doing it. It's appreciated!

[@williammanganaro9070]

Love the Colour Maximite 1 and now this Maximite 2 just blows me away !! Just ordered up 25 main boards and will most likely be offering kits state side as I do with the Maximite 1. Love your demo, pure brilliance. Love your work.

[@jamesbrowning1535]

I loved Nerding out on this for 18+ Minutes, Thank you!

[@grahamlewis6777]

Fantastic video! I admire the effort in building the device and coding on it, the snappy editing and entertaining narrative as well as the summary at the end. Really well done.

[@andreaswheeler]

i think about 11mins in, that did it for me, when you smiled at the machine booting up, that was gold, just gold.

[@AntonioBarba_TheKaneB]

Why aren't you more popular on youtube? where are the 5 milion subscribers you deserve? top notch content mate!

[@nataliapockets]

this is so cool. would love to see some more content of yours :)

[@john849ww]

11:31 the sound test reminds me of Boulder Dash for the Commodore 64. Thanks for the interesting and educational video!

[@Flavorwave_Turbo]

Thank you for how much effort you put into your videos, it pays off! Intelligent, educational, creative I first came here for chiptunes synth style goodness-- stayed for the education on vintage computing.

[@Mosfet510]

Oh, I'm interested in this! I miss the days when all you had to do was put a basic cartridge in and it booted in seconds. It was fun to type a program in and see it work. Personally, I think it's the best way to get people, especially kids, interested in programming. Great video.

[@MarblesLovesYou]

You good bro? Miss ya.

[@thatstupiddawg5989]

How have youve been did u move channels? I hope ur ok

[@964tractorboy]

A knockout video for someone who missed all the BASIC gaming (me). Thanks for all the effort to make the video so compelling.

[@conradhendricks177]

11:07 The colours in the colour mode test are so vibrant!

[@darthphysics]

That's a great introduction to the CMM2 ;) , very good job done from Geoff and Peter !

[@frogringtone]

where did you go?

[@willyarma_uk]

Brilliant video! Thanks. This thing looks amazing! Nice production too.

[@gabor222]

8:39 Those DAC ladders remind me the AT-286 era when we were building similar DACs to the parallel ports of our PCs to play music with ModTracker.

[@horusfalcon]

I have a RetroMax (a US clone of the CMM2), and it's a hoot to work with. It doesn't hurt knowing that this thing will run MMBASIC faster than a C64 or Apple II will run machine code. Thanks for covering this piece of revolutionary retro hardware.

[@DodgaOfficial]

I remember programming in qbasic, I absolutely loved it, my first introduction to programming and had me hooked for life

[@LittleRichard1988]

A trip down memory lane is the perfect way to spend your time in isolation ( another bonus is not having to get up early to go to school or go to work! so you can stay up as late as you like! ). It's cool to see a 16 bit computer that was built in 2020 although 2020 feels like we have gone back to 1990. In a sense older computers were more advanced in that you had to understand programming to get them to work.

[@scottjacko87]

This is exciting. My brother and I have been after something like this for a long time. Awesome stuff! :D

[@Tarodenaro]

You did good on audio; i can almost hear no level difference throughout the video. Also, very smooth ducking.

[@amnesie6615]

This is so freaking amazing! I order mine instantly (no problem with the gerbers)! I really hope that, a lot of people will code some cool stuff! WOW!

[@johannesdolch]

Great Video. Also lucky 4 people who got basically a part kit readily assembled including the PCBs. Great job.

[@thespacecatjenkins8539]

Came here from 8-Bit Guy. AWESOME CHANNEL!!!!

[@Darfk]

Jimage bought the parts! Can't wait to see his BASIC programs, gonna be wild.

[@CTRIX64]

It'll be extra entertaining for sure! Esp if the NSW crew still can't make it to Syntax hahaha. (pretty sure they'd all feature - this thing does cut-out heads super well)

[@Papatabb69]

Amazing quality video as usual, really well done man. Cheers 🍻

[@patbreen3859]

Great content. I ordered one these a few weeks ago, and now watching this video, I cant wait to get my hands on it!

[@FintanMoloney]

This is an awesome piece of kit

[@OzRetrocomp]

"Shut up and take my money!" - me after watching this video Can't wait until the Colour Maximite 2 is officially released in kit form.

[@josephkarl2061]

Me too 👌

[@berighteous]

I want one assembled. Rather be programming than soldering

[@josephkarl2061]

@@berighteous That's what I'll be doing. There's a company in New Zealand called Rictech who sell them completed, and sometime this year I'll be buying one. The thing I have to work out is finding a case for it, but I have a bit of time to do this.

[@psteier]

But where to buy (in europe), any hint for me?

[@borispiwowarsky1165]

@@psteier Try www.micromite.org , they do have both the Kit and a fully assembled Version available on Backorder.

[@yannmassard3970]

it s hard to tell how powerfull this device is. But made with an HDMI output, with a smaller factor and various code languages (assembly, basic and C++) this would find a HUGE audience. Both for programmers and gamers.

[@paulstubbs7678]

There is apparently licensing issues with using HDMI, according to the designers.

[@Shawnsteroz]

Mr cTrix if you can produce the most amazing programs in a few days, then I have high hopes this product will become very popular. I like the MiSTer FPGA, its a great product but is perhaps a bit pricey (~$550AUD) for all but the most keen hobbyists. Plus you mentioned the IO port and all the great features there as well. I am keen to reconnect with BASIC after 35yrs so I will be getting one, prob when they are released as a kit. Great Video Btw.

[@danield.7359]

3 days for all that content? You're fast!

[@bubblehead78]

@11:48 in the code comment - "Hammer F4 twice to return to editor" - Hilarious! I love it.

[@undercrackers56]

Great video, but as someone who started programming in 1970's (8-bit micros up to ICL 2966 mainframe) allow me to set the record straight. Early domestic computers were 8-bit CPUs running at merge clock speeds such as 1 or 2 MHz. The BASIC language pre-dates these domestic computers. The implementation of BASIC on early domestic computers was quite crude. The program was stored as seen on the screen (character by character) and then run by an interpreter. Thus the CPU had to both interpret the program and run it. The BBC micro was an advancement in that it tokenized the BASIC language. This reduced program storage and reduced the overheads of the interpreter. The Acorn (Atom, BBC and Electron) computers also allowed Assembler to be mixed with BASIC to provide maximum speed when needed. Programs written in BASIC and then COMPILED will run just as fast as any other compiled language such as C or C++ (although the language structures might enable subtle performance advantages.) The point being that the poor performance was not the fault of BASIC but the way in which the language was implemented on very modest hardware.

[@basicforge]

Some optimizations of trading space for speed could have used to make BASIC faster on these charming old 8-bitters, but there isn't much memory to work with. These days it matters a lot less. BASIC doesn't need to be so fast because the computers are much, much faster and have more memory. But of course what BASIC did need is features of structure and modularity, and modern BASIC implementations do have these features. ;)

[@DeanEvolved]

Thanks for such an interesting and well made video!

[@berighteous]

I have a Colour Maximite 2! Came in the mail today from New Zealand. I'm going to try porting one of my old pc games to it.

[@reggiep75]

I remember programming on a BBC Master and then later on an Acorn Electron. BBC BASIC was probably one of the best BASIC's around (said with a gauged amount of bias ;-D) but I'd recommend that in a flash to anyone looking back with a vision to enjoying the genuine feeling of programming something and enjoying it. There are loads of resources around and you can even run a lot of them thru a browser too for instant access. I am enjoying seeing modern times 8-bit retro computer construction and programming having done this 30-35 years ago.. 30-35 years ago makes me sound way old but I can assure I'm still as stupid and puerile as ever!

[@FunnyHaHa420]

I loved Commodore BASIC. I remember that exact maze game. There were several excellent compilers for the C=64 that would make BASIC programs into a game that would run almost as fast as ML programs. I had several games on QLink.

[@HamsterSnr]

Good presentation. For the build I would feedback supplying a board that already has that big connector factory soldered and maybe smd components for the video DAC. The kind of people who would buy these want to spend more time programming and less time making messy soldering jobs. Not everyone is good at soldering and an overly complicated soldering job could kill motivation if the result does not work.

[@markanne54]

Used to love GFA Basic on the Atari ST. It would run superfast in interpreted mode but if that wasn't fast enough it had a full blown compiler to create machine code that ran pretty much as fast as assembler. Wonderful days. I miss them.

[@darenager]

Great video, a Tracker on this could be great fun, especially with the GPIO to interface with other gear and controls.

[@projectmanagement2356]

Dude the 3 speaker stereo on your shirt... I built one on my channel

[@ryzmaker11]

This sounds awesome man and was so cool to see how this turned out @12:56 or 15:16. Personally what I'd LOVE to create is what would be an equivalent to a Sega Mark VI, if that ever existed. Basically a Mega Drive II (not the cost reduced model that we know but an actual successor). For me the Mega Drive was the pinnacle of 16-bit aesthetic (most games in 320x224 pixels, great color selection, powerful sprite and scrolling capabilities...) and games like Sonic 2, Thunder Force IV, Mega Turrican or Batman & Robin - among many others - are on a league of their own. Now imagine a Mega Drive II (that could be called an "Ultra Drive") with something like a 68030 CPU, improved resolution/color/sprite/scrolling capabilities, full hardware support (sprites and background) for scaling/rotation/transparency effects, a YM2151 + a AY-3-8910 for the sound (which would be the perfect evolution for the already fantastic YM2612 + SN76496 combo) and still controlled by a Z80 but clocked higher... This would be a dream to design and commercialize such a console, that would feel fresh, still with a distinctive flavor thanx to the vintage FM and PSG sound signatures and that I'd make the most developer-friendly possible so many people would enjoy creating games or demos for it... =D

[@CTRIX64]

Would be super fun! 68030 is a great processor (I have one in my Amiga). Although the overhead if you wanted to reach those equivalent levels in BASIC would be a little higher. (it's already using STM32H750, one of the fastest in the series) But a newer Cortex could come out in a few years and lead to a version 3 of the box. But then, if you want to start hitting up more complex layering, etc, you might start to struggle using BASIC. Certainly for 3D, etc, you are looking at more tool-assisted coding and world builders. This box is almost at it's limits to what you'd want to do in BASIC. Although you can never have enough layers and sprites ;-)

[@kalaherty]

Erg... I love coding for really limited systems, but I don't think I could handle BASIC again. Part of me really wants one, but it would just distract me from my current projects. It looks like so much fun though. Great video :)

[@Shawnsteroz]

Just got around to building mine, 2hrs of soldering and then nothing. I just checked and the Waveshare board was thankfully set to OFF, so switching it to 5V and it works first time (excl the first ). I just now have to flash the firmware, so I can run some of these new MM2 programs (Gauntlet!!)

[@EAB311]

Great content! Love the enthusiasm - makes me want to pick up programming again.

[@ablearcher2753]

I totally love it! I used to have a 386-DX 40 with 1MB RAM and a 42MB HDD (which was kinda overkill in 1988/89) and I've seen way worse graphics than that under DOS. I am very much looking forward to any music related things like some proper vintage tracker as this is my thing.

[@mariotherealg]

Same as me but 78MB using stacker :p

[@maxabeles]

Where you at CTrix?? You're the man.

[@TheSulross]

Vast majority these days think of computers being so technically arcane that only dedicated professionals are going to be the ones that write the games. This computer truly realizes that potential of making it possible for anyone to become a game developer, as BASIC is super easy to learn, and there will be example programs to learn techniques that will go into the making of a real game. This is the vision that people really had for personal computing at the onset of the micro computer revolution in the late 70s, early 80s - that the simple language BASIC would completely democratize software creation. It only partially realized that goal - in the end it wasn't able to compete with compiled languages like C. Now the hardware makes up the difference - at least for Amiga-like 16 bit, 2D graphics genre of games.

[@VandalIO]

WOAH !!! .. I am glad i stumbled upon your channel , I am in australia too...

[@derFleder]

Just a tip, you can take a look at tayda electronics. Cheap postage and shipping is really fast for Asian stores. I use it all the time. Minimum order quantities, but cheaper.

[@blackterminal]

I would love to see this built into a keyboard for that authentic feel. Thank you for the video

[@rootbeer666]

If you have 16-bit color registers I prefer 15-bit DAC with an extra bit of intensity (drives LSB of all DAC color channels). This gives you real grays, and an extra step in the grayscale.

[@williamvanbuskirk2767]

Ordered a Waveshare brd straight away! will have to mull over the board fab. But yea, this is a promising platform, would love to see a LSDJ/LGPTish for it nudge, nudge. Will be investigating some uses for the GPIO, thinking some AY love... And it's not 'TOO fast' , I've spent lots of time on my Atari800, (since '84), C64, and CoCO and never got the results I just watched.

[@shinyshadow]

What was the software used to program the STM board.. Have been to Geoff's website to get the gerber files but there is only the motherboard there not the STM board, pitty, would have been nice to make.. maybe next year when its a bit more grounded.

[@da1otta]

Wow! Amazing project, mate!

[@RobertLock1978]

Neat looking machine - great video.

[@Movie2207]

It's like the commander x16, but its available to everyone now!!!

[@nowt835]

Absolutely brilliant stuff! More videos like this - truly inspiring 👍

[@user-yr1uq1qe6y]

I’m curious if there is an image for the Raspberry Pi platform that would boot into a similar BASIC environment.

[@paulstubbs7678]

Not sure about an image as such, the graphics etc will need some re-writing, but otherwise a brilliant idea. Usually the source code for the Maximites is released, so someone with R-Pi bare metal knowledge should be able to knock up something fairly easily.

[@Greebece]

Loving these videos!!! Keep it up, informative for the youth!!

[@SeverityOne]

This would be an ideal use for the Raspberry Pi Compute Module. It's a tiny SO-DIMM sized card that goes into a slot on a carrier board. I actually have such a board - from Waveshare. I'm looking into how I could perhaps such a board myself, not sure yet for what purpose.

[@lambdas]

Try a RaspBerry PI (even model 1 does it) with RiscOS Pico to program in BBC Basic on streroids. Full HD support, 256 colors and extremely fast. www.riscosopen.org/wiki/documentation/show/Software%20information:%20RaspberryPi:%20RC5%20RISC%20OS%20Pico

[@GeorgesChannel]

This is really a great computer! Thank you for this wonderful video!

[@codebeat4192]

Next a C/C++ version of it or a PHP version or a Node.js version with server posibilities. Never used basic because I never used it, the 'language' and 'logic' is so different. Subscribed! Because it is a very entertaining video.

[@DanafoxyVixen]

"Next a C/C++ version of it or a PHP version or a Node.js version with server posibilities. " ...talk about missing the point of the maximite computers..

[@chromosundrift]

Fantastic work mate. Not that it makes up for Syntax being postponed :( Keep the videos coming!

[@scifu7e91]

Pretty cool and nice work 👏. Good luck, have fun with everything that you do and enjoy the days 👋😀🍹

[@Vermilicious]

Seems impressive for something running basic.

[@DaveShotYaDSY]

You probably won't see this but at the slight chance that you do, PLEASE drop a list of music/release music that you use in your videos. It's actually amazing and I'm definitely not the only person who wants to hear more. The track at 3:02 is crazy, and all of the music in your Amiga Samplers vid was superb.

[@summerlaverdure]

finally someone COOL showing this off

[@scarlettekk]

And when the world needed him most, he disappeared -

[@manical90]

There's a term called "un-disappearing" -me

[@zemariagp]

No doubt in my mind that you’re a great sport! Congrats

[@MoveSystems1]

Wow this machine is very impressive, Wait till you see our RetroPC1010 machine in action which is in development at the moment. So the computer wars are coming back lol. So at the moment to my knowledge we have the Mega65, C256 Feonix, Spectrum NEXT, Commander 16 and now the MaxiMite 2 oh and our machine the RetroPC1010 personal Computer. Will we ALL have a bouncing soccer ball on the screen? lol. :)

[@BrunoKramm]

I ordered mine, cant wait to create cool synth Controller with all the sensor opportunities

[@Darphi01]

That was great. I can't wait to build on 😁

[@LenHarms]

This seems like a great idea for a school to adopt for a technology class project.

[@JeffreyBaitis]

Really enjoyed this video. Honestly, one of the best things about this production is the music. Would love some links / credits!

[@JeffreyBaitis]

Ooh! Found you on Spotify...

[@JustWasted3HoursHere]

From your video description: "The BASIC is still just-about-slow-enough that you have to work within a SNES / Megadrive (looking) limit, but that is a fun limit to work with and causes the programmer to write some legitimate looking and feeling retro-games / demos." I agree with this statement 100%, even though it may seem counter intuitive to some: Limitations are actually a GOOD thing if you want to make games that are fun to play. The really good games throughout the years have not all had great graphics. In fact some of them were pretty crappy ("Adventure" on the Atari 2600, for example), but we still had loads of fun playing them, didn't we? Having limitations requires the programmer to REALLY spend time on game play, which is the whole point of making a game!

[@paulstubbs7678]

No, you didn't miss basic gaming, back then basic was generally not up to the job, it's only now that you can do this stuff with basic. 99% of games 'back then' were written in assembly language. My TRS-80 from back than has a 1.77MHz 8 bit CPU, the Colour Maximite runs at 480MHz, with a 32bit chip, way more powerful. I'm almost tempted to say one could write a Z80/6502 emulator in CMM2 basic and it could then emulate an early 8 bitter.

[@wigrysystems]

Hmm STM32H743. Pretty sweet MCU which has a ton of power and lots of goodies inside. Well couldn't resist because I've done quite a bit of bare metal development (basically writing my own custom firmware) and I get all too exited when I see such a microcontroller. Imagine the possibilities of inputs (ADC data from all sorts of sensors) outputs (PWM can control all kinds of motors and lights and voltages and what not) and communications (I2C, SPI, UART and what not). But of course the whole value of this particular computer is the provided firmware containing the Basic and other goodies. I believe, the bare bones hardware with JTAG debugger would not be all too attractive as you would have to start from scratch and writing your own firmware would be way too time consuming, let alone way above the heads of most of us. But trust me - playing around with bare metal development with oscilloscope is almost as fun as programming audio and graphics in BASIC.

[@aquaferme1346]

I own an original color maximite, was into automation, controling relays and reading sensors for an application, but I think this color maximite 2 could be the one to revive Basic programming. I have a few old machines like vic-20 etc... and the maximite does offer the same @feel@ it's quite remarkable.

[@carlwillows]

Great video and build. Inspiring.

[@ivosarak959]

If it is good to have a BASIC box then for the not so faint heart there is certainly place for ASSEMBLER box and machine code editing with some debugger interface.

[@ZeelandSport]

Wow, this takes me back to my TRS 80 days. Did you run the Rugg Feldman benchmarks on a color maximite 2. My next purchase will be a maximite. Just bought a Intel NUC for home automation. The basic project has to wait, pitty. Could you run them and mention the results.

[@SavageArms357]

According to a couple devs making games for the CMM2 on the Maximite forums, while it is as fast or faster than 6502 assembly in regards to anything graphical, *computationally* it's only about 50 to 75% as fast as assembly on a 1MHz 6502, which will limit the sort of games that can be made. As an example, someone on the forum was making a Boulder Dash clone, but found that he couldn't really expand the scope of the game beyond what the original could do on a classic 8-bit, as otherwise the framerate would drop to the point of being unplayable.

[@mikekopack6441]

He's learned a few things to optimize things better. Also the new 5.5.4 version of the firmware adds a ton of new features (such as fast matrix math routines and a bunch of other math functions) that will make some stuff a TON fast (since it's not being done in a bunch of BASIC loops but optimized assembly libraries...) Personally I can't wait for mine to arrive (hopefully this weekend, supposed to ship out tomorrow...)

[@garthhowe297]

Terrific video, thanks very much!

[@mcrsit]

WHERE'S THE NEXT VIDEOOOOO

[@manical90]

It is coming soon :) He is busy with other stuff. His new videos are almost finished - but he has been busy with IRL stuff :P

[@canaconn2388]

@@manical90 9 months ago

[@galgone365]

This was fascinating, is there any difference to just buying a raspberry pie and putting software on? I know this is a greatly simplified question. If this is not the case at least humour me lol.

[@ice2642]

Very cool, is it possible to flash using linux? If yes, what program I need to use to write the firmware to the board?

[@JamesChurchill]

Looks like the waveshare board is back in stock (at least right this second). Got one coming my way now.

[@JamesChurchill]

aww crap should have thrown one in the order for Jimage

[@CTRIX64]

@@JamesChurchill And Sh0ck! Was going to see about doing a group order.... you got one already?

[@JamesChurchill]

@@CTRIX64 Yeah, I'm sorted. At least the other guys can benefit from a group order. I just jumped the gun (although there was other stuff in my order too) :S

[@paulstubbs7678]

Don't jump too quickly, they are doing a non waveshare version, there is a pic of one on 'thebackshed'

[@keplr21soares52]

I believe that the super nitendo runs a DOS prompt and logically emulates the cartridge memory game is like zsnes for DOS