Introduction to Commodore 64 BASIC and Why You Should Learn It

[@RetroGameCoders]

I added the full illustrated transcript to the post, plus an option to get a disk, slides, and PDF of the transcript - check it out on the site :) retrogamecoders.com/commodore64-basic-programming/

[@MichaelFergusonVideos]

I was much older than many of you here when the VIC-20 came out but it was my first computer and a great intro to BASIC. I loved programming so much I earned a Bachelors in Computer Science.

[@TheDarkmore]

Just finished debugging one of my basic games on the c64, started basic at the age of 10, now 39, BASIC v2 for life! :-)

[@RetroGameCoders]

It's like there is a secret society of us :D Will you be sharing/publishing your game?

[@TheDarkmore]

@@RetroGameCoders Sure, once it is bug free, it got a major overhaul: I changed the start of BASIC higher so I could read all my sprite data in the first VIC bank. Unfortunately the code is a mess, but that happens without an editor or proper design.

[@Plrang]

@@TheDarkmore what editor are you using?

[@TheDarkmore]

@@Plrang Just plain C64, with some online tools: krissz pertscii editor and spritemate, also trying out lvlvl petscii converters for future projects, CBM studio is a bit hard for lot of petscii graphics, which I usually have tons of.

[@Plrang]

@@TheDarkmore You mean you code directly in C64 editor or am I reading that wrong?

[@10MARC]

Really a wonderful introduction to BASIC and Commodore BASIC specifically. I am looking forward to the future videos in the series! I should send you a copy of my Haiku generator I wrote in BASIC back in 2019. I created it so it runs on everything from the PET to the VIC-20, C64 and PLUS/4! (And the C128 in C128 mode, both 40 and 80 column!)

[@RetroGameCoders]

Thank you and please do :)

[@aftertheendtimes]

Thank you for this great intro to basic, ive got a Vic-20 in late 1980 at age 12 and moved on with Sinclair 48k, then C=64, and then C=128. but after these all years away from the Basic language ive forgotten it, so this course i gold for me to get back on it, now i built a Raspberry PI running Combian 64 emulator wich emulates all commodores from PET to C=128,.....it is awesome fun, thank you again Chris Garrett

[@RetroGameCoders]

Glad you enjoyed it! Combian is amazing isn't it? Also check out Bare Metal C64 for immediate boot and some other advantages, though you do lose Raspberry Pi operating system quality of life conveniences with that setup :) I also started with Vic 20 and then Spectrum 128+2, but then my brother got employed so we could move on to Atari ST :)

[@aftertheendtimes]

@@RetroGameCoders Hi dear friend! =) thanks for the tip on bare metal C64 i am exiting to look into it =) love cheers

[@kolex023]

Wow, it was fast! :D Congrat sir this video has won the 10s award :) Which means I've never seen any of your content before and within 10 second I subscribed to your channel. :D

[@CityXen]

Pretty good BASIC primer video. Well done!

[@RetroGameCoders]

Thank you :)

[@Centar1964]

Basic was my 1st language that I liked and just recently got VISION Basic for the 64 which has rekindled that love.

[@RetroGameCoders]

Vision basic is excellent, though I am biased towards cross-development rather than editing and compiling on the C64 itself. Using emulation for Vision allows a partial solution to that :)

[@Centar1964]

I sorta do that, I run it on a C64 Mini with a wireless keyboard.@@RetroGameCoders

[@ChrisM541]

Nice one. The great thing about these 'golden era' first home computers (ZX80/81/Spectrum, CBM64) was that you simply switched them on and you were taken instantly into a BASIC/IDE environment. That's what hooked so many into beginning their passion for programming. Is it this easy today? - bizarrely no! since you need to install your own IDE & toolsets. That said, double-click on any of these excellent emulators and you're taken straight into that same 1980's BASIC environment.

[@DS-pk4eh]

Started with VIC20 and tape drive, and Basic and some assembly. I also tried Forth as that was one of the tapes I got with a computer. Later I got C64, still only tape drive. Did my diploma work with Simon's Basic as it had so many commands, mostly graphic ones that I needed (wanted to draw 3D graphics. One wireframe sphere would took 5 hours to render! ). In school we learned Fortran and Cobol (that we had chance to try on some big IBM mainframes from the local bank) After that I got Amiga 500 and there, I wanted to try Amiga Basic, but discovered and loved more C.

[@bekbraceplus]

Awesome! I'm one myself, a RGC - Totally supporting your channel

[@RetroGameCoders]

Thank you, hope you enjoy :)

[@bekbraceplus]

@@RetroGameCoders I have, and subbed!

[@througtonsheirs_doctorwhol5914]

Started in Cobol, BASH, C, Java. Old school analyst programmer course from 2000 to 2003.... But the worse was Assembly... the teacher had us do exams with pen and paper on graph-type paper to note the hexadecimal values in memory of the data we manipulated with Asembly. Yeah my first work as an intern was COBOL for the gov't ! In passé computer infrastructures for the time. NORTEL had failed and they were still - ARE STILL - using COBOL.

[@RetroGameCoders]

I kind of enjoyed COBOL, and I was tempted during Y2K prep to take the fat $$$$$ on offer;)

[@througtonsheirs_doctorwhol5914]

now learning Commodore Basic for my C64 mini ! @@RetroGameCoders from that book you referenced, the descendent of the Brown Bible... he says you can use the screen at 1/576th of an inch vertically with a precision of 1/1296th of an inch horizontally? Is this similar to what nowadays feel like 576 x 1296 pixelated blocks ?

[@througtonsheirs_doctorwhol5914]

Thanks for readin g ! @@RetroGameCoders

[@RetroGameCoders]

@@througtonsheirs_doctorwhol5914 which, the Atari Reference Manual?

[@througtonsheirs_doctorwhol5914]

sorry one led me to the other : it was in Complete_Commodore_Inner_Space_Anthology @@RetroGameCoders

[@tenminutetokyo2643]

Started on the VIC in 1983, and then on Apple II, then Pascal, then C on the Mac and from there became a pro rockstar including at Apple + Sony.

[@Enfors]

Wow. This video deserves way more views than it has.

[@RetroGameCoders]

Thank you! One day I might crack the KZbin algorithm but for now I just get all up in my head with analysis paralysis instead ;)

[@Plrang]

Great introduction:)

[@SteveMorrow8859]

A great demonstration of how Basic works with the machine and how to program in it. Do you teach assembly language videos as well? Quite curious.

[@RetroGameCoders]

I considered it but wasn’t sure if I could add anything that hasn’t already been offered :)

[@SteveMorrow8859]

@@RetroGameCoders What I've discovered in my experience is that people are looking for a lot of assembly language type programs, which is what I enjoy doing. Although the computer is old as dirt, for some reason there are those who still like the bits and bytes. There is always room for another great tutorial guy. Maybe you could be him?

[@robertcraane7910]

I started BASIC programming at age 13, in 1980, at school, We didn't have computers so we used a punch card system! They were send to a Central School Computer for a print out! I became a Dbase programmer. Later I was in IT- management, so I didn't any coding anymore. Now I'm 54, and I have to relearn BASIC again, hahaha! Forgotten almost all!

[@RetroGameCoders]

I just missed the punch card era but our COBOL teacher told stories of dropping her cards and having to put them back in order, hoping none of them got too creased or bent up in the process :D

[@robertcraane7910]

@@RetroGameCoders I know the feeling! 😁😁

[@AllGamingStarred]

you earned a sub. great work

[@gabrielcamacho6112]

I really appreciate this. I especially like the In-browser emulator you provide. You literally could not make it easier, and I'm grateful for that. I'll be following and learning along!

[@mocatz1963]

I can't use the online emulator. My keyboard keys didn't have the same layout as a commodore so I couldn't use it. What type of keyboard do you have? how did you get a modern computer to use the online emulator? or did you use the online keyboard?

[@NuntiusLegis]

@@mocatz1963 To make use of your keyboard, you can use the emulator VICE locally on your system. You can also buy stickers for the keys with all the specific symbols of the C64 keyboard, costs about a tenner.

[@dharmatech]

The photo next to the Dijkstra quote is John McCarthy, the inventor of LISP.

[@aimeefoster1613]

What an inspiring and educational video! I have no significant experience with computers and programming other than the general. I’m 31 now now and having recently read the book Code by Charles petzold I’d like to get started with learning about computers and programming. This leads to my question: having seen that amazon is selling a replica of C64, i wondered if it’s possible to have a full programming experience on the replica vs the original? I’d very much appreciate your input. Best wishes.

[@RetroGameCoders]

Yeah I think it’s worth buying. Enjoy!

[@NuntiusLegis]

You might also consider buying a real C64 - the C model (later one in the more streamlined case) is very reliable to this day. You may google for 4:3 TFT TVs with s-video input that work nicely as C64 monitors, and pick one up from Ebay.

[@MattKasdorf]

Might you produce some TRSE videos? Targeting the Commodore PET? 🇨🇦

[@RetroGameCoders]

Yes the first written articles are on my site, it takes me *ages* to edit videos so they tend to come down the priority list :)

[@MattKasdorf]

@@RetroGameCodersSuper! Yeah, I saw your BASIC videos, which lead me to your site. Then I read the TRSE articles, and went looking for videos 😏

[@RetroGameCoders]

@@MattKasdorf I just have to get better/faster at editing and get more comfortable speaking into a microphone :)

[@PlayBASIC-Developer]

Yeah we all should learn BASIC ..

[@dailydoseofeverything7141]

Wow, this video is great! But I'm having a problem were the clear home button doesn't work. Any idea on how to fix it? Also how would I go about continuing my learning seeing as you don't make videos anymore? Is there any good manuals you recomend?

[@RetroGameCoders]

What device are you using? Emulator or an actual C64 or the maxi or ..? I’m going to start doing videos again now the flood of trolls seem to have gotten bored with me. So long as my videos aren’t exposed to Reddit I think my mental health will improve 🤣

[@dailydoseofeverything7141]

@@RetroGameCoders I was using your web emulator on pc

[@RetroGameCoders]

@@dailydoseofeverything7141ok that must mean something changed in the keyboard scan codes since I did the videos - will investigate! 👍

[@RetroGameCoders]

Just worked for me on Chrome on mac but I did have to fix some of the character keys such as " and & :) You should be able to use your computer keyboard to do shift+home or the onscreen keyboard to clear home

[@FunAfter52]

My first computer was a Vic-20. I bought one just after graduating from high school. In school, i had taken a "computer math" class. We used TRS-80s, which we called "trash 80's". The Commodore 64 was my next computer. For nostalgia, i just bought a C64 mini, which I received yesterday.

[@RetroGameCoders]

I like my C64 mini. While I did get a C64 "Maxi" (the big one with the working keyboard), the mini can do everything that can do it just doesn't have the convenient keys for symbols and colours etc :)

[@FunAfter52]

@@RetroGameCoders Sounds like it is good enough for me though.

[@RetroGameCoders]

@@FunAfter52 yep I am sure it is :)

[@jinchoung]

i've heard that quote from djkstra before and yeah, it's totally backwards. sure, there are conventions in basic that don't work elsewhere... but that's EVERY LANGUAGE. the basics of how things work, what you're doing, why you're doing it, and the insane degree of bare metal access that 8bit computers gave to users THROUGH BASIC really gives people a leg up on understanding the overall process of computing and programming. no grudge against djkstra but yeah, he's very very very wrong and it would be a great boon to kids right now to start with even a commodore vic20.

[@NuntiusLegis]

Why no grudge against Djkstra? We need more grudge against Djkstra! I think he actually ruined the reputation of BASIC single-handedly with his BS, resulting in less work going into improving the language, compilers, etc. He was a plague.

[@shmeegleson9464]

Awesome, thank you!

[@RetroGameCoders]

You bet!

[@RetroRobotRadio]

Watching your editor through me for a minute until I realized it was an emulation! That's why it had replacements for down and left and such. Those characters don't exist on the PCs font

[@davedavenport8673]

Great! FYI Links in description are the wrong timestamps.

[@RetroGameCoders]

Aargh, that will be because of my transcription! I will fix, thank you!

[@davedavenport8673]

@@RetroGameCoders Thanks. As others have said on Twitter, "I was just thinking about something like this." I mainly use U64, C64 and Vice, but I tried the browser emulator and could not get it running on multiple machines/browsers. Guessing it has to do with java not being supported.

[@RetroGameCoders]

@@davedavenport8673 it uses web assembly and JS but I just updated to a more recent build just now :) I’ll be showing vice and my u64 next though

[@DJ-Daz]

I haven't even looked at basic program or is it programme on the C64 in nearly 4 decades, but I'm immediately thinking about animating sprites and mapping sprites with a sprite box. Where they 8x8? That seems a little small.

[@RetroGameCoders]

C64 sprites start out as 24x21 so a bit more space to work with

[@DJ-Daz]

I've just had a very quick play with the embedded emulator and it's nice. But I had to laugh out loud at the size of the saved disk image, 179KB!

[@RetroGameCoders]

@@DJ-Daz massive right? 🤣

[@DJ-Daz]

@@RetroGameCoders I think IIRC I've actually got an original manual upstairs. Maybe I should read it? LOL It's only been what about 37 years!

[@gfabasic32]

Brings back memories!

[@RetroGameCoders]

When is there going to be a GFA BASIC for Mac and Linux? :) Actually I quite like the modern BBC BASIC and QBasic, I need to check GFA out as I have a boxed edition for the Atari ST somewhere!

[@keimahane]

Good Stuff, Thank you.

[@Eightbitswide]

Well done! Are you planning to make this a series?

[@RetroGameCoders]

It is a series :)

[@escos0410]

I was bought a c64 maxi last Christmas by the other half because that’s all I went on about as my parents bought me a commodore 16 lol 😂 Iv started trying to learn basic now at nearly 47 lol 😂 and I can’t even figure out to be able to input the date (7/12/2021) lol 😂 But I don’t care I’m enjoying trying to learn it

[@alexmcd378]

You were getting a like anyway, but for using grok, I'd give you a second like if I could :D

[@Unmedicated_Moments]

Would this still work on a VIC-20?

[@mocatz1963]

Yes. Commodore Basic will work on VIC 20

[@PhillHorrocks]

I used to love C64 BASIC. However, it was a nightmare dealing with any kind of graphics or sound. This is what ultimately put me off using it. The C128 BASIC addressed a lot of these issues. Simon's Basic on C64 was also excellent

[@RetroGameCoders]

I see BASIC as a gateway to other things. It's a great learning tool :)

[@NuntiusLegis]

The hefty price for convenient graphics commands etc. in more "advanced" BASICs is speed loss. The streamlined C64 BASIC is the fastest CBM 8-Bit BASIC, and for decent results, you have to use the VIC and SID registers directly anyway.

[@15743_Hertz]

10 input "enter your name";a$ 20 for i = len(a$) to 1 step -1 30 print mid$(a$,i,1); 40 next i If I enter "bob" it prints out "bob".

[@bnatens1]

hi belgium her im going to begin is ther also an book

[@computernerd8157]

I have alot of Nostalga for QBasic but I would recommend teaching kids Python or the original C. Depending on their interest, I would even consider Javascript. Basic wont ruin them but most programs in basic have none professional feel to them. If it was me, I would teach them C first then introduce them to Python for Object Oriented Programming. Depending on what they want to create, I would introduce other tools in their languange of choice.

[@RetroGameCoders]

@@computernerd8157 Python is great and I do teach Python, which has an advantage of running on basically everything but it’s worth noting that this is a retro channel so that context is important :) (I do have c/c++ tutorials on my site by the way)

[@computernerd8157]

@@RetroGameCoders Cool, this is my first time on your channel ,so I did not know the context. This is a good video and you made alot of good points. For example using a tool that does not have bells and whistle will increase our understanding thus learning basic can still make you a good programer.

[@rtrgrl78]

I'd say Scratch, BASIC, Python and C. Then go from there. For really youngsters.

[@YesiPleb]

I had a programming teacher at college who said a program should have only one start and one exit. She, too, frowned on BASIC due to GOTO and I found her arguments a bit retarded because what's BEQ? What's BNE? What's BRA? What's BHI if they're not all forms of GOTO? You can't RTS from one of those. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the C64 but Commodore 64 BASIC - really??? It's shit! I got spoilt with BBC BASIC and that had support for graphics and sounds and many more features C64 BASIC could only dream of.

[@RetroGameCoders]

Yeah BBC BASIC is the standard that others are measured by but comparatively few people experienced it in comparison to Microsoft BASIC so that is what everyone refers to and knows, not just because of Microsoft putting it on PCs but the Commodore line and all the others that used it or copied it, which is a shame

[@NuntiusLegis]

The C64 BASIC interpreter has a streamlined command set making it fast and memory efficient (only 8 K!). And C64 sprites or synth sounds created with C64 BASIC probably look and sound better than anything done in BBC Micro BASIC. The well thought-out graphical characters of the C64 are easy to use in BASIC.

[@tenminutetokyo2643]

DOOD!

[@montyhall2805]

basic 2.0 was mind crippling. When I saw functions in pascal and c when I was a kid in the 80's, my jaw dropped. I think int's were all floats or something like that in 2.0 too. Ugh.... Horrible language. Many bad memories. 6502 macro assembler was more expressive than 2.0. Just being able to use labels than line numbers was a quantum leap. No, I'll go one further, 80's home computer basic stunk. I spent a year on the original IBM-PC using basica. It was only slightly less crappy than commodore basic. By the time quick basic came out, I was already into pascal and c++. Turbo-XXX series from borland rocked on DOS.

[@RetroGameCoders]

It wasn't so crippling that you stopped programming :)

[@kylehill3643]

The push to FPS gaming and consoles have ruined the potential. Now at best we have 'Early Access' games that rarely ever leave that.