| RETRO ZONE POWERED BY MZRETRO © 2025 All rights reserved! |
| VIC-20-EXTRA {THE little BIG BOSS!} | |||
| BIG-CHARACTERS | VIC-20-COLORS | MULTICOLOR-MASTER | CUSTOM-CHARACTERS |
| MULTICOLOR-CHARS | LITTLE-ANIMATION | MEMORY-PARADE | LITTLE-ANIM-SPEED-UP |
| VIC-20-TOOLS-Utilities-&-Helpers | |||
| MONITORS | |||
| VIC-20-SuperMon+ | Supermon-VICMon | VIC20-MiniMon | MightyMon-Version3.0 |
| C'MON | VICMon {.crt file} | HESMon | TinyMon-Version1.0 |
| PunyMon | |||
| ASSEMBLERS | |||
| wAx[4K] | Mikro-Assembler | wAx2-v2.0 | TinyAsm-v.1.1 |
| Monster-Assembler | Pal-Assembler | ||
| BIG-CHARACTERS | Download {.txt File} | ||
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| BIG CHARACTERS - My first {never published} VIC-20 challenge Back then, on December 25th 2025, this was my first face to face meeting with the VIC-20 computer {emulator} and it went so well that i did not publish the collected experience. At that time I had no clue about the VIC-20 and how everything is or was organized As you know by know, that didn't stop me from proceeding further and make step by step progresses with the little big pioneer VIC-20 Text file will tell you why I am publishing this first lesson anyway. |
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| VIC-20-COLORS | Download {.txt File} | ||
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| COLORS and VIC-20 I had no plans to include also the VIC-20 here, but then i noticed that this Computer actually is pretty interesting and even faster than C64 and C128. That was new to me. I never thought something like that could be possible! I mean VIC-20 came in 1981 and C64 in 1982 and C128 in 1985! And who is the slowest!? What a surprise, right... Exactly! C128 is the slowest! So slow that in some scenarios even 2MHz 8502 CPU isn't helping... Well, all that moved me to start also this VIC-20 category. Who knows, maybe one day someone will find it useful. We are starting with VIC-20 Colors. That is a bit different compared to C64 and C128. But you need to understand it in order to make progress! |
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| MULTICOLOR-MASTER | Download {.txt File} | ||
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| MORE COLORS ON VIC-20 MultiColor is a small mystery on C64 and C128! Especially because even C128 with BASIC 7 has not one single command to access Multi Color Characters. Basically, the situation is almost the same compared to VIC-20. Almost the same is again the Low and High Nibble where the difference is. No worries, it is doable and I made a swifty little text doc to help you understand better the Multi-Color Situation on VIC-20. Practically a place where all started! |
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| CUSTOM-CHARACTERS | Download {.txt File } | Characters {.txt File} | |
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| What belongs to me is mine! When I was a little one, having my own font was a dream... And now > 40 years later, it is a reality! On VIC-20, a computer i never used in my life! You can grab a fraction of this dream and use this font in your projects. It's only the alphabet, numbers, but even that is sufficient to make a little game. It is all in BASIC and before I forget, a few GFX Elements are included too. Basically you can add more graphic elements by adding more DATA lines and increasing the READ counter: 157 form=288 to 335+(nd*8):readn where nd = new data line. e.g. DATA 255,129,129,129,129,129,129,255 would make a square accessible under SHIFT+G. Ergo, if you add 7 new DATA lines, then it is: 157 form=288 to 335+(7*8):readn DATA line should be placed underneath the line 164. I made enough room for it. Have fun creating while new graphic elements! |
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| MULTICOLOR-CHARS | Download {.txt File} | ||
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| Characters and the colors, more than one! This was interesting! What i am actually missing now are the hardware sprites! Commodore missed the opportunity to make billions back in 1981 with VIC-20. History is showing us how they tend to miss oportunities to make real money after the C64. So it is actually old news. Well, let's go back to our MULTI-COLOR Characters. This was easy and interesting only because i was able to use Commodore C128 and its SPRITE-DEFINITION EDITOR to create new font and graphic elements. Normal and Multi-Color. Exporting DATA to VIC-20 was then just copy/paste job with some manual adjustment before that in Windows Text Editor. |
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| LITTLE-ANIMATION | Download {.txt File} | ||
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| Yes, we can move! What can i say! I doesn't look so bad at all for the first try! Now everyone is free to make a game around this character(s) |
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| MEMORY-PARADE | Download {.txt File} | ||
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| The space and the limits and the what and why! Just a small overview over the memory, default addresses, possible addresses and a few other things... Pure theory, not coding or just a little... Will very probably be extended in the future! So don't forget to check back in case you are interested in VIC-20! |
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| LITTLE-ANIM-SPEED-UP | Download {.txt File} | ||
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| Push it, let's fly! Assembler is fast, some are telling even 100x faster than BASIC! I did some testing, but never went so far to confirm the number 100, ergo, I'll just believe it is correct because it really is fast! This is a small update to previously shown Little-Animation lesson. What we did here, is replaced the FOR NEXT BASIC LOOPS with a small ASSEMBLER version and see there, we went from nearly 13 seconds, down to 2.5 seconds! Assembler FOR NEXT LOOPS are easy to learn and can be implemented in any BASIC program to increase the execution speed in many areas! Hope this example will help in your BASIC projects! |
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| VIC20-ML-MONITORS | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Commodore VIC-20 Machine Language Monitors While looking to find a good and small Machine Language Monitor, i was able to find many, however, as it looks, only these two are worth mentioning {it means, i like them, haha} = MiniMon and VICMon-2 & {update} HES-Mon is coming too to join the part. Nice ML-Monitor-! Note: VIC-20 is loading .prg {machine codes} files with LOAD"name",8,1 as it looks! To make sure they won't be loaded into BASIC area. Some programs, however, are written to occupy exactly that space anyway.
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| VIC-20-ASSEMBLERS | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ASSEMBLERS FOR VIC-20 No doubt, Machine Language Monitors are better than assembly editors when it comes to quickly write a short assembly routine and look inthe hexadecimal number world. Basically, to write a 10 line assembly code, there is no needed to start an overloaded assembler program... However, if there is a plan for a slightly more lines than 10, then it is clear; the 1st and logical choice is an assembly-language-editor! Especially where would wanna write a bunch of BASIC helpers and have them as one file which would you load into memory. I will list also those which I wasn't able to use properly due to missing manuals or instructions of any kind. During my tests I am trying to find out as much as possible about them... The same thing I did with the VIC-20 machine Language Monitors! Green cell background means: this is what i've decided to use to write examples in the future. It's almost older than i am. but still kicking assembler butts on the left, right and middle!
IMPORTANT INFORMATION: What i have noticed is: When you set up your RAM BLOCKS to be able to use a Cartridge or load a software to a specific address, it is so that RAM BLOCK where the Cartridge is, won't be recognized as an additional RAM-BLOCK. That is effecting the locations of the COLOR MAP, SCREEN and BASIC START ADDRESS, which are depending on the MEMORY SETUP. THE RESULT IS: RAM BLOCK 0, 3KB and RAM BLOCK 5, 8KB, {$A000 Cartridge} is still just a RAM BLOCK 0 and 5KB default RAM which places the BASIC start address to $0400. Related to this new knowledge, I have updated the MEMORY PARADE document accordingly. . |
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