Home Applications and Games for the Commodore 64 (Personal Computer Series)

If you’re an experienced or a “expert“ programmer, I would say stay away from this book as it is a very basic book on programming and on BASIC itself. In fact, if you’re a novice programmer you may have some issues as this book does not really talk about the language BASIC, but it does talk about the programs itself. You need to know something about programming BASIC on a Commodore 64 first.Now in all fairness, this book is written for programming on a Commodore 64, and not for the more powerful computers we have today, where the BASIC programming language has greater functionality than the 4K/8K languages of 30 years ago. Yet, once you understand Commodore 64’s BASIC, which is actually Microsoft BASIC, there’s a lot of high level type programming that you can do even on C64 computers with limited memory and functionality.I will say one thing that would give this book 5-stars and a reason to purchase it if you’re an expert programmer and that is if you purchased the clone, TheC64, the section titled “How To Use This Book,” has more information specifically about the clone (TheC64 from Retro Games), then you will find in the book “TheC64 User Manual.” No, I’m not going give anything away, so if you want to know what’s missing from from Retro Game’s own book, buy this book.If you are a novice programmer, and you know something about the BASIC programming language, this book is for you. It will show you how programs are structured and written, which is the next step in learning how to write programs, not only for BASIC, but for any programming language.The book is consistently laid out in the following manner. For each program, the author, Timothy Banse, describes how the program works and why it’s written the way it is. He gives you a high-level overview and he also will tell you some of the things that the program doesn’t do.For example in the program for Blood Alcohol Test, Banse describes some of the issues that are not addressed in the program itself, such as the conversion of the percentage of alcohol to its proof content, and shows you how to convert it for each popular drinks, like wine or beer and some of the hard liquors like vodka, and what happens when you are have either mixed drinks or drinks that are parts alcohol and parts non-alcohol. So one of the things that you could do is once you type in the program is maybe add the logic on mixed drinks or even put in a table of the popular drinks with their proof content for each ounce or shot.Then he goes into how the program works, but instead of going line by line he goes into the major sections of the program and what they accomplish. Then he describes all the string and numeric variables, what they are and what they mean, and then the code itself.Most of the source code is short, and makes it easier to type it into the computer from the book. And the code itself is so well commented that a novice should be able to understand what the program is doing it any point in its execution.Also in some of his program, he’ll also give you other ways to use the program. For example the checkbook balance of program he describes there’s another use for the program, which could be used as budgeting tool. So now you can make the changes to the code to expand what the programs original intent was.If you are a novice programmer, I would suggest this book and recommend it as one of the books that should be in your library. For those of us who are experts in programming, some of the BASIC programs that are in the book may give you some ideas for some of your next projects. Or, you can take the program that’s in the book and greatly expand its functionality, even if you’re running on a Commodore 64/128. You can also port these programs over to QB64 or PowerBASIC, or any version of BASIC (there are a lot of different dialects of BASIC out there) and greatly expand the functionalities of these programs.I gave this book a five star rating because for a novice programmer or someone learning to program for the first time, this is a good book to take your skills to the next step. Banse explains things in plain, simple English, and it’s easy to follow. He takes you logically from what the program is about, what can and cannot do, the major features within the program, the major variables that are needed, and a well commented source code to type in to your Commodore 64 or Retro Games’ TheC64 Commodore clone.

Pretty good for strictly programming, but I am very rusty on basic simple commands; I.e., getting around in the non-programming part of things. I am using a C64 emulator which adds another layer of ambiguity. It is strictly a compilation of C Basic listings with technical commentary which is fine. Maybe I’ll like it more once I delve further into it

If you are not able to spot the mistakes and fix some of the codes with some grasp of BASIC knowledge you will struggle with some programs. Otherwise I enjoyed this book with it's programs. Wish the price was lower until the typos are fixed.

very good

This book is very poorly written, anyone who is new to retro computing will be put off due to the many programming errors in the examples. Would not recommend this item to anybody wanting to start in retro computing

Avec la mode du rétro gaming, la sortie imminente du C64 full size, on recherche des livres autour de cette thématique. Celui-ci promet de se mettre le pied à l'étrier sur la programmation du C64 en BASIC. J'étais prévenu il vaut mieux carrément lire le manuel utilisateur que l'on peut trouver en ligne. Ce livre n'est pas mauvais et contient quelques programmes sympathiques. D'autres sont plus moyens voire franchement naïfs. Ok mais le problème vient des innombrables coquilles parsemées dans les listings... Si vous n'avez pas déjà programmé vous vous arracherez les cheveux car beaucoup de ces programmes ne fonctionneront pas ou pas comme attendu. Si oui vous allez pester et corriger les programmes... mais est-ce admissible sur une réédition qui par ailleurs inclus un chapitre justement pour faire le lien avec le C64 mini? Je dis non. Enfin vous n'apprendrez pas la manière la plus optimale de programmer le C64 même en BASIC. Les caractères de contrôle qui sont généralement indiqués sous forme de symboles cabalistiques dans les listings du C64 sont ici indiqués par leur code ASCII. Les adresses des peek et pokes incontournables du C64 sont égrenées mais il manque un tableau de synthèse pour s'y référer ensuite... Bref pas convaincu par ce livre.