is still relevant and picking up the
pace more and more, true it has a GUI now but to get the most from the system you need to use the command shell. If nothing else 8 bit systems offer immense fun

Heck I still have great enjoyment trying to figure things out, and when you actually get a program to work Man you can really bore the pants of someone talking about how you did it!

Some ideas for inspiration to feed a young mind

The user guide is a must

http://www.lemon64.com/manual/

as could be the programmers reference guide

http://www.devili.iki.fi/Computers/Commodore/C64/Programmers_Reference/fro nt_cover.html

Kids and the Commodore 64

http://www.commodore128.org/Library/Commodore%2064%20Books/Kids_and_the_Co mmodore_64.rar

Gortek and the Microchips

www.bombjack.org/commodore/books.htm

Some of note for good starters are

Commodore 64 Introduction to BASIC Part 1

and

Commodore 64 Introduction to BASIC Part 2

Of course Gortek was available for both the C64 and the Vic and teaches children in a "child friendly way"

www.gamebase64.com/game...18&h=0

the VIC manual is available from here

http://www.replacementdocs.com/download.php?view.4513

and of course the Step by step range of programming books

You may also like this

Apple I BASIC as a Mac OS X Scripting Language

http://www.pagetable.com/?p=35

Commodore BASIC as a Scripting Language for UNIX and Windows - now Open Source

http://www.pagetable.com/?p=48

And some Commodore programming languages with details and downloads

http://commodore64.wikispaces.com/Programming+languages

Amongst the many others you can find!


*************************************
REVIEW: MAYHEM
By Commodore Free
*************************************

Another revival studio release for the unexpanded Vic 20 and I can hardly wait to get the thing loaded after the other game review Avalanche (see commodore free issue 65) I was expecting something of the same quality. Did I find it..?

Loading the game we are presented with a basic title screen

Not many options just to press Fire

While it may not look like much! The game does have some plus points.

Your job is to run around and collect the gold coins the other objects you
must avoid as they will kill you. As you collect coins the game becomes harder as more and more blobs appear to kill you; the aim of the game is to collect
as many gold coins as possible, you can move your man with the aid of the joystick in any direction. That's about it in a nutshell.

The game however is very fluid and amazingly fast; as more things appear the game wasn't slowing down, one thing missing though is a high score screen,
when you die you are presented with your score and then it goes back to the title screen. So you don't get to see a High score xxx or a list of high scorers. No music plays again on this it's just spot effects from the coins although the sounds are well created I would have liked some Vic music

SCORES

Graphics: 6/10
Sound: 6/10
Gameplay: 7/10
Overall: 6 /10


*************************************
REVIEW: DREAM
For The Unexpanded VIC20
By Commodore Free
*************************************

Jeff from Denial creates some great game written entirely in BASIC

Here is a comment from him

"Everything I make is entirely in BASIC. I have an affinity for the type-in game one might see in 80s magazines, so all of my games can be typed in.

With Dream, the struggle is for money (diamonds) and love (hearts). It's sort of a heavy-handed "message." That's why there are two scores and a "finale". Get it? Sometimes I try to have a point to my games. haha "

--Jeff

Ok the download is available from the denial website here is the link

http://www.sleepingelephant.com/denial/Dream.zip

A discussion about the game is available here

http://sleepingelephant.com/ipw-web/bulletin/bb/viewtopic.php?p=64317

Loading the game we see a title screen

Doesn't look much but the little man who looks like a cassette is snoring zzzzzzzz's and these are animated, remember this game is written in BASIC !

With only one option to "PRESS START" I hit the fire button

The idea is to collect as many diamonds and hearts as you can before the game ends; you can move multidirectional using the joystick, what I couldn't
believe is the speed at which the game plays, and the responsiveness of the controls, ok it's got some of basics jerkiness and not fluidly smooth as a machine code program would be; but the game doesn't really suffer from this,
it actually adds to the quirkiness of the game. The graphics are functional
but the little man is animated well for the block he is; or cassette (if you like)

The game could do with a high score and in my personal opinion I would have
had the hearts to extend the timer in the game not just add to the players points but it's a great effort. I need to see out more of these games it
really took me back to the type in listings I fought with when I first
received my original Vic (all those years ago) I think it just needs a couple of enhancements as mentioned above.

SCORES

Graphics: 5/10 Nice Animation On The Main Character
Sound: 5/10
Gameplay: 5/10
Overall: 5/10

Impressive for a game written in Basic on an unexpanded Vic


*************************************
RETRO DERBY (G & G)
17 - 18 November, 2012. Derby.
By Peter Badrick
*************************************

This event was organised by Chris Snowden and Shaun Bebbington with machines and support provided by guys from The Retro Computer Museum (retrocomputermuseum.co.uk/index.php), Andy Spencer, Steve Allsopp, Stuart Shaw, Simon Hardy, Richard Gellman, James Neil Rawlins, Karl Pantling-James & Lee Hearne.

I arrived on the Saturday with my Son, Stephen. This was his first event of this nature and we'd both been looking forward to it for some time. On arrival we met with Chris and Shaun and were introduced to other people who were
there. I finally got to meet with friends in person that I'd been in touch
with on Facebook for some months. Greetings to Max Hall, Jackie Mason and Barry Lendrum. After concluding some business with Max and Jackie (namely a VC-20
for Jackie and a lovely retro rotary dial phone for Max) we had a look around.

The first items that caught my eye was the little Astro Wars unit that was
also making the most noise. I had one of these as a kid, along with a Galaxy Invader 100 (the white version. I now have a Galaxy Invader 1000, the yellow machine). That certainly brought back some memories. Alongside this was the Grandstand Scramble. I never had this unit but I did have the Pocket Scramble.

On the same table I was pleased to see the Nintendo Virtual Boy, their first stab at 3D gaming. Also headache inducing after a while and left a few people with a stiff neck lol. Next to this was the mini MAME cabinet using an iPad.
A superb little unit that faithfully reproduced the classic arcades of yesteryear. Very impressive.

There were also a few old faithful machines available, NES, SNES, Atari
Jaguar, Xbox 360 (playing multiplayer Doom on this was great fun. I have a PS3 at home but have to say that the Xbox Live Arcade has far more retro goodness for you to download than the PSN. Come on Sony, get with the programme!).

Also available were the following machines:

Sinclair ZX81, Sinclair Spectrum +3, Commodore VIC-20 (I played Avenger on this, I believe this to be the best home version of Space Invaders. Ever. On any system. So there!), Commodore 64 (with Gideon's 1541U2 of course), Commodore Amiga, Commodore Plus/4 (well, when an event is run by Chris
Snowden, this is to be expected :-) ), Commodore Amiga 1200, Nintendo 64, Nintendo GameCube, Sega Master System, Sega Mega Drive, Sega Dreamcast, Atari 2600, Atari 800XL, Sony PS2, PC Engine, MB Vectrex, Dragon 32, Nintendo Wii, BBC Master and PC Engine.

Sorry if I've missed any systems, there really was a lot to take in and I'm glad I was able to atten
--- CrashWrite 2.0
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