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Tricks & Tips for the Commodore 64

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Tricks & Tips for the Commodore 64 is a Data Becker book by Klaus Gerits, Lothar Englisch and Michael Angerhausen, published in the United Kingdom by First Publishing of Pangbourne, Berkshire, in 1984. The copyright page also carries 1983-1984 copyrights for Data Becker of Düsseldorf and Abacus Software of Grand Rapids, Michigan. ISBN 0-948015-02-0.[1] The numbered pages run to 276.[2] The introduction calls it Data Becker's fourth book for the Commodore 64.[3]

It is a collection of programming techniques: graphics and character sets, split screens and soft scrolling, input routines, BASIC extensions, an introduction to Forth, CP/M on the Commodore 64, file handling on tape and disk, and zero-page POKEs.[4] Chapter 7 has some hardware material:

  • a Centronics printer interface on the user port, with a driver listing and the user port to Centronics cable pin layout (pp. 160-168);[5]
  • a description of Commodore's Z80 CP/M cartridge and the expansion port signals it uses, with a simplified block diagram of the cartridge (pp. 176-182);[6]
  • a two-channel passive filter that splits the SID output at about 300 Hz for a stereo amplifier, with a schematic giving resistor and capacitor values (pp. 183-185).[7]

Contents

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Page numbers are from the book's table of contents.[4]

  • 1: Introduction, p. 1
  • 2: Advanced Graphics, p. 2
  • 3: Easy Data Input, p. 45
  • 4: Advanced BASIC, p. 74
  • 5: Forth: An alternative to BASIC, p. 115
  • 6: CP/M on the Commodore 64, p. 128
  • 7: Interface and expansion options, p. 160 (USER port Centronics interface, p. 160; transferring data between computers over the USER port, p. 169; the CP/M cartridge and the expansion port, p. 176; synthesizer in stereo, p. 183)
  • 8: Data management, p. 186
  • 9: POKEs and other useful routines, p. 245

What this book does not contain

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Apart from the chapter 7 circuits it is a programming book. It has no schematic of the Commodore 64 itself and no parts lists; for those use the Commodore 64 / 64C Service Manual. Three of the authors also wrote The Anatomy of the Commodore 64, which section 7.3 refers to for background on the expansion port.[6]

Download: Tricks and Tips for your Commodore 64.pdf

References

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  1. ↑ Klaus Gerits, Lothar Englisch and Michael Angerhausen, Tricks & Tips for the Commodore 64 (First Publishing, 1984), title page and copyright page (PDF pp. 5-6).
  2. ↑ Gerits, Englisch and Angerhausen, Tricks & Tips, section 9.7, p. 276 (PDF p. 286).
  3. ↑ Gerits, Englisch and Angerhausen, Tricks & Tips, Introduction, p. 1 (PDF p. 11).
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Gerits, Englisch and Angerhausen, Tricks & Tips, Table of Contents (PDF pp. 7-10).
  5. ↑ Gerits, Englisch and Angerhausen, Tricks & Tips, section 7.1, pp. 160-168 (PDF pp. 170-178).
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Gerits, Englisch and Angerhausen, Tricks & Tips, section 7.3, pp. 176-182 (PDF pp. 186-192).
  7. ↑ Gerits, Englisch and Angerhausen, Tricks & Tips, section 7.4, pp. 183-185 (PDF pp. 193-195).
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