Editing Tricks & Tips for the Commodore 64

'''''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.<ref name="tp">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).</ref> The numbered pages run to 276.<ref name="end">Gerits, Englisch and Angerhausen, ''Tricks & Tips'', section 9.7, p. 276 (PDF p. 286).</ref> The introduction calls it Data Becker's fourth book for the [[Commodore 64]].<ref name="intro">Gerits, Englisch and Angerhausen, ''Tricks & Tips'', Introduction, p. 1 (PDF p. 11).</ref>

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.<ref name="toc">Gerits, Englisch and Angerhausen, ''Tricks & Tips'', Table of Contents (PDF pp. 7-10).</ref> 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);<ref name="ch7a">Gerits, Englisch and Angerhausen, ''Tricks & Tips'', section 7.1, pp. 160-168 (PDF pp. 170-178).</ref>
* 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);<ref name="ch7c">Gerits, Englisch and Angerhausen, ''Tricks & Tips'', section 7.3, pp. 176-182 (PDF pp. 186-192).</ref>
* 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).<ref name="ch7d">Gerits, Englisch and Angerhausen, ''Tricks & Tips'', section 7.4, pp. 183-185 (PDF pp. 193-195).</ref>

== Contents ==
Page numbers are from the book's table of contents.<ref name="toc" />
* 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 ==
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|The Anatomy of the Commodore 64]]'', which section 7.3 refers to for background on the expansion port.<ref name="ch7c" />

<pdf> File:Tricks_and_Tips_for_your_Commodore_64.pdf </pdf>

Download: [[:File:Tricks and Tips for your Commodore 64.pdf|Tricks and Tips for your Commodore 64.pdf]]

== References ==
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[[Category:Commodore Documentation]]
[[Category:Commodore Books]]