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P4 documentation drive: rewrite doc-holder as a real documentation page - printed title, author, publisher, year, ISBN and page count, what the book covers, and a plain statement that it is not a repair source, pointing at Commodore's own service documentation instead
Add 1984, ISBN and second printing; LoC extent vi, 289 pp. (page gave 280, the PDF length); note the scan stops at p. 270 (Appendices G-J and index missing); drop 'by various'; contents
 
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'''''COMPUTE!'s Second Book of Commodore 64''''' by '''various, edited by COMPUTE! Publications''' is a programming book for the [[Commodore 64]], 280 pages, published by COMPUTE! Publications, Inc., Greensboro, North Carolina; cover price $12.95.
'''''COMPUTE!'s Second Book of Commodore 64''''' is a 1984 collection of games, applications, utilities and tutorials for the [[Commodore 64]] from COMPUTE! Publications of Greensboro, North Carolina, many of them reprinted from ''COMPUTE!'' and ''COMPUTE!'s Gazette''. ISBN 0-942386-44-2. The printing line shows the hosted scan is the second printing.<ref name="tp">''COMPUTE!'s Second Book of Commodore 64'' (COMPUTE! Publications, 1984), title page and copyright page (PDF pp. 3-4).</ref> The Library of Congress record gives the extent as vi, 289 pages (call number QA76.8.C64 C67 1984).<ref name="ol">Open Library, [https://openlibrary.org/books/OL2937273M ''Compute!'s second book of Commodore 64'', record OL2937273M], from Library of Congress catalogue data (LCCN 84-174735). Retrieved 2026-10-01.</ref>


Games, applications, utilities, tutorials and information reprinted from COMPUTE! magazine.
It includes Charles Brannon's SpeedScript, a machine language word processor (pp. 3-40), together with a spreadsheet, a mailing list, educational games, Jerry M. Jaco's "Working with SID", custom characters and sprites, Sheldon Leemon's "Adding New Keywords to BASIC", the SuperBASIC 64 extension and program merge and recovery utilities.<ref name="toc">''COMPUTE!'s Second Book of Commodore 64'', Contents, pp. iii-iv (PDF pp. 5-6), and Foreword, p. v (PDF p. 7).</ref>


== What this book is not ==
The hosted scan is incomplete. It stops at p. 270, partway through Appendix F, so the rest of the ASCII table, Appendices G to J (screen codes, keycodes, the MLX machine language editor and the Automatic Proofreader) and the index are missing.<ref name="end">''COMPUTE!'s Second Book of Commodore 64'', last scanned page, p. 270 (PDF p. 278), against the contents list (PDF p. 6).</ref>


'''It is a programming book, not a service document.''' It carries '''no schematics, no parts list, no component values and no board layouts''', and it is not a source for a repair figure. Citing it for a capacitor value, a voltage rating or a chip location would be citing the wrong kind of document.
== Contents ==
Page numbers are from the book's contents list.<ref name="toc" />
* Foreword, p. v
* Chapter 1: Recreations and Applications, p. 1 (SpeedScript, p. 3; Spike; Martian Prisoner; 64 Mailing List; 64 Spreadsheet, p. 72)
* Chapter 2: Kid Stuff, Educational Games, p. 85
* Chapter 3: Sound, p. 103 (Working with SID, p. 105; Sound Editor 64; SYS Sound; The Note Name Game)
* Chapter 4: Colors, Characters, and Motion, p. 137
* Chapter 5: Inside Your 64, p. 177 (function keys, arrays, Adding New Keywords to BASIC, p. 194)
* Chapter 6: Utilities, p. 213 (SuperBASIC 64, p. 215; Copyfile; Merging Programs on the 64; 64 Program Lifesaver, p. 256)
* Appendices, p. 259: A-B typing in programs; C screen location table; D screen colour memory table; E screen colour codes; F ASCII codes, p. 269; G screen codes, p. 273; H Commodore 64 keycodes, p. 275; I using the MLX machine language editor, p. 276; J the Automatic Proofreader, p. 283


For component-level data on the machine use Commodore's own documentation instead:
== What this book does not contain ==
It is a programming book. It has no schematics, parts lists or component values; for those use the [[Commodore 64 / 64C Service Manual]]. The first volume is ''[[First Book of Commodore 64|COMPUTE!'s First Book of Commodore 64]]''.


* [[Commodore 64 / 64C Service Manual]] &mdash; parts lists, board identification and schematics for every mainboard revision
<pdf> File:Computes_Second_Book_of_Commodore_64.pdf </pdf>
* [[Commodore 64 Technical Manual and Parts List]] &mdash; the drawing package, P/N 990439
* [[Commodore 64 Capacitor Replacement Guide]] &mdash; the wiki's component list, built from those two
 
== Other books hosted here ==
 
This is one of 60 Commodore books on this wiki. See [[:Category:Commodore Books]] for the annotated index, which groups them by what they are for and marks the handful that do carry hardware data.


<pdf> File:Computes_Second_Book_of_Commodore_64.pdf </pdf>
Download: [[:File:Computes Second Book of Commodore 64.pdf|Computes Second Book of Commodore 64.pdf]]


Download '''Second Book of Commodore 64''' here: [[:File:Computes Second Book of Commodore 64.pdf|Computes Second Book of Commodore 64.pdf]]
== References ==
<references />


[[Category:Commodore Documentation]]
[[Category:Commodore Documentation]]
[[Category:Commodore Books]]
[[Category:Commodore Books]]

Latest revision as of 10:00, 1 October 2026

COMPUTE!'s Second Book of Commodore 64 is a 1984 collection of games, applications, utilities and tutorials for the Commodore 64 from COMPUTE! Publications of Greensboro, North Carolina, many of them reprinted from COMPUTE! and COMPUTE!'s Gazette. ISBN 0-942386-44-2. The printing line shows the hosted scan is the second printing.[1] The Library of Congress record gives the extent as vi, 289 pages (call number QA76.8.C64 C67 1984).[2]

It includes Charles Brannon's SpeedScript, a machine language word processor (pp. 3-40), together with a spreadsheet, a mailing list, educational games, Jerry M. Jaco's "Working with SID", custom characters and sprites, Sheldon Leemon's "Adding New Keywords to BASIC", the SuperBASIC 64 extension and program merge and recovery utilities.[3]

The hosted scan is incomplete. It stops at p. 270, partway through Appendix F, so the rest of the ASCII table, Appendices G to J (screen codes, keycodes, the MLX machine language editor and the Automatic Proofreader) and the index are missing.[4]

Contents

[edit | edit source]

Page numbers are from the book's contents list.[3]

  • Foreword, p. v
  • Chapter 1: Recreations and Applications, p. 1 (SpeedScript, p. 3; Spike; Martian Prisoner; 64 Mailing List; 64 Spreadsheet, p. 72)
  • Chapter 2: Kid Stuff, Educational Games, p. 85
  • Chapter 3: Sound, p. 103 (Working with SID, p. 105; Sound Editor 64; SYS Sound; The Note Name Game)
  • Chapter 4: Colors, Characters, and Motion, p. 137
  • Chapter 5: Inside Your 64, p. 177 (function keys, arrays, Adding New Keywords to BASIC, p. 194)
  • Chapter 6: Utilities, p. 213 (SuperBASIC 64, p. 215; Copyfile; Merging Programs on the 64; 64 Program Lifesaver, p. 256)
  • Appendices, p. 259: A-B typing in programs; C screen location table; D screen colour memory table; E screen colour codes; F ASCII codes, p. 269; G screen codes, p. 273; H Commodore 64 keycodes, p. 275; I using the MLX machine language editor, p. 276; J the Automatic Proofreader, p. 283

What this book does not contain

[edit | edit source]

It is a programming book. It has no schematics, parts lists or component values; for those use the Commodore 64 / 64C Service Manual. The first volume is COMPUTE!'s First Book of Commodore 64.

Download: Computes Second Book of Commodore 64.pdf

References

[edit | edit source]
  1. ↑ COMPUTE!'s Second Book of Commodore 64 (COMPUTE! Publications, 1984), title page and copyright page (PDF pp. 3-4).
  2. ↑ Open Library, Compute!'s second book of Commodore 64, record OL2937273M, from Library of Congress catalogue data (LCCN 84-174735). Retrieved 2026-10-01.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 COMPUTE!'s Second Book of Commodore 64, Contents, pp. iii-iv (PDF pp. 5-6), and Foreword, p. v (PDF p. 7).
  4. ↑ COMPUTE!'s Second Book of Commodore 64, last scanned page, p. 270 (PDF p. 278), against the contents list (PDF p. 6).
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