Reddit reviews Mapping the Commodore 64 & 64C

> Second, you don't have books or toolchain to make "native" software. Third, you don't even know what books or toolchain are required.

I don't know if the situation was quite as terrible as you seem to imply. There were quite a few hobbyist magazines, that back in that day went into some great depth on how to program the machines. Until the late 80's, Byte magazine even included articles describing how to build hardware, up to and including full computers and co-processor boards. There were also a large number of technical reference books commonly available at bookstores.

It's worth noting that all of these were very commonly available at mass market bookstores. (At least the bookstores I went to in Houston.)

http://www.amazon.com/Commodore-64-Programmers-Reference-Guide/dp/0672220563

http://www.amazon.com/Mapping-Commodore-64C-Sheldon-Leemon/dp/0874550823/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213025886&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/Mapping-Atari-Ian-Chadwick/dp/0874550041/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213025986&sr=1-1

On the Apple ][, this book originally came with the machine, and covered everything from unpacking the box, to a firmware listing, to a schematic and pinouts.

http://apple2history.org/museum/books_manuals/a2refmanorig.html

Regarding toolchain availablity, Apple machines came with a BASIC that loaded on startup and a built in assembly language monitor (call -151, IIRC). On the C64, Jim Butterfield had a nice monitor that was also commonly available. IBM machines came with a complete BIOS listing and pinouts of all major ports, including the expansion slots.


And, while Google wasn't around, BBS's were around, and they tended to be more specialzed to computer hobbyists than 'the Internet', so search was less important.

Although many C64 machines continue to work flawlessly, there is a probability that the original hardware will fail. So, when you buy a machine, make sure it actually works and that all the keys on the keyboard work well.

Eventually chips may fail. The usual suspects are the two CIA chips, the PLA chip, memory chips and perhaps even the SID (sound) and VIC (video) chips. You'll have to replace them if they fail. Note that Commodore produced cost reduced main boards towards the end of the C64's lifespan, which are not 100% the same as the ones that came before.

C64 reloaded is a C64 board you can buy which allows you to insert legacy c64 chips in a new main board.

Ultimate64 is an FPGA based 'implementation' of the original c64 hardware. Doesn't need any legacy hardware, but is a full working C64

1541Ultimate is a 1541 disk drive and tape emulator that slots into your C64 (much like the sd2iec)

Ray Carlsen is a great resource for hardware related things.

The original PSU has a tendency to fail. Failure of the PSU can fry chips in your C64. There are modern PSU's to prevent that from happening, or you can get a 'power saver' which serves the purpose of protecting your c64 from PSU failures.

Mapping the c64 Learn this and you know everything there is to know about your C64 hardware. It's a lot to take in.

Mapping the C64 the book This books is also essential, together with Commodore's "Programmer's reference guide"

Programmer's Reference Guide You need this

Welcome to the world of C64, have a nice journey.