New to VIC20

[majikeyric]

Hi,

I come from the C64 scene, I decided to purchase from eBay a VIC20 to play with (not received yet).

In fact the VIC20 was my first computer when I was 13-14 years old but I quickly bought a C64.
As I never programmed for the VIC20, I wanted to do it 25 years later

I have also ordered a C64SD Princess from manosoft (http://www.manosoft.it/) for SD2IEC and TAP support and some memory cartridges(16k,8k...).

I have seen that megacart and final expansion 3 cartridges seem great but not easy to find

From your point of view which book/software/hardware should I consider as VIC20 developer ?
maybe a very good monitor ?
I prefer cross developing, I use VICE and ACME for assembly, I don't like too much C64Studio and CBMPrgStudio.

I think I gonna purchase a paper version of the VIC20 Programmer's reference guide.

Thanks.

[Mike]

Hi! And welcome to Denial!

I have also ordered a C64SD Princess from manosoft (http://www.manosoft.it/) for SD2IEC and TAP support and some memory cartridges(16k,8k...).

Those are good premises. Especially adding 16K RAM gives one much more breathing room.

I have seen that megacart and final expansion 3 cartridges seem great but not easy to find

Yes, Mega-Cart is still in production, but it is manually assembled by 6502dude - so there's a long queue of roughly a year ahead. And people tend to stick to their Mega-Carts. FE3 always ever was available as soldering kit only due to CE regulations, even though some people were glad to help out here. It's slightly more flexible than Mega-Cart (read: more geared toward the programmer), but Mega-Cart comes with an huge pre-installed software library right from the start.

From your point of view which book/software/hardware should I consider as VIC20 developer?

You might go to DLH's Commodore Archive and take your pick. The VIC-20 Programmer's Reference Guide is in any case a good choice. As quick reference, the VIC and VIA data sheets should also work, given that C64 and VIC-20 BASIC and KERNAL are very similar, and non-I/O specific routines on the 65xx transfer without a big deal. In any case, take a look around in the Announcement section, where you will find quite a lot of releases which have been done on the VIC-20 in the recent years.

Cheers!

Michael

[beamrider]

Hi,
I think I gonna purchase a paper version of the VIC20 Programmer's reference guide.
Thanks.

In addition to the mandatory programmer's reference guide. I suggest going to bombjack (link below) and downloading both "Compute's - Programming the VIC" and "Compute's Mapping the VIC". These are widely considered to be two of the best 3rd party resources for Vic-20 development.
http://www.bombjack.org/commodore/books-kim-pet-vic.htm

Hi,
From your point of view which book/software/hardware should I consider as VIC20 developer ?

You could try the following [shameless plug] for your graphics needs.
http://87.81.155.196/vic20sdd/Vic20SDD.htm

Oh and welcome btw!

[majikeyric]

Thanks for your advices

I went to Bombjack and downloaded all VIC20 related documentation and started studying the "beast"

I ordered a FE 3 from sinchai.de (There were some kits left apparently).

[Jeff-20]

Welcome!


Sent from my phizzone

[majikeyric]

Thanks Jeff