Fun With The Commodore 64

The commodore 64 is an old 1980's computer that allow one to write their own programs using the basic language or to store information for example like recipes, It is still a useful computer.

The commodore 64 uses 5 1/4 inch floppies in their disk drive, but first the disk had to be formatted using this command, by typing
             1,8,1,"N: Your program name, 1a": CLOSE 1
 The first "1" is the file number,the number 8 is the device number which in this case means disk drive, and the final number one means to write.The 1a is the ID number and it can be any  two characters you choose. Once the command is typed  press RETURN, the disk drive will start rattling ,it's normal, after about 1 1/2 minutes your disk has been formatted and ready to use.

Now you can start writing your program
to save the program(s) type include the quotes: 
SAVE "MY PROGRAM",8 then press RETURN;
            (comma before the 8) 
 To load your saved program type:
 LOAD"MY PROGRAM",8 press RETURN.
To write protect a disk simply put tape around the slot on the left side.Even electrical tape will do.

This command LOAD"$",8:LIST, will list all the programs  on a disk, The dollar sign in computer language is called a string

The above will work only if the computer is using the basic language, but there is also a machine language ,use mostly for video games  Most of the time you can just insert a game disk and it will load automatically , you may have to wait 3 to 5 minutes before it's fully loaded,Machine language is 30 times faster than the basic language and it's the inner most workings of the machine.

There are times when a game disk has two games but there is no way to get to the menu, so we can use these commands.

         LOAD "1",8,1 to load first game (or file) on disk.

         LOAD "2",8,1 to load second game (or file) on disk.
Again, 8 is the device number, the number one after the eight means machine language

Commodore game disks has all sorts of games like Pac-Man,Chess,Car racing etc. and each of those games can be copied to another disk using coping software.A person can at that time buy joy sticks for the machine.

Remember floppy disks are actually flat recording tape meaning that they have to stay away from magnetic fields. As for modern CDs and DVDs they're nothing but plastic. (end)