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Power64 features several built-in programs. SMON and the NEW Magician are useful tools that come very handy when programming the C64. Block Out, Serpentine and Quadromania are fun games, that can be used for instant testing of the quality of the emulator.
Note that selecting one of there programs from the menu bar will load that program without respect to any application that might currently be executing.
SMON is one of the best (if not the best) machine language monitor for the Commodore 64. It features a wide range of functions to display and modify (including an assembler) the C64 memory. Furthermore it permits to trace trough programs in single step. There is even a small disk monitor included.
SMON requires 4 KByte of RAM for its program code and local variables. To provide greater flexibility Power64 supplies three versions of SMON, that differ only in terms of the memory range that they occupy in the C64 memory. SMON($C000) uses the memory from $C000 to $CFFF and must be started with SYS 49152. This part of the RAM is not used by BASIC, and is therefore the most popular (and recommended) place for tools like SMON. If you want to use SMON together with another tools that blocks this space you can use one of the two other versions of SMON, either SMON($9000) [SYS 36864] or SMON($8000) [SYS 32768]. Note that these versions use some of the memory (4 KByte for SMON($9000) and 8 KByte for SMON($8000)) that would otherwise be available for BASIC. The pointer to the top of the available RAM ($37/$38) is automatically adjusted when these versions of SMON are loaded, to prevent that BASIC overwrites SMON with variables.
Copyright:
SMON has been written by N.Mann and Dietrich Weineck in 1984/85 and has been released (in installments) to the public as a type-in listing in the German magazine "64'er". The listings and a detailed description of SMON can be found in issues 11/84, 12/84, 1/85 (p.69), 2/85 (p.72), 4/85 (p.64) and 12/85 (p.100). It has been included in Power64 with the friendly permission of Magna Media.
The magazine "64'er" has been published monthly until January 1997 by
SMON supports the following commands:
The NEW Magician is a little program that will resurrect a BASIC program that has been killed by a Reset (or by accidentally executing the NEW command). Usage is very simple: Load the NEW Magical into RAM immediately after the Reset and start it with SYS 828.
Technical Note: When removing a BASIC program from RAM the C64 only sets a few pointers and overwrites the first 3 Bytes of the program. The rest is left untouched. Therefore it is quite easy to undo the removal if it is done at once. Unfortunately every variable that is defined at this point will overwrite the program code and destroy it, usually in a nonrecoverable fashion. Thus it is essential the the NEW Magician is used immediately after the program was lost.
Copyright:
The origin of the NEW Magician is unknown to me. It is at least 20 years old and I no longer remember whether I wrote it myself (likely), typed it in from some magazine or got it from a friend. There were so many tools for that purpose around....
Joystick Demo is a little tool, that shows the state of the two C64 joystick. It can be used to verify the the USB-joysticks are indeed queried by Power64, and their states made available to the emulated C64.
Some games will only work with a joystick in port 1, others require a joystick in port 2 and still others will work with a joystick in any port. If the joystick activity is visible in Joystick Demo, but your favorite game does not recognize your movements, try switching the joystick ports (Cmd-J). Since some games will fail if there is activity at the joystick port they do not use, it is generally not recommended to set up both joysticks to be both active and use the same inputs.
For more information on joystick configuration see chapter 5.5 Joysticks.
Copyright:
Joystick Demo was written in 2006 by Roland Lieger. It is Public-Domain Software that may be distributed freely without charge.
Block Out is a fun game based on the arcade classic Break Out. The main goal of Block Out is to break down six rows blocks by hitting the blocks with a ball. The field is bounded on the sides and on the top by walls that will reflect the ball back. The bottom of the screen has no wall and it is the players task to move his small paddle to the right place at the right time to keep the ball in play. Points are scored for each broken block (1-3 points per block, depending on the color) and for completely clearing the level. The paddle is controlled with joystick #2.
Copyright:
Block Out was written in 1985 by Roland Lieger. It is now Public-Domain Software that may be distributed freely without charge. Block Out was also published as a type-in listing in the German magazine "64'er" issue 11/85 (p.84).
Serpentine is an action game, where snakes slither through a maze, trying to eat one another, and not be eaten.
At the beginning of the game our hero, the blue snake is a rather small, while the foe is large and red. Thus he can not attack the enemy head on, but the tail of a snake is defenseless. Slithering up from behind our hero can take a good bite at the other snakes, reducing their length with each mouthful. Once a foe is smaller than our hero, he will turn green with fear, for now a head on encounter with or hero will be deadly for the enemy. Success is such a bold confrontation will boost our heroes morale and cause extra growth. A foe can also be killed by biting away the entire tail, but such cowardly attack from behind does not boost morale.
From time to time a mouse will get lost in the maze. Snakes like mice very much (although the friendship may be somewhat single sided and short lived) and will grow when they eat one.
When a snake has grown to full size, and it is still well fed, than it is time to think of the next generation and lay an egg. Eggs will hatch at the end of each level, resulting in an extra foe or a bonus live respectively. Egg make excellent food for both mice and snakes, but there is of course no cannibalism.
Points are scored for each segment chewed off an enemy, each foe killed (extra for head on confrontations) as well as for each mouse or egg eaten. The serpent can be guided using either joystick #1 or #2.
Note the nice music that plays in the background.
The central idea of 'Serpentine' originates from the Brøderbund game of the same name. The original game did not feature any music, nor did it have the nice level editor.
Copyright:
Serpentine was written in 1985 by Roland Lieger. It is now Public-Domain Software that may be distributed freely without charge.
Quadromania is a brain-twister. It consists of a rectangular field of black and white stones, and a small rectangular stamp that can be used to invert the color of the stones (white stones will become black and black stones will become white). Originally all stones are white. Then the computer will randomly stamp to cause complete chaos. Your job is to undo the changes and restore the pristine white field, using as few moves as possible.
The game is controlled by the menu on the right side of the screen. An item is selected by moving the cursor over it and pressing fire. To play you will first select 'Autom. Erstellen' (automatically create). When enough inversions have take place, press fire again to stop the process and double click on 'Start' to begin the game. The pointer will automatically change to a stamp when it is moved onto the play field.
The stamp/pointer can be controlled with either joystick #1 or #2.
Note that you can also adjust the size of the play field and the stamp size. Furthermore it is possible have more than two colors. The stamp will then go through the color in a cyclic fashion (e.g white-red-blue-white-red-blue-...). For those that have only a black and white monitor there is also the option to play with numbers ('Ziffern') rather than colors ('Farben').
Quadromania will also display the time you needed to play, the number of moves that would have made the best solution, the number of moves that are still required from the current position and the number of moves made so far.
There is also the option to get a hint for a good move ('Zugvorschlag') or to take back a move ('Zuruecknehmen'). Note that taking back a move is also considered to be a move. (No cheating here!)
This is also a interesting puzzle to think about without the use of a computer. There is a rather simple algorithm that will solve any puzzle with the minimal number of moves. Try to find it!
The central idea for Quadromania comes from Christian Zwicker and was first published in "Happy Computer" issue 7/87 p.65.
Copyright:
Quadromania was written in 1987 by Roland Lieger. It is now Public-Domain Software that may be distributed freely without charge. Quadromania was also published as a type-in listing in the German magazine "Happy Computer" issue 2/88 (p.15 and p.113). "Happy Computer" is unfortunately no longer in print.
While the above programs are great tools and fun games, every C64 freak has his own set of essential software, that is nice to have at hand at all times. It is therefore possible to extend the program menu of Power64 with additional software. Please note that this feature is designed for 'essential' tools only . It is not suitable for managing a large collection of games.
To extend the collection of tools in the Power64 program menu requires just a few steps:
If one of the entries is to contain a comma character, you must enclose that entry with
double quotes. Otherwise quotes are optional, but recommended.
It is possible to create submenus within the program menu. To do so give use a menu entry in the form of "submenu:menuitem". Even Subsubmenus are possible in the form "submenu:subsubmenu:menuitem". Deeper nesting levels are prohibited! If the menuitem consists of a single minus-sign (-), a seperator line is inserted in the (sub-) menu.
Lines beginning with a '#' are comments and are ignored just like empty lines.
If there is no "Index.txt" file in the "Power64 Software" folder, Power64 will simply add all files found in that folder to the progam menu (in alphabetical order).
4) At the next start of Power64 the program menu will be extended.
Example of a "Index.txt" file:
# Sample Software Collection for use with Power64 "C64 Wedge", "C64Wedge.P00", "RUN:", "?" - "Tools:Simon's Basic", "SimonsBASIC.PRG", "RUN:", "?" "Tools:Profi-Ass", "ProfiAss.PRG", "SYS 36864:", "?" "Games:Arkanoid", "Arkanoid.P00", "RUN:", "2" "Games:Arkanoid 2", "Arkanoid2.P00", "RUN:", "2" "Games:-" "Games:Archon", "Archon.P00", "RUN:", "1+2" "Games:Pitstop II", "PitstopII.PRG", "RUN:", "1+2"
Copyright:
Please remember that it is not permitted to distribute Power64 with pirated software.
If you are giving away copies of Power64, please do so without your customized "Power64 Software" folder. Even if the recipient has a valid license to that software (e.g. because you wrote it yourself, or it is public domain) this is required to keep a clear seperation of C64 software that is officially part of Power64 (and therefore supported) and (unsupported) personal additions.
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Source: http://www.infinite-loop.at/Power64/Documentation/Power64-ReadMe/07-BuiltIn_Programs.html Power64 Homepage: http://www.infinite-loop.at and http://www.salto.at - EMail: © Roland Lieger, Goethegasse 39, A-2340 Mödling, Austria - Europe Last Changed: Feb. 29, 2008 |
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