Homebrewing game for the Classic Commodore 64

I will use this blog to write down some of my thoughts and concerns regarding my game I will make for the old C64.

In the hayday of the C64 I owned a C64c along with my older brother.
We started with a datasette and a bunch of games, that we bought along with the computer. It had 2 or three joysticks as far as I remember.

Ahh that were the days. Eventhough it seemed to take forever to load the games. Just the anticipation of the game was enough. Those were the days, when you had to definetely decide which game you wanted to use your time on, as the mere loading times could easily be between 15-20 minutes.

But later we learned about turbo programmes. So that sped up the loading times immensely.

We later sold the computer for next to nothing, when we both moved on to new systems. My brother bought a 486 IBM compatible and I bought an AMIGA 1200.

Many years later I was handed over a C64 by a friend of my parents, she had no idea what system it was. But it was only gathering dust in her attic, and she knew I was into computers, which was why I was offered the Commodore. I remember the joy I felt of finally being able to go back and play those loved games.

But alas there was a problem with the disk drive that she gave me. My older brother studied computer science and I thought he might be able to save the diskdrive for me.

So nothing happened for 20 years and I went from being a young teenager to the man I am today at the age of 36. I visited my brother a few months ago, and when I was going home he came out and handed the C64 over to me.

Oh how the world has changed since then. I did not know what state the diskdrive was in, since I no longer had any disks for it. But the C64 boots up.

So now I'm waiting for a SD2IEC to a arrive that I found on Ebay and a C64 to Scart cable.
I bought a old 14" TV set and found 2 Wico command controls to use with the system.

I've taken the C64 apart and cleaned it up. And I'm planning to do a retrobright on the yellowed parts.

But I've been tinkering with the idea of making my own game for the system. I've watched videos by the 8-bit guy and thought to myself that it would be nice to make my own game.

I need to learn to program assembler for the 6502, but hey the best way to learn is when you have a project on hand.

My thoughts are to use DASM on windows and then port to my C64.

I haven't determined yet what the theme of the game will be or what type of game. But that will come later.

My todo list is as follows:

1. Decide on game type
2. Decide theme
3. Learn to code and code the game
4. Learning to compose music for the game
5. Merging game with music and sound effects.
6. Find trusty beta testers
7. Decide if I want the game to be public domain or selling it

I know this post became very long, but please feel free to share your thoughts on the project with me.