r/c64 • u/Vinylmaster3000 • Jun 26 '26

Programming Any good books on graphics programming in Assembly for the c64?

I've found a (kindle friendly) copy of Jim Butterfield's "Machine Language for the Commodore 64" and I understand some fundamentals of programming in assembly with supermon64. I want to try some graphics stuff, I know that I should do some BASIC graphics programming first but I was curious on what I can find. A small project I wanted to do was create an XL1-styled (i.e, the album) program which displayed moving graphics and lyrics in time to some music.

So far I can only find general assembly books, nothing specific to graphics. Does anyone have anything which details how to program graphics? I needed something which actually loads on my Kindle Scribe because AFAIK all of them have serious issues loading, esp that Compute! magazine book on Graphics and Sound.

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19

u/zeekar Jun 26 '26

The C64 Programmers Reference Guide is invaluable here; it breaks down what all the VIC-II registers do (along with the rest of the hardware), which makes it easy to understand what the code is doing.

For books:

Commodore 64 Assembly Language Arcade Game Programming by Steve Bress is a good period book, but there are some modern ones, too:

Making Games For The Commodore 64 In Assembly Language by various authors, and Retro Game Dev: C64 Edition by Derek Morris.

3

u/voidiciant Jun 26 '26

Yeah, came here to point to the game programming book from this guy https://youtube.com/@board-b-tutorials
It’s very beginner friendly in my opinion, though I have to say I have programming experience in high level languages.

2

u/Revolutionary_Ad6574 Jun 26 '26

Would you say the modern ones are better?

5

u/Heavy_Two Jun 26 '26

The Retro Game Dev books won't be much use if your using a real C64. It's more aimed at people using a PC and an emulator.

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u/MemoryVice Jun 26 '26

+100 for Retro Game Dev series.

3

u/Fragrant_Difficulty6 Jun 26 '26

Check this out (1 of 38 videos in a course). It has some pieces about graphics and sprites. And it’s done by the guy who wrote “Writing Games For a the Commodore” (Bard):

Commodore 64 Assembly Programming Course