Author History
Gregory Nacu
Author and maintainer of C64OS.com
See nacu.ca for a full bio
I've been a Commodore 8-bit user since I discovered my first computer, a broken
Vic-20, under the bed in my parents' guest room when I was 5 years old. They had it
repaired for $40 and my journey into computing began.
When I was 9 years old, I got my first Commodore 64 for Christmas in 1990. It
changed my life. During the mid 90s I discovered Creative Micro Designs and started
buying as much hardware as I could afford. I ended up with numerous C64's C64c's,
c128's, a couple of Vic-20's, a c128D and an SX-64. I also got a SuperCPU64 and
SuperCPU128 both maxed out with 16megs of SuperRam. I got a Turbo232 and a 33.6Kbps
modem and started surfing the web via a dialup shell account. My collection of great
hardware kept growing to include a smartmouse, a RamLink, a CMD HD and a SID Symphony.
I also acquired numerous Commodore disk drives, 1541's, 1541 II's, 1571's and a 1581.
I started to attend Commodore Expos in the United States in 1998 when I was 17 years
old. I showed up with a C64 breadbin slung over my back on a guitar strap. I was in
heaven. There were so many cool people and so much great activity going on. I started
to dabble more seriously into programming in the late 90s. Shortly thereafter I got
hold of an IDE64, and discovered that Jolz Maginnis from Australia was working on a
preemptively multi–tasking Unix–like OS for the SuperCPU64, WiNGs (née JOS). I worked
with him over IRC to help him debug the TCP/IP stack and my life changed again.
With his tremendous help I taught myself to program in C, and began cross compiling
WiNGs software on an iMac and FTPing it to my 64. I cut my teeth writing a bunch of
software I had only ever dreamed of having on my C64 when I was kid. And I began to
give presentations at Commodore Expos showing off such creations as a Movie player
and SpiffyPaint, a multi–layer drawing program. It was a fun and glorious time of my
life that I'll never forget.
Present Day
Eventually CMD shut its doors, and the SuperCPU sadly became unavailable. We all grew
up, got jobs and moved on with our lives. I packed up my equipment when I moved houses
and I didn't have the time to pull it back out. I got married, moved again, and now
I've got two children.
When I came back to the scene after 8 years away, I found a bustling community, full
of life and energy, with many new projects to fill in the gaps where CMD had left off.
A high speed RS232 adaptor and a 56K modem are no longer relevant to today's world.
But now we have multiple ethernet adaptors, commercially available. The CMD HD, and
RamLink seem woefully ancient, with bulky SCSI spinning harddisks, or 30 pin RAM
simms. Instead SD card adaptors are now commercially available in sizes that make
them much more useable. Plus they make exchanging data with a PC/Mac easier and
faster than it ever was in the heyday.
The SuperCPU is not available. But there are lots of C64s and they need our love.
So I have forced myself to get used to the feeling and the pace of 1Mhz again. It was
hard to go back from 20Mhz, and even harder to go back from 2.5Ghz. But you do get
used to it. What the C64 lacks right now, is a platform upon which to write
network–based applications. That's what I want to write, but there is very little out
there to help me do that. So, instead, I'm writing a simple single–tasking OS, that
will provide the essentials to make it easier to write the apps I've got a creative
itch to work on; network–oriented with a consistent mouse–based UI.
This site is about my work on C64 OS, but it's also about helping new and returning
users get informed about what is out there, so that you too can live and love your
Commodore 64.
I've spent and will continue to spend hundreds of hours working on C64 OS, the
Buyer's Guide and the other content of this site. If you want to support my work and
help make these projects a reality, please consider sending me a
donation via PayPal. Thank you for your
support!
Welcome
C64OS.com has grown from its original purpose as an outlet for me to blog about
my adventures in learning to code in 6502 and my progress towards the development of
a simple, single–tasking, event–driven operating system. It is growing into a resource
for new and returning users of the Commodore 64 and 128 to find out about all the
great new things being developed both in hardware and software.
Below you'll find links to the main sections of this site: C64 OS:
Technical Documentation, C64 Luggable: Project Overview,
the C64 OS development progress weblog, and a
Buyer's Guide to commercially available C64 compatible
hardware products, projects and kits.
C64 OS: Technical Documentation
About
The site is named for this main and overarching project, C64 OS, which I began
developing in the fall of 2016. Its goal is to be simple and to
work with the hardware limitations to make a truly authentic C64 OS, rather than
trying to ape the behaviour of other OS platforms. It exists to provide usability
advantages for the user, and development advantages for the programmer.
Features
- Event–driven execution model
- Multi–layer text screen compositor
- Advanced mouse and keyboard event system
- Hybrid memory manager
- PETSCII/ASCII conversion
- Full-screen, menu based UI
- Nested Widget Toolkit
- Standardized open and save file dialogs
- Efficient string and text management
- Universal cut, copy and paste
- Application launcher
C64 OS is under active development, and has not yet undergone an initial beta
release.
C64 Luggable: Project Overview
In 2000 I acquired my first SX-64 Executive Computer. A luggable C64 with a
built in 5" display, 1541 floppy drive and a unified power supply. All with a
handle on the top. I heavily modified mine to include a SuperCPU, IDE64, CD-Rom
drive, Ethernet adaptor and High Speed RS232, all powered of a lightweight AT Power
Supply.
But the SX-64 was built for a different time. Its display is a massive CRT block,
1' deep. The rest of the internal layout is modeled around this main feature. C64
Luggable is a project to build an all–in–one C64, oriented vertically rather than
horizontally. It has a large 15" LCD display and foregoes old tech like a floppy
drive, in favor of SD card based storage. And ethernet will be a standard.
I love my Commodore computers and how expandable they are, but they have a tendency
to take up a whole desk with sprawling peripherals and multiple power supplies.
This makes them inconvenient to take with you. C64 Luggable is a practical project
for me, and a reference design for other people to be creatively inspired. It will
allow me to bring a C64 with me to my friends' houses, to remove the friction of
getting them to be able to enjoy C64 demos and multi–player games with me.
Weblog: C64 OS Development Progress Weblog
This site begans its life as a simple blog where I could write about learning
6502 programming and the low–level workings of the C64, while I develop C64 OS.
I am an amateur author, however, and I didn't want to constrain my writing to
just technical information. So I began writing editorials about Commodore–related
hardware, magazines, events and more. The problem was that these nuggets became
hard to find as they fell below the surface due to the addition of new posts.
The site changes provide explicit places write technical documentation for C64 OS,
an overview of the C64 Luggable project and a Buyer's Guide to commercially
available Commodore compatible expansion hardware. This frees the blog from carrying
the burden of all of the whole site. There is now much more room on the blog's own
page. Its sidebar now has the freedom to index the most recent posts, showcase
featured posts and makes the blog itself easier to navigate.
I have been fairly consistent about making one post per week. That feels like a
maintainable pace for me. But it can be difficult to get regular readers if new
content is not showing up more frequently. To help cope with this, the weblog also
has an RSS feed. Subscribe to it, and you'll get new articles in your feed reader
the as soon as they are published.
Recent Posts
August 15, 2017Programming Theory
August 4, 2017Programming Reference
August 4, 2017Programming Reference
Buyer's Guide: Product, Project and Kit Catalog
Commodore hardware is great. The architecture has proven to be very well designed
as it is still usable and expandable over 30 years later. Part of what makes the
system so great is how easily it can be expanded. But in order to take advantage
of that design architecture, you need to actually expand it by building or
purchasing expansion hardware.
Commodore 8-bit computers have had lots of third–party supporting hardware. And
while much of it is no longer available, there are many modern projects and
expansion options that are available and under development today. When I returned
from my hiatus, I was amazed by the rich support from hardware and software and even
publications. However, I learned about these things in dribs and drabs by haunting
IRC channels, message boards and following C64 fans on Twitter.
The Buyer's Guide is an online catalog of all the hardware products, projects and
kits that are commercially available today. Including photos, links to
supporting software, reviews, and prices and links to where you can buy these for
yourself. The guide also includes some features on hardware that was not
specifically designed for Commodore Computers, but which are incidentally compatible
and may be of great value in building a killer Commodore rig.
