https://retromake.com/ RetroMake reports on vintage computing: the machines, the software, the people who keep them running and the scene that grew up around the bulletin board. Every claim is sourced and dated. Read it on a Commodore 64 screen, or through the exact menus of the classic DOS BBS packages. en https://retromake.com/hardware/c64-memory-map-pla/ https://retromake.com/hardware/c64-memory-map-pla/ Mon, 26 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMT hardware Three control lines on the 6510 and one custom logic chip decide, address by address, whether the processor sees memory, firmware or the chips that draw and sing. Here is the map, the switch that rearranges it, and the tricks it made possible. https://retromake.com/column/why-forty-columns/ https://retromake.com/column/why-forty-columns/ Mon, 26 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMT column An editor's note on the choice to present serious reporting through a Commodore 64 screen and the menus of the old bulletin boards, what that costs readers, and the rules we hold ourselves to so that it never costs them the facts. https://retromake.com/projects/basic-tokenizer/ https://retromake.com/projects/basic-tokenizer/ Mon, 26 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMT project Type-in programs were printed as text, but a Commodore 64 stores BASIC as tokens. Build the converter that turns a listing into a .prg file, in about a hundred lines, and learn the three rules the ROM uses to do it. https://retromake.com/typeins/saucer/ https://retromake.com/typeins/saucer/ Mon, 26 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMT typein The VIC-II can move eight 24 by 21 pixel objects over the screen without the processor touching the screen memory. This listing draws one, bounces it off the edges and changes the border as it goes. https://retromake.com/typeins/ten-print/ https://retromake.com/typeins/ten-print/ Mon, 26 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMT typein A single line of BASIC that fills the screen with an endless diagonal maze, and the reason it works on the C64 and nowhere else. Type it, run it, then change one number.