MEGA65 - my first BASIC experiences 

Interesting machine. I only played with a C64 back when I was 12 years old in school because the school I attended has the C64. I was fully aware of the 128 when it came out in 1985 but at that time my family only had a TI-99/4A and a newly bought Atari 800XL (then being discontinued to make room for the XE series). I never realized Commodore attempted a follow-up to the 128 at the start of the '90s but then Commodore figured 8-bit was outdated. Too bad, it could have made a great budget machine for those that couldn't afford an Amiga. Anyways the Charset command is exactly like the Call Char command for the TI-99/4A. On that computer, for example, to change the apostrophe into the same smiley face, it's CALL CHAR(96,"3C5A5A7E42663C00"). 96 being the ASCII character number for apostrophe (') on TI BASIC.

Thanks, you’re the only one I’ve found so far discussing this machine without crap music playing over the narration. Appreciate it.

Ich weis noch als er damals anfing mit dem Mega65 hab ich jeden Tag nach geschaut ob es schon was neues gibt. Echt cool da Teil !!!

Excellent video! Megazine looks awesome. You’ve perfectly captured everything I feel about my last two weeks working with this machine. Basic is great, it’s so much better now and we’re going to be making some sweet projects in the near future

Fantastic Video! Thanks for sharing your games and your thoughts about what makes the MEGA65 great for you.

Super video!! I was also thinking about using floppies for my own codes. Now you convinced me 👍 I’m not a great coder but will do my best to deliver a small program for your MEGAZINE

OK. You talked me into it. I just pre-ordered a Mega-65. Finally. I've been wanting one since word first started going around about the original C-65, so I don't know what's been holding me back.

Small correction : Also the 16 bit IBM PC 5150 had a build in Basic, you could boot in

the presentation of your video is exactly why I wpuld purchase something like the MEAG65. You turn it on and you can start programming, you can use floppy. The 40Mhz is what makes it "usable" for new programs, and the optional SD-card access mak it possible to do "other things" than just 1x Floppy. Unlike most people, I only play games when I am bored, the rest of the time I would rather be creating something.

I was a whiz with BASIC as a kid but could never get the hang of other languages. If I didn't have enough unfinished projects, I'd lust after this machine even more

Great video!

Super Sache, danke für die Vorstellung des Mega 65. Hat mir Spaß gemacht, zu schauen, was für Möglichkeiten diese Maschine bietet.

Used the PLAY command a lot when writing in Extended Color Basic on the Coco back in the glory days.

Very informative and appreciate the time you put into this!

Wow that's really cool about the magazine. That really takes me back and brought a big smile to my face.

Good video. I really enjoyed it and it is inspiring. cheers.

Outstanding! I'm even more inspired to explore BASIC 65. Great tips and tricks.

Great video. Thank you very much for making it. It is really inspiring. I hope you make more.

Sehr schön, danke!

Vey nice, it's like the Commodore version of the ZX Spectrum Next, just faster and with an actual disk drive.

Danke für dein Video. Gern mehr davon. :-)

well done

Excellent video. You appear to be a excellent instructor and would like to see more videos like these in the future.

good stuff. keep going!

The MEGA65 is surely a cool system. I have also been following its development for years. It’s just unfortunate that the final product is priced way beyond what the majority can realistically afford. This, unfortunately, is going to severely limit the size of the owner community. We can only hope that the early enthusiast uptake is high enough that pricing can eventually be reduced through increased manufacture volume.

well done video. It was fun to watch and very informative. Super!

Very nice video, certainly it's fun to watch .

Great video, thanks! Mega65 seems to have a great BASIC. I have a ZX Spectrum Next, but I like Mega65 too :)

Cool. Looking forward for new episodes.

With the recently released VISION BASIC for the C64 it fixes all the problems with programming a C64 in BASIC, On the fly compiling, easy graphics and sound commands, and a complete programming system that the C64 has never seen before.

Hi this with disk drive it's perfect.. 👏👏

Lazy Jones such a classic, hats off to David Whitaker for doing everything on the game. I too wanted to play the wall over and over, had to wait till emulation and save states. Oh and cue the Stardust music.

great video thanks for posting!

I was a c64 kid in the 80's. Sure wish I had the money for a Mega65. To reclaim my childhood even just a little would be fantastic.

Schönes Video, cooler Computer :-)

Saugut!

12:30 "In the beginning I thought I would probably never use the floppy drive, because it's obsolete technology and so on" Yeah wouldn't want some antique storage device on your 40 MHz 8/16-bit computer

My first personal computer was a Commodore 128 and I loved it (I continue loving it). Its BASIC v7.0 was excellent in graphics and sound and other points (for example KEY command for listing or programming function keys, excellent DO-LOOP[WHILE/UNTIL/EXIT] loop expression), but for programming, as all other 8-bit home computers BASIC I know of, except BBC Micro, is garbage: you can't define procedures and you only have "GOSUB line-number" which is horrible (no name, no arguments...). In BBC BASIC on BBC Micro computer you can define procedures with arguments as you can do on good structured languages (this is the only integrated BASIC on 8-bit home computer I know having such a capable BASIC from factory). Even you can insert assembly code inside BASIC program. Whit procedures and arguments YOU CREATE NEW COMMANDS for BASIC, you expand that language in that way. You can't do that on those other bad BASIC. BASIC V10 in Commodore 65 or BASIC65 con Mega65 add more commands to Comodore 128 BASIC v7.0, but they don't change worst flaw in that BASIC: no procedures (no arguments, etc). PD: What I enjoyed the most in my C128 ROM was integrated machine code MONITOR.

Assembler isn't annoying once you make a peek memory mapper of the memory segments you can poke. I love Assembly.

😎🍻👍

nice. Ich glaube, ich brauche auch einen

Great video! Thanks, but now I'm more interested in how you mentally calculated the hex values from the bit set so quickly at 5:45. 😅

I still play Shadow Switcher every now and again. Maybe you can try and make a BASIC version of that for the Mega65 :) I wonder, how many Mega65's have been sold by now?

I think I need to get back to BASIC …

The C64 mode and current core kinda suck. But I'm super excited and hopeful that people just start writing a bunch of native C65 games and utilities instead!

has mega65 little bumps on J & F keys for touch typers ?

Can you use the Commodore 64 fast load cartridges on it. Did you make a video of what the old stuff can be used on it? I would like to know.

I wonder if you could do gorillas on there. That was one of my favorite QBasic games.

First of all - i really need this fine machine (saving up for it) and second ... i would love to subscribe to the Megazine. One question tho .. doe it come finished .. without the need to add any chips (SID etc.). Thanks and regards from Dänemark.

Is there a way to make autorun BASIC programs in Mega65? I know you couldn't do it on C64. What I mean is have program start right after loading, without user having to type in run.

ok nw i want one of these haha

"Thou hast 4 lives"

Der Mega 65 hat doch eine höhere Grafik als der 64er . Wird es in Zukunft etwas in dieser Richtung zB. Grafik oder Videoeditor geben?

Could they add a Commodore-64 emulator mode with MEGA65, similar to Commodore-128?

I just don't get owning this computer if no games are available to use the power it has available to it. Especially having a 3.5 floppy drive

Einfach Deutsch-Akkzent Goldstandart 😄

I have no interest in the Mega65 (mainly due to the price point, why would I pay nearly as much for a realization of an unreleased prototype 90s computer as I would for a PS5?, hell I can get a low-end gaming PC for the same price) Plus, it's only a matter of time before someone develops a mister core anyway. There's already emulators for the Spectrum NEXT. It's a beautiful piece of hardware, but not worth the price point, at least in my opinion. At least the Spectrum NEXT (which I do own) had a decent price point.

Pascal is much better than Basic