Super Extended Attribute Mode

Update: 2025-10-01

Description

Super Extended Attribute Mode. Dan’s MEGA65 Digest for September 2025.

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Super Extended Attribute Mode.
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An assortment.
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I just got back from the Vintage Computer Festival Midwest 2025 in Schaumburg, Illinois, USA. I ran another two-day MEGA65 exhibit, this time in collaboration with YouTuber retroCombs. I also gave another talk, which was recorded and will be uploaded soon. It was great to meet up with friends old and new, and talk to many people interested in the MEGA65.

I’d make this Digest issue another trip review, but I have tarried too long on the next article in our character graphics series, and I shall tarry no longer! We’ll save the VCF photos for next month.

That said, we have some major project announcements this month. It’s a jam-packed Digest, so let’s get started!

MEGA65 News

Who Remembers the Commodore 65?

Who Remembers the Commodore 65?

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The talk I gave at Vintage Computer Festival West 2025 in Mountain View, California, Who Remembers the Commodore 65?, is now up on YouTube. I had a good time with this, and hope to explore this thesis in more detail someday. I hope you like it!

Mega-IP

Mega-IP, by xlar54

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xlar54 has released an initial version of Mega-IP, a TCP/IP networking stack for the MEGA65 intended for use from BASIC 65 programs. This release includes a simple telnet BBS client using the library. Mega-IP even supports incoming connections, for potentially hosting a BBS or other services from a MEGA65. See the Github repo for instructions and source code.

Amazing work and thoughtfully designed. Looking forward to what else comes from this!

Super Mega Assembler

Super Mega Assembler, by 0x30507DE

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Bobby Tables (aka 0x30507DE) has released the first edition of Super Mega Assembler, a fork of Mega Assembler by grubi, using an all-new assembler engine implemented in machine code for speed. SMA is “self-hosting,” a milestone for any assembler or compiler written in its own language that says it is capable of building its own code. This on-device assembly language programming environment includes the original text editor.

Visit the #super-mega-assembler channel in the Discord to ask questions, or to read Bobby’s developer notes.

MegaPET

MegaPET, a Commodore PET core for the MEGA65

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Rhialto’s Commodore PET core MegaPET is now officially released! The core supports every known version of the PET, and comes packed with features. Check out the documentation for details.

It’s been a real pleasure watching Rhialto’s steady updates of this project on the Discord. Congrats on the launch!

King’s Quest on the MEGA65

King’s Quest I, running on the MEGA65

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King’s Quest, the 1984 classic graphic adventure game by Roberta Williams and published by Sierra On-Line, runs on a game engine known as Adventure Game Interpreter (AGI). AwesomeDolphin has developed Mega65-AGI, a MEGA65 version of the engine. You can now play the first game in the King’s Quest series on your MEGA65!

Similar to kibo’s MEGASPUTM, which plays Maniac Mansion by LucasArts, Mega65-AGI requires that you obtain the original King’s Quest data files to play the game. You can purchase the original game from GOG.com, and use the included Python script to merge the resource files into a playable D81 disk image.

Congrats to AwesomeDolphin on this major accomplishment!

Featured Files

More that’s new on Filehost:

Speaking of MEGASPUTM, there’s a new version that can play the Spanish language version of Maniac Mansion with the appropriate game data files.

Even more arcade cores from muse! Check ’em out: Pitfall 2, Wonder Boy in Monster Land, and Choplifter. (Yes, there were arcade cabinet versions of these games!)

Alpha Maze, by Drex. A 3D maze generator with nice color gradients.

Slidepuzzle 65, by BOBELE, the classic sliding tile puzzle.

Heli-Demo, by SirGeldi, a short demo of a helicopter flying over smooth scrolling text. Use a joystick in port 2 to move the helicopter, and press the button to fire, Choplifter-style!

Haiku - The Duel, by mk9. Select from a library of lines to construct a haiku, and try to outscore your computer opponent with the best poem.

Is that a new release package?

Filehost watchers have noticed that we have uploaded a new version of the MEGA65 platform. This is not a new release that you need to care about: the MEGA65 team is making a routine update to the mainboard to adjust for parts availability, and this inevitably requires small changes to the core. Neither the mainboard nor the release package have new features or bug fixes, and you don’t need to upgrade. We just do a new release when any supported board needs a change.

We are hoping to do a new major platform release sometime soon. Watch the usual spaces for updates.

Eight million colors

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16 levels of green, from none to most.
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Back in July, we played with mixing red, green, and blue light to make new colors in the system palette. We saw that we could use 16 possible amounts of each component, from none (0) to most (15), for a total of 16 x 16 x 16 = 4,096 possible colors.

Here are all of the colors we can make with 16 levels of green, and none of the red or blue:

10 BACKGROUND 0:BORDER 0:SCNCLR
20 SA=WPEEK($D060)+WPEEK($D062)*65536
30 CA=$1F800
40 FOR C=0 TO 15
50 PALETTE COLOR C,0,C,0
60 POKE SA+C,160 : REM solid block character
70 POKE CA+C,C
80 NEXT C
90 GETKEY A$
100 PALETTE RESTORE

SA and CA are the starting addresses for screen and color memory, respectively. The FOR loop populates the first 16 palette entries with the 16 possible green colors, and draw