Middle of Nowhere C64 Color Computer Emulator

[Mr SQL]

 

I'm working on a TRS-80 Color Computer Emulator "Middle of Nowhere" for the Commodore 64! ?
 
This hybrid Tech emu will be similar to my Atari 2600 emulator for the C64, Game Loader.

Game_Loader_Commodore_64_Atari_2600_Emulator_WhitePaper.pdf

 

This project was inspired by Lonnie Falk and Prospect Kentucky (middle of nowhere) and by Jack Tramiel. 

 

Details:
Like Game Loader, Middle of Nowhere is going to be part emulation and part Transmeta magic.

Middle of Nowhere will take a Color Computer program and output a native C64 program.

Just Like Game Loader, the emu will use about 80% of the C64's screen to put the Color Computer program on.

 

Full Adventure game support:
All of the Rainbow Adventure Books Interactive Fiction titles should be playable in the emulator. 
All of the T&D text Adventures should also be playable. 
BASIC semigraphics games will convert to PETSCII dynamically like Game Loader!

SOUND and PLAY statements from Microsoft Extended BASIC will be emulated on the phenomenal SID chip with enhancements to sound.

Lines greater than 80 characters will convert to Microsoft BASIC 2.0 structured logic blocks.

Unlike Game Loader, Assembly Language programs will not be supported (the Color Computer is 16-bit).

 

Release planned for December 2022

[linville]

It's an ambitious project, but I'm not sure I see any likely results. Perhaps this project could benefit from its own whitepaper, to sketch out the edges of the technology?

[Mr SQL]

4 hours ago, linville said:

It's an ambitious project, but I'm not sure I see any likely results. Perhaps this project could benefit from its own whitepaper, to sketch out the edges of the technology?

Thanks linville that's a great idea, I will put one together as it shapes up!  

 

I think this project will not be as difficult as Game Loader because it is emulating level Microsoft Extended Color BASIC using Microsoft BASIC 2.0 which already has much of the core functionality needed for interactive fiction text Adventures.

Commodore BASIC 2.0 is natively compatible with 2D and 3D arrays and string manipulation in ECB.

 

[Mr SQL]

 

 

I've made some progress on the Middle of Nowhere Color Computer BASIC emulator for the C64, I have decided to write it in Microsoft Extended Color BASIC and It will run on the CoCo I/II/III and output a C64 PRG from any CoCo BASIC Adventure Game.

 

 

Design Concept [White Paper]

 

1. The BASIC Text Adventure game to convert is loaded on any TRS-80 or Dragon Color Computer with at least 32K of RAM and the renumber command is used to add space between the lines.

 

2. The BASIC Adventure game is then saved in ASCII format, to get rid of the tokenized BASIC symbols.

 

3. The Middle of Nowhere hybrid emulator parses the ASCII Microsoft Extended Color BASIC file into a Microsoft BASIC 2.0 format file and adds a standalone C64 emulation stub for SOUND PLAY and SET statements.

 

Details 

Because Microsoft BASIC 2.0 has no ELSE command additional lines are inserted by the renumber (RENUM) command for the ASCII work file.

 

This allows space for the parser to insert GOTO's creating dynamically generated spaghetti code where the ELSE structures had been in the source file, there is an example of GOTO's replacing the BASIC horizontal block terminator function that is similar concept detail at the bottom of the SuperCharger BASIC development page linked in my signature.

 

This also allows extra space for the parser to break up the lines greater than 80 characters to fit the C64.

 

More details with a beta coming presently .,,

 

Edited July 31, 2022 by Mr SQL