



Commodore 64 Programming Languages and Operating Systems (last updated 2020-04-11)

I'm a long-time collector of programming languages and operating systems for the Commodore 64. This page lists some of the more interesting items in my collection; it's not meant to be an exhaustive survey of what's out there (for that, we have Dan Fandrich's Commodore Languages List). I'm also not interested in cross-development tools, because I believe in actually using my '64 (radical concept, right?). Most of the items on this page include links to disk images and/or documentation, but some haven't been imaged yet. If there's something you're interested in that I haven't provided an image for, you can email me (cenbe at kolabnow dot com).

A few of these items have been broken out into their own pages:

the GeckOS operating system

the GEOS operating system

the PROMAL compiler

the Power C compiler

I've given a number of talks on Commodore 64 programming languages and operating systems at various retro shows; you can find slides, code examples, and videos at the link.

Bring me compilers, that I may feed upon them and grow strong!



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Commodore 64 Programming Languages

These are some of the more interesting languages in my collection. For the most complete listing of programming languages for the Commodore 64 (and related machines), see Dan Fandrich's Commodore Languages List.

As far as I know, I have all the major Abacus compilers. I used to have them broken out separately, but I've moved them to the appropriate categories below (just search on "Abacus").

Some of the images here are ZipCode six-packed because they are lightly copy-protected; the advantage of ZipCode is that you don't need a modified drive to write the disk from the image. You can find a copy of ZipCode here. When extracting six-packs, after the first three files have been read, you'll get a 62 error (file not found); insert the disk with the second three files and hit Return. The encoded filename is the D64 name without the "-123.d64" or "-456.d64" suffix.

There are also some images in G64 format. This requires either an emulator or the proper hardware to write such an image back to diskette (e.g. ZoomFloppy with nibtools).

Many of the manuals here were scanned by the indomitable DLH. His site is the best resource for Commodore manuals.

Assemblers

BASIC

C

manual

This is version 2.03, which is the latest version for the '64 according to this page

Power C (

Abacus Super C D64 image Power C ( see separate page ) with many enhancements downloaded from Q-Link back in the day

Forth

Pascal

other languages

ACE shell (click to enlarge) LUnix console (click to enlarge) GeckOS console (click to enlarge)

Commodore 64 Operating Systems





GeckOS talk at VCFMW 2019 PROMAL talk at VCFMW 2014

Programming Language and Operating System Talks

Hacking GeckOS presentation at World of Commodore 2019

GeckOS presentation at VCFMW 2019

geoCom presentation at VCFMW 2018

PROMAL Revisited presentation at VCFMW 2016

Introduction to GEOS Programming presentation at VCFMW 2015

PROMAL presentation at VCFMW 2014 (including the infamous weather program):

Abacus Super Pascal presentation at World of Commodore 2014:

Introduction to GEOS presentation (VCFMW 2013)