Commodore 64 Basic Programs

This page contains a list of Commodore 64 Basic programs that contain some games that I’ve written and some take from books. They can be downloaded in both CBM Prg Studio format and as a D64 image file. Commodore 64 provided a built in BASIC that allowed use of creating your own programs, projects, and utilities back in the early 80’s.

Each page of these Commodore 64 Basic programs also allows you to view them in PDF format and contains screenshots of the code. This makes it easier to learn from a listing before you actually download it. All the programs are also free to download, so feel free to explore at your leisure!

There are also some Basic programming text adventures that can be found on this page. On my website also, I have included an example of a Text Adventure that you can learn from step by step.

VICE C64 Live Emulator

I have now included an embedded VICE emulator on this page that can be used with the Basic programs downloaded in this section. To see an example follow these steps.

  1. First select a program you would like to run in Basic

  2. Then click on the VIEW PROJECT button

  3. Once on the new page, click on the D64 File Download

  4. Return to this page

  5. Click on the menu C64/Attach D64

  6. Look for the project you downloaded and unzipped

  7. VICE C64 will show again

  8. View a directory with LOAD “$”,8

  9.  Search for the file

  10. Then LOAD”filename”,8

Keep in mind you can also just drag and drop a D64 file straight into the VICE window. It will then capture the first file in the directory and run it. Then you can always break out (with escape) and load up the actual file you want to see in Basic.

Game Design

Commodore 64 Basic programming

This was my first attempt at creating a game in Basic that would include sprite animation and interaction with screen objects. Unfortunately it was never finished.

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Chopper Flight

A game where you must land a helicopter on a landing pad while avoiding the scrolling buildings.

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Haunted Castle

Basic Programming

In this game you must navigate your way through a castle in search for gold while avoiding ghosts. Contains over 1,000 rooms.

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Sprite Character Under Cursor Files

Basic Programs

This was the result of learning to detect background collisions when a sprite passes over standard text. The goal was to use it for my Spaced Out game project being written in 2016.

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Gamemaster’s Toolkit

C64 Basic Programming

Back in the early 90’s, I wanted to impress Loadstar magazine with a great character set/sprite editor. This was the result. Unfortunately they collapsed before I could get this project out the door.

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Redefine Character Set

Game Programming

Here is what is possible to draw on the Commodore 64 when you take advantage of multicolor graphics. Not the best display, but I hope you can tell what it is.

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Murder at High Ranch

Basic text adventure

Check out the very first text adventure I created in Commodore 64 Basic in 1991. It was inspired by a text adventure example I found in a book called Old West.

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Starfield Journey

Basic game

Back in 1991 I began work on a space action game that would coarse scroll the screen. This project is the result.

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Old West

From Compute!’s Commodore Collection Volume One comes “Old West”. An interesting text adventure game written in Basic

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Color Maze Maniac

Navigate through a maze and get the alien to his family before your time runs out.

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Commodore 64 Basic Program Downloads

This section gives you access to some CBM Prg Studio project downloads in Assembly language that were developed during my YouTube years.

C64 Assembly Project Downloads

This section gives you access to some CBM Prg Studio Basic downloads that I worked on for several years.

C64 Basic Project Downloads