This is the Commander X16 ROM containing BASIC, KERNAL, DOS and GEOS. BASIC and KERNAL are derived from the Commodore 64 versions. GEOS is derived from the C64/C128 version.
- BASIC is fully compatible with Commodore BASIC V2.
- KERNAL
- supports the complete $FF81+ API.
- has the same zero page and $0200-$033C memory layout as the C64.
- does not support tape (device 1).
- GEOS is fully compatible with the C64 version.
Each release of the X16 emulator includes a compatible build of rom.bin. If you wish to build this yourself (perhaps because you're also building the emulator) see below.
WARNING: The emulator will currently work only with a contemporary version of
rom.bin; earlier or later versions are likely to fail.
Building this source code requires only GNU Make and the cc65 assembler. GNU Make is almost invariably available as a system package with any Linux distribution; cc65 less often so.
- Red Hat:
sudo yum install make cc65 - Debian:
sudo apt-get install make
On macOS, cc65 in homebrew, which must be installed before issuing the following command:
- macOS:
brew install cc65
If cc65 is not available as a package on your system, you'll need to install or build/install it per the instructions below.
Once the prerequisites are available, type make to build rom.bin. To use that with the emulator, copy it to the same directory as the x16emu binary or use x16emu -rom .../path/to/rom.bin.
You'll need the basic set of tools for building C programs:
- Debian/Ubuntu:
sudo apt-get install build-essential git
The cc65 source is on GitHub; clone and build it with:
git clone https://github.com/cc65/cc65.git
make -j4 # -j4 may be left off; it merely speeds the build
This will leave the binaries in the bin/ subdirectory; you may use thes directly by adding them to your path, or install them to a standard directory:
# This assumes you have ~/.local/bin in your path.
make install PREFIX=~/.local
Consult the Nesdev Wiki Installing CC65 page for some hints, including Windows installs. However, the Debian packages they suggest from trikaliotis.net appear to have signature errors.
- F-keys:
F1:
LISTF2:MONITORF3:RUNF4: <switch 40/80> F5:LOADF6:SAVE"F7:DOS"$F8:DOS - New BASIC instructions
MONITOR: see below.DOS: no argument: read disk status. "8" or "9" as an argument: switch default drive. "$" as an argument: show directory. all other arguments: send DOS commandVPEEK(bank, offset),VPOKEbank, offset, value to access video memory. "offset" is 16 bits, "bank" is bits 16-19 of the linear address. Note that the tokens for the new BASIC commands have not been finalized yet, so loading a BASIC program that uses the new keywords in a future version of the ROM will break!
- Support for
$and%in BASIC expressions for hex and binary LOADprints the start and end(+1) addresses- Integrated Monitor derived from the Final Cartridge III.
O00..OFFto switch ROM and RAM banksOV0..OV4to switch to video address space
- FAT32-formatted SD card as drive 8 as a full IEC (TALK/LISTEN & CBM DOS) compatible device:
- read directory
- load file
- send "I" command
- read status
- everything else is unimplemented
- Some new KERNAL APIs (to be documented)
- DOS needs more features.
- BASIC needs more features.
- RS232 and IEC are not working.
- PS/2 and SD have issues on real hardware.
| Bank | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | BASIC | BASIC interpreter |
| 1-3 | – | [Currently unused] |
| 4 | GEOS | GEOS KERNAL |
| 5 | CBDOS | The computer-based CBM-DOS for FAT32 SD cards |
| 6 | KEYMAP | Keyboard layout tables |
| 7 | KERNAL | character sets (uploaded into VRAM), MONITOR, KERNAL |
- fixed RAM:
- $0000-$0400 KERNAL/BASIC/DOS system variables
- $0400-$0800 currently unused
- $0800-$9F00 BASIC RAM
- banked RAM:
- banks 0-254: free for applications
- bank 255: DOS buffers and variables
KERNAL, BASIC and GEOS additions, DOS: Michael Steil, www.pagetable.com; 2-clause BSD license
FAT32 and SD card drivers: Copyright (c) 2018 Thomas Woinke, Marko Lauke, www.steckschein.de; MIT License
- BASIC
- additional LOAD syntax to load to a specific address
LOAD [filename[,device[,bank,address]]] - LOAD into banked RAM will auto-wrap into successive banks
- LOAD allows trailing garbage; great to just type "LOAD" into a directory line [John-Paul Gignac]
- new BASIC statement: VLOAD to load into video RAM:
VLOAD [filename[,device[,bank,address]]][John-Paul Gignac] - complete jump table bridge
- additional LOAD syntax to load to a specific address
- KERNAL: memory size detection
- KERNAL: faster IRQ entry
- GEOS: converted graphics library to VERA 320x200@256c
- correct ROM banking:
- BASIC and KERNAL now live on separate 16 KB banks ($C000-$FFFF)
- BASIC "PEEK" will always access KERNAL ROM
- BASIC "SYS" will have BASIC ROM enabled
- added GEOS
- added OLD statement to recover deleted BASIC program after NEW or RESET
- removed software RS-232, will be replaced by VERA UART later
- Full ISO mode support in Monitor
- switched to VERA 0.8 register layout; character ROM is uploaded on startup
- ISO mode: ISO-8859-15 character set, standard ASCII keyboard
- keyboard
- completed US and UK keymaps so all C64 characters are reachable
- support for AltGr
- support for F9-F12
- allow hex and binary numbers in DATA statements [Frank Buss]
- switched SD card from VIA SPI to VERA SPI (works on real hardware!)
- fix: VPEEK overwriting POKER ($14/$15)
- fix: STOP sometimes not registering in BASIC programs
- support for 13 keyboard layouts; cycle through them using F9
- GETJOY call will fall back to keyboard (cursor/Ctrl/Alt/Space/Return), see Programmer's Reference Guide on how to use it
- startup message now shows ROM revision
- $FF80 contains the prerelease revision (negated)
- the 60 Hz IRQ is now generated by VERA VSYNC
- fix: VPEEK tokenization
- fix: CBDOS was not correctly preserving the RAM bank
- fix: KERNAL no longer uses zero page $FC-$FE