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Commodore_Free_Issue_14_2007_Commodore_Computer_Club.d64
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t.iv bourhill
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Interview with Andrew Bourhill VB64
Creator C64 Emulator for Windows
http://www.vb64.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk
Q - Can you tell our readers a little
about yourself?
Aged 34 years, married with one child
(little girl aged 15 months) & another
due any day now. I am training to be a
driving instructor but have a full time
job as a store manager for a large
chain of convenience stores...
Q - How did you become involved in
Commodore?
I got a ZX Spectrum at 10 years old &
fell in love with it, it was a box of
magic to me at that age. My brother
broke it.. & my family replaced it with
a C64.. That was it I was hooked
Q - Tell our readers about VB64 what
exactly is it & what can it do for our
reader?
VB64 is a c64 emulator, it emulates the
internal functions of the key C64
components (CPU, VIC, SID, memory, etc)
it will just play some of those classic
games from the day
Q - How many people worked the project?
Me , just me.. I had some help from
Dave Horrocks (Hox64) when I first
started, I was having problems with the
CPU MMU configurations & David Kindly
went out of his way to help.. Btw
(Hox64 rocks - its the best C64 EMU
there is)
Q - Where did you find the relevant
documentation?
I have a really cool book for the C64
(programming the c64 by R C West), that
book really has been one of the key
reference points whilst working on
VB64, Also project64 has some excellent
docs on the CPU, VIC, SID & CIA
Q - Is the whole program written in
Visual Basic?
its all pure VB6.. Every line
Q - Visual Basic isn't an application
most would think to write an emulator
did you experience many problems?
VB has no bit operations.. you cant bit
shift.. the whole language just isnt
cut out for emulation. One of the
hardest parts I have had was the CPU's
BCD mode.
Q - Were some of the problems down to
Visual Basic?
Yeh, trying to maintain a balance
between speed & accuracy is near
impossible in VB.. I have to use line
based vic rendering for speed this
makes some VIC tricks impossible to
display.. (i.e VB64 cant open Side-
borders -yet) also SID emulation, VB
aint fast enough to emulate & render
the SID as re-sid does.. so I have come
up with a rather novel way that takes
barely any CPU time at all :)
Q - Some user may wonder what Visual
basic is can you give a brief outline
of what exactly the programming
language is?
Its an event driven basic. With a
visual designer for your GUI
Q - Have you thought about a VB128 or
similar to support the Commodore 128 or
other machines or do you want to
concentrate your efforts on a really
good C64 emulation platform?
Oh yeh, I have a working (ish) VIC-20
version & am doing the C16. These are
most definitely in the pipeline
Q-Can you tell our reader what
is implemented in VB64 & the
compatibility?
CPU,VIC II, SID, CIA's 1&2, Keyboard,
Joysticks, Tape deck.. Compatibility is
somewhere around the 80% mark.. my CIA
emulation has some timing bugs that I
am investigating.
Q - How do you measure compatibility,
do you just run as many applications as
possible & check them against a real
Machine or is there some sort of
standard to work against?
I have a folder with 100 c64 single
file games & demos, I test each one. If
50 of them work & the rest dont I say I
have 50% compatible (a simple &
probably very crude method) hehe
Q - Maybe this is a silly question but
could the SCPU from CMD be emulated
with VB64, have you thought about
adding something like this sort of
emulation feature?
When I started I looked in SCPU &
started writing some code to emulate &
then decided against it (due to the
overheads)
Q -There are quite a few Emulators for
the Commodore 64 apart from the Visual
Basic what makes your different?
hehe well its less compatible than most
it has more bugs than most
Q - I suppose with Visual Basic you use
Direct X is this why there is only a
Windows version of the software?
No no, VB64 could actually be ported to
Linux or whatever , it is just basic..
the few functions I use from direct X
could easily be replaced with say SDL.
Q -So Linux has something like Direct X
yup.. SDL ;)
Q - Someone is going to ask, Will the
source code be available for download?
Yes absolutely.. but not just yet, I
want to release the source for VB64, 20
& 16 at the same time as it will be all
one big project
Q - Is the software free to download?
Yes completely
Q - If our reader finds a bug should he
report it to yourself?
Yes please, bug reports do help.
Q - The website is quite sparse do you
have plans to expand the site maybe a
FAQ section?
I am building a website for all my VB
emulators... the project will change
from VB64 to VBCEP (visual basic C=
emulation project) it will be one
Single package
What is VB64 ?
VB64 is a C-64 emulator written
entirely in Visual Basic version 6, it
was started in 2000 as a small hobby to
see if at all it could be done this is
the result.
What can it do ?
VB64 emulates the inner functions of
the c64 to quite an accurate degree
6510 CPU - All opcodes (inluding all
illegal opcodes) cycle exact
VIC II - Cycle accurate line based
emulation (80% vic tricks work)
SID - All waveforms (including mixed),
ADSR envelopes, ring mod, digi's CIA 1
& 2 - Timers A & B,NMI, IRQ, TOD
VB64 Will accept the following
file formats, T64, PRG, P00,
TAP, CRT
No support for D64 as of yet but
this is in the pipeline.
Wheres the source ?
VB64 is Closed source for the time
being...
Where can I download it ?
Download latest Windows version V3.001
http://www.vb64.pwp.blueyonder.co
.uk/vb64_V3.001.rar