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65 Reasons To Celebrate The 6502

"The legendary chip from 1975 that helped start the home computer revolution."


I can remember sharing the manual for the 6502 with my school friend, Chris. He had a BBC micro computer and I had a Commodore Vic 20.


To do the machine code I remember you had to:

  • compile into 6502 instructions what you wanted to do yourself - probably on paper
  • (the machine code had absolute power to read and change any memory address anywhere)
  • write a BASIC function that 'poked' the individual 8 bit codes of those instructions into memory
  • then call that set of instructions as an assembler program


We were chuffed when we managed to draw a straight line from one point to another on the screen.


Source: thechipletter.substack.com

Photo: wikimedia.org