[CQ-Contest] Doctor DX clone (if you never used it, you just don't "get it")

[Bill Coleman]

Doubtful. 

Cross-compilers for these languages existed, but they were crude back in the early 80s and tended to generate inefficient code.

Those early 8-bit machines weren’t really designed to handle code generated by compilers. (Indeed, it wasn’t until the National Semiconductor NS16032 (or NS32016, as it was later called…) that a CPU instruction set was tailored for high-level languages — in the late 1980s)

And it all had to fit on a ROM pack. Those ROMs weren’t that big - 4, 8, maybe 16 KB. 

> On Oct 1, 2020, at 1:45 PM, Martin, LU5DX <lu5dx at lucg.com.ar> wrote:
> 
> Why 6502 Assembly? It could have been be C or even Pascal. There were such
> compilers for that architecture.
> 
> 73,
> 
> Martín LU5DX
> 
> 
> 
> 
> El jue., 1 oct. 2020 1:57 p. m., Tim Shoppa <tshoppa at gmail.com> escribió:
> 
>> N4ZR asks:
>>> Does anyone know the identity of the programmer?? Seems that if source
>>> code were available it should be possible to recompile for Windows
>>> without too much difficulty.
>> 
>> A little like suggesting building a Stradivarius is as simple as finding
>> Mr. Stradivarius' CAD drawings and running it through a 3-D printer.
>> 
>> Pete, this is a Commodore 64 and the source code is certainly 6502 Assembly
>> directly bit-banging on the C64-specific peripherals.
>> 
>> The fact that Dr DX achieved so much using stone knives and bear skins as
>> the base technology makes it a more impressive marvel than a Stradivarius
>> :-)
>> 
>> Rich's original post where he mentions the possibility of a C64 emulator
>> seems very promising. The paddle/keying would have to be a custom I/O mod
>> to the C64 emulator but many are modular enough to add simple peripherals
>> like this.
>> 
>> C64's are quite commonly available used and the ROM dump Rich identified
>> may allow a new cartridge to be burned. Presumably the paddle/keying is
>> done the simplest way possible.
>> 
>> Tim N3QE
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Bill Coleman, AA4LR, PP-ASEL        Mail: aa4lr at arrl.net
Web: http://boringhamradiopart.blogspot.com
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