Raster Interrupts for C64

 

The VIC II chip (video IC) that gives the C64 a lot of its characters (pun intended), includes registers to set up interrupts at certain raster lines.  This allows for video tricks.  Above the background color is changed in the middle of the screen, and changed back when in the borders before drawing the screen again.

Link: source code at github

This code was leveraged from my character editor source for c64.  That project needed to display multiple different character sets (from ROM and RAM) on the screen simultaneously.   And that is described at the bottom of an earlier blog post.

My approach was to launch Vice x64sc (Commodore 64 emulator) and utilize its built in monitor (ALT-H) to craft prototype code.  The listings following are what I came up with.   Then I used the clipboard to move to a source editor, added labels, and further refined to change from background colors to font changes.

Written by Dave VW 2024-04-27

*** NOTE THIS IS THE ROUGH DRAFT

*** SOURCE CODE AT GITHUB IS MUCH CLEANER

*** ASSEMBLY SOURCE INSTEAD OF MONITOR LISTING

This part was created in the monitor...

>C:c000  2c 19 d0 10  44 ea ad 19  d0 29 01 f0  3b 2c 00 c1

>C:c010  30 16 10 60  ea a9 00 8d  12 d0 ad 11  d0 29 7f 8d

>C:c020  11 d0 0e 00  c1 4c 3b c0  ce 21 d0 a9  a4 8d 12 d0

>C:c030  ad 11 d0 29  7f 8d 11 d0  4e 00 c1 a9  01 8d 19 d0

>C:c040  ea 68 a8 68  aa 68 40 00  ea 4c 31 ea  a9 40 8d 00

>C:c050  c1 78 a9 80  8d 12 d0 ad  11 d0 29 7f  8d 11 d0 a9

>C:c060  00 8d 14 03  a9 c0 8d 15  03 ad 1a d0  09 01 8d 1a

>C:c070  d0 58 60 00  ad 12 d0 c9  c2 90 f9 a2  0a ca d0 fd

>C:c080  ee 21 d0 4c  15 c0                                

.C:c000  2C 19 D0    BIT $D019

.C:c003  10 44       BPL $C049

.C:c005  EA          NOP

.C:c006  AD 19 D0    LDA $D019

.C:c009  29 01       AND #$01

.C:c00b  F0 3B       BEQ $C048

.C:c00d  2C 00 C1    BIT $C100

.C:c010  30 16       BMI $C028

.C:c012  10 60       BPL $C074

.C:c014  EA          NOP

.C:c015  A9 00       LDA #$00

.C:c017  8D 12 D0    STA $D012

.C:c01a  AD 11 D0    LDA $D011

.C:c01d  29 7F       AND #$7F

.C:c01f  8D 11 D0    STA $D011

.C:c022  0E 00 C1    ASL $C100

.C:c025  4C 3B C0    JMP $C03B

.C:c028  CE 21 D0    DEC $D021

.C:c02b  A9 A4       LDA #$A4

.C:c02d  8D 12 D0    STA $D012

.C:c030  AD 11 D0    LDA $D011

.C:c033  29 7F       AND #$7F

.C:c035  8D 11 D0    STA $D011

.C:c038  4E 00 C1    LSR $C100

.C:c03b  A9 01       LDA #$01

.C:c03d  8D 19 D0    STA $D019

.C:c040  EA          NOP

.C:c041  68          PLA

.C:c042  A8          TAY

.C:c043  68          PLA

.C:c044  AA          TAX

.C:c045  68          PLA

.C:c046  40          RTI

.C:c047  00          BRK

.C:c048  EA          NOP

.C:c049  4C 31 EA    JMP $EA31

.C:c04c  A9 40       LDA #$40

.C:c04e  8D 00 C1    STA $C100

.C:c051  78          SEI

.C:c052  A9 80       LDA #$80

.C:c054  8D 12 D0    STA $D012

.C:c057  AD 11 D0    LDA $D011

.C:c05a  29 7F       AND #$7F

.C:c05c  8D 11 D0    STA $D011

.C:c05f  A9 00       LDA #$00

.C:c061  8D 14 03    STA $0314

.C:c064  A9 C0       LDA #$C0

.C:c066  8D 15 03    STA $0315

.C:c069  AD 1A D0    LDA $D01A

.C:c06c  09 01       ORA #$01

.C:c06e  8D 1A D0    STA $D01A

.C:c071  58          CLI

.C:c072  60          RTS

.C:c073  00          BRK

.C:c074  AD 12 D0    LDA $D012

.C:c077  C9 C2       CMP #$C2

.C:c079  90 F9       BCC $C074

.C:c07b  A2 0A       LDX #$0A

.C:c07d  CA          DEX

.C:c07e  D0 FD       BNE $C07D

.C:c080  EE 21 D0    INC $D021

.C:c083  4C 15 C0    JMP $C015

The initialization routine is at $c04c to install the new IRQ handler $c000.  The code jumps around a bit and has NOP (no instruction) as a by-product of patching the source in the monitor to get the desired functionality.   This is cleaned up a lot more in the sources to both repos.