Instant Commodore 64 Art

Bob Urso

Both of these Commodore 64 graphics programs - one random, the other user-controlled - create impressive, handsome designs.

Anyone seeing your 64 while you're running one of these two programs might think that you've just looted the Museum of Modern Art. Each program lets you create colorful and expressive graphics on your Commodore 64.

Program 1 is a totally random graphics routine. Color, direction, and symbol selection are done in lines 30–89. POKEing in the symbol and updating its position for the next cycle are handled by line 90. Lines 95 and 96 limit the design to the screen area.

The time (line 11) is set at 1000 to clear the screen after it fills up a bit. You can increase T to let your design become more complicated; or you can eliminate lines 11 and 99–120, and the graphics will fill your screen until the next power outage.

The second program is called "Sketch-0"; it lets you do the designing. You can change the colors by pressing the color keys without having to press CONTROL. The symbol select keys are grouped to the left so that they do not interfere with your direction selection keys.

You can move in eight directions, allowing for diagonal, as well as horizontal and vertical, lines. Once you press a direction key, the design will continue to print in that direction until it reaches the edge of the screen, or until you press any of the other keys to stop it.

It's doubtful that you'll ever make a Rembrandt jealous, but you should be more than rewarded for the short time it takes to type these programs.