Tutorial

            Well, I was good in this.. I must have forgotten something anyway but if I was as good in Linux as I was in C64 I'd be Linux guru now.. :) The basic things you need to know i loading and running programs. Not every emu will do it for you so it's worth to know. Right now we are running basic C64 (without a cardridge). All commands are written from semi-command line just on the screen and are confirmed with Return [Enter]. The command to loading a program is simply LOAD. Let's stay with a disk-drive right now. Disk from C64 has its directory but to reach it you must do a little bt more than DOS' command [dir] or UNIX's [ls]. To shw the contents of directory write(confirm with [Enter]):

LOAD"$",8

             And what does it mean... $ means directory, 8 is number of device. 8 is first disk drive (later is 9 till 11). For datasette it's number 1. (but we don't need it.. anyway default is number 1 and tape hasn't directory). OK. We have the contents of directory in memory - and this does metter because next program will erase contents of the memory. So there will be need to reload this directory again.. Now you need to see its contents.. Write:

LIST

            To stop showing press RUN/STOP (different, depend on emu - in VICE Esc), to make showing slower you can press and hold CTRL (depend on emu, in VICE left CTRL). Now we can load any program. First in the row has * shortcut - just like in all systems. So to load first program from the disk write:

LOAD"*",8
RUN

Where RUN is command to start program. It could be done different - with SYS command but it's not topic for this text. To load any program you have to enter its name, but you can use * to replace any set of chars. But there is easier way.

            You can see screen shot from C64 above. To load a program you may place the cursor in the program line, write LOAD in front of the quote, comma, 8 after the quote (just like on the screenshot) and confirm. When loading is over - RUN and colon. Colon is on C64 separating char (here it's separating from the rest of the trash on the screen). Just by the way lesson from the directory structure. On the top there's disk name and disk ID. In the line - size in blocks, name of the file, type of the file (PRG - binary, executable program, other values - USR, SEQ, REL, DEL - you can't load the directly from the directory). At the bottom free blocks amount.
Which program from the directory is executable ? On the scene there's rule to separate executable files from data files with horizontal lines. Starting file is usually name of the program and short group name. Disk programs have more files (it looks like on the screenshot - numbered files are next levels loaded by program). Sometimes you need to load programs differently.

LOAD"name",8,1

            That means that program will execute itself (it is not default). To go on (intro, next demo part etc.) you should usually press the space, fire button (joy), Return, F1...F7. Almost never Escape (left arrow). Restore usually is used to reset (combination of Run/Stop [it's one key on original keyboard) and Restore it's usually reset but it could be software blocked).